Chris Grove Unpacks the High-Stakes Gambling Storm

The latest shoe to drop on the current tempest around regulated gambling in North America happened yesterday when the U.S. Senate for the Judiciary announced a America’s High-Stakes Bet on Legalized Sports Gambling hearing for Tuesday, Dec. 16. All of the ruckus south of the border around sports betting and online gaming, including the angst around problem gambling, sports betting advertising – which is also happening in our home and native land - daily fantasy sports, and sweepstakes has attracted the attention of elected officials, traditional media, mental health advocates and others. So, we welcomed back Chris Grove to lend his voice of reason to the Gaming News Canada Show presented by GBG Plc. Grove, a co-founder of Acies Investments and partner emeritus at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, provided a plethora of measured insight on the current brouhaha, including: · The interest in the industry from politicians and mainstream journalists should elicit more than a raised-eyebrow reaction from the industry;· Some suggestions for industry stakeholders in responding to the scrutiny;· The good work being done by the American Gaming Association – which recently added athlete harassment to its campaign around betting responsibly - to inform and educate folks on regulated gambling· The industry needing to catch its collective breath on issues such as expanding legal online casino across the U.S. Grove, the founder of Legal Sports Reports, discussed the challenges that journalists face in newsrooms and editorial departments that have shrunk in the U.S. and Canada. He also talked about the “Google effect” on gambling affiliates that led companies such as Catena Media to lay off journalists this fall (Dustin Gouker, in his Closing Line newsletter, created a spreadsheets of journalists available for hire). And he spoke about the potential impact of a second Donald Trump administration on the industry. Finally, we asked the industry veteran about the current appetite for funding startups and his thoughts on the M&A landscape in 2024. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.