Author: Chris Gerlacher

The United States regulates gambling more heavily than most other industries. Legal gambling must comply with legal regulations from the federal Bank Secrecy Act to local rules governing gaming. Regulators, law enforcement officials, and casino employees step scrutinize every step of a gambling machine’s lifetime, from production through delivery and installation. These are only some […]

1961 was a simpler time. President John F. Kennedy just wanted to clamp down on organized crime and cut off their sources of revenue. He signed the Wire Act into law, which prevented gambling information from crossing state or international lines. For a while, it worked just fine. But in 1996, one stubborn, pioneering businessman […]

Big casino companies may seem similar, but they differ in important ways. Some of them are holding onto a lot of cash that makes it easy for them to expand. Others are paying down debt or finding other ways to improve their existing businesses. Sheldon Adelson’s company, Las Vegas Sands, suffered a hard loss when […]

Sheldon Adelson’s casino company, Las Vegas Sands Corp., had its quarterly earnings call on January 27. One day earlier, Robert Goldstein became the new Chairman and CEO. The earnings call went through balance sheet items and tentative expansion plans. But ears perked up when he mentioned online gambling. Las Vegas Sands is looking at opportunities […]

On January 14, 2021, Representative Harold V. Dutton Jr. authored and filed two bills. One–HB 1121–would legalize sports betting and create the regulatory body that would oversee it. The other–HJR 68–is essentially a refiling of HJR 61. HJR 61 was a constitutional amendment that died in Committee in late February 2019. The latest attempt at […]

Sheldon Adelson was one of the largest Republican donors in the last decade. His large donations began in 2012 after the Citizens United ruling in 2010. Republican 2016 candidates tried to win him over during their 2016 presidential runs, but Trump won the money. Adelson was not only the largest Republican donor in the 2012 […]

Oregon launched its lottery-run sports betting app in October 2019, and it did not perform well. During all fiscal year 2020, the lottery app made $8.6 million in net revenue. That’s what Colorado sportsbooks made in October and November 2020 alone. Handing the Oregon Lottery a monopoly on sports betting has resulted in: Worse odds […]

Anyone who misses gambling at casinos or betting at retail sportsbooks is in luck. More Americans are getting vaccinated each day. Each day brings us closer to going back to sports bars and betting in person. We could even get back to normal this summer. However, one factor could singlehandedly postpone normalcy by six months […]

With vaccines on the way, it almost feels like the end of the pandemic is in sight. We’re all looking forward to casinos, bars, and restaurants reopening at full capacity and without masks. However, the vaccine rollout has been slow across the country. We’ll have to hit certain vaccination milestones for casinos to reopen. They […]

Although sports betting is flourishing across the United States, other forms of gambling are still frowned upon. This is particularly true for online casinos, which are only available legally in a handful of states. Despite this, some forms of illegal gambling have become legal through a variety of loopholes. Video gaming terminals (VGTs) have a […]