Category Archives: Gambling

By Kendall P. Stanley| The Petoskey News-Review

My column was a little shorter than normal last week because at the last minute agreement was reached to increase the debt limit until December, throwing off a segment of my column that dealt with the forementioned debt limit.

Never mind that most of the debt occurred during the Trump administration, the head cynic of the GOP Mitch McConnell says theres no way his party will help the Democrats raise the debt ceiling again after doing it this time.

Not that its the right thing to do, which it is, or that it would cause havoc with the financial markets, which it would, but rather just to force the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling all on their own.

And to be gained by that? The Democrats will thus be blamed for putting the nation further in debt and are recklessly spending money.

McConnell apparently thinks American voters cant understand a power ploy when its staring them right in the face, especially since this isnt the first time that Turtle Man has pulled the we wont help you with the debt ceiling card.

It is wearisome, quite frankly. Possibly dragging down the nations economy to make sure Joe Biden fails as president is cynical to the end and highlights the fact there will never, ever be bipartisanship with the modern GOP the party of no.

The quicker Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema reach that conclusion and help their Democratic senators to push through the legislation President Biden needs the better.

McConnell wants the Democrats to go it alone. They should, and they should steamroll him in the process.

Because if you think McConnell will be any different in December than he is now, youd be sorely, sorely mistaken.

Following the science

I dont personally know Lisa Peacock but in my book shes an unsung hero.

As director of the Health Department of Northwest Michigan that covers four area counties Antrim, Charlevoix, Emmet and Otsego she looked at the spread of COVID-19 earlier this fall and made a decision that some local school districts struggled with she mandated masks in all area schools. Im only speculating here but Im betting there are many school board members that were happy the health department mandated masks rather than them having to do it.

Needless to say the naysayers werent amused.

Hundreds of mostly maskless citizens turned out at a meeting in Charlevoix to decry the mandate and the board of health voted to rescind the measure.

Trouble is, that authority resides solely with Peacock who was not moved to change the mandate.

Peacock recently filed a complaint with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel citing what she said was a hostile environment toward her and her office in addition to likely breaking Michigans Open Meeting Act.

In the complaint Peacock said several county officials have engaged in behavior designed to bully or intimidate her into rescinding her late-August order requiring masking in local schools. Four of the health board commissioners drafted a letter opposing the order, likely in violation of the Open Meetings Act which requires discussions of a quorum of elected officials be held in a public meeting. It is against the act to deliberate using electronic communication methods.

Peacock also described the early September meeting of the health board as a mob-like group of citizens on the verge of a riot.

Health department employees feared for their safety and were harassed and threatened with messages in the days and weeks that followed the meeting.

Nessels office suggested that Peacock take her complaint to local authorities who probably wouldnt be too keen to jump into the middle of the fray.

And yet, the mandate stands. As long as COVID cases continue to be an issue in the area as they are, Peacock should stick to her guns and keep it in place.

Give me a break

So on Tuesday hundreds of folks showed up in Lansing calling for a forensic audit of the 2020 election, even going so far as to start a petition drive to force audits of Michigan elections.

This insanity has to stop. Even a GOP-led look at the election said there was no fraud in the election and Joe Biden was the winner by some 154,000 votes. That matched what the secretary of states office certified.

If voters are believing that elections are rigged its because Republicans keep pounding, and pounding and pounding some more on the theme that elections are rigged even when they know thats untrue.

Get over it people Donald Trump LOST. Pack up your signs and go home.

Kendall P. Stanley isretired editor of the News-Review. He can be contacted at kendallstanley@charter.net. Theopinions expressed in this column are those of the writer and not necessarily of the Petoskey News-Review or its employees.

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No gambling with the economy - Petoskey News-Review

By coincidence, they were showing the BBC documentary about the gambling addiction of football man Paul Merson around the same time RT1 was showing a fine film by Ross Whitaker about the celebrated gambler and philanthropist Barney Curley.

Claire Byrne Liverecently had Tyrone GAA star Conn Kilpatrick coming out about his gambling issues; President Higgins has addressed the scandal of ubiquitous betting ads; there was even talk last week on various radio shows about the intentions of the Government to install a gambling regulator, which they have been intending to do for a very, very long time, but still

You could get the impression all round that the long campaign to raise awareness of these matters has been quite successful, although not nearly as successful as the efforts of the betting firms to raise unawareness.

Yet there was another story last week that made you wonder if it has all been a waste of time.

It came from Punters, the new book by Aaron Rogan about the rise of the Paddy Power corporation, and it concerned the bookies arranging in 2012 with An Post to return 1.75m stolen by the then manager of the Gorey post office, Tony OReilly, to fund his gambling addiction.

