The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (Board) unanimously voted to renew the Category 2 stand-alone casino license of Wind Creek Bethlehem LLC, operator of Wind Creek Bethlehem casino in Northampton County.

In making the decision, the Board determined that Wind Creek Bethlehem LLC had fulfilled the obligations under its previously approved casino operator’s license and therefore qualified to have its license renewed for an additional five-year period.

The decision to renew the license was based on a process utilized by the Board that enables both the operator and the public to provide information relevant to the renewal decision. A public input hearing was held in July 2024 in the casino’s host municipality, the City of Bethlehem, where personnel of Wind Creek Bethlehem submitted exhibits and presented testimony on various aspects of the facility’s operation since its last license renewal was granted. The public was also permitted to provide testimony about the casino and its impact in the community.

In reaching its decision, the Board also received information from local government officials, community groups and the PA State Police, along with the Gaming Control Board’s Office of Enforcement Counsel, Bureau of Investigations and Enforcement, Office of Compulsive and Problem Gaming, and Bureau of Casino Compliance.

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Additionally, a public hearing was held in Harrisburg to permit Board members to further question Wind Creek Bethlehem LLC representatives about any remaining issues prior to voting on the renewal.

Since its opening in May 2009 through September 2024, Wind Creek Bethlehem has generated over $7 billion in revenue from the play of retail slot machines and table games, sports wagering and iGaming, and has returned to the Commonwealth a total of $2.9 billion from tax revenue, assessments and fees. Wind Creek Bethlehem currently operates 2318 slot machines, 202 table games and a 20-table poker room while providing employment to 2242 persons directly or through third-party tenants in the events center, food and beverage outlets or retail stores. 94% of those employees are Pennsylvania residents.

PrizePicks, the largest daily fantasy sports operator in North America, announced it has been awarded Daily Fantasy Sports Operator Licenses in Delaware and Missouri. The company will launch Arena, its innovative peer-to-peer fantasy sports contest, in both states.

“We are proud that Arena has been approved in every state where it has been submitted. We’ve seen strong player adoption to date and we look forward to replicating our success in these new markets with a fun gaming experience. We’d like to extend our gratitude to the Delaware Division of Gaming Enforcement, the Delaware Lottery, and the Missouri Gaming Commission for their thoughtful collaboration,” said PrizePicks CEO Mike Ybarra.

Arena offers a unique leaderboard style peer-to-peer gaming experience, allowing players to compete for prizes against one another. Participants are grouped based on their number of entries and experience level. Since launching in January, players on Arena have built over 20 million peer-to-peer lineups. With these new state launches, Arena will now be available in 15 states across the US.

The Illegal Operations Control Department destroyed 574 gambling items that had been seized because they were operating without authorization in departments such as Cundinamarca, Atlántico, Valle del Cauca, among others, and which stopped transferring around $63.545 million to the health system.

“The destroyed items were valued at around $169 million and belonged to criminal structures that were dedicated to operating games of chance and luck without authorization and without paying the respective monopoly rents,” said Marco Emilio Hincapié, president of Coljuegos.

Among the destroyed items were electronic slot machines, bingo chairs, roulette wheels, poker tables, Keno and online betting modules, each of them composed of computers, CPUs, televisions, ticket machines, among others.

“In total, we have completed 7,934 destroyed items, valued at more than $1.5 billion. Due to these illegal activities, the health system has lost more than $200 billion in recent years, resources that would have allowed us to serve more Colombians under the subsidized regime,” said the president of the entity.

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Hincapié also said that in the coming days, Coljuegos will continue destroying another 117 electronic slot machines, 350 bingo elements (chairs, tables and boards), 8 poker tables and 252 sports betting modules.

“Never before has an administration attacked illegality in the industry so strongly. We are doing this at the behest of our president Gustavo Petro, who has always asked us to fight corruption and to decisively strike the mafias that operate unauthorized games in various regions of the country,” said Hincapié.

It is worth mentioning that illegal gambling organizations in Colombia are failing to pay the State around $1.5 billion annually for exploitation rights, resources that could be allocated to the health of low-income citizens.