Spin Cycle: Third Planet Solar System Expansion Highlights 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 …

Get in the game

One of the cardinal rules of journalism — real journalism that is, journalism from an era before ESPN decided overpaid blabbermouths mattered more than the actual sports and news — is not to make it about yourself.

Well, “Spin Cycle” is breaking that rule for our opening segment this week.

As you may have heard, our parent company, Third Planet Media, launched a new site this week: InGame.

Some of the same bylines you’ve been seeing here at Casino Reports have started appearing on InGame. In the first few hours after the site went live Thursday morning, it featured Jill Dorson on customer priorities with regard to withdrawal speed, Jeff Edelstein on the creeping influence of the supposedly doomed-to-fail SAFE Bet Act, AJ Moore on the balance between bettor and fan, and more.

There are additional names and announcements to come, and the site is only in “soft launch” mode for now. But with InGame on the scene to focus mostly on developments on the sports gambling side of things, expect to see less sports betting and DFS news here on Casino Reports. Instead, this site will lean more heavily into — as the name suggests — casino news and analysis (both online and land-based), as well sweepstakes, poker, and so forth.

As anyone paying any attention in 2025 knows, the gambling world is evolving at a mind-melting pace. Third Planet Media is evolving right along with it.

Pump down the volume

Just to prove we don’t make it all about ourselves, we’ll recommend a must-read from another publication. On Monday, The Closing Line newsletter published a guest column by Sporttrade COO David Huffman, and it’s a must-read for anyone looking to understand how prediction market trading volume relates to classical sportsbook betting handle.

Here’s an excerpt that gives you a sense of Huffman’s analysis:

“At Sporttrade, where handle is tracked (and taxed: we pay 0.25% of each dollar of handle as Federal Excise Tax), we’ve historically found that only 5% to 20% of golf trading volume translates to handle, due to the behaviors described above.

“Using that ratio, Kalshi’s $87M in volume would reflect actual customer risk of somewhere in the range of $4 million to $17 million — a stark difference.”

Huffman notes that ratios vary depending on the sport and how much in-game betting/trading it typically attracts. But the bottom line is, when you see the number “$504.2 million” representing the amount traded at Kalshi on March Madness, know that it is very much not the equivalent of a half-billion dollars in handle in standard against-the-house wagering.

Farewell to a ‘force of nature’

The co-founder of Mirage Resorts and Wynn Resorts with her ex-husband Steve Wynn, influential Las Vegas figure Elaine Wynn died in Los Angeles Tuesday, two weeks shy of her 83rd birthday.

The Wynns were married and divorced twice. They first wed in 1963, split in ’86, remarried in ’91, and divorced again in 2010. But Elaine was more than just the on-and-off spouse of a powerful man. She was a co-founder of his major casinos, a power broker in her own right, and a philanthropist through numerous charitable organizations, including the Elaine P. Wynn & Family Foundation.

In that foundation’s press release announcing her death, Wynn was described as “more than a businesswoman or philanthropist; she was a force of nature — a curator of dreams in a city built on aspirations.”

Wynn is survived by two daughters and seven grandchildren.

Blurbs inside of blurbs

There was almost too much news to keep up with this week. A few quick-hit items and updates:

• On Thursday, the North Carolina Senate passed the new budget proposal that includes a provision to double the tax rate on sports betting from 18% to 36%. The vote was 30-15 in favor, and it now moves on to the House.
• The Arizona Department of Gaming issued cease-and-desists Thursday to “unlicensed and unregulated gambling operators” in a variety of forms, including three sweepstakes operators, well-known offshores BetUS and MyBookie, “event wagering sportsbook” Generiz, and peer-to-peer exchange ProphetX. The operators were directed to immediately cease gambling activities in Arizona.
• Caesars announced Wednesday an expansion on the online casino front, advancing its partnership with AGS and becoming “the exclusive first online home” for the popular Triple Coin Treasures line of slot titles. The first game launching is Shamrock Fortunes.
• On Thursday, Light & Wonder announced an investment of 20% equity in Bang Bang Games, a slot studio previously focused mostly on the European markets. In the press release, L&W highlighted that the investment “reflects Light & Wonder’s continued commitment to being a great place for game studios to grow and succeed, offering support that goes beyond distribution.”

