Spin Cycle: All The Sweepstakes News You Can Handle Highlights 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 …

Sweeps never sleeps

Over at our sister site InGame, every day seems to be spent reporting on news and updates regarding the legality of sports event contracts via prediction markets. Meanwhile, here at Casino Reports, it’s still all sweepstakes, all the time.

This week we had not one, not two, but three stories on bills to ban sweepstakes casinos. In Florida, the effort to ban stalled out; in Connecticut and in New Jersey, similar legislation inched forward.

But perhaps the most notable of all these sweeps ban developments was the one that took place in the New York Senate, where SB5935 was amended to address the terminology “dual-currency system.”

If you don’t know what that means, see our still-useful “Complete Idiot’s Guide to Sweepstakes Casinos.” But, in essence, New York is looking to hone in on the way sweepstakes gambling sites use both “Gold Coins,” which can’t be redeemed directly for cash, and “Sweeps Coins,” which can be redeemed for cash, and the bill aims to use dual currency create a distinction from non-casino companies that use sweepstakes law to govern their promotions.

Will it work? Your guess is good as ours. Not surprisingly, the Social and Promotional Games Association (SPGA) insisted in a statement that “this amendment doesn’t fix anything.”

For what it’s worth, Swedish gaming company Play’n GO is steering clear of the controversial vertical, with CEO and co-founder Johan Tornqvist announcing this week, “We will never supply our games to sweepstakes casinos.”

A Stake in the ground

Oh, and there’s one more piece of sweepstakes news to cover. We’ve seen class-action suits filed against operators in California and Illinois, and now an Alabama resident has filed one against Stake.US, demanding a jury trial against the unregulated operator.

Plaintiff Laura Hall along with an unnamed minor (referred to in the legal filing as “J.S.”) opened a suit “on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated” last Friday, alleging that Stake gives them access to casino games that are illegal under Alabama law. Alabama has no commercial casinos and is one of just five states that hasn’t even legalized lottery play.

Rapper Drake happens to promote Stake, which makes us wonder … is Drake going to be the next celebrity to go the way of Ryan Seacrest?

Poker’s wild

Two noteworthy developments in the world of poker this week:

• As first reported by Pokerfuse, PokerStars remains in no rush to combine its Pennsylvania player pool with those in other states, even though rival sites WSOP Online and BetMGM Poker have already done just that. “PokerStars recognizes and welcomes the importance of shared player pools in enhancing the poker ecosystem,” read the statement PokerStars sent to the poker media outlet. “But current global operational priorities mean that joining the Pennsylvania shared liquidity initiative will come at a later date.”
• The World Series of Poker — which begins on May 27 — has revealed some new rules for its 56th annual edition, most notably that smartphones and all other electronic devices are banned once any tournament reaches its final three tables. There is also a rule prohibiting any sort of “electronic assistance” for players and spectators — a direct response to Jonathan Tamayo’s $10 million win last year that sparked controversy due to possible advantages provided by his friends/coaches on the rail.

House Rules: Insights from around our network

PURE MADNESS: Nationwide online casino revenue tops $900 million for March, sets new record [by Chris Altruda]

BIBLE BETS: Prophets and losses: Betting on religion, from the pope back to creation [by Jeff Edelstein]

RODEO CLOWNS: Topsy-turvy Texas: Lottery’s future is 50/50, Lotto.com gets a promising ruling [by Eric Raskin]

SILVER STAIN: The Nevada regulatory discussion, part deux — good, bad, and ugly [by Richard Schuetz]

EXCLUSIVE EAVESDROP: Leaked transcript emerges from ‘canceled’ CFTC prediction markets roundtable discussion [by Brett Smiley]

ACROSS THE POND: The UK introduced a mixed product promotion ban — will it wreak havoc among operators? [by Sam Davies]

PENN-DING FURTHER REVIEW: Penn reports revenue loss, teases new ESPN Bet integration in generally upbeat call [by Jill Dorson]

MISSOURI LOVES COMPANY: Missouri considering legalization of online lottery ticket sales and lotto couriers [by Chris Altruda]

WHAT’S A BET?: The semantic showdown: How language could reshape sports betting [by Jeff Edelstein]

ROCK SOLID: Hard Rock has action plan ready if it wins New York casino license bid [by Chris Altruda]

Small stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, my co-host Jeff Edelstein and I welcomed SBC Americas editor Jessica Welman one week out from the SBC Summit in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the conversation spanned from poker media to The Rehearsal to the way prediction-market sports betting has upended our work lives. Here’s a taste:

We also covered yet another busy week of CFTC-related news, the possibility (or perhaps even high likelihood) of Ohio legalizing online casino and poker this year, the Powerball winner who allegedly kicked a cop, semi-attractive promos, decidedly unattractive promos, and more. Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

PINK SLIPS ON THE STRIP: What’s behind all the recent layoffs at Las Vegas casinos? [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

SOURCES SAY: Here’s where the Atlantic City casinos’ money comes from (and half of it’s not from gambling) [Press of Atlantic City]

IN THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT: Light & Wonder reaches multimillion-dollar deal with Buffalo Thunder, Cities of Gold casinos [CDC Gaming Reports]

MUD ’N MONEY: Weather can’t rain on Kentucky Derby handle records [Bloodhorse]

JUST OFF THE TURNPIKE: New Jersey and UAE regulators establish partnership for regulatory collaboration [Complete iGaming]

LESS IS MORE: New PA bill concerning casino slot machine requirements heads to Senate [YourErie.com]

SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT: Greene Co. gaming bill stalls Senate, House in final days of session [ABC3340]

WYNNS AND LOSSES: Wynn sees revenue fall nearly 9%, delays projects as CEO Billings downplays tariff impacts [iGaming Business]

The Bonus Round

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

• The above tweet made for some nice, quick poker-related reading. If you want to sink your eyeballs a little deeper into something, we recommend this Substack post by Lance Bradley on Erick Lindgren — one of the young guns of the poker boom era who turned into a cautionary tale but now appears to be back on the upswing.

• Hey, dealers can be players too! At its annual conference in Las Vegas in October, the Global Gaming Expo is hosting the first G2E Dealer Championship, which will pit blackjack and roulette dealers against each other in a skills competition. As CDC Gaming Reports wrote, “Participants will be judged on technical precision, flair, and a commitment to providing patrons with a world class experience.” (I would also judge them on their ability not to deal themselves a five-card 21, but maybe that’s just me.)