This Week in Gambling

Not every state is ready to embrace betting on sporting events. The State Senate has shot down a proposal to legalize Massachusetts sports betting which could have brought in as much as $35 million in tax revenue. An amendment to regulate the activity at land based casinos, racetracks and online casinos was rejected without a roll call vote. The House had previously voted to legalized sports betting, but the Senate was obviously far less interested. Following the disappointing outcome the session there is still a chance for the Senate to reconsider the issue before the session ends in early January….

According to state lottery officials, over $25 million was wagered on Tennessee sports bets in just the first week of operation. The first day of legalized betting produced $5.1 million in wages with $160,000 in taxes collected and $800,000 in adjusted gross income for sportsbooks. BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel and Tennessee Action 24/7 generated a gross income of over $2.5 million while the state made over $500,000 in tax revenue. According to the Lottery, 80 percent of the tax collected will go to the Lottery for Education account. There are currently three additional sportsbooks waiting for license approval in Tennessee: BetAmerica,…

September was just the third month of operation for Illinois sports betting, and over 90% of the bets came from mobile devices. The state has seen amazing and steady growth ever since it began regulating the activity in March. Some industry analysts estimate Illinois could even compete with Nevada sports gambling revenue within just the next few years. The Illinois Gaming Board released the September report last week but has yet to release figures for October. Sportsbooks in the state came out on top by about $11 million on bets that were settled in September, generating about $1 million in…

In the midst of a pandemic, sports betting in Pennsylvania continues to grow at a record pace. October revenue figures show nearly a 13% growth in revenue from last year, as reported by the Gaming Control Board. Numbers show that revenue from gambling came to over $320 million, which was substantially more that the $283 million over the same time in 2019. Penn National reported a revenue increase of $15.5 million, which is an amazing 761.1% growth. While Rivers Casino Philadelphia brought in $16.6 million, an increase of 564.0%. Other reported numbers came from the Mount Airy Casino Resorts with…

The World Series of Poker will not let Coronavirus win! They have scheduled the 2020 WSOP Main Event, and this year’s tourney will be different than any in history! We also have sports betting news and a Las Vegas casino reopening and grand opening!   Hello players! Thanks so much for joining me on another edition of This Week in Gambling where we have poker and sports betting news to cover. But we begin with Las Vegas Grand Openings and re-openings! Several weeks ago we told you that Virgin Hotels would be welcoming guests in their Vegas location where the…

Last week we told you that the last Caesars property in Las Vegas was set to open. Now the Rio Casino reopen date is official scheduled for December 22nd. The property will then welcome the 2020 WSOP Main Event final table on December 28th. The reopening of the Rio will mean that all Caesars regional casinos and hotels across the country will be welcoming guest. Also, when the doors open the Rio will debut their brand new William Hill Sports Book. Anthony Carano, President and COO of Caesars, said “…we recognize the incredible effort it has taken to reopen our…