Heavy load: North Carolina bill’s late additions
North Carolina, AGA response, Australia self-exclusion, UKGC data charge, Dutch influencer scam +More
Good morning. On today’s agenda:
The addition of iCasino and VLT in NC leaves bill ‘built to fail’.
AGA chief says legal market is doing its job.
Australia’s new national self-exclusion register goes live.
UKGC accused of double standards on use of data.
Sucker’s punch: Netherlands ‘fixed sports’ scam uncovered.
We wanna get loaded and we wanna have a good time.
Weighed down
iCasino and VLTs could be added to casino discussions – but their addition makes passage more unlikely.
Load ’em up boys: Senate leader Phil Berger has told local media that the current negotiations for up to four new casinos in the state could encompass discussions around both iCasino and VLTs.
Berger said the key concern was the potential revenue impact from any expanded gambling.
He said “one of the things that we have to be cognizant of” is the potential for “market saturation” and whether iCasino might cannibalize land-based gaming.
Nature boys: Gambling industry lobbyists, the Sports Betting Alliance (SBA), have been busy lobbying within the state, which will make its OSB debut in January. Speaking to WRAL TV, Scott Ward, vice-president of the SBA, said iCasino was a “natural fit and should be included in the conversation”.
“If you're going to be more gaming legislation, it makes sense to include this,” Ward added. “This is where the consumer is now.”
He said that iCasino would bring almost immediate tax dollars compared with either VLTs or brick-and-mortar casinos, “which would have to be built”.
Speaker Tim Moore was more supportive of VLTs. “I actually support the notion of going to the video lottery terminals, going to video terminals,” he said.
“I think the way that should be done is through the legislature authorizing that.”
Moore also expressed concern over RG issues and online.
"I've got real concerns with the iGaming right now," Moore said. “I really do. I need to hear more data to know 100% where I am. But everything I hear right now causes concerns.”
Berger expressed a preference for land-based casino expansion due to the jobs it can bring. “It actually has the prospect not only of revenue to the state, but creating jobs for people,” he told the station.
“It is, I think, the only form of gaming where you're going to see a significant creation of new jobs to the state, whereas you're not going to see that with something on people's phones.”
Did you leave room for dessert: After legalizing OSB and watching the Lottery authorize online instant win ticket sales, the North Carolina legislature may feel it has already eaten its fill when it comes to gambling expansions.
In addition to his comments about social harms, Moore also wondered aloud if the Lottery’s authorization of instant win tickets was within its mandate.
“It's a gray area as told to me,” Moore said.
Instant insight: Combining gambling expansions at this stage in the game is often a sign of desperation. Comprehensive expansions usually take shape much earlier in the process.
As one Pennsylvania lawmaker put it, this is a legislative tactic known as “adding things to a bill until it fails”. Is that what is happening in North Carolina?
US notebook
Massachusetts: Caesars Entertainment notified the state Gaming Commission it has terminated its agreement with Raynham Park to operate a sportsbook at the racetrack, according to a report in the Boston Herald.
Love that dirty water: The paper reported that the move came at the same time as a meeting last Friday where the commission was told of several violations by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
These related to the handling and disposal of hazardous or construction-related materials committed by the track’s owners, the Carney family.
Oklahoma: Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association chair Matthew Morgan said sports-betting legalization in the state would depend on the tribal compact negotiations with the state legislature and Gov. Kevin Stitt. Morgan’s comments came during a panel discussion at the annual Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association Conference.
Recall, a bill that would have authorized land-based betting and OSB via the existing compacts passed the state house in March but failed to pass the Senate finance committee stage.
Kentucky: Gov. Andy Beshear said late last week that sports betting will officially launch in the state at 10am ET on Thursday, September 7 for in-person bets at licensed race tracks.
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AGA response
Legalization is doing its job, says AGA chief.
Proof of the pudding: AGA CEO Bill Miller said the moves to expand sports betting in the US are having their intended effect in terms of channeling consumers into the legal market. Citing recent AGA data, he noted that 77% of all online bets now go through the legal market versus 44% in 2019.
Responding to an article in the Financial Times entitled ‘The dark side of the US betting boom’, Miller said in a letter to the paper that the marked shift to legal betting options “protects consumers”.
Answering the critics cited in the original article about a surge in gambling addiction, Miller said the growth in the legal market was accompanied by “critical funding”.
“We want those who need help to have it, which is why our members invest hundreds of millions annually into prevention and services,” he added.
Miller lambasted what he said was the “egregious” suggestion that legal operators have loose oversight and offer few consumer protections. He said the post-PASPA regulatory environment was still evolving.
“Every day, legal operators gain better insight into how customers engage with our product, build responsible gaming practices based on that data and work collaboratively with regulators to raise the bar,” he said.
He added that many new regulations “reflect our members’ proactive responsibility efforts”.
For the regulated market to succeed, Miller suggested, consumers would need to trust the products, understand that safeguards are in place and recognize that RG tools are available.
“And they do,” he added. “92% of past year sports bettors are aware of responsible gaming resources.”
Stop and listen
Australia’s new national self-exclusion register BetStop goes live.
Stop this train: Aussies who register can now exclude themselves from placing bets from a minimum of three months to a lifetime. BetStop covers all Australian licensed interactive wagering service operators, both online and telephone-based.
The providers are not allowed to open an account or accept a bet from self-excluded individuals or send them marketing material.
Alongside the launch of BetStop, the government will also introduce mandatory customer pre-verification, which will require wagering service providers to verify a customer’s identity when they register for a new account and before they can place a bet.
This will replace the existing requirement to verify a customer’s identity within 72 hours and is expected to be in place by the end of September.
Double standards
The UK Gambling Commission should set a better example on the use of data, suggests gambling lawyer.
Physician, heal thyself: UKGC CEO Andrew Rhodes’ concern about the use of statistics in the debate around gambling has been criticized by Jason Chess at Wiggin, who suggested the Commission’s own record on statistics and data is patchy at best.
Pointing to a “withering” report from the National Audit Office (NAO) from 2020, Chess said the NAO “seemed to think that the Commission itself was seriously data – and statistics – deficient”.
Chess quoted from the report, which laid into the Commission for having “not yet developed” its high-level aims into “detailed, measurable success criteria against which to judge progress”.
Show you workings: Chess suggested that, to his knowledge, the Commission has been deficient in publishing any detailed evaluations in a number of areas. These include a whole host of recent initiatives and policy areas:
The effect of the guidance on SR Code 3.4 relating to customer interactions.
The additional customer protection guidance issued during the pandemic.
The ban on reverse withdrawals.
New practice in relation to high-value customers.
How GAMSTOP has performed.
The effect of its own regulatory settlements and sanctions
The general rapid and substantial industry-wide improvements in player protection over the last several years, including the widespread rollout of financial risk checks.
Biter bit: Chess’s second complaint related to whom Rhodes decided to criticize when complaining about the misuse of statistics. The Commission boss rebuked “all parties” for data failings but actually only cited examples from those who seek to defend the industry.
Yet, the arguably more misleading misuse of stats by anti-gambling lobbyists – which are often given even greater play by the media – “are not mentioned”, Chess noted.
The letter “might have come across as a little better-balanced”, Chess suggested, if it had cited some of the statistics from commentators such as the Bishop of St Albans or Public Health England itself.
These, Chess argued, “are in a different league altogether to the examples cited in the ‘open letter’”.
UK notebook
Epic Risk Management has agreed a two-year partnership with the Hippodrome in London to coordinate a pilot program of harm-minimization training. Epic will work with licensed and unlicensed customer-facing staff to ensure safer gambling is treated as a key focus of player interactions.
GamCare has appointed D’Arcy Myers as its new interim CEO. Myers has been a charity CEO for 12 years at the likes of Allergy UK and the TV and Film charity. Margot Daly, chair of trustees at GamCare, said that Myers’ “wide-ranging experience” will be “invaluable for the organization at a time of great change for this sector”.
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Dutch fix
There appears to be a sucker born every minute in the Netherlands.
One born every minute: Multiple Dutch influencers were paid to promote bets on “fixed” sporting events to more than 900,000 followers on various social media channels, according to reports. Dutch daily AD said prospective bettors were offered the opportunity to buy the results of supposedly fixed matches in advance, using various cryptocurrencies.
No matches were actually fixed and punters who bet on these matches lost significant amounts of money, in addition to the sums paid to the scammers.
Parliamentarians are taking the matter up, after it was suggested the legalization of online gambling in the Netherlands opened the door to such scams.
Netherlands notebook
V for victory: More than a year after receiving a license, VBet is live in the Netherlands. The sports-betting business won approval last June. Operators have bemoaned the onerous entry requirements necessary to gain approval by the Dutch authorities, who have hinted at a review of the process.
European notebook
Sweden: The Swedish National Audit Office is to review the effectiveness of gambling regulator Spelinspektionen. The audit office said changing regulatory conditions in the Swedish gambling market prompted its thinking to grade the agency’s progress.
New regulations entered force in Sweden on July 1, establishing new supplier licenses and enforcement powers for the regulator, and new goals for gambling policy.
It will investigate whether the regulator is currently meeting its targets and will release more information in due time.
Malta: Green Feather Online is off the naughty step after the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) lifted the suspension it handed out to the operator of bCasino, Boo Casino and Galactic Wins earlier this month over financial documentation breaches.
The MGA said that the suspension has been rescinded due to “prompt action and cooperation from the operator”.
Romania: The National Office for Games of Chance (ONJN) has revoked Cash Gaming SRL’s slot machine license after the company failed to make necessary mandatory payments. Cash Gaming is headquartered in the municipality of Bistriÿa, which originally held a license valid until 2031.
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