Tony and I having written the book on this, Tony 10, I was naturally intrigued by this story, which was on the front of the Sunday Business Post and seemed destined to be covered intensively in the media in the days that followed.

But it was not to be there were mentions by Gavan Reilly on News-talk, and by Cormac hEadhra on RT1s Drivetime. But otherwise, it didnt seem to make much impression on the heavy hitters of the Irish media, which is kind of a scandal in itself.

Here, after all, were two major Irish organisations doing something on the quiet that would have been of far more benefit to the community at large if it had been done openly.

Imagine if the bookies had said something like: We are refunding the money because we really screwed up here.Indeed, instead of inviting Tony to VIP enclosures, our only engagement with him should have been to refer him for addiction treatment.

And imagine if An Post had said something like: Our systems failed here.We had no understanding of how much harm a gambling addiction can cause, and we will educate our workforce on these issues, using the money that has been returned to us.

That would have been good, wouldnt it? In fact, it would have been great.

Yet the deal they made with one another was done in secret, for reasons that, at first glance, would seem to be counter-intuitive.

After all, the bookies are obsessed with advertising themselves, especially with handing over large cheques to some lucky winner of an accumulator, or generally to show what jolly good fellows they are.

But there weredrawbackswith this 1.75m mainly the fact it had been stolen.

Among the drawbacks, for instance, was the fact that to be seen handing it back might set some sort of a precedent for returning stolen money.

Its just a wild guess, but you can understand why they might not be as enthusiastic about that one as they are about handing over a big cardboard cheque to some guy who won 25 grand for an investment of 25 cent.

That still leaves us wondering why An Post would facilitate all this, since its hardly the first major institution to be robbed by an employee.

A clue may be found in the odd turn of events in 2018 when Tony 10was nearing publication, and it was they and not the betting corporation who instructed their lawyers to write to us, demanding to see it, for reasons that could broadly be described as security.

They were concerned about the safety of their workers if the book were to reveal the inner workings of one of their busy branches. As if you would have the same inner workings after a robbery of 1.75m as you had before it.

We were satisfied the book would not place workers in danger, and we didnt show it to them.

The only danger we could see for An Postwas that they would be embarrassed again by their own security failures, although we didnt know at the time about this secret arrangement with Paddy Power, which itself might be construed embarrassing.

Theres also the vague chance that Tony might have received a jail sentence shorter than four years if it had been known the money was being returned. But that we will never know.

What we do know is that in politics and the media there are many who claim they understand Irelands gambling problem, but really they dont get it.

They can ignore an important story like this, because ultimately theyre still seeing gambling under the heading of Fun. Yes, even when the Fun stopped a long time ago.

To mark the 80th birthday of Paul Simon, my colleague Tommy Conlon put out a tweet that sent a blast through the cultural ecosystem, the reverberations of which may not fully be absorbed in our time.

I know its not a competition, but when both great artists have left their bodies of work behind, maybe future generations will say that Simon was greater than Dylan, he wrote, attaching the Simon masterpiece Hearts and Bonesas Exhibit A.

Its one of those statements that has rarely been made before, and yet once it is made it starts to make a surprising kind of sense.

The astonishing volume of high-class material put out by Dylanwould always tend to favour him in any contest of this kind.

But maybe its more the differences in style that have created this impression that Dylan must clearly be superior his voice is as penetrating as the voice of Simon is restrained.

Yet there is a similar grandeur to the arc of both careers. They had that genius for reinvention, or just for longevity, that took them through myriad genres, be it folk or country or Gospel or whatever, while still sounding completely themselves.

Dylan is credited with the most radical change of direction, when he drove the culture towards that loud electric racket scorned by the folkie ideologues. But arguably, with Graceland, Simon made an even more spectacular leap with his take on African music a take that, again, after a few minutes, sounded like a regular Paul Simon album.

Still, I have to say I was shocked recently to discover that for American Tune, possibly the best song written by either man, Simon had lifted said tune straight from O Sacred Head, Sore Woundedby JS Bach.

Then again, Liam Clancy would tell you about Dylan shamelessly taking some sad old folk song and making it better.

Oh, Tommy Conlon, how sharp are the horns of this dilemma I cant say straight out that future generations would be right to favourSimon but they wouldnt be wrong either.

Dominic Cummings has clarified that the Johnson government always intended to ditch the Northern Ireland Brexit deal, but it was still strange to hear Leo Varadkar warning that the UK doesnt necessarily keep its word.

Two years ago last week, the same Leo met Boris Johnson near Liverpool and effectively gave him the bit of paper that Borisneeded to get out of jail, which, for the incorrigible blackguard Boris, was the only meaningful aspect of their encounter indeed, to any intelligent observer, this was terribly obvious.

