Monthly Archives: October 2020

Bingo the only bright side for Nevada casinos’ September gambling revenue

Nevada casinos reported their seventh straight month of annual revenue declines in September, with bingo and horseracing the only gaming verticals to post positive growth.

Figures released Wednesday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board show statewide gambling revenue of $821.1m in September, a 22.4% decline from the same month last year. However, September’s total was nearly $82m better than August 2020 and the state’s best showing since casinos reopened in June following their COVID-19 shutdown.

The pain was much greater on the Las Vegas Strip, where casinos reported gaming revenue falling 39.1% to $354.7m, although that was up $38m from August. The situation wasn’t much better Downtown ($51.8m, -21.5%) while the Boulder Strip gained 1.8% to $75.9m and Reno rose 3% to $57.1m.

Statewide slots revenue was off 12% to $607.5m while the ‘table, counter & card games’ segment slumped 41.9% to $213.6m. With the exception of bingo ($2m, +27.5%), all individual games were sharply negative, led by blackjack ($64.6m, -21.7%), craps ($32.8m, -13.3%) and roulette ($22.5m, -20.3%), while baccarat tumbled 86.6% to just under $14.2m despite baccarat volume dropping only 11.5%.

NFL odds roundup: Week 8 lines & trends

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Week 8 is actually a pretty good one in terms of teams on the bye because three of them in the Washington Football Team, Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans are among the NFL’s worst clubs. The fourth off is a good Arizona Cardinals team.

It’s rare that an NFL team makes major news during its bye week short of firing a head coach, but the Miami Dolphins hijacked the football news last week when they were off with the fairly shocking decision to make rookie No. 5 overall pick Tua Tagovailoa as their first-time starter for this Sunday’s home game against the Los Angeles Rams.

On the one hand, it makes sense to make that call during a bye week to give Tua plenty of reps in practice, but on the other Ryan Fitzpatrick was playing quite well and had led the Dolphins to three wins in their past four and into the AFC East race. Miami is a 4-point underdog but has won 19 of its past 23 when hosting West Coast teams.

Casinos in Indian states of Goa, Sikkim cleared to reopen Nov. 1

Casinos in the Indian states of Goa and Sikkim are set to reopen this weekend, more than seven months after they were shut due to COVID-19.

On Wednesday, Goa’s Chief Minister Pramod Sawant announced that the state’s casinos – both land-based and shipboard – had been given permission to reopen their doors on November 1. Like most of the world’s casinos, Goa’s gambling venues were ordered closed in mid-March to minimize further pandemic infection.

Sawant said the casinos would have to follow standard operating procedures issued by the Home Department, including a 50% limit of their normal guest capacity for an undetermined period.

Despite their operations having been shut for the past seven months, Sawant said the casinos were still collectively on the hook for over Rs2b (US$27.5m) in license fees for the period in question. These fees must be paid before the casinos can resume operations.

UK gambling regulator drags BGO, GAN, NetBet to regulatory woodshed

The UK gambling regulator has spanked three of its online operators after license reviews uncovered a variety of compliance shortcomings.

On Wednesday, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced that BGO Entertainment, GAN Plc and NetBet Enterprises Ltd had been taken to the woodshed for a litany of failures, including insufficient social responsibility (SR), anti-money laundering (AML) and source of funds (SOF) practices.

In BGO’s case, the UKGC found “systemic failings” in the operator’s SR/AML policies and procedures over a nearly two-year period, including inadequate risk assessments of its online casino customers. In one case, BGO allowed a customer to deposit over £100k, of which £65k was lost over the next week, despite the customer having a salaried income of less than £20k.

BGO also failed to intervene when another customer deposited £106,800 over an 19-day period, including 13 deposits totaling £6,500 on a single day between 12am-1am. BGO was found to have no responsible gambling staff on call between 1am-7am and the company failed to speak directly to the customer the following day, choosing instead to send an email.

National Lacrosse League Plans To Begin Its 35th Season

The National Lacrosse League (@NLL), the longest running and most successful professional lacrosse league in the world, today announced that the League is targeting to start their 35th season the weekend of April 9th to 11th in 2021. The focus of the league and NLL teams is to work with health authorities and local jurisdictions to develop health and safety protocols for the players and fans at their games. A detailed schedule will follow at an appropriate time.

“We have been continuously working with our teams, Players’ Association, arenas, and health and government officials to prepare to play our 35th season. An April start date will give us sufficient time to have our protocols in place for players, coaches, staff as well as fans,” NLL Commissioner Nick Sakiewicz said. “We are working with all teams to provide the safest environment and an acceptable level of fans in the stands. We understand that current circumstances will dictate whether this plan is achievable, and we will be prepared to remain flexible and pivot as needed. We want to thank all our players, fans and partners who have supported our efforts to stay connected and engaged during this prolonged offseason and are looking forward to returning to play in April.”

Under the current plan, teams would report to individual training camps – some virtual and some in-person – under strict guidelines in mid-March, with all teams beginning game play in April. The league is in the process of continuing to build out several scenarios which factor in current and longer-term restrictions in municipalities in both the United States and Canada with regard to immigration and facility use. The NLL’s plans will remain fluid with options for best case scenarios for teams, officials, players, fans and coaches as April approaches.

“The NLL has put together an excellent plan for our upcoming 35th season.  We look forward to working together on behalf of all the players in our membership to get our 35th season underway,” said Zach Currier, President, PLPA. “It is reflective of what can be done with great communication and trust, and we cannot wait to get back to playing.”

The 2019-20 NLL season ended March 12 due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

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