Indiana iCasino hopes in the bin
Indiana iCasino proponents throw in the towel, casino closures in the UK, Finland mulls policy changes, Italy’s reforms examined +More
Good morning. On today’s agenda:
Hopes that Indiana might be the next iCasino state have turned to dust.
Casino closures in the UK underline the need for regulatory speed.
Paddy Power slammed for ad ‘mocking’ autism sensory rooms.
Finland mulls ditching its gambling monopoly post-election.
What is Italy’s biggest gambling reform problem? Italy.
Out there the law's a-comin', I'm scared and so tired of runnin'.
Dead on arrival
Hopes for Indiana being the next state to legalize iCasino have been dashed.
Down the drain: The most promising candidate to legalize iCasino in 2023 has thrown in the towel. Indiana’s online gambling bill was left for dead in the committee its sponsor (Rep. Ethan Manning) chairs. Sen. Jon Ford pointed to a flawed fiscal impact statement from the Indiana Legislative Services Agency about land-based cannibalization.
“I think the fiscal is a joke,” Ford told PlayUSA. “It may be one of the worst documents I’ve seen come out of our legislative services.”
The fiscal note used an outdated 2011 UNLV study published before a single US state offered legal online gambling.
Behind the scenes: Sources working closely on the matter have told C+M that the real stumbling block was the VGT lobby, and the fiscal note made for a convenient excuse.
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Dial M for muddle
Missouri and Minnesota have tricky sports-betting hurdles to overcome.
Hearings in the M states: Missouri and Minnesota held sports-betting hearings yesterday (Wednesday). Both states look primed to legalize OSB, but each has a small but thus far insurmountable hurdle to overcome.
In Minnesota, the state’s two commercial racetracks want in on the sports-betting action, while gaming tribes want complete control over the industry.
Missouri has the standard Midwest problem of VLTs/VGTs.
VLT supporters in the statehouse are unwilling to budge and are willing to sink any standalone sports-betting effort.
The state’s casinos have seen the impact of VGTs in neighboring Illinois, and VLTs for sports betting is not a deal they want to make.
Touch of gray
VGTs have also become an issue in Kentucky. In a report by the Courier-Journal, the paper noted VGTs – or “gray machines” or “skill games”, depending on what side of the fight you are on – is the most heavily lobbied issue of 2023.
That doesn’t bode well for Kentucky’s sports-betting effort, which has been pushed to the side.
Tribal outlook
Change is a-comin’: The Bureau of Indian Affairs has proposed several significant changes to the rules governing tribal gaming in the US:
States that have legalized any form of Class III gambling would be required to negotiate with tribes over every Class III game. That requirement would extend to online gambling.
Tribes could offer mobile gambling throughout the state without a commercial license.
The rules around land-in-trust would be simplified, allowing tribes to build casinos outside of historically tribal lands.
These changes would radically alter the gaming landscape in the US. Tribes would turn the current tables on commercial operators and have significant advantages regarding access to the online realm.
There is a March 1 deadline for comment, but several entities have already requested extending the deadline to May 31.
A deeper look at the online gambling provisions can be found here: Proposed Tribal Gambling Rules Could Upend Online Gambling.
Cut and shut
Another day, another casino closure.
Goodbye again: Genting has shuttered its venue in Nottingham’s Cornerhouse building, on the heels of Clockfair’s decision to place the Broadway Casino in Birmingham into administration. Although it has no immediate plans to shut any of its other 34 casinos, the closure of the Cornerhouse venue marks five clubs Genting has scrubbed in the last year.
Margate, Torquay, Southport and Bristol are the others.
The company said it carried out a month-long review and took the decision based on “commercial considerations”, as the continued fallout from the pandemic, cost-of-living crisis and high inflation rates combined to keep footfall down.
Locals told the Nottingham Post they were sad to see another high-street casualty, but it’s easier to gamble online.
Look how they massacred my boy: Industry figures have lamented the loss of another once proud venue, as the pandemic and crippling taxes combined to hobble what had been a decade of growth for the sector to 2019.
In the last year, London’s high-end spots such as the Clermont Club, Maxims and Ritz Casino have permanently closed, along with Grosvenor’s Russell Square club and other, smaller venues.
Gordon Brown, tax you for fun: “UK operators have been repeatedly stung by restrictive legislation, excessive taxation and a robust and enthusiastic regulator,” said one industry lawyer. “Pandemic notwithstanding, the tax issue itself has resulted in the closure of about 50 full-service casinos since Gordon Brown hiked duty to 50% in 2007.”
“This has been mitigated in part by the evolution of fully electric casinos often bolted onto another casino to double up machine entitlement but with practically zero staff costs,” the lawyer said.
There are currently 28 fully electronic casinos, many of which have appeared in venues where the operator has closed a main casino in the same town/city, the lawyer said.
“This is why the industry is desperate to get the increased machine numbers expected in the White Paper, subject to size requirements,” he told C+M.
Please sir, I want some more: The government’s White Paper on gambling reform, originally expected by the end of June 2021 and due “within the coming weeks” ever since, may include an increase in gaming machine entitlements for some land-based casinos, along with other forms of relief for the sector.
The current cap on machines is set at 20, but there are concerns that around 70 of the UK’s casinos would not benefit from any relaxing of the rules given their smaller size.
The Betting and Gaming Council is urging the government to end the delays and publish the reform agenda as soon as possible in order to give the land-based sector the fillip it desperately needs.
A spokesperson told C+M that casinos, which contribute so much to the economy in jobs and taxation, had been left behind by outdated legislation and “deserve a chance to modernize”.
