It’s our first update on sports betting in the US, as well as online poker and internet casino games for 2020! Discussion includes both poker and betting on sports in California, plus current sports betting information from Maine, Colorado and Washington. Also, the possibility of online poker in Nebraska and Kentucky!
Howdy y’all! And welcome again to This Week in Gambling where we have several major industry headlines, including updates on sports betting in the US! So let’s get right into it with this week’s big story!
The state of California has the largest population in the country. As such it would be a tremendous economic boost to online gambling, online poker or sports betting if they would just regulate them… but that’s a really big if! Many of you know all too well about the decade of infighting between California tribal gaming interests and California cardrooms. Fighting that has kept online poker at bay all this time.
And while there is still no movement on internet poker in the state, California sports betting is back for 2020! California is one of several states looking at the regulation of sports wagering this year, but right now that’s all it is… just talk. Any bill would have to be approved by the state Senate and Assembly before being put to a public vote… in November.
While we wait to see what happens in California, I can tell you one state that’s not gonna have regulated sports wagering in 2020… and that’s Maine! The governor there just vetoed their sports betting bill for “technical issues”.
Meanwhile, betting on sports in Colorado is set to kick off soon. In fact, the state has already received over 50 license applications for the 33 sports betting licenses they’re going to issue… so, some people are going to be disappointed.
Additionally, two sports betting bills are currently under consideration in Washington state. Bills that would allow betting on sports to be conducted at tribal casinos, racetracks and card rooms. Not bad for a state we’re playing online poker is still considered a felony!
And in Kentucky a bill to regulate betting on sporting events has just been sent to the States House of Representatives where it’s expected to pass. The exciting thing about this bill is that it also will regulate online poker and fantasy sports!
And if all that wasn’t enough there’s a bill called the “Games of Skill” Act that’s being pushed right now in the state of Nebraska. If passed, that too would regulate sports betting, online poker and fantasy games! So you see my friends, the winds of change for sports betting in the US are not only blowing, they’re picking up speed!
There’s been a lot of shuckin’ and jivin’ on the Vegas Strip in recent months, what with Eldorado buying up Caesars, plus the Rio, Bellagio and Circus Circus all change in hands. And now you can add two more names to that list! Both the Mandalay Bay and MGM Grand have been sold to the Blackstone Group for $4.6 billion dollars. Blackstone also bought the Bellagio a couple months back, and they already owned The Cosmopolitan!
Also this week, we have two new game reviews to tell you about. The first one is for the Wild-o-Tron 3000 online slot from Net Entertainment. It’s 5 five reel game with 20 paylines and a sci-fi theme that features wild substitutions and stacked symbols…
Next up it’s the Wild Robo Factory from Yggdrasil that comes with a bonus round, free spins, and wilds and scatters… both of these reviews are available right now on our YouTube channel… and I’m noticing a theme here, am I right? It’s the robot thing, right? The wild robots in both slots… I get it I get it. Kind of interesting. Sort of makes me want to do my famous, you know… robot dance!
I won’t… but I could.
