Meta says yes to prediction markets, Americans worried about political event contracts

There have been multiple big news stories coming out of the gambling industry this week, with Entain mulling a sale of its Central European Unit and Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s boss, reportedly instructing teams to get a toehold in.

Meta, the company behind Instagram, Messenger, Facebook, WhatsApp, and other social media apps, may be further expanding into prediction markets, according to people familiar with the matter and cited by multiple media outlets.

Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly instructed relevant teams at Meta to build a prediction platform that is similar to what mainstream ones, such as Kalshi and Polymarket, offer in terms of event contracts.

However, the project has one key difference - Zuckerberg will not bet on real money transactions, but rather use a system that is internally described as a video game-based point system for tracking successful trades.

Among the suggested reasons for the new project is the tech billionaire’s desire to continue expanding its empire by capitalizing on emerging social behavior.

Business and finance

The headline news this week is Entain’s mooted sale of its stake in its Central and Eastern Europe venture. Initially, rumors circulated that the company may be considering dropping its investment in order to use the proceeds to cover debt and pivot towards other global markets.

The divestment was attributed to the increasing cost of doing business in the United Kingdom, where the levy on iGaming increased as of April 1, 2026, putting operators in a difficult position amid a resurgent black market.

Shortly after the news broke that Entain could be moving with the sale of its CEE venture, the company confirmed that it will be selling a 20% stake to its existing partner, EMMA Capital, for a total of €425m, including €395m payable on completion and further payments to follow in 2027, depending on financial performance throughout the year.

Entertain has not committed to whether it would be selling out the remaining part of its stake, but assured investors in a note that it will consider "all strategic options." Entain CEO Stella David, however, noted that the sale was a decisive first step in what could be a full exit before long.

In the meantime, GR8_TECH heads to ExCeL London on 1–2 July with a Champions Club mindset, a Best Affiliate Management Platformshortlist, and one message for operators: stop playing for survival and start playing to win. Read more on this story here.

Laws and regulations

Brazil has announced new measures intended to force payment providers to comply with the country’s strict gambling laws and ensure that they are not transacting money for unregulated sportsbooks and online casinos.

The Ministry of Finance published Ordinance No. 17.66 on Wednesday, June 17, detailing what the new enforcement action would look like and the penalties that the targeted companies may face for non-compliance.

Furthermore, individuals and legal entities will also be held accountable for advertising unregulated gambling businesses in the country.

A lawsuit against Wynn Las Vegas was allowed to move forward for the time being, after a judge decided that at least one allegation brought against the operator may be examined further.

This has to do with a Ponzi scheme led by a now-imprisoned fraudster, David Bunevacz, who, the complaint alleges, used the premises of Wynn Las Vegas to "wine and dine" Canadian businessman Stephen Shefsky and elicit payments for him.

While Judge Anne Traum dismissed several parts of the original complaint, the judge agreed that the case may proceed, focusing on whether the property should have reasonably known that the money spent by Bunevacz was obtained as a result of a theft.

Judge Traum emphasized in her decision that this did not prove guilt on the part of Wynn Las Vegas. Judge Traum outright dismissed the parts of the complaint about negligence and unjust enrichment.

Brendan Sorsby won’t be participating in the NFL Supplemental Draft after the NFL Management Council confirmed that the request to hold the event was too rushed, and Sorsby’s current legal predicaments made it difficult to act on such short notice.

Sorsby, who withdrew from his college football career in the wake of a devastating sports betting scandal, has decided to drop his claim against the NCAA, after Texas Tech, his most recent NCAAF team, said that it won’t allow him to play, facing backlash from collegiate-level athletic departments.

This prompted Sorsby to relinquish his college-level ambitions and try to jump straight to the NFL.

Because of all of this, however, including a lawsuit against him from a former team over breach of NIL, the NFL said that it won’t be holding the NFL Supplemental Draft. Sorsby is still expected to work out for NFL scouts in July.

In a similar vein, the NCAA has now banned Adam Njie Jr, a former Iona player, who is accused of conspiring to fix games while playing for the team during the 2024-2025 season, resulting in his ousting from collegiate competitions.

Njie Jr supposedly sought to sabotage his team’s first half against Rice in December 2024. He failed to do so and was threatened with physical violence by gamblers.

He is now facing an investigation by the US Department of Justice. The player has acknowledged sharing non-public information, but denied that he purposefully sought to make his team fail.

Responsible gambling

A new survey by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that households of sports bettors are more likely to be affected by food insufficiency. The percentage cited by the survey was 10.5% for this specific group compared to just 2.1% for working-age adults.

The researchers also noted that declines in food sufficiency were most prominent among households with adults who are between the ages of 25 and 44 and racial and ethnic minorities.

Our findings have important policy implications, especially considering upcoming major sports events in the United States, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games," the researchers noted.

The voice of the industry

Valentina Bagniya was recently named Woman Leader of the Year at the Casino Guru Awards 2026. In this conversation with Casino Guru News, she talks about what the award really represents and how she helped build SOFTSWISS's global marketing function from the ground up.

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To wrap up, if you want to catch up on more recent major events, make sure to check Casino Guru’s podcast, iGaming Horizon, which runs through some of the key headlines from recent weeks and offers an analysis of these developments.

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