Author: Joe Lyons
Posts by Joe Lyons
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed a new sports betting tax on Illinois operators. Johnson’s 2026 budget includes a 10.25% local tax on sports betting revenue on top of the state’s levy, which his office released last week. The budget, worth over $16 billion, would take effect on New Year’s Day 2026 and the sports […]
The British Gambling Commission has been accused of foul play in Czech billionaire Karel Komárek’s successful bid to run the National Lottery. Fellow billionaire and media mogul Richard Desmond is suing the Gambling Commission for as much as £1.3 billion over alleged mistakes in the competition to award the licence. Desmond claims the watchdog told […]
The Netherlands’ gambling regulator is offering partial tax refunds to operators who were impacted by COVID-19. Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) will consider giving back to land-based firms that had to shut their doors during 2020 and 2021 in line with national pandemic lockdowns to help stop the spread of the virus. One operator who took a hit […]
Betfred has threatened to shut all betting shops across the United Kingdom if plans for tax harmonisation are made official. The firm’s co-founder and chairman Fred Done, who set up Betfred back in 1967 with his brother, admitted 7,500 jobs are at risk. Done told the BBC that 300 of his shops were “currently losing […]
Illinois governor JB Pritzker won more than $1.4 million gambling in Las Vegas last year. According to federal tax filings released by his campaign, the 43rd governor of the Prairie State won the money playing blackjack at a casino while on vacation with his wife and friends. Pritzker plans to donate the winnings to charity, […]
An English footballer was fined £50,000 – all of his winnings over a ten-year gambling career. James Byrne was slapped with the biggest FA fine in non-league history after admitting to placing a total of 992 bets on football matches from the start of 2015 to the end of 2024. Byrne amassed winnings of almost […]
Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase of the Cleveland Guardians have been banned from the Dominican Winter League as the MLB continues its gambling probe. ESPN’s Enrique Rojas reported earlier this week that the DR Baseball League has prohibited the Estrellas Orientales from adding the pair to their active roster for the season. In July the […]
Paddy Power has announced it will close 57 shops across the UK and Ireland, putting nearly 250 jobs at risk. The closures make up nearly 10% of the firm’s 608 licensed betting offices and a decision was made following a review of their estate. Paddy Power’s parent company, Flutter Entertainment which also owns the likes […]
Investigations have began into suspicious betting patterns surrounding the Nobel peace prize. Wagers for Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado spiked on the Polymarket betting platform just hours before she was awarded the prize. Norwegian officials who oversee the Nobel peace prize are looking into the possibility of a rare leak from the secretive committee […]
William Hill is preparing to close up to 200 shops in the event of a widely expected gambling tax hike later this year. The operator behind William Hill, Evoke – formerly known as 888, which acquired the bookmaker in a £2 billion takeover in 2022 – is planning for disaster ahead of Rachel Reeves’ autumn […]
Plans to build a ‘world class’ casino and restaurant inside London’s iconic Trocadero building have been given the green light. Westminister City councillors voted unanimously to approve Genting Casinos UK’s proposal which will turn the site on 13 Coventry Street into a two-storey gambling hub that can house up to 1,250 people. Genting applied to […]
The first set of new deposit limit rules in the United Kingdom are being rolled out from the end of October. Earlier this week, the Gambling Commission announced guidance for bookmakers on the online deposit rules that were announced back in February. The rules will be implemented in different stages with the initial phase to […]