iGaming Weekly: Duelbits' $7M hack, Gamdom's RTP admission, Caesars' $17.6B buyout

This week at a glance:

• Duelbits hacked for $7 million, reopens with $8 million and Duelbits 2.0 promise
• Gamdom CEO admits '100% RTP' claim was inaccurate after criticism
• Caesars shareholders approve Tilman Fertitta's $17.6 billion take-private deal
• Bulgaria drafts law banning gambling ads and ending affiliate licenses by 2027
• New York AG Letitia James sues Polymarket US as unlicensed gambling operator

Crypto Casinos

• Duelbits went offline after a hot-wallet hack drained about $7 million across four chains, then reopened September 27 with around $8 million in its wallets and promised "Duelbits 2.0."
• The Curaçao Gaming Authority leak exposed files on more than 8,000 registered casinos, and reporting on them alleges Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani sit behind Stake rather than its listed owner.
• CoinPoker said its Global Online Poker Championship payouts passed $60 million and announced The One, a $5 million guaranteed event starting October 4 with $1 million to the winner.
• Bitsler is shutting down, with a site notice telling users to withdraw by September 30 before accounts close permanently on October 1.
• BC.Game launched a Mexico campaign fronted by five-time World Cup goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, pitching its locally permitted operation, OXXO and SPEI payments and fast withdrawals.

Latest Originals

• Goated launched Order Up, its new Original where players stack up to 8 cards in a row for a top 1,000x.
• Chips.gg launched Twentyone, its newest Chips Original: pick cards and get as close to 21 as you can without busting.
• 1win added provably fair verification to Crypto Merge and Limbo, two of its in-house games.

Third-Party Releases

• Pragmatic Play and Reel Kingdom released Big Bass Vegas 1000, the 36th Big Bass title, with 1,000x Fish Money prizes and a 15,000x max win, live on Chips.
• Nolimit City released Ding Dong Death, 96.08% RTP with a 14,280x max win, live on Stake and Chips.
• Kitsune Studios released Gamdolls, live on Gamdom as a Gamdom exclusive.
• Shady Lady released NUUKD, a slot with a 20,000x max win, live on YEET.

Latest Drama

Gamdom CEO @Romer on X concedes the "100% RTP" claim was inaccurate

Gamdom has marketed its Originals as 100% RTP, with the edge returned through rewards. After criticism, a September 24 @Romer post conceded the claim was inaccurate as worded and switched delayed rewards to instant credit.

• Gamdom's "100% RTP Originals" marketing is still live across affiliate listings.

Gamdom signs @Jelitics on X, he burns $600K, and denies calling @Trainwreckstv on X's balance fake

Gamdom made the @Jelitics signing official on September 25 as his spiral deepened. He reportedly lost another $600,000 after joining, a week after losing $1.25 million on one NFL spread, and a gambling streamer branded him a sellout.

• Gamdom: "the first person from his village to be signed to Gamdom."
• He denied accusing @Trainwreckstv of a fake Stake balance, saying his deleted "house money" remark meant Trainwreck's stake in a game supplier.

Daily streamer drama, wins and deal changes: Degen Highs on X

Industry & Trends

• Barry Diller's People Inc. withdrew its roughly $18 billion proposal to take MGM Resorts private, and MGM shares fell 11% on September 24.
• Caesars shareholders approved Tilman Fertitta's $17.6 billion take-private at $31 a share in cash, with FTC clearance pending and closing expected in the first half of 2027.

• Evolution shareholders approved canceling up to 19,922,661 repurchased shares at an extraordinary general meeting, through a paired reduction and bonus issue of share capital.
• Genting warned that 13 of its 32 British casinos would become unprofitable if UK slot duty doubles in the Budget, according to a trade wire report.

Regulation & Enforcement

• Bulgaria's Finance Ministry published a draft Gambling Act that would ban nearly all gambling advertising, raise license fees and the current 25% online GGR tax, and end affiliate licenses from January 1, 2027.
• Brazilian President Lula signed a provisional measure banning fixed-odds betting and blocking new deposits immediately, giving bettors until October 5 to withdraw while Congress has 120 days to approve it.
• Stake Canada received iGaming operator registration from Alberta's AGLC but still cannot take wagers until it signs an operating agreement with the Alberta iGaming Corporation.

Related News

• Bitget reported $351.6 million in unauthorized transfers from hot and warm wallets, the largest crypto hack of 2026 so far, with North Korea suspected.
• Bitcoin briefly topped $85,000, its highest level since January, as more than $750 million in positions were liquidated, $648.3 million of them shorts.

Prediction Markets

• New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Polymarket US as an unlicensed gambling operation letting 18-year-olds bet where the state requires 21, and Polymarket countersued the same day citing CFTC preemption.
• A unanimous 6th Circuit panel ruled Ohio and Tennessee can regulate Kalshi's sports contracts under state gambling law, deepening the circuit split, though Kalshi said it does not expect the ruling to survive.
• The CFTC is reviewing almost one million near-identical ether perpetual trades on Kalshi worth over $5 billion in a month, the WSJ reported, though Kalshi says it has not been contacted.

Next week

UK operators must offer gross deposit limits from September 30, when Mad Ducks also ends its Stake exclusivity with a wide release. Brazil holds its first-round presidential vote on October 4.

FairGambling Analytics Spotlight

Deposits across the casinos FairGambling tracks on-chain came to $1.09B for September 21–27, down 3.2% week over week.

Top 10 casinos by deposit volume

Stake took $510.0M, more than half of the top ten's $968.8M; Duel was next at $99.1M. The biggest mover was Roobet, down 48.4% week over week to $79.7M.

Chain dominance

Ethereum led with 39% of deposits, ahead of TRON at 26% and Solana at 20%; the outlier was Polygon, down 43.8% week over week to $14.5M.

Coin dominance

USDT carried 47% of deposits, USDC 22% and ETH 13%; ETH was the fastest mover, up 81.9% week over week to $142.4M.

FairGambling tracked 43.52M bets from roughly 328,400 players, $7.69B wagered in total.

Top 5 casinos by wager

Stake handled $4.88B, more than half of the top five's wagers; Roobet was next at $469.5M.

Top games and biggest bets

Waylanders Forge led the week at $1.15B wagered, 2.0x the runner-up Graffiti Ways at $567.6M. All five of the biggest bets were Dice games at Stake from one hidden player, between $1.0M and $1.6M; five of them won, the biggest paying $1.9M.

Biggest wins of the week

The top multiplier was 5,148,297× on Mines at Gamdom, turning a near-zero stake into $103K. The biggest payout was $20.0M on Waylanders Forge from a $500K stake, one of five Waylanders Forge games paying above $20.0M this week.

That's the week. Follow @FairGambling on X for more weekly recaps, on-chain data and industry insights, or bring what we missed to the FairGambling Discord.

Treat gambling as entertainment you pay for. 18+, and if it stops feeling like entertainment, help exists at BeGambleAware and GamCare.