Josh Andrews

Switzerland Votes to Block Foreign-Based Gambling Operators

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Switzerland’s referendum had two main highlights – first, they voted in favor of allowing the local casino operators to offer online gambling and second, the voted to block the domains of the international gambling operators licensed to operate in the country. The international operators’ only option will then be to secure partnerships with local casinos.

The new Gambling Act which won the support of 72.9 percent of the voters was previously approved last fall but the student wing of the Free Democratic Party moved to challenge it and succeeded by gathering enough petition signatures to force a referendum under Swiss law. Now that it has been passed yet again, the new gambling law will take effect at the beginning of next year.

The Swiss government says that that the law is designed to tackle gambling addiction by enforcing strict rules such as the blocking of known addicts among other things. In addition to providing a solution to the issue of problem gambling, the law is also expected to allow the government to effectively tax gambling revenue which will be channeled towards these anti-gambling measures and initiatives.

The Specifics

According to advance polling, the ‘No’ side appealed mostly to youngsters who feared that the law in many ways provides a precedent that would allow the Swiss government to block other domains it found objectionable.

Older voters, on the other hand, tended to lean towards to the ‘Yes’ side since they believed that allowing foreign or international gambling sites to operate in the country would impede the Swiss government’s ability to fund social programs such as pension funds.

A Win for Local Casinos

The local casinos stand to benefit the most from the new gambling law and they could not wait to celebrate the news of this huge win. Marc Baumann, the chief executive officer of Swiss Casino Group issued a statement shortly after the results of the vote urging the government to put the new gambling law into effect as soon as possible.

Swiss Casinos Group currently runs a free-play online casino and has been planning to venture out and cooperate with a foreign company for a real-money gambling site. So far, so good. This might actually happen.

Will It Work?

Domain-blocking has proven to be rather ineffective in forcing online gamblers to stick to the locally authorized gambling sites. This has been true in other markets including Belgium and as such, Switzerland will have quite a tough time ensuring the law is adhered to. But this does not mean that it cannot be done.

Then, there is the issue of tax. The local gambling operators are looking at between 20 percent and 80 percent in revenue taxes. The president of the Swiss Federation of Casinos, Beat Vonlanthen, however, said that the government will do its best to cushion the tax blow by offering the local casino operators tax breaks of up to 50 percent for the first four years. This grace period will allow the casinos to lure in a sufficient number of steady customers before the ‘un-cushioned’ tax-rate kicks in.

Scotland Hospital Opens Rehab Center for ‘Crypto Addicts’

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We have all witnessed, or at least heard of, cases of various forms of addiction right from the infamous drug addiction to alcohol addiction and even problem gambling. In essence, one can get addicted to almost anything, and perhaps we have always overlooked the fact that even crypto falls into the broad spectrum of these addiction hazards.

While the rest of the world – most of it, that is – has been indulging the blissful pursuit of a crypto future, a hospital in Scotland has decided that it is about time that the issue of ‘cryptocurrency addiction’ (yes, it is a thing) is taken seriously. Castle Craig Hospital, the largest addiction treatment facility in Scotland, has recently established a residential treatment course to help ‘crypto addicts’ recover from obsessive cryptocurrency trading and get back to normal life.

The launch of the crypto rehab center was mostly influenced by requests by people asking the hospital to treat problems related to cryptocurrency. Clearly, this is starting to get out of hand and thus it needs to be addressed as quickly as possible.

Are You a Cryptocurrency Addict?

Are you among those people who have their eyes fixed on Coinmarketcap all day long waiting for the right moment to buy or sell cryptocurrencies? Do you have trading accounts on a bizarrely large number of crypto exchanges? Are you spending large amounts of money crypto? Do you keep trading even after losing money hoping to gain it back? Do you scoff at people who do not know what HODL, bull, bear, whale, ATH, FUD, and FOMO mean?

