1,000 Newsletters
A Straight to the Point milestone newsletter that looks at the 2026 WSOP, Connecticut's FY online casino numbers, and the prediction market trolling wars.
The Bulletin Board
THE LEDE: A Straight to the Point milestone and special offer.
QUICK HITTER: Witness list for today’s Congressional hearing on prediction markets.
NEWS: Some highlights from the 2026 World Series of Poker.
BEYOND the HEADLINE: Reminiscing about Foxwoods during the Poker Boom.
ALTRUDA ANALYZES: Connecticut’s FY2025-26 online casino revenue.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: Where are all the serious people hiding?
STRAY THOUGHTS: Yet another brilliant (non-gambling) Substack.
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For more info, visit www.playngo.com
The Lede: The 1,000th Straight to the Point Newsletter
I launched Straight to the Point on August 7,2023, and 1,080 days later I am sending out my 1,000th Substack post.
There have been a lot of changes in the industry over that time — Sweepstakes came and went and now we have prediction markets — but the newsletter’s format hasn’t changed all that much, with a main newsletter hitting inboxes at 9 AM EST Monday through Thursday.
The format has also remained relatively untouched, which is a minor miracle to anyone who knows how much I like to tinker with things — as an aside, nearly three years later, we still haven’t resolved the cannibalization issue:
The big difference is that first newsletter was sent to 276 recipients. Today’s newsletter will be delivered to more than 5,000.
In honor of this milestone, anyone upgrading to a paid subscription will receive 50% off for the first three months of their subscription (just $4.50 a month).
Click this link or enter your email below to upgrade and receive a 50% discount: https://straighttothepoint.substack.com/3b086bec
Quick Hitter: Who Is Testifying in Today’s Prediction Market Hearing
As Straight to the Point noted last week, the House Committee on Agriculture’s Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development will hold a prediction market hearing today at 10 AM EST. Here is a look at the witnesses who will be testifying:
Mr. Robert A. Schwartz, Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Washington, DC.
Mr. David Z. Bean, Chairman, Indian Gaming Association, Puyallup Tribe, Tacoma, WA.
Mr. Christopher Cylke, Senior Vice President, Government Relations, American Gaming Association, Washington, DC.
Mr. Carl Kennedy, Partner, Co-Chair, Financial Markets and Regulation Practice, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, New York, NY.
Mr. Asaf Meir, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Solidus Labs, New York, NY.
You can watch the hearing here.
News: 2026 World Series of Poker, By the Numbers
After nearly two months of poker, the 2026 World Series of Poker is nearly complete — the final nine in the WSOP Main Event will return in August to battle it out for the $10 million top prize. So, with the final numbers counted, how did the 2026 series stack up against previous iterations?
The Main Event
The success of the WSOP starts and ends with the Main Event, and 2026 saw the fourth most entries in the tournament’s storied history (all occurring over the past four years). That said, it also marks the second consecutive year attendance has declined, with attendance down 9% from 2024’s high-water mark:
2023 — 10,043
2024 — 10,112
2025 — 9,735
2026 — 9,208
There are several potential reasons for the decline:
The newly enacted 90% cap on gambling losses
Reduced entries from other countries (with politics and the World Cup possibly contributing)
Broader economic factors, like rising cost-of-living in a post-pandemic world
The final table includes two well-known poker pros — Greg “FBT” Mueller and Michael “Gags” Gagliano — but it was nearly an all-time final table with several high-profile names falling just shy: Patrick Leonard (32nd), Todd Brunson (20th), Shaun Deeb (15th), and 2019 WSOP Main Event Champion Hossein Ensan (13th).
The Series as a Whole
As big as the Main Event is, there is a lot more to the WSOP.
As the press releases notes, the 2026 series set a new record for total entries (251,899) and awarded nearly $470 million in prize money.
Record-Breaker - The 22,811 entries in Event #63, the $1,000 Mystery Millions No-Limit Hold’em tournament, was also a record-setter: The biggest field in the 2026 series, the largest Mystery Millions event, and the largest $1,000 event in live tournament poker history.
Record-Breaker - Event #68, the $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship had 1,368 entries, making it the largest Ladies event in live tournament poker history.
41 – The number of $1M+ prizes won across the 2026 series.
57 - The number of events that exceeded $2+ million prize pools - equaling last year’s record.
8 - The number of events exceeded $10+ million prize pools.
111 – The number of countries represented in the WSOP Main Event 2026 playing field, a new record.
Oldest Player – Merle Vangieson, born June 28, 1931.
Youngest Player – Easton Jorgensen, born July 13, 2005.
38.7 million - The number of views on YouTube.
125M/127M/36.6M - The number of views on Instagram, Facebook, and X, respectively.
Beyond the Headline: The Poker Boom Was Amazing
In response to a tweet about Foxwoods once being the “greatest poker room on this continent,” Jesse Sylvia asked:
This is something I know a little bit about, as I started frequenting Foxwoods in the late-1990s and saw it morph from a small space tucked away in the back of the Asian games section to a destination poker room with more than 100 tables.
As I said on X:
Honestly, this is why my game is on the conservative side; I never felt the need to push small edges. My session win rate at Foxwoods was from 2001 (when I started keeping records) to 2005 was around 75%. Other people in the games pushed every edge and won more, but they also had higher variance and tilted more often.
During this same timeframe I took two trips to Las Vegas and played at The Mirage, Bellagio, and some of the smaller rooms like Mandalay Bay (every casino had a poker room in 2004-2005), and the games were not as soft as Foxwoods, despite having a smaller rake.
One other thing Foxwoods had going for it back them was a ton of Seven Card Stud and Hi-Lo tables. So you’d get people wandering into the room, sitting at an O8 table thinking they were at a Texas Hold’ Em table like they saw on TV, and then asking why they got four cards. It was normal for a dealer (and players) to have to explain how the low hand was determined.
So, how soft were the poker games at Foxwoods during the early days of the Poker Boom? As Joe (played by Lawrence Tierney) says in Reservoir Dogs, “Juicy Junior. Real juicy.”
Altruda Analyzes: CT iCasino Revenue FY 2025-26
The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection reported $62.5 million in gross internet casino revenue for June on Wednesday, completing a fiscal year that showed growth of more than 20%.
Led by the de facto duopoly of FanDuel and DraftKings, the $759 million in total operator winnings before deductions represented a 22.2% increase from Fiscal Year 2024-25. Growth slowed in June to 14.4%, but revenue topped $60 million for the seventh consecutive month.
The state was able to levy taxes on $53.1 million, resulting in an inflow of $9.6 million to its coffers. The $116.2 million in receipts spanning the last 12 months was up $21.1 million from the previous fiscal year.
Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
We need more serious people. I get that we are posting on social media, but both sides need to, as Samuel L. Jackson says in Do The Right Thing, “Yo! Hold up! Time out! TIME OUT! Y’all take a chill! Ya need to cool that shit out! And that’s the double truth, Ruth!”
And then there is the Kalshi-Polymarket feud (which I discussed back in a June 2, 2026 newsletter), which doesn’t look to be slowing down considering this recent New York Times headline: Do These C.E.O.s Loathe Each Other? Bet on It.
“Shayne Coplan of Polymarket and Tarek Mansour of Kalshi are young billionaires intent on dominating prediction markets. It’s more than a battle. It’s ‘bad blood.’”
Stray Thoughts
I stumbled across this Substack when I looked into how many people read books every year, and I have to say, it’s terrific (terrific enough that I upgraded to a paid subscription):
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