Rod Ratcliff, the former CEO and chairman of Spectacle Entertainment, has made a spectacle of himself. He, along with several other people tied to Spectacle and Centaur Gaming, came under fire for allegedly tampering with elections in 2015, and the Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC) wasn’t impressed with his actions. It launched an investigation into Ratcliff and the rest of the gang a year ago, with the prospect of Ratcliff being forced out of the casino business in the state. That possibility is now being realized and the IGC is following through on its warning that it could revoke Ratcliff’s license after temporarily suspending it last December.

The saga involves the former Spectacle CEO, as well as the casino operator’s VP and general counsel, John Keeler (also the former VP and general counsel of Centaur), who has already been indicted on charges of campaign fraud. A lot of underhanded dealings were said to have been conducted to try to help Brent Waltz, now a former Indiana senator, win a seat in Congress. Charges included conspiracy, falsification of documents, obstruction of justice, receipt of illegal campaign funds and more. 

Ratcliff was never charged in the case; however, his proximity to the others forced him into the hot seat and, during its investigation, IGC discovered a number of violations at Spectacle that raised red flags. They also determined that he had been involved in overseeing operations at Spectacle’s Majestic Star Casino in Gary after he resigned as the company’s chairman and CEO. Not only was he an outsider at that point, but he also disobeyed a direct order from the IGC to not get involved.

As the investigation advanced, other troubling activity was uncovered, as well. The IGC reports that Ratcliff had an undisclosed account with racing betting platform FastBet and, while running Centaur, would have employees make deposits from Centaur operations to that account. It is believed that he received about $900,000 over four years, with the money being logged in Centaur’s books as “marketing” expenses. 

It’s not possible to talk too much about the upcoming Super Bowl this weekend. This is expected to be one of the hottest Big Games in history, with Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers looking to keep Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs from winning their second consecutive Lombardi Trophy. The hype has been building for a while and, as Super Bowl LV approaches, it is beginning to look like the game is going to be another huge success for the sports gambling market.

Over the past 12 months, since Super Bowl LIV was held, 36 million more Americans can now place wagers in legal markets in the U.S. As a result, according to the American Gaming Association (AGA), it is estimated that 23.2 million Americans will place bets, with $4.3 billion expected to be wagered. Leading the crowd will be online wagers, with 7.6 million gamblers forecast to turn to online sportsbooks this year. That’s a 63% increase from last year. 

Bill Miller, AGA’s president and CEO, predicts, “This year’s Super Bowl is expected to generate the largest single-event legal handle in American sports betting history. With a robust legal market, Americans are abandoning illegal bookies and taking their action into the regulated marketplace in record numbers.” 

The figures, which were provided through a limited survey conducted by Morning Consult, show an overall drop in gambling dollars to be spent this year. This is primarily due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation; however, if history repeats itself, the prediction will fall short of the actual handle after all the numbers are run through calculators. There are now 21 states, plus the District of Columbia, that have legal sports gambling markets up and running. Four other states have approved the activity, but haven’t been able to work quickly enough to get everything in place in time for the Big Game. Last year, it was predicted that around $6 billion would be wagered on the game, but the final tally was over $21 billion.

Tekkcorp Capital President and CEO Matt Davey believes that the gambling industry is headed in the right direction after the disruptions of the last twelve months. He sat down with Calvinayre.com lead reporter Becky Liggero Fontana to share his thoughts on the industry. 

While the industry has experienced some downturn in the face of COVID-19, Davey can see the light at the end of the tunnel for investors:

“From a pure investing perspective with interest rates incredibly low, institutional investors are looking for where they can get growth and so they’re prepared to pay a high multiple for today’s business on the basis that it’s going to grow rapidly. I think with online gaming and sports betting you actually have that environment.”

Davey speaks from a depth of knowledge and wisdom. “We’ve been in the market invest in capital for the last two years or so and we’ve looked at both private deals and public deals,” he said. “When it comes to doing significant deals, typically we’ve looked for partners to execute those deals and organizing both the sale and negotiating a great agreement with the vendor and then negotiating the capital requires two sets of negotiations,” he said. 

Was the solution to reducing Covid-19 transmissions always as simple as a fancy magic show, with lights, mirrors and fog? The Grignard Company, based out of New Jersey, have received an emergency exemption for their fog-like solution to suppressing Covid-19 airborne transmission.

Grignard Pure, a a first-of-its-kind continuous antimicrobial air treatment sprays triethylene glycerol in the air, killing Covid-19 particles. While the liquid is used in all sorts of industrial manufacturing processes, you’ve most likely encountered it coming out of fog machines, like at a magic show, or maybe something more adult at the Las Vegas strip.

The EPA approved a request from Georgia and Tennessee for it’s use “as an additional tool in limited situations to aid in the fight against COVID-19.”