If your answer to most of these questions is yes then I am sorry to tell you that you definitely have a problem, at least according to behavioral scientists. There is currently no mention of cryptocurrency addiction on scientific literature but the experts have noted that the trading in crypto can become a behavioral addiction just like problem gambling.

“The high risk, fluctuating cryptocurrency market appeals to the problem gambler,” says Chris Burn, a gambling therapist at Castle Craig Hospital. “It provides excitement and an escape from reality. Bitcoin, for example, has been heavily traded and huge gains and losses were made. It’s a classic bubble situation.”

Some Agree, Some Do Not

Since there was no literature to study, the only source of information was the cryptocurrency trading community itself. Niko da Costa Gomez, a frequent crypto trader who has been making more profits than losses in his crypto investments, says that the idea of cryptocurrency addiction is not one that he would subscribe to. He does not “think anyone is really addicted to trading cryptocurrency unless they are very rich.”

Manav Singhal, the chief executive of Velix.ID, a blockchain startup, is also unconvinced that cryptocurrency is a valid issue. In fact, the CEO is one of those traders who keep trading even though he has been making continuous losses.

“I think profits and losses are just a part of the trading, and it is no different than trading any other kinds of securities,” goes his rather philosophical answer. “Gambling addicts are just that — gambling addicts. They can choose any addiction they want, and it can be cryptocurrencies, but that doesn’t mean that a majority of cryptocurrency traders are addicts. There’re many reasons that make you trade cryptocurrencies frequently, given how fast things are changing in the industry. I am not signing up for any rehabilitation any time soon.”

These sentiments are shared by most, if not all, cryptocurrency traders and this points to one very prominent issue in any addiction – no one admits the problem in the first place.

Kevin Pahl Set to Represent Global Poker at the WSOP

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The Global Poker Rattlesnake Open may be over, but the leaderboard winner, Kevin ‘BUYMEDINNER’ Pahl, just got a brand new opportunity to add on to his winning by representing Global Poker at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). He will be the third player in history to represent Global Poker in the live arena, and he is going at it in a big way.

Following a great series of runs at the Global poker Championships Rattlesnake Open, the poker pro made his way up the series leaderboard and eventually finished first earning himself a $5,000 live tournament package that will cover buy-ins, travel, and accommodation.

Pahl not only intends to turn his prize package into real money winning by cashing in at WSOP, just like his predecessors did, but also to become the first person to play on behalf of Global Poker to win the coveted WSOP gold bracelet. He will be using his Global Poker tournament package at the WSOP Event #48: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em MONSTER STACK that will begin on June 23. After this, Pahl also plans to participate in the $1,100 buy-in $1 million guaranteed event at the Wynn Summer Classic that is scheduled for June 28.

“When I first started on the site, I had heard good things about Global Poker so I wanted to give it a go. I played around a bit and at the start of the year, I had SC$10 on the site. I played some SC$1 SNGs; these were going well so I moved up to the SC$6 ones. I worked on my game and before I knew it, I was playing the 20’s and am now playing a wide range of the SNGs quite regularly,” he said.

A college soccer coach by day, Pahl started small on the Global Poker site and slowly built up the stakes in sit ‘n’ go’s, a game that he particularly enjoys especially because of its ideal pace and structures. The pace and structure aside, Pahl also says that he loves playing at Global because of the camaraderie with other players

“Global Poker has been great to me,” he adds. “I am really happy. Sure, there are other sites out there but I don’t really like them. Global Poker has been 100 percent fantastic! As well as the games being good, the people on Global Poker are really friendly. I chat with a lot of people on the site when I play and it makes things really enjoyable, everyone seems really nice.”

New Jersey Law Proposes a Limit on Esports Betting

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So far, one of the biggest sports and gambling stories of the year has been the United States Supreme Court ruling pertaining to the legality of sports betting. By striking down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), the court paved the way for sports betting in the country.

However, while we now know that states are going to have the final say about whether or not to legalize sports betting, even in states where there is a lot of pro-sports betting discussions Esports betting still lingers in limbo. New Jersey has become the first state to speak out on this issue but, unfortunately, the state’s stance on Esports betting is not very reassuring.

