The Casino Kings Of New York
New York is months away from awarding three downstate casino licenses, but with 10 active bidders, who will walk away victorious is still unclear.
The Bulletin Board
THE LEDE: New York casino proposals, who’s trending up and down.
ROUNDUP: A casino legend passes; Casino Reports is doing Casino Reports things (putting out great content).
KALSHI CORNER: The latest prediction market news and updates.
NEWS: Lottery couriers face regulatory challenges.
BEYOND the HEADLINE: AZ and IN take different approaches to couriers.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: The slow death of poker media.
STRAY THOUGHTS: The return of the
MackSTTP Podcast.
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The Lede: Latest Updates on New York Casino Proposals
STTP has repeatedly said that New York is unlikely to seriously consider legalizing online casinos until the highly coveted downstate casino licenses are awarded — expected to happen towards the end of 2025. Still, don’t expect the losing bidders to turn into Homer Simpson and quietly slink back into the bushes.
The field has recently been pared down to ten (three available licenses), as Saks Global announced it has withdrawn its bid. The proposal (which STTP categorized as a long shot last month) sought to convert the top three floors of its flagship Saks store into a 200,000-square-foot luxury casino.
There are also signs of strife (which suggest there will be legal challenges once the licenses are awarded), as several bidders are crying foul about the process.
According to The Real Deal, a real estate publication:
“Three casino proposals in Manhattan may be disqualified from the competition for a downstate gaming license because of the state’s Gaming Commission’s failure to initiate required environmental reviews, Crain’s reported. People involved with the bids raised concerns that the clock could run out on them.”
The impacted proposals are:
SL Green and Caesars Times Square proposal, which STTP called a viable candidate last month, is clearly the best of the various Manhattan proposals.
Silverstein Properties and Greenwood Gaming’s Avenir proposal, a $1.8 billion high-end casino project, is another long-shot candidate.
Soloviev Group’s proposed mixed-use complex near the United Nations with a casino, 1,325 apartments, a museum, and 4.7 acres of East River green space — also a long shot candidate.
A separate project, the $12 billion joint proposal from Related Companies and Wynn Resorts at Hudson Yards, got a some good news, as it received a green light from the City Planning Commission. The project is still in STTP’s long shot category.
Bottom line: The process will get extremely messy, and that mess is going to impact other expansion efforts, like online casinos.
Roundup: A Legend Passes; Casino Reports Doing Casino Reports Things
Elaine Wynn passed away at Age 82: A sad day in the world of gambling, as Elaine Wynn, the co-founder of Wynn Resorts, has passed away at Age 82. Wynn Resorts said in a statement: “As co-founder and one of the largest shareholders of Wynn Resorts, she helped to create and grow the company to become the most esteemed luxury resort brand in the world. Her many talents and special touches are indelibly imprinted on the company and still evident throughout our resorts.” There has been an outpouring of condolences and recognition for her philanthropic work across social media.
Three good reads from Casino Reports: I’ve been catching up on some bookmarked columns and highly recommend giving these three (all from Casino Reports) a look.
There’s More To Gambling VIP Programs Than Horror Stories — Here’s What You Haven’t Heard ~ Jeff Edelstein
How Your Digital Life Becomes Gambling Marketing Gold ~ by Jeff Edelstein
Sporttrade’s Kane To Regulators, Lawmakers: For The Sake Of US Sports Betting ‘Something Must Change’ ~ by Eric Raskin
Kalshi Corner: More News on the Prediction Market Front
Inside The Kalshi-Nevada Hearing's Oral Arguments [The Closing Line]: Andrew Kim is back with more analysis, this time in a guest post on the Closing Line newsletter, where he offered up five key takeaways from the Nevada-Kalshi oral arguments (this is an article that is well worth your time):
Takeaway #1: Nevada’s down, but not out for the count
Takeaway #2: Judge Gordon wants this case to go away.
Takeaway #3: What’s the line? (Between event contracts and sports wagers, not the money line, degenerates.)
Takeaway #4: Is Kalshi going for ‘heads I win, tails you lose’?
Takeaway #5: Regulation isn’t interchangeable.
Kalshi’s Nevada Court Win May Be Short-Lived Due To Federal Wire Act Ban On Sports Betting [Forbes]: Also on the legal side of the ledger, we have Daniel Wallach poking several holes in Kalshi’s argument, including his thoughts on the not-so-airtight “exclusive jursidcition” argument and belief that the Wire Act could be Kalshi’s undoing: “The Wire Act does not distinguish between bookmakers and exchanges, Wallach wrote in Forbes. “In United States v. Corrar, a Georgia federal district court explained that ‘if Congress sought only to criminalize bookmaking, “being engaged in the business of betting or wagering” – the actual language used in the Wire Act – “would simply read ‘receives bets or wagers.’”
More from Andrew Kim [Andrew Kim on X]: Kim weighed in on X, saying the Wire Act is a more difficult argument than IGRA (Kim’s thoughts on that can be found here), due to the “harmonious-reading canon,” which basically says, “can you read two laws in a way where both do what they're supposed to do, but there isn't a conflict?” And since you can read the Wire Act that way, the courts will likely do so.
News: Lottery Couriers Face Regulatory Scrutiny
Sweeps and prediction markets aren’t the only products drawing regulatory scrutiny, just ask lottery couriers.
