Gambling in the USA

New mayor in Manchester, N.H., keno in more communities

Published

7 years ago

November 9, 2017

Former Manchester Alderman Joyce Craig on Tuesday won the mayor’s race in New Hampshire’s biggest city, becoming the first woman to hold the office. At least a half-dozen communities also approved keno.

Craig, a Democrat, beat four-term Republican Mayor Ted Gatsas in the race to lead the city of Manchester.

New Hampshire Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan praised Craig’s historic election.

“As the first woman elected mayor of the city, Joyce adds to New Hampshire’s outstanding legacy of electing strong woman leaders,” Shaheen said. She also thanked Gatsas for his years of service.

Meanwhile, residents in Berlin, Claremont, Somersworth, Laconia, Manchester and Nashua all voted to approve the electronic bingo game keno in bars and restaurants in an effort to raise money for full-day kindergarten.

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed a proposal into law in July allowing money from keno to fund kindergarten programs. He left it up to individual communities to decide whether to allow it. Towns will consider it next year.

Voters in Franklin already had their election on a ballot measure last month, and approved keno. Officials in Portsmouth decided against putting it on the ballot.

Nearly 75 percent of New Hampshire communities already offer full-day kindergarten, but the state only pays half the standard per-student amount for those pupils, or about $1,800. Under the new law, the state will provide an additional $1,100 per full-day kindergarten student starting in 2019 and more in later years, depending on how much money is generated by keno.

Some opponents complain that keno will take money from those who can least afford it and will encourage addictive behavior.

State lottery commission officials estimate keno could raise $443 million for education. They said Massachusetts takes in $900 million a year in its keno game, with 2.5 percent of the money coming from New Hampshire residents.

This is the first general election in New Hampshire under a new state law requiring voters who move to the state within 30 days of an election to provide proof that they intend to stay. Democrats have challenged it in court, arguing it presents confusing, unnecessary and intimidating hurdles to voting. A state judge allowed the law to take effect, but blocked penalties of a fine and jail time for fraud, saying he wants to hear arguments in the case.

George Miller

George Miller (Gyorgy Molnar) started his career in content marketing and has started working as an Editor/Content Manager for our company in 2016. George has acquired many experiences when it comes to interviews and newsworthy content becoming Head of Content in 2017. He is responsible for the news being shared on multiple websites that are part of the European Gaming Media Network.

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Gambling in the USA

Boom In 2021 March Madness Wagering Reflects Expansion of Legal Betting Market

Published

4 years ago

March 24, 2021

George Miller

Boom In 2021 March Madness Wagering Reflects Expansion of Legal Betting Market

Online sports betting operators are set to see record-breaking wagering on March Madness this year.

The three-week long, single-elimination, seven-round NCAA college basketball tournament got underway in Indiana on March 18 and runs until the Championship final on April 5.

The dramatic growth of sports betting popularity over the last two years has been attributed to the ever-expanding US legal market which has seen 14 new legal jurisdictions open up and offer legal sports gambling. This equates to almost 74 million more Americans being able to safely and legally bet on March Madness this year.

The latest state to offer sports betting was North Carolina which went legal on March 18 just in time for bettors to get involved in the March Madness action.

17.8 million say they will place a bet online, up 206% from 5.8 million in 2019.

According to a report published by the American Gaming Association (‘AGA’) $8.5 billion was gambled on March Madness in 2019 by 5.8 million people.

With 45% of American adults now living in a state with legalized sports betting the number of people doing their March Madness betting online is expected to top 17 million in 2021.

Offline bets are also estimated to increase this year with the number of Americans placing their college basketball bets at brick-and-mortar sportsbooks nearly doubling.

March Madness Key Dates:

March 18-19: First Round
March 20-21: Second Round
March 25-26: Sweet 16
March 27-28: Elite Eight
April 3: Final Four
April 5: National Championship

2021 March Madness Wagering Estimates

47.4 million American adults are expecting to bet on March Madness this year. That’s more than 20% of the population!

