Spin Cycle: CFTC’s Casino Kibosh Highlights Week In Gambling
Plus: DK CEO on RG, ClubWPT changing tune, Russ raises, Saracen replaces
Welcome to “Spin Cycle,” Casino Reports’ weekly Friday roundup of all things impactful, intriguing, impressive, or idiotic in the gambling industry. Pull up a chair, grab a stack of chips and a glass of your beverage of choice, and take a spin with us through this week’s news cycle …
Casino games not invited to the ‘swap’ meet
If you thought prediction markets offering sports bets was a divisive issue, that’s nothing compared to the potential uproar if they tried to offer casino-style games. But this week, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) got out in front of that hornet’s nest.
On Monday, the CFTC proposed a rule, which is pending regulatory review, titled “Further Definition of ‘Swap’ to Exclude Casino-Style Gambling Products.”
The CFTC and the prediction markets it governs have leaned on the word “swap” to describe the transactions that are allowed, and that word is designed to differentiate those contracts from “bets” or “wagers.” But with this proposed rule, which is labeled as being in the “Interim Final Rule” stage and would go into effect as soon as it’s published in the Federal Register, the CFTC is saying casino games are not swaps, and thus CFTC-regulated prediction markets can’t offer them.
Some prediction market operators, such as Kalshi, have previously come out and declared that they have no intention of hosting casino-style gambling. But Kalshi does not speak for everyone, and the CFTC is now making its stance clear.
There’s been much speculation in recent months about how prediction markets could take “predictions” on the outcome of a blackjack hand or a roulette wheel spin, but the proposed rule is saying that wouldn’t be a legal swap. That said, there’s still plenty of gray area here. Is a five-minute Bitcoin market a “casino-style gambling product”?
Proactive as the CFTC is being at the moment, something tells us this won’t prove to be the final word on the subject.
More news to know …
- DraftKings’ responsible gambling practices have made for quite the mainstream media punching bag of late, drawing negative attention from The New York Times and ProPublica in particular. Company CEO Jason Robins was in Lisbon, Portugal at the SBC Summit on Tuesday (on a panel with Michael Jordan, as it happens), and he took the opportunity to address the criticism. Robins said people gambling beyond their means is “the worst possible thing for our company, for our industry.” He added: “Every single person in the company cares about [responsible gaming]. If you ask anyone — down from the customer service associates, the engineers, anyone — they will tell you that this is a priority for the company. It is something that we really, really emphasize day in and day out.”
- A follow-up to the note last week in Spin Cycle that ClubWPT Gold is exiting Nevada: PokerNews reported Sunday that the sweepstakes-style poker site sent out another email to players in the Silver State with a more hopeful tone: “In response to shifts in the regulatory environment,” the email said, “ClubWPT Gold will be pausing sweepstakes gameplay in Nevada. We are optimistic that with product modifications we can resume offering sweepstakes gameplay in the future.” In September 2025, ClubWPT revealed a possible plan for a loophole to rules banning dual-currency sites, so perhaps that’s what the Nevada email is hinting at.
- In other Nevada poker news, recently retired NBA star Russell Westbrook hosted a charity tournament at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas, raising just shy of $1 million for his Why Not? Foundation. Attendees included basketball players DeAndre Jordan and Harrison Barnes and poker stars Michael Mizrachi and Phil Ivey. Poker pro Michail Grigorev won the $10,000 buy-in tourney.
- We reported Monday on the board of directors at Saracen Casino Resort in Arkansas calling for the termination of General Manager Matt Harkness and Chief Marketing Officer Carlton Saffa. Well, the terminations soon became official, and later that day, Saracen named Rod Centers its new CEO. Centers was previously the COO of Seneca Gaming Corp. among other stops in his 15 years as a casino executive.
House Rules: Insights from around our network
Pennsylvania ‘Skill’ Bills Introduced, But Games To Pause No Matter What
NCPG Executive Director Resigns
Growing Concern Follows Bally's 'Going Concern' Warning
BetMGM Launches Game Of Thrones Slot In Four US States
Flutter And DraftKings Shares Tumble Further, Hit Lowest Levels In Years
South Strip Stroll: Low Limits, High Hopes, And A Little Double Down Madness
The AGA’s Financial Literacy Study Is A Flawed Statistical Mess
G2E: MGM CEO Says Prediction Markets ‘Want Nothing To Do With Gambling’
Florida AG Demands Social Media Giants Stop Advertising Sweepstakes Casinos
Small stakes and hot takes
This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, presented in partnership with DraftKings Casino, I welcomed my Third Planet Media colleague Jill Dorson, direct from G2E in Las Vegas, for a conversation covering the way the industry is banding together against prediction markets, how she balances obligations and opportunities at a conference, and the sequence of events that led her to a phone call with Kevin Costner — on an empty stomach, no less.
I also gave my take on Brazil's president banning online gaming and whether anything similar could ever happen in the U.S., and I checked in on some NFL futures bets, including one on the Las Vegas Raiders to finish fourth in the AFC West, which is not off to a great start since they’re already three games out of fourth place.
Full episode:
The Shuffle: Other news and views
New Jersey Wants To Decriminalize Underage Gambling [Shore News Network]
Alberta Advances $2.4 Million For Gambling Addiction Treatment [Edmonton Journal]
Resorts World Enters Its Next Chapter After 5 Years On The Strip [Las Vegas Review-Journal]
Danville City Manager: Caesars Acquisition Will Not Change Local Casino Agreement [Cardinal News]
Cedar Crossing Casino Announces Space Exhibit, Expanded Entertainment Lineup [CBS 2 Iowa]
Pennsylvania’s Skill Games Are Officially Gambling — So Should They Be At Every Gas Station? [The Conversation]
Tribal Casino Payments Plunge, Creating Funding Problem For MEDC [Crain’s Detroit]
The Bonus Round
Completing the Spin Cycle with a few of our favorite social media posts of the week:
Eric has been a professional editor and writer for more than 25 years, including nearly 20 years of experience covering the gambling industry. He was editor-in-chief of the poker magazine All In from 2005-2015 and manag…
