The Weekender: 2025 Look Ahead; NJ's iGaming Success; DOI Secretary
Looking ahead to 2025's legalization efforts. Why New Jersey's success is a liability. Tribes are paying close attention to a specific Trump cabinet nominee.
The Bulletin Board
ABOVE the FOLD: A look at the three biggest stories of the week.
— Looking ahead to 2025’s online gambling legalization efforts.
— Why New Jersey’s record-setting online gambling revenue is problematic.
— Burgum Nominated for Secretary of the Interior
HOUSEKEEPING: A look at recent podcasts, featured articles, and more from yours truly.
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Looking Ahead to 2025’s Legalization Candidates
The latest on 2025’s legalization efforts:
Wyoming: The long-awaited study says precisely what everyone expected, but will it be a strong enough argument to move online casinos forward in Wyoming?
Alabama: Gambling expansions are on the menu in Alabama, but the Poarch Creek Indians are holding the keys. Lawmakers are also unsure how 2025 will play out.
Minnesota: Sports betting will be a hot topic in Minnesota next year, but the hurdles, despite positive rhetoric, are still in place.
NJ’s Online Success Is Harming Legalization Efforts
Record-setting revenue numbers are usually good news, but if you’re a supporter of online gambling legalization, you have to be at least a little concerned with New Jersey’s numbers, which the anti-online gambling crowd has been propping up as evidence that online and land-based have difficulty coexisting.
“The success of New Jersey’s online casinos has rekindled the
cannibalizationdemand shift debate, and the October revenue report is going to pour more fuel onto the fire, as for the first time (not counting the lockdown months during the pandemic), online revenue eclipsed land-based casino revenue.“Online casino revenue overtaking land-based casino revenue in the storied AC market is a gift-horse talking point for online gambling critics, as is the increasingly divergent growth trend between the two, seen in the chart below:”
And Your New (probably) DOI Secretary Is…
A significant story on the tribal gaming front is who will head the Department of Interior.
“One of my post-election thoughts was, “Keep an eye on who Trump appoints as Secretary of the Interior.”
“We now know who that will be, as North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to head up the Department of Interior.
“Burgum’s appointment is energy-related, signaling a shift from the Biden administration’s focus on renewable energy to Trump’s promise to return to a “drill baby drill” policy. Still, part of Burgum’s responsibility as Secretary of Interior is overseeing the 570-plus federally recognized tribes.
“The good news is that Burgum doesn’t have an adversarial history with tribes.”
Housekeeping
The Forecast is a premium service that provides quarterly reports and weekly updates on the US online gambling sector. I created it specifically for individuals and organizations interested in an unbiased, clear-cut assessment of the landscape.
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PODCASTS:
This week’s guest on the Talking Shop Podcast was Evan Kirkham, the Founder and CEO of Outlier, a sports betting tool for player prop research and trends, team and line movement analysis, odds comparison, and integrated options to place picks on your sportsbook app. Kirkham and I covered a lot of ground, including the amount of time the average sports bettor will spend on research.
COLUMNS:
This week’s featured column revisited the online vs. land-based casino debate but from a different point of view. As I wrote in the column:
“The choice for land-based casinos is to be whittled down to nothing and miss the opportunity or get in the game ASAP. With every passing day, their stack is being reduced and fast approaching all-in or fold territory — and it will soon reach the point where doubling up is meaningless.
“For some operators (those without an online gaming division or partnerships), online gambling isn’t the best option. A blanket prohibition of online gambling is the best option, but that’s a dream, and we are living in a reality where there are gray and black market operators in every locale and an inevitability to legalization.”
For some additional reading, you can head over to Casino Reports, where I published a column on the difficulty affiliates have maintaining the Commercial-Editorial Divide.
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Whether you’re looking for market research, want to raise your brand awareness, or are trying to develop responsible gaming strategies, Steve can help with honest, balanced, no-nonsense analysis of the situation.
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