Spin Cycle: Missouri In Motion, Mavs Not Moving 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 …

Two-minute drill in Missouri

It’s Super Bowl weekend, so let’s start with a story at least tangentially related to Sunday’s big game. While the Kansas City Chiefs go for the threepeat (no, Pat Riley, we ain’t paying you for typing that word) as the narrowest of favorites over the Philadelphia Eagles, fans back in their home state of Missouri still can’t bet on the game through regulated channels.

But that is poised to change with sports betting legalized by ballot initiative last November, and in the last few days, the Missouri Gaming Commission forwarded a draft copy of its proposed rules and regulations to the governor’s office for review.

That keeps the planned timeline on track; Dec. 1 remains the commission’s deadline to launch, but Chair Jan Zimmerman continues to say its aim is to launch by late-summer — before the next Chiefs season kicks off.

Trading superstars, but not towns

The conspiracy theorists were out in full force after the shocking news that the Dallas Mavericks had traded Luka Doncic to the L.A. Lakers, with some of them insisting the Mavs’ goal was to begin a tanking process that will somehow enable majority owners Las Vegas Sands Corp. to move the team to Sin City.

Well, believe ‘em or don’t, it’s up to you, but the team claims it’s staying put in Dallas.

“The Adelson and Dumont families have already started and are committed to investing and building in Dallas/Fort Worth,” the Mavericks told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a statement. “The families have absolutely no plans to move the team out of North Texas.”

Of course, this is the same team that just dealt an MVP-caliber player still approaching his prime in a trade that ESPN graded an “F” for the franchise, so we can’t put anything past them.

Skills, to pay the bills?

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro singled out the state’s controversial “skill games” industry Tuesday in his annual budget proposal — and he’s aiming high.

The machines are currently untaxed. A tax rate of 16% has been floated by various parties. Shapiro is shooting for 52%.

“We need to take some of the money going into those slots and put it in our state coffers so we can maintain our reserves and keep building on our progress,” Gov. Shapiro said.

For what it’s worth, retail and online slots are taxed at 54% in Pennsylvania. Shapiro is proposing that most of the tax revenue go to the state, with a portion going to the Pennsylvania Lottery.

State Sen. Gene Yaw is among those who supports a 16% tax rate, and he is no fan of the governor’s proposal.

“[Shapiro is] anticipating getting a lot of money for skill games and it’s just going to be the opposite,” Yaw told The Center Square. “The higher the tax rate, the less money it’s going to generate. In fact, the way he proposes it, it would generate nothing.”

House Rules: Insights from around our network

GETTING THEIR LIX IN: Narrowing focus to regulated wagering, AGA estimates record amount bet on Super Bowl LIX [by Eric Raskin]

THE PLANE TRUTH: Delta-DraftKings partnership won’t exactly bring gambling to 30,000 feet [by Jeff Edelstein]

STATE OF PLAY: Legislative round-up: The taxman cometh (again), sweeps scrutiny abounds, and Aloha [by Chris Altruda]

WHO’S NEXT?: 7 reasons we’ll see a new state launch online lottery before online casino [by Matthew Bain]

YOU’RE OUT!: Umpire Pat Hoberg fired by MLB for shared betting account [by Jeff Edelstein]

AG-GRAVATION FOR SWEEPS: Source: West Virginia Attorney General serves subpoenas to ‘sweepstakes’ operators [by Eric Raskin]

UNFORCED ERRORS: The list of real threats to Las Vegas’ economy is growing [by Richard Schuetz]

FUN WHILE IT LASTED: Robinhood reluctantly suspends Super Bowl markets at request of CFTC [by Eric Raskin]

AIR BALL: Here’s who really dropped the ball amid Terry Rozier suspicious activity alerts [by Jeff Edelstein]

CHANGE OF SCENERY: ‘Sweepstakes casino’ operator VGW scores jurisdictional win in key Florida case [by Chris Altruda]

TAP THE BRAKES: Amid breakneck pace of sports ‘event contracts’ developments involving CFTC, one expert says ‘tread lightly’ [by Brett Smiley]

FEELING MINNESOTA: Competing sports betting bills filed in Minnesota Senate [by Chris Altruda]

WOLF IN SLOTS CLOTHING: Huff N’ More Puff debuts at FanDuel Online Casino [by Eric Raskin]

Low stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, my co-host Jeff Edelstein and I welcomed “The Sportsbook Consiglieri,” Dave Sharapan, for a conversation spanning from the trivial (Super Bowl prop bets) to the not-so-trivial (being ushered into the white light). Here’s a taste:

We also covered what we do and don’t know about the Terry Rozier scandal, Robinhood’s on-off affair with Super Bowl markets, playoff beards, and silly slots. Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

FLIFF’S EDGE: Online sweepstakes casino feature diversifies offerings for Fliff [SBC Americas]

BOYD BUMP: Boyd Gaming reports year-over-year gains across the board [CDC Gaming Reports]

COULDN’T DODGE PRISON: Betting scandals intensify as Ohtani’s ex-interpreter receives 57-month sentence [Forbes]

LIONS AND BULLS: BetMGM execs bullish, despite wider losses [Complete iGaming]

BETTER CALL RICHARD: The man who took on Big Tobacco has a new target: sports betting [Time]

CRASHING THE PARTY: Will crash games ever overcome the dominance of slots? [iGaming Business]

EASY DOES IT: Louisiana Gaming Control Board approves casino merger [New Orleans City Business]

AH, WISCONSIN: What would it take to get online sports betting in Wisconsin? [The Center Square]

BOARDWALK BUILDUP: Atlantic City unveils new tourism campaigns [Press of Atlantic City]

EVERYBODY’S DOING IT: Bookie Mathew Bowyer says half of pro athletes are betting on sports [New York Post]

GET SMART: Sands and Wynn now 100% “smart” across Macau mass baccarat tables [Inside Asian Gaming]

The Bonus Round

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

• Industry stat of the week: GeoComply reports the number of active legal sports betting accounts went up 20.2% in the 2024-25 NFL season compared to 2023-24. If you’re looking for a totally meaningless comparison that offers no useful perspective on that number, we’ll note that the price of eggs has risen 37% over the same time span.

• Here’s one for the books: Armijn Meijer and Dominique van der Geer are the new world record holders for casinos gambled at in 24 hours, having set foot in and risked money at 110 casinos inside a day, starting Wednesday and finishing in the wee hours Thursday. The couple traveled by helicopter to go from one Nevada gambling town to the next, finishing up in Downtown Vegas.

• In Super Bowl prop betting news, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission has added the coin toss to its list of permitted wagering markets. (Whatever you do, don’t ever ask a member of the MGC to choose “heads” or “tails,” as they will deliberate for multiple sessions over multiple days before coming to a decision.)

• On a related note, Fanatics Sportsbook reports that 56% of its coin toss bets are on tails, but only 44% of the handle is on tails. Is heads a “sharp” play, or just the “whale” play? We’ll know around 6:30 ET on Sunday.