Spin Cycle: Tipping Point In Congress, Sweeps Ban Backlash 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 …

Keep the tip

The casino industry is home to quite a few workers who rely on tips to get by, so it should be no surprise that one of the two U.S. senators representing the state of Nevada, Jacky Rosen, became the driving force in pushing “no tax on tips” legislation through this week.

As detailed in The Nevada Independent, Rosen took an atypical approach to move the bipartisan bill along.

The No Tax on Tips Act, authored by Republican Ted Cruz and co-sponsored by both of Nevada’s Democrat senators, Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, had been attached to the divisive spending bill put forward by House Republicans. On Tuesday, Rosen separated it from that spending bill, asked the Senate to pass it on its own using a procedural tool called “unanimous consent” — which requires all 100 senators to agree — and found success when not a single legislator objected to the bill.

Rosen said on the Senate floor in explaining why she didn’t want this bill attached to the larger spending bill, “We shouldn’t be forcing working families to choose between keeping their health care and keeping their tips — which is why we want this bipartisan bill to pass on its own, not [as] part of a harmful, extreme budget bill.”

Although exactly what types of workers qualify still needs to be defined by the Treasury, the bill would allow qualifying workers to claim a 100% deduction on their tips, up to $25,000 per year, as long as they don’t earn over $160,000 annually.

Big Sky, strong reply

You have to love this headline in a press release: “Montana Just Outlawed Something It Couldn’t Even Define.”

The Social and Promotional Games Association (SPGA) tends to be fairly blunt in its reaction to anti-sweeps legislation, and the response to Montana’s Senate Bill 555 in a release issued Friday morning was classic SPGA.

The release labels Montana “the first state to ban online sweepstakes-style games, without even using the word sweepstakes.”

The SPGA further wrote: “This vague and sweeping law reclassifies legitimate, free-to-play promotional games as ‘internet gambling,’ ignoring the clear legal and operational distinctions between sweepstakes platforms and real-money online casinos. Under SB 555, even platforms with no purchase required and robust consumer safeguards could now face criminal penalties.”

Also in the release was this quote, attributed to an unnamed SPGA spokesperson:

“Montana just criminalized everyday digital promotions with a law so broadly written it fails to name what it bans.”

In related news, this week a second trade group representing social/sweepstakes operators, the Social Gaming Leadership Alliance (SGLA), announced its arrival. The SGLA has not yet issued a statement of its own on Montana’s SB 555.

We watched the Netflix show ‘Bet’ …

… so you don’t have to. OK, actually, we only watched the pilot episode. Sorry, life’s too short, and that’s all we could take.

Bet is a 10-episode Netflix series that debuted last week, about a boarding school where status and power are determined by gambling results. After seeing the trailer, I described it as “Euphoria meets Harry Potter meets Rounders.”

The problem with that statement is that Euphoria, Harry Potter, and Rounders are all largely entertaining and smart. Bet is a mess. Every character and every plot machination is ridiculous, and while the show clearly is not going for realism, it’s not interesting or engaging enough to get away with being so cartoonish.

Maybe it gets better after the pilot. But … probably not. And we have no intention of finding out.

House Rules: Insights from around our network

IT’S REVENUE WEEK, NJ-STYLE: New Jersey revenue gap between online and live casino wider than ever in April [by Chris Altruda]

IT’S REVENUE WEEK, PA-STYLE: Pennsylvania’s online casinos score April revenue of $282.8 million, second best month ever [by Chris Altruda]

IT’S REVENUE WEEK, MI-STYLE: Michigan iGaming operators bank $248 million in April, up 28.6% year-over-year [by Chris Altruda]

BACK TO THE TABLE: Sources: CFTC acting chairman to meet with tribes regarding prediction markets [by Brett Smiley]

BUCKEYE BILLS: Ohio House member introduces online casino bill similar to Senate version — but there are big differences [by Jeff Edelstein]

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK: Wynn withdraws from Hudson Yards NYC casino bid [by Chris Altruda]

A SPORTSBOOK BY ANY OTHER NAME: Kalshi more reliant on sports than DraftKings or FanDuel, data shows [by Daniel O’Boyle]

HEAVEN CENT: New Jersey Hard Rock Online Casino customer turns a penny into over $70,000 [by Jeff Edelstein]

MAYBE NEXT YEAR: Louisiana online lottery talks put on hold as bill gets deferred [by Matthew Bain]

INK PIECE: Tell me again why I need to describe my scars and tattoos to get a gaming license? [by Richard Schuetz]

RANKLING ARIZONA: Arizona regulators hit Kalshi with cease-and-desist order as list grows [by Brett Smiley]

Small stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, four of our favorite past podcast guests, industry insiders David Purdum, Captain Jack Andrews, Brett Smiley, and Joe Brennan, Jr., stop by to give their answers to the question: What is likely to be the topic that dominates gambling coverage and conversation in the second half of 2025?

My co-host Jeff Edelstein and I also discuss the narrowing field of candidates for New York casino licenses, the CFTC’s limited attempt at a prediction-markets roundtable, and how much longer it will be until Pete Rose actually gets into the Hall of Fame. Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

YOUTH MOVEMENT: How Las Vegas casinos are working to attract millennials, Generation Z [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

AN INFUSION OF INCLUSION: LGBTQ+ in Gaming group launches [CDC Gaming Reports]

IFS, ANDS, BOTS: AI is transforming gambling, but what are the ethical risks? [UFL.edu]

HORSE PLAY: Wagering of $110 million on 150th Preakness Day falls just short of all-time high [Paulick Report]

GROVER AND OUT: Grover Gaming sells charitable assets to Light & Wonder [CDC Gaming Reports]

QUITE A COUP: Rio Hotel & Casino unveils new Baccarat Room in ongoing transformation [News3LV]

PENN ULTIMATE: ESPN Bet faces make-or-break year for $2 billion Disney-Penn deal [Sportico]

BLOWING SMOKE: Report NJ casinos rely on to scare legislators disproven by its own authors [press release]

YA GOTTA BORGATA: Borgata debuts luxury gaming, dining in Atlantic City [NJ Biz]

HAIL, CAESARS: Caesars Foundation donates $200,000 to International Center for Responsible Gaming [CDC Gaming Reports]

The Bonus Round

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

• If you liked the slot games Gold Blitz and Gold Blitz Extreme, we have good news: The third game in the series, Gold Blitz Ultimate, has arrived at BetMGM in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. The new slot comes from Games Global, whose CEO Walter Bugno described the Gold Blitz franchise as, “one of our biggest commercial successes across the entire globe.”

• Want to buy a cottage in Ireland on 1.75 acres of rolling countryside? You can have one for less than $7 … plus a whole lot of luck. As the New York Times reported this week, Imelda Collins is raffling off her Ireland home, for $6.70 per raffle ticket. The winner gets the house, and real estate agents everywhere get to pray this form of gambling doesn’t catch on.

• Here’s a wild idea that The Palms hopes will make people skip on over to the casino and will do much more than just draw four new visitors. The Vegas property is debuting its UNO Social Club this summer, in conjunction with Mattel, with the experience themed around the popular card game UNO. A reminder to everyone who checks it out: Don’t forget to yell “Uno!” when the casino has you down to your last dollar.