This week’s casino headlines are a mix of good and bad. We’ll start with the sour stuff as gaming in some parts of the world is not working out as expected.
Ohio Sports Betting Bill Will Not Pass Until Fall
Bettors in Ohio will just have to wait a little bit longer for sports betting to be legalized. The bill that would have legalized sports betting had actually made its way out of the Senate and into the House with a 30-2 vote. However, reports started to come out that lawmakers had quite a bit of changes in mind for the bill, before handing it over to their governor, Mike DeWine.
The changes have slowly been made over the past week or two and those delays have now forced the bill into the next legislative session. There was a June 30th deadline for all bills to be passed and the changes that were being made held it up too much.
There was even a timeline for the bill had it passed before the deadline. The hope was that the state would be able to get through the grueling licensing process by mid-2022. However, now that the timetable has been completely thrown off, a new one hasn’t come to fruition just yet.
PokerStars Sets Harsh Restrictions On German Players
Gaming in Germany has taken a turn for the worse. The government has implemented a brand-new online gambling legislation, which comes with a 5.3 percent turnover tax. As a result, some major companies like PokerStars will dramatically change their offerings. This turnover tax is yet another obstacle that German players have to battle through in order to gamble as they weren’t able to play more than four tables, select their own seats at certain cash tables or spend over 1,000 a month on any specific site.
PokerStars will be forced to pay 5.3% for every German player that sits at a 100 table. PokerStars has been trying to figure out the best possible way to combat that and has chosen to raise the rake for German players while also eliminating high stakes offerings completely. The German government is looking to impact the businesses but much of the costs will be passed down to the players.
Not only will German players suffer through various obstacles in order to gamble, they won’t even be able to get the full effects of the Stars Rewards program, which will have to be scaled back. They will also have far tougher verification processes to get through if they ever want to withdraw their winnings.
Nevada Casinos Set Record In May
The COVID-19 pandemic has crushed casinos from all around the world when it comes to revenue. Since the start of 2021, though, these properties have been starting their recovery process and some have fared better than others. Nevada has apparently been doing everything right as they were able to set a record handle during the month of May.
Casinos in the Silver State brought in $1.23 billion during the month, a little bit ahead of their previous record handle of $1.17 billion that was set back in October of 2017. May was now the second straight month of positive news for Nevada, with casinos bringing in $1.039 billion in April.
This massive jump in revenue likely stems from the tourism numbers increasing once again. Along with that boost to the foot traffic, casinos are starting to lift COVID-19 restrictions such as capacity, which allows for more capacity in the gaming venues themselves.