They Called It Democratization. We Called It Something Else.
A few weeks ago, Polymarket approached a nonprofit newsroom called More Perfect Union. They wanted to collaborate – specifically, to have their odds integrated into the newsroom’s reporting. The idea was that prediction market probabilities would give readers better insight into the issues being covered. More Perfect Union did what any honest journalist does before […]
The 7 Failures of State Owned Casinos
There is an old joke from late Soviet Moscow. The first state-run red light house has opened. The chandeliers are Bohemian crystal. The champagne is imported from France. The furniture is from Maples of London. The cologne is the finest Parisian perfume. And the girls, comrade, are all Heroes of the Great Patriotic War. The […]
Gaming License Costs in the Ukraine
UKRAINIAN GAMBLING LAW This Alert (“Alert”) is based on the Ukrainian gambling law (“Gambling Law”) that was approved by the deputies of the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) in the second reading on 14 July 2020 and finally signed by the President Volodymyr Zelensky on 11 August 2020. PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THE CONCLUSIONS MADE IN […]
Ukrainian Gambling on the Tight Rope (Outlook before the law was passed)
Everyone knows at least a bit about the rollercoaster drama that the Ukrainian gambling scene has been for the past 3 decades. Before the 2009 gaming ban, the country was a typical eastern European state as far as the gambling industry was concerned. Riddled with mafia presence and sometimes even violence. I very much remember […]
Is Europe a place for ICRs?
Recently I was involved in a study looking at the role of ICRs in different parts of the world. The way different continents, cultures gamble can be very different and what form of gambling is prevalent apart from the cultural factor is mostly influenced by the kind of operators and their business models present in […]