Tag: Sports betting

The evolution of Las Vegas

Vegas has moved on from the days when slots were king and has become an all-round entertainment destination. But how on earth did this happen? Jon Bruford talks to Nevada Resort Association president and CEO Virginia Valentine about the city’s evolution from gambling mecca to so much more.

Las Vegas’ history has been documented in countless books and movies. We all know the city’s origins, the rise of organised crime and much more. But the most recent chapter in the city’s story is one that would not have been predicted even ten years ago: the arrival of professional sports teams.

It wasn’t long ago that an integrated resort’s major revenue earner would have been slots. Recent years have seen ticket-in ticket-out (TITO) replace coins on the gaming floor, the rise of the celebrity chef, big-name DJs with nightclub residencies, megastar singers at most Strip properties and much, much more.

Las Vegas’ diversification meant it appealed to a wider audience

The income has diversified and..

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Fanatics replaces PointsBet in Kansas

Fanatics Betting and Gaming (FBG) has announced the launch of its Fanatics sportsbook in Kansas, replacing PointsBet with immediate effect.

Players in Kansas can now download the Fanatics sportsbook and begin placing sports bets.

Existing PointsBet customers will have their information automatically migrated to the new Fanatics sportsbook. This includes their username, password, account balance, rewards points and any responsible gaming settings.

The Kansas launch means Fanatics now has a sports betting presence in 17 states across the US. It follows the roll-out in North Carolina earlier this month when the state officially launched its legal sports betting market.

Other recent launches for Fanatics include New York, where it also replaced the PointsBet brand. FBG acquired PointsBet US in August 2023 and has been phasing out the PointsBet brand ever since, with Indiana another state where Fanatics took the place of PointsBet.

This month, FBG also picked up an event wagering lice..

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IGA executive director confident of California sports betting with tribal help

Jason Giles, executive director of the Indian Gaming Association (IGA), believes there could yet be online sports betting in California, although he also believes the help of tribes is vital to any legalisation.

Another attempt to legalise sports betting in California failed in January after two ballots aiming to grant tribes exclusive rights were scrapped following fierce tribal opposition in the state.

Eagle1 Acquisitions Corp, the group of backers for a proposition to legalise sports betting in California, had made several amendments to its ballot initiative in December in a bid to gain increased tribal support, however the efforts ultimately failed.

In response, the California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA) stated the failure should serve as a warning against future attempts to legalise sports betting in the state without tribal involvement.

Jason Giles, Executive director of the indian gaming association, sees operator engagement with the tribes as a positive

Howev..

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Georgia committee passes wagering bill with most generous RG cutout in US

Georgia's House Higher Education Committee passed a package of sports betting bills that ultimately could send at least $22.5m per year to problem and responsible gambling programmes should the state legalise mobile wagering later today.

Today (28 March) Georgia’s General Assembly is set to adjourn by 11.59pm EST. The Higher Education Committee passed amended versions of SR 579 and SB 386, and the Rules Committee put the package on its agenda less than 30 minutes later, but has not yet sent it to the house floor.

Should the house pass the package, it would have to go back to the senate for concurrence or to a conference committee because the bills were amended.

The issue has been sitting in the Higher Education Committee for more than a month as lawmakers rallied support and massaged the bills to find a consensus. As recently as Wednesday (27 March) the proposals were laid over due to lack of support. It was not clear until the vote was called Thursday morning that there was..

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Slovaks place €21.4bn in bets over 2023 as online market surges

Slovaks placed €21.4bn (£18.3bn/$23.1bn) in bets during 2023, revealed during a press conference held at the office of the country’s Regulation of Gambling Games.

Martin Bohoš, director general of the regulator, stated players in Slovakia were paid €20.4bn in winnings. Contributions to the state rose by over €50m year-on-year to more than €301m.

In state contributions, the online levy accounted for €93m of the total, while fixed-odds bets were responsible for €80.48m. Land-based casinos, meanwhile, contributed €61.9m to the state.

The online market continues to dominate, with 90% of Slovaks preferring to bet online. For number lotteries, however, online betting accounts for just 14% of bets with Slovaks still preferring to play the lottery at land-based venues.

The tax rate for fixed-odds betting in Slovakia is 22% of gross gaming revenue (GGR) for online operators and 6% of turnover for land-based companies. For casino, meanwhile, the rate is again 22% for online operators. For la..

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GST leaves India out of its depth

The decision to impose a 28% Goods and Services Tax (GST) on turnover in India delivered a blow to a burgeoning, exciting gaming market overnight. But with so much industry pushback, and attempts to stay GST-related court orders, can India turn back the tide on GST?

Dust off your time machine and travel back to 1867, when India’s Public Gaming Act was enacted.

This piece of legislation regulated some forms of gambling with extremely strict parameters. It legalised lotteries and horse racing but banned the operation of public gaming houses. At the time, anyone caught running a public gaming house faced a fine of ₹200.

Obviously, the original legislation couldn’t have taken online gaming into account. This left the practice in a state of uncertainty, despite a ready-and-waiting base of gambling and sports fans.

