iGaming Weekly: Duel's bribe leak, Stake's Brazil appeal, Flutter's UK cuts
This week in iGaming: Scott Stedman leaks Curaçao's Duel bribe report, Stake appeals Brazil's site suspension order and Flutter cuts up to 1,400 UK jobs, plus the week's releases and on-chain casino numbers. Two minutes, no filler.
Stake appeals after Brazil court suspends order letting its site run past Oct 25
Flutter plans up to 1,400 UK and Ireland job cuts after Britain raises betting duty to 40%
Utah sues Kalshi and Susquehanna firms, calling its contracts an illegal gambling nuisance
Housebets accused of tracking ex-Stake players' wallets to win them back
Crypto Casinos
Stake will appeal after Brazil's appeals court president suspended an order letting its site run until Oct. 25, despite the R$30 million license fee it paid. (Read the full article)
BC.Game returned 100,000 DOT it froze in April to exploited bridge Hyperbridge after a Nigerian federal court order and an INTERPOL request, with exploit losses later put at about $2.5 million.
Duelbits relaunched as Duelbits 1.99, its rebuild after September's hot-wallet hack, with a new casino lobby, rebuilt Originals, a redesigned sportsbook and a new rewards and rakeback interface.
BetFury integrated Swapped Connect, letting players fund accounts straight from more than 20 wallets and exchanges including Binance, Coinbase and MetaMask without copying addresses or picking a network.
Shuffle moved its weekly SHFL Lottery streams, which carry draws worth more than $3 million each, off Kick and onto Twitch exclusively, airing every Friday at 6AM UTC.
Porchy admitted Housebets' SOL deposits and withdrawals were disrupted for more than 8 hours on Oct. 21 as its wallet provider struggled to recover from Solana's upgrade, and promised affected players bonuses.
1win's owner says the 1WIN token will be fully transferable for every sale participant from the day the sale ends, pitching the sale's $30 million FDV against the bull market.
MetaWin says it is moving a large share of its influencer budget to SuperRewards, a creator-rewards marketplace with instant approval, and founder Skel urged creators big and small to sign up.
Latest Originals
Cloudbet launched Roadster Thrust, a Tesla Roadster crash game it calls "one of a kind, only on Cloudbet".
Duelbits launched Cannonball, a new Original that pays up to 500x.
Gamba launched Chicken, with 1% house edge, four risk levels, and a batch bet option.
ToshiBet launched Le Loot, a riot-themed house game in its Toshi Dojo, and claimed its best first 24 hours of volume for any house game.
Qzino launched Loot Run, "the new Qzino Original," sharing the Paris-looting theme of ToshiBet's Le Loot.
Overtime launched Standoff, where players draw against 1 to 4 outlaws to grow a multiplier, with each draw settled on-chain by Chainlink VRF.
BetBolt opened early access for high rollers to Bonnie's Adventures, which it calls a "New Originals game."
Dicey launched HILO, its latest Original, where players call cards higher or lower in a row.
YEET added a bonus game to its ECHO Original and calls it "the first original with a bonus game ever."
YEET updated its Limbo Original after player feedback, with an easier-to-read font and the return of the slider.
BetFury gave Fury Heist a Paris-themed makeover with 4 risk modes, a listed 98% RTP and multipliers up to 3,380,000x (branded, supplier unverified).
500 Casino launched Plinko Battles, a team Plinko mode for up to 100 players. It also rebuilt its Plinko with a new design and updated physics.
Duelbits rolled out a rebuilt Keno Original in its 1.99 relaunch, billed as "smoother, faster, better," and a player hit 81.5x on launch day. Its Plinko Original also got a redesigned look as part of the 1.99 build.
Stake refreshed the look of its Keno Original, calling it "An OG classic with a fresh feel."
Third-Party Releases
Hacksaw Gaming released Epic SixSixSix, with Wicked Wheels, three bonus games and up to 20,666x, live on YEET at launch, then Chips, Thrill, and Deuces.
Pragmatic Play's Sweet Bonanza POP, a 3×5 grid with multipliers up to 1,000x and POP prizes up to 25,000x, went live on Betsio.
