Spin Cycle: Titus Stepping Up, L&W Stepping Back 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 …

Staying power

The letter was sent on April Fool’s Day, but Rep. Dina Titus wasn’t joking around.

Shortly after Ohio sent cease-and-desist letters to Kalshi and other prediction market operators, and just before word got out that the Illinois Gaming Board had done the same, Titus, a representative of Nevada in the U.S. House, sent a letter to Commodity Futures Trading Commission Secretary Christopher Kirkpatrick (no, not the former member of NSYNC), reemphasizing her position that prediction markets should not be permitted to offer contracts on sports contests. She wrote, in part:

“Specifically, I request that the Commission alter the terms and conditions of such contracts to require that individuals be prohibited from trading those contracts while physically present in the state of Nevada in violation of our laws and regulations. Additionally, I urge the Commission to exercise its authority to stay the listing of such contracts nationwide to ensure this unlawful activity does not persist as additional states, like New Jersey and Ohio have, determine if these contracts violate state law, and as a legal process unfolds in states, courts, and agencies.”

On a related note, this week a judge was assigned to Kalshi’s federal lawsuit against Nevada (in response to Nevada’s cease-and-desist order sent on March 4): Chief Judge Andrew P. Gordon, who set a hearing on Kalshi’s motion for a restraining order for next Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. in Vegas.

The case of the missing Jewels

If you’re looking for a Jewel of the Dragon slot machine at one of your local casinos, it’s going to be a long and fruitless search. On Wednesday, during a conference call, Light & Wonder announced it was pulling the game amid litigation that sees Aristocrat Leisure arguing that Jewel of the Dragon is similar to Aristocrat’s game Autumn Moon and violates intellectual property rights.

A dispute between Aristocrat and L&W is nothing new — their legal wrangling history goes back to February 2024, centering around the game Dragon Train’s IP. But now another “Dragon” game has been pulled into it, and L&W is disappearing the game for now.

Notably, L&W CFO Oliver Chow said total revenue for Jewel of the Dragon was well under $10 million, making it a relatively easy decision to remove the game pending legal resolution. According to the manufacturer, there were only 150 machines in operation.

Light & Wonder has assured casinos it will be providing replacement games in the meantime.

Employee satisfaction

The gambling industry was well represented in this year’s edition of USA Today’s top workplace rankings, with six companies cracking the top 100 of their respective size-based categories.

In the 2,500+ employee group, DraftKings ranked 16th, followed by Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City (31st), Sycuan Casino Resort (56th), Station Casinos (76th), and PENN Entertainment (98th). AGS, based in Las Vegas, placed 99th in the 500-999 employee category.

Five other gaming companies received votes: Miccosukee Casino & Resort, Santa Ana Star Casino Resort, Valley View Casino & Hotel, Viejas Casino & Resort, and Churchill Downs Incorporated.

For the record, just in case any of my bosses are reading this, Third Planet LLC was robbed and should absolutely be No. 1 on the list.

House Rules: Insights from around our network

TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY: There’s more to gambling VIP programs than horror stories — here’s what you haven’t heard [by Jeff Edelstein]

CALLING AN AUDIBLE: North Carolina lawmakers want to pay high school coaches with sports betting taxes [by Matthew Bain]

MEGA EXCITED: Lotto.com CEO Metzger: ‘A lot of bang for your buck’ with Mega Millions price change [by Eric Raskin]

MAHALO EFFECT: Hawaii sports betting bill reaches Senate floor [by Chris Altruda]

ALL THE PIECES MATTER: City of Baltimore files lawsuit against DraftKings, FanDuel, claiming unfair practices [by Jeff Edelstein]

ROWING IN THE SAME DIRECTION: Tribes, commercial entities consider similar plan for legal California sports betting [by Jill Dorson]

MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK: Why are so many convenience store owners so gosh darned lucky in lottery? [by Bill Dettloff]

MISSISSIPPI BLUES: Bill to ban sweeps dies in Mississippi, along with online sports betting hopes [by Chris Altruda]

SCHUETZ FROM THE HIP: A lengthy rant concerning last week’s Nevada Gaming Commission meeting [by Richard Schuetz]

Small stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, my co-host Jeff Edelstein and I welcomed legal expert Dennis Ehling, a partner in the law firm of Blank Rome, to help us (and the rest of the gambling industry) make sense of the various sides and suits regarding whether sports-based prediction markets are legal. Here’s a taste:

We also covered everything that went down this week with tribes and sportsbooks in California, I started counting my “Braves under” money early, and Jeff theorized on whether Sen. Cory Booker filibustered while wearing a diaper. Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

AMERICAN CARNAGE: Casino stocks plunge amid market carnage sparked by Trump tariffs [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

STATE OF PLAYUP: PlayUp Mintas suit dismissed, some of her countersuit moving ahead [SBC Americas]

QUEENS GAMBIT: NY senator backs Citi Field casino plan with Flushing Skypark proposal and $100M pledge [Gothamist]

FAME GAME: Social media gambling star Vegas Matt sells out Milwaukee meet-and-greet [WSIN 12 ABC]

EVER WONDER?: Light & Wonder and how a slot machine becomes a beloved franchise [CDC Gaming Reports]

REELED IN: Agency: Don’t spend money on ‘fraudulent’ online casinos in Arizona [12 News]

BABY STEPS: Analyst hails prospective California sports betting accord [Complete iGaming]

GRILLED STAKE: Stake.us sued in California for alleged ‘illegal gambling’ [Next.io]

DUEL CONTINUES: FanDuel’s PE backers fire back at founder’s legal fight over 2018 sale [Front Office Sports]

FEELING MINNESOTA: Cybersecurity incident hits Minnesota tribal community, hobbles casino [The Minnesota Star Tribune]

UP IN SMOKE: Activist shareholder opts against refiling proposal to study going smoke-free at Bally’s casinos [Rhode Island Current]

ALL-IN-ONE: With strike settled, Virgin Las Vegas shifts focus to becoming a ‘fully integrated resort’ [The Nevada Independent]

The Bonus Round

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

• Here’s a fun quickie from Dustin Gouker at his Event Horizon Substack, as he aggregated 10 instances of Kalshi using some form of the word “bet” back before the prediction market operator was so focused on insisting that what it’s offering is definitely not betting. It was Maya Angelou who made famous the phrase, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” Maya, does the same apply when they tell you who they are?

• You could spend four years taking tests and writing essays and then come out hoping to have enough skill to get a job somewhere … or you could spend six weeks learning to be a casino dealer and get a job right away. During the recent groundbreaking for the Live! Casino & Hotel in Petersburg, Virginia, Richard Bland College of William and Mary announced, in partnership with Live!, that it will launch the Table Games Dealer Institute this fall. Live! Casino President Rob Norton said the average dealer salary at the forthcoming casino would be about $60,000-$70,000 a year.

• The BetMGM Casino progressive jackpot in Ontario has reached a record-breaking amount, surpassing CAD 1.6 million — or about $1.12 million in U.S. currency. Road trip to Ontario, anyone?

• The season finale of The White Lotus airs this Sunday night, and the ProphetX exchange shared some props on which character(s) won’t make it out of the episode alive. They opened Greg and Gaitok as the co-favorites to bite it, with Belinda and Timothy the relative longshots. I don’t have a strong lean on what I think will happen on the show — so I’ll just go ahead and predict that Mike White is about to pocket some easy side cash if he has access to the ProphetX app.