Spin Cycle: Same Old Tax Rates, Two New Virginia Casinos Highlight Week In Gambling

Welcome to “Spin Cycle,” Casino Reports’ weekly Friday roundup of all things impactful, intriguing, impressive, or idiotic in the gambling industry. Pull up a chair, grab a stack of chips and a glass of your beverage of choice, and take a spin with us through this week’s news cycle …

Tax hike? Sike!

About two weeks after the U.K. Treasury floated the idea of substantially increasing taxes for gambling operators, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced this week that, never mind, tax rates will be unchanged, at least for now.

The possibility had caused worry and falling stock prices among companies — some of which operate in the U.S., most notably FanDuel parent Flutter — but stocks rose off this week’s news. Evoke spiked 10% and Entain 9%, while Flutter’s NYSE price rose 4.5% in early trading.

Taxes will remain at a tiered 15-50% for brick-and-mortar gaming and 21% for mobile — whereas the latter seemed at risk of doubling to 42%. Still, the U.K. government indicated it may revisit the conversation about altering the tax structure next year.

Doubling down in Virginia 

Shovels met sand Wednesday for the ceremonial groundbreaking in Norfolk, Virginia, where Boyd Gaming and the Pamunkey Tribe are preparing to bring a new $750 million casino to the state. The project has become more extravagant since Boyd came on board, as previous estimates ranged from $500 million to $700 million.

The aim is to have the casino construction complete by late 2027 — but in the meantime, a temporary facility is expected to be up and running next year.

Meanwhile, about 200 miles to the west, Caesars and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are close to opening their full casino in Danville, Virginia. They’ve been operating a temporary property since May 2023, but the permanent Caesars Virginia is on pace to open in December with 1,400 slot machines and more than 80 table games. And there are 105 job openings listed on Caesars’ website.

The Danville project, just like its Norfolk counterpart, comes with a price tag of $750 million.

Sweeps gaming ‘murky at best,’ AGA says

One week after welcoming the president of the Sports Betting Alliance (SBA) for his thoughts on sweepstakes gaming, The New Normal podcast went for a different three-letter acronym this week, chatting with American Gaming Association (AGA) Senior Vice President for Government Relations Chris Cylke on Wednesday’s show. And the word of the day for Cylke was “murky.”

When asked by hosts Victor Rocha and Jason Giles — both leaders in the tribal gaming community — about comparisons between the McDonald’s Monopoly game that operates under sweepstakes law and online casinos that purport to do the same, Cylke said “McDonald’s may be on solid ground here, [but] when you apply it to online casino gaming, it’s murky at best.”

The AGA represents casinos and regulated online operators, whose potential involvement in social/sweeps gaming was the subject of a recent Casino Reports examination. “If sweepstakes gaming were as clear-cut as those involved with it are saying,” Cylke commented, “we probably would be doing it. But it’s not worth putting gaming licenses at risk.”

On the other hand, Cylke pointed out, those operators currently running sweeps sites don’t face similar risk: “The only reason many of these operators are in the sweepstakes space is because they don’t have any skin in the game, other parts of their company aren’t in jeopardy, and they don’t have any licenses to lose.”

There are two installments still to come in Rocha and Giles’ five-part series on sweepstakes gaming — which the hosts freely acknowledge is coming from the perspective of tribal interests that are presently opposed to sweeps operations.

Online poker news: Launch in PA, suspension in MI

Add one more site to the Pennsylvania regulated online poker ecosystem: BetRivers Poker launched on Halloween, in collaboration with veteran poker pro Phil Galfond and his defunct Run It Once Poker platform.

BetRivers Poker joins PokerStars, WSOP Online, BetMGM Poker, and Borgata Poker as options in the Keystone State (along with DraftKings, which offers one form of peer-to-peer poker within its iCasino app). This is potentially perfect timing for BetRivers Poker, as Pennsylvania is taking steps toward allowing interstate play in the coming months.

Meanwhile, in another major online poker state, controversy is afoot. Michigan’s Kevin Ruscitti won a WSOP Online bracelet in October, pocketing over $38,000, but soon after, his account was suspended. Other Michigan players reported suspicions that Ruscitti appeared to be using real-time assistance (RTA) tools that are not permitted.

Ruscitti denied the accusations in a Facebook post: “Not only do I not use GTOWizard I don’t even use a HUD when I play on PokerStars. You don’t need GTOWizard when you are a wizard,” he wrote. “Anyways once I’m proven innocent I’ll be back.”