Butterslots released Bunana 1000 as an early-access exclusive on Roobet, where a streamer hit 25,000x for $25,000 within a day.
Rebel Arcade released Paper Boss, a paper-toss game paying up to 245.76x over eight throws with a $2,457,600 top payout, live exclusively on Roobet.
Engine's 10 new slots went live on 500 Casino, which says no other casino had them first, a day after Gamba said it added Engine and Juice Play.
Latest Drama
Winna breaks a 10-week silence on the $7M "rigged game" claim, and @provablyfairorg on X doesn't budge
Winna's @paulwinnacom on X called the $7 million rigged-game accusation false, and its CTO published all 13,125 rounds of the Slide VIP case. An independent watchdog reviewed the data and kept its verdict.
@provablyfairorg: "Our verdict is unchanged: on the evidence supplied, Slide VIP was NOT provably fair."
The watchdog says this is not a finding of manipulation: Winna's numbers add up, but seed selection is not independently proven.
Housebets accused of tracking ex-Stake players' wallets to win them back
Data shows Housebets' 30-day deposits jumped 325% after it began scanning players' wallet histories at rival casinos to offer personalized bonuses. Founder @p0rchy on X has not answered the accusation.
A gambling streamer: "This is by far one of the scummiest practices an online casino can pull."
krombet: deposits rose from $4.36M to $18.54M across 83,600 depositing wallets, with $3.22M on Oct. 9 alone.
Journalist @ScottMStedman published a leaked Curaçao regulatory review flagging Duel owner Ossi Ketola's alter ego and an alleged bribe attempt, and reported Ketola recently met Donald Trump Jr. Duel has not commented on the allegations.
@ScottMStedman: the review flagged "an alleged attempt to bribe YouTuber @coffeebreak_YT on X."
Estonian outlet Laser reported the Trump Jr. meeting.
Flutter plans up to 1,400 job cuts, about one in six roles in its UK and Ireland division, after Britain raised online casino duty from 21% to 40%. (Read the full article)
Evolution's Q3 net revenue rose 3.7% to €526.1 million with a 65.8% adjusted EBITDA margin, though it closed its Brazil studio because of the betting ban.
Betsson posted record Q3 revenue of €326.5 million as active customers jumped 40% to 1.9 million, but higher gambling duties pushed EBITDA down 23% to €63.4 million. (Read the full article)
Evoke's Q3 revenue fell 7% to £406 million as William Hill shop closures reached 270, and the company urged the government not to raise gambling taxes again.
Las Vegas Sands missed Q3 estimates on weak high-end play in Macau and Singapore, with Marina Bay Sands EBITDA down 20.6% to $590 million, yet still raised its dividend 20%.
SkyCity opened a structured process to seek offers for the whole company after continued takeover interest, while preparing bids for two New Zealand online casino licenses.
Challenger bookmaker BetGoodwin is weighing a London stock market listing that would value it at about £80 million, Sky News reports.
Regulation & Enforcement
South Korean police busted a record illegal gambling network that took 23 trillion won, or $17.3 billion, in bets, arresting 77 people and shutting 188 sites. (Read the full article)
Curaçao's Gaming Authority set Oct. 19 to launch a temporary system after its licensing portal was hacked, restoring the license register and the seal players click to check a casino. (Read the full article)
The Dutch regulator KSA fined Instantcasino operator EOD Code a record €37.25 million, which would have been €292.6 million without the legal cap, after it ignored every request for figures. (Read the full article)
Comoros says the Anjouan licensing network, with about 1,500 offshore gambling businesses on its register, is unauthorized, and it is seeking UK help with financial intelligence.
Former college basketball player Elmin Redzepagic pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud and money laundering charges, admitting he moved about $1.16 million from crypto investors to Stake.com and gambled it away.
