Virginia is poised to join the still tiny list of US states offering online instant-win lottery games starting July 1.
For some time now, the Virginia Lottery has allowed players 18 years or older to purchase online subscriptions to major draw ticket games such as Mega Millions, Powerball and Cash4Life. But legislation approved in March cleared the way for the Lottery to offer individual ticket sales as well as new instant-win games.
Virginia Lottery exec director Kevin Hall said his group would be launching its new online service on July 1, the very first day permissible under the new state rules. Hall said it was “important to continue to meet Virginia consumers where they already are and where they expect to find us: online.”
The plan is to start with the draw-ticket mainstays and a few instant-win products, with additional instant games added every few weeks and daily draw games added before the year is done. The digital instant win games will resemble their retail counterparts “but with exciting digital game features, mechanics and bonus rounds that paper tickets cannot provide players.”
Out of the original sum of €66,900 raised during the AskGamblers Charity Night back in January, AskGamblers diverted €50,000 through Catena Operations Ltd. to UNICEF, whereas €16,900 will be given to “Zvoncica” and NORBS foundation.
Back in January 2020, the Charity Night gathered some of the most renowned AskGamblers’ partners from the iGaming industry, and they all bid for top positions on the AskGamblers website. Thanks to those partners and their generosity, AskGamblers managed to raise a staggering amount of €66,900 which will all go to charity.
Out of the original sum, through Catena Operations Ltd, we have already diverted
€50,000 to UNICEF to help fight COVID-19, and €16,900, will be given to NORBS – National Organisation for Rare Diseases of Serbia (€11,800) and “Zvoncica” Parent organization of children with cancer and other rare diseases (€5,100).
It’s been a very busy few days for poker brands and organization of the next raft of their online poker festivals. With the World Series of Poker currently not happening in Las Vegas but waiting to take place online, other poker sites have got their ducks in a row and have put together a series of poker events that will likely satisfy any bankroll.
WPT World Championship splashing the cash
The WPT World Championship have announced more of their full schedule and, as reported by PokerNews at the weekend, it’s an all-singing, all-dancing affair. Running from July 17th until September 8th, there are a wide variety of events with mixed buy-ins from the micro level right up to much bigger ones.
$100 million in guarantees across the festival will include a massive $10,300-entry Main Event, the 7th event of the series. There will also be a $25,000-entry WPT World Championship High Roller event, with both that and the Main Event with fixed guarantees of $10 million to each event. A $102,000 WPT World Championship Super High Roller event will have a $5 million guarantee during the series.
Singapore’s state-run gambling monopoly is relaunching its online sports and race betting offering following over two months of pandemic-related shutdown.
In early April, Singapore’s Ministry of Health responded to the city-state’s rising COVID-19 infection rates by imposing a ‘circuit breaker’ of social distancing measures. These not only impacted the two integrated resorts but also both retail and online operations of the Singapore Pools lottery and betting monopoly.
On Sunday, Singapore Pools announced that it would resume online sports betting on Monday while online betting on overseas horseracing would follow suit on Wednesday (17). Phone betting for both products will also be permitted. All retail operations will remain closed until the government signals it’s ready to include off-track betting outlets and lottery retailers in its phased economic reopening plan.
Despite the online reboot, lottery draws will remain suspended until further notice, likely due to the dodgy economics of an online-only operation that can only generate a small percentage of normal sales while still running the risk that one of these few online lottery players might still hit a major jackpot. Prize payment services also remain suspended until further notice.
Australian online sports betting operator Sportsbet has been ordered to refund AU$93k (US$64,630) to a customer who was allowed to bet despite having signed up to exclude himself from accessing the site.
The Northern Territory Racing Commission (NTRC), the regulator of choice for Australia’s online sportsbooks, recently issued a ruling regarding a punter identified only as Mr XXXX, a self-described problem gambler who tried to protect himself from further harm by adding his name to gambling self-exclusion lists for a number of sites, including Sportsbet.
However, when XXXX tried to open a Sportsbet account several months later, the company’s systems failed to detect the man’s presence on the self-exclusion list, in part because he’d never dealt with Sportsbet before. XXXX went on to bet nearly AU$150k with Sportsbet, losing around three-fifths of that sum.