Our Government made a strategic decision to go with Boris, thinking the Brits might come out of all this quite well, actually. It was a calamitous misjudgment.

If you were still enabling Johnson in late 2019, its a bit rich now to be warning the world.

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Will politicians and media ever see gambling as a scourge? Don't bet on it - Independent.ie

GettyIsaiah Hartenstein, new Clippers center

In late July, a couple of months after finishing his third NBA season, 7-foot center Isaiah Hartenstein faced a not too uncommon conundrum: Should he exercise his player option with the Cleveland Cavaliers and thereby guarantee himself $1.8 million for the 2021-22 season, or decline the option and take his chances on the open market.

The Cavs had acquired Hartenstein from Denver for JaVale McGee at last seasons trade deadline, and though Hartenstein played well in his 16 games as a Cavalier8.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 blocks in 17.9 minutesthe 23-year-old understood that he was not exactly a top priority for Cleveland heading into the new season. The Cavs were in negotiations with Jarret Allen on a new, long-term contract (Allen eventually signed for 5-years, $120 million) and the team was widely expected to select USC center Evan Mobley with the third pick in the upcoming draft (which they did).

In search of a bigger role, Hartenstein declined his option on July 23 and ultimately landed in L.A. on a training camp deal with the Clippers. He would be competing for L.A.s final roster spot primarily against the talented but injury-prone Harry Giles, once the nations top high school recruit. It was a winner-take-all scenario, and it put Hartenstein in the position of having to win a spot or else contemplate alternatives, one of which was likely returning to Europe where he and his family had lived since Isaiah was 10.

Hartensteins decision, it turns out, was a good one.

On Saturday, the Clippers announced that Hartenstein had won the 15th and final roster spot over Giles (who was waived the same day) and is now primed to see a fair amount of regular-season action as the backup to Clippers centers Ivica Zubac and Serge Ibaka, the latter of whom is still recovering from June back surgery.

It seems Hartenstein had entered training camp already with a leg up on Giles. During informal pickup games a few weeks before camp, Hartenstein, who Houston selected in the second round of the 2017 draft, had so impressed Paul George and Luke Kennard with his passing that they each felt compelled to call head coach Ty Lue to heap praise.

PG called raving about his passing and then Luke Kennard called talking about how he can pass, revealed Ty Lue on Saturday. Lue has stated that this season he would like to run more of the offense through big men on the perimeter, something that requires solid decision-making and the ability to find the open man. Hartenstein told Lue that, in addition to learning from his father, a former European player, he had honed his passing game while in Denver as the understudy, for 30 games, to MVP center Nikola Jokic, widely considered the best passing big man in the league.

One lesson, in particular, stuck out to Hartenstein. I think before, you would look at, a lot, the offensive player, Hartenstein said, per The L.A. Times. But Jokic told me a lot more just to look where the defense is looking. I think thats how some of the backdoor passesit looks like the dude is not open, but like Im really looking at the defense, and if hes not looking at me, theres no chance of him even getting the ball, because you cant see the ball coming. So I think just stuff like that helped me a lot.

Poetically, the Clippers faced the Nuggets in their preseason opener, and though Denver opted to sit Jokic, his fingerprints on Hartensteins game were readily apparent. In the first quarter, Hartenstein found Terance Mann on a give-and-go layup, and in the third, he gifted Kennard an easy bucket on a pinpoint backdoor dime. After the game, Nuggets head coach Mike Malone praised Hartenstein and said that he is a lot more skilled than people think.

Hartenstein would continue to show that skill in the following three preseason games, finishing the four-game stint averaging 3.5 assists in just 13.3 minutes. But Gilesan above-average passer himselfwas no slouch in the preseason either, and on Saturday Lue admitted that the decision was far from easy. Per ClipperNation, Lue said:

Harry did a lot of great things and, you know, hes definitely an NBA player, I mean, we know that for sure. And we thought Isaiah did a good job as well, you know, so it was a tough decision. Hate to see Harry go because he did some great things for us, like I said, and hes more advanced than some of our young guys, but it just, its tough when you got to come down to the situation when you got to make cuts and, you know, like I said, hes an NBA player for sure.

But happy for Isaiah as well. He did a good job, he played well, kind of came in and fit in right away with his passing and being able to get guys shots and backdoor cuts for layups and things like that, so they both played well, it was a tough decision.

If Hartenstein finds success with the Clippers this season, some credit will certainly be due to the coaching style of Lue and the Clippers organization in general. Hartenstein didnt just leave Cleveland because of the depth charthe was looking for a home where he could be free to do his thing without constantly worrying about making mistakes, a circumstance he believes hes found with the Clippers.