House Rules: Insights from around our network

LIVE FROM ECGC, PART 1: Future of sweepstakes, event contracts dominating conversation at Atlantic City conference [by John Brennan]

LIVE FROM ECGC, PART 2: Real estate mogul weighs in on chase for NYC-area casino licenses [by John Brennan]

LIVE FROM ECGC, PART 3: New Jersey governor not backing down (yet) on proposed online gaming tax hike[by John Brennan]

MINTY FRESH: ESPN BET and ESPN deepen app integration with ‘Mint Club’ [by Chris Altruda]

PUMP THE BRAKES: Is the jackpot actually growing faster under new Mega Millions rules? [by Eric Raskin]

MITTEN SMITTEN: Michigan iGaming operators post record $260.5 million haul for March [by Chris Altruda]

DOLL PARTS: Barbie, Black quarterbacks, and being a keynote speaker on the East Coast [by Richard Schuetz]

COMMITTEE CITY: Tax rate, fees, regulator at issue as Hawaii sports betting bill goes to conference [by Jill Dorson]

THIS AIN’T TEXAS: Arizona to become third state to regulate lottery couriers [by Eric Raskin]

ONLINE AND UPWARD: New Jersey online casino revenue reaches record $243.9 million for March [by Chris Altruda]

WHERE THERE’S SMOKE … : How a casino exemption helped doom Nevada’s landmark anti-smoking bill [by Matthew Bain]

Small stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, my co-host Jeff Edelstein and I  welcomed PropSwap co-founder and CEO Luke Pergande for a postmortem on his company’s recent controversy with “The Cat” and the lessons learned. Here’s a taste:

We also covered DraftKings and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission fulfilling a widow’s request to void a bet (and setting a problematic precedent in the process), assorted legislative news items, my trip to Atlantic City to see Jerry Seinfeld perform, and yada yada yada. Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

THE HOUSE DOESN’T ALWAYS WIN: California woman wins $15M judgment against Strip casino-hotel [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

BADA BING!: New Jersey councilman arrested in illegal online gambling investigation [Complete iGaming]

FOLLOW THE MONEY: Casino operator Mohegan closes on debt refinancing after warning of possible default in January [Hartford Business]

THE SCHEME TEAM: How a secretive gambler called ‘The Joker’ took down the Texas Lottery [The Wall Street Journal]

BIG EMPTY: A tour of an Atlantic City casino that hasn’t seen a gambler in over 11 years [CatCountry1073]

EBBS AND FLOWS: Despite concerns over recession and international travel, analyst sees potential in gaming stocks [CDC Gaming Resorts]

PICS OR IT DIDN’T HAPPEN: Vegas casinos change photo rules as social media transforms gaming floor policies [96.3 KKLZ]

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN: Poll: 83% of South Jersey voters support smoking ban for Atlantic City casinos [Press of Atlantic City]

INSIDE INFORMATION: Gambling Commission charges 15 in election betting investigation [iGaming Business]

EASY MONEY: Maryland should look to online gaming to address financial crisis [Baltimore Sun]

The Bonus Round

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

• As the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, YouTube star MrBeast’s event at Resorts World Las Vegas this week was such a dud that Resorts World offered full refunds to any customer who requested one. As one Reddit user explained: “It was advertised as an ‘immersive experience’ but aside from a gift bag and a channel on the TV showing the MrBeast logo when you turned it on, it was a flop.” MrBeast? More like … MrLeast! (This is why they pay me the big bucks, dear readers.) 

• You have to love a good casino caper gone wrong. As NOLA.com reported, a roulette dealer at Caesars New Orleans and a customer were busted for allegedly working together to implement a “late bets” scheme, which allowed them to score more than $10,000 in chips. We all know how roulette works: The dealer spins the wheel, drops the ball, and declares “no more bets” at some point prior to it being possible to guess where the ball will land. But, get this: If you place your bet after the ball lands, the game becomes very beatable. You just have to not get caught. (But it turns out there are lots of cameras in casinos to catch you. Who knew?)

• It’s WrestleMania weekend in Vegas — the first time Sin City has hosted the event since 1993. WrestleMania 41 takes place over two nights, Saturday and Sunday, and the main event is Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena — the latter being best known, of course, for starring in the 2024 Prime Video gambling-adjacent action-comedy Jackpot!

And we’ll take you out this week with Vegas Matt introducing the Spin Cycle’s official new mantra, “I don’t think you have to understand it, you’ve just gotta be lucky”: