A Glimpse At The Future
We live in a world with no shortage of online gambling options, but far too many fall well outside traditional regulatory channels. Will that improve or get worse?
The Bulletin Board
THE LEDE: The fight for the future of online gambling is underway.
ROUNDUP: Play’n GO gets a seat at G7/G20/UN; NY sportsbook calls it a day; NY Senate passes sweeps ban; NJ tax hike; Quote of the Week.
NEWS: Indian Gaming Association conference heads to MN.
VIEWS: Genius Sports and NFL expand and extend partnership.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: Random Kalshi news from social media.
STRAY THOUGHTS: The secret to success.
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The Lede: A Cloudy Path Forward for Online Gambling
With online casino efforts stalled and scant short-term prospects on the horizon, and states tightening the tax rate screws on operators, the industry is starting to point fingers as frustrations boil over.
Licensed operators and legalization advocates have become increasingly frustrated by the expanding footprint of sweepstakes and other gray and black market products, as efforts to pass online casino bills have gone nowhere. That has led to numerous cease-and-desist letters, prohibition bills, the formation of not one but two trade groups for sweepstakes, and a willingness to engage in public disputes.
It’s an increasingly messy and personal fight, with both sides blaming one another for every injury that’s inflicted.
The sweepstakes side is criticizing (subtweeting) the industry's lobbying efforts:
The industry is pointing to sweepstakes as its strongest argument to beat back tax increases and as a catalyst for legalization:
Meanwhile, the sweepstakes side is making the case that they are the throughway that would bring legal online casinos to states:
That’s a path supporters of licensed online casinos don’t seem willing even to entertain:
STTP Thoughts: If you’re in favor of legalized online gambling, the finger-pointing isn’t going to help the cause. Online casinos already face stiff opposition from religious organizations, anti-gambling groups, several pockets of the industry that are vehemently opposed to online gambling (VGT/VLT suppliers and a growing list of land-based casinos), and labor unions.
In a world where every vote counts, the public clash between sweepstakes gaming advocates and traditional legalization proponents risks peeling away crucial support.
At the end of the day, both sides share overlapping goals, but I’m not sure if they can be aligned. We have hit an inflection point in the industry where online gambling is verboten, yet gambling-like activities are everywhere. Unity, or at least a truce, seems to be the only path forward.
And don’t forget that this is staring down the industry:
And I’m right with Andrew Kim on this, as I wrote back in March:
If we continue down the current path, where companies can reclassify products, we will reach a point where nothing is gambling.
Craps is a dice prediction market.
Roulette is a scientific experiment combining Newton’s Laws of Motion, friction, randomness, and probability.
Slot machines are interactive entertainment with variable rewards.
This is a drum I’ve been beating for a while. as I wrote way back in 2016:
“Until gaming laws are streamlined and updated for the 21st century, with consistency and adaptability as their core components, what is and isn’t gambling will continue to be a question without a good answer.”
Roundup: Play’n GO Gets a Seat; NY Sportsbook Quits; NY Senate Passes Sweeps Ban; NJ Tax Hike Coming; Quote of the Week
Play’n Go will take part in G7, G20, and UN discussions [Press Release]: Per a press release, “Play’n GO is participating in a new initiative taking place as part of the G7 Leader Summit in Calgary, which will see the company play a leading role in shaping global gambling policy. The inaugural Global Forum on Responsible Gaming and Gambling Policy is part of a three-part series, which will see Play’n GO also take part in the G20 Summit and the United Nations General Assembly later this year.”
Resorts World Bet, the latest NY sportsbook to call it a day [Sports Betting Dime]: Resorts World Bet, one of New York's nine original online sports betting operators, will cease operations on June 30, 2025. Despite its partnership with Resorts World Casino, the platform was an also-ran in New York's competitive market. The decision raises questions about the future of its $50 million, 10-year license, which could be sold to another operator with approval from the New York State Gaming Commission, a la PENN taking over Wynn’s license and PointsBet transferring its license to Fanatics after the latter acquired the company.