The New Jersey state legislature this week introduced a bill that calls for a ban on betting on professional gaming and Esports events. To put this into perspective, the bill’s synopsis says that the law “allows wagering at casinos and racetracks on certain professional and collegiate sports or athletic events,” but it also defines “all high school sports events, electronic sports, and competitive video games” as “prohibited sports events.”

On the brighter side, this ban will not apply to international Esports events where half of the participants are over 18. Still, these limitations have caused an immediate reaction from some of the proponents of the competitive electronic video gaming field one of the most vocal being Bryce Blum, an Esports attorney. The ESG Law founding partner took to Twitter to share his concerns:

“NJ’s sports betting law excludes ALL esports events unless they are (1) international and (2) more than 50% of players are over 18.
The law treats esports the same as high school sports, which is actually insane. Obvious problem w/ ppl regulating something they don’t understand. pic.twitter.com/WbzcULETph”

“This is a perfect example of why I fear any form of regulation surrounding esports.
Here are the bill’s sponsors – do they look like esports experts to you?
You cannot effectively regulate what you don’t understand. This could be just the tip of the iceberg. pic.twitter.com/rL8O0qvXm7”

Esports Betting Was Just in the Line of Fire

Apparently, the bill was not specifically meant to target Esports and thus there is a certainty that the topic will be discussed and analyzed explicitly in the coming weeks in order to clear things out. One of the major concerns emanates from the fact that bettors are allowed to bet on overseas events such as League of Legends European LCS, but are prohibited from betting on the outcomes of local Counter-Striker tournaments.

Being at its earlier stages, the bill’s wording is certainly still very vague and its full implications are yet to be fully thought through. As such, with the apparent localization of the bill’s effect and its vague nature, it remains to be seen how exactly it will change the Esports status quo both in New Jersey and the United States as a whole.

Delaware Becomes First State to Launch Sports Betting

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Barely a month after the United States Supreme Court paved the way for nationwide legalized sports betting through a landmark ruling that lifted a federal ban on sports betting, Delaware has become the first state to launch sports betting. This move not only marks the dawn of a new era for both the gamblers and the operators but also gives a significant boost to legal sports betting in the country.

This began at 1.30 p.m. ET last Tuesday when the Delaware governor, John Carney, placed the first bet, wagering $10 on the Philadelphia Phillies to beat the Chicago Cubs.

Always Been Ready

The state had made prior preparation for the new development – during the duration of the federal ban, the state was already offering parlay betting. Launched in 2009, the parlay cards offered by the state were provided through the state lottery. In addition to this, Delaware also went ahead to build sportsbooks within its casinos in preparation for the inevitable lifting of the federal ban on sports betting.

When the state’s sports betting industry went live on Tuesday, three Delaware-based casinos – Delaware Park, Dover Downs and Harington Raceway – launched single-game wagering on NBA, MLB, NFL, and the World Cup. These will eventually be followed by sports betting offerings for others sports including college football, the NHL, and golf.

So Far So Good

Despite the absence of big game events such as Stanley Cup or even an NBA Finals game on the day Delaware sports betting went live, there was still plenty of betting action to go around. Vernon Kirk, the secretary of the Delaware state lottery reported that $322,135 was bet on sports at the state’s three casinos on the first day.

“For us, it’s really an enhancement of our tourism industry,” Governor John Carney told ESPN on Tuesday. “It will attract a lot of visitors to our state, particularly at this time of year, during the summer, coming to our beautiful beaches south of here. They come here and stop at the casinos and do slot machine and table gaming. This will be another opportunity for them.”

Projections from Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, a research firm, anticipates that the amounts wagered on sports every year will be in the range of $350 million and $760 million – this is if online sports betting is implemented fully. Of these projections, the state will receive between $23.1 million and $49.6 million annually from both sportsbooks and online sports betting services.

