Industry News of the Day for February 1, 2024

Industry News

• PlayUSA: 2024 Online Casino Bill Tracker
  • This online casino bill tracker keeps you up to date with legislation and legalization in the United States. Some quick facts: Regulated online casinos are available in six states, with seventh to go live in 2024, four states have active iGaming proposals, while there is some activity toward that end in seven others, and online casino revenue in 2023 earned $6.5 billion and is projected to earn $7.8 billion in 2024. As January 2024 is in its final days, legislators in Maine, Maryland and Ohio will soon hold hearings on the subject of online casinos. Meanwhile, in New York, lawmakers are working behind closed doors to push online gambling forward in the state.

• Bonus.com: PredictIt Lawsuit: How A Battle Over Venue Might Determine The Fate Of US Election Betting
  • PredictIt and its co-plaintiffs have asked a federal court in Texas to postpone the case’s transfer to the District of Columbia while petitioning the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene. The US District Court for the Western District of Texas ordered the transfer on Jan. 16, 2024, at the request of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In a rare move, the plaintiffs are seeking to have the appeals court rule that the change of venue is an abuse of the District Court’s authority. The two parties have been fighting a convoluted legal battle since September 2022. PredictIt is a “political futures exchange,” offering the closest thing the US has to legal betting on elections.

• SBC Americas: Levy Family And Penn Entertainment Parting Ways
  • When Penn Entertainment acquired TheScore in 2021 the company got both an established sports media company and a family full of experienced talent to work in the company’s interactive division in the Levys. Benjie Levy took over as the head of Penn Interactive in 2022 following the departure of Jonathan Kaplowitz. Now, Levy will be stepping down in April alongside Noah and Aubrey Levy. “This transition plan comes at a natural inflection point, with the migration to our proprietary technology platform complete, theScore’s media and betting business delivering record results, and ESPN Bet off to a strong start,” said Penn Entertainment CEO Jay Snowden.

• Gambling Insider: Evolution Posts 23.5% Increase In Operating Revenue For 2023
  • Evolution has released its fourth-quarter results for 2023 as well as its full-year results for last year, showing positives across the board for both. In the final quarter of 2023, Evolution made significant progress, including raising the guided EBITDA margin range for 2024 to 69-71%, initiating a share repurchase programme, and reaching +1,600 live tables by the end of the period. Operating revenue for Q4 2023 reached €475.3m ($513.7m), an increase of 16.6% compared to the same period last year, while EBITDA went up from €279.5m in Q4 2022 to just under €337m in Q4 2023. RNG revenue did decline, however, dropping to €69.8m from the €72.5m recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Massachusetts

• PlayMA: WynnBET Notifies Regulators It Will Cease Operations In Massachusetts
  • Massachusetts is losing one of its sports betting apps. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission released the agenda for their Feb. 1 meeting on Wednesday morning. One of the items in it is approving a “notice of intent to cease operations” filed by WynnBET. In other words, WynnBET won’t be a Massachusetts online sportsbook for much longer. It’s following a nationwide trend for the online sportsbook of Wynn Resorts Ltd. Wynn Resorts closed WynnBET in seven states in 2023, citing a desire to focus on other areas of its gaming business. At that time, Wynn continued offering WynnBet sportsbook in Massachusetts and Nevada, two states where it has a significant physical casino presence.

Mississippi

• Legal Sports Report: New Online Mississippi Sports Betting Headed Toward House Floor
  • An online sports betting bill in the Mississippi House appears to be on a fast track to reach the Senate.  Rep. Casey Eure introduced his online Mississippi sports betting bill, House Bill 774, Monday and advanced it out of the House Gaming Committee Tuesday. Eure, the chair of the Gaming Committee, announced his intent to file a statewide online sports betting bill during the Mobile Online Sports Betting Task Force meetings last fall. Eure said the bill could receive a House vote as early as Wednesday, according to the Biloxi Sun Herald. In-person sports betting in the Magnolia State began in 2018, along with only geofenced mobile sportsbooks allowed on casino property.

North Carolina

• NC Sharp: What To Know About Tribal Geofencing Restrictions In North Carolina
  • Bettors on NC tribal lands will be restricted to using only the tribal sportsbook affiliated with their tribe. In the case of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) in the western part of the state, that is Caesars Sportsbook. The Catawba Nation, which holds land in trust in the area around Kings Mountain, has not yet announced its sports betting partner. Under state law, “An interactive sports wagering operator licensed under G.S. 18C-904 shall not, by virtue of such licensure, be authorized to accept any sports wager if the registered player placing the sports wager is physically present on Indian lands when the sports wager is initiated and received.”

Ohio

• Sports Handle: Ohio Totals $7.67 Billion Handle In First Year Of Sports Betting
  • Though it was a small class of states that launched sports betting in 2023, Ohio proved to be a runaway winner for Rookie of the Year. The Ohio Casino Control Commission reported handle totaling more than $829.9 million for December on Wednesday as the Buckeye State narrowly missed eclipsing Pennsylvania for fifth nationally in 2023 handle during its first 12 months of legal betting. Including kiosks overseen by the state lottery, total Ohio sports betting handle was slightly above $831.1 million for the final month of 2023. That total was down nearly 4% from November.

Pennsylvania

• US Bets: Jackpocket Lottery App Launches Its First Online Casino In New Jersey
  • Jackpocket has become the first lottery platform to enter the online casino space, launching its New Jersey iCasino on Wednesday. Offering hundreds of casino titles, Jackpocket, which bills itself as the “#1 lottery app in the United States,” enters the very competitive and crowded New Jersey online casino market. “This launch immediately expands Jackpocket’s entertainment offerings in New Jersey and will do the same for fans in other markets in the future,” Jackpocket CEO and founder Peter Sullivan said in a press release.