West Flagler Enters The Discussion
The recent SCOTUS decision to not hear the West Flagler, Florida sports betting case is cited by two Colorado Tribes trying to offer mobile sports betting.
The Bulletin Board
NEWS: Colorado Tribes are fighting for mobile sports betting, citing the recent Florida sports betting court case in a lawsuit.
ICYMI: In Memoriam of David Power; NYRA and FanDuel reach agreement; ComplianceOne insolvent; Jontay Porter pleads guilty.
VIEWS: Vixio report indicates online casino legalization has a very bumpy path in 2025 and beyond.
NEWS: The Lottery Courier industry is getting crowded.
BEYOND the HEADLINE: Walmart wants to expand its lottery footprint.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: Poker almost catches lightning in a bottle
STRAY THOUGHTS: My most popular podcast guests (so far): #1 - #5.
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Colorado Tribes Cite West Flagler in Sports Betting Push
The Southern Ute Indian and Ute Mountain Ute Tribes are the first, but likely not the last, tribes to take advantage of the recent Supreme Court decision not to hear the West Flagler, Florida sports betting case. Per The Center Square, the case was filed in the US District Court in Denver.
The tribes, which are locked in a multi-year dispute over mobile sports betting, have filed suit against Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Director of the Colorado Division of Gaming, Christopher Schroder, claiming the state has unfairly blocked them from engaging in online sports betting.
The tribes argue that their 1995 compacts authorize them to offer “gaming activities and bet amounts that are identical to the activities and bet amounts that are authorized in the State of Colorado,” per the Southern Ute Tribe.
With the West Flagler case in their back pocket, the tribes now have legal precedent to point to.
Southern Ute Tribal Chairman Melvin J Baker said as much at the American Indian Affairs interim study committee meeting. According to Baker (as relayed by iGB), the case “held that the Seminole tribe was entitled to engage in statewide sports betting in Florida. Any legal objection to the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain from engaging in statewide sports betting is gone.”
ICYMI: In Memoriam of David Power; NYRA and FanDuel Reach Agreement; ComplianceOne Is Insolvent; Porter Pleads Guilty
Remembering Paddy Power cofounder David Power: Paddy Power cofounder David Power passed away at 77 last week following a long illness. Power was a larger-than-life personality that propelled Paddy Power from being a small Irish bookmaker to becoming one of the biggest betting firms in the world. In addition to the article below, you can listen to my podcast episode with Fintan Costello and Jon Bruford, where Fintan talks about his time at Paddy Power.
NYRA and FanDuel reach agreement: The New York Racing Association has reached a deal with FanDuel that will see the NYRA feed restored, just in time for the start of the season at Saratoga Race Course. The details were not disclosed, but as STTP reported last week, the main sticking point was the percentage of betting handle the NYRA would receive.
(Non)ComplianceOne files for insolvency: ComplianceOne has declared insolvency, with CEO Antonio Zanghi telling NEXT.io, “We have realized we will not be able to meet our financial obligations due to substantial cash flow issues” after failing to secure enough contracts. Anonymous employees told Next.io that in addition to delayed salary payments, “they discovered that pension and social security contributions, although deducted from their payslips, had not been remitted.”
Porter pleads guilty: Former NBA player Jontay Porter pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy last week for his role in a well-publicized sports betting scheme. If you’ve been living under a rock, you can read about it here. Porter was released on a $250,000 bond and is expected to receive a sentence of three and a half to four years in prison.
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Prognosis Negative: iCasino Legalization Out of Reach?
According to a new report from Vixio, the US iGaming market will become the largest regulated market in the world “despite stalled expansion efforts.”
“The US now overtaking the UK highlights the U.S. iGaming paradox in 2024,” James Kilsby, Vixio’s GamblingCompliance Chief Analyst and a report co-author, said in a press release.
Kilsby said that while online casinos generate significant revenue, legalization efforts have encountered roadblocks from “certain land-based casino operators and labor unions.”
Per the report, Vixio expects online casino legalization to progress at a rate of roughly one state per year, with New York and Illinois representing the biggest opportunities and some of the biggest obstacles.