Mr. XXXX told ABC News that he filed a complaint with the NTRC because he’d lost “a hugely significant amount of money and that has had a financial impact and on my mental health” and so he “just wanted to make [Sportsbet] accountable.”
Sweden’s new online casino restrictions are being challenged by a local politician who accused the minister responsible of misrepresenting the facts regarding gambling activity.
Last week, Sweden imposed new temporary deposit and spending restrictions on online casino play first proposed by Social Security Minister Ardalan Shekarabi at a press conference on April 23. But John Weinerhall, a parliamentarian representing the Moderate Party, is asking the government to investigate whether Shekarabi (pictured) knew at the time that the facts didn’t support his argument.
Shekarabi’s rationale for proposing the restrictions was to protect consumers from harm during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, a period in which he claimed Sweden’s online licensees were seeing “strong progress” in online casino activity.
But following Shekarabi’s April announcement, Sweden’s Spelinspektionen gambling regulatory agency released statistics showing a decline in overall gambling activity since the lockdown began. Weinerhall said last week that email exchanges showed that the government was aware of this data five days prior to Shekarabi’s April press conference.
The Denver Broncos have made history by becoming the first National Football League team to sign an official sports betting partnership with the FanDuel Group.
On Monday, the Broncos and FanDuel announced the latter’s new status as an official sports betting and daily fantasy sports (DFS) partner of the Mile High team. The deal allows FanDuel to use Broncos trademarks across its betting and DFS offerings in Colorado, as well as access to “robust marketing assets ranging from in-stadium signage to radio, television and digital advertising.”
The ‘multi-year’ non-exclusive deal comes one month after FanDuel, a division of UK-listed giant Flutter Entertainment, launched online betting in Colorado via a hookup with local casino operator Twin River Worldwide Holdings. FanDuel and the Broncos promise to offer unspecified “once-in-a-lifetime experiences” for betting customers, which we really hope means an up-close opportunity to watch GM John Elway apply his impressive bicuspids to a cob of corn.
Last year, FanDuel inked a league-wide DFS partnership with the NFL, but the Broncos deal marks the first official sports betting tie-up involving an NFL team, following the league awakening from its Rip Van Winkle slumber and discovering to its amazement that this was in fact the 21st century.
Grants Pass Downs will kick off its summer racing season tomorrow, Tuesday, June 16. The 8-race opening day program will feature the Shady Cove Stakes, with a full field of 10 thoroughbreds competing for a purse of $12,000 at a distance of five furlongs. The meet will boast more than 80 races scheduled over nine dates – June 16, 17, 23, 24, 30 and July 1, 6, 7 and 8 – with $60,000 available in purses each day. Post time is set for 4:00 p.m.
Lighting was installed this spring to facilitate twilight racing, and the track was widened to support bigger fields. Thanks to a grant from the Oregon Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (OTOBA), Grants Pass Downs was also able to complete a number of other safety-focused projects including the installation of a new retaining wall, fencing, breakaway distance markers and additional sand to improve the track surface. The stall area was also expanded to accommodate up to 450 horses to meet growing demand. Those stalls are now nearly full as hundreds of horsemen and women from around Oregon and across the West have come to Grants Pass to participate in the meet.
“The uncertainty of these times hasn’t dampened any of the enthusiasm we’ve felt from our partners in the racing community since commercial racing came to Grants Pass last year,” said John Everly, racing secretary at Grants Pass Downs. “Demand remains very high, and even with the addition of more stalls in the barn area and fields expanding from eight to 10 horses with the widened track and an expanded starting gate, races should be pretty full throughout the meet.”
In accordance with current Oregon state health guidelines amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the meet will be held without fans in attendance. Racing fans unable to attend due to the current public health guidelines are encouraged to watch and wager at TVG.com and other advance-deposit wagering (ADW) websites, as well as at participating off-track betting (OTB) locations around the state. Grants Pass Downs has also expanded its wagering menu and will offer two new bets during the Summer Meet—a fifty cent Jackpot Pick Five with a $5,000 guaranteed pool and a 15% takeout rate, and a one dollar early Pick Four. For a list of participating ADW sites and OTB locations, visit https://gpdowns.com/wagering/.
