Tag: legislation

American Voters Approve Sports Betting and Casino Gaming Expansions

Posted on by Grant Mahon

On Tuesday, Americans weren’t just choosing their new President between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Some of them were also casting votes that would decide the future of the US gaming industry. Three states voted to make sports betting legal, while three decided to approve/expand casino gaming.

The states in question are the following:

  • Maryland
  • South Dakota
  • Louisiana
  • Virginia
  • Nebraska
  • Colorado

Of those states, the top three listed have made sports betting legal. In Virginia, the voters decided to approve casino gaming in four locations. Nebraska voters approved adding casino games to the racetracks in the state, while the voters from Colorado made their state’s casino gaming laws more liberal.

Three New Sports Betting-Friendly US States

The voters in Maryland, South Dakota, and Louisiana voted to make sports betting legal in their states. As a result, the United States is going to have at least 25 states, together with the District of Colombia, where sports betting is legal in some form.

Online betting still remains illegal or unregulated in most of those states, although many are working on changing that. At the moment of writing, there are nine states where internet/mobile betting is legal.

The road to sports betting legalization in the US started in 2018 when the Supreme Court struck down PASPA, a federal law that practically made this gaming form illegal everywhere apart from Nevada and tribal lands. The Supreme Court’s ruling made it possible for individual states to decide the legality of sports betting on their own.

Three States Expand Casino Gaming

The voters from Colorado, Nebraska, and Virginia decided to liberalize their casino gambling laws. Virginia is going to make gambling legal in four casinos within the state. Over in Nebraska, the voters have decided to allow racetracks to turn into racinos, that is, racetracks that have certain types of casino games on the premises.

In Colorado, the voters decided to get rid of some wagering limits, while also expanding the list of casino game types available at land-based casinos. From now on, Colorado casinos will be allowed to add craps and roulette to their gambling offers.

Online gambling was not on the ballot, although the voting results are certainly putting wind in its sails. At the moment, here’s only a couple of states where internet casino gaming is possible. New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia are the states that already have online casinos, while a few more will get their gaming websites in the near future.

Online casinos remain illegal in Nevada, a state that relies on land-based casinos. The state’s stance towards internet gaming probably isn’t going to change anytime soon, partially because of the pressure legislators are getting from Las Vegas casino owners. One of biggest opponents of online casinos in Nevada is the owner of Las Vegas Sands, Sheldon Adelson, who’s recently gotten in news headlines for making a $75 million donation to Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign.

Grant Mahon

Grant is the self-professed casino madman and reporter that brought this eclectic team of dedicated and talented writers together from around the world to proudly build an humble empire of authentic casino news.

West Virginia Becomes 4th US State to Legalize Online Casinos

Posted on by Grant Mahon

As of Wednesday, July 15, there are four states within the US where online casino gambling is legal. The most recent addition is West Virginia whose lawmakers have recently okayed this gambling form. Previously, the only states where online gambling was permitted were New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.

DraftKings Casino is the first gambling platform to go online in this state. In partnership with Penn National Gaming’s Hollywood Casino, DraftKings has launched its casino website, as well as its WV mobile app, which is available in two versions – one for Android and one for iOS devices.

DraftKings Embraces Online Casino Business

DraftKings is perhaps best known as a daily fantasy website, which is how this company started out back in 2012. Once the sports betting ban got lifted as a result of New Jersey’s case in front of the US Supreme Court, many states started passing laws to make online betting legal and regulated.

DraftKings wanted to get on the bandwagon right away, applying for a license in a number of betting-friendly states all across the United States.

After the company’s decision to branch out its business proved successful, DraftKings decided to get in on the online casino business. Pennsylvania and New Jersey were the first two states where DraftKings online casino launched.

Pennsylvania saw the birth of the DraftKings Casino on May 1, 2020. In New Jersey, the standalone casino app launched on June 24, 2020. Before that, the casino was a part of the NJ DraftKings Sportsbook. Exactly three weeks later, DraftKings Casino West Virginia went online for the first time.

What Games Can You Play at DraftKings Casino West Virginia?

Real-money online slots make up most of the DraftKings Casino game library in the other two states. There are slots of different types to be found there, including 3-reel, 5-reel slots, 3d games, progressive jackpot slots, and so on. The games are developed by some of the world’s most reputable software companies, such as NetEnt, IGT, and Spin Games.

You might not get to play slots straight away at DraftKings WV Casino as these guys are typically regulated the last. In the meantime, West Virginia players can quench their casino thirst by playings table games like blackjack, baccarat, roulette, and others.

Are Other States Expected to Follow West Virginia’s Example?

Right now, only four states within the Union are when gaming fans can play online casino games legally. The number of states is expected to go up drastically, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With social distancing measures preventing people to go to land-based casinos en mase, online gaming seems like a better alternative.

Furthermore, the experience from the states that have already made online gambling legal shows that during the pandemic, this industry can serve as an important source of income for the state budget. For example, online slots in Pennsylvania created a $38m revenue last month. Land-based casinos in coronavirus-ridden Nevada probably aren’t going to get anywhere near that number.

Grant Mahon

Grant is the self-professed casino madman and reporter that brought this eclectic team of dedicated and talented writers together from around the world to proudly build an humble empire of authentic casino news.

Missouri’s New Bill to Introduce Betting on River Casinos

Posted on by Kat Orlov
  • Missouri’s Senator Denny Hoskins introduces a new Senate Bill to legalize sports betting
  • As per the bill, licenses would be issued at $10,000
  • Renewal fees are at $5,000
  • Taxation is pinned at 12%

Missouri is working hard to get its own sports betting legislation up to speed. With a freshly introduced bill by Senator Denny Hoskins, the goal of introducing a ground-breaking framework is not too far from a reality.

Missouri Works on Spots Betting with SB 44

Missouri is yet another state that could potentially get its sports betting industry up to speed very quickly. Now that Senator Denny Hoskins has introduced SB 44, chances are that the legislation will clear all legal hurdles ahead of it.

The Bill proposes to bring sports betting to licensed holiday boats, drawing the idea from the famous river casinos all over the United States that are exempt from some of the toughest legal hurdles that face sports betting. The bill has quite the favorable conditions, too:

  • Initial licensing at $10,000
  • Renewal fee of $5,000 paid yearly
  • 12% in taxes along with a 2.5% administrative fee

Insofar as taxation goes, Missouri’s rates are fair but a little bit steeper than the most common rate of 10%. Overseas, the tax hits 21% in places such as the United Kingdom, but the country has a well-developed online betting industry.

New Sports Betting Opportunities for Kansas Discussed

In other words, it’s understandable why states that are only looking to start their operations normally settle on a rather low tax rate. The license fees are all rather on the low-end, too, although it must be noted that they apply only for river boats whereas places like Pennsylvania issued $10 million license packages, but they had land-based properties in mind.

Divvying Up the Funds

The Gaming Commission Fund will receive the 2.5% tax on betting receipts and 80% of that would automatically be allocated to the Veterans’ Commission Capital Improvement Trust Fund.

The Bill also expects from newly set-up operators to volunteer 0.5% of their gross amount wagered to support various facilities around the state that have to do with sports.

The voluntary tax would be required at least once a quarter with the Entertainment Facilities Infrastructure Fund taking control over the managing of these funds.

Overseeing the Industry as Intended

The Missouri Gaming Commission will be tasked with establishing control over the entire industry, both in regulating whether agencies are complaint with the provisions of the bill and ensuring that customers are safe.

Under SB 44, every citizen of Missouri would be able to opt for self-exclusion, which would allow for a state-wide protection.
Meanwhile, any operator that wants to run its gambling-related activities will have to comply with a number of criteria, including overseeing proper background checks on customers, doing due diligence and wealth assessment analysis to confirm source of wealth as well as the identity & age of customers.

Missouri currently has a list of bills that are on the wait list, including:

  • HB119
  • SB327
  • SB222
  • SB195

Things are finally looking up for Missouri and while the exact time frame is unknown, the state should be getting its own sports betting bill very soon.

Kat Orlov

Newcomer Kat is our newcomer poker aficionado whos skill not only lives on the table but flourishes on the site as through her many sources she never fails to be the first to hear of any important or exciting poker news around the world.

Irish Authorities to Intensify Crackdown on Illegal Gambling

Posted on by Aran Malik

Ireland’s long-awaited crackdown on illegal gambling operations has been one of the most discussed topics in the global gaming industry this year. With so much more said than done, the country’s local authorities have decided to expand the crackdown on unlawful gambling activities and unlawful casinos in Dublin despite the fact that a gambling control bill meant to control that very thing has seen hardly any progress for over half a decade now.

Initially revealed in October, the Revenue Commissioners decided to expand its crackdown on some Dublin-based illegal casinos. In fact, according to the country’s finance minister, the process of removal of the illegal gambling machines from various premised had already begun. Apparently, gambling machines that did not have the required operating licenses had spread in Ireland’s capital city and this was becoming even more clear this year and this is what prompted the now intensified crackdown – these illegal terminals violated existing laws that banned the above-mentioned terminals. The casinos offering such terminals had violated a directive of the Dublin City Council as well as some rules that had been imposed by the Revenue Commissioners.

The city council directive mentioned above was established back in 1988 and it stated that gambling licenses cannot be provided in Dublin. This move forced the local casino operators to file applications for amusement licenses, which as per the regulations of the city, are subjected to much lower regulators control.

Is Gambling Addiction in Ireland Getting Out of Hand?

As media reports emerged that a few premises in Dublin that have been offering illegal gambling services have been served with enforcement letters by the Revenue Commissioners but there is something that seems to be even more concerning. According to Irish experts from the Limerick-based Saoirse Addiction Treatment Centre, there has been an increase in gambling addiction in the country – it is one of the biggest problems in the country’s gambling sector.

Industry experts believe that there has been an increasing popularity of online gambling among the younger generation and when this is combined with the rather obvious lack of adequate regulation it becomes an even more serious problem. Problem gambling specialists have often pointed out that there are literally infinite opportunities to gamble on the online space and the fact that problem gambling can go on for long makes it very dangerous.

In 2015, the National Advisory Committee on Drugs and Alcohol (NACDA) commissioned a report that revealed that close 65 percent of adults gambled that year. Keeping this mind, the Revenue Commissioners have in the past few years had to intensify their efforts towards casino industry crackdowns regarding mostly the unlicensed gaming machines.

Aran Malik

“Magic Malik”—as we like to call him—is not only a tech whiz but a wizard when it comes to getting obscure news hot off the press so we know exactly what’s happening and can explore and report it back to our growing and loyal readerbase.