Every week, CasinoBeats breaks down the numbers behind some of the industry’s most fascinating stories. Our latest headline reflection features Entain pulling out of several markets, a £6m fine from the UK Gambling Commission and a second New York online casino bill.
140
Entain looked to further its compliance campaign after announcing that it would be pulling out from over 140 international markets.
According to a report from the Financial Times, the group has ceased operations in markets where the likelihood of an appropriate regulatory framework is dwindling, including Argentina, Russia and Ukraine.
The operator’s chair Barry Gibson underlined that the moves were progressive for the business as it seeks to overhaul operations.
The move comes after Entain reached a £585m deferred prosecution agreement with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after being subject to a bribery investigation by HM Revenue & Customs. The case was related to its previous Turkish business, which it sold in 2017.
Entain emphasised that it has since transformed as a company and it is a legacy issue for the company as the illegal activity occurred before its 2020 rebrand when it traded as GVC Holdings.
Gibson commented on that case: “This legacy issue pertains to a business divested by a past management team six years prior. The company has undergone significant changes since then, and the DPA process has underscored the profound evolution from the GVC of the past to today’s Entain.
“We remain focused on advancing our operations exclusively within regulated markets and are acknowledged as a leading, responsible entity with unparalleled corporate governance across our business.”
18.58
The latest Eilers-Fantini report into North American online casino performance debuted the researchers’ first-ever Canadian report, which saw Pragmatic Play lead the supplier charts with the highest percentage of theoretical win – 18.58 per cent.
The studio came ahead of Evolution’s 16.07 per cent, IGT’s 15.23 per cent and Light & Wonder’s 11.13 per cent, showing that the US’ top three are just as prominent in Canada.
For top games by GGR, Pragmatic Play took the maiden first place in Canada’s December charts with Sweet Bonanza, while its Gates of Olympus slot also rounded out the top five.
In between those Pragmatic Play titles, Light & Wonder’s Jin Ji Bao Xi Endless Treasure title took second place, Live Dealer Roulette from Evolution took third place and Cash Eruption took fifth – making it the only title to appear in both the US and Canada’s top five games by GGR.
Anaxi’s Buffalo slot title stampeded the competition to claim the number one spot in the US report for December’s top games by gross gaming revenue, with IGT’s Blackjack title pipped at the post for consecutive months.
6
The UK Gambling Commission ordered Gamesys Operations Limited to pay a £6m penalty due to an investigation into the firm that discovered social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures.
Following a compliance assessment in May 2022, the UKGC discovered several social responsibility and AML failures at Gamesys taking place between November 2021 and July 2022.
In terms of social responsibility failures, the commission noted that the operator was “not always identifying customers at risk of experiencing harms associated with gambling”.
The UKGC also stated that Gamesys did not always have “a system of deposit limits which, for some customers, did not identify risks of harm quickly enough” as one customer was able to deposit £8,255 within three days of opening an account, another lost £5,968 within five weeks of opening account and another lost £17,482 within 34 days of opening an account.
Regarding AML failures, the UKGC discovered through its investigation that in certain circumstances, some Gamesys customers were “able to evade some of the licensee’s AML triggers/thresholds and go on to spend significant sums without AML checks being conducted”.
As such, one customer deposited £14,585 in 28 weeks, another deposited £18,884 in just over six months and another deposited £34,280 in five and a half months.
Kay Roberts, Executive Director of Operations at UKGC, commented: “Our focus as a regulator is to ensure that operators are employing policies and procedures which make gambling fair, safe and crime-free.
“We take this responsibility extremely seriously and whenever we find failures in policies and procedures then the business can expect significant regulatory action.”
4
After almost four years leading Entain, Jette Nygaard-Andersen has released a statement on her decision to step down as CEO, saying that the company is “better and stronger” than it has ever been.
“Entain is fundamentally a better and stronger company today than it has ever been,” she said.
“Through a multitude of twists, turns and challenges, we’ve transformed the business from the GVC of old to one with the highest standards of governance, compliance, player safety, a new effective strategy setting the company up for further growth in all markets, old and new, and excellent quality of earnings.
“Over the past four years, we have dramatically shifted the company to be a responsible operator, a reputable employer, strategically put the customer front and centre of business operations, worked on transforming the technology to make it future fit, diversified the portfolio and so much more.”
Last month, Entain announced that Nygarrd-Andersen would be resigning from her position as Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect.
Although ending amid the HMRC investigation, Nygarrd-Andersen’s tenure as Entain CEO saw a number of milestones, including several high-profile acquisitions expanding the firm’s global presence.
The outgoing CEO added: “Thanks to the professionalism and passion of Entainers around the world, the business tackled challenges such as the pandemic head-on, navigated a path to 100 per cent regulated operations and always thought of the customer.
“As a result, Entain is now a business that has scaled and operates in over 30 territories with 30,000 employees.”
3
New York State has introduced another legislation that looks to legalise online casinos in the Empire State.
Senator Joseph Addabbo put forward S8185 for discussion on January 11, and as of writing, it resides in the Senate’s Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee. The 2024 bill is very similar to the 2023 edition – S4856 – with a few slight changes.
Like last year’s bill, online casino licences will be available for the four downstate casinos and three forthcoming upstate casinos, VLT parlours MGM Empire City Casino and Resorts World NYC, New York tribes and online sports betting operators.
In addition, three more licences will be available for competitive bids for applicants who have a focus on DEI, whereas last year’s bill stated that three additional licences would be available for applicants with at least five per cent minority ownership.
The bill states: “abide by an affirmative action program of equal opportunity, approved by the commission, whereby the applicant establishes specific goals for the utilisation of minorities, women and veterans in full-time, permanent jobs at such interactive gaming license’s place of operation.”
The bill estimates that New York would receive approximately $1bn annually in state tax revenue, as well as $150m in one-time licence fees from casinos, operators and independent contractors looking to conduct online casino operations.
213.5
Golden Entertainment completed the sale of its distributed gaming operations in Nevada to an affiliate of J&J Ventures Gaming.
J&J Gaming acquired Golden Entertainment’s Nevada distributed gaming operations for cash consideration of approximately $213.5m, subject to customary working capital and other adjustments, plus purchased cash (cash and cash equivalents related to such operations at the time of closing) of approximately $37.5m.
For this transaction, Latham & Watkins LLP acted as legal counsel to Golden Entertainment.
Golden Entertainment and J&J Gaming have already worked together on one transaction in the past year, as the operator sold its Montana distributed gaming operations in September 2023 to an affiliate of J&J Gaming.