Fortunately, according to the secretary of the state lottery, Delaware intends to offer internet and mobile sports betting products in the near future but first wanted to get the physical sportsbook off the ground before proceeding.

High School Esports Startup Receives Massive Investment

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One of the things that makes the flourishing world of Esports the marvel it is, is the colossal amount of enthusiasm the stakeholders have despite the deficiency of necessary infrastructure to support this enthusiasm. In essence, Esports is growing quite fast and thus the normal processes involved in the formation of regulatory bodies as well as other structures are bound to be outpaced.

Some of the people who have been affected most by this situation are high school students and their teachers who hope to participate in various Esports activities. Unlike many other similar activities, such as traditional sports where there are bodies to guide their actions, they have been forced to self-organize due to the lack of official bodies to guide them. However, this is all about to take a turn for the better.

PlayVS, a startup that specializes in building infrastructure to support high school Esports, has recently received a massive round of funding from a star-studded high profile investors including an assortment of venture capital groups, the San Francisco 49ers, hip-hop artist Nas, New York Jets’ Kelvin Beachum, Los Angeles Chargers’ Russel Okung, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin and NBA all-star Baron Davis.

According to a report by ESPN, the valuation of the company is now somewhere around $50 million. This gives PlayVS a better shot at achieving their goal of developing software to formalize high school Esports competitions. The platform serves as an all-in-one online portal for students and the administration in addition to being an access portal to a select number of some of the most popular Esports titles. The platform also allows for setting and scheduling of matches, tracking and collection of player stats, as well the auto-reporting of wins and losses to prevent cheating.

Working with the NFHS

As it stands, PlayVS is the only private company that is has been officially sanctioned by the National Federation of State High Schools (NFHS) which is a non-profit organization that publishes the rules for most high school sports and performing arts activities across the United States. The NFHS will be rolling out Esports exclusively on the PlayVS Web app and this extends the company’s reach to 19,500 high schools.

“Esports sort of has this task—this mountain task—to become multigenerational. If a sport has a strong and a stable high school system, then that sport typically not only has staying power but it also lasts for multiple generations at the pro level,” says Delane Parnell, the PlayVS founder and CEO. “With our funding, we can take all the steps necessary to ensure that our inaugural season is a massive success while being affordable for schools, parents, and students across the country.”

In October this year, PlayVS in, collaboration with the NFHS, will launch its inaugural season, a venture that will bring organized Esports to over 18 states and about 5 million students from 5,000 different high schools.

Experts Deem Google’s Crypto Ad Ban ‘Unethical’ and ‘Unfair’

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Earlier this year in March, Google announced that beginning June, this month, cryptocurrency-focused promotional content or advertisements would no longer be allowed on its platforms. The blanket crypto ban covers adverts advert for Initial Coin Offerings, wallet services, and exchange services among other related services.

Now that the ban is about to go into effect, the debate about the motives behind it has begun to heat up. While like other media tech companies like Twitter and Facebook, the ban is said to be a reaction to the perceived prevalence of crypto-related scams and fraudulent offers that have lately been on the rise.

Painting All Crypto with the Same Brush?

One of the biggest concerns, especially for startups, is the fact that the ban by Google, in essence, paints a general bad picture of the entire crypto industry. Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are an immensely popular means of fundraising for startups and as such, the bad press that will follow is certainly going to make fundraising very difficult for them.

“Unfortunately, the fact that this ban is a blanket ban will mean that legitimate cryptocurrency businesses which provide valuable services to users will be unfairly caught in the crossfire,” Ed Cooper, head of mobile at digital banking startup Revolut, said in an interview with The Independent. “A more targeted approach would definitely be preferable: it would seem heavy-handed for example to put a blanket ban on all ads for job postings, anti-virus software or charities just because ads for these products and service are also sometimes used as an entry point by scammers to target consumers.”

Many other stakeholders in the tech and cryptocurrency industries have pointed out that the ban’s motives are quite questionable particularly because it makes it seem like Google might just be overstepping its roles as an objective source of information.

