Open for business: North Carolina makes it 31
North Carolina debut, Florida fantasy fail, UKGC stats U-turn, EU digital wallet welcome, Stake confusion +More
North Carolina becomes the 31st US OSB jurisdiction.
In +More: Credit card ban in PA, Senate approves Alabama bill.
Reality bites Florida fantasy sports.
UK Gambling Commission chief makes another statistics U-turn.
New EU-wide digital wallet set to cut operator costs.
Stake sues, er, Stake in Australia over name dispute.
Good times never seemed so good.
North Carolina makes its debut
Watch how she rock: North Carolina online sports betting opened for business yesterday (March 11) at noon as eight operators went live, allowing people located in the state to bet with apps from their mobile phones.
The North Carolina State Lottery Commission took nine months to create the rules and regulations before granting licenses to some of the biggest names in sports wagering.
Take your partners by the hand: The eight operators and their partners are: bet365 & Charlotte Hornets, BetMGM & Charlotte Motor Speedway, Caesars & Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, DraftKings & NASCAR, ESPN Bet & Quail Hollow Club, Fanatics Sportsbook & Carolina Hurricanes, FanDuel & Carolina Panthers and PGA Tour, Underdog & Sedgefield Country Club.
The Catawba Two Kings Casino is still awaiting a license. The casino is the only name to have been denied a license following its application.
Operators will also be able to launch in-person sportsbooks at professional venues later this year, but there is, at present, no date set for that by the regulator.
In-person wagering on sports has been legal in North Carolina for three years, but only at three tribal casinos.
Five years, that’s all we’ve got: A five-year sports betting operator license costs $1m and each will pay an 18% tax on gross wagering revenue.
What they said: “It’s been a mad dash the last 16 months to get into as many states as possible,” said Rob Brazer, vice-president of product at Fanatics Sportsbook, which has partnered with the Carolina Hurricanes ice hockey team. “North Carolina is a great market to be in. There’s a lot of opportunity here, a lot of passionate sports fans,” he added.
Jeremy Levine, Underdog co-founder and co-CEO, said the business had spent three years building its platform in anticipation of openings such as this.
"On-a-on pound for pound basis, we expect that North Carolina is going to be one of the better states for sure,” added Gary Deutsch, CFO at BetMGM.
A big noise with all the big boys: Independent analysis by the legislature’s fiscal researchers estimates NC will generate about $100m by year five, with the state raking about $71.6m after expenses. The first $2m in revenue generated will go toward punter protection programs. This may placate some anti-gambling groups, which said they expect problem numbers to spike.
Brazer said the Fanatics app allows users to place self-imposed limits, including how much they can bet in a week or how much time they spend on the app.
The state has also created an option for people to opt out of being able to register for the various betting apps or receive targeted advertisements.
Hey, babe, the sky’s on fire: The Tar Heel State is the 31st US jurisdiction to allow mobile sports betting and may be the last one this year. However, despite the broad cheer, some legal experts believe the industry as a whole is heading for trouble.
Stephen Bell, litigator at law firm Cranfill Sumner in North Carolina, said he believes the “patchwork at best” regulatory schemes rolling out across the US need “significant improvement” and can be “easily abused by financial criminals.”
“My opinion is that the current regulatory scheme will, sooner or later, require overhaul.”
He added it is “foolish to not recognize the potential for abuse created by online betting” and that a more uniform approach is required.
“Boiled (significantly) down, this is how regulators should look at it: is it easier to spend millions in illicit funds at online betting sites, or at a brick and mortar casino? Answer: online sites.”
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North America
Take the credit: A ban on the use of credit cards to fund online gambling accounts appears to be looming in Pennsylvania, according to local media. Pennsylvania state Sen. Wayne Fontana of Allegheny County is introducing a bill to prohibit the use of credit cards for online casino games, sports betting, fantasy games and the lottery.
Come on baby, let’s play: "Online gaming and sports betting is growing exponentially, especially with young adults," Fontana told WFMJ.
