The states that rim the Gulf of Mexico can’t catch a break lately. Hurricane Laura came creeping through the gulf last month, forcing casinos in Louisiana to stop their recovery efforts and threatening everyone from Texas to Florida. Louisiana’s gaming properties are still cleaning up the mess from that storm, and now there’s another one looking to menace the area. As a result, the Mississippi Gaming Commission (MGC) ordered all casinos along the coast to close yesterday afternoon. 

Hurricane Sally is on track to be a Category 2 storm when it hits land sometime late tonight or early tomorrow morning, and the latest path has it making landfall anywhere from the eastern edge of Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. Right in the middle of that scope lies Mississippi, which could see the majority of the storm’s fallout. This led the MGC to take action yesterday, ordering all casinos to be empty by 4 PM local time. 

A number of venues helped patrons pack up and ship off, even providing ground transportation so they could make their way to catch flights out of the area. Hurricane Sally was first Tropical Storm Sally yesterday before it increased to a Category 1 storm in just two hours. It became a Cat 2 hurricane about two hours later and then lost a little speed, forcing it to be redefined as a Cat 1 storm. The next few hours will determine whether or not it regains its strength and what area of the coastal U.S. it wants to target. 

Of the casino closures, Mary Cracchiolo Spain, the President of Coastal Mississippi and PR Director for MGM Resorts Mississippi, explained, “I think that, hope for the best and prepare for the worst and so this is not our first rodeo, we’ve been through many storms so we feel very comfortable with the process that we have in place. And so, we’ll just be watching and like I said, praying all goes well, but preparing for anything that could happen.”

Ireland broached the subject of having its own gambling regulator in the first quarter of last year, knowing at the time that introducing the independent body would take a while. Initially, it thought the end of this year would be a good target, setting in motion all the mechanics necessary to launch the watchdog that would oversee all gaming activity in the country, including any land-based or online gambling. Getting those mechanics to operate in sync has proven to be a monumental task, especially with the obstacles brought on due to the coronavirus, and Ireland now recognizes that it will need more time to get the regulator up and running. Instead of sometime before the end of 2020, sometime in 2021 is now the more realistic goal. 

This is according to Ireland’s Justice Minister Helen McEntee, who acknowledges that a delay in implementing the regulatory strategy is imminent. She reiterated the government’s commitment to establishing the body, adding that it will provide oversight for “gambling online and in person, and the powers to regulate advertising, gambling websites and apps.” Given that the existing legislation in Ireland for the gambling industry has its roots in 1931, a couple more months of waiting won’t make too much of a difference. 

The Gaming and Lotteries (Amendment) Bill was created and approved last year to provide guidance for the updating of gambling structures in Ireland, while adding some new tiers of oversight that previously weren’t considered in the initial 1931 laws or the additional legislation that was added in 1956. Among these tiers, similar to what is being seen in other countries, Ireland’s licensed gambling operators will funnel part of their revenue into a social fund that will be used to treat gambling addiction. In addition, it sets limits on how much a person can wager through gaming machines, as well as how much can be awarded through prizes. 

Adds McEntee, “Work is currently underway in my department on the development of the legislation to provide the necessary modern licensing and regulatory provisions for the Irish gambling industry. I hope to bring proposals in that regard to the Government next year. Given the size, complexity and technological development of the modern gambling industry and having regard to the outdated and complex arrangements, it will be important that the regulator will be established on a strong footing and adequately resourced to carry out this important task.”

Finding the best exercises to do in a home office situation can be a challenge. Let’s be honest, the majority of us struggle at the best of times to stay active at home – let alone when you have to juggle work and family commitments in 2020. Giving up the gym to spend hours in front of your laptop while working from home can have some very real consequences on your health and mental wellbeing.

Adding some small exercises into your day can go a long way towards keeping you fit and active. While these health tips may not give you the perfect beach body, they’ll help you stay in shape as you battle the office grind from home.

Below is a collection of the ten best exercises that you can do from your home office without having to stock up on the latest gym equipment.

 The Briefcase Lift

Detroit’s commercial casinos saw their gaming revenue slide 42% in their first month since reopening, while plans to reopen poker rooms are causing confusion down at the state gambling regulator.

On Monday, the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) announced that Detroit’s three commercial casinos earned a combined $69.3m from their slots and table games in August, down 42% from August 2019. MGM Grand Detroit took the biggest hit, falling 46% to $28.6m, while MotorCity fell 37.5% to $25m while Penn National Gaming’s Greektown tumbled 41.5% to $15.7m.

The three casinos also generated a combined $2m from their retail sports betting operations, with MGM again leading the pack with $932k, followed by Greektown ($551k) and MotorCity ($493k).

The numbers appear dire, but they’re actually better than most forecasts. Detroit’s municipal government’s share of August’s returns was $8.3m, around half what the city would claim in a normal month, but well above the city’s original forecast of $3m.

Sports broadcaster ESPN continues to deepen its ties to sports betting while the US gaming lobby tries to impose a little restraint on its operators’ marketing efforts.

On Sunday, the first weekend of the NFL’s 2020 season, ESPN announced the debut of Bet, a new half-hour betting-focused program hosted by Joe Fortenbaugh and Tyler Fulghum. The show, which is produced out of ESPN’s new studio at Caesars Entertainment’s Linq casino in Las Vegas, will stream three nights on ESPN’s digital platforms.

Those platforms now include the ESPN Sports Betting YouTube channel, which is also making its debut on Monday. In addition to the new Bet program, the channel will feature segments from ESPN’s Daily Wager, SportsCenter and other shows.

ESPN also announced a pair of ‘exclusive’ deals with gambling operators Caesars and DraftKings. The multi-year Caesars deal calls for ‘link integrations’ to apps from Caesars’ sports betting provider William Hill US through ESPN.com, mobile web and the ESPN Fantasy app. ‘Caesars Sportsbook by William Hill’ will also sponsor ESPN’s Fantasy products, “deepening an integration as ESPN’s exclusive odds provider.”

New Jersey reported record online gambling revenue and sports betting handle in August, as bettors were drawn back online by the resumption of major league play.

Figures released Monday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) show the state’s licensed online gambling operators reported combined revenue of $87.77m in the month of August, more than twice the $41.1m generated in the same month last year.

August’s total also narrowly edged past the previous monthly record of $87.5m the state reported in July, as online casino revenue soared 115% to $84.7m and the much maligned online poker vertical shot up 77.7% to just over $3m (although the poker total represents a significant haircut from July’s $4.8m).

For the year-to-date, online gambling revenue totaled just under $598m, a 100.7% rise over the first eight months of 2019. Online casino rose 101% to $569.7m while poker is up 96.2% to $28.3m.

Atlantic City casinos are slowly crawling back to life after their long pandemic lockdown, although one operator could lose some of its momentum following a recent court ruling.

On Monday, New Jersey gambling regulators revealed that the nine Atlantic City casinos generated combined slots-and-table-games revenue of $199m in August, a 30.5% decline from August 2019 but nearly $52m better than July 2020.

August’s slots revenue was down 30.8% year-on-year to $144.1m while table games slipped 29.8% to $54.9m. However, both figures represented significant improvements from July’s slots ($111.8m) and table ($35.6m) totals. For the first eight months of 2020, revenue is down 53.9% to $842.2m.

AC casinos were cleared to reopen on July 2 after nearly four months of inactivity due to COVID-19. But they’ve been limited to 25% capacity and, while the state’s governor announced last month that guests could once again smoke on the gaming floors, he rescinded that order just days later, leaving smokers fuming over this défense de fumer edict.