In more recent years, attempts have been made to legalise both online gambling and sports betting. In 2016, the Supreme Court backed calls for legalised betting, referring to..

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Georgia house committee sets up 11th-hour sports betting sprint

If the Georgia general assembly is to become the first in 2024 to legalise sports betting, it will have 15 hours, 59 minutes to do so, beginning at 8am EST Thursday (28 March).

The House Higher Education Committee today (27 March) failed to vote on a package of bills that would legalise statewide mobile sports betting. The hitch, once again, is how to spend the funds the state will get from the new revenue stream.

The session is scheduled to end Thursday night. The committee will meet two hours before the full house meets at 10am local time. No matter how you slice it, Thursday sets up a sports betting sprint.

The decision not to vote Wednesday was the second this week, after the Higher Education Committee laid the bill over Monday (25 March). So far, the committee has had three hearings, dating back to 19 March, and at least one cancelled meeting.

Senate sponsor Bill Cowsert is set to introduce an amendment that will appropriate 15% of tax revenue for problem and responsible gamb..

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NCAA seeks college prop bets ban

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) president Charlie Baker says the organisation is moving to ban college prop bets from all US markets.

In a statement today (27 March), Baker said that the decision came after there were reports of athletes being harassed in relation to college prop bets.

“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity of competition and leading to student-athletes and professional athletes getting harassed,” said Baker.

BAKER SAID THE NCAA WOULD REQUEST OTHER STATES TO BAN PLAYER PROP BETS

He added that some states contacted by the NCAA in reference to the threats outright banned college prop bets. “The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college prop bets.”

One of these states was Ohio. Last month, its Casino Control Commission (OCCC) banned player prop bets on college sports following a request from the NCAA. Baker had reached ..

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Ohtani: ‘I have never bet on sports or willfully sent money to the bookmaker’

On Monday (25 March), during a press conference regarding the sports betting scandal swirling around his former interpreter, Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani vehemently denied that he ever bet on sports, sent money to an illegal bookmaker or “willfully” paid off gambling debts for anyone.

The comments were in response to the news last week that Ohtani’s interpreter and friend, Ippei Mizuhara, was stealing from him to support a gambling habit.

“I have never bet on baseball or any other sports or have asked anyone to do that for me,” Ohtani said in a prepared statement. “Up until a couple of days ago, I didn’t know this was happening. In conclusion Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has been telling lies.”

Ohtani appeared with a new interpreter and did not take questions after the statement.

The man who owns baseball’s richest contract – he signed a 10-year, $700m deal with the Dodgers during the off season – was earnest, straightforward and direct in his ..

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More changes proposed to Georgia wagering bills; vote planned Wednesday

Georgia's House Higher Education Committee further kicked a package of sports betting bills down the road today (25 March) and still does not have consensus on how tax revenue would be spent.

On Wednesday (27 March) the committee will likely vote on whether or not to increase the tax rate in the package of bills from 20% to 25%, eliminate promotional deductions for operators and change where funding is directed as Georgia sports betting legislation continues to be a hot topic.

But multiple sources on the ground in Georgia aren’t hopeful that the online wagering package will pass through the general assembly with just three legislative days remaining.

House sponsor Marcus Wiedower said he would provide committee members with updated language that includes the tax increase, promotional deduction change and a new breakdown of how the funds would be spent, before that meeting.

Earlier versions of the proposals have been approved by the senate, and senate sponsor Bill Cowsert sa..

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Former BetCity owners fire €104 million demand back at Entain

BetCity's former owners have claimed Entain was not only aware of the KSA's investigations, but also severely impacted their earn-out.

The counterclaim against Entain has been submitted by BetCity’s former owners, which consists of various members of the Singels family. Also included are former CEO Melvin Bostelaar and former marketing director Robert Kooiman.

It comes in response to Entain’s original accusation that undeclared regulatory investigations at the time of the acquisition meant the Dutch-facing business was worth as much as €156m (£133m/$169m) less than assumed.

Entain acquired BetCity for €450m in January 2023, with the deal ultimately giving it access to the Dutch market. BetCity was one of the initial 10 licensees in the Netherlands.

However in January this year, Entain launched a compensation claim after details of two regulatory cases came to light. Entain said in the claim it was unaware of the investigations into BetCity when it acquired the business…

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Australia rugby league clubs continue blocking of sports betting adverts

Two Australian National Rugby League (NRL) clubs – South Sydney Rabbitohs and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs – have agreed to block all sports betting sponsorship for a further three years.

The Rabbitohs and Bulldogs, both based in New South Wales (NSW), will not display betting ads during home NRL games. They will also continue to educate players, staff and fans about gambling risks.

This is in line with the NSW government’s Reclaim the Game initiative. Launched in 2020, the campaign stretches across several sports and encourages teams not to enter marketing deals with gambling businesses.

The Rabbitohs and Bulldogs have supported the programme for the past two years, displaying Reclaim the Game branding at all home games.

According to the NSW government, since forming the two partnerships, members and fans have shown a marked increase in awareness of GambleAware responsible gambling services. It said around one in three Rabbitohs and Bulldogs supporters are aware of the GambleAwar..

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