Spin Cycle: What’s Going Up In Vegas, What’s Coming Down In Pennsylvania 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 …

Bally’s at double-play depth

When Bally’s razed the Tropicana a couple of weeks ago, the expectation was that the (formerly Oakland) Athletics’ new Las Vegas ballpark would open on the 35-acre site in 2028, and that would be followed not too long after by the opening of a hotel-casino on the same lot.

But Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal the company has decided to take a more ambitious and aggressive approach with the hotel-casino. The goal now is to have part of the property open for business at the same time the Vegas A’s begin to play ball.

“Phase 1,” as Kim labeled it, would involve the casino, some restaurants, and one of the two hotel towers being ready to welcome customers when the A’s take the field for opening day of the 2028 MLB season. The ballpark comes with an estimated 31-month construction timeline, which could commence as early as April 2025. And Kim is confident that Phase 1 of the adjacent resort can be finished on the same timeline, if not quicker.

Bally’s has not yet announced the name of the new casino. Free suggestion: “Moneyball.” You’re welcome, Mr. Kim.

The worst possible gambling leak

Maybe you love playing slots. But there’s no way you love playing slots more than Rita Romagnoli.

(Please skip to the next section of Spin Cycle if you can’t stomach toilet talk.)

(OK, you’re still here?)

Romagnoli and her husband, Robert, of Greensburg in western Pennsylvania, have filed a civil suit against the operator of the Live! Casino at Westmoreland Mall because, while playing slots at the casino, she got “drenched with human fecal matter” after a pipe above her burst.

How did Mrs. Romagnoli react in the moment? She went home, took a shower … and promptly returned to the casino.

That’s a woman who seriously loves her slots.

It’s not all potty humor and gambling degen behavior, though. According to her lawsuit, a couple of days after the incident Romagnoli checked into the hospital with bacterial pneumonia, and was hospitalized for 15 days. The Romagnolis are suing Stadium Casino LLC for $30,000 in damages.

If Stadium doesn’t settle out of court, I guess it will be up to a jury to decide if these allegations pass the smell test.

New Jersey is listening

As any good sports betting operator knows, you can’t lose if you have balanced action on both sides.

At a joint hearing Thursday in Trenton, New Jersey, the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism, and Historic Preservation committee and the Assembly Tourism, Gaming, and the Arts committee turned their collective attention to regulated sports wagering, and allowed representatives from both ends of the spectrum to weigh in on whether the pros outweigh the cons.

On the plus side, Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey President and CEO Christina Renna noted, “The sportsbooks that have been set up in Atlantic City’s casinos have created indirect or direct jobs of approximately 4,000. This is a number we love to see.”

On the minus side, Council on Compulsive Gambling Executive Director Felicia Grondin asked, “No doubt, gambling is an effective revenue generating resource, but at what social cost? The more revenue generated from online and sports wagering, the more calls we receive, which translates into more and more people needing help.”

More pro: “Legalizing sports betting has shifted the activity from the illegal black market to the legal, regulated market where protections could be put in place,” said Jane Bokunewicz, director of the Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality & Tourism at Stockton University.

And more con: “Some of these different websites, they start them watching gaming and placing virtual bets and they triage them, so these kids are being primed as young as 7 and 8,” said Rutgers University Center for Gambling Studies Director Lia Nower.

Rebuck’s reemergence

David Rebuck stepped down this year as director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, but in a September conversation with Casino Reports, he spelled out that this is not quite retirement. “If anyone wants to check in with me, of course we can have a conversation,” Rebuck said.

It seems Rebuck had a conversation or two with IC360, a global technology and consultancy firm specializing in what the “I” and the “C” stand for: integrity and compliance. On Tuesday, Rebuck was introduced in a press release as a “special advisor” to IC360.

“I am excited to join IC360 at a time when the gaming industry is evolving so rapidly,” Rebuck said. “Having been on the regulatory side, I understand the challenges and complexities the industry faces. IC360’s mission to ensure compliance while supporting innovation is crucial for the industry’s continued growth, and I look forward to contributing my knowledge and experience to help navigate this complex landscape.”