“The casino requests in the White Paper, underpinned by safer gambling protections, are modest but mission critical; they also enjoy widespread political support,” they said.
Mock tactics
Paddy Power ad slammed for ‘mocking’ autism sensory rooms.
Paddy Power has again courted controversy with its near-the-knuckle marketing, this time attracting the ire of disability charities.
Read the room: A video posted on the firm’s social media accounts showed fans visiting a fictional ‘Spurs Sensory Centre’, which poked fun at the club’s lack of trophies and its supporters’ fixation on rivals Arsenal. Two leading UK charities said the campaign was a “cheap jibe” that “mocked” people with autism.
All 20 Premier League clubs have sensory rooms, which allow adults and children with difficulties such as autism to watch live matches from a room with a window to the pitch.
The National Autistic Society criticized the advert and said sensory rooms should be “applauded, not mocked”.
“We honestly have no idea what Paddy Power thought the benefits of making this film were,” said Tim Nicholls, head of influencing and research at the National Autistic Society.
Level Playing Field, a charity campaigning for an inclusive match-day experience for disabled supporters, added that the “poor taste” and derogatory wording from Paddy Power undermined the work done to help all supporters watch live matches.
Naughty naughty: Paddy Power still holds the record for the most-complained about UK advert.
A “money back if he walks” promotion during the Oscar Pistorius murder trial in which the firm offered odds on the outcome was banned in 2014 after more than 5,500 complaints.
He’s not Finnish
Finns go to the polls on April 2 with the economy at the center of the battle between the parties. Liberalization of gambling operations as a way to plug the $153bn national debt may be something they all agree on.
Careless whisper: Off-record chatter from Finnish officials at the recent ICE London 2023 conference suggested that the days of the state monopoly may be numbered once the new government is formed, regardless of the winner.
Finland’s state monopoly has been in place for over 70 years, with consolidation of Veikkaus Oy, RAY (the Finnish Slot Machine Association) and Fintoto taking place in 2017.
Veikkaus’ overall share in the digital gambling market plunged to 50% in the first half of 2022, according to Velipekka Nummikoski, the company’s executive vice-president in a recent interview that many interpreted as a cry for help.
With overseas online operators eating Veikkaus’s lunch, the three biggest parties believe the encroachment of unregistered foreign companies can only be tackled with reform, and a review of gambling laws to improve the system is expected.
It is predicted Finland will follow the licensing trend adopted elsewhere in Europe; Nordic neighbors Sweden imposed an 18% tax on online gaming operators in 2019.
License to thrive: “It can be assumed that the gambling system in Finland will in the near future be based on the license model,” said Jon Hautamäki, managing partner at Nordic Law. “It is almost certain that Finland will collect license fees from companies entering the market.”
Whether other taxes are collected in addition to lottery tariffs is uncertain, Hautamäki said, adding that the new regulatory model would likely offer a variety of licenses depending on the services provided.
Advertising is also expected to be restricted by a separate law, with a new regulator in place to oversee the rejigged gambling sector.
“Those who want to enter the Finnish market should start to prepare for the license model, so that when the market opens the license will be granted as quickly as possible,” he said.
Italy’s biggest gambling reform problem? Italy.
Murmurings of imminent reform to lo Stivale’s gambling laws have been met with indifference from sector insiders.
🤷Stuck on repeat: Italo Volpe, deputy chief of staff at the Treasury, told an event in Rome earlier this month that “regulatory action is needed” sharply and that the sector needed “a reset” to help boost competition.
Volpe said Italy was lagging behind other countries commercially and the fragmentation of rules between the 20 regions of Italy was causing administration headaches for the state.
A review of gambling laws has been predicted to take place as part of prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s commitment to tax reform in the coming year, and Volpe said he hoped a new framework would appear in April, without giving a firm date.
🤌 Waiting game: A new betting decree entered force last year that introduced fixed-odds punting, a change in the liability of odds, early cash-out and, of course, increased fees for operators. However, a botched rollout of the revamped licensing regime triggered an extension of the current regime until 2025, pending a review of the laws in the interim.
“It’s Italy,” said one well-placed Rome lawyer. “Don’t bank on it.”
“The country has been trying to reorganize gambling for the last decade at least,” said a partner at a separate Rome law firm who worked in the previous Draghi government. “I don’t think there is much to his [Volpe’s] words. He’s saying nothing.”
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Regtech notebook
GB Group: The ID verification and fraud prevention supplier said in a trading update that challenging conditions for cryptocurrencies and online economy clients had continued into its financial H2. The most pronounced impact occurred in GB Group’s North America segment, with macro uncertainty leading to delayed customer contracts.
Revenue for the year will now be £274m, 4% up on FY22.
Odds On Compliance: The company will launch its PlaybookAI next week, March 1, after a successful beta trial. The redesigned platform will provide compliance and regulatory information customized for each state.
Payments notebook
Payments behemoth FIS has taken a $17.6bn writedown on the WorldPay business it bought for $43bn four years ago. FIS will now spin out the business, which has struggled against new fintech challengers in the space.
Charles Drucker, the former CEO of Worldpay, will once again lead the business after it is spun out.
European notebook
Spanish operator association Jdigital has failed in its attempt to get an injunction against the ban on gambling advertising. The Supreme Court ruled that the ban should stay in place until the matter is decided upon by the Constitutional Court.
US notebook
No go: The Ohio Casino Control Commission has temporarily denied a request from the XFL professional football league to be added to the list of approved events, sports and leagues sportsbooks can offer for sports betting.
A federal lawsuit filed by Maverick Gaming that seeks to dismantle a tribal monopoly in the state and clear the way for commercial sports wagering and other forms of gambling has been dismissed in a US District Court.
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