“The health and safety of our athletes, staff, partners and guests is our highest priority, and we have put new protocols in place to ensure a safe, fun environment for all as we resume racing operations,” said Rod Lowe, director of racing and chief operating officer at Grants Pass Downs. “We’ll be encouraging the use of masks or face coverings by all guests. Additionally, hand sanitizer stations have been set up in high traffic areas throughout the premises, and social distancing reminders – like signage and floor markings – have been posted throughout the premises.”
Grants Pass Downs will allow a maximum of 250 nonessential people on site on racing days, including owners and their guests, sponsors and corporate partners, and members of the media.
New Jersey’s online sportsbooks more than doubled the state’s combined handle in May, but still fell short of an ordinary May by nearly $400 million, according to PlayNJ estimates. This while online casinos and poker rooms continue to boom, buoying the Garden State’s gaming industry.
“May’s increase is a positive sign, but until major professional sports resume and Atlantic City casinos reopen, the gaming industry will look nowhere near normal,” said Dustin Gouker, lead analyst for PlayNJ.com. “But optimism can be found with DraftKings, which has become a darling of Wall Street since it became a publicly traded company. That shows just how much confidence investors have in the future of sports betting.”
New Jersey’s online sportsbooks managed to boost the state’s monthly handle to $117.8 million, up 115.8% from $54.6 million in April, according to official reporting released Friday. But May’s handle is down 63.1% from $318.9 million in May 2019 and still well short of the more than $500 million in bets that would have been made in an ordinary May, according to PlayNJ estimates.
May’s bets produced a surprising $9.9 million in gross revenue — more than tripling the $2.6 million in April 2020 — yielding $1.3 million in state taxes.
Sports categorized as “other” than football, basketball, and baseball generated $95.4 million in bets in May, up from $88 million in May 2019.
“The bottom-line sports betting numbers aren’t pretty, but there is a silver lining in how online sportsbooks have managed to survive these shutdowns,” said Eric Ramsey, an analyst for PlayNJ.com. “New Jersey’s operators have been creative in keeping bettors engaged and sportsbooks generating revenue, even when fringe sports are the only real attraction. Thanks to some imagination, it appears online sportsbooks will help the industry get through this.”
Without retail sportsbooks, online sportsbooks were the only revenue generator for the state. FanDuel Sportsbook/PointsBet led the market with $4.3 million in gross revenue.
“We are just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Gouker said. “Retail sports betting will take time to return to something resembling normal. But the path to recovery for online sportsbooks is simple: Sports need to come back. That is finally starting to happen.”
Meanwhile, online casinos and poker rooms rose to a new monthly record in May with a combined $85.9 million, up 7.5% from the record $79.96 million in April and up 134.7% from $36.6 million in May 2019.
Online casinos and poker generated a record $2.8 million per day during the 31 days in May, up from $2.7 million per day in April. That revenue yielded $12.9 million in state taxes. The Golden Nugget’s dominance of the market continued with $29.1 million in revenue, up from $27.6 million in April.
“Land-based gambling revenue almost certainly won’t return in June, and it will take some time to recover even when it does come back while Atlantic City casinos presumably navigate reduced capacity and relatively weak tourism demand,” Ramsey said. “Because of that, online casinos will be relied upon to bridge the revenue gap, even once land-based casinos reopen. Even if that online revenue can’t replace what has been lost from the shutdown, the overall gaming industry would be in much worse shape without it.”
UK gambling operators could face strict new limits on advertising and online slots stakes, even as the market’s biggest operators pledge to dramatically boost responsible gambling funding.
On Monday, the Guardian reported that the group of parliamentarians tasked with studying how to reform the 2005 Gambling Act would release their findings on Tuesday. Among the All Party Parliamentary Group’s recommendations are a total ban on gambling advertising (whether on TV or online), an end to VIP incentive programs and a new maximum £2 stake for online slots.
