Spin Cycle: Bally’s Big Moves Amid Q1 Miss Highlight 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 …

The Bally tally

These are busy days for Bally’s Corp. The company is trying to hammer out a deal to buy William Hill parent company Evoke (and getting extensions to firm up that offer) and it’s building a $4 billion casino in the Bronx, a $1.7 billion casino in Chicago, and a $1.2 billion project adjacent to the new baseball stadium on the Las Vegas Strip. And last December, Bally’s secured $1.1 billion in loans to help make some of these expensive endeavors happen.

Bally’s also reported its 2026 Q1 earnings this week, and it missed EBITDAR by 14% as it reported $756 million in net revenue and $179 million in cash flow. In North America, cash flow was in the red by $7 million.

Truist analyst Barry Jonas reacted to the news by continuing to rate Bally’s stock as a “hold.” Jonas wrote in an equity research report on Wednesday: “We flow through the miss and lower our 2026E/27E EBITDAR by -15%/-9%.”

On the positive side, Jonas noted that Bally’s management reported growing “at a higher rate than competitors in relevant markets” and that the bottom line hasn’t been significantly impacted yet by rising gas prices. Jonas also highlighted that Bally’s says it expects growth over the remainder of 2026.

For what it’s worth, Bally’s has not changed its target date for opening the Bronx casino — that’s still expected to happen in 2030.

Key numbers for the first quarter of 2026: Bally’s ended the three-month period with $654 million cash on hand and $4.4 billion in long-term debt.

At a complicated point like this for the company, we flash back to a piece David McKee wrote for Casino Reports in October, headlined “Bally’s Catches The Car.” In the wake of Bally’s Q1 earnings report, it seems we remain in the “Now what?” stage.

More news to know … 

• The World Series of Poker kicked off Tuesday, and the wee hours of Friday morning brought the first bracelet winner of the year: Jerome Neppl won the $500 industry employees tournament, topping a field of 906 players to take the $64,083 top prize. When he’s not capturing gold bracelets, Neppl is a poker dealer in New Mexico.

• In other, away-from-the-table poker news, Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu announced on his vlog Thursday that he and his wife Amanda are expecting a Kid Poker kid with the help of a surrogate. It will be their first baby, a boy, due around Thanksgiving. Congrats go out to the seven-time WSOP bracelet winner and his wife, who for many years was a member of the poker media.

• What the heck, let’s do one more news hit from the poker world: Houston poker room Lucky J’s Social Club was raided Wednesday by police — well, police drones (apparently actual police officers never entered the poker room). Multiple arrests were made in connection to an illegal gambling operation, but no further details of the alleged crime were released as of press time.

• The Canadian province of Alberta remains on track to launch sports betting and online casino gaming on July 13, and on Monday, bet365 was added to the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Gaming Registrations list. In the U.S., the bet365 sports betting app is available in 17 states, and its online casino is operational in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

• Not a terribly surprising comment, but an important one just the same: Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Patrick Dumont said Thursday during the Bernstein 42nd Annual Strategic Decisions Conference in New York City that online gaming “is not something that we intend to pursue.” This aligns with the long-held attitude of the late Sheldon Adelson, Sands’ billionaire former owner, who fought against the legalization of online gaming until his death in 2021.

House Rules: Insights from around our network

Fertitta Entertainment Buying Caesars Entertainment For $5.7 Billion Plus Assumption Of Debt

Resorts World NYC Already The State’s Top Revenue Casino — By Far

Gamblers Anonymous Could Learn A Thing Or Two From AA And Opioid Treatment

NJ Bill Would Provide Profit And Loss Statements To Gamblers

Tennessee Governor Signs Sweepstakes Ban Bill

Crab Legs, Crawfish, And Comebacks: A Weekend In Biloxi

BetMGM Settles With New Jersey Slot Tournament Player In Breach Of Contract, Fraud Case

Lawsuit Alleges Officials Misappropriated Nebraska Lottery Funds

BetRivers Adds Variable Rewards To Variable Rewards

Online Poker Revenue Boosted By PokerStars’ Move To FanDuel, Launch Of Shared Liquidity

Small stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, I welcomed slot advantage player Ben Rosenthal, author of the new book Breaking the Slot Code, for a conversation about why casinos bother offering exploitable machines, which properties are least likely to be crawling with APs, the experience of getting tricked by fake persistence games, and much more.

I also discussed whether I share Caesars Digital President Eric Hession’s optimism about the rise of prediction markets leading to iGaming legalization, and I vented a bit — grumpy-old-man style — about the notion of a casino-themed Bar Mitzvah.

Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

Positive Perceptions Of Las Vegas Surprise Analysts [CDC Gaming]

Security Officers Suspended As Hard Rock Investigates Attack Allegation [Breaking AC]

Horse Racing Industry Seeks Lifeline From Illinois Lawmakers [NPR Illinois]

Casino Owner And Former State Senator To Plead Guilty To Misusing $250K In Pandemic Loans [NHPR]

New Life For Primm? LV Petroleum CEO Wants To Operate The Truck Stop And One Of The Casinos [The Nevada Independent]

Could High Gas Prices Actually Help Atlantic City And South Jersey This Summer? [Press of Atlantic City]

Thunder Valley Casino Resort Unveils New VIP Lounge Experience Inside The Venue [ABC 10]

Slot Design Pivots From Licensed Brands And Complex Mechanics Back To Ritual [CDC Gaming]

‘A Gentleman To Everyone’: Beloved Casino Worker’s Career Spanned Nearly 7 Decades [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

The Bonus Round

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