“At the same time, credit card debt is climbing. So we need to make sure the greater access to gambling isn’t leading to burdensome or crippling credit card balances.”
Alabama: The state Senate has formally passed the scaled-back expanded gaming bill previously approved by the state House. The bill allows for a state lottery, pari-mutuel wagering and historical horse racing at seven locations. The bill now heads back to the House.
New York: State Sen. Joseph Addabbo appears to have admitted defeat in his efforts to have tax revenue from iCasino included in the upper chamber’s proposed fiscal 2025 state budget, according to PlayUSA.
Sports integrity
A men’s basketball game at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was flagged for unusual betting activity by gambling watchdog company US Integrity.
Global
Are we the baddies? Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence said it has taken out an enormous illegal online gambling network following a dirty money crackdown that led to the UK’s financial services ecosystem. The ministry said the operation to shutter Nitro Bet took 14 months of extensive intelligence gathering.
The Nitro Bet network helped transfer substantial sums of money out of the country through a web of 35,006 accounts, 1,200 rented banking portals and 54 major gambling and betting websites.
Authorities said the UK government had ignored the criminal enterprise as a “London-based mafia” washed money through British banks, enabling the illegal operation to flourish.
The UK Gambling Commission and Swedish national regulator Spelinspektionen have extended their information exchange agreement.
PMU has joined France's online gaming trade body AFJEL.
Careers+More
Michel Groothuizen has been named as the new chair of the board of directors at the Netherlands’ regulator Kansspelautoriteit, succeeding René Jansen.
Scientific Games has reorganized its legal and public policy teams into a global legal and public policy department. The department will be led by EVP James D. Schultz, while deputy general counsel Phil Bauer has been promoted to general counsel and corporate secretary.
Fantasy bill dies in Florida
Ain’t no sunshine: Legislation aiming to permit fantasy sports contests in Florida has not made it past the Senate. Senate Bill 1658, filed in January by Sen. Travis Hutson, was killed off by virtue of not making the cut before the end of Florida’s regular session on March 8.
The bill would theoretically have regulated fantasy contests in the state for individuals over the age of 21, while prohibiting contests against the house.
It was approved by the state’s Senate Fiscal Policy Committee in February by an 18-0 vote but that’s where the journey ended, and now no bills concerning fantasy contests will appear before 2025 as a result.
Wonders what might have been: Dark clouds gathered over the fantasy sports scene in the Sunshine State last month when regulators booted PrizePicks, Underdog Fantasy and Betr out.
DraftKings and FanDuel continue to provide fantasy contests in Florida, but both are also gearing for their marching orders after Sen. Joe Gruters got involved, demanding to know how and why they missed the cut.
Gruters has also questioned the Florida Gaming Control Commission interpretation of what defines fantasy and sports wagering, demanding the regulator explain its motives.
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Rhodes makes a U-turn
Get better soon: The CEO of the UK Gambling Commission, Andrew Rhodes, appeared to execute yet another U-turn when speaking at his organization’s Better Evidence, Better Outcomes conference in London last week.
On the issue of the reliability of the UKGC’s official statistics, which the previous week he refused to either endorse or disown when pressed, Rhodes said he did, in fact, “stand behind” the data.
Whatever people say I am, that’s what I’m not: Addressing concerns that the new online survey, the Gambling Survey of Great Britain or GSGB, would inflate the rate of problem gamblers from the previous ‘gold standard’ NHS Health Surveys, the Commission said it was the rate of change that was important, not the rate itself, which it would focus on.
However, as was said by delegates, both the DCMS and the Commission have previously used the problem gambling rate as an absolute measure on which to base policy rather than a relative one.
Said one delegate on condition of anonymity: “For years, we have been told that the problem gambling rate was unacceptably high even as it was coming down.”
“Now, the message seems to be that prevalence itself is unimportant, so long as the rate is declining.”
(No) trust in the process: Moreover, even as the Commission event was taking place, the minister with responsibility for gambling, Stuart Andrew, was telling the Gambling Related Harm All Party Parliamentary Group that the problem gambling rate was in fact 2.5%.