Furthermore, the APPG wants to see unspecified stake and deposit limits applied to all gambling products, as well as establishing independent affordability checks for all customers. The report also recommends eliminating in-play sports betting, although the product could be permitted over the telephone or at retail betting venues.
News of the APPG’s report came the same day that GVC Holdings boss Kenny Alexander published an op-ed noting that claimed there was “a significant anti-gambling lobby that believes punitive and mandatory restrictions – notably clamping down on online stake thresholds – will help problem gamblers.”
In recent weeks, the success of Poker Central’s Pot Limit Omaha events has been there for all to see. They’ve been a key part of the success of high rolling poker events, with Poker Masters online series events and Super high Roller Bowl online events both filling up with players who love the four-card game.
It will come as no surprise, then, to discover that a PLO-specific Poker Masters series will sort the wraps from the saps as Poker Central bring plenty of new PLO events to their audience via PokerGO, the popular poker subscription service for fans of the game.
The events will be hosted by partypoker, who have also signed up to put on the ensuing WPT World Championship online series which will start in a matter of weeks. The Poker Masters Online (PMO) Pot Limit Omaha Series has been announced on Poker Central and will begin on 21st June.
Last time out, the PMO had a prizepool of $16,500,000, which was more than doubled by the end of the series, with over $34 million being paid out to 124 unique players. With commentary of the events provided by PokerGO’s go-to guy behind the mic Jeff Platt and double Global Poker Awards winner Joey Ingram, all the final tables of the forthcoming series will be shown on PokerGO of course, but they’ll also be available on PokerGO’s Facebook page and the partypokerTV Twitch channel.
This week, the GGB Podcast sits down with Matt Sodl, the founding partner and managing director of Innovation Capital, on how casinos can borrow money to get through these tough times.
After several weeks in which tennis fans have had to wait for live action, suddenly the reality of players taking to the court have filled many with revulsion, shock and sadness.
In a post-COVID world, and before a vaccine has been developed and released, the idea of a tennis tournament with fans in attendance was something of a dream, but reactions to last week’s Adria Cup have made the festivities something of a nightmare, including for the current world number one, Novak Djokovic.
Just weeks ago, Djokovic was, of course, sounding like he might well be against the return of U.S. Open tennis, which, if it goes ahead as planned, will commence in August. Djokovic argued that the testing side of the game was not something he was in alignment with, and therefore he might not attend. Setting aside the fact that the U.S. Open would struggle for viewing figures if Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer follow Djokovic in missing out on Flushing Meadow this time round, Djokovic has now proved that it’s not tennis or crowds that he minds at all.
The Adria Cup festivities this weekend including many things, but a game of football with as close contact as there can be within the laws of the game, a dance-off at a piano and a tennis tournament with packed stands were all on the cards.
Relay Trade Limited, the company behind the RelayX Superwallet is today announcing it has acquired Streamanity.com — a video streaming platform founded in 2018 that enables content creators to earn money from every view.
RelayX, founded in April 2019, is a Bitcoin SV powered superwallet that enables users to use the BSV blockchain with a non custodial wallet that is connected to leading apps in the BSV ecosystem.
Streamanity is an application based on the Bitcoin SV (BSV) blockchain using micro-payments to allow content providers to profit from their own content. Viewers can pay per video, tip, and earn BSV by sharing videos. Streamanity is uniquely ad-free and has unique, quality content due to its pay to play model.
BSV allows micro-transactions on a massive scale where the users can pay cents (or even less!) to perform interactions because transactions fees are tiny.
The time has come and the Asian region has finally got its own dedicated digital gaming conference.
These virtual shows have been the go-to experiential content and networking by the industry as replacements for the traditional on-the-ground event in the wake of a global pandemic.
Last week, the inaugural ICE-SiGMA Asia Digital Summit 2020 has commenced on the internet. The three-day heavily focused on Covid-19-related online discussions and debates among experts and executives within the gaming space was supposed to take place in Manila early this month, but was moved to 2021. Unlike other Asia-focused shows, the event was conveniently scheduled during the late afternoon in East Asia opening up the show to more audience from the other side of the world.