This high-profile addition comes at an interesting time for IC360. As Mike Seely of The Action Network reported, U.S. Integrity founder Matthew Holt “quietly resigned” as CEO of IC360 over the summer.

The Shuffle: Other news and views

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY: Where opportunity meets ambiguity: Will licensed operators soon enter the ‘sweepstakes’ space?

AD OUT: Opponents of Missouri sports betting amendment pull TV ads in campaign’s homestretch

KNEEL-DOWN TIME: Legal war between DraftKings and Fanatics over former VIP boss nearing settlement

DOWNS AND UPS: Churchill Downs reports record revenue in third quarter

PEACHY PRIZE: We have a winner! Powerball ticket worth $478 million sold in Georgia

SCORING A ‘W’: MGM Resorts, Marriott to open W Las Vegas on Strip

FOLLOW THE MONEY: Transparency in gaming policy: Looking to find the ghost in the machine

UTE MOVEMENT: Ute tribes’ Colorado lawsuit could set a precedent that goes beyond West Flagler

SUIT INTRODUCED: Lawsuit filed in Massachusetts targets DFS operators over sports setting

SUIT DISMISSED: Judge dismisses lawsuit against Resorts World Las Vegas, Scott Sibella

SUITS PENDING: Class action cottage industry brings legal heat to social casinos 

BOYD BOUNCE: Boyd sees higher year-over-year revenue and earnings in Q3

THE THREE-DOLLAR DIFFERENCE: Why the Mega Millions price increase will lead to bigger jackpots — and a demographic shift

HEALTH CONCERNS: Online gambling has fueled an industry boom that threatens public health, commission finds

RADAR LOVE: Sportradar buys up XLMedia’s North American operations

VIRGINIA IS FOR TRADERS: Sporttrade goes live in Virginia

STARK REALITY: ‘The real problem is over the wall’: Gaming industry rivals Unite against sweepstakes

WHAM, BAMA: State Sen. Givhan: Alabama will have to ‘make illegal gambling a felony’ to prevent it

GIVING PARTIAL PROPS: NBA player prop changes are a great solution … in a world without offshores

REVVING UP: Off-Strip casino getting $35M expansion, renovation as it sues F1

SHELDON’S SHADOW: Las Vegas Sands CEO cites online gambling as a potential challenge to NY casino plans

ON TRACK IN NEBRASKA: Ogallala City Council vote clears way for horse track, casino

PACE SETTER: Inside Pace-O-Matic’s place in the developing, divisive ‘skill games’ industry

The Bonus Round

Completing the Spin Cycle with some odds and ends and our favorite social media posts of the week:

• I am not a crypto bro. (I’m probably not any kind of bro at this stage in life, really, but that’s a discussion for another time.) I have tried, on a handful of occasions over the years, to understand cryptocurrency, and I always lose interest somewhere along the way. This week, sports betting analyst/influencer Taylor Mathis got herself into a crypto controversy, and I’m not going to pretend to understand it. But I will recommend reading this tweet in full if you want to have a general idea of what happened:

• Quick update on plans for Pennsylvania to join the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) and allow online poker players in the state to compete across state lines: On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) gave the proposal its unanimous approval. So now it goes to Gov. Josh Shapiro for a signature (a formality, since it was Shapiro who pushed the PGCB to advance this last week), and then the other MSIGA states have to ratify the addition of Pennsylvania. Poker industry insiders are projecting that interstate play for Pennsylvanians could begin around the end of the calendar year or early in 2025.

• We’ve heard of spreading your bets around at a Vegas casino. But we’ve never heard of spreading your ashes around at a Vegas casino before. Enter Charles Barkley. The NBA Hall of Famer and sportscasting icon said during a recent interview that when his time comes, he wants his ashes spread in a few locations, and one of them is a casino in Las Vegas. He did not specify which casino. Presumably, any casino where he’s in the red will do. (So, any casino.)