Tag Archives: gambling

Disney’s ESPN Enters Sports Gambling With $2B Deal

ESPN reports: ESPN has signed a licensing deal with Penn Entertainment to create ESPN BET, a sportsbook for audiences in the United States. Penn will rebrand its current sportsbook to ESPN BET later this fall in the 16 states where it is licensed. The rebrand will include a mobile app, website, mobile website and mutually agreed upon retail locations. Penn …

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“Mega Mistake” In New York Mega Millions Drawing

ABC New York reports: Mega Millions has temporarily suspended prize payments after the host called the wrong number during Tuesday night’s drawing. Lottery officials said John Crow mistakenly called the gold Mega Ball as 6 when it was actually a 9. Players are advised to hold on to their tickets until the issue is resolved. There were no grand prize …

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Elderly Nun Jailed After Stealing $800K For Vegas Trips

Courthouse News reports: A federal judge sentenced an 80-year-old nun to a year in prison after she confessed to stealing more than $800,000 from the elementary school where she worked as principal to, among other things, fund her gambling trips to Las Vegas. Mary Margaret Kreuper must also pay $825,338 in restitution, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s …

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FL Approves Bill That Would Let Trump Open Casino

The Washington Post reports: Florida legislators approved a legislative package Wednesday that will dramatically expand gambling in the state and sets the stage for former president Donald Trump to pursue a casino license at his Doral golf resort. The legislation includes a 30-year compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, negotiated by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a Trump ally. The …

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Offshore Gambling Outfits Made A Killing Off Cultists

Slate reports: Offshore sportsbooks do not share detailed financials, but the 2020 election appears to have been the biggest online betting event in at least American history, to say nothing of what licensed bookmakers in Europe might have made. Bovada’s head oddsmaker, Pat Morrow, said that his site handled “eight figures” in election bets, 95 percent of them coming from …

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Smaller Casinos Eligible For SBA Funds After Lobbying

The Washington Post reports: Casinos with fewer than 500 employees are eligible to receive loans from a new pot of $310 billion in small-business funding that was released Monday, a rule change that could help casinos hire back workers but was opposed by anti-gambling advocates. For nearly 25 years, companies that made more than one-third of their revenue from gambling …

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Powerball Jackpot Rules Changed Due To Coronavirus

CBS News reports: The Powerball Product Group announced changes to the Powerball’s starting amount and minimum roll increases between drawings. Following the next grand prize win, the starting jackpot will reset to a guaranteed $20 million with minimum increases between drawings of $2 million. The Powerball Product Group said the changes to the game ensure it can continue to support …

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Kentucky Gov: Casinos Have Suicides “Every Night”

The Louisville Courier-Journal reports: Gov. Matt Bevin says suicides are part of the societal costs related to casino gambling, as he lashed out at his opponent’s support for expanded gambling as a way to help fund pensions. In a radio interview Wednesday, Bevin said: “Every night somewhere in America, somebody takes their life in a casino because they’ve wasted the …

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NH Gov Sues DOJ Over Ban On Online Lottery Sales

Courthouse News reports: New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu and his state’s lottery commission sued the Department of Justice on Friday over a recent regulatory change that would bar the sale of lottery tickets online. “Today New Hampshire is taking action to protect public education in New Hampshire,” Sununu said in a statement. “The opinion issued by DOJ puts millions of …

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South Carolina Player Wins $1.6B Lottery Jackpot

CBS News reports: One winning ticket was sold for the record Mega Millions jackpot of what turned out to be just under $1.6 billion. The winning ticket was purchased in South Carolina. South Carolina Education Lottery spokesperson Holli Armstrong told CBS News officials aren’t releasing the address yet of the outlet that sold the winner — or even the city …

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Mega Millions Lottery Jackpot Hits Record $1 Billion

Yahoo News reports: The U.S. Mega Millions lottery jackpot jumped to a record $1 billion on Friday, hours before the drawing for what is also the second-largest lottery prize in U.S. history. New Yorkers queuing up to buy tickets for Friday’s lottery said they would use the prize money to go on a shopping spree, quit their jobs and donate …

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SCOTUS Strikes Down Ban On Legal Sports Betting

NBC News reports: The U.S. Supreme Court acted Monday to bust Nevada’s monopoly on legal sports betting, allowing more states to get in on the action and reap the tax benefits. The court struck down a federal law that required states to ban gambling on the outcome of sporting events. The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was highly unusual: …

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Gambling Sites Again Spike Impeachment Odds

CNBC reports: Odds are that President Donald Trump will survive a growing brew of controversies, but bettors see his chances declining by the minute. Online wagering sites have been busy taking bets on whether the 45th president will make it through the year. As the heat has intensified, more action has been going toward expectations that he will be impeached …

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ATLANTIC CITY: Trump Taj Mahal Casino Closes

USA Today reports: The Trump Taj Mahal, an iconic casino hotel on the Atlantic City boardwalk, ceased operations Monday after hemorrhaging losses for years and negotiations with employees’ union broke down, according to its owner, billionaire investor Carl Icahn. The shutdown, which leaves 3,000 employees out of work, was widely expected after its management announced the planned closure in August. …

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Trump Taj Mahal To Close After Labor Day

From the Atlantic City Press: Trump Taj Mahal is set to close its doors after Labor Day weekend, according to a Wednesday statement from Tony Rodio, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tropicana Entertainment. Rodio said the ongoing Unite Here Local 54 strike played a role in making the decision. “Currently the Taj is losing multi-millions a month, and now …

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Fox News: Buy All The Lottery Tickets You Can Afford

Business Insider, shockingly, says this a terrible strategy. They write: On Monday morning, liberal media watchdog group Media Matters tweeted a screenshot from a Saturday Fox and Friends segment advising a simple strategy for maximizing your chances of winning the lottery: Buy as many tickets as you can afford. This is technically true. Buying more lottery tickets does increase your …

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Powerball Soars To World Record $1.3 Billion

Sorry kids, you’re going to work tomorrow. The Independent reports: America awaits its first lottery billionaire, after the Powerball jackpot rollover hit a world-record figure of $1.3 billion. No one won Saturday’s $949.8 million jackpot on 9 January, already the biggest in US history. Strong ticket sales, fueled by excitement over the enormous sum, have driven the prize money up …

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$70B Spent On State Lotteries Last Year

Via the Atlantic: According to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, lotteries took in $70.1 billion in sales in the 2014 fiscal year. That’s more than Americans in all 50 states spent on sports tickets, books, video games, movie tickets, and recorded music sales. The national average hides a lot of variance among the states. In North …

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IRELAND: 6/1 Odds For Gay Marriage

Ireland’s same-sex marriage referendum is being given a 6/1 chance of passage by bookmakers Paddy Power. The controversial gambling outfit, which operates hundreds of betting parlors across Ireland and Great Britain, made international news in 2012 with the announcement that bets on Obama winning a second term would be paid out on the day before the election. Paddy Power regularly …

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John Oliver On The Lottery

“Last year Americans spent more on the lottery than they spent on movie tickets, music, porn, major league baseball, the NFL, and video games combined.”

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