Spin Cycle: WSOP Dates, DGE Discipline 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 …

Save the dates

At the end of a slow holiday news week, you’re getting about half as much Spin Cycle as usual, and the lead item is a thin one that, in a normal week, would only warrant about two sentences of coverage. Oh well. Like Santa before he goes trying to lift heavy sacks of presents or shimmy down chimneys, we’re stretching.

Anyway, the news is this: The World Series of Poker has announced some of the key dates for 2025. The series — the 56th annual WSOP — starts Tuesday, May 27, and ends Wednesday, July 16, and the $10,000 no-limit hold’em Main Event runs from July 2-16.

For the fourth year in a row, the WSOP will take place at both the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas on the Strip.

And … that’s about all we know at this time. The full schedule will come early next year. So, let’s fill a little more space with a quote from the press release.

“As the calendar flips to 2025, we’re looking forward to inviting the global poker community back to the iconic Las Vegas Strip for the 56th annual World Series of Poker,” said Caesars Entertainment SVP Jack Effel. “Building on last year’s triumphs and familiar faces winning WSOP bracelets, we are excited to see who will expand their legacy or become a new legend by passing poker’s ultimate test in the game’s most iconic arena.”

A fine mess

You want more news that would probably only get a quick link on a non-holiday week? The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement handed out three fines on Monday, totaling $40,000, for sports betting companies allowing wagering that shouldn’t have been allowed.

DraftKings was hit for $20K for taking bets on events the state never approved, including Russian basketball in 2020 and 2021 and table tennis in 2020, as well as some preseason NFL player props in 2022 that were not permitted. DraftKings voided more than $60,000 in wagers and, though it took a few years, now had to fork over $20K in fines as well.

Rush Street Interactive absorbed a $10,000 fine for allowing about $1,500 in bets on a November 2021 college basketball game after the game had ended and for allowing about $2,900 in bets on March 2022 jai alai contests that had also concluded already.

Kambi, the tech company for both Rush Street’s digital sportsbooks and DraftKings Sportsbook at the time, was also fined $10,000 for its role in allowing these offenses to occur.

House Rules: Insights from around our network

CURRENT CURRENCY EVENTS: Crypto.Com launches sports event trading product in the US [by Erik Gibbs]

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE: 7 potential acquisition targets for Flutter in US lottery industry [by Matthew Bain]

WAIT TIL NEXT YEAR: 10 big predictions for the gambling industry in 2025 [by Eric Raskin]

ALL BANK-ROLLED INTO ONE: Nevada Gaming Commission expands use of casino wagering accounts [by Erik Gibbs]

DREAMING BIG: When (mostly) false hope is better than no hope at all [by Bill Dettloff]

SLOW ON THE UPTAKE: Study: problem gamblers’ brains process losses more slowly than recreational gamblers [by Jeff Edelstein]

I’VE GOT A GOLDEN TICKET: Mega Millions jackpot winner claims $1.13 billion prize after nine-month mystery [by Erik Gibbs]

COFFEE(ZILLA) TALK: CS:GO casinos: the unraveling of a controversial gambling scene [by Christian Holmes]

COMINGS AND GOINGS: Gambling bills in two states to expire without action as two more look to 2025 [by Erik Gibbs]

The Shuffle: Other news and views

THE GRAND GET GRANDER: MGM Grand Detroit announces $15 million upgrades, including Spa Pool [WXYZ Detroit]

SLOT EASIER: New regulation eases Nevada gaming manufacturers’ submissions without IP rights [CDC Gaming Reports]

THE W COLUMN: More details unveiled on Delano rebranding [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

RAISE THE ROOF: Employees at Sault Tribe’s Kewadin casinos to get pay increases [Radio Results Network]

KEYSTONE STOPS: State opts not to remove barrier for problem bettors entering casinos [Trib Live]

BAMA BLUES: Alabama resists sports betting as neighboring states cash in on revenue [Alabama Political Reporter]

The Bonus Round

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

• We all know people who will bet on anything. But still, there has to be a line somewhere, at least within public markets, and it seems Kalshi found it. The prediction market site attracted ire from various corners for posting markets — basically, taking bets — on what the fate of Luigi Mangione, alleged murderer of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, will be. As of press time, the markets for “Will Luigi Mangione plead guilty to murder?”, “Will Luigi Mangione be convicted?”, “Will Luigi Mangione be extradited to New York?”, and others had all been paused amid the backlash. But … come on, people. Can’t you just parlay a first basket scorer in an NBA game with a no-goal-in-the-first-10-minutes hockey bet like a normal degen?

• Let’s end the final Spin Cycle of 2024 on a fun/happy note. Congrats to noted slots influencer (yes, that’s a possible career these days) Brian Christopher, who scored the biggest jackpot of his life a few days ago at MGM Grand Detroit. Christopher, who films himself playing slots on casino floors to the delight of his more than 700,000 YouTube subscribers, played a $37 spin on Crazy Chickens and landed on a $79,589 jackpot. Then he kept playing and hit several more jackpots, to total over $100,000 on the night. “We wanted to go and have a drink and celebrate, but I kept hitting jackpots. Don’t you hate when that happens?” Christopher said.

My parting Spin Cycle wish: May we all keep hitting jackpots in 2025, even when we don’t want to. Happy new year, everyone!