I came out here for a little bit before I made my decision and it was great, Hartenstein said Saturday. The organization, top to bottom, the way they played, T-Lue just letting the guys play free. I think that was one of the biggest things for me, was just finding someone that also lets me play my game. I think with Denver and the Rockets I was really looking over my shoulder every game, and its hard to play like that, and so now being in a situation where I can just play my game and do whatever the team needs to win.

Lue, who was a role player for seven different teams over 11 NBA seasons, knows where Hartenstein is coming from.

You want guys to be able to play free, its hard to play on eggshells, said Lue, who recently tied for the second most votes from general managers around the league when asked which coach is the best manager/motivator of people. Unfortunately in my career, Ive had a couple stints where I had to play like that as well and thats not easy to do because youre not being yourself.

With our players, Lue continued, its OK to make mistakes, but the biggest thing is if youre playing the right way, if youre playing hard and competing, were not worried about the turnovers or missed shots. We dont want careless turnovers, but if youre trying to make the right play for your teammate and it doesnt go right, you aint gotta look over your shoulder and wonder if youre coming out.

Of course, Hartenstein may have a little more pressure on him when Ibaka finally returns, but until then he intends to stake a claim for minutes even after all the Clippers big men are back.

Ive always been confident in my abilities, Hartenstein said. I think Im a good center in the NBA, and that was one reason why I didnt want to stay in Cleveland even though they treated me really well out there. I just wanted to be in a situation where I could play and really have a chance to prove myself.

The Clippers open their season on October 21 in a nationally televised game against the Golden State Warriors.

The rest is here:

Gambling on Himself, 'Skilled' Big Man Finds a Home With Clippers - Heavy.com

Internet casino gaming and sports betting operators in Michigan reached a new benchmark in September, combining for $126.1 million in gross revenue for the month.

The Michigan Gaming Control Board released official data this week that detailed the banner month for the state, which first rolled out online gaming and sports betting in late January of this year.

Online casino gaming continues to hum along in Michigan as operators reported $102.4 million in gross receipts for September. This rang in 5.3 percent higher than last month, which set the previous record of $97.2 million.

Adjusted revenue for online casino gaming, which takes into account free play promotions, was $92.3 million. This segment of online gambling generated $18.9 million for the state in taxes and payments.

Live dealer games have pushed online casino gaming to a new level, Eric Ramsey, an analyst for the PlayUSA.com Network, which includes PlayMichigan.com, said in a report on Michigans latest figures. The states industry will almost certainly reach $1 billion in revenue in its first year of existence, which is a remarkable milestone for such a young market.

Between Jan. 22, when online gaming launched, and Sept. 30, online casino gaming has generated $698.5 million in adjusted revenue.

As expected, sports betting activity also picked up in September as college football kicked off across the country. Sports betting operators in Michigan handled $354.3 million in bets, leading to $23.7 million in gross revenue, up by 49 percent from August.

September was only rivaled by the $359.5 million in bets handled in March, which was anchored by the NCAA mens basketball tournament.

On-premises sports wagering combined with online sports betting totaled $386.8 million in bets placed, which is a new monthly record.

Internet sports betting contributed $426,873 to the state in taxes and payments.

The potency of a full football schedule and access to online betting is unmatched, Ramsey said. September will raise expectations for the industry, and the bar was already pretty high. The next three months have the potential to bring even more records.

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Analyst: Michigan to 'almost certainly' reach $1 billion in revenue in first year of online gambling - MiBiz: West Michigan Business News

FaZe Clan co-owner Ricky Banks Bengston has responded to accusations regarding offshore gambling being levied against him.

Throughout 2021, there have been various allegations against YouTube personalities, accused of being involved in cryptocurrency schemes and other gambling activities.

Earlier in October 2021, NELK Boys SteveWillDoIt completely wiped his gambling channel after a video from notorious YouTube sleuth Coffeezilla suggested something shady was occurring.

FaZe Clan have been embroiled in their own issues too, with members Kay, Jarvis, Nikan, and Teeqo all removed or suspended from the org for allegedly pumping and dumping a cryptocoin called Save the Kids.

Its more recently been alleged by fans and critics online that Banks himself could be involved with Roobet and its owners, thanks mostly to his huge deal with the company that saw them fly Banks, Adin Ross and more out to Mexico and give them around $2m to promote the platform.

The main issue is that Roobet is not available in the U.S. hence why questions have been asked over their activity.

Banks appeared on the BFFs podcast with Josh Richards and Barstools Dave Portnoy to discuss the allegations. He said: We did a 1-month stint campaign with them [Roobet], we were getting jets to Mexico, we did it completely 100% legit. Im as legit as it gets.