Suspicion of Foul Play

As expected, the decision to ban cryptocurrency adverts is not going down well with cryptocurrency and blockchain technology proponents, some of whom now believe that there is some element of foul play.

“I understand that Facebook and Google are under a lot of pressure to regulate what their users are reading, but they are still advertising gambling websites and other unethical practices,” said Phillip Nunn, the chief executive of Blackmore Group, a cryptocurrency investment firm. “I suspect the ban has been implemented to fit in with potential plans to introduce their own cryptocurrency to the market in the near future and therefore removing other crypto adverts allows them to do it on their own terms.”

While this claim is quite frankly believable and fascinating, you might have to take it with a pinch of salt especially because there are a number of antitrust laws that make it unjustifiable. This should, however, not be the point of focus – it is clear that the inevitable legitimization of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies has begun taking shape hence the rush by mainstream tech companies to regulate it. How everything plays out, in the end, is more of a gamble though.

Spanish Online Poker Revenue Spike Amidst EU Liquidity Deal

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In January, both France and launched an effort to pool their online poker players so as to revive the industry following its decimation by some ring-fenced policies that both countries’ governments have adopted in the past. One of the effects of this development has been a significant spike in the Spanish online poker revenue in the first quarter of the year.

According to the first quarter financials that were released last week by Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), the Spanish regulator, the total revenue for online gambling in the country hit a whopping $190.5 million – this, in comparison to the revenue statistics from the same period last year, represents a mind-blowing 28 percent revenue jump.

Sports betting boasted of the lion’s share of the profit having generated $95.3 million, which is nearly half the profit. This particular sector also went up 15.9 percent from the same period last year. However, when compared to the gains from online poker, the revenues from sports betting turn out not to be as impressive.

The country’s poker revenues hit a record $25 million, with the cash games actions going up 30 percent to $9.8 million. Tournament revenue went up by a whopping a 50.2 percent to $15.2 million. In addition to this, total expenditures on the Spanish cash games went up 19 percent while the tournaments went up 40.4 percent.

Is Shared Liquidity Paying Off?

From the revenue statistics, this appears to be the case. Spain is just the latest benefactor of the new shared liquidity agreement that comprises of four EU companies: Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy. France and Spain become the first to get into the agreement and the French online poker industry has also equally benefited from the agreement as there was an immediate improvement in the gross gaming revenue – it went up 8 percent in the first quarter of 2018.

Portugal joined the pool in early May and this, in turn, pushed the profits of the pool even higher. GameIntel reports that cash game traffic on the share liquidity online poker network saw a 27 percent boost in the first week of after Portugal joined in.

More Competition

Being the first online poker operator to share its Spanish, Portugal and French online poker players, PokerStars managed to get an early head start in the new shared liquidity landscape. However, this is bound to change very soon as now a number of new players are eyeing the lucrative opportunity that the share liquidity agreement presents.

Some of these online poker operators that are going to give PokerStars a run for its money are Winimax, which will kick off their offerings with Spain and France later this year, and PartyPoker which is expected to connect its Spanish and French poker player on June 4^.

DraftKings and Resorts Casino Strike Sports Betting Deal

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Boston-based daily fantasy sports leader DraftKings has recently announced a new partnership deal with Atlantic City’s Resorts Casino Hotel to offer sports betting services in New Jersey. The partnership agreement will see DraftKing enter the New Jersey market under Resorts Casino Hotel’s license.

The move marks the first of the likely string of state-level ventures that DraftKings has is reported to be considering in a bid to get a foothold in the brand new legal market that is set to grow rapidly after the recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down the federal ban on sports betting.

As for New Jersey, the daily fantasy sports operator has hinted its entry into that particular market for quite some time – the company had already begun hiring sportsbook staff even before the United States Supreme Court ruling was made. In addition to that, the company opened an office in Hoboken that currently houses the sportsbook staff as well as other employees who were hired in the past couple of weeks.

