The Current: US Gambling Is Growing Because Of Online Gambling

Gambling news roundup: California candidate for governor bets on himself at Kalshi; the latest on Penn vs. HG Vora drama; VGW leaving New York; BetMGM gets Missouri partner.

A quick editor’s note before we get into today’s newsletter: The Closing Line has a presenting sponsor for the first time.

FanDuel wants to increase the reach for its responsible gambling initiatives. I want to support operators who are doing good work on RG.

Out of that synergy: Trusted Voices: Conversations About Betting will appear regularly as a sponsor on the newsletter for the near future. FanDuel and I both hope the presence in the newsletter helps raise awareness for parents and other adults about how to talk to young people about gambling.

Now on to our regularly scheduled content.

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The Current is a report on something new in the gambling industry each week at The Closing Line.

I am going to start with a graphic from the American Gaming Association’s State of the States report today. I’ll challenge you to strip away your biases, look at this graphic, and tell me how this is bad for the US gambling industry:

What you’re looking at is commercial gross gambling revenue from 2009 to last year, measured in terms of raw revenue and year-over-year growth. You can see GGR is up and still growing since COVID. Growth (while slowing) still greatly outpaces the pre-COVID era, which also predates some of the expansion of online casinos.

Now, is all of this good or bad for you, particularly, and your casino or business? That’s a reasonable discussion to have. What’s not reasonable to say is that the legalization of online sports betting and online casinos is bad for the industry writ large.

The retail and online gambling verticals have long debated whether online gambling cannibalizes land-based casinos. Would retail casinos scrape back some revenue if online casinos weren’t a thing? I am mostly exhausted of the discussion after a decade of it; you can make arguments either way.

But gambling is growing in the US — precisely because of the adoption of regulated online gambling. There’s not a great argument we’d see meaningful growth across the board for US land-based casinos if regulated online options didn’t exist.

But here’s what you can’t deny: People want to gamble online, and they seek out legal and regulated options when they have them. Here’s a great AGA graphic illustrating that point:

Let’s forget about the above for a second. People also are increasingly seeking out online gambling in other formats, sometimes regulated, sometimes not: fantasy sports pick’em/parlays, trading sports event contracts on Kalshi, sweepstakes casinos and sportsbooks, skill-based online slots, online lottery couriers and online lotteries that often resemble online casinos, online horse betting, and on and on. It’s difficult to add up all of that revenue, but it’s easily in the tens of billions of dollars. And that’s not to mention what is likely still a vibrant offshore online gambling industry.

You aren’t putting the genie back in the bottle. Whether or not more states legalize online casinos, people are finding ways to gamble online, and they clearly want those options. Dismiss that reality at your own peril.

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Gambling news roundup

• California Candidate For Governor Bets On Himself To Win (Event Horizon): “Kyle Langford, a Republican candidate for governor in California, bet on himself to win the highest office in the state at Kalshi this weekend. Langford posted a video of himself placing the wager on Twitter/X on Saturday: ‘I just bet $100 that I, Kyle Langford will be the next Governor of California, join me (if you believe) @Kalshi’”

  • Kalshi statement: "We are aware of the recently publicized circumstance regarding a candidate trading on a market regarding their candidacy, and our compliance and surveillance teams are acting accordingly. As required of all CFTC-regulated exchanges, Kalshi investigates and, as appropriate, adjudicates all potential violations of its Rules, which are available at https://kalshi.com/regulatory/rulebook. Kalshi does not give public comment on the status of ongoing investigations. The outcome of such an investigation, or any pursuant notice of charges or discipline, may become public via exchange notice."

  • My favorite parts of the story are 1. that he recorded the wager and 2. that it’s still up. Neither outcome is great for Kalshi: Either it let a candidate bet on an election market when it wasn’t supposed to, or candidates are allowed to bet on elections. Seems fine (written in sarcasm font). If Kalshi can’t prevent listed candidates from betting on their own elections, what realistic chance do they have of prohibiting other people who shouldn’t be allowed to bet on elections?