While Richards said that he had heard influencers were telling viewers to download a VPN so that they can access the site, Banks denied that any of that had happened. That never happened, at least not from us, he said.

He went on to say that we got paid fat for it, but expressed some confusion over what exactly it was he and others were being accused of. There were transactions with a [Ethereum] wallet super connected to Roobet, and it was like, Whys all this money coming in from this wallet to Banks, and then two seconds later hes buying CryptoPunks?

He then explained exactly what happened between his ETH wallet and the other. We all know how Coinbase works. Its annoying, it takes a while. I start sending messages out saying Yo, do you have X dollars in Ethereum that I could buy off you? So one of these guys came back, he sends me the Ethereum, I did it all through my finance people. And I wired this guy out like $200,000.

While Banks doesnt often speak out on his personal life and things that are going on behind the scenes, hes very confident that hes done nothing wrong in this situation and doesnt want to be tarnished with that brush.

Continued here:

FaZe Banks addresses offshore gambling accusations: Im as legit as it gets - Dexerto

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

By Larry Lage

DETROIT (AP) The latest generation of NHL pucks have six circles on both sides covering tubes that allow infrared cameras to constantly connect the vulcanized rubber with a puck and player tracking system.

After a bumpy start last season with microchipped pucks that didnt slide right, the latest versions have worked so well that at least one coach wasnt sure if they were in play yet.

Im not aware that we have used those pucks yet this season, Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. I wish we would so we could feel them.

That seems to be a good sign. The NHL attempted to track pucks last January, but took them off the ice six days into the season.

We went away from it because the puck didnt glide right, Blashill recalled. It didnt feel like a real puck. Obviously, thats the trick. I think puck tracking is a great thing that will really help the analytics a lot.

That is indeed the key: Data generated by the pucks and from sensors about the size of a thumb on the backs of players will be used by teams to develop their players and to scout opponents. Passing, puck possession, takeaways, giveaways and more can be accurately recorded without the potential subjectivity of a scoring crew in an arena.

In contract negotiations, it isnt difficult to envision a day when teams and agents point to data generated by the tracking system.

Everything that could be used against you, it could also be used for you, Winnipeg Jets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois said.

TV networks will continue to display and talk about some of the information on broadcasts and studio shows.

We have to make sure the data is used in the right context, said former NHL player Anson Carter, now an analyst for Turner Sports. We all know (Colorado center) Nathan MacKinnon is fast and if the data says hes going nearly 40 mph, Id use it if it showed that two or three other players were perhaps 7 mph slower and integrate it into an analysis to hammer home a point.

Fans who want to know how fast players skate, how hard they shoot and more will be able to choose options that will show the data on an overlay as they watch on a big, medium or small, hand-held screen. Some details were announced in February.

Were going to let fans decide how much or how little they want to incorporate it, NHL vice president of business development and innovation Dave Lehanski said. They will be able to create a personally customized viewing experience.

Perhaps later this season, gamblers are expected to be able to wager on a new wave of bets. How far does the puck travel in a game? Who skates the fastest in the second period? Who has the hardest shot in the game?

This is going to re-engineer the hockey better experience, which to put it politely is sub-optimal because its all about game outcomes, NHL vice president of technology Keith Horstman said. Its exciting that this data is going to lead to in-play betting.

But, its going to take some time to figure out what fans care enough to bet on and how the odds and probability will work. Were working on it and Id like to say it will happen this season.

Brett Abarbanel, director of research at the UNLVs International Gaming Institute, expects there to be an appetite for the betting once the details are worked out by the NHL.

This is the type of wagering that is attractive to fans so youre going to see increased interest because these are wagers that can close more quickly, Abarbanel said. If I want to bet that the Vegas Knights are going to beat the San Jose Sharks, I have to wait until the end of the game. If I dont want to wait, maybe I can bet on who skates the fastest in the first five minutes of the game.

While gamblers will use the data to try to make money, coaches will take the information hoping to gain a competitive advantage to win games.

The puck tracking piece is critical and were excited about it with our analytics group, Blashill said. We think it take some of the things we have in place and bring it to a whole other level.

Read more:

NHL Tracking Pucks this Season, Opening up Gambling Options - Sports Illustrated

Online sports and casino gambling is expected to begin in Connecticut Tuesday with a 7-day, soft launch for a total of 2,250 people identified by the fantasy sports companies that have joined forces with the Connecticut Lottery Corp., and the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes.

The soft launch includes online casino games for the two tribes and their casinos, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods.