His decision to choose a figure from the GSGB experimental stage rather than the official statistic – and to use it in support of further action – would appear to further undermine trust in the process.
Noting the independent review of the GSGB, by Prof. Patrick Sturgis of the LSE, found a “non-negligible risk” that the new survey “substantially overstate[s] the true level of gambling and gambling harm in the population,” delegates worried the Commission was not exercising due caution over the stats.
“I see very little evidence of caution in their approach to the publication of potentially misleading statistics on such serious and emotive subjects,” one delegate said.
Swede and sour: The subject of understanding UK black market risk was also addressed at the conference with three sessions. One contributor, Daniel Bergman, an investigator from the Swedish Gambling Authority, warned that 40% of Swedish gamblers using unlicensed operators did so in order to evade bonus restrictions.
Another 25% did so because they had been excluded from the licensed market.
Nick Rust, chair of the Gambling Commission’s Industry Forum, explained how easy it was to access the black market online and indicated that it had grown significantly in recent years.
Industry Forum
Decorum in the forum: Speaking of Nick Rust, the Commission has announced the full make-up of the Industry Forum, which, as was previously announced, he will chair.
They include Tony Boulton, Kirsty Caldwell (Betsmart Consulting), Charles Cohen (Department of Trust), Ashley Padgett (Flutter), Mark Pearson (Betfred), Nigel Roddis, Leo Walker (Entain), Helen Walton and David Williams (Rank).
The inaugural meeting will be later this month.
EU digital wallet
Got any ID? The European Parliament has approved the implementation of an EU-wide digital wallet, which will allow citizens to identify and authenticate themselves online without having to resort to commercial providers.
Using e-IDs will reduce costs and administration for gambling operators by providing a singular verification tool they can use across the EU, instead of paying high fees for the use of commercial databases, according to the European Gaming and Betting Association.
Additionally, the e-ID enhances security by offering consumers and businesses a trusted and standardized tool for online identification, minimizing the risk of identity theft and fraud.
Done deal: It needs to be formally endorsed by the EU Council of ministers to become law, which should be a formality as ministers agreed the framework before it went before parliament. It could be implemented as early as this summer.
Stake vs. Stake
Rare or well done? Crypto-gambling behemoth Stake.com remains embroiled in an Australian federal court action with similarly named share-trading platform Stake. The lawsuit was filed over a year ago, and the casino brand has called all claims “frivolous.”
Kicking off: The ongoing matter led to Stake.com removing its logo from the Alfa Romeo cars at the Melbourne Grand Prix, instead choosing to use live-streaming platform Kick.
Share-trading platform Stake alleges that Stake.com casino logos still appeared on banners for official team merchandise, the team display, on signage at the event and in the race program.
The response, per the filing, was that “such display was incidental and appeared unconnected with any of the respondents’ services.”
A Stake in the ground: Stake.com is not licensed to operate in Australia, but court documents suggest grand domestic expansion plans for the Melbourne-based company.
Last year, Stake.com applied for a large number of trademarks for goods and services including: Stake Australia, Stake Bookie, Stake Betting, Stake Gaming, Stake Esports, Stake Casino, Stake Sportsbook, Stake Bet, Stake Punt, Stake Sports, Stake Pokes and Stake Slots.
It has also registered a series of Australian domain names, including: stakebet.au, stakecasino.au, stakesports.au and playstake.au
A spokesperson for Stake.com noted its share-trading namesake had trademarks for gift cards and share investing.
Per AFR, the spokesman said “We can confirm that, to date, no one has tried to buy a share or purchase a gift card through any of our global platforms.”
The crypto casino brand failed to purchase the domain stake.com.au (owned by the share-trading platform) in October 2022. The share-trading Stake boasts 500,000 clients and over A$2.5bn ($1.65bn) in assets under management.
The continued legal to-and-fro centers around “potential for customer confusion” and potential reputational damage to the brand.
Calendar
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Mar 27-28: Player Protection Forum, London
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