Where else will online casino conversations take place? Vixio expects Colorado, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Virginia to get the ball rolling in 2025.
The specifics vary, but the overarching obstacle continues to be cannibalization concerns. Those concerns range from regional casino properties that feel outgunned by national and multinational corporations with online divisions and unions, which fear customers will shift their play from brick-and-mortar to online casinos.
Unions are a more significant obstacle in blue states, while red states must overcome opposition from social conservatives.
For good measure, toss in the lack of lobbying from professional sports teams and hyper-local issues like the VGT industry in Illinois or the gambling industry-related scandals in New Hampshire and Indiana, and the current pessimism doesn’t seem misplaced.
Another great point made in the Vixio report (which I’ve touched on in previous newsletters is the rapid spread of legal sports betting, and the problems and concerns that have materialized in its wake have caused lawmakers to pump the brakes.
As Vixio put it:
“Once upon a time, the prevailing thought among many in the gaming industry was that online casino would ride the wave of popularity created by the legalization of sports betting, leading many other states to add iGaming to their sports-betting markets as a means of generating substantially higher revenue through an established regulatory structure. However, the sudden sports betting boom may actually hamper the expansion of online casino.”
Lottery Couriers Proliferate Across the US
DraftKings acquired Jackpocket in February for the princely price of $750 million. Online lottery couriers have been an area of interest of mine since 2020. The Jackpocket sale brought the courier industry into the public consciousness.
Online lottery couriers are not a new phenomenon, but the modern online courier industry doesn’t resemble the industry of just five years ago. Regulatory approval is now the standard operating procedure, which is how Jackpocket differentiated itself from a pack of operators willing to cut corners. Those operators still exist, evidenced by the California Lottery telling its 23,000 not to sell tickets to online couriers (Jackpocket and other regulatory-focused couriers do not operate in California).
As Jackpocket CEO Peter Sullivan told me in 2020,” Our approach has been to focus on compliance from day one. We really pride ourselves on ensuring that we’re providing the highest level of consumer protections and meeting or exceeding all the regulatory requirements.”
Jackpocket is now facing competition from other online lottery couriers following its compliance-first approach — Lotto.com just hit 2 million users.
Here is a look at the jurisdictions where the three primary courier services operate.
Stay tuned for an upcoming feature column with a blazing hot take on Lottery Couriers.
Beyond the Headline: Walmart Preparing a New Push Into Lottery Sales
Some excellent reporting from Lottery Geeks points to an even bigger player on the horizon: Walmart.
“At its annual summit in early April, retail giant Walmart convened various lottery industry vendors and suppliers and revealed, more or less: Walmart is preparing a push from lottery bystander to active participant and competitor, with plans to launch an app that it may eventually equip with iLottery capabilities.”
The question that Lottery Geeks doesn’t provide an answer to is what Walmart’s new approach would be.
The answer may not be in the article, but the coverage and the comments from the sources cited seem to indicate that the plan is related to online sales in some way and possibly in new, unique ways.
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Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
With 16 players remaining, the chip leader of the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event was 4x bracelet winner and 4x female poker player of the year, Kristen Foxen.
To put that in historical perspective, the World Series of Poker is a 55-year-old tournament, and only a single female player has made the final table: Barbara Enright, who finished 5th in 1995. In 1986, Wendeen Eolis became the first woman to cash in the Main Event.
Four other women have finished in 10th place, a single place shy of the final table:
Gaelle Baumann in 2012 (Elisabeth Hille finished 11th the same year)
Annie Duke in 2000
Susie Isaacs in 1998
Barbara Samuelson in 1994
In the past, I’ve made the case that a woman winning the World Series of Poker Main Event would be a tinderbox that brings more women to the game. Kristen Foxen would be the near-perfect WSOP champion, an absolute crusher who would be a terrific ambassador capable of reaching the female demographic.
Unfortunately, Foxen finished in 13th, which is still a remarkable run, but not the lightning in a bottle a final table or, better still, a championship run would have been.
And like every deep tournament run, there was a little luck involved:
Stray Thoughts
My Top 5 podcasts by downloads (#6 - #10 will be posted tomorrow):