Spin Cycle: Venetian’s Bowyer Tax 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 …

The cost of doing bookie business

In Nevada, a casino is expected to “know your customer.” Whether The Venetian Resort Las Vegas knew its customer and didn’t care or failed to know its customer is up for debate, but either way, on Thursday the casino agreed to pay regulators a $7.2 million fine for allowing illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer to gamble on the premises.

Bowyer, recently released from prison after pleading guilty to money laundering and tax evasion, has proven a costly customer for several Vegas properties. Caesars Entertainment was fined $7.8 million for taking his business, MGM Resorts International $8.5 million, and Resorts World Las Vegas $10.5 million. So the Venetian got off the lightest with the $7.2 million settlement — not to mention the formal complaint says Bowyer lost $3.6 million to the casiino, in a sense covering half the cost of the fine.

The Nevada Gaming Commission’s position is that Venetian employees knew Bowyer was an illegal bookie and allowed him to play there anyway.

One plot twist in this particular set of repercussions is that the bulk of Bowyer’s Venetian activity took place between 2019-21, when the property was operated by Las Vegas Sands Corp. In 2022, Apollo Global Management acquired the Venetian — and as it is learned officially this week, it acquired the cost of the previous owner’s misdeeds along with it.

More news to know …

• The American Gaming Association announced Tuesday the 2026 induction class of the Gaming Hall of Fame. The four honorees are longtime casino executive and now Bragg Gaming Group board member Holly Gagnon, Chickasaw Nation Secretary of State Bill G. Lance Jr., HRG Studios founder Scott Olive, and retired former Penn Entertainment CEO Tim Wilmott.

• Gaming technology provider Playtech issued a “trading notice” Thursday, celebrating “excellent performance” in the U.S. and indicating the company had surpassed its H1 2026 guidance. Playtech’s full-year adjusted EBITDA is now about 25% higher than its projections entering the year. “Performance in the U.S., driven by our partnership with Hard Rock Digital, has been exceptionally strong,” CEO Mor Weizer said in the release. Playtech is involved in the controversial “Past Motor Racing” games Hard Rock has introduced.
• While most of the poker world’s attention is on the World Series of Poker Main Event (bubble boy: the one and only Chris Moneymaker, seen busting just outside the money in the tweet below), another poker news story caught our eye this week: Big-name pros including Phil Hellmuth, Michael Mizrachi, and Doug Polk are backing a venture called Alligator Blood, a “social network and directory built specifically for poker.” Alligator Blood was founded by Austin, Texas-based entrepreneur Josh Luber.

• The layoffs continue at Flutter, unfortunately. SBC Americas reported Tuesday that a round of layoffs hit the PokerStars team, in the wake of the rebranding of PokerStars as a FanDuel Casino feature. This despite improved online poker revenue numbers since the changeover.
• Wrapping up this section on a happier note: Over the 4th of July holiday weekend, a Florida woman gambling at Hard Rock Atlantic City turned a $4 spin on a Wizard of Oz — I’ll Get You My Pretty slot machine into a $1,025,716 jackpot. The Wicked Witch of the West may be ugly and scary, but for this Hard Rock customer, green has never looked so good.

House Rules: Insights from around our network

$10 Million For First Place Again, But WSOP Main Event Trending Downward

Michael Jordan To Headline SBC Summit

Fertitta Acquisition Of Caesars Clears One Hurdle With NGCB, Many Approvals Remain

Almost There, Alberta

VGW Founder Escalante Resigns Amid Scandal, Sweepstakes Struggles

Kansas Tribe Sues State Lottery For Selling Tickets On Tribal Lands

Regulators, Prediction Markets, And RG, Next Week On '90210'

Arnold Ventures Spending $2.6 Million To Study Sports Betting

Tribal Lawyer: California Attorney General Needs To Pick A Side

Small stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, presented in partnership with DraftKings Casino, I welcomed Kelly Kehn, the co-founder of Defy the Odds as well as the All-In Diversity Project, for a conversation covering online casino "battle mechanics," the speed of progress in both the U.K. and the U.S., and other topics ranging from AI to DEI.

I also examined the Ohio mobile sports betting repeal effort and how it compares with past attempts to undo brick-and-mortar casino legalization, and I got a little too happy about the possibility of Bob Ross-themed lottery scratchers.

Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

Former State Senator, Casino Owner Accused Of Misusing COVID-19 Relief Funds Pleads Guilty [WMUR 9 ABC]

Las Vegas Jobless Rate Moves Lower, But Still Among Highest In US [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

Resorts World’s Three New York Casinos To Distribute $250,000 To 25 Nonprofits [CDC Gaming]

Happy Valley Casino Revenue Rises In Second Month, Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Says [WJAC 6]

Fremont Plan Commission Places Temporary Moratorium On Potential State Line Casino [WTVB]

Michigan Man Went To Nevada For Bowling Tournament; He Won $1M In World Series Of Poker [Las Vegas Sun]

Is The Lumbee Casino Plan Dead? [The Assembly]

Las Vegas Sees An Increase In Visitors And Hotel Occupancy Over July Fourth Weekend [CDC Gaming]

Foxwoods Resort Casino Breaks Guinness World Record After $440K July 4 Bingo Win [CT Insider]

The Bonus Round

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