Industry News of the Day for February 15, 2023

By iDEA | February 15, 2023

Industry News

  • SBC Americas: Bills In WV And MD Aim To Audit Sports Betting Content Creators And Touts
    • Lawmakers in West Virginia and Maryland have introduced similar legislation which would require sports betting operators to audit the content creators they work with. Delegate Clay Riley filed HB3232 in West Virginia, while the Maryland bill, SB621, is sponsored by Sens. Craig Zucker and Shelly Hettleman. Both bills set up frameworks where operators need to use third-party auditors to vet content creators that work with the brand.

California

  • PlayCA: Will Return Of Moratorium On California Cardrooms Ease Tensions With Tribes?
    • Earlier this month, California Assembly Member James Ramos introduced a bill to reinstate the 25-year moratorium on cardrooms. The current ban expired on Jan. 1 after lawmakers failed to renew it last September. Sen. Bill Dodd was instrumental in ending the moratorium. He currently chairs the Senate Governmental Organization Committee, which handles all gaming issues in the Golden State.

Iowa

  • iGB North America: Iowa Sports Betting Revenue Rises Despite Handle Drop In January
    • Sports betting revenue in Iowa increased 15.4% year-on-year in January despite consumers in the state spending less on wagering. Revenue for the month amounted to $16.5m, an increase from $14.3m in January last year but 19.1% behind $20.4m in December 2022. Of this total, $15.3m was generated through online sports betting, while the remaining $1.3m in revenue came from retail wagering.

Massachusetts

  • Legal Sports Report: All New MA Sports Betting Operators Face College Wagering Violations
    • All three casinos in the Commonwealth have already been in violation of the state regulation that prohibits MA sports betting on in-state college teams.  An investigation is underway after MGM Springfield (BetMGM) allowed sports betting in Massachusetts on a pair of Harvard University men’s basketball games in early February.

Michigan

  • PlayMichigan: Detroit Casinos Claim $103.4 Million In January Revenue, Led By MGM Grand
    • Detroit’s retail casinos generated $103.4 million in gaming revenue for January 2023. That was a 4.4% increase from January 2022, when the three casinos brought in just under $99 million. Retail sports betting had just $15.3 million in handle for January, a 57% drop from a year ago. In January 2022, the three retail sportsbooks collected $35.9 million in handle.

New Jersey

  • PlayUSA: New Jersey Governor Says Casinos Will Pay Fair Share Of Taxes
    • New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy expects a resolution to Atlantic City’s payment-in-lieu-of-tax (PILOT) program, saying recently that casinos should “pay their fair share.” On Feb. 2, during his “Ask Governor Murphy” radio show on WNYC, the governor said: “Tax fairness is really important to us, and it has been from day one. And if we don’t quite get it right, we’ll come back at it and do everything we can to get it right.”

New York

  • PlayNY: New York Needs It, But Sports Betting Tax Bill Faces Steep Hill To Passage
    • Sen. Joe Addabbo has proposed a bill that could turn the tides of a New York sports betting market that is on the decline. Last month, Addabbo introduced bill S 1962. Its goal is to increase the number of sports betting operators in the Empire State while lowering the tax rate. This would bring more competition for New York’s nine active sportsbooks, but they’d also enjoy a diminished tax rate. The NY sports betting tax rate is currently set at 51%.
  • New York Sports Day: New York Tops All States in Record-Breaking Super Bowl Betting
    • New York clocked 13.9 million geolocation checks from Friday, Feb. 11, at midnight through the end of the Super Bowl. New York also showed the second-highest number of unique accounts, with more than 851,000 unique accounts tracked. Only Ohio showed more unique accounts, at 1.1 million. Ohio launched legal sports betting in January of this year.

Tennessee

  • Sports Handle: Tennessee Wagering Regulator Concerned About Unrealized Tax Revenue
    • Tennessee received $68 million in tax revenue from mobile sports betting operators in 2022, but the state’s regulator felt like it left money on the table.  In Tennessee, operators must have a 10% hold on gross revenue, according to state regulations. When they don’t, they’re given the option to either pay a $25,000 fine or a privilege tax payment equal to the difference of what they would have paid had they adhered to the hold and what they actually paid.
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