Consequences And Repercussions
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, and in Minnesota that means escalating tension between tribes and tracks.
The Bulletin Board
NEWS: The relationship between Minnesota’s tribal gaming operators and commercial racetracks is growing increasingly strained by the day.
LOOSE ENDS: Louisiana’s new Gaming Control Chair; BetFred exits Maryland; What I’m reading.
NEWS: A Massachusetts study on the impact of gambling advertisements calls for even stricter restrictions.
NEWS: How big is the Alberta online gambling market?
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: Limiting Bettors Roundtable the redux.
STRAY THOUGHTS: Gambling legalization is like parenting?
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Minnesota Tribes and Tracks are Increasingly at Odds
The dust is settling on Minnesota’s effort to legalize sports betting this year, and what is being revealed isn’t pretty, as the relationship between commercial and tribal gambling looks increasingly strained.
You can find my post-session Minnesota sports betting autopsy here and here.
Not only are the two sides at odds over sports betting, but the Racing Commission’s authorization of historical horse racing (HHR) machines earlier this year ignited the proverbial powder keg. It led to legislation prohibiting the machines or other new forms of gambling without legislative authorization, which led to a lawsuit from the tracks claiming tribes were offering unauthorized games.
The latest strain comes from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who appointed two new members to the Minnesota Racing Commission: Melanie Benjamin of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and Johnny Johnson of the Prairie Island Indian Community to the nine-member commission.
The state’s two commercial tracks are crying foul, noting the two appointees applied a day before they were selected. MPR News calls it “the latest volley in a long-running dispute over the extent of legal gambling in Minnesota.”
The appointments raise questions about whether a potential competitor (both appointees are members of gaming tribes) should regulate Minnesota’s commercial tracks.
“We do not believe it is appropriate for competitors of the racetracks to serve in the role of our regulators, and it would be difficult to find a precedent for the recent appointments of long-time leaders of tribal nations that own two of the state’s largest casino operations as members of the Minnesota Racing Commission,” Canterbury Park CEO Randy Sampson said in a written statement.
Walz defended the appointments and the expected impartiality of the two new commissioners but indicated the authorization of HHR was a factor. “They should certainly follow the rules, which they obviously did not do the last time. That would be one thing.”
Loose Ends: Louisiana’s New Gaming Control Chair; BetFred Exits Maryland; What I’m Reading
Louisiana has a new Gaming Control Board Chairman: Christopher Hebert has been named Chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board. He will take over from outgoing Chairman Ronnie Johns (not to be confused with former Chairman Ronnie Jones). Hebert brings a wealth of experience to the table, having spent the last eight years as director of the attorney general’s Gaming Division. As Johns pointed out in an interview with Gambling.com, he will also face challenges, none bigger than the possibility of Texas legalizing casinos.
Full story from Gambling.com’s Larry Henry (who does the best reporting on Louisiana in the industry)
BetFred says goodbye to Maryland: BetFred will shutter its retail and mobile sportsbook in Maryland. Per Legal Sports Report, “Betfred will close its in-person sportsbook at Long Shot’s in Fredrick, MD, on June 30. The MD sports betting app will shutter on July 31.” BetFred never gained traction in the state, ranking 10th out of 12 operators for a .5% market share. The company is active in nine other states, where it possesses a similar market share.
What I’m reading: A few stories worth your time.
Canadian Gaming Summit 2024: What was said and done ~ Gaming News Canada
No Money Back Guarantee: The Dormant Account Conundrum ~ Sports Handle
Sports betting culture negatively impacts mental health; NCAA works to support student-athletes ~ Highland County Press
Tensions Running High In Michigan As Regulators Attempt To Parse Legal And Illegal Market Activity ~ Casino Reports
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MA Study Explores the Impact of Gambling Advertising
A study prepared by the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts (SEIGMA) project looked into the impact of advertisements on gambling behaviors.
The conclusions were unsurprising—there is too much advertising, and that can be harmful—but the researchers’ recommendations are of particular interest to my readers, acting as a signpost of battles to come.
