Spin Cycle: Texas Governor, Massachusetts Treasurer, US President 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 …

Power players push back on gaming expansion

In both Texas and Massachusetts this week, the news was not great for supporters of an expanded legal gambling menu. In each state, a key figure spoke out against the proposals being floated.

Texas is by far the most populous state in the nation without any legal brick-and-mortar casino gaming, so it has understandably been a focal point for years of major casino companies — particularly Sands Las Vegas — in hoping to change the laws. But Gov. Greg Abbott — whose lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, has been a perpetual roadblock to gaming legalization — said bluntly to CBS News Texas a few days ago that he does not support the movement.

“I’m not there yet. I’m simply not there yet,” Abbott said. He explained that his position is driven largely by the combination of potential problem gambling and the recent slew of sports betting scandals.

In Massachusetts, it’s Treasurer Deb Goldberg who is pooh-poohing efforts to legalize the online version of casinos in a state that already has three land-based properties. Goldberg, though, comes at it with a conflict of interest, as she chairs the Massachusetts Lottery Commission and doesn’t want to interfere with the online lottery launch that’s scheduled for summer 2026.

“I, right now, am firmly against iGaming,” Goldberg said Tuesday morning at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce event. “[Online operators] may not like me for that, but I gotta think about the people of Massachusetts, and that’s my top priority.”

Trump talks taxes

It’s not the most shocking notion in the world — a former casino owner potentially leading the charge to make gambling winnings tax-free at the federal level — but one former casino owner has the political power to actually make it happen.

“We have no tax on tips, we have no tax on Social Security, and we have no tax on overtime,” President Donald Trump said aboard Air Force One Tuesday when asked if he would consider nixing taxes on gambling. “No tax on gambling winnings, I don’t know. I’m gonna have to think about that.”

Of course, Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” is poised to completely destroy professional gamblers, as it only allows gamblers to deduct 90% of losses, which would make it next to impossible to earn a living gambling.

While the 90% cap is set to go into effect for the 2026 tax year, Vital Vegas is reporting some last-ditch efforts are underway to roll it back:

Those quotes from aboard his presidential plane weren’t Trump’s only dalliance with the gaming world this week. He also delivered a speech Tuesday at Mount Airy Casino Resort in Pennsylvania, with a planned focus on “making America affordable again.” Aside from any implied connections between financial status and gambling, however, no gaming industry topics made their way into the lengthy monologue.

— Jeff Edelstein

Casino approval a ‘legal error’?!

Here’s one you don’t see every day: A Vallejo, California, casino project that’s in the works is in some danger of not being in the works after the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) determined the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians’ original approval may have been based on a legal error.

As the Vallejo Times-Herald reported last Thursday, a DOI review is underway and the project is being reconsidered for gaming eligibility. Essentially, it boils down to a dispute over ownership of the land between the Scotts Valley tribe and the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation. The “legal error” in question concerns prior legal submissions that are now raising questions about the Scotts Valley tribe’s connection to the casino site.

Scotts Valley Chairman Shawn Davis said project planning will continue while the status remains in legal limbo. “Scotts Valley remains fully committed to developing opportunities on its trust land that will bring jobs, economic growth, and community investment to the City of Vallejo,” Davis wrote to the Times-Herald.

House Rules: Insights from around our network

FLORIDA, MAN: Geezers and grifters: Why illegal casinos in Florida won’t go away [by David McKee]

UNITED WE STAND: Prediction markets announce their own trade group [by Jeff Edelstein]

FUND AND GAMES: Bally’s secures key new term loans totaling $1.1 billion [by Chris Altruda]

NEW YORKER’S STATE OF MIND: Addabbo: The time is now for ‘serious discussions’ about online casino [by Eric Raskin]

RISKY BUSINESS: Too big to fail? Fanatics Markets launch opens new chapter in operators vs. regulators [by Jill R. Dorson]

THE LESS YOU KNOW: The missing element in casino regulation and compliance [by Richard Schuetz]