New York Senate passes sweepstakes prohibition bill [LinkedIn]: Per Light & Wonder’s Howard Glaser: “The NYS Senate tonight overwhelmingly approved Senator Joseph Addabbo's strong legislation to crack down on illegal sweepstakes casinos. The bill bans sweepstakes casinos and applies penalties to entities which facilitate illegal online gambling, such as payment processors. The action follows last week's enforcement action taken by the Attorney General against 26 illegal sweepstakes operators. The bill now goes to the Assembly for action.”
New Jersey tax rate increase still on the table [Sports Betting Dime]: The industry could be dealing with yet another tax increase: “An industry source in New Jersey tells Sports Betting Dime that through discussions with Senate and Assembly leadership, there seems to be little support for increases to 25%, but enough interest where increases in one or both markets can be expected.”
Quote of the Week: “As I have watched sports betting expand across the US… I have seen a product rushed to market by an industry that was hell bent on maximizing market penetration… This has been facilitated by a group of politicians who had little understanding of what they were doing, and once legalized, sports betting was overseen by a group of regulators that also had limited knowledge of the reality of betting or the delivery of gaming products via the internet. These are the chaos agents in the system… ~ Richard Schuetz
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News: IGA Mid-Year Conference Heads to MN
Registration for the Indian Gaming Association (IGA) 2025 Mid-Year Conference & Expo, taking place at Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake, Minnesota, is now officially open.
The conference will run from September 8-10 and “will bring together leaders in the tribal gaming community for three days of learning, networking, and sharing ideas on the most relevant topics in gaming.”
Considering the current developments around gray market gambling, the ongoing tribal sports betting conversations in California, Oklahoma, and Minnesota, the long-running fight between tribal casinos and cardrooms in California, and the still unanswered questions around Florida’s hub-and-spoke model, there is no shortage of intriguing and significant topics happening in Indian Country.
Per the press release:
“The 2025 education theme for the conference will be Built to Endure: Strengthening Tribal Gaming in the Age of Disruption. Tribal gaming is facing a perfect storm of disruption – federal policy shifts, economic pressure, emerging gray markets, and the intensifying battle over sports betting. Built to Endure brings together tribal leaders, policymakers, and industry experts to chart a path forward. From defending sovereignty against unregulated threats to shaping the future of sports betting in states like Minnesota, this year’s conference will focus on resilience, innovation, and securing tribal gaming’s place in a rapidly evolving landscape.”
You can register for the conference here.
Quick Hitter: Genius Sports and NFL Extend Partnership
The NFL and Genius Sports have agreed to a multi-year extension and expansion of their existing partnership that will see Genius “remain the NFL’s exclusive distributor of real-time, official play-by-play statistics, proprietary Next Gen Stats (“NGS”) data, and the League’s official sports betting data feed to media companies and sports betting operators globally.” The deal will run through the 2029 season, which includes the 2030 Super Bowl in February.
As the team at Citizens noted, “BetVision was technically on a separate data rights agreement with the NFL from the core contract and was set to expire at the end of the upcoming season.” The deal also “expands the utilization of Genius’s recently formed FANHub advertising platform both domestically and internationally.”
Genius can now sell advertising inventory through BetVision to its advertising partners within the BetVision platform, as well as the NFL’s digital platforms.
“The important piece, in our mind, is that the NFL, the league with the highest US viewership, is backing the FANHub integration,” Citizens said. That vote of confidence “should act as a proof point for the company to sign up incremental advertising partners, or expand existing agreements with its tier one customers.”
Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
A bit of randomness today:
I challenge anyone to come up with the economic significance of this market:
Kalshi ran a new, 100% AI-generated TV ad during the NBA Finals (has it really come to this?) that CEO Tarek Mansour said “went from idea to implementation in less than 48 hours, leveraging Google's Veo 3 to develop this crazy movie.”
Stray Thoughts
About a week ago, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour posted this on LinkedIn: “Want to know why Kalshi is growing fast? The answer is always the same: build a great product.”
There was more to his post, but that is the rub. It applies to every facet of life and business. If you want to build a great, long-lasting company, it all begins with the product.