As of press time, WSOP Online was still investigating the situation, and Ruscitti had not been stripped of his bracelet.

House Rules: Insights from around our network

PROP CHOP: Two-way players, one-way markets, and the Jontay Porter effect [by Aaron Moore]

CHAIR JORDAN: Jordan Maynard named chair of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission [by Brett Smiley]

PALACE INTRIGUE: Caesars Entertainment points to 83% growth in online gaming amid slight overall revenue decline [by Erik Gibbs]

GIDDY UP? Assessing the Texas Senate’s views on gambling ahead of November election [by Matthew Bain]

MOUNTAIN DO: West Virginia Lottery going digital, launching iPlay and PlayOn Thursday [by Erik Gibbs]

IF THE SHOE FITS: Horseshoe Online Casino comes to Pennsylvania [by Eric Raskin]

PRIME OPPORTUNITY: Amazon faces 2026 trial in groundbreaking social casino lawsuit [by Erik Gibbs]

THE MANE EVENT: Record number of Japanese horses in Breeders’ Cup, but Japanese bettors can’t wager on some of them [by Mike Seely]

SWEEPS SNAKE: Philadelphia DA sues Elon Musk over $1 million lottery for swing state voters [by Erik Gibbs]

SOCIAL STUDIES: Expert: Social sweeps definitely contributing to problem gambling in younger generations [by Matthew Bain]

DEAL BREAKER: DraftKings to close live dealer studio at Golden Nugget, let go 101 employees [by Brett Smiley]

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM … Seminole Tribe and West Flagler forge landmark partnership to end long-running dispute [by Erik Gibbs]

The Shuffle: Other news and views

ROARING SUCCESS: MGM Resorts sees record revenue in Q3 [CDC Gaming Reports]

THE RATE DEBATE: Missouri sports betting ballot measure highlights national debate about tax rates [Associated Press]

CRIME DOESN’T PAY: Bettor who stood to win $1 million in Jontay Porter betting scam pleads guilty [iGaming Business]

SLOT SWAP: North Strip casino to replace poker room with slots [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

ROCK THE BET: The election is bigger than the Super Bowl for offshore sportsbooks [Prediction News]

MASS APPEAL: UMass report finds state’s casino impacts mostly positive [Daily Hampshire Gazette]

WHAT A RUSH! Rush Street Interactive CEO paints picture of success [CDC Gaming Reports]

DUBAI HIGH: Aristocrat awarded first gaming vendor licence in UAE [iGaming Business]

FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT: Pregnant, scared, and forced to breathe poison — thanks, Trenton [NJ.com]

The Bonus Round

Completing the Spin Cycle with some odds and ends and our favorite social media posts of the week:

• What’s better than a $1 Million Dragon Link slot game? A $2 Million Dragon Link slot game, obviously. Aristocrat Gaming’s first such machines made their debut Wednesday in Las Vegas at the Venetian High-Limit Slots Salon and the Palazzo High-Limit Gaming Lounge. But fear not, fans of the $1 Million Dragon Link games; those are still available in both high-limit rooms as well.

• Quick shoutout to DraftKings Sportsbook for its “King of the Court” promo that started last week and ends today. This is among the most enjoyable promotions — from both a strategy and a sweat perspective — that I’ve seen since sports betting expansion began. (And I’m not just saying that because I won twice, landing a $36 free bet one time and a $290 free bet the other.) (OK, maybe I am just saying that because I won twice.) (And OK, maybe this whole paragraph is just an excuse to brag publicly that I won twice.)

• PENN Entertainment and ESPN announced Friday the arrival of account linking between the ESPN BET app and the ESPN app, allowing users to track their bets within the ESPN app or on ESPN.com. “This feature is just the beginning of deeper integrations that will further differentiate the ESPN BET experience,” said PENN Chief Technology Officer Aaron LaBerge in a press release. On the one hand, this is very convenient for the sports fan/bettor. On the other hand, how lazy have we become that we can no longer move our thumbs the requisite amount to switch between two smartphone apps?

• Netflix and nosh? MGM Grand in Las Vegas has announced that a Netflix-themed pop-up restaurant is coming to the property early next year. It will be called Netflix Bites Vegas, and some of the dishes seem obvious — like a Squid Game-themed calamari appetizer, for example. That said, good luck getting people to order a dish called “Nobody Wants This,” or anything with a Dahmer theme.

• Halloween is over, but Happy Halloween anyway!