Spin Cycle: Kentucky AG’s Double Shot 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 …

Sue sweeps? Sue PMs? Why not both?!

Plenty of state attorneys general have gone after prediction markets. And plenty of state attorneys general have taken aim at sweepstakes gambling operators. On Wednesday, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman showed some serious multitasking skills by filing lawsuits targeting both gray-market enterprises at once.

Coleman filed a suit against Kalshi, a suit against Polymarket, and a suit against VGW, each one seeking permanent injunctions to prevent the sites/apps from operating in Kentucky. The state is also seeking financial and civil penalties against them.

Specific to VGW, the sweeps behemoth behind such sites as Chumba Casino and LuckyLand Slots, Coleman said in a statement, “This company may use new technology and a new scheme to hide, but the reality is the same. Our office has a duty to stop illegal gambling in Kentucky regardless of how it’s packaged.”

Coleman asserted that the dual-currency model used by VGW and other sweepstakes operators violates “Kentucky’s Consumer Protection law, the Loss Recovery Act, and the Commonwealth’s gambling laws.”

Coleman’s trio of suits also target cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase, which is partnered with Kalshi.

Kentucky legalized online sports betting in 2023. The state does not have any licensed commercial or tribal casinos.

More news to know …

• Betr, the gambling operation co-founded by Disney-Channel-star-turned-pro-boxer Jake Paul, announced a promotion last Friday combining the worlds of social casino and prediction markets. Betr will award users 10 million free spins, valued at $1.776 million, on Betr Social Casino if Team USA wins the World Cup. It has hedged against this with a wager — er, a “position” — on Polymarket that returns approximately that same $1.776 million if the Americans win the global soccer tournament.
• While most of the poker world’s focus is on the 2026 World Series of Poker — which is just past its midway point, with 54 of the 100 bracelet events having started as of time of writing Friday morning — there are other poker stories popping up here and there, including a huge one on the televised cash game High Stakes Poker. In the sixth episode of the 16th season, the richest pot in the history of the show went down. Santhosh Suvarna won a pot worth a staggering $2.42 million when he and DraftKings co-founder Matt Kalish got all-in on the flop and ran the board twice, with Suvarna’s set of queens holding up against Kalish’s flush draw both times.

• Know what’s even better than winning a $2.42 million poker hand? Winning almost $10.3 million on a $5 slot spin. At Westgate Las Vegas on Tuesday morning, a lucky player from Atlanta played Megabucks Wolf Run Eclipse for just three minutes, according to Westgate, before scoring the jackpot for $10,292,912.32. (Yes, that is over the tax-reporting threshold, unfortunately for the player. So Uncle Sam is getting rich too.)
• A new addition to the never-ending stream of cease-and-desist orders: Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued C&Ds to major credit card companies for allowing unregulated sites to work with them. “Payment processors such as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express undermine Florida law by facilitating transactions for foreign-owned illegal online gaming,” Uthmeier wrote last week on social media site X. “Today, they’re receiving a cease and desist. My office will take appropriate legal action if these transactions continue.”
• The list of online casino operators registered to launch in Alberta on July 13 keeps growing, now totaling 47, up from 43 a couple of weeks ago. The most noteworthy new name? Penn Entertainment’s Hollywood Casino brand, which is operational in four U.S. jurisdictions: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, and West Virginia.

House Rules: Insights from around our network

Opponents Remain Vigilant About Sweepstakes, ‘The Gateway Drug To Prediction Markets’

New Jersey Online Casinos Set All-Time State Record With $276.3M In May

It Seems The COO Of Betr Just Built A Slot Machine On Kalshi

Pennsylvania's Second-Highest Online Casino Month Helps State To New Overall Record

New Poker Hall Of Fame Process Reduces Exclusivity, Adds Transparency

Bueller? Anyone? Notice the $26,984 Slot Win In Hard Rock's Ad?

Michigan Online Casino Breaks $300M Revenue For Third Straight Month

New York Tribe Says Caesars Violated Its Sovereignty, Wants Restitution

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Declares Skill Games Illegal

Small stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, I welcomed Third Planet Media Chief Content Officer Brett Smiley to offer his analysis of the New York Knicks' title win from a fan perspective, a sportsbook user perspective, and a prediction market user perspective — plus we discussed both brick-and-mortar casinos and online casinos in New York.

I also reacted to the sudden introduction of a slot machine-style game built on Kalshi markets, and I implored U.S. online casino regulators to look toward the example of Finland in attempting to slow down the pace of slot play.

Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

Lawmakers Don't Act On Gov. JB Pritzker’s Play For Gambling Regulation Merger, Citing Transparency Concerns [Chicago Sun-Times]

Nevada Regulators Recommend Licensing For Penn Entertainment Shareholder After Contentious Hearing [CDC Gaming]

Detroit Pizza Billionaires Boost Casino Bet With New Company [Bloomberg]

Shutdown Of New Tribal Casino Demanded By Members Of Family That Owns The Land [Juneau Independent]

Texas Stopped Funding Gambling Addiction Programs Years Ago — A Surprising Donor Is Helping Fill The Void [The Texas Tribune]

4 People Banned From Pennsylvania Casinos For Leaving Kids Alone While Gambling [Penn Live]

Gambling Companies Pour Campaign Money Into Fight Over Missouri Video Lottery Bill [Missouri Independent]

New Jersey Casino Industry Raised $400,000 To Combat Food Insecurity [CDC Gaming]

Lisa Vanderpump Says She Couldn't Say No To Another Opportunity With Caesars [The Nevada Independent]

The Bonus Round

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