The Department of Consumer Protection notified the operators Friday that they can begin the weeklong soft launch starting at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

As long as no issues arise, we have told the licensees they may move forward with the 7-day soft launch required in the regulations. Once the soft launch is complete, online gaming will open statewide, Commissioner Michelle H. Seagull said in a written announcement.

FanDuel, DraftKings and Rush Street Interactives, which have contracted with the tribes and the lottery, will pick 750 patrons each not necessarily first-come, first-served. That process began with Fridays announcement.

During the soft launch, online sports wagering will be limited to certain times of the day. Those hours are 3-11 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, noon.-11:59 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, then 24-hours through the rest of the launch period.

The launch would leave one more piece of gambling expansion to be launched: In-person, retail sports wagering locations outside of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. The Lottery Corp. is designated as the operator of those sites around the state and is working with Sportech, which runs 11 Winners off-track betting sites in Connecticut, for most of them. Licenses are not yet granted for those locations.

As in other states with online gambling, people wagering on the Connecticut sites must be physically located in Connecticut. This is accomplished through GPS fencing, in which anyone outside the state will be excluded.

The state expects to reap $30 million in the first year, eventually ramping up to an estimated $100 million a year, by taxing online sports betting at 13.75 percent, and online casino games at 18 percent, rising to 20 percent after five years. The Lottery Corp. will not pay a tax because all of its revenues after expenses move to the states general fund.

The news comes about a week after the soft launch of in-person sports betting at the two casinos owned by the tribes. The lottery is still awaiting approval of as many as 15 retail sites, spokeswoman Tara Chozet said Friday.

julia.bergman@hearstmediact.com

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Online gambling for sports and casino games in CT begins Tuesday with a soft launch - Westport News

Steve Marcus

Rachelle Rabago, IGT director of casino systems product management, demonstrates cashless gaming technology as she transfers money from an IGT Pay resort wallet on a smartphone to a video slot machine during the Global Gaming Expo at the Venetian Expo, Tuesday, Oct. 5,2021.

By Bryan Horwath (contact)

Friday, Oct. 8, 2021 | 2 a.m.

At this weeks Global Gaming Expo, cashless gambling is a hot topic.

Companies are showing off their latest payment technologies, and London-based International Game Technologys cashless casino management system was recognized as the product innovation of the year.

Yet just outside the Venetian Expo, where the annual convention is taking place, gamblers are busy feeding paper bills into slot machines on the casino floor and slapping greenbacks on blackjack tables in exchange for clay chips.

Despite all the buzz, there is still an obvious gulf between the industry and the millions of gamblers used to doing things the old-fashioned way.

Theres no doubt that cashless is, from the operators perspective, hugely beneficial, said Rich Schneider, chief product officer at Scientific Games, which is headquartered in Las Vegas.

The key question is whats in it for the player and what will the player adoption rate be? This isnt a logical business that were in its an emotional business, Schneider said.

Attempts to introduce cashless solutions at casinos have had mixed results, Schneider said. Nonetheless, there is a tipping point in favor of cashless gaming on the horizon, he said.

The pandemic has advanced the trend by making people more conscious about handling common items like money and coins, he said.

Players will demand a more frictionless experience, Schneider said. Sports betting and online gaming will move it along as well. Prior to COVID, I would have said that point was seven or eight years off. Post-COVID, given the general adversity to money and tickets, thats different now.

More and more Scientific Games customers, including Las Vegas casino operators, are asking about cashless products, Schneider said.

At Resorts World, the tech-savvy resort that opened on the north Strip in June, gamblers can play slot machines without cash through their players card. The system runs through SYNKROS player tracking software developed by Konami Gaming.

Sports betting has also been on the leading edge of cashless, mobile betting, with multiple sports books offering online wagering.

Gaming equipment manufacturers in Las Vegas and around the world are jockeying for position in the race to cash-free gaming.

At this weeks convention, companies like Sightline Payments and Global Payments Inc. have booths on the showroom floor.

On Tuesday, IGTs cashless casino management system IGT Advantage earned the Product Innovation of the Year Award at the Global Gaming Awards, an annual part of the expo.

IGT Advantage includes an avenue for players to gamble with funds using either a card or by having their smartphone linked to the casino floor.

It is being tested at some Nevada casinos.

Cashless technology is also being used at some casinos in New York and Michigan, two of eight states where digital payments are accepted at casinos, according to the American Gaming Association.

Also this week at G2E, MasterCard announced a partnership with tech companies AptPay and NRT Technology to introduce a cashless system called smartSEND, which is geared toward the gaming industry.

The system will enable casinos to instantly disburse casino winnings to bank accounts or other mobile wallets, the companies said.

Everybody kind of has their own secret sauce on how they make the cashless experience seamless, Schneider said. Theres a need to meet player and operator demand. Theres a flurry of activity right now.

Since online shopping and near-field technology options like Apple Pay where an iPhone user can pay by simply putting their phone near a payment device have become popular, some observers wonder why similar options for gaming arent more widely available.

Nasr Sattar, senior vice president of innovation at NRT Technology, said the gaming industry lagged other businesses when it came to monetary convenience innovations.

The pattern of innovation, in both hardware and software, seems to go from retail to banking to gaming, he said. Theres various reasons for that, but thats the general path.

Phil OShaughnessy, vice president of global communications for IGT, which has offices in Las Vegas, said that with so many people used to the convenience of cashless payments in other areas, its certainly time for this to really gather some momentum in gaming.

But will cash one day completely disappear from the gaming floor?

What will happen is players will, over time, get used to the convenience of cashless. Youll see momentum continue to build for cashless, OShaughnessy said. But cashless and cash with always, I think, co-exist nicely in the gaming space.

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Cashless gambling technologies grab industry's attention, but will players buy in? - Las Vegas Sun

Online casinos have highest participants from India

YouGov commented that Fueled by innovation, de-regulation in key markets, and the pandemic, its clear that the popularity of online gambling globally has achieved new highs.

Italy, UK, France say businesses do not take problem of gambling seriously

Nation-by-nation, Italy has the highest number of participants 69 per cent - who express the view that online gaming platforms neglect gambling-related problems. The United Kingdom and France are second and third with 66 per cent and 59 per cent negative opinions respectively. They are followed by Germany with 52 per cent, the United States with 50 per cent, and Mexico with 45 per cent.

Buying online lottery tickets shows as the most prominent method of online gambling in the world with 42 per cent of all participants admitting they had done it. Sports betting follows with 36 per cent of respondents providing that answer. Instant win lottery games are third with 23 per cent, and online slots are played by 13 per cent of all participants.

Broken down by country, online lotteries are most popular in Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Poland, and Singapore. Betting on sports is most prominent in Denmark, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, and the US. Indias most popular online gambling activity is playing fantasy sports.

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Over the past few years, online fantasy sport (OFS) in India have gone from being a rather shady area of niche interest to becoming ubiquitous, so much so that a fantasy sport platform, Dream 11, was the title sponsor of IPL 2020. Indeed, the IPL viewing experience has changed significantly in recent years, with the long breaks between overs now stuffed with an array of commercials about cryptocurrencies, mutual funds and above all, fantasy sport. To someone unfamiliar with state-level policy developments in the country, this omnipresence of fantasy sport commercials would seem to suggest the presence of a thriving and safe fantasy sport industry, but the reality, of course, is quite the opposite.

Despite a Rajasthan High Court ruling (later upheld by the Supreme Court), stating that engaging in OFS is a business activity and, thereby, protected under article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution, several states have either explicitly banned online fantasy sport or buried them under regulatory ambivalence.

The latest in this tradition of clamping down on a promising but nascent industry is Karnataka, which amended its 1963 Police Act to ban online gambling. As The Indian Express reported, The amended law also puts betting on the skills of others in the category of gambling and also states that any act of risking money or otherwise on the unknown result of an event including on a game of skill is an offence.

This provision, thus, extends the ambit of the law beyond just gambling and creates an atmosphere of uncertainty for OFS. The ambiguity created by the laws failure to distinguish between gambling and OFS is likely to incentivise overcompliance and lack of response uniformity among OFS platforms. This is reflected by the fact that, as of October 6, Mobile Premier League (MPL) and Paytm First Games have blocked access for Karnataka-based users but Dream11 has not.

The law is problematic at three levels conceptual, economic and ethical, each of which reveals the problems that persist in Indian policymaking.

Conceptually confused

The distinction between gambling and other forms of financial investment in games is based on the framework of games of chance vs games of skill. The easiest way to understand this difference is by observing the pattern of rewards a player accrues over time.

In a game of skill, a person can learn to get better at playing and consequently, is likely to make more money as time passes. In a game of chance, one cannot get better at playing, and their rewards/losses, therefore, do not show a pattern of improvement.

It is important to remember that this binary framework does not mean that a game of skill can have no element of chance involved in it, because even real sport itself has an element of chance (think of how the toss affects outcomes in cricket). The framework only identifies whether skill or chance play the overwhelming role in determining a games outcome.

Creating fantasy teams and participating in fantasy sport contests, as would be obvious to many, involves a significant amount of domain knowledge, for instance, of cricket gameplay, player form, pitch conditions, and a deep understanding of the intricacies of T20 cricket (like wickets in powerplay overs are more valuable than in the death overs). Thus, investing money in an OFS cannot be called gambling.

Curiously, the amended Karnataka Police Act makes two exceptions betting on horse races and lottery contests. These exceptions are telling. The exemption of betting on horse racing shows the differential treatment given to a real-world, well-established activity that policymakers can understand readily, as opposed to online fantasy sport, which are a virtual, emerging activity and perhaps more difficult to grasp. Yet, at their heart, both activities are similar if not the same, involving investing money on the outcome of a skill-based sport or the performance of people involved in the sport. This step-motherly treatment meted out to innovative, tech-driven improvements on existing activities, drives policymaking in other innovative industries as well.

One can also use this exemption to argue for the need for greater representation of the countrys youth in politics, since the participants in online fantasy sports, in contrast to horse-race betting, are more likely to be youngsters, just as youngsters are more likely to be the ones driving innovation in broader tech startup space in general. Indeed, the motivation behind the bill is to protect the youth from becoming habitual gamers and stop them from being idle.

The exemption given to entering lottery contests, which are as chance-driven as one can possibly imagine, can be interpreted to be based on the fact that a lottery ticket, generally, costs little money. This differential treatment based on the quantum of money at risk is completely ad hoc. The skill vs chance framework determines whether a financial activity can be called gambling. It is thereby a property inherent to the design of the game, and therefore does not depend on arbitrary factors such as the quantum of money actually at stake. Buying a 100 lottery ticket is as much an act of gambling as gambling thousands at a roulette table. This points to the larger problem of the lack of principle-based policymaking in India, which is driven instead by arbitrary paternalism.

Economically detrimental

According to a discussion draft published by NITI Aayog in December last year, the OFS industry has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 212 per cent, from 2 million users in June 2016 to 90 million users in December 2019. This staggering growth brings with it great potential, including the possibility of over &10,000 crore in foreign direct investment and a further 10,000 crore in taxes over the next 5 years. In Karnataka alone, the online gaming industry employs an estimated 4000 people. Right up front, in its executive summary, the NITI Aayog document argues:

With a large market of Indian sports fans and availability of digital infrastructure and engineering talent in India, the OFSP industry can be an engine for growth, employment and innovation in fantasy sports across the world, and also become a global hub for fantasy sports. The think tank also conducted a consultation in September last year with industry representatives in order to arrive at principles and recommendations that would serve to enable the growth of the OFSP industry.

This dissonance between state governments and the Government of Indias think tank on the matter of OFS platforms shows the Indian State to be an incoherent entity, whose vision and goals, far from being uniform, are in active conflict with each other. Add to this equation the importance of an indigenous online gaming and fantasy sport industry to the Union Governments (led, currently, by the same political party as the Karnataka state government) own policy of Digital India, and Aatmanirbhar Bharat, and you have a thoroughly-confused policy environment.

This is likely to create uncertainty and suspicion (perhaps the most significant barrier in a promising high-tech industry) in the minds of entrepreneurs, even if many Indian states do not engage in such heavy-handed legislation, and/or the judiciary continues to uphold OFS as games of skill.

Ethically blind

Of course, none of what I have said so far should be taken to mean that the OFS industry has no issues or risks associated with it. As with any other form of engaging and/or financial activity, the risk of addiction exists and so does the risk of unscrupulous platforms with unfair practises reducing games of skill, in effect, to fraud. These problems need attention and deliberation, not an outright ban.

A regulatory regime is required, which would address issues of data protection, fraud and addiction, keeping consumer interest in mind while enabling the industry to grow. For this, the NITI Aayog has proposed the creation of a self regulatory body that is recognised by the government.

One such body, the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), already exists. It is also possible to argue for regulation to be driven by legislation or guidelines issued by the union government. Both approaches would come with their own set of trade-offs, but one can only begin to have this conversation when the legality of OFS platforms does not differ arbitrarily from one Indian state to the other.

Finally, one can argue against the ban on gambling altogether. Bans, as the cliche goes, dont solve problems, they only drive them underground. This is true of gambling as it is true of alcohol and narcotics. Bans work to absolve the government of its regulatory responsibilities. But deeming something illegal does not mean that the activity in question no longer exists and eventually, as has been well documented in the deaths due to contraband alcohol, unregulated, banned activities and substances end up hurting the very people the bans intend to protect.

Paternalisic bans, therefore, can be seen as moral failures. In the end, it is telling, perhaps, that I had to talk about substance abuse to make my point about how Indias policy landscape is thwarting a promising and innovative industry.

Atish Padhy works at the Takshashila Institution

The views expressed are personal

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Fantasy sport, Karnatakas online gambling ban, and what policymaking gets wrong - Hindustan Times