MGM Resorts’ Empire City Casino is offering its players the chance to win some life-changing prizes. The property is currently offering the second-highest jackpot in its history, providing guests with a shot at a seven-figure sum.

The IGT Wheel of Fortune Triple Stars jackpot, according to the announcement, is currently standing at $1.6 million. While the jackpot is exclusive to the property, it is not the only one Empire City currently offers.

In addition to a chance to win $1.6 million, players can win one of six progressive jackpots on the casino floor. These include the $142,600 Money Link – Great Immortals jackpot, the $163,100 Hot Shot Inferno jackpot, the $164,400 Golden Fire Link jackpot, the 168,600 Quick Hits Platinum jackpot and the $345,200 Wheel of Fortune Triple Star jackpot. The largest of the six-figure jackpots at Empire City Casino, however, is the $412,100 Hot Shot Twin Fire jackpot.

Ed Domingo, president and chief operating officer of MGM Resorts’ Empire City Casino described the energy at the venue as “electric” and said that another million-dollar moment is waiting to happen. He also noted that the company has now added over 1,000 new state-of-the-art games to its gaming floor.

Another Player May Join Empire City’s Millionaires Club Soon

Speaking of jackpots, MGM Resorts’ Empire City Casino already handed five six-figure jackpots this year. These included a $144,600 jackpot on Light & Wonder Money Link, a $124,600 jackpot on Light & Wonder Ultimate Fire Link, a $122,800 jackpot on Light & Winder Monopoly Money, a $116,200 jackpot on IGT Samurai 888 Takeo Progressive and a $100,000 jackpot on Light & Wonder Double Jackpot Wild.

In the meantime, the eventual winner of the current IGT Wheel of Fortune Triple Stars jackpot would join the Empire City Millionaires Club. The club’s most recent member is Leo of Yonkers who took home some $1.9 million in December 2022.

For reference, the highest jackpot ever won at Empire City stood at almost $2.92 million and was won by Theresa of Ossining, the only two-time member of the casino’s Millionaire Club who had previously won a $1.47 million prize.

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Sportsbet.io, the well-known international sports betting website and online casino, has announced that one of its customers has hit a huge slot jackpot worth no less than 42 million dollars.

The respective player was placing bets in USDT (Tether) cryptocurrency on Wheel of Wishes, one of the most popular slot games delivered by Alchemy Gaming, and the major jackpot dropped on December 20, 2023.

The enormous prize was one of the progressive jackpots offered in Games Global’s WowPot program. Jackpots within this brand start at 2 million euros and grow to much larger proportions as a part of each bet made on the game gets added to the prize pool.

Sportsbet.io also announced that the winner desired to remain anonymous, but did share some thoughts with the bookmaker’s representatives. The lucky customer revealed that he could not believe his eyes when the spin landed. “At first I thought it was a mistake,” the lucky player said, but revealed that later the fact that he won over 40 million dollars sank in and prompted him to start “running around the room shouting and celebrating.”

The winner said that he has not yet decided what to do with the money, revealing that he was not ready to make “any big decisions just yet.” However, he did say that one thing is certain: his family “will never have to worry about money again.”

Not In a Million Years

The lucky Sportsbet.io customer revealed that he was just relaxing by playing a few spins on his favorite online casino and that he was not expecting that moment to change his life, “not in a million years” he said. “I’ve been playing with Sportsbet.io for years,” the player added, “and it has proven to be the best decision I’ve ever made.”

Alex Haig, Director at Sportsbet.io, congratulated the lucky winner and underlined that this was the largest ever prize won on a single spin on an online slot game. “We couldn’t be prouder to see a Sportsbet.io player win the biggest prize in online slots history,” the Director added while also revealing that the player was able to withdraw his huge prize in less than 90 seconds.

In addition to the vast amount of money, the winner will also be treated to a flight to London for dinner with the Sportsbet.io team and also to VIP tickets to a football match at Newcastle United, a Premier League club which has the online sportsbook as one of its official partners.

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As change is the only constant in the gambling world, so do things seem to remain the same within certain parameters according to specific goals and ambitions. When a regulator decides to protect its citizens from harm by outside forces, especially when that regulator happens to be a member of the European Union – but generally as well – quite often what is really going on is an attempt to capture the flight of capital and feed the state coffers with money flowing offshore.

It doesn’t take a “jaundiced eye” or even a cynical outlook to see through the fog most times. It’s unclear precisely what is really going on here.

Moving Toward Privatization Hefty Fines Await Violators

Last week, the Dutch Minister of Finance revisited an idea we have been following off and on for about a decade – privatizing the state-controlled monopoly on some forms of gambling. The Netherlands lottery Nederlandse Loterij (NLO), is a state-owned enterprise as is Casino Holland with more than a dozen state-owned casinos spread throughout the country. See Lexology’s 2015 report titled Reform of the Dutch casino market and privatisation of Holland Casino: Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice announces public consultation (here).

This week we find that Holland’s gambling regulator, KSA (de Kansspelautoriteit), continues to take its duty to protect Nederlanders seriously (the sole reason many EU member states are allowed to violate free trade agreements and the right to open markets with gambling monopolies) with an m announcement that two licensed lottery operators there are allegedly breaking the law and subject to penalties up to €1m for serving denizens “games of chance” rather than approved games.

Postcode Loterij and VriendenLoterij have been served with notice of periodic penalties if they continue to offer unauthorized games specifically, Deal or no Deal and FriendsLottery Millionaires.

