It’s been a busy week for online gaming news, especially with the announcement that sports betting is no longer illegal in the United States. We’ll start there as we recap the casino headlines of the week.
New Jersey Online Gambling Market Posts Second-Best Month To Date
On Monday, New Jersey won its sports betting case in the Supreme Court, allowing sports betting to become legal across the country. The state is expected to be one of the first to offer online sports betting – especially since it’s had so much success with online gaming.
It was also reported on Monday that the state of New Jersey had posted its second-best month in terms of online gambling. April delivered $23 million in revenue, which was a 10.6 percent year-over-year improvement for the month. The $23 million was just short of the record, which is $25.6 million. What’s interesting to note is that the record month was in March of 2018, which means that New Jersey has had excellent revenues in consecutive months. There’s a lot of momentum for online gaming in the state, which is now championing the cause.
Vegas Casino Workers Heading Toward Strike
There is a storm brewing in Las Vegas as unionized casino employees in the city could strike as soon as June 1. Although there is still time to work out a deal, the threat of 50,000 workers walking off the job is a concern that needs to be addressed.
The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and the Bartenders Union Local 165 have announced that they will vote on May 22 on striking, which means about 50,000 people could walk out of their jobs. Their current contract is up on May 31, so they could walk out any time after that point if a deal isn’t reached. In total, that would affect 34 properties across Las Vegas as their cooks, kitchen staff and bartenders, among others, could leave. This would be a terrible time for the casinos to go through this as the busy summer season is on the cusp. That would leave the casinos short-handed with temporary workers expected to carry the load.
The two sides are trying to work out a contract that would give workers higher pay, as well as better benefits and workplace safety. The contract also includes language related to sexual harassment, which has been a hot button issue.
The last time a strike of this magnitude happened was in 1984 and it lasted 67 days, costing an estimated $75 million in wages and benefits, and countless millions in gambling income.
SportsCaller Partners With Sportsbet
Australian sportsbook Sportsbet, which is a subsidiary of Paddy Power Betfair, is increasing its menu. It has added “free-to-play” (FTP) games developed by SportsCaller studios, a gaming company out of Ireland. For now, this offering is only for the Australian market as the games will be localized.
SportsCaller excels at developing mobile games and its FTP games are a good way for Sportsbet to acquire new customers. Players who participate in the free games don’t have to invest money but can win real money via jackpot prizes and other avenues. Then the players can use that to play at Sportsbet and get introduced to the book that way.