Budget, Midnite furore, Crown Melbourne | My week in iGaming #18

Christmas is looming and then before you know it it’ll be 2026 and we’re into the second quarter of this new century – the anticipated ‘Millennium Bug’ of 1999-2000 a long forgotten what-was-everyone-worried-about memory. Anyway, here’s a round-up of a few stories that caught my eye these past few weeks. 

The Budget

Well, I think we all anticipated a bad one and that’s what we got – not just for the gambling industry but for any normal, average worker in the country. The near doubling of tax for remote gambling operators seems both unprecedented and a statement of intent. That many people who don’t work (but have a handful of kids) will now have more disposable income than some lower-paid workers in this country seems bizarre, but it’s a way a failing government can try to buy votes, I guess.  

Criticism of this budget, and the likely impact on the industry, has been widespread, measured and, in my view, totally justified. All the likely big impacts will be negative. 

Midnite furore

Right, so Midnite gets hauled over the coals and slammed with a big fine for breaching ASA (Advertising Standards Agency) guidelines around age appropriate celebs endorsing and promoting gambling.

Let’s look at this objectively. You’re not allowed to gamble, by law, until you’re 18. Celebrities and sportspeople under the age of 25 are not allowed to promote gambling because of their possible or likely appeal to many under the age of 18. Ok, fair enough – them’s the rules.

Then it gets sketchy. Midnite felt the wrath of the ASA because it was felt that what was under scrutiny was an advert, not editorial as claimed by the operator. Then sketchier… the subject of the advert/editorial was a footballer, who it was considered to have strong appeal to under-18s. The footballer in question was 33 year-old Son Heung-min, a Spurs player when the editorial/advert appeared. He is 33. Many players or ex-players may also fall into the ‘may appeal’ category: David Beckham, Michael Owen, Eric Cantona et al. The same, surely, applies to musicians and actors. 

What exactly does 'may appeal' mean?

The problem with the whole thing is the ‘may appeal’ bit. Who determines whether a famous person appeals to a certain age demographic or not? Having such an ambiguous ruling confuses the issue, leaving it open to advertisers doing the wrong thing without realising it. The ruling needs to change. It should be based on the celebrity’s ACTUAL age at the time the advert (or ‘editorial’) first appears. Whether that age is determined to be 25, 30 or 40 doesn’t really matter – the issue is that things need to be clear and unambiguous for all concerned.

However in this particular case there is an ongoing lack of clarity because the ASA has warned Midnite to not include people or characters who have a strong appeal to under 18s in the future. How will they know? To have an important regulation determined by the subjective whims of an individual is, frankly, ludicrous. 

Slots that grabbed my eye recently #1: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Name:

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Developer:

Nolimit City

RTP:

96.09%

Max payout:

9,999x stake

Volatility:

High

Reels:

5

Win lines:

1,024

Theme:

WTF

Release date:

2nd Dec 2025

Play Crazy Ex-Girlfriend here:

Odds on?

As I write this (2 December), it seems as though The Ashes and The English Premier League are all but wrapped up – well that's how the bookies seem to view it . With one match played (out of five) Australia are 3/10 to retain The Ashes while England are 11/2 to win. Ok, the Aussies are on home soil and walloped England in the first match in under two days, but even so… 

And the Premier League, only a third of the way into the season (13 of 38 games played) and Arsenal, comfortable leaders but catchable for sure, are at 1/2, 4/9, 8/15, 8/17, 12/25 and so on to take their first title in 22 seasons. These odds – and you can look at a dozen other bookies and they’re similar – aren’t worth looking at. Looks like betting on who survives and who doesn’t might be more interesting. 

Slots that grabbed my eye recently #2: Boomstick Bill 2

Name:

Boomstick Bill 2

Developer:

Games Global

RTP:

96.01%

Max payout:

6,000x stake

Volatility:

Medium

Jackpot:

Mini, Maxi, Minor, Major, Mega

Reels:

5

Win lines:

25

Theme:

Wild West

Release date:

25th Nov 2025

Play Boomstick Bill 2 here:

Overstepping their remit?

What are a local council’s key responsibilities? Keep the streets clean, mend the roads, and collect the rubbish spring to most people’s minds. They are also responsible for social care, housing and a few other things including licensing which includes alcohol licences, taxis and licences for gambling premises. Fair enough, but when did this extend to sticking their bureaucratic, (generally) woke noses into gambling advertising?  

London councils join anti-advertising bandwagon

Hackney Council is now the fifth London council to join the Coalition to End Gambling Ads (CEGA) after Barnet, Lewisham, Brent and Enfield. The Coalition’s aims are outlined clearly in their name, and of course we live in a society where lobby groups, alternative opinions and robust debate are to be welcomed. But does campaigning against brick and mortar gambling premises and public area gambling adverts fall under the remit of a local council?