While sport around the world has returned to empty stadiums; New Zealand gave the world look into the future, with sold-out stadiums returning in time for the revamped Super Rugby competition. The New Zealand government ended COVID-19 restrictions with crowds celebrating to watch the first two games of the new season in Dunedin and Auckland.
New Zealand had reported no new COVID-19 cases for over 20 consecutive days and suffered only 22 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
The lifting of the restrictions was cause for celebration. Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin saw 20,000 fans turn up to watch the Otago Highlanders do battle with the Waikato Chiefs in game one of Super Rugby Aotearoa. There were no contact restrictions or facemasks as the home crowd enjoying a thrilling ending. Bryn Gatland, the son of the opposition coach kicked the winning drop-goal, sealing a 28-27 win for the Highlanders.
People love shaky iPhone footage of Scarfies on the piss! It has had a few views… https://t.co/43SwhB52c2
Getting away from it all to recharge the batteries and center the mind has never been more important. Unfortunately, getting away from it all has never been more difficult, thanks to the coronavirus. The good news is that, despite a lack of ability to physically travel to many wellness retreats and spas (although things are looking good for the lifting of travel restrictions), wellness centers have been able to come up with alternatives to allow individuals to “travel” to their locations while staying at home. Enter the new market of virtual wellness retreats.
The Evening Standard out of the UK highlights several of the creative wellness alternatives, and they seem to be proving to be highly popular. One option is the Triyoga virtual yoga retreat, led by Yogi Anna Ashby, who is offering a “restorative practice to replenish the body and soul” in a two-hour mini-retreat this Saturday. The workshop includes “slow, mindful stretches to release tension through yoga postures to shift the nervous system back into balance and unblock stagnant energy using breathing techniques.” Anyone wanting to participate only needs to have a yoga mat, foam blocks, a chair and the $25 fee.
There’s also the Summer Solstice Online Retreat, a half- or full-day experience offered this Saturday by As We Live And Breathe. According to the event’s description, “Our seasonal cookery talks will explore foraging and what’s in season locally at this time, and in our live cookery workshop the wonderful Gabbi will guide you through a beautiful seasonal plant-based meal of courgette spaghetti with pesto, rocket, smoked tofu, cashew cheese and sun dried tomatoes. We’ll then sit down to eat together and share stories, learning more about the mysteries of Litha and the ancient celebrations of Solstice tied with our lands.”
A wellness center out of Ibiza, Spain has the perfect option for those who can’t pin down a day and time to experience a retreat. Soul Adventures is offering different virtual kundalini retreats, and allows people to set their own schedule. The center also has a longer course that will appeal to some, the 40-Day Journey To Joy At Home Retreat. It “fuses the technology of QR codes with ancient Kundalini Yoga techniques to give readers the ultimate, empowering, self-care experience that can be accessed from anywhere.”
It would seem that larger casino operators in the U.S. should have been squirreling away more of their revenue over the years. Granted, no one expected anything like the coronavirus to roll in and change global economies from one day to the next, but companies who have banked larger percentages of their profits are in a much better position to weather the storm. Those who haven’t, and those who believe they’re too big to fail, are experiencing the repercussions of their spending habits. If you ask some people, such as Fitch Ratings, the U.S. gaming industry isn’t going to be able to recover quickly – it might take at least three years for things to return to normal.
Fitch Ratings, one of the large credit rating firms, issued a report on the state of U.S. gaming last Thursday, “U.S. Gaming Will Experience A U-Shaped Recovery Post-Reopening.” In it, analysts Alex Bumazhny, Colin Mansfield, Connor Park, and Carla Norfleet Taylor foresee casino operators reporting significant losses for 2020 as they slowly start to climb out of their hole next year. After that, a “full recovery” to pre-coronavirus revenue levels won’t be possible until 2023.
The report further offers, “Fitch reviewed its U.S. gaming universe in the span of four weeks, as the coronavirus outbreak intensified. Credit implications have been negative, with higher leverage forecasts resulting in the widespread revision of Rating Outlooks to Negative.” Those negative outlooks reflect a nationwide gaming revenue decline of 30% for the year, with Vegas casino operators such as Las Vegas Sands (LVS) and MGM Resorts International predicted to see drops of as much as 50%. LVS has seen its stock fall around 15% since the first month of the year and MGM’s stock is almost half of what it was at the end of January.
