Spin Cycle: Positivity Amid Procrastination Highlights Week In Gambling

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 …

Bully for Bally’s?

We have reached the end of third-quarter earnings report week for the beleaguered Bally’s Corp. And we continue to await that report.

The company announced “preliminary financial results” on Monday, and positioned those results in all sorts of positive ways, but at the same time indicated the company will be filing for an extension with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its full Q3 reporting. Bally’s said in a press release that it “expects to file an extension under Rule 12b-25 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and expects to file its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q within the extension period.”

In the meantime, Bally’s, despite concerns over its financial capabilities for completing major casino projects in Las Vegas, Chicago, and the Bronx, highlighted positive numbers. Its preliminary report included a 21.7% year-over-year consolidated revenue increase to $807.6 million, a 22.8% rise in Bally’s Intralot business-to-customer revenue to $257.5 million, and a 25.6% boost in North America Interactive revenue, to $62.7 million.

“We delivered another solid quarter, with consolidated revenue up 21.7% year over year and strong Adjusted EBITDAR results across our segments,” said CEO Robeson Reeves in a statement. “Our development projects remain on track, our execution is improving results across every segment, and market conditions remain stable as we head into the fourth quarter and 2027."

For what it’s worth, Bally’s wasn’t the only land-based casino company delaying its Q3 report this week. Century Casinos announced Thursday that it will file the same extension with the SEC as Bally’s.

More news to know …

• Longtime Aristocrat CEO Trevor Croker announced plans this week to retire in April 2027, and the Las Vegas-based gaming company promptly named Dafne Guisard as Croker’s replacement. Guisard is a former Entain COO and has been with Aristocrat since February as the chief commercial officer and head of Product Madness. Croker plans to remain attached to Aristocrat through next November to help with the transition.
• The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement gave the green light on Oct. 27 for Evolution to open a live-dealer studio at the former Showboat casino in Atlantic City, The Press of Atlantic City reported this week. It will be Evolution’s largest live-dealer studio, covering some 60,000 square feet on the second floor of what has become a non-gaming hotel since ceasing casino operations in 2014.

• The Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) approved Soaring Eagle Gaming’s request to transition its digital gaming operations from GAN to White Hat Gaming, effective this week. “This approval reflects the MGCB’s careful review to ensure every platform serving Michigan players meets our standards for integrity, security, and consumer protection,” said MGCB Executive Director Henry Williams in a release.
• One of the most celebrated characters of the poker world, Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler, continues making headlines in the slot machine world, as on Monday night, he turned an 80-cent spin on a Money in the Bank Bacon Blvd slot machine at Borgata in Atlantic City into a little over $13,000 by hitting the game’s Grand Jackpot. Kessler was in town for the Borgata Fall Poker Open series, where he said he’d been stuck money until this slot hit. It wasn’t Kessler’s biggest-ever slot score, though. In 2024, he was playing much bigger — buying the bonus for $125 — when he landed a $1.2 million jackpot at Thunder Valley Resort & Casino in California on a Buffalo machine.

House Rules: Insights from around our network

Class II Mobile Emerges As iGaming’s Biggest Growth Area

Gambler Wants To Win His Friends’ Money, So He Built Them A Website

Youthful State Senator Strives To Protect Online Gamblers — And The Industry

Let's Celebrate The Texas Pokemon Gambling Scandal

Ruddock Report: Did The Midterms Really Help Online Casino Efforts?

DraftKings Letter To Congress: We Do Not ‘Target’ Problem Gamblers

Texas Lawmaker Introduces Gambling Expansion Resolution

Democrats Win The Gavel, Not The Veto: What The Midterms Mean For The CFTC And Prediction Markets

Small stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, sponsored by TheLines.com, I welcomed Christian Smith, the vice president of product marketing and management for game developer Bluberi, for a deep dive into the latest trends and innovations in the slot sphere — including the dramatic shift in return-to-player from the base game to the bonus game, the outlook for persistence machines, why audio matters on the casino floor, and more.

I also dug into the rise of Class II mobile gaming and specifically the concept of "snack gaming" to differentiate mobile from land-based, and I lamented a winning slot spin that didn’t win big enough before rejoicing in a futures bet on Fernando Mendoza that became plus-EV overnight.

Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

Here’s How Casino Gambling Was Approved In New Jersey 50 Years Ago [The Press of Atlantic City]

Ford Faces Key Nevada Gaming Regulatory Appointments In First Month As Governor [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

Cedar Crossing Casino Announces New Opening Date [CBS 2 Iowa]

Blackjack Player Sues Louisiana Casinos And Police Over Alleged Sharing Of Personal Information [iGaming Business]

A Good Bet: New Yorkers Are Lining Up To Become Casino Dealers [Gothamist]

MGM National Harbor Names Chris Gumiela President And Chief Operating Officer [CDC Gaming]

Pennsylvania Self-Exclusions Spread Far From Casinos, Analysis Finds [RG.org]

Seminole Tribe’s $4B Las Vegas Project Marks New Chapter In Tribal Gaming [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

West Virginia Online Casino Revenue Sets New Record In October With $44.6 Million [Saturday Down South]

Man Accused Of Leaving Baby Alone In Car For About 2 Hours While Gambling At Seminole Classic Casino [Local 10]

Pennsylvania: Police Report 99.4% Compliance With Skill Game Removal [CDC Gaming]

Strike Over At Pickering And Ajax Casinos [Durham Radio News]

The Bonus Round

Completing the Spin Cycle with a few of our favorite social media posts of the week: