The house always wins in the end. ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — (AP) — The nation’s commercial casinos won nearly $14 billion in the third quarter of this year, marking the industry’s best quarter ever, and pushing U.S. casino revenue past what it was for all of 2020, according to figures released Tuesday. Read more here.

State Rep. Michael DiMassa, D-West Haven, stepped down today amid accusations of gambling away allegedly misappropriated federal Covid-19 funds from February to September that were meant to help his former constituents. The timing of his departure cast a shadow over what a more positive announcement the same day: The Connecticut Lottery Corporation (CLC) opened its first retail sportsbook – at Sports Haven in New Haven.   Read more here.

Regulators start to take note of gambling industry’s big push to draw more customers The gambling industry’s deluge of sports-betting ads and free-money offers on television, radio and online, is beginning to concern regulators. Online gambling operators, such as DraftKings Inc. and FanDuel Group, are spending hundreds of millions of dollars, and large shares of their revenues, on marketing, putting sports wagering in front of the American consumer. The push includes celebrity-filled TV commercials, advertising on billboards and podcasts, and...

Because gambling is quite popular in our society, many teenagers try out different gambling activities, including poker, dice, scratch cards and sports betting, among others. Few adults and adolescents are aware of the risks associated with excessive gambling, which is expressed by a gradual loss of control over gambling behavior. Learn more here:  HS_Fact_Sheet.pdf (ncpgambling.org)

International Game Technology PLC (“IGT”) (NYSE: IGT) announced today that its world-class PlaySports platform footprint will expand into Wisconsin through an agreement to power sports betting at Oneida Casino, on the Oneida Nation Reservation.  Read more here.

Follow the money. Back in 2015, commissioner Roger Goodell said the league opposed legalized sports gambling. “We’ve been very open about our position that we oppose legalized sports gambling. We haven’t changed our position on that. I don’t anticipate us changing that going forward at all,” he said then. Now, the league has official sportsbook partners.  Read more here.    

Calls to Virginia gambling hotline spiked once sports betting started in January. Not only have calls more than doubled in the first four months of this year compared to last year, but 64% of the calls in March, April and May were from men. More than half of the calls, or 56%, involved sports betting and/or gambling machines.  Read more here.

The National Council on Problem Gambling said the situation with online betting needs to be addressed. “We’ve seen an increasingly wide expansion of online gambling during the pandemic, including sports betting, Lottery, and social gambling, as well as various methods of cashless payment,” the Council said in a statement. “We expect this to escalate as more state governments face budget shortfalls in the next two years. Protecting consumers who gamble, as well as their families, needs to be part of...

Online gambling has some features that increase the likelihood of developing a gambling problem or make an existing gambling problem worse. These features include:3 constant availability and ease of access that allow people to play for long periods without interruption the ability to play in isolation use of credit card and digital payments that make it easy to spend money highly interactive and immersive environments that may cause players to lose track of time and money It has been argued...

It IS Gambling Many of America’s casino operators and gambling regulators openly describe Daily Fantasy Sports as “gambling.” MGM Casinos Chairman Jim Murren recently said those who argue that daily fantasy games are not gambling are “absolutely, utterly wrong.” Murren added, “I don’t know how to run a football team, but I do know how to run a casino, and this is gambling.” Even the people who run online Daily Fantasy Sports sites privately admit they are running a gambling...