Spin Cycle: Close Call In Missouri, Big Bucks For VGW 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 final Missouri vote count

On Wednesday morning, we at Casino Reports, along with the entire rest of the gambling media and the election-covering media, declared that Amendment 2 in Missouri, the measure to legalize sports betting in the state, had narrowly passed.

Nobody got it wrong. But everybody called the race slightly prematurely.

What was a 14,000-vote margin in favor of “yes” on Wednesday morning dwindled to under 5,000 votes by the afternoon.

But we can now confirm that, yes, indeed, Amendment 2 passed, by a margin of a little under 7,500 votes. The final tally is 1,469,866 votes for and 1,462,380 votes against, a percentage split of 50.13%-49.87%.

While there was some hope expressed initially of an expedited plan to launch sports wagering in the state before the end of 2024, all indications are that it won’t be rushed to that degree. The stated aim now is the back half of next summer — meaning, Missourians, you should have legal sports betting in time for the next football season.

’Stakes stats

Eagle-eyed industry reporter Jessica Welman of SBC Americas noticed that in a class-action suit filed in Connecticut last week, details included a reveal of some of the supposed finances of social/sweepstakes gaming operator VGW — the parent company of Luckyland Casino, Chumba, and others.

Included in the reveal: For Fiscal Year 2023/24, VGW produced a little over $4 billion in revenue, up from $3.1 billion the previous fiscal year, resulting in total profit after taxes of $323.5 million.

And whereas prize payouts in FY 2022/23 were $2.2 billion, that number rose the next FY to over $2.8 billion.

Also, according to the filing, VGW paid $121 million in taxes in various countries last year.

D.C. follies

It’s long been safe to say that the rollout of sports betting in Washington, D.C., with the DC Lottery and Intralot handed the contract and the creation of the Gambet DC app, was a disaster. But it turns out there’s always room for any disaster to get a little more disaster-y.

Last Friday, as Axios D.C. reported, D.C. cut ties with District Services Management (DSM), a firm whose owner, Allieu Kamara, pleaded guilty in August to bribing city officials.

DSM was a subcontractor to Intralot, responsible under the original 2019 contract for providing the “primary data center” host for sports betting, for which it was paid $1.2 million. On Sept. 12., Intralot requested to remove DSM from the contract, and on Nov. 1, the D.C. Department of Small and Local Business Development did grant that request.

FanDuel took over operation early this year of the DC Lottery app, and in July, its monopoly ended and other mobile sportsbooks began launching.

House Rules: Insights from around our network

CALL THE SPIN DOCTOR, PART I: DraftKings reduces financial forecasts amid ‘customer-friendly’ sports outcomes [by Erik Gibbs]

CALL THE SPIN DOCTOR, PART II: PENN Entertainment presents picture of an upswing in third quarter [by Erik Gibbs]

DEPARTURE ON THE DOWN-LOW: Where is Matthew Holt and who is watching the store? [by Richard Schuetz]

BOARD GAMING: Virgin online casino rebrands itself as Monopoly Casino in New Jersey [by Brett Smiley]

LOTTERY COUP-RIER: Lottery.com fires back at alleged hostile takeover attempt [by Erik Gibbs]

SPREADSHEET SUPERSTAR: Reel Lives — journalist and revenue data guru Chris Altruda [by Eric Raskin]

ROLL CALL: National Council of Legislators from Gaming States sets speaker slate for winter meeting [by Brett Smiley]

THIS ONE GOES TO 11: More than $6 billion in major lottery jackpots awarded so far in 2024 [by Eric Raskin]

VOTE SPLIT: Casino ballot measures find mixed results in Virginia, Arkansas, and Missouri [by Erik Gibbs]

The Shuffle: Other news and views

SLOT SPOT? New Hampshire to explore adding slot machines to casinos [Concord Monitor]

DRINKS ARE ON HER: Former Wynn cocktail server awarded $321.2K after trial [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

BALLY’S TALLIES: Bally’s executives emphasize steadiness on earnings call [CDC Gaming Reports]

GAMBLING AL FRESCO: Delaware Park Casino will add 24/7 table games and state’s largest outdoor gaming patio [Delaware News Journal]

BUTT OUT: Kewadin Casino facilities go smoke-free [MyUpNow.com]

TRAGIC TURN: British family files wrongful death suit against Las Vegas Strip casino [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

GENTLY USED CASINO FOR SALE: Sanborn goes around AG, asks court for help selling casino [nhpr.org]

GRANT GESTURE: National Council on Problem Gambling awards Agility Grants worth $320,000 [CDC Gaming Reports]

COMING UP ROSES: The Rose gaming resort opens in Dumfries [Prince William Times]

FIVE WEEKS AWAY: Caesars Virginia casino to open Dec. 12 in Danville [Danville Register & Bee]

TIME FOR TABLES: Blackjack and other tables games added to WarHorse Lincoln [Nebraska Public Media]

DRAW FOR WYNN: Wynn Resorts reports flat third-quarter earnings [CDC Gaming Reports]

The Bonus Round

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

• Eilers & Krejcik Gaming (EKG) released its latest ranking of sportsbook apps this week, and the big news is that DraftKings bumped FanDuel from the top spot. The key reasons: “Same Game Parlay functionality scored higher and testers loved the player props and flash bets available on the platform,” EKG reported. Fanatics, meanwhile, improved from sixth to third, and bet365 slipped from third to fifth. GambetDC ranked just outside the top 10,000.

• On Tuesday, Daniel Negreanu and his wife Amanda are launching their new podcast (which unfortunately means Daniel’s long-running poker-focused pod, DAT Poker Podcast, is no more). Should be interesting. Though something tells me Norman Chad won’t be hanging on every word.

• Wrapping up the week (a very, very long week, for no reason in particular) on a purely positive, snark-free note: Last weekend, an online casino player in Michigan turned a 10-cent spin on Lucky Money Tree into $363,022. It’s hard to beat a 3,630,220X return on your money.