• More Than 80% Of Kalshi Trading Volume Was On Sports Last Week (Event Horizon): “More than 80% of contracts traded at Kalshi involved sports last week, with that percentage rising to more than 90% over the weekend. Here’s a look at the top 20 markets by trading volume at Kalshi from May 19-25:”

  

  • Kalshi: We’re not gambling but we’re also gambling (snark/commentary from me on LinkedIn): “‘I just don't really know what this has to do with gambling,’ Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour told Axios about a month ago. Meanwhile, his marketing and social media teams continue to advertise the prediction market platform as a place to bet. The ads are becoming more and more aggressive (at least in my feeds) on Instagram and Facebook. The latest sponsored ad I got was a video of a guy talking about one of the weirdest things he could find to bet on at Kalshi. ‘Why does everyone insist we're gambling when we're advertising it as gambling?’ -- Someone at Kalshi, probably.”

    • Hat tip to a loyal reader for this graphic:

• Snowden, Penn Director Buy The Dip Following Latest HG Vora Blast (Legal Sports Report): “Penn Entertainment CEO Jay Snowden and a company director jumped on PENN shares Thursday, buying the dip that came after the latest HG Vora report. The frustrated shareholder submitted a 116-page presentation to fellow Penn shareholders Wednesday that thoroughly details Penn’s past five-plus years since it partnered with Barstool Sportsbook, which kicked off the company’s push into online sports betting. Penn’s share price closed at $14.20 on Wednesday, down 6.6% from Tuesday‘s close. That’s when Snowden and Director David Handler swooped in to buy a combined 44,000 shares.”

  • Meanwhile, the very public tit-for-tat between Penn and HG Vora continues almost daily. The latest is a press release from Penn and letter to shareholders entitled “PENN Entertainment Files Addendum to Fact Sheet to Correct HG Vora Misstatements.”

  • Penn Stock was trading at more than $15 midday.

• Louisiana, Connecticut Sweepstakes Prohibition Bills Inch Closer to Legalization (Sports Betting Dime): “Lawmakers in both Louisiana and Connecticut last week moved two pieces of legislation forward to ban dual-currency sweepstakes in their respective states. The Louisiana House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice last week unanimously moved SB 181 forward to the House floor. The Senate-approved bill aims to ban dual-currency sweepstakes gaming and prohibit casino-style gaming such as slot machines, lottery games, and sports betting. The Connecticut Senate last week also unanimously approved SB 1235 by a 36-0 vote, moving the sweepstakes prohibition bill over to the House.”

• VGW Says It’s Phasing Out Sweepstakes Play In NY: ‘This Decision Wasn’t Taken Lightly’ (Sweepsy): “Social and sweepstakes gaming behemoth VGW — the owner of Chumba Casino, LuckyLand Slots, and Global Poker — told Sweepsy that it has “informed players of a decision to phase out” its sweeps platform in New York. ‘Our valued players in New York will still be able to enjoy all their favorite free-to-play games using Gold Coins,’ a VGW spokesperson told Sweepsy, ‘and we are 100 percent focused on ensuring players are fully informed about the changes, and that this transition is as smooth and seamless as possible.’ VGW began sending out this news via email to its New York players over the weekend. ‘But we understand this is an adjustment after many years and some players may be disappointed,’ the spokesperson said. ‘This decision wasn’t taken lightly and was made at this time in the best interests of all our stakeholders.’

• Century Casinos Announces Sports Betting Partnership with BetMGM in Missouri (press release): “Century Casinos, Inc. announced today that its subsidiary, Century Casino & Hotel Cape Girardeau, has entered into a long-term agreement with BetMGM to bring BetMGM’s sports betting platform to the Missouri market. Under the terms of the agreement, BetMGM will operate an online and mobile sports betting application under Century’s license in Missouri. The agreement includes a percentage of net gaming revenue payable to Century, with a guaranteed minimum, as well as retail sportsbook options to be exercised at Century’s discretion. ‘We are excited to partner with BetMGM, a leading online sports betting and gaming entertainment company with a dynamic and innovative brand,’ stated Erwin Haitzmann and Peter Hoetzinger, Co-Chief Executive Officers of Century Casinos. ‘This partnership is another step forward in leveraging our Missouri licenses and delivering premium entertainment experiences for our customers.’”

  • Online sports betting in Missouri is scheduled to launch later this year.

• Lotto.com CEO talks Texas lawsuit and misconceptions around couriers (SBC Americas): “Critics claim that lottery courier CEOs such as Lotto.com’s Thomas Metzger lurk in the shadows, enable cheating and are a pox on the communities where they operate. If that is the case, Metzger is arguably the most exceedingly polite pox in the industry. ‘We’ve never gone into a state without explicit permission from that state in writing. So, in the 12 states that we’re operating in, we walked through the front door,’ Metzger told SBC Americas during the SBC Summit Americas conference.”