While lottery games like numbers drawings offer notoriously terrible odds and “theoretical” return to player percentages, – the regulator has determined that casino games of chance are more “risky” and breach the lottery providers’ agreements with the state. However, a little further into KSA’s statement, we find that it “simply” wants the two types of games to remain separate and distinct. Online lottery games are not permitted in the Netherlands, further complicating the thinking behind the potential adverse action.

“Legislation and regulations make a clear distinction between lotteries and more risky games of chance, including online games of chance,” said the KSA on the matter statement. “A different license is required for both games of chance.

“Lotteries may not be offered online; it is only permitted to sell participation tickets via the internet. The online offering of games that are linked to a lottery is prohibited. The law does not allow this. The KSA remains keen to ensure that lottery and online games of chance remain separate.”
According to the official Dutch Lottery website, “The chance of winning a prize higher than your own investment varies per draw and is 13.7% in 2023. This is an average across all 16 draws”.

Lottery Providers in Holland

The Dutch Lottery is a private limited company. It was created in 2016 by the merger of the State Lottery and Lotto. The official site currently lists 9 trusted brands including State Lottery, Lotto, Eurojackpot, Millionaire’s Play, Lucky Day, Scratch Cards, TOTO Shop, TOTO Casino, and TOTO Sport.

Postcode Loterij and VriendenLoterij intend to push back against the threat of €250,000 per week penalties, up to a maximum of €1m, through the appeals process but will stop offering the games by June 8, 2023, latest while the groups put up a legal defense.

Postcode Loterij and VriendenLoterij issued a joint statement declaring: “The KSA is of the opinion that these free lottery games do not fit within the lottery license. However, the games are a form of entertainment and fit within the safe nature of a non-profit lottery with only one goal: to raise funds for good causes.

“For the past 30 years, participants have always been able to participate in additional games in this way, whether or not via the mail, the internet, in special apps or live.

“Nothing is won by playing one of the games itself. In the games, like a traditional lottery, participants only receive a prize after a draw has taken place. With this, the games meet the requirements of the lottery license.”

Nearly €30M in fines levied in 2022

According to iGaming Business, KSA issued €29m in fines in 2022 and issued €9m in fines for “illegal gambling behavior”, based on the regulator’s Annual Report for 2022. Most of the findings are confirmed by CMS Law Now, a “Future Facing firm… with 79 offices in more than 40 countries and 5,000+ lawyers worldwide,” in an April report on gambling growth in the Netherlands.

According to these and other reports (official and summary), even larger fines have been levied against operators that do not possess a Dutch gambling license. “In late December 2022, the KSA imposed fines on Videoslots Limited (EUR 9,874,000), N1 Interactive Limited (EUR 12,640,000), Betpoint Group Limited (EUR 1,787,000), and Probe Investments Limited (EUR 1,128,000).

The KSA based the level of fines on its newly adopted fines policy from September 2021, which takes into account a company’s turnover in the Netherlands.”

While not directly relevant to any known case in the Netherlands, courts in Sweden recently ruled that basing fines on “turnover” (total betting volume) rather than gross gaming revenue (GGR) – the money a company actually takes in during a determinative base period, is an unfair and indefensible accounting practice by regulators there, according to March 2023 report by EGR Global.

 Source: Lottery groups face €1m penalty in the Netherlands over licence breaches, iGaming Business, May 30, 2023

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Pragmatic Play, a leading iGaming content supplier, has announced that it will be doubling the annual prize pool of its popular Drops & Wins event. This year, the total prize pool will be a whopping €30,000,000 (around $33,000,000), the company said.

Drops & Wins is an annual promotion that takes entertainment in mind and channels Pragmatic Play’s energy and resources into an initiative where players can win extra prizes when playing their favorite slots or participating in tournaments. The company has been running Drops & Wins since 2020, with the initiative proving to be a resounding success.

In addition to doubling the total budget, Pragmatic Play announced that players will have the chance to win bigger than ever before when playing one of the game’s slots or live casino games.

Players can be looking forward to the largest prize pool in the industry and an enhanced gaming experience with our new promotional mechanics.

Pragmatic Play statement

The impressive prize pool means that a staggering €2,000,000 can now be won every month. Meanwhile, a monthly prize pool of €500,000 will be available across the company’s best live casino titles.

Drops & Wins Will Engage Players at No Added Cost

In addition to winning Daily Prize Drops, players will be able to compete against their peers. The top players in Pragmatic Play’s daily and weekly tournaments will earn extra prizes depending on their position on the leaderboard.

Drops & Wins will run from April 5, 2023, to March 6, 2024, providing players with a full year of exciting prizes. The company is excited to renew the initiative as attested by Irina Cornides, Pragmatic Play’s chief operating officer.

Cornides pointed out that the prize pool of €30,000,000 is entirely funded by the provider and is the largest of its kind. The best thing for operators is that there are no added integration costs to take part in Drops & Wins. The initiative, Cornides added, will help Pragmatic Play’s partners inspire loyalty among their players.

And with no extra cost or additional integration required to take part, we couldn’t have made it easier for our partners to boost player acquisition, engagement, and retention through Drops & Wins.

Irina Cornides, COO, Pragmatic Play

Pragmatic Play continues to boast a robust pipeline, producing several new slots each month. The company’s products are growing more and more popular among operators, as proven by the recent agreements the provider has been signing.

Pragmatic Play just expanded its presence in Brazil via a deal with Win Prêmios. Previously, the company launched some of its games with Swiss Casinos.

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