The research points to current global trends in advertisement restrictions, including ads targeting youth and people experiencing gambling harm and ads that are misleading or paint gambling as a means to a financial end.
It also highlighted emerging trends, including “restrictions on advertising higher-risk games, limits on advertising volume, and advertising focused on a specific purpose (e.g., portraying gambling as a form of entertainment, encouraging support of charitable causes).”
Bonusing was also placed under the microscope:
“With regard to inducements, the most common approaches internationally were requiring that inducements provide information on terms and conditions, not create a sense of urgency, be below a specific maximum value, and be restricted to customers opening an account.”
“Emerging inducement requirements included not offering incentives to individuals displaying gambling harm and restrictions on incentives to win patrons back from other gambling operators.”
A previous Massachusetts report suggested the following on the advertising front:
Strengthening protections for underage populations;
Restricting advertising campaigns that target vulnerable groups;
Requiring inclusion of messages about where to obtain help in all advertising and marketing materials;
Limiting the intensity and frequency of advertising;
Ensuring that restrictions include digital media and third parties;
Prohibiting false or misleading advertising; and
Restricting communications about inducements, bonuses, and credits.
Massachusetts has implemented all of these suggestions (and then some), but Massachusetts is Massachusetts, so the researchers offered some additional recommendations:
Limiting advertising of higher-risk games;
Limiting advertising focused on specific purposes (e.g., gambling as entertainment, gambling to support good causes);
Requiring that inducements not create a sense of urgency, be limited in value, and be offered only when customers are opening an account;
Restricting celebrity endorsements as these:
Tend to promote subsequent gambling involvement by young people;
Precipitate relapse in recovered addicts; and
Counteract the effectiveness of public health messages advocating limited use.
Some of these recommendations are clear, but the final three are pretty ambiguous and seemingly unmeasurable. Like the NCAA’s quest to ban player props, some of these recommendations open the door to more comprehensive restrictions.
My fear, and something the industry should be paying very close attention to, is people saying they want to improve the legal gambling space and reduce harm who are actually prohibitionists who will never be satisfied with the results.
Quick Hitter: The Opportunity in Alberta
As reported earlier this week, Alberta is shaping up to be the next North American contender to regulate and launch online gambling.
Speaking at the Canadian Gaming Summit, Alberta’s Minister of Service and Red Tape Reduction, Dale Nally, spoke about online gambling as a matter of when, not if:
“It’s going to be very similar to Ontario. As far as I’m concerned, they build the roadmap. We’ll massage it a little bit, but it’s been inspired by the experience in Ontario. It’s going to be an open and free market.”
How big will that market be? Two analyst teams have put forth some estimates.
Eilers & Krejcik Gaming (a newsletter sponsor) estimates the Alberta online gambling market will generate $863 million in revenue at maturity from a combination of casino, sports, and poker.
The JMP Securities team’s Alberta forecast comes in a bit lower, at $709 million to $734 million by the third year.
Those are solid numbers, considering Alberta’s population clocks in at 4.4 million.
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Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
The timeline for the next Massachusetts Gaming Commission roundtable on limiting bettors is coming into focus.
Per Bill Speros:
The topic was already of interest, but the operators’ decision to skip the first meeting has made it must-see TV.
Stray Thoughts
Fatigue has set in. That’s how Brianne Doura-Schawohl described the current climate around gambling in the US in a podcast appearance I released yesterday. And it’s a perfect description. Everyone is tired.
“Fatigue has set in. It’s like having kids… We come home from the hospital with this cute little baby, and you’re like, we got this. And then you find out that this baby gets up every 90 minutes, and you’re no longer sleeping. It’s crying. It has needs.”
“[After six years of sports betting], I feel like we’ve hit about the six-month realm of infancy. We’re all so tired, and now somebody’s like, well, do you want another? Do you want to do this again? Do you want iGaming? Do you want to not sleep some more? And you’re like, no, I don’t want to do this right now.”