Spin Cycle: Murders And Mergers Among Top Stories Of The 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 …

Tragedy on The Strip

Starting off this week’s Spin Cycle on a somber and serious note, the Las Vegas Strip was the site Sunday night of a deadly shooting, with 41-year-old Manuel Ruiz taken into custody for killing Rodney Finley, 44, and his wife Tanisha Finley, 43.

The incident took place right outside the Bellagio at about 10:40 p.m. Sunday.

Ruiz is a YouTuber (known as “Sin City Manny”), as were the victims (going by “Finny Da Legend” and his wife “Bubbly”). Rodney Finley’s mother told CBS affiliate KHPO that Ruiz and her son had been engaged in an online feud.

The shooting was reportedly livestreamed, but the video quickly removed.

According to the arrest report, Ruiz told police he was acting in self-defense.

Mega merger moving along

Apollo Global’s planned $6.3 billion acquisition of gaming supplier International Game Technology (IGT) and payment processing specialist Everi took a significant step forward at Wednesday’s Nevada Gaming Control Board meeting, where the massive corporate merger was granted initial approval.

Initial approval is not final approval, of course, and Everi Chief Legal Officer Kate Lowenhar-Fisher said at the meeting that eight more approvals are needed before the transaction can be finalized July 1.

NGCB member George Assad — someone singled out recently on Casino Reports by Richard Schuetz as a man who “would best serve the state by pursuing an alternative career” — fired off questions about compliance with the merging companies, to which Lowenhar-Fisher responded that each compliance staff remains in place and they will later be merged into one.

The board was unanimous in its initial approval, with a final ruling to come at the June 26 meeting.

Top WSOP stories of the week

At the end of another eventful week at the World Series of Poker, here are a few of the significant stories you may have missed:

• Tech failure struck hard during online bracelet event No. 7, the $250 Mystery Bounty tournament, when numerous players were booted off the WSOP software on Day 2 due to geolocation issues. As a result, organizers decided to cancel the remainder of event. All remaining players were in the money, but no determination has yet been made as to how the prize pool will be divided. According to the WSOP, 1,100 players were affected, and in addition to whatever prize payouts they receive, each has been issued a $500 ticket to use for any WSOP online tournament in the next year.

• Two big names took down bracelets this week. Nick Schulman won the $10,000 no-limit 2-7 lowball draw tournament, claiming his seventh career bracelet and his third in this exact event, having also won it in 2009 and 2012. And a day earlier, Jason Koon won his second career bracelet, in the $50,000 high roller event, bagging a payout of nearly $2 million and moving into third place on the all-time poker tournament money list.

• Wild hand of the week: Approaching the money bubble in that $50K high roller that Koon won, Joey Weissman flopped a set of kings on a dream board of K-9-4 rainbow, but an ace on the turn gave his opponent, Ben Tollerene, a set of aces. They got all the money in on the river, and Weissman was eliminated.

House Rules: Insights from around our network

WINNAS AND LOOZAS: ‘World’s largest slot party’ coming to Circa Las Vegas in July [by Eric Raskin]

TRIBES AND TRIBULATIONS: Not all tribes are getting rich off gaming, but many still depend on the benefits [by Brant James]

IN A RUSH: Rush Street launches multi-state poker in Delaware, Michigan, and West Virginia [by Jeff Edelstein]

HEALTHY COMPETITION: Economic illiteracy and the expansion of sports betting [by Richard Schuetz]

SWEEPS BAN DONE: Connecticut Gov. Lamont signs online sweeps ban into law [by Chris Altruda]

SWEEPS BAN UNDONE: Louisiana governor vetoes anti-sweeps bill [by Chris Altruda]

SWEEPS BAN COMING: Anti-sweepstakes bill passes in New York Senate [by Chris Altruda]

IN THIS ECONOMY?!: Recession watch for the ‘weak, unprepared, and over-leveraged’ in gaming [by Scott Longley]

TRUTH BE TOLD: Parsing the semantics and antics behind Kalshi’s claim [by Eric Raskin]

BUYING TIME: Sunset date for Illinois online lottery now 2030 [by Chris Altruda]

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT: Sports event contracts aren’t all that new — and they didn’t transform betting the first time [by Daniel O’Boyle]

PONY UP: Horse betting picking up the pace, is closing distance on the elusive younger audience [by Aaron Moore]

ONE MAN’S PERSPECTIVE … : Ranking the 8 remaining contenders for the New York City-area casino licenses [by Jeff Edelstein]

… AND ANOTHER MAN’S PERSPECTIVE: Counterpoint: An alternate ranking of the 8 expected New York casino bids [by Chris Altruda]

Small stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, Jeff Edelstein and I welcomed veteran industry journalist Steve Ruddock, the man behind the Straight to the Point newsletter, to get his take on the casino cannibalization debate, how operators are reacting to the Illinois tax grab, and more. Here’s a taste:

Jeff and I also shared our thoughts on bettors being asked to pay an extra 50 cents for every wager, Resorts World Bet bouncing out of New York, and CFTC head nominee Brian Quintenz facing a Senate committee. Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

GLASS HALF FULL: Las Vegas numbers low but confidence cautiously high, say LVCVA and analysts [CDC Gaming Reports]

OPEN ROAD: Booming US gambling industry a ‘highway without speed limits,’ top regulator warns [The Guardian]

THE WHINY CITY: Bally’s settles suit by white men over Chicago casino stake [Bloomberg]

A LOT LIKE SLOTS: Slot ‘type’ machines could be coming to Ohio bars and restaurants [Cleveland 19 News]

WHO’S THE BACCA-RAT?: 6 charged in 2023 cheating scheme at Hard Rock Casino [NWI Times]

BALLPARK FIGURE: As A’s prep for ceremonial groundbreaking, Bally’s plan for nearby resort questioned by analyst [The Nevada Independent]

NEW LEAF: Wynn COO says the casino operator has changed for the better since AML violations [CDC Gaming Reports]

The Bonus Round

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

• The PokerNews headline kinda says it all here: “Poker-Playing Pirate Allegedly Stabbed Man, Solicited and Ran Over Woman.” Apparently there’s a poker player named Scooter Clark who likes to dress like a pirate at the table … and he may have done some bad and illegal stuff away from the table. The details aren’t really important. I just love that headline so much.

• I snapped this pic myself out in the wild. Think this person likes to play the ponies?

• According to InTouch Weekly, Mark Wahlberg’s repeated financial investments in Las Vegas casinos stem from him feeling snubbed when he was left out of the Ocean’s 11 cast a quarter-century ago. At least that’s what “a source” says has been motivating Wahlberg. As a former editor of InTouch and its sister magazine Life & Style, I feel uniquely qualified to weigh in and say that you shouldn’t necessarily treat this report as in any way accurate.