I’d strongly suggest not. Firstly they need to focus on their core duties – and if you look at most roads and streets in our big towns and cities it’s clear there is still plenty of work to do. Secondly, I don’t think it’s in a local council’s remit to get involved in ethical, moral, health or anything remotely contentious – which this is. I’m not suggesting the debate shouldn’t be had – just that it’s not a local council’s place to have it. 

Crowning glory, not 

Crown Casino in Melbourne, at 510,000m2 is the largest casino complex in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s said to extend over a kilometre from end to end, and includes 540 table games (100 poker) and 2,500 poker (slot) machines. The complex has 3 hotels and a number of restaurants, bars and nightclubs. It’s a place that’s easy to get lost in. Or go unnoticed…

Crown was recently landed with a AU$100,00 (£49,547) fine by the state gambling regulator for allowing an excluded player to gamble for nearly 15 hours. This happened in October 2024 when the excluded player (admittedly, who had made efforts to conceal their identity) gambled for 14 hours, 40 minutes. The same player had been excluded from Crown only in August of last year over concerns for their welfare. Crown only took action after being alerted by an inspector for the regulator, the VGCCC (Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission). 

Crown has since implemented further controls including reconfiguring gaming floor entrances, reviewing facial recognition camera positioning and ongoing training for personnel. Yep, as the old saying goes: ‘It pays to keep your eyes peeled.’

Track record

In the overall scheme of things those this is pretty small beer for an institution like Crown who has a long and costly rap sheet, which includes:

• AU$120m fine in 2022 for breaches of responsible gambling legislation over an extended period, including letting some players gamble for periods over 24 hours.
• AU$164m of illicit transactions and AU$32m in revenue resulted in a AU$80m fine, also in 2022.
• In 2016, 18 Crown employees were arrested by Chinese police for an assortment of offences.

Crims' gathering place

During the late 1990s and early 2000s various bars and restaurants within the complex were known to have prominent members of Melbourne’s then colourful underworld among their patrons. The Moran brothers and extended family, Carl Williams, Andrew Veniamin, Alphonse Gangitano, Mario Condello and Graham Kinniburgh are among a collection of gangsters from that era who reportedly frequented Crown but are no longer with us. 

And a slot that goes with what we've just been talking about: Casino Night 

Name:

Casino Night

Developer:

NetEnt

RTP:

96.08%

Max payout:

10,000x stake

Volatility:

High

Reels:

5

Theme:

Luxury

Release date:

27th Aug 2024

Play Casino Night here:

What odds a war?

Is it ethical to bet on the likelihood of something bad happening (or not happening)? It’s one thing to bet on whether a particular football manager will get sacked by Christmas, or even ‘in the morning’ but other, much darker things, like death, destruction or war?

What odds would I get on a Royal Family death before the end of 2025, or a Tsunami hitting Anglesey and North Wales or an India-Pakistan war?

Well… Polymarket, the blockchain-based prediction platform has opened a few eyes and ruffled a few feathers by allowing users to bet on the chances of ‘military engagement’ between India and Pakistan before the end of the year. Tensions were recently heightened between the neighbouring nations after a Delhi car bomb killed 13 and injured 20+ in early November. 

Unethical? Fair enough? What else would you expect in 2025? Let us know what you think.

Unfair

Top level football must be one of the only industries that constantly and reliably continues to treat its customers like shit. At least they're consistent, I guess. In the 1970s and 1980s it was cramming us into dangerously unsafe stadiums, caging us, treating us like animals while the wider public often considered us social pariahs. 

In the last couple of decades it's been mainly about fleecing us: ticket prices, several hundred pounds for your kid to be a mascot, a new kit every season, overpriced crap food in the stadium and so on. And that's compounded by ridiculous kick off times to inconvenience travelling fans, and stadium bans for innocuous incidents (a Brentford fan reportedly had his season ticket withdrawn based on an unsubstantiated, overheard conversation on his mobile. A Newcastle fan was stripped of her season ticket for non-football comments on social media).  

But how about this one... League leaders Arsenal are due to play at Bournemouth on 3 January. Now, as most football fans will know Bournemouth has a very small stadium which means their ticket allocation for away fans is also small – the smallest in the Premier League. Bournemouth reportedly allocated Arsenal 1,307 tickets of which 680 went on sale to the club's fans. The other 627 tickets? Well, they will end up with sponsors, staff and other assorted hangers on.  

That'll do for now. Have a good Christmas and a fun-filled start to 2026!