Atlantic City’s efforts to recapture some of the tourism dollars it has lost to casino competition in recent years finally appear to be working. Nine years ago, the city’s casinos started realizing they needed to offer more than just gambling if they still wanted visitors. They doubled down on expensive investments like additional hotel towers, restaurants, swimming pools, spas, shopping, nightclubs and concert venues. Now, cash sales at non-gambling outlets within casinos represent 28.5 percent of revenue, up from 22.3 percent two years ago, and bars have increased their payrolls by nearly 39 percent in the past two years, according…

Chris Krafcik of GamblingCompliance recently testified in front of the California Assembly Governmental Organization Committee on the current and future state of legal online gaming in the United States. The presentation by Krafcik, GC’s research director, included several predictions about legalized online gaming in the U.S. Krafcik called the current efforts in Pennsylvania, California and New York “Wave 2″ of online gaming expansion in the U.S., which he characterizes as the time period from now until 2017. Krafcik went on to name four potential contenders (Rhode Island, Connecticut, Illinois, and Ohio) for what he is calling Wave 3, the period between 2018 and…

California online poker has quite the full house when it comes to legalization According to the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, there are 89 cardrooms in 32 counties in California, and of the 110 federally recognized tribes in the state, 58 of them run 60 casinos — many of which have poker rooms. Even so, there is still a big pot of money left on the table when you consider California online poker, a game that’s currently not legal in California. Only New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware have legalized Internet poker for now. Efforts to legalize web poker have been ongoing…

The weather isn’t the only thing heating up in D.C. this summer. The battle over state-based online gambling has reached a fever pitch. Until last week, Congress had been seemingly quiet on the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA; H.R. 707), the bill to ban Internet gambling. But then Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced a companion bill to RAWA (S. 1668). Behind closed doors, the push for Congress to vote on the bill before adjourning for summer recess has intensified and the tactics become more extreme. And as usual, Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson, one of RAWA’s…

Video games hold more interest for the current generation than slot machines. These games of skill usually end in bragging rights only, but Nevada is trying to find a way to bring gambling to the new generation. High scores could start paying out for the best video game players in casinos, according to a June 30, 2015 reveal. Plans to offer arcade video games with winnings paid out for the gamblers skills are currently in the works. Nevadans are working towards regulations to make the changes happen. A bill with rules is being drafted and will be handed to the…

Sports betting has been around for centuries, but industry growth has rocketed since the inception of the internet. Today – online sportsbooks allow punters to wager on just about everything. Novelty and cultural betting is on the rise – you can now place wagers on the name of the next royal baby, and on the next winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. We stumbled across a great infographic by gambling review portal RightCasino.com that charts the meteoric rise of sports betting. According to the infographic – the online sports betting industry is now worth $74 billion to $100 billion —…