Ross Mollison, founder of Las Vegas-based company Spiegelworld and producer of variety shows, hope Nevada gets the same clearance. “It sounds like a miracle hair elixir, but the EPA is saying it works and it’s being tested in Broadway theaters,” Mollison said. “If it gets approval in Nevada, it has enormous applications, from malls to casino floors to places like ours.”

This is a Guest Contribution by Emily Haruko Leeb. Visit her site at www.emilyleeb.com to know more.

I’ve been a professional coach for seven years, and I still cringe at the term ‘life coach.’ It makes me uncomfortable.

Why? Probably because the coaching industry is unregulated. Your grandpa, your gardener, or your dog can call themselves a coach. It means you need to actively seek a coach who took the time to meet the certification requirements with a professional body.

Some coaches have honed their craft over the years, spending countless hours training and developing their skills to earn their reputation. Unfortunately, some decide to call themselves a coach, possibly with little or no experience or training at all. And isn’t that cringeworthy?

Momentum is building for Arizona Governor Doug Ducey’s plan to introduce sports betting in the Grand Canyon state. A new bill proposed in the state house would allow online wagering, fantasy sports contests and keno games.

The bill, put forward by Rep. Jeff Weninger, would specifically allow these offerings from off-track betting locations and social clubs, like the American Legion. It comes as Ducey is working on a deal to allow sports betting at tribal casinos and venues owned by professional sports teams.

With a very Republican talking point, Weninger explained the benefits of his bill. “With that comes tax revenue without raising taxes, and allows us to keep our tax rates low,” Weninger said.

The bill takes into account Ducey’s push as well, allowing 10 licenses to go to por sports teams, like the Phoenix Coyotes, Arizona Diamondbacks and Arizona Cardinals, but could also be extended to pro golf and racing. Licenses would also be made available to the two dozen tribal casinos in the state.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

We’ve already looked at the MVP prop for Super Bowl 55 and on Wednesday will examine some actual game props, but today let’s break down some of the more unusual “special” props on Sunday’s game from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, between the host Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs. Kansas City remains a 3-point favorite and it seems unlikely that spread will move by kickoff Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Certainly, one of the biggest storylines of Sunday’s game is Tom Brady playing in his 10th Super Bowl and looking to break a tie with his former New England Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick, with a record seventh ring. Brady definitely got the best of that breakup as the Patriots missed the playoffs for the first time since 2008 and finished with a losing record for the first time since 2000 (the year Brady was drafted).

There’s little doubt that Belichick will be mentioned at some point in the CBS telecast and the OVER/UNDER amount of times during the game (excluding halftime and commercials) is 1, but with the OVER a heavy -310 favorite. There is also an OVER/UNDER two times the Patriots are mentioned, with OVER a -160 favorite.

The latest Super MILLION$ final table features nine players of the highest calibre and Tuesday night will see a new champion awarded the title and a top prize of $424,580.

It is American pro Nick Petrangelo who has the chip lead with 3,908,741 chips and the popular high stakes player and Upswing Poker coach – who ironically has constructed a whole tutorial about how to win tournaments – will be hopeful of closing it out. He’s the betting favourite going into the final, too, as you can see below.

With just under 80 big blinds, Petrangelo may have attracted more bettors, but the money was right behind Michael Zhang and while he’ll respect Petrangelo’s established poker history, he won’t be afraid of taking on the leader, sat behind 2,825,669 chips himself.

Sandwiched by those two huge names is Bert Stevens, who will go into play second in chips with 3.2 million chips, not too far behind Petrangelo’s stack. While Pentrangelo is hunting his first Super MILLION$ title, having a best finish of third in late December, Stevens has already won a Super MILLION$ title having bagged the title in September, and if he can make the final six players will kick his earnings on GGPoker well past $4.5 million.

Bringing live poker back has its challenges whenever it has been absent for some time. In a global pandemic reliant on people staying apart from each other, it’s virtually mission impossible to do so safely. So, in one sense, it’s hats off to the PokerGO and Poker Central team as the recently-announced ARIA High Roller Series came back to Las Vegas.

Taking place at the ARIA Casino & Resort, three tournaments over three days provided poker players with a chance to bag six-figure wins in the case of four players.

Opening Night Win for Smith

On Thursday night, 34 entries took their seats for $10,000 without rake (if they in pace for the game to start) in face-masks as ARIA filled up with some great players, including the eventual winner of the event, Dan Smith. The Double Up Drive charity director Smith won $136,000 by outlasting a field including four others who cashed.

Australian lottery and betting operator Tabcorp Holdings has confirmed that multiple parties are interested in buying its wagering division, with UK gambling giant Entain plc confirming it’s among the suitors.

On Tuesday, Tabcorp issued a statement in response to local media reports which claimed the company had been approached about a possible acquisition of its Wagering & Media unit, which controls nearly 44% of the local sports and racing market. Tabcorp confirmed receiving “a number of unsolicited approaches and proposals in relation to a potential transaction.” 