Greece's gaming regulator is recruiting 40 inspectors with investigators' powers to fight an illegal market worth €1.8 billion in 2025, as 18 influencers face complaints for allegedly promoting unlicensed sites. (Read the full article)
Australia's ACMA published guidance on the ban on celebrities and influencers in gambling ads starting Jan. 1, 2027, with no minimum follower count and penalties paid by the betting company. (Read the full article)
PointsBet accepted Ontario's first iGaming suspension, two days instead of the five first sought, after admitting 18 months late that it took bets on Jontay Porter. (Read the full article)
Related News
Lula won Brazil's presidential runoff with 51.8% to Flávio Bolsonaro's 48.2% for a record fourth term, keeping in power the president who imposed the online betting ban and called it irreversible.
Crypto longs worth $404 million were liquidated in four hours as bitcoin briefly fell below $80,000 to about $79,280, with 24-hour liquidations reaching $815 million.
The OCC finalized its GENIUS Act rules for stablecoin issuers, effective Jan. 18, 2027, requiring 1:1 segregated reserves and a $5 million capital floor and banning yield to holders.
Solana's Alpenglow upgrade went live, cutting finality from about 12.8 seconds to about 150 milliseconds, and Anza calls it the largest blockchain upgrade since Ethereum's Merge.
The Central Bank of Ireland fined Coinbase Ireland €3,252,618 for underfunded customer safeguarding accounts mixed with group accounts, the exchange's second Irish penalty in a year.
UK banks received about 10,000 customer complaints in just three months over blocked crypto transfers, according to a report from CoinDesk.
Prediction Markets
Polymarket fired marketing chief Matthew Modabber, a high school friend of CEO Shayne Coplan, as the CFTC investigates his team's staged-win videos showing about $1.9 million in simulated bets. (Read the full article)
Utah's attorney general sued Kalshi and two Susquehanna trading firms, calling its contracts an illegal gambling nuisance and seeking a state geoblock plus up to $60 million in restitution. (Read the full article)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth banned troops and Pentagon staff from betting on prediction markets or sportsbooks with nonpublic military information, months after a soldier was charged over Polymarket bets on the Maduro raid. (Read the full article)
Phantom added in-wallet Kalshi trading for U.S. users funded with its CASH stablecoin, blocking sports markets in Michigan, and its general counsel says Phantom is "confident and comfortable" despite state lawsuits.
Ohio's Casino Control Commission warned its sports betting licensees in a letter that providing services to prediction markets could affect their suitability for a license.
The CFTC told Novig and ProphetX not to list some self-certified contracts, saying Novig's "first points scored" micro contracts are open to manipulation and ProphetX's scorigami contracts are not swaps.
Kalshi asked the CFTC to let it relist markets on GPU rental prices for Nvidia's B200, H200 and A100 chips, which it pulled in September amid reported Commerce pressure that Commerce denies. (Read the full article)
Bloomberg reported that investor pressure forced Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan to repay private-jet, rent and other personal costs charged to the company.
Next week
Britain's Autumn Budget lands on Oct. 28, after Evoke and other UK operators urged the chancellor not to raise gambling duties again.
FairGambling Analytics Spotlight
Deposits across the casinos FairGambling tracks on-chain came to $1.08B for October 19–25, down 2.7% week over week.
Top 10 casinos by deposit volume
Stake took $427.3M, 45% of the top ten's $950.4M; Roobet was next at $115.9M. The biggest mover was 1win, up 54.3% week over week to $41.7M.
Chain dominance
Ethereum led with 37% of deposits, ahead of TRON at 30% and Solana at 16%.
Coin dominance
USDT carried 57% of deposits, USDC 19% and SOL 10%; XRP was the fastest mover, down 29.6% week over week to $12.4M.
FairGambling tracked 44.77M bets from roughly 383,300 players, $5.32B wagered in total.
Top 5 casinos by wager
Stake handled $2.71B, more than half of the top five's wagers; Roobet was next at $629.9M.
Top games and biggest bets
Blackjack led the week at $287.9M wagered, 1.2x the runner-up Dice at $243.6M. All five of the biggest bets landed at Stake, between $2.9M and $3.0M; three of them won, the biggest paying $6.3M.
Biggest wins of the week
The top multiplier was 5,148,297× on Mines at Stake, turning a near-zero stake into $207K; all five landed at Stake. The biggest payout was $16.4M on Lazy Vampire from a $20K stake; the five biggest wins paid $40.5M between them.