Although that’s about the same number that indicated they would bet on the tournament in 2019, the number of people betting with a sportsbook is set to rise dramatically.

Other key findings reported by the American Gaming Association:

30.6 million Americans expect to place more traditional NCAA March Madness bets with sportsbooks on this year’s tournament, up from 17.8 million in 2019.
8.3 million expect to place a bet at a physical sportsbook, up 79% from 2019.
36.7 million Americans say they will fill out a bracket, down 8 percent from 2019.

Bill Miller, President and CEO, American Gaming Association said “The sports betting landscape has changed dramatically since 2019 – and as a result, tournament betting has transformed. With more legal, regulated options than ever before, millions of customers now have safer ways to enjoy all the fun and suspense only March Madness provides.”

This year, due to the global pandemic, the tournament will be held entirely in a single state (Indiana) with the Championship final game scheduled for April 5 at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

According to Vegas-Odds.com futures betting data from online sportsbooks – the teams most likely to take home the Championship trophy are the Gonzaga Bulldogs (+170), Baylor Bears (+375) and the Houston Cougars (+800).

More March Madness Facts & Stats:

Gaming analysts Eilers & Krejcik estimated that if all 50 U.S. states had legal online sports betting, sportsbooks would handle $15.2 billion in total bets for March Madness alone, grossing about $1.2 billion of revenue.
Interest in this NCAA men’s college basketball tournament is up slightly from 2019 with 26% of Americans saying they are very interested in March Madness, compared to 23% two years ago.
Regulated Vs International Sportsbooks : $3.9 billion of bets will come mostly by way of international websites and bookmakers, though 4.1 million people will also place legal wagers through licensed U.S based casinos & sportsbook operators.
The betting odds of predicting all 63 March Madness games correctly is 1 in 9.2 quintillion!
The longest winning streak of NCAA tournament bracket picks to start the March Madness tournament stands at an astonishing 49, with an Ohio bettor correctly predicting the entire 2019 NCAA tournament into the Sweet 16 stage.

casino

California to compete with Las Vegas

Published

7 years ago

December 22, 2017

George Miller

Casino operators in California are investing in the business to be able to compete with Las Vegas.

Casino operators in the State of California are innovating the market to strengthen its potential and be able to compete with the neighbouring city of Las Vegas, the most renowned gaming hub of the country. According to a recent study, 27 percent of tourists in Las Vegas come from the state of California.

Therefore, local native tribes that operate casinos in the region decided to further invest in innovative gaming services for residents and boost the regional economy. The operators are planning to improve current casino services by adding “integrated resorts, complete with shops, restaurants, spas and various other entertainment activities.”

Katherine Spilde, director of Sycuan Institute on Government Gaming at San Diego State University, explained: “The tribes are really responding to a mature tourist market.” And added: The integrated resort is the evolved model of gaming where the gaming is just one part of the larger experience.”

Meanwhile, the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians has recently held a pre-inauguration event celebrating the upcoming casino in California. The ceremony was held last Monday and authorities lifted white beams containing the signatures of tribal members, casino employees and construction workers to the top of the frame of the six-story hotel.

Gambling in the USA

Pollard Equities Limited to support Scientific Games/NYX Gaming merger

Published

7 years ago

December 21, 2017

George Miller

Canadian investment firm, Pollard Equities Limited has announced it has reached an agreement with NYX Gaming Group and Scientific Games Corporation to support the proposed acquisition of NYX by Scientific Games for $631m.

A shareholders meeting to discuss the proposed acquisition is scheduled for the 20 December in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The acquisition can proceed if a majority in number of NYX shareholders present and voting, either in person or by proxy, represent at least 75% in value of the NYX ordinary shares held by those NYX shareholders present and voting, either in person or by proxy (excluding those shares already held by Scientific Games) or by a simple majority of the votes cast by the holders of NYX ordinary shares.

At present Pollard Equities Limited owns 8,621,300 ordinary shares of NYX and 4,000,000 warrants having upped its number of warrants last month in a CDN$120,000 deal bringing its potential stake in NYX Gaming up to 11.2%.