Spin Cycle: NYC Casino News, Tribal Sweeps Talk 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 …

New York, New York

This week brought two minor, but still noteworthy, developments on the road to determining which downstate New York casino bids will get the nod from the state.

The highly polarizing Times Square proposal led by Caesars Entertainment, in partnership with SL Green Realty and Jay Z’s Roc Nation, ran into one more potential speed bump, as The Entertainment Community Fund has joined on as the 35th member of the No Times Square Casino Coalition.

“We believe that a casino in the heart of New York City takes Times Square in the wrong direction,” said Entertainment Community Fund President and CEO Joseph P. Benincasa. “Our Board opposes the Times Square casino bid. We believe it will create a less safe and secure neighborhood for those working on stage and behind the scenes who make Broadway and the entire NYC theater community vibrant.”

And in other news, local committees to review bids began to form this week, including those set to consider a pair of contenders in Queens — the Metropolitan Park project led by Mets owner Steve Cohen in partnership with Hard Rock, and the Genting Group’s Resorts World New York City bid to expand Aqueduct Racetrack (which most consider a slam dunk for one of the three available licenses).

Each six-member community advisory committee will hold a public hearing and then vote on whether that particular proposal will advance to a review from the New York Gaming Commission.

Rocha: Sweeps operators won’t ‘have much oxygen left’

California tribal leaders and lawyers pressed the idea Wednesday that a sweepstakes ban in the state would be a death knell for the unregulated gambling-style platforms that operate across the U.S. During a New Normal webcast titled “Closing the Loopholes in California: Tribal-Led Efforts to Rein in Fantasy Sports and Sweepstakes Sites,” host and Indian Gaming Association Conference Chair Victor Rocha said, “After California, they’re not going to have much oxygen left. I think Texas is coming right behind us, especially when it’s this egregious exploitation.”

On Tuesday, state lawmakers moved forward an amended version of AB 831, which would ban sweepstakes platforms. Next up is the Public Safety Committee next Tuesday. The tribes back the bill, saying unregulated sweepstakes cut into their exclusivity. No form of digital gambling is legal in California. 

Regulators and attorneys general across the country have sent cease-and-desist letters to sweepstakes companies. California has not. Should the bill pass, the platforms would be barred.

Tribal attorney Joe Webster said “an avalanche” of enforcement action is already coming down on sweepstakes, and that “a whole range of gaming that tribes are supposed to have exclusivity for is being run over by these operators.”

— Jill R. Dorson

Gaming Hall of Fame class announced

The American Gaming Association (AGA) revealed Thursday a trio of new inductees to the Gaming Hall of Fame, to be formally inducted at an invite-only ceremony during October’s Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas.

The three newest members of the Hall:

• David Berman: The co-head of Macquarie Capital, Berman has more than three decades of experience in gaming mergers and acquisitions, having led mergers worth more than $125 billion in total.
• Charles Lombardo: A former executive with Hard Rock/Seminole and assorted Caesars Las Vegas properties, Lombardo has worked in the gaming industry for more than 50 years, with a particular pioneering expertise on the slots side.
• Ann Simmons Nicholson: The CEO and founder of Simmons Group, Nicholson has consulted for nearly every major gaming company across her 40 years in the industry, with expertise across human capital strategy, leadership development, organizational culture, and executive coaching.

“The Gaming Hall of Fame honors the visionaries who’ve shaped today’s gaming industry,” said AGA President and CEO Bill Miller in a statement. “David, Ann, and Charlie have each made lasting contributions to the growth, integrity, and leadership of legal gaming, and we’re proud to recognize their impact.”

House Rules: Insights from around our network

WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?: AGA turns off comments, turns on professional gamblers [by Jeff Edelstein]

NICKEL SLOTS: NCLGS commencement panel spans online growth, tax rates, tribes, cybersecurity [by Chris Altruda]

BILLIONS AND BILLIONS: FanDuel valued at $31 billion as Flutter buys out remaining Boyd stake [by Daniel O’Boyle]

HIRE AND HIGHER: New Texas lottery regulator increasing budget, staff to handle added responsibilities [by Eric Raskin]

SAY NAY: FULL HOUSE Act fails unanimous consent in Senate [by Ella Gorodetzky]

HOLD YOUR HORSES: Maine Gov. Janet Mills pushes online casino decision to 2026 [by Jeff Edelstein]

RISK-FREE, AFTER ALL: DraftKings to pay $3 million back to Connecticut customers in settlement over deposit bonuses [by Daniel O’Boyle]

THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND: What you don’t know can hurt you [by Richard Schuetz]

IT’S HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: Time for sports betting operators to bail out of Illinois? Not so fast [by Jill R. Dorson]

IN THE ROUGH: With 2025 on the back nine, a few states still swinging [by Steve Ruddock]

Small stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, Jeff Edelstein and I welcome Las Vegas-based certified public accountant Zak Zimbile, who, to Jeff’s great delight, turns out to be a Jersey boy originally! We get Zak’s take on how gamblers can prepare for the loss deduction changes, what a sports betting “session” may be, and how optimistic he is that efforts to reverse the provision will succeed. Here’s a taste:

Jeff and I also discuss microbetting and its role in the Luis Ortiz baseball scandal, mixed opinions of the legality of DFS in California, why WSOP Main Event numbers dipped slightly, me enjoying a vicarious poker sweat, and Jeff enjoying a totally exasperation-free week. Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

VIRTUAL COINS, REAL TAX: VGW is now charging customers sales tax when they buy Gold Coins [SBC Americas]

MOTION IN THE OCEAN: Ocean casino fined $10,750 for using unshuffled cards, letting customers alter bets already in play [The Press of Atlantic City]

BETTER TOGETHER?: What could gaming equipment megamerger mean for consumers? New games, analysts say [The Nevada Independent]

MILE HIGH HOME: Online betting giant buys downtown Denver HQ for $135M [9News.com]

BACK ON TRACK: Meadowlands, Monmouth racetracks get $3.5M each from NJ to offset tax hike [NorthJersey.com]

PRAYER’S CARD: Strip resort will pay six-figure settlement in religious discrimination, retaliation lawsuit [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

MORE LIKE INTRA LITTLE: Intralot/Bally’s presentation draws scant interest [Complete iGaming]

HOT TAKE: Massive tax legislation positive for U.S. casino industry and Las Vegas, CBRE analyst says [CDC Gaming Reports]

HARD ROCK, EH?: Hard Rock Hotel and Casino opens in Ottawa with nod to all things Canadian [Ottawa Business Journal]

SHOW ME THE MONEY: Showboat owner Bart Blatstein pays $500K debt to contractor after arrest warrant issued [The Press of Atlantic City]

The Bonus Round

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

• From the life-comes-at-you-fast department: On Thursday at the World Series of Poker, Michael Hawker went into the dinner break as the overall chip leader in the Main Event. And about 20 minutes after the dinner break, Hawker was busted in 296th place. What the heck happened? Two massive back-to-back hands against Sebastian Schulze that didn’t go Hawker’s way. First, he got coolered, making a full house with pocket nines that lost to Schulze’s full house with pocket aces. Then, the very next hand, he overplayed a straight when Schulze made a flush, and Hawker was gone. Not surprisingly, Schulze finished the night as chip leader heading into Friday’s play.

• Interesting news here via attorney Jeff Ifrah’s X account, indicating online poker player pooling across not just state lines but between the U.S. and Canada is being discussed:

• And let’s end the Bonus Round where we began it, with a couple of opinions about gambler taxation: