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Casino City’s Friday Five: Big fines and bigger wins edition

28 June 2024

Next week, the most anticipated poker event of the year, the World Series of Poker Main Event, will begin on the Las Vegas Strip. Leading up to that, more players will receive gold bracelets as the 55th edition of the WSOP winds down. In addition, this week we saw a six-figure jackpot from a Florida casino, a Pennsylvania property being issued an interesting fine, MGM acquiring Tipico’s U.S. sportsbook and a look ahead at the 2024-2025 NBA season.

Let’s begin with some slot play:

5. Seminole Classic Casino awards $100,000 slot win
A slot player at Seminole Classic Casino in Hollywood, Florida hit a jackpot of over $100,000 on a Cash Express Luxury Line slot machine by Aristocrat.

The Unity member made a $7.50 wager and won a total of $106,732.53 on Saturday, 22 June. After the win, the progressive jackpot was reset to $100,000.

4. Negreanu prevails for seventh WSOP bracelet
For nearly 15 years, no one has been hit more at the World Series of Poker than Daniel Negreanu.
It had been more than a decade since Negreanu won a bracelet. The last time he won a bracelet on American soil, George W. Bush was still in the White House and The Incredible Hulk was the No. 1 movie at the box office.

That drought finally ended when Negreanu captured lucky bracelet No. 7 in Event #58: $50,000 Poker Players Championship, outlasting 89 of the best players in the world to win $1,178,703 and the prestigious title.

Of all the people on the rail, there was one that meant the most to Negreanu: his wife Amanda. Negreanu hadn't won a bracelet since they got married, so the two of them on the main feature stage, posing for pictures with the new jewelry, was a special moment for them.

"It's very cool. This is the first time she's been down here since we moved here. Because she was going to come when I win, and I haven't been winning. So it was nice to have her here for the moment, for sure," he said.

3. Live! Casino fined $100K for accepting illegal proxy sports bets
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board approved a consent agreement presented by the Board’s Office of Enforcement Counsel during its public meeting resulting in a fine of $100,000 against Stadium Casino, operator of Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia for taking and placing sports wagers by phone.

The fine was levied after several team members of the Live! Casino Sportsbook accepted and placed 15 wagers totaling $287,421 over an eight-day period for a patron who was not present in the casino. These types of wagers are known as “proxy wagers” and are not permitted through policies established by the casino and approved by the Board. In addition, the Pennsylvania Gaming Act specifically prohibits knowingly accepting a wager from any person other than the person making the wager.

Three Live! Casino Sportsbook employees who accepted and placed the wagers were terminated and the Board revoked the gaming employment license of each. The patron was placed on the Board’s Involuntary Exclusion list and can no longer gamble in Pennsylvania.

2. MGM Resorts International acquires Tipico’s US sportsbook
Earlier this week, MGM Resorts International announced that its subsidiary, LeoVegas Group, entered into an agreement to acquire the U.S sportsbook and online casino from Tipico Group.

The acquisition will allow LeoVegas to operate a proprietary sportsbook across all international markets and brands, with the exception of those exclusive to the BetMGM JV.

Tipico will wind down its U.S. operations prior to the closing of the acquisition. As part of the transaction, LeoVegas will acquire certain of Tipico's U.S. facing management, technology and trading teams across the U.S., Colombia and Europe.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2024.

1. Top 10 teams to win the 2024-2025 NBA championship
Wednesday and Thursday’s NBA Draft kicked off the journey to the start of the 2024-2025 NBA season. Over the next couple of months, we will get to watch Summer League games and a hectic free agency period as well. As teams look to built a title-caliber roster, we take a look at teams we think can make a push for the Larry O’Brien trophy.

Dallas Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks reached the NBA Finals but couldn’t handle the firepower of the Boston Celtics and saw their title hopes whisk away in just five games.

It is no question the Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic carried this team through the playoffs but Irving struggled in the finals. The real issue is with the role players.

P.J. Washington is only 25 years old so he will hopefully continue to improve despite seeing times of rough shooting streaks. Josh Green, a guard who comes off the bench, is also just 23 years old and I wouldn’t be surprised to see his minutes increase in the regular season.

Derrick Lively, just 20 years old, is a big factor for this Mavericks team next year. He showed a lot of signs of being a great lop threat and shot blocker.

Dallas will need to add another wing in free agency or through trade, like a DeMar DeRozan to really pish their roster into the next level.

Denver Nuggets
Nikola Jokic, the catalyst for Denver’s success, captured his third MVP award in four years. Getting knocked out in the second round by the Timberwolves, the Nuggets look to bring back the majority of their team from last year.

I truly believe that if Denver won that game seven against Minnesota that they would’ve taken down Dallas and been a better matchup against Boston in the finals.

Along with Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon are all under contract for next year and both Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Jackson have player options to act on.

With four out of five of one of the best starting lineups in basketball returning, they are already a roster with title hopes and an attractive destination for free agents that want to win.

Boston Celtics
We may have witnessed one of the more dominant teams in NBA history last year. The Celtics powered their way to an league-best 18th championship. Not only did the team go 64-18 in the regular season, but Boston rolled through the playoffs with an impressive 16-3 record.

This team is set up to run it back with a nearly identical roster from this last year. The top seven players are all under contract. That includes Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford and Payton Pritchard. Sam Hauser also has a team option which I would assume the Celtics exercise since it is only for about $2 million next season.

Spacing, shooting and defense were the areas this team excelled in. Having their forwards be three-point shooters, the team could play a five-out offense and really leave space for Tatum and Brown to create.

Unselfishness also shined. Having five guys who could be your leading scorer on any given night made it very easy for players who were having a bad shooting night turn to their passing and defense to help the team win rather than forcing shots.

With banner 18 set to join the rest in the rafters of TD Garden, the next one will be on the minds of the Celtics once summer league starts next month.
Casino City’s Friday Five: Big fines and bigger wins edition is republished from Online.CasinoCity.com.
Dan Ippolito

As Casino City's associate editor, Dan produces and edits all of our weekly newsletters, and writes about the gaming industry for our websites and the GPWA Times Magazine. Dan graduated from Marist College in 2017 with a degree in Communications and a concentration in Sports. Email him at daniel@casinocity.com, or follow him at @casinocity_dan on Twitter.
Dan Ippolito
As Casino City's associate editor, Dan produces and edits all of our weekly newsletters, and writes about the gaming industry for our websites and the GPWA Times Magazine. Dan graduated from Marist College in 2017 with a degree in Communications and a concentration in Sports. Email him at daniel@casinocity.com, or follow him at @casinocity_dan on Twitter.