Texas fold ’em
Lottery couriers banned in Texas after Patrick intervention
Texas reins in lottery couriers; DraftKings’ Jackpocket exits.
Policy shifts threaten to shake up the online landscape.
In +More: Trump names Macau as ‘foreign adversary.’
UK greyhound body seeks judicial review of Welsh ban moves.
Hong Kong touts basketball betting as part of budget fix.
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Kicked out
This ain’t Texas, ain’t no hold ‘em: The Texas Lottery Commission has banned online lottery couriers in the state with immediate effect after a social media posting from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick suggested the sales practices of the DraftKings-owned Jackpocket went against the spirit of the law.
The move to ban lottery couriers follows hot on the heels of a Texas resident winning $83.5m via a lottery ticket purchased at a Jackpocket outlet in the state.
Lay your cards down: Executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission, Ryan Mindell, said in a statement the Commission’s new crackdown comes after a review of state law and information from “retailer investigations.”
“Lottery courier services operating in Texas have been a significant concern for many of our stakeholders,” Mindell added.
“Since I became executive director less than a year ago, I have been keenly focused on making changes to improve the public’s perception of Texas Lottery games and how they are played and operated.”
Patrick bristles: In a stinging rebuke on Monday, Patrick laid into the Commission, saying via an X post that “after years of claiming they had no authority to regulate lottery couriers, today the Texas Lottery Commission suddenly exercised the ultimate regulatory authority by banning all lottery couriers in Texas.”
“Today’s action is an obvious admission that the Texas Lottery Commission had the oversight authority all along and allowed these businesses to creep into Texas and undermine the integrity of the Texas Lottery,” he added.
“The truth is, the only reason the Lottery Commission acted today was clearly because I exposed the courier services and the Commission when I showed up at one of the courier stores last week,” he fumed.
“Suddenly, they found religion and now want integrity in their game.”
Kill bill: Patrick pointed out that “someone” killed a bill to ban lottery couriers last year.
“They should never have allowed couriers into Texas and certainly should have woken up after SB 1820, but they ignored it, just as they have suspiciously left SB 1820 out of their statement,” he railed.
I am the law: Gov. Greg Abbott said in response to the news that he has instructed the Texas Ranger Division to investigate the lottery courier services.
“Texans must be able to trust in our state’s lottery system and know that the lottery is conducted with integrity and lawfully,” said Abbott.
“Today, I directed the Texas Rangers to investigate these incidents and identify any potential wrongdoing fully. Texans deserve a lottery that is fair and transparent for everyone.”
Your first rodeo? Reacting to the ban, DraftKings said said it was immediately pulling its services in the state but insisted the move would be a blow to the state and its citizens.
"This decision not only limits Texans’ access to the lottery but also directly impacts public education funding,” said Pete Sullivan, SVP of lottery at DraftKings, in a statement.
The statement added that Jackpocket has “driven over $550m in lottery ticket sales in Texas, contributing vital revenue to schools across the state.”
“We remain dedicated to working with policymakers to ensure access to secure lottery options and working with the Texas Lottery Commission to craft regulations that would allow lottery courier services to continue in Texas.”
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Storm clouds
Every which way: New Jersey and Maryland are both eyeing totemic changes to their online gambling laws, with tax hikes and an outright repeal of online sportsbooks on the table.
Murphy’s law: In New Jersey, investors are bracing for Gov. Phil Murphy’s budget announcement, due today, which could see the Garden State’s iGaming tax jump from 15% to between 25% and 30%.
“We have been long-term bulls on the online sector and still believe in the long-term trajectory, yet with the second most pro-gaming state in the US (potentially) willing to hurt the industry via a tax increase, it signals to us anything is on the table across other US states,” said the analysts at Citizens.
We only just got here: In Maryland, Sen. Joanne Benson has introduced a bill to repeal online sports betting entirely by 2026.
Less than three years after opening the market, Benson proposed shuttering the lot and giving the application dollars back to licensees.
Land-based sportsbooks would be unaffected.
A similar bill to roll back sports betting and lottery was recently floated in Vermont where “state-sanctioned gaming functions as a camouflaged form of regressive taxation,” according to Rep. Troy Headrick.
Poles apart: Industry watchers believe Benson’s bill is unlikely to succeed, but does indicate discord among the state’s lawmakers, who are also weighing the legalization of online casinos.
The state’s land-based giants Cordish Cos. and Penn have lobbied fiercely against the expansion of online gambling in their territory.
And at the same time, Gov. Wes Moore is pushing to double the state’s online sports betting tax to 30%.
Maryland lawmakers are also mulling a bill that would ban social sweepstakes.
+More
Macau was included alongside Hong Kong as a “foreign adversary” in a memorandum signed by President Trump directing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to impose investment restrictions on China.
The Philippines has been removed from the Financial Action Task Force grey list of jurisdictions that feature higher risks of money laundering, terrorist financing and other threats to the international financial system. The country has been on the list since June 2021. The move on the part of the FATF follows the banning of POGOs in the country as of the start of this year. FATF president Elisa de Anda Madrazo said: “Among other efforts and results, the Philippines is now actively combating the risk of dirty money flowing through casinos in the country.”
