Long time online gambling opponent and source of much trouble for our industry, Sheldon Adelson died last night while hospitalized for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, an illness first disclosed in early 2019. He was 87. The chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands and one of the Republican Party’s major donors, Adelson had recently taken a leave of absence to resume treatment for his illness. He rose from a hardscrabble childhood in Boston to become one of the world’s richest men as founder and CEO of Las Vegas Sands. He was Sands’ first employee, which has now grown to over 50,000 employees….

With the presidency of Donald Trump coming to an end, expectations are that Net Neutrality will return with the appointment of a new Chairman of the FCC. The current Chairman, Ajit Pai, is a Trump appointee. He has announced that he is leaving office by January 20th, leaving a legacy of higher internet prices. Pai helped to destroy Net Neutrality during his time at the helm of the FCC. And, as predicted, ISP costs to users have gone up since that time while performance has remained stagnant. Net Neutrality is the principle that all traffic on the internet must be…

In the face of the Coronavirus, Pennsylvania online gambling and betting on sports set new records! Despite that bit of good news, however, overall income from gaming was down for the state year-on-year due to the pandemic. Total gambling revenue in November amounted to $283.3 million, a drop of nearly 3% from the same time last year. The numbers were also 11.5% lower than the figures posted in October, this according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Sports bets placed online made up over $31 million of the state’s total, compared with just $6.2 million from land based betting. You…

The Gaming Control Board has announced that they expect online gambling in Michigan will be live by the middle of this month. The Governor signed legislation which legalized sports gambling in the state late in 2019. Online gaming, however, had to establish it’s own regulations and licensing. The legislature’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules approved the needed regulations last month and waived the 15-day waiting period, allowing casinos and the Gaming Control Board to go to work on the licensing process immediately. Fifteen casinos and their vendors have already been approved, including Gun Lake Casino in Wayland and the Four…

Players in the Empire State have been able to place wagers on sporting events at land based casinos, but New York online sports betting has so far remained elusive despite repeated attempts to regulate it. However, Governor Andrew Cuomo recently indicated that he is open to legalizing mobile sports wagers in his state. He mentioned the topic while discussing the state’s financial $17 billion deficit, caused in part by the Coronavirus pandemic. New Jersey has emerged as the leader in sports betting with a handle of over $930 million just in November. If the activity were regulated in New York…

For a third month in a row, Iowa sports betting set a record for revenue. The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission data shows that over $87 million was wagered on sporting events in the state, both online and in land based sports books last month. November was the second straight month where over $80 million was bet. The handle in September was over $72 million. More than $445 million of the total money wagered in Iowa has come through online bets. Starting on January 1, bettors won’t have to register new online accounts with in-person visits to casinos. Read more…