Once again, the state of Kentucky has kicked the can down the road in terms of online sports betting. We’ve got all of the details for you as we recap this week’s casino headlines.
Kentucky Sports Betting Bill Crumbles
It isn’t looking likely that the state of Kentucky will be getting sports betting anytime soon. Despite tons of efforts to legalize sports gambling and online poker in the state, the bill ended up falling flat in the end. This was yet another failed attempt to get this idea and turn it into a reality. Kentucky has been trying to get this type of bill done since the middle of 2018.
Online sports betting isn’t uncommon in Kentucky’s neighboring states. West Virginia, Illinois, Tennessee, Ohio, and Indiana have all legalized it over the last few years. Although, it should also be noted that none have legalized online poker, something Kentucky is planning to do.
After the legislation was reported to be dead on arrival for at least the 2022 year, a state senator announced that the bill had “more energy than it’s ever had before.” He also added on that he believes more votes will be coming in 2023 and that it has serious potential to pass next time around.
Illegal Sports Betting Operation Busted In California
A longtime illegal sports betting operation was just taken down for good by the federal authorities. It was announced that the owner of a specific gambling business and website has pled guilty to the charges that he is currently facing. The reason this particular business was illegal in California was that it had more than five people involved, they were operational for over six years and were picking up $2,000 on average each day.
The owner of this business, along with his partner were both hit with a single count of conspiring to operate an illegal sports betting company. Wayne Nix, the owner of this business and a former minor league baseball player, started this business with the contacts he had made when playing ball. He even employed three former MLB players to his business as well to help him out!
Just in case it wasn’t bad already, Nix admitted to withholding $1,466,947 in income on both his 2017 and 2018 tax returns.
New Jersey Casinos Report Huge Profit In 2021
It should be safe to say that New Jersey casinos are recovering from the pandemic pretty well. The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement just announced that casinos in the state were able to bring in $3.02 billion worth of revenue throughout the 2021 year. The total gross operating profit for them was sitting at $766.8 million. The net revenue was a whopping 62.5 percent increase in year-over-year earnings and the gross operating profit was a 552.5 percent increase itself.
None of the properties in the state were able to perform better than the Borgata though. The casino was able to bring in a little under $625 million in net revenue. The second closest property ended up being the Hard Rock AC at $509 million.
New Jersey’s casino industry as a whole won a total of $4.73 billion from bettors in the 2021 year. This is over 60 percent compared to what they won back in 2020.