The Vegas Strip, which Fitch expects to see a decrease in revenue on the year of about 45%, may need the most time to bounce back from COVID-19. The analysts explain, “Recovery will be the slowest on the Strip, given its greater reliance on inbound visitation, air capacity, and conventions. Regionals are less cyclical than Las Vegas and should recover quicker, as they have mostly local, drive-in visitation.”
The Philippines have had a love-hate relationship with Philippines Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) lately, with no shortage of calls for the gaming segment to be shut down completely. The chances of the industry to survive continue to weaken as pressure is applied to the Philippine government by China, and it doesn’t help that reports of kidnappings related to POGOs continue to crop up. The latest incident happened last week, following an abduction earlier this month, and resulted in a street battle between the perpetrators and police that left two criminals dead and a police officer with a hole in his foot.
On June 1, police were able to rescue two individuals that had been kidnapped and, at the same time, arrest two suspects. That led to an investigation that uncovered the involvement of others, and which came to a head last Thursday. Police officers with the National Police-Anti-Kidnapping Group (PNP-AKG), along with law enforcement from Angeles City, were able to track down the van and, when making their approach, apparently got into a shootout with the two suspects. The police had better aim and killed both individuals, but one police officer had to make a trip to the hospital after being shot in the foot.
In many cases, gambling-related kidnapping occur to settle outstanding debts. However, a number of abductions that have been tied to POGOs stem from a sinister ruse to attract Chinese nationals to the Philippines with false promises of jobs with the gambling operator. Once in the country, they’re kidnapped and held for ransom. According to Police Major Ronaldo Lumactod Jr, “They were hired to work for a POGO but there was deceit. They were not given the jobs as casino dealers as promised. As the victims thought they were deceived, they resisted. They were then ordered to pay a ransom through their families in China.”
In the past three years, there has been almost a constant increase in the number of casino-related kidnappings in the Philippines. In 2017 and 2018, there were 17 and 16 cases, respectively, reported to police. Last year, that number more than doubled to 38. The first quarter of 2020 may find a drop because of the coronavirus, but there will also be an increase in the number of people looking for work once travel restrictions are lifted, which could make more people vulnerable.
April and May weren’t kind for Wynn Macau. The Asian arm of Wynn Resorts saw a total of just under $37 million in revenue at the two casino properties it controls in Macau, a stark contrast to the more than $759 million it saw a year earlier. The company announced last week that it would be looking to generate some quick cash somehow, somewhere, and now has its plan laid out. Wynn Macau wants a loan for $750 million that is reportedly going to involve Deutsche Bank AG through its Singapore branch.
The casino operator submitted a filing (in pdf) to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday, explaining that Deutsche Bank will be the “initial purchasers” of company notes to support the loan. They will mature in 2026 and carry an interest rate of 5.5%, and are expected to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which has reportedly already given its thumbs up to the deal. Once all the fees and commissions are factored in, Wynn Resorts should pick up about $743 million to help it bounce back from the Macau lockdown caused by the coronavirus.
Wynn Macau adds, “The company intends to use the net proceeds from the proposed offering for general corporate purposes until business recovers from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and then to facilitate the repayment of a portion of the amounts outstanding under the Wynn Macau credit facilities.” According to the terms of the agreement to offer the notes, Wynn cannot “effect a consolidation or merger” or “sell, assign, transfer, convey or otherwise dispose of all or substantially all of the properties or assets of the company and its subsidiaries” that might impact the value of the notes.
The offering has received a lukewarm response by some analysts. Moody’s Investors Service weighed in after reviewing the fundraising initiative’s guidelines, giving it a rating a “B1.” The firm explained, “The additional liquidity is beneficial as it further improves the company’s liquidity profile and runway in Macau to over two years on a cash-burn basis as they [Wynn Macau Ltd’s leadership] manage the current weak operating environment, including reduced visitation levels in Macau” and added, “Although there is an initial increase in leverage on a gross basis, the transaction enables the company to reduce the secured debt in its capital structure once business conditions improve.”