Texas appears to be ground zero for the fight (but scroll down to the Beyond the Headline section and you’ll see there are efforts — positive and negative — in at least seven other states).
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick drew attention to the issue (see STTP coverage of Patrick’s visit here) in February with a visit to Jackpocket’s retail lottery location. The next day, the Texas Lottery Commission pulled the plug on online lottery couriers.
The Texas legislature has competing bills looking to deal with the situation. SB 28, a bill to ban lottery courier services, unanimously passed by the Senate in February. HB 3201 would regulate lottery couriers.
The Texas Lottery Commission recently held a public hearing to discuss revoking the lottery licenses of retailers who work with couriers. As Lottery Geeks reports, the meeting lasted 14 minutes, with singular arguments from each side.
For the opposition, Paul Hardin, the president and CEO of the Texas Food and Fuel Association (TFFA), said in part, “The TFFA supports the proposed rules to revoke a retailer’s license for knowingly working with or enabling a lottery ticket courier service to conduct sales online or by phone.” Hardin pointed to the legislative intent not including online courier sales, which he said “present a significant risk to the integrity and trusted reputation that the lottery commission has built.”
Rob Porter, the chief legal counsel for Lotto.com and a representative of the Coalition of Texas Lottery Couriers, presented the courier’s side of the argument:
“These are responsible couriers that have collectively operated with integrity and transparency for years… There’s certainly not a justification for taking this drastic step of banning a lawful practice, one that has been recognized to be lawful for a period of several years.”
STTP has written two in-depth columns on lottery couriers:
Jack of All Trades [DraftKings acquisition of Jackpocket]
Even Better Than The Real Thing [Why states should use couriers alongside, or instead of, a traditional online lottery]
Beyond the Headline: IN Prohibits & AZ Authorizes Lottery Couriers
A bill prohibiting lottery couriers in Indiana, SB 94, has passed both legislative chambers and is now awaiting the signature of Gov. Mike Braun. Per Lottery Geeks, the bill states that “the Indiana State Lottery Commission cannot operate or authorize the operation of any lottery couriers. If anyone attempts to operate a courier in the state, they’ll be charged with a class A misdemeanor.”
However, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Ethan Manning, has clarified that the prohibition is meant to be temporary. Manning, who also authored the state’s failed online casino and online lottery bill, said that by prohibiting couriers now, if and when Indiana authorizes online lottery sales, the state lottery and couriers would start on equal footing — Manning’s online gambling bill would have allowed the lottery to enter into agreements with couriers.
“At this time, the thought is to prohibit them,” Manning said, “similar to what we did with iLottery a few years ago, until the legislature can have that full conversation around lottery moving forward.”
Also of note, the major couriers like Jackpocket.com do not currently operate in Indiana.
Meanwhile, the Arizona Lottery Commission became the third state officially regulating lottery couriers. During an April 10 hearing, the ALC granted the state lottery the authority to amend its rules to authorize courier services — retailers must be approved to work with couriers by the lottery.
“This is kind of a way for us to both authorize the retailer that is working with the courier and authorize the courier that is working with the retailer,” said Arizona Lottery executive director Alec Thomson. “We have a number of couriers operating in the state of Arizona, and … it’s growing [so] fast that they’ve contributed to the growth of lottery sales in many cases.”
Several couriers operate in Arizona, including Jackpocket, The Lotter, and Lotto.com.
Developments in other states:
New Mexico: Attorney General Raúl Torrez issued an opinion prohibiting lottery couriers.
Connecticut: SB 1235, which bans lottery courier services, as well as sweepstakes and certain types of sports betting wagers, passed the Connecticut General Law Committee.
South Carolina: SB 169 would allow lottery purchases via debit card and prohibit lottery courier services. A 2024 South Carolina Attorney General opinion leaves the legality of couriers up to the Lottery Commission.
Mississippi: A February 2024 attorney general opinion offers mixed signals, saying couriers do not comply with the law, but ultimately, their status as a vendor is up to the Mississippi Lottery Corporation.
Florida: In December 2024, the Florida Lottery took action against The Lotter, an unauthorized online courier service.
Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
Poker Industry Pro and its sister site, Pokerfuse, are sounding the alarm bell about the collapse of poker media — FWIW, Pokerfuse, Poker.org [substack here], and some new interesting newsletters are doing excellent work.
“In the last year alone, three cornerstone poker websites have been sold to crypto marketing companies that now use these trusted domains to promote unregulated offshore gambling,” Nick Jones writes.
The three sites are Cardplayer.com, PokerStrategy.com, and Pokerscout.com, and anyone who was around during the heyday of online poker will instantly recognize all three — Cardplayer predates the poker boom and its print version was a staple in every poker room in the US.
Industry vet John Mehaffey explained how dire it is for minor affiliates in the current landscape, noting how their content is scraped and stolen without attribution, even by major operators.
Meanwhile, poker players are just as frustrated with the state of things.
“The poker content industry is creatively bankrupt, and I'm done pretending otherwise,” Dustin Ianotti recently tweeted.
Stray Thoughts
The Straight to the Point Talking Shop Podcast will return this week, and I have a murderer’s row lineup of guests coming off my two-week break, starting with Dustin Gouker from The Closing Line and Event Horizon newsletters.