Missouri misery
A legal action could scupper the November OSB ballot
Signature numbers in favor of the OSB ballot measure are questioned.
In +More: Senator claims he has the votes for Brazilian resort casinos.
Tabcorp stumps up a record fine.
Holland Casino warns that Dutch tax rises are “irresponsible.”
They’re running them numbers and the winners never change.
Not so fast
Have we got the votes? The chances of sports betting getting onto the ballot in Missouri are in doubt after a suit filed against the Missouri Secretary of State claims the verification methods used for the gathering of signatures were inaccurate.
A week ago, Missouri officials had confirmed a sufficient number of petition signatures had been collected to put a question to voters.
This ensured that a question on sports betting would be included in November’s vote.
However, now it has emerged that a pair of political consultants, Jacqueline Wood and Blake Lawrence, are arguing that the methods used to verify the signatures were inaccurate.
Show your work: The effort to collect the requisite 370k+ signatures for the measure to be included on the ballot was led by Winning for Missouri Education which had the backing of the major operators including $10m of donations from DraftKings and FanDuel.
The initiative not only needed to get past an absolute number of 170k of eligible voters.
It also needed to get the names of 8% of Missourians in each of the eight congressional districts in the state.
Off the map: The lawsuit says Ashcroft used figures from the 2020 gubernatorial election to determine how many signatures the initiative needed in each district.
However, Missouri’s congressional map was redrawn after the 2020 election. Using this new map, the lawsuit says the signature effort lacked the numbers in two districts.
The Winning For Missouri Education filed a motion to intervene.
“This effort to decertify our ballot inactive is completely without merit, as Missourians came out in force to sign the petition that will be on the ballot in November,” said St. Louis Cardinals President Bill DeWitt.
No slam dunk: While previous polling suggested a majority of voters were in favor of the OSB ballot measure, a more recent sounding suggested less than 49% would vote yes while a further 26% were undecided.
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+More
Brazil: Proponents of the casino resorts legislation in Brazil should take heart that the bill has enough votes, according to Senator Irajá Silvestre who also noted the support of the ministers of tourism and finance. The bill is expected to be voted on this fall.
It is thought that President Lula would approve the bill if it was passed by the Senate.
Under the terms of the bill, two resort casinos would be allowed in Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Paraná an Amazonas.
Half of the Netherlands regulated online market has been ordered to remove limits on player payouts, following a probe which found nine operators obstruct punters from easily obtaining winnings, with a further four suspected of the same practice.
Separately, the country’s regulator has told an unnamed operator to sack an executive after it emerged the individual was previously involved in an illegal gambling operation, and subsequently failed a mandatory integrity test.
IGT Global Solutions, part of International Game Technology, has signed a three-year contract with Portugal’s national lottery, Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), has warned streaming service provider 10 Play for running gambling ads during live sporting events. The firm received a formal warning, and will face harsher sanctions for a repeat occurrence, the ACMA said.
What we’re reading
Houston, we have a problem: The team at EKG have parsed the latest developments surrounding the lobbying for gaming in Texas and have pushed their forecast for potential IOSB legislation out by two years to 2027 with the market open now predicted for early 2028.
The team suggested that the direction of travel in the legislative chamber where it truly mattress – the state Senate – is not conducive to OSB legislation.
“The state Republican Party platform, published in June, instructs lawmakers to oppose, first, any gambling expansion, and second, any budget that relies on funds from expanded gambling,” they write.
VGW fights back: The operator behind Chumba and other sweepstakes casinos rejects claims it is circumventing gaming legislation, saying it has “full confidence in our compliance with all laws and regulations where we operate.”
Record penalty for Tabcorp
Protect the people: Tabcorp has been fined a record $3.12m by Australian state regulators for breaching player harm rules.
The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) said the operator, Australia’s largest, broke responsible gaming obligations at least nine times between 2020 and 2023.
“Systematic failures” included a lack of staff training and sending marketing materials to customers who had opted out.
Don’t call me in the morning: One flagged incident concerned a customer classified as a problem gambler who, despite losing $91,000 in a single month, was offered a $13,000 promotion to keep playing.
A Tabcorp account manager was recorded ending a call with an offer of a deal to a customer whose behavior had been flagged as problematic.
“The recorded call provides evidence of a lack of commitment to responsible gambling policies and demonstrates a lack of concern for the customer’s wellbeing,” said VGCCC Chair Fran Thorp.
Another customer who had opted out was sent marketing materials six times, it emerged.
Serious matters: The regulator said the incident was reflective of a deep cultural issue within Tabcorp, where licensing obligations were “not taken seriously”.
Thorn added that the fine could have been much larger due to the severity of the misconduct.
Tabcorp was ordered to overhaul its internal compliance systems, improve harm minimization measures, and implement changes by the end of 2025; the regulator will monitor progress.
In a statement, Tabcorp admitted its harm minimization measures at the time "did not meet community or regulatory expectations”.
“Tabcorp has since taken significant steps to improve customer safety, including re-structuring the Safer Gambling Team which has led to an increase in customer interventions,” the firm said.
Here’s looking at you, kid: Legal experts said the Australian market should brace for a renewed regulatory focus on player harm.
“This appears to be a reset of the regulatory approach concerning enforcement in relation to responsible gambling obligations,” said Alexandra Hoskins, principal at Australian industry compliance advisory Senet.
“You can have well-drafted policies and procedures but if they are not implemented effectively then these are the types of risks organizations will face,” Hoskins said.
Dutch tax complaint
The CEO of Holland Casino, Petra de Ruiter, took the opportunity of the publication of the company’s H1 results to complain that the government’s plans to hike the gambling tax by 7.5% is “irresponsible.”
De Ruiter said the coalition government’s plan to increase gambling taxes to near 38% would increase Holland Casino’s total tax burden to ~50%.
“This makes it impossible to achieve a positive financial result,” she added. “We would then incur significant losses.”
As it stands, Holland Casino made a loss of €3.5m in H1 from revenue which fell by 2.4% to €395m. It said that although customer visits were slightly on the rise, the spend per visit declined.
The loss compares to a profit of €17.2m in the prior year period.
A 1% increase in gambling tax since the start of the year also resulted in an additional cost item of €3.7m.
CFO Ruud Bergervoet said the finances of Holland Casino are “under significant pressure due to rising costs.”
“This makes our financial position vulnerable,” he added. “It is crucial for our financial health that no further substantial cost increases occur. Only then can we avoid falling into a loss-making situation."
De Ruiter complained that unlike supermarkets, Holland Casino “cannot easily pass on price increases.” The only alternative would be to take “highly undesirable measures” such as aggressive campaigns to attract new guests, “encouraging people to spend much more, or significantly lowering prize money,” she warned.
“These measures are unacceptable for Holland Casino and irresponsible from a governmental gambling policy perspective.
“Moreover, our planned investments in our prevention policy would also come under pressure."
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Calendar
Sep 5: Sports Integrity Summit, São Paulo
Sep 10-13: European Conference on Gambling Studies, Rome
Sep 24-26: SBC Player Protection Summit, Lisbon
Oct 7-10, G2E, Las Vegas
Nov 5: Gaming in Germany, Berlin
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