Spin Cycle: Negreanu Promoting Kalshi, Nebraska Pleasing Taxpayers 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 …

Kid Poker becomes Kid Predictions

For the last two decades plus, Daniel Negreanu has stood out as of one poker’s foremost ambassadors, using his charisma and eloquence, love for the game, and general media friendliness to promote poker to the masses. They don’t call him “Kid Poker” for nuthin’ (even now that he’s in his 50s).

This week, Negreanu took on an ambassadorship of sorts for a different gambling vertical. He now has an affiliate partnership (like we said, an “ambassadorship of sorts”) with Kalshi, one of the leading names in prediction markets.

The Poker Hall of Famer tied the exchange wagering site in with poker, announcing that one lucky person who funds a Kalshi account using Negreanu’s sign-up code will win a $30,000 package to play in the World Series of Poker Paradise event in the Bahamas in December.

We’ll say this for Negreanu: His social media posting about Kalshi this week was definitely better received than Sara Slane’s.

When casinos win, everybody wins!

OK, that mini-headline for this Spin Cycle item isn’t quite true. However, in Nebraska, we saw this week how good results for casinos can translate to benefits for others across the state.

As reported by the Nebraska Examiner, Gov. Jim Pillen revealed Monday that the state had about a $20 million surplus from a combination of higher-than-projected casino tax revenue and unused property tax relief funds, and that money will be returned to taxpayers. (To whom, specifically, and in what proportions, is still to be determined.)

Nebraska does not collect taxes from its five tribal casinos, but it does tax its five state-licensed “racinos”: Grand Island Casino Resort, Harrah’s Columbus, Lake Mac Casino Resort & Racetrack, WarHorse Casino Lincoln, and WarHorse Casino Omaha.

The underreported sweeps ban victim

While most of us in the gambling media have focused in our analysis of California’s AB 831 on its impact on sweepstakes casinos, there is also the not-small matter of the sweepstakes poker model. On Wednesday, poker-player-turned-poker-media-professional Nick Jones drew attention to this on BlueSky, noting the impact of the impending California sweeps ban on longtime operator ClubWPT:

The World Poker Tour has been involved in social/sweepstakes poker dating all the way back to 2008, and now ClubWPT is contemplating a world in which it can no longer accept California customers. As Jones speculated, ClubWPT may be looking for another loophole on top of the “dual currency” loophole — although he concluded his thread with “honestly, no idea what’s coming.”

If Gov. Gavin Newsom signs the bill to ban sweepstakes gaming (or lets it pass without his signature) and sweepstakes poker operators don’t figure out a workaround, ClubWPT players in California will have until Dec. 31 to cash out their balances.

House Rules: Insights from around our network

LOOK WHO’S SWEEPING TOGETHER: Two sweepstakes gaming advocacy groups merge, SPGA is no more [by Eric Raskin]

TAX ATTACKS: How Trump’s rule devastates some gamblers, spares others [by Jeff Edelstein]

EYES ON THE EXCISE: Senators from Mississippi and Nevada target wagering excise tax [by Jill R. Dorson]

ONLINE CASINO IS BIG IN NJ: FanDuel powers New Jersey to (another) iGaming revenue high [By Chris Altruda]

ONLINE CASINO IS BIG IN PA: Pennsylvania August iCasino revenue third most in state history, up 25% year-over-year [By Chris Altruda]

ONLINE CASINO IS BIG IN MI: Michigan iCasino revenue reaches record $263 million in August [By Chris Altruda]

WINNING PICKS: In a prediction market gold rush, investors bet on ‘shovels’ [by Daniel O’Boyle]

CONTENT DISCONTENT: Down the tubes: Age-related restrictions dealing poker creators bad beats [by Eric Raskin]

LESS IS MORE: New Jersey Lottery moves to cut red tape for courier services [by Jeff Edelstein]

SHE’S SEEN ENOUGH: CAC Chair Hooks cuts second Metropolitan Park casino hearing short [by Chris Altruda]

INCREASED SCRUTINY: HG Vora’s gambling history raises questions on regulatory track record [by Daniel O’Boyle]

TELL, DON’T ASK: New Jersey proposes mandatory responsible online gambling standards [by Jeff Edelstein]

Small stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, my co-host Jeff Edelstein and I welcome Jeremy Stein, the CEO of SportsGrid, for a conversation about his company’s pivot toward casino content one year on from that announcement, as well as how much online casino legalization matters to his business, how hard it is to win at DFS, and the power of the algorithms behind what you see on your screens. Here’s a taste:

Jeff and I also discuss the impact of the forthcoming (presumably) California sweepstakes ban, two Manhattan casino bids getting rejected by their CACs, the latest prediction market news, Severance vs. The Pitt, fantasy football ups and downs, living a life of shameless self-certification, and more. Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

MEET THE NEW BOSS(ES): New execs named at several Strip resorts [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

DIGITAL FOOTPRINT: Texts, emojis link suspended Osceola sheriff Marcos Lopez to gambling operation, prosecutors allege [ClickOrlando]

ROOM AND GLOOM: Las Vegas room rates decline 12% in Q4, lower-end properties impacted most [CDC Gaming]

CHANGE OF SCENERY: Aristocrat taps L&W iGaming chief for Interactive CEO [iGaming Business]

TIPPING POINT: No Tax on Tips covers more than 440,000 Nevadans — here’s why few will actually benefit [The Nevada Independent]

FRESH FELT: CT casino unveils new poker room ‘delivering unmatched scale, energy, and innovation’ [Hartford Courant]

ALONG FOR THE RIDE: MGM Resorts, F1 extend Las Vegas Grand Prix partnership to 2030 [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

The Bonus Round

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

• Everything must go! It’s the Las Vegas sales event you’ve been waiting for! This coming Monday, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will announce details of “The Fabulous 5-Day Sale,” as the tourism agency continues to try to combat the city’s growing reputation for being unaffordable. “This limited-time sale will deliver incredible deals on resorts, restaurants, entertainment, and experiences, extending a citywide invitation to visitors to rediscover the magic, energy, and unbeatable value of Las Vegas,” the LVCVA promoted. Hopefully a latte and a muffin from an in-casino Starbucks can be had for under $20 next week.

• Turns out we don’t have to wait for the “fabulous” sales event referenced above — Las Vegas is getting cheaper already. It seems Wynn Resorts has eliminated triple-zero roulette, with its 92.31% return-to-player. Of course, double-zero roulette has a lousy RTP as well (94.74%), but, it’s all a matter of perspective, I suppose. (For the record, my regulated online casino apps all have single-zero roulette. Here in Pennsylvania, we lose our bankrolls much more slowly.)