• Bettors like Aaron Judge to do something that hasn’t been done since 1941 (The Athletic): “Aaron Judge chased down one of MLB’s most famous numbers three years ago, when he topped Roger Maris’ 61 home runs with 62 of his own to break the American League record. Can he achieve another historic milestone this time around, one that hasn’t been accomplished in over eight decades? … BetMGM first posted a betting market on whether Judge would hit .400 this season back on May 2, with the opening odds coming in at +25000 (bet $100 to win $25,000). Those odds now sit at +15000 (bet $100 to win $15,000) after dipping to +10000. … ‘We get more action on MLB achievement props than any other sport,’ said Hal Egeland, Trading Manager at BetMGM. ‘MLB’s historic numbers seem to have more significance for the public in general, even beyond betting. So these key numbers, like 62 home runs or a .400 batting average, stick in people’s minds and draw more interest than, say, LeBron James breaking the points record. If there was ever a case where there’s a player bidding for the home run record, I would imagine we would take a massive amount of handle on that.’”

• DraftKings CEO Jason Robins on LinkedIn: “Since 2018, DraftKings Inc. has invested over $3 million in VetsinTech to help empower veterans and their spouses with tech skills and entrepreneurial opportunities. To date, we’ve trained more than 1,000 veterans and military spouses through our Tech for Heroes program. This Memorial Day, I’m proud of the work we’ve done—and incredibly grateful to all who have served.”

• Crypto platforms feel like gambling because they are: Users are drawn to high-risk behaviour (The Conversation): “Crypto trading platforms, where millions of people buy and sell digital currencies, don’t just look like casinos. In many ways, they function like them. Behind the charts, tokens and talk of innovation are systems that encourage risky bets while quietly profiting from user losses. Crypto platforms are not just about buying and selling digital assets. Many of these platforms are designed to blur the line between investing and gambling, profiting directly from user losses. Drawing on recent research conducted by a group of Concordia University-affiliated researchers (including ourselves), we look at how crypto platforms actually operate. These crypto exchanges combine financial tools with game-like features to turn high-risk speculation into a form of entertainment. Meanwhile, they downplay the details on how the systems actually work — and how they make money from users.”

• How Las Vegas casinos are working to attract millennials, Generation Z (Las Vegas Review-Journal): “Nearly half of the city’s visitors last year were either millennials or Gen Z, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s 2024 visitor profile report. Despite the perception that they are still “only kids,” all but the youngest millennials are in their 30s and 40s, while most of Gen Z is of legal voting age. And although their spending and gambling habits differ from previous generations, millennials and Gen Z are a very valuable cohort for Las Vegas casinos. ‘In an environment of increasing competition, it is vital that (casino) operators focus on delivering quality, distinctive experiences that not just meet but often exceed patron expectations,” said Sarah Grady, assistant director of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism at the Stockton University (N.J.) School of Business. That realization is prompting casinos across Las Vegas to carefully consider how they attract and retain consumers who may be less interested in jackpots and more driven by experiences.’”

• BetMGM Ontario Player Wins Two Progressive Slot Jackpots in One Week (press release): “A BetMGM Casino player in Ontario won a record-breaking $1.6 million CAD progressive jackpot on MGM Grand Millions on a $20 spin. The same player won a $417,377 jackpot six days later on a $15 spin on the same slot--MGM Grand Millions. The first win is the largest progressive jackpot ever awarded by BetMGM in Ontario.”

• Manitoba Lottery Gets Court Injunction Against Offshore Sportsbook Bodog (Covers): “Manitoba’s government-owned lottery and gaming corporation has convinced a judge to order an offshore sportsbook to stop taking bets in the Canadian province. The online registry system for Manitoba’s courts indicates that, on Monday, a judge for the Court of King’s Bench of Manitoba granted an injunction against Bodog, an online gambling company based in Antigua and Barbuda.”

• SBC Summit Americas will return to Florida in June 2026 (SBC Americas): “Thousands of professionals from across North, Central and South America gathered last week in Fort Lauderdale for SBC Summit Americas 2025, an event designed to encourage cross-border exchange and enable rare, synchronized dialogue between industry leaders from all corners of the continent.”

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