Abstract
October is Global Gaming Expo month in the gambling universe, and I can’t recall a more tumultuous time for the industry. Not even in the mid-2010s, when the industry was divided over online gambling and the first whispers of daily fantasy sports began, was the industry dealing with so many disparate topics simultaneously.
The fallout from the rapid spread of sports betting and, on the opposite side of the coin, the snail’s pace of online casino expansion.
There is the growing presence of gray market gambling, from sweepstakes casinos and sportsbooks to the latest iterations of daily fantasy (which some argue bear too close a resemblance to sports betting) to skill games, historical horse racing games, and unregulated VGT/video lottery terminal machines.
There is also the new era of tribal gaming, ushered in by the spread of sports betting and the West Flagler decision that allows the Seminole Tribe to offer statewide mobile sports betting in Florida. That means tribes now have a seat at the online gambling table.
These topics, and many others, will be discussed at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas from October 7 to 10. The big question is: Will there be any solutions, or will the discussion further muddy the waters?