Tabcorp noted that said pitches “were expressed to be confidential, indicative, non-binding and subject to numerous conditions.” Tabcorp’s board is assessing these proposals and will update the market as needed, while adding the usual caveat that there was no certainty that there would prove to be any fire behind this smoke. 

Entain subsequently issued its own statement confirming that the company had made “a non-binding indicative offer” for Tabcorp’s betting division. Entain already has a small down under presence via its Ladbrokes Australia and Ned brands and noted that adding Tabcorp’s betting unit “would create a leading, integrated multi-channel and multi-brand wagering company.”

UK online gambling operators have been given new rules for their online slots offering that will likely take a big bite out of their online casino revenue. 

On Tuesday, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced a raft of changes intended to make certain online games “safer by design.” The changes follow a consultation launched last July that sought stakeholder and public input into how to ensure greater protections for vulnerable gamblers. 

Most of the changes involve online slots but the UKGC is also permanently codifying the prohibition on ‘reverse withdrawal functionality’ that was imposed as a precautionary measure last May as the UK went into its first pandemic lockdown.

The existing prohibition on reverse withdrawals will persist until October 31, 2021, the date by which the new rule will officially take effect. Operators must also strive to make the withdrawal process “as frictionless as possible.” 

There was once a show called Better Off Ted. It was one of those overly cerebral, biting social commentary comedies mocking corporate America. It was too smart for its own good and got cancelled after one season. In episode 4, “Racial Insensitivity”, the company decides to mitigate its environmental impact and save energy by installing motion sensors in all its offices. Lights only turn on when someone enters a room. Water fountains only work when someone is in close proximity. Doors open on motion sensors, and so forth. The problem is, the motion sensors work by recognizing light reflected off the skin, and so they do not see black people. A corporate oversight, surely.

The problem now is that that the company cannot simply scrap the entire system, because it is committed to environmental health and saving energy. So instead, the company hires white people to follow its black employees so that doors can open for them and lights can turn on. But this creates another major problem. The company now has an overrepresentation of whites in its work force, due to all of the additional white people hired to follow the black people. And so, their solution, in order to achieve a higher corporate social responsibility score, is to hire still more black people to follow the white people who follow the black people, after which they have to hire still more white people to follow the black people that are following the white people who follow the black people.

By the end of the episode, the company concludes:

“If the company keeps hiring white people to follow black people to follow white people to follow black people, then by Thursday, June 27th 2013, every person on Earth will be working for us. And we don’t have the parking for that.”

In the fast-moving world of gambling, sometimes you might miss news that could be important to you. To make sure you’re all caught up on gaming industry news, be it online or brick and mortar, we’re rounding up the some of the announcements and partnerships from the last week that you might have missed.

Don’t miss out on all of the latest announcements from the gambling industry. Our Press Release section is updated constantly, and we publish roundups of the latest partnerships twice a week.

FashionTV Gaming Group, Espresso Games and Sisal partner to launch first-ever FashionTV-branded slot in Italy 

This month marked the official entry of FashionTV Gaming Group into the Italian market with the launch of an exclusive FashionTV-branded slot, 3Diamonds. The slot was created with leading Italian content provider Espresso Games and proposed on the market by Sisal, the country’s premier operator. FashionTV Gaming Group continues to shake up the online gaming industry with its ‘Brand to Business’ model, backed by the FashionTV global network of two billion viewers. 

This is a guest contribution by Ali Hawa, Head of Regulatory Compliance at Amber Gaming, says the return of sports, regulatory shifts and responsible gambling will have the biggest impact on operators and suppliers over the next 12 months. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

For many, 2020 was a year to forget but it was also a year that the wider industry proved its resilience, ability to adapt and capitalize and, most importantly, that players can be properly protected even in the most difficult circumstances.

The new year has started with renewed optimism, but 2021 will not be without its challenges and operators, suppliers, affiliates and other stakeholders will have to rise to the occasion once again if they are to drive growth and meet responsible gambling standards.

Those that do will be able to leverage the opportunities on the table while those that don’t may find they slip further behind their rivals. Below, I discuss some of the key trends that I believe will shape the industry this year and what this means for organisations working in the sector.

Freshman Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia’s 14th district, has already made an impact on her peers, but not in the way you’d usually hope for. The controversial, QAnon supporting legislator is already the matter of debate and scrutiny, leading to speculation that she may be stripped of her committee responsibilities, and even ejected from Congress.

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

Expelling a member of congress requires a two-thirds majority of the House, or 290 votes. With Democrats in control of 221 seats, they would need to convince 69 Republicans to vote out Greene, which in all likelihood will only happen with the support of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

So what has Greene done wrong? Well for starters, she is seen as one of the lawmakers responsible for the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol building. She denies this, blaming it on Democrats. Other lawmakers noted they were also uncomfortable with Greene’s refusal to wear a mask when they sheltered from the domestic terrorists.