Kansas sportsbooks generated $25.5 million in revenues in November across online and retail platforms from a sports betting handle of $291 million, both records for the sports betting market launched in September 2022.
According to the revenue report released by the Kansas Lottery, the handle increased by 5.5 percent month-over-month, jumping from $275.9 million. Meanwhile, revenues increased by 412.2 percent to hit a record in November.
The $5 million in revenues collected in October in Kansas was part of a U.S.-wide trend of low revenues despite large sports betting handles. Like other states that have declared sports betting figures for November, such as North Carolina, Kansas has rebounded from this revenue slump to hit its new record high.
Most of the sports betting handle and revenue was generated by online sports betting operations, with these sites bringing in $279 million of the handle and $24.7 million of the revenue. DraftKings handled the most of any sportsbook, taking more than $128 million in bets. Meanwhile, Fanatics Sportsbook posted the most significant handle increase year-over-year, jumping by 246.8 percent.
The retail sports betting handle rose statewide but fell at two of the four operational retail sportsbooks: DraftKings at Boot Hill and FanDuel at Kansas Star.
The casino industry dodged another bullet. Recently, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that Bally’s Twin River Casino in Rhode Island had no duty to prevent the robbery of a gambler.
“A Rhode Island casino had no duty to prevent the robbery of a gambler who claimed criminals followed him from the premises before accosting him at a service station where he stopped on his way home, a U.S. District Court judge has ruled,” as reported by Pat Murphy in Massachusetts Lawyers’ Weekly on December 1.
In 2021, after leaving Bally’s casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island, Edward Peduto drove about 50 miles. He stopped at a service station. Sometime after that he was attacked and, according to Peduto, was injured. His assailants had followed him from the casino and apparently had been following him in the casino. There was no claim of robbery by Peduto. The court felt if the attack had taken place on the casino grounds or involved a robbery, the plaintiff would have had a stronger case. The article in the Massachusetts Lawyers’ Weekly does not name the assailants or even give a number, just the plural of the noun assailant.
It is not an uncommon story, although usually the attacks result in robbery. Casinos are, or at least used to be, cash houses. Big jackpots create excitement and draw a lot of attention. The action stops while the casino employees go through the necessary procedures to check the jackpot, properly identify the gambler, and bring the money for the payout. The bigger the jackpot, the larger the crowd of people who stand around and watch. A large jackpot always generates lots of speculation about the gambler and how he/she will spend the money. It also generates conversation about how the spectators might spend the money, if it were theirs.
In those crowds of people watching someone win a big jackpot, there might be one person who thinks, “How can I get my hands on that money?” Occasionally, a plot hatches and the nefarious spectator or spectators follow the gambler to the parking lot and attempt to rob him/her. The robberies are not well thought out and usually result in an arrest soon afterwards. Casinos have been aware of the possibilities for years.
In general, the casino advises the winner not to take cash. In fact, it is the usual practice to ask the gambler to return another day to pick up a check. That way the would-be robbers never see any theft-inciting cash, nor do they see the winner collect any winnings. The most anyone sees is a staged presentation of an oversized check, but that too is often put off for another time.
The gaming floors of casinos are all being recorded in real time. The primary purpose is to see that no one is cheating the game and that no one is cheating the state out of its taxes. The cameras are required to have clear and unobstructed views of each slot machine and table game and to have recordings of any activity at each game. So when the employees come to open the machine, verify the jackpot, check the player’s ID, and make the payment, it is all on record. There is no requirement to record each person watching. The video can be subpoenaed by law enforcement agencies when investigating a crime.
The case in Rhode Island is one of the first where a victim of a crime blamed the casino, although in cases involving a crime in the parking area of a casino, it is not unheard of for the victim to blame the casino for a lack of security. In fact, robberies and even shootings in casino parking lots are reasonably common. It is not so surprising, given the large number of people who go in and out of a large casino, thousands on busy days.
In 1990, the Nevada Supreme Court awarded the victim of a parking-garage crime a damage award but denied a punitive award. The court held that Circus Circus was not guilty of the malice necessary for the $1 million award a lower court had granted. It is complicated, but in that decision, the court found the casino negligent, though not in an egregious, intentional manner.
That logic might be applied to Bally’s. The casino might be required to add more cameras, but it was not guilty of intentional or criminal neglect in the placement of the cameras that have been installed. In any case, it is another example of the vulnerability of a casino. If anything goes awry, the self-declared wronged person can imagine that the deep-pocketed casino can easily afford to fork off some cash. Why not give it a shot?