“Everybody knows there’s a big opportunity out there. It’s a new thing, so people are trying to see how they want to go about it, who they want to partner with. Anytime you’ve got a big market about to be created, there’s so much opportunity out there that everyone should benefit, as long as you do it the right way,” said Jason Robins, the DraftKings chief executive. “We are excited to work with Resorts Hotel Casino to bring our new DraftKings sportsbook to New Jersey. As a tech savvy and a long-term growth-oriented organization, Resorts Hotel Casino aligns perfectly with our customer-focused, innovation culture.”

This pairing reflects the scramble that is beginning to materialize among gambling operators, bookmakers, and technology companies as they try to position themselves well enough to get a share of the nascent sports betting market. A similar deal was made a few weeks ago when Paddy Power Betfair, a European bookmaker merged with FanDuel, one of the other popular United States-based daily fantasy sports providers and DraftKings’ biggest rival.

During the press release where the announcement was made, Drafkings mentioned that it be offering both mobile and web-based sports betting services. However, there was no mention of the technology that the company will be using to achieve this.

Still, Resorts Casino Hotel has welcomed the partnership as it presents a new revenue stream and will probably give the casino a foothold in the sports betting market as well.

“We are at a pivotal moment in the development of sports betting in the U.S.,” said Morris Bailey, the owner of Resorts Casino Hotel in the press release. “We are delighted to be able to have DraftKings utilize our gaming license in New Jersey. DraftKings continues to be at the forefront of sports entertainment innovation, and today’s announcement is the first step in being able to offer customers in New Jersey the most dynamic sports betting platform.”

Esports Betting Already Enticing Criminal Fixers

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Esports just like any other sports is unanimous with betting and as always, where there is gambling money, vices are not far behind. Putting into consideration the approximately 380 million people who will watch Esports games and tournaments this year, it is very likely that Esports fixers are already looking devising ways to get the best out of what is now the fastest growing sports in the world.

According to iNews, Esports bets will inevitably go over the $45 billion mark this year, a sum that is bound to attract the attention of fixers. Already, a number of Esports players and fixers have already, been banned and, in some cases, even imprisoned for cases of match-fixing. Similarly, last year, the Esports Integrity Coalition is reported to have received 39 suspicious betting reports with at least 13 of them being genuine fixes.

Apparently, no game is harder to detect fixing in than Esports since it is a product of geography, technology as well as its relative newness. About 15 percent of traditional sports betting in the world is fully legal and this makes it rather easy for anti-fraud and anti-fixing bodies to trace and follow betting patterns in order to identify game fixing. On the other hand, only 4 percent of Esports betting in the world is fully legal.

According to Ian Smith, the head of the Esports Integrity Coalition, the low numbers are partially due to the fact that Esports is most popular in East Asian countries like South Korea and China, where, as it turns out, traditional sports betting is illegal. Even in the United States where Esports has been going nowhere but up, 99 percent of Esports betting is illegal, even though with the recent Supreme Court ruling that revoked a federal ban on sports betting. Still, all these factors make match-fixing in Esports very hard to detect and even when detected, just as impossible to track.

Is Regulation the Answer?

New Esports games are constantly being invented and popularizes and this makes it harder to ascertain what should and what should not be regulated. This is unlike the cases with traditional sports where there is an abundance of history and data that can be used to inform anti-fixing bodies about criminal activities of this kind.

“If you get an alert in say cricket you can be reasonably certain – 80 or 90 percent – that there is something wrong,” explained Ian Smith. “In eSports, it’s kind of the opposite – because it’s all a little bit chaotic and new and changeable, about 90 percent of alerts don’t mean anything and only 10 percent do.”

The main takeaway here is that the institutional weakness of Esports makes it particularly susceptible to match-fixing simply because we still do not have a universally accepted governing body for the activity. The formation of such a body is perhaps the only way to keep the rapidly growing Esports ecosystem from being a serious criminal enterprise.