Public Gaming International November/December 2021

49 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 IGTPay™ full-service funding solution, Resort Wallet™ cashless solution and PlaySports sports betting platform. Play+ has been added as a funding method into IGT’s land based cashless wagering solution of IGTPay and Resort Wallet. Inspired Entertainment launches Reel Spooky King Megaways™, a Halloween-themed, spine-chilling, boo-tiful, 6-reel slot game, developed with the popular Megaways™ game mechanic to give players 117,649 ways to win on every spin. Available online and on mobile. Inspired launches Jungle Falls, a jungle-themed online & mobile slot game Inspired Entertainment to launch iLottery games with Loto-Québec This new addition allows for the inclusion of Inspired’s digital lottery games to lotoquebec. com and its Loto-Québec app, which allows adults in the Quebec province to play online lottery games, with the winnings directly deposited into an account. Inspired is expected to launch its first new iLottery games, Scarab Treasures (branded Pharaon reactionMC) and Fruit Drop Scatterdrops™ (branded Explosion de fruits reactionMC), in 2022. Inspired Entertainment has announced a multi-year exclusive contract with the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association (MLBPAA) to utilize the name, brand, image, persona and likenesses of the MLBPAA members to be commercially used worldwide. Former Arkansas lottery Director, NASPL President and Lottery Industry Hall of Fame member Bishop Woosley has formed Woosley Gaming Advisors, a lottery and gaming consulting firm. In Memoriam: Gordon Thomas Graves passed away on September 21 at his residence in Harrisburg, Illinois Gordon Graves was CEO of Datatrol, Inc. when that company won a contract to install the first on-line lottery system in Michigan in 1976. The company installed the first on-line lotto system in the world in Canada in 1978 and, after Graves had left, went on to become GTECH, the largest lottery supplier in the world. In 1981, Gordon founded a company called Syntech, Inc. that developed the first player-activated lottery terminal, the first microcomputer-based redundant central determinant system, and the first touch-screen gaming terminal. In 1986, Graves sold control of Syntech to IGT, and he not only participated in IGT’s entry into the lottery business, but also was involved in the development of MegaBucks, the first progressive slot machine game. Gordon went on to found Austin-based Multimedia Games, Inc. and retired from MGAM in 2003. SPORTS BETTING AND CASINO GAMBLING Scientific Games Expands Its Portfolio Of Cashless Gaming Solutions With ACS PlayOn Acquisition The PlayOn cashless product line conveniently provides players with a seamless debit solution at live table games. As a part of the Scientific Games portfolio, the ACS PlayOn product line will be called AToM™ – Access To On Demand Money. The AToM solution lets players access funds at live table games without having to leave their seats. In addition, there are no back-end or out-of-network transaction fees charged by the player's financial institution. To access funds, players simply swipe their debit card and enter their PIN. This acquisition gives Scientific Games an immediate leadership position in cashless applications for table games. Virginia Lottery: more than $180M was wagered on sports in August This represents a 13 percent increase from July’s wagers. The eight licenced operators included in August’s reporting were Betfair Interactive US LLC (FanDuel) in partnership with the Washington Football Team, Crown Virginia Gaming LLC (Draft Kings), BetMGM LLC, Rivers Portsmouth Gaming LLC (Rivers Casino Portsmouth), Caesars Virginia LLC, WSI US, LLC (Wynn), Unibet Interactive, Inc., and Penn Sports Interactive LLC. WORLD NEWS IGT expands its PlayCasino footprint in the Netherlands via a multi-year content agreement with Holland Casino, the leading gaming operator in the country IGT PlayCasino games such as Icy Wilds™, Scarab® and Fortune Coin!™ were recently made available to players throughout the Netherlands on HollandCasino.nl. IGT’s Jade Luchauer Honored in Global Regulatory Awards 2021 for “Outstanding Individual Contribution to Responsible Gaming” German Saxony-Anhalt state approves 35 online sportsbook licences The Bundesländer of Saxony-Anhalt has published its ‘whitelist’ of licence-approved operators that are in accordance with the laws of Germany’s fourth interstate treaty on gambling, GlüNeuRStv. The licensed businesses are allowed to provide GlüNeuRStv online gambling services for sports betting, online casino, virtual slots, poker, lotteries, horse racing and instant games. However, the Saxony-Anhalt registry also revealed that no licences had been granted for online casino, virtual slots and poker and the Lander made no statement with regards to whether operators had even applied for GlüNeuRStv licences for online gambling services. Saxony-Anhalt has been appointed to serve as the Bundesländer that will house German gambling’s new federal regulatory agency, Glücksspielbehörde. Although Germany’s 16 Lander had previously agreed to observe a ‘transitional period’ from October 2020, allowing former Hesse licensed bookmakers to switch to new GlüNeuRStv licences, the regime was formally launched on July 1. Instant Win Gaming (IWG) has been selected by the Lotteries Entertainment Innovation Alliance (LEIA) to supply eInstants, also known as instant win games, to the joint venture’s five members; Danske Lotteri Spil, Française des Jeux (FDJ), Norsk Tipping, Svenska Spel and Veikkaus EL urges Council of the EU to exclude explicit mention of online gambling and betting services from Digital Services Act (DSA) EL (European Lotteries Association) urges the EU Member States’ representatives to exclude the explicit mention of online gambling and betting services in the context of freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services within the EU [1]: “[]...The applicable national laws should be in compliance with Union law, in particular including the Charter and the Treaty provisions on the freedom of establishment