A European Gaming and Betting Association summary of findings from the second monitoring exercise of its pan-European responsible advertising code, conducted by the independent European Advertising Standards Alliance, showed “strong compliance” on the part of advertisers on traditional channels. However, areas of improvement were identified in social media.
Thailand: The high bank balance and entry fees for Thai residents as proposed by the Council of State are unlikely to come to pass, according to Interior minister Anutin Charnvirakul. The council proposed requiring a bank balance of $1.5m for six months and a $150 entry fee for Thai locals to gamble as part of the casino resorts bill.
BetNow has been ordered by regulators to quit Michigan after the Michigan Gaming Control Board issued a cease-and-desist order. The offshore online casino BetNow.eu is licensed in the autonomous island of Anjouan in the Union of the Comoros.
Fresno State University in California has suspended two members of its basketball team following speculation of players potentially betting on games, ESPN reported.
Commercial partnerships
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What we’re reading
Google it: Sweepsy has looked into what the new Google Ads regime being launched on April 14 will mean for sweepstakes casinos and suggested that, while “on the surface” nothing appears to have changed, the devil lies in the details. In particular, they noted VGW’s move to revise its age policy to ensure it only targets over-21s could represent a bid to “possibly gain approval” for Google Ads.
Hounded out
No dogs allowed: The Greyhound Board of Great Britain is considering applying for a judicial review of the decision by the Welsh Senedd to ban greyhound racing.
Labour deputy first minister Huw Irranca-Davies announced the ban on Tuesday, saying “I have seen the strength of feeling on this, and I have listened,” referring to a consultation and 35,000 signature petition.
He added that he hoped the ban would be implemented “as soon as practicably possible.”
In league: GBGB CEO Mark Bird told Compliance+More that a judicial review would focus on the consultation process and the veracity of the petition.
“The deputy first minister said that two-thirds of the 1,100 submissions to the consultation were in favor of a phased ban,” he noted.
“But a lot of the submissions were identical to a League Against Cruel Sports template letter and many of the signatories of the petition were actually from outside Wales and even the UK.”
Out of the blue: Bird added the Welsh Government had failed to conduct a proper impact assessment regarding the economic and social impact of the ban.
Although the process that led to the ban has been taking place for over a year, the GBGB was surprised the announcement was made on Tuesday because in December last year Irranca-Davies said that plans would be revealed “in the spring.”
Bargaining tool: However, it has emerged the ban was brought forward to enable the Welsh Labour government to pass its £26bn budget.
The Labour Party only has 30 of the 60 seats in the Senedd so was reliant on another member of the Welsh parliament.
Step forward the Liberal Democrats’ only MS, Jane Dodds, who sought increased spending on transport and childcare plus the ban on greyhound racing in exchange for her vote.
Hare is running: Wales only has one dog track, Valley Greyhound Stadium in Ystrad Mynach, which has been licensed by the GBGB since 2023 and has a media contract with SIS.
The principality has three horseracing tracks at Ffos Las, Chepstow and Bangor-on-Dee, but the British Horseracing Authority appears comfortable that they are not under threat.
It said in a statement the report that led to the ban “contained a recommendation that when considering a ban on greyhound racing, the Welsh government should also look at other sports where animals compete.”
This is my truth, tell me yours: The Welsh government formally rejected that recommendation within its official response to the report in 2023, and horseracing has not been considered as part of the subsequent process.
However, Bird said the ban was the “thin end of the wedge.”
“There is nothing to say that should dissenting voices get their way with greyhound racing that they won’t then turn their attention to horseracing next.”
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The last dance
Hoop dreams: The Hong Kong government is considering allowing the Hong Kong Jockey Club to take bets on basketball as it seeks to plug a HK$100bn ($12.9bn) hole in its finances.
According to the South China Morning Post, the idea for expanding the HKJC’s sports-betting slate came from the semi-autonomous city state’s financial chief Paul Chan Mo-po.
In season 2023/24 the Hong Kong Jockey Club contributed a total of HK$28.6bn on tax to the Hong Kong city coffers, with HK$13.1bn coming from horserace betting tax and a further HK$12.9bn coming from football duty. The remainder came from the lottery and a profits tax.
Back of the net: The football betting figure came from a turnover of HK$600bn, or ~$77bn. The HK$12.9bn in contribution to the government included a HK$2.9bn special football duty, which is applicable for the next five years.
Rebound: Back in March last year, HKJC CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges told The Standard newspaper in Hong Kong that the authorities should consider legalizing betting on the NBA as a way to counter the growth in the black market.
He told the paper that around 560,000 Hong Kong punters used illegal bookmakers last year, with basketball accounting for a substantial percentage of their betting.
Events calendar
Feb 26: Regulatory and compliance track, SBC Summit, Rio de Janeiro
Mar 10-13: Regulating the Game, Sydney
Mar 12-13: Next: NYC 25, RG Hub, New York
May 8-9: Leaders in Compliance Conference, Frankfurt
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