SEMANTICS ANTICS: The prediction market industry’s gambling problem has a name: gambling [by Jeff Edelstein]

FULL FADE: What if Californians are good on gambling, don’t want sports betting after all? [by Brant James]

MONEY DOESN’T GROW ON TREES: Buckling budgets are online casino legalization’s best friend [by Steve Ruddock]

Small stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, I welcome Queens Borough President Donovan Richards to talk about the coming casinos changing the image of Queens and elevating the local economy, his surprise at the Yonkers bid getting yanked, his personal (very limited) history as a gambler, and more — including some gentle trash talk directed at Jay-Z. Here’s a taste:

I also analyze the latest sweepstakes ban news out of New York and Indiana and the possibility of sweepstakes gaming awareness boosting online casino legalization hopes. Plus, a modicum of fantasy football whining and a boxing bet that can’t possibly lose (unless it somehow does). Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

MEET THE NEW BOSS: Hector Fernandez named CEO of IGT [CDC Gaming]

SNEAK PEEK: Bally’s Chicago casino renderings preview poker room, gaming floor [Chicago Sun-Times]

PROACTIVE APPROACH: Vermont begins free problem gambling training program [The North Star Monthly]

DAMAGE CONTROL: NTRA: Cautious optimism on getting gambling loss deduction restored to 100%, possibly retroactively for ‘25 tax year [Thoroughbred Daily News]

GET PUMPED: Lisa Vanderpump gets real about her soft spot for Las Vegas and taking over The Cromwell [Las Vegas Weekly]

ORGANIZING IN INDY: Shelbyville casino workers vote to unionize [FOX 59 Indianapolis]

MONEY ON THE MOVE: ‘It couldn’t come at a worse time’: Legislature strips casino mitigation funds amid municipal budget woes [CommonWealth Beacon]

BUSINESS BOOMING?: 2026 to be record year for Las Vegas conventions [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

The Bonus Round

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

• FanDuel Casino took a leap into the world of reality TV on Tuesday with the debut of a new online slot, Love Island Reel Vibes. Developed in partnership with Zoo 55, the game — currently available in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Ontario — is themed around the popular Peacock reality series Love Island and uses the “power combo” mechanic for bonus features. Joe Millionaire slot to come soon to FanDuel? Stay tuned …

• Industry convention circuit news: ICE Barcelona is coming in January, and the event organizers announced Tuesday that Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim will deliver the opening keynote at the conference. The press release noted Soo is implementing “one of gaming’s most unconventional expansion playbooks,” which, indeed is hard to argue with.

• Here’s a fun/ridiculous poker story: At the World Series of Poker Paradise in the Bahamas, Martin Kabrhel didn’t like his table draw in the $100,000 Triton Main Event. It was a rebuy tournament — meaning if you’re eliminated you can buy back in. So Kabrhel got overly aggressive with a mediocre hand (K-9) and semi-intentionally went bust so he could rebuy and hope for a better table draw. Bold plan. Unfortunate outcome. By the luck of the draw, after rebuying, Kabrhel was placed in another seat at the exact same table. (He ultimately failed to cash in the event, though he could readily afford that outcome, having taken down a $1.367 million payday in another tourney immediately prior.)

• Sweepstakes gaming giant VGW officially announced Thursday a rebranding that had been rumored for a couple of weeks: LuckyLand Slots is no more, instead now known as LuckyLand Casino, a “brand new Social Plus brand.” Said VGW founder and CEO Laurence Escalante in a release, “LuckyLand Casino is a new brand built around adventure, innovation, and pure fun – and it’s exciting to be getting this to players after much work from many teams.”

• We noted in Spin Cycle just last week that a new Vegas-casino-set Netflix series from Rounders writers Brian Koppelman and David Levien, executive produced by Martin Scorsese, is in the works. One new detail: One-time Low Rollers podcast guest Maria Konnikova, a poker player, author, and podcaster, is on the writing staff. (When I interviewed Maria for the pod in late September, she squeezed me in during a break from her job in a New York writers room that she was unable to reveal details about at the time. Now it all adds up.)