Midas Golden Touch

What is Midas Golden Touch?

The report singled out several marketing tactics which had been flagged as particuarly concerning.

The first was direct marketing (emails, texts, push notifications). Citing randomised studies, the committee noted that limiting direct marketing resulted in reduced betting and fewer short-term harms. 

Referencing an Australian study on direct marketing and its link to gambling harms, Dr Philip Newall, senior lecturer at the University of Bristol noted that “causality was established by getting a random subset of participants to opt-out of receiving direct marketing offers”.

About Midas Golden Touch

FATF released the report – Risks of Gaming and Gambling – on Wednesday. It updates the body’s 2009 analysis of the casino sector. In addition, it draws on questionnaire responses from 80 jurisdictions and written comments from a further 29, alongside industry consultation.

The report identifies land-based and online casinos and sports betting as carrying the highest money laundering exposure. By contrast, lotteries and scratchcards present lower risk. 

It finds that online gaming shows more documented terrorist financing activity than gambling, although proliferation financing risks remain limited across both sectors.

About Midas Golden Touch

If the latest extension had not been granted, Bally’s would have had to close its temporary casino at Medinah Temple until the permanent venue was completed. That would have resulted in multiple months with no revenue in the market, but Kim told iGB at the East Coast Gaming Congress in April that a closure of the temporary site was “not the end of the world”.

Meanwhile, Bally’s is forging ahead with an even bigger project to the east, its $4 billion Bally’s Bronx resort in New York City. The company was one of three NYC licence winners last year, alongside Resorts World New York City and Hard Rock’s Metropolitan Park.

Bally’s announced on Monday that it has secured a total of $560 million worth of financing from WhiteHawk Capital Partners “to fund further development of the Bally’s Bronx project and general corporate purposes”. The funding will close this quarter, the company said.