Illegal gambling in the US, excise tax, and regulatory shifts

In this weekly round up of the hottest story of the week, Casino Guru News has plenty to report. First, let’s start by not-so-humbly congratulating ourselves on the third consecutive accolade Casino Guru won in the AffPapa iGaming Awardsfor Best Casino Affiliate of the Year.

Recently, we also saw Casino Guru’s Sustainable & Safer Gambling Lead , Šimon Vincze, travel to Quezon City, the Philippines, to attend the 1st International Conference on Responsible Gambling and Gaming Addiction, where he shared his knowledge and experience of responsible gambling, and did three separate presentations focused on player protection, to wit

• Overview of the European Gambling Market
• Introduction to Casino Guru’s Global Self-Exclusion System
• Best practices on using Terms & Conditions for player experience

In the meantime, Casino Guru News held several very interesting conversations this week. Start with the roundtable we did with a host of industry specialists among whom:

• Denys Cherievko, Chief Business Development Officer at Infingame
• Sebastian Damian, Managing Director at 3 Oaks Gaming
• Svante Sahlström, Chief Commercial Officer at Thunderkick
• Jelena Popović, Regional Manager at Greentube
• Tamas Kusztos, Chief Commercial Officer at Playson

The roundtable focused on how social casinos are used as a gateway to the United States for suppliers. The conversation went to some lengths, getting independent input from all the participants, which we think you will find interesting!

In the meantime, we also had the chance to catch up with Edward Byard from Crucible Gaming who has gone to some lengths to help us understand what the main challenges faced by an iGaming studio today are and why standing out is so important.

We similarly had the chance to cover the Back to Basics: Does Poker Really Need Re-Inventing with Peter Jesko, Casino Guru’s Strategic Lead.

The discussion made several important points, with Jesko insisting that the poker industry need not be "revolutionized" but rather evolve and better understand the needs of players, especially those who are very new to the game in general.

In the meantime, we also did a detailed breakdown of how the federal excise tax works on gambling companies in the United States and why some lawmakers find it useful, while others, including industry stakeholders, advocate for its removal.

Illinois has also touched on its state tax on betting, with the state expecting to increase the levy from currently 15% on a progressive basis to anything between 20% and 40% depending on the handle and volume different betting companies handle.

We also covered a recent and very interesting report from Campaign For Fairer Gambling and Yield Sec offered a breakdown of the illegal gambling market in the United States, focusing on data from Minnesota, New York and New Jersey based on 2023 results.

Speaking of the United States, DraftKings is rumored to be exploring a Simplebet acquisition, positioning the company firmer in the micro-betting market, and following the completion of similar moves for Jackpocket and Sports IQ Analytics.

Bovada has been targeted by the Michigan Gambling Control Board, with the regulator issuing a cease-and-desist letter to Bovada, ordering the website to stop offering its products to Michigan players within 14 days, or face enforcement action.

We are ending the week on a high note with one Bitcasino.io player winning a $3.2m jackpot earlier this week, playing Pragmatic Play’s bespoke game Gates of Bitcasino, developed exclusively for the casino.

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