Articles by Gary Mcfarlane
Sam Favata’s Mission After Gambling Addiction & $32M Ponzi Scheme: ‘I Want to Help Save Lives’
The numbers are staggering, but they don’t tell the whole story about Sam Favata. The recovering gambling addict bet $145 million over four years at the Rio in Las Vegas and was convicted of running a $32 million Ponzi scheme. Favata’s new book, Final Comeback, will be out by year’s end. The 67-year-old Californian is doing everything possible to educate others about gambling harms. “I talk to as many people as possible,” Favata said.
Free Ammo If GOP Holds Congress: Latest Attempt To Show How Prediction Markets Can Hedge Risk
Image: Mohammed Brzan/Unsplash If Republicans hold both chambers in the upcoming midterms, customers can get up to 1,000 free rounds of ammunition. The campaign is being funded through wagers on prediction markets. It is the latest effort from Kalshi to promote its platform as a way for businesses to legitimately hedge risk.
Is Polymarket Still Safe? $2.7 Million Hack Exposes Weak Tech Stack; No UK Agency Claims the Case
A compromised website-monitoring script drained an estimated $2.7 million from more than 700 Polymarket accounts on Thursday, Oct. 29, forcing the prediction market to halt trading on its international exchange for about an hour. The drain is the third breach of 2026 to take funds from Polymarket’s international platform, after a leaked private key in May and a compromised vendor script in June.
NC House Candidate Charles Taylor Sues Group Alleging He Runs Illegal Gambling Operation
Image: Jacon McGowin/Unsplash North Carolina House candidate Charles Taylor is suing a group that claims he is running an illegal gambling operation. The Sandhills Citizens Alliance has distributed flyers claiming Taylor runs the business, but he insists he only owns the property.
Legal Experts On Kalshi’s Most Serious Threat Yet As Utah Files Criminal Charges
Kalshi and its founders, Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, are facing criminal charges in Utah. While that has made headlines, one thing that stands out in the criminal complaint is the state sending a special agent undercover to place wagers on sports.
New Hampshire Supreme Court Upholds Revocation Of Andy Sanborn’s Concord Casino Licenses
The New Hampshire Supreme Court has sided with state regulators in the long fight over Concord Casino, upholding the revocation of former state Senator Andy Sanborn‘s charitable gaming licenses and the rejection of the buyer he lined up for the business. The ruling was issued on Wednesday, October 28.
Malik Beasley Latest Link Between Obsessive Athletes & Compulsive Gamblers
Image: All-Pro Reels via Wikimedia Commons/Malik Beasley (25) Malik Beasley is set to plead guilty in a spot-fixing scandal after months of denial. The former Detroit Pistons guard racked up millions of dollars in gambling debts, becoming an easy target for a fixing scheme. He is the latest example of the link between professional athletes and problem gamblers. Prosecutors allege that Beasley’s former teammate, Ed Davis, started loaning him money to help with his gambling debts.
MGM Las Vegas Profit Falls 12% as Room Rates Drop 8%
MGM Resorts International’s Las Vegas casino business grew in the third quarter, but cheaper rooms sent Strip profit down 12% and pulled results below Wall Street expectations. Revenue fell 0.9% to $4.212 billion in the three months ended Sept. 30, according to MGM’s third-quarter earnings release. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, fell 20% to $403 million from $506 million. Analysts track MGM on EBITDAR, which adds back rent paid to landlords of its leased resorts.
Rush Street Beats Q3 Profit Forecasts But Slower Growth Tests Outlook
The BetRivers operator recorded a 73% adjusted EBITDA increase, yet missed revenue expectations for the first time in four years. Rush Street Interactive grew profit 73% in the third quarter but missed sales forecasts for the first time in four years, exposing a North American iGaming slowdown that Latin American growth could not conceal. Revenue rose 39% year over year to $385.9 million, below the approximately $388 million consensus cited by Citizens JMP.
Churchill Downs Authorizes $750 Million Buyback as Q3 Racing Profit Slips
Churchill Downs (CHDN) Incorporated approved a $750 million share buyback after record third-quarter revenue and adjusted EBITDA, even as racing division profit fell. Revenue rose 2% to $696 million in the three months ended Sept. 30, while adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, edged up 1% to $264 million, according to the company’s third-quarter earnings announcement. That was about 1% ahead of the $260 million consensus cited by Citizens JMP analysts Jordan Bender and Isabelle Slavin.
Breaking: New Polymarket Account Bets $546,000 France Will Avoid State of Emergency
A Polymarket account created on Monday (Oct. 26) has staked $545,764 that France will not declare a state of emergency before the end of the year. The single trade is worth more than half of all the money traders had put into the market since it opened. The account, which appears on Polymarket under the name “Forthright-Fowl,” bought 616,968 No shares at an average price of 88.5 cents at 17:59 UTC, according to the onchain transaction record.
Kalshi’s Bitcoin and Ether Perps Switched Trade Sizes in Sync. What’s Going On?
After The Wall Street Journal reported on a $5 billion flurry of nearly identical trades in Kalshi‘s ether perpetual futures, or perps, in September, Kalshi said in a blog post defending its perps volume that fast traders were picking off a market maker’s stale quotes. But an analysis of Kalshi’s public trading record by Gambling Insider found that the traders taking those trades did no better than chance.
Breaker Says TikTok Rep Tied Reinstatement to Fanatics; Contract Makes ‘No Representation’ on TikTok
A banned Florida memorabilia seller says its TikTok account representative agreed that signing over exclusivity to Fanatics was the only way back onto the platform, citing messages filed in federal court in Los Angeles. In the Fanatics contract the seller says it received the same day, Fanatics makes “no representation” regarding “the actions of the Platform,” including whether TikTok would approve the seller to sell licensed memorabilia there.
Exclusive: Kalshi’s Own ETH Perp Data, Tested Against Spot Prices, Undercuts Its Explanation for $9.81B in Trades
A Gambling Insider investigation of 5.35 million trades found that traders responsible for unusually concentrated activity on Kalshi’s ether futures market did not consistently capture the pricing advantage expected under the exchange’s explanation for the transactions. For two months, trades clustered around six specific dollar amounts accounted for $9.81 billion, or 55.9%, of the notional value traded in Kalshi‘s ether perpetual futures contract.
BetMGM Needs a Record Q4 to Hit 2026 Guidance After Doubling Q3 Adjusted EBITDA to $86M
BetMGM needs at least $115 million of adjusted EBITDA in Q4 to meet its 2026 guidance, 34% above its highest published quarterly result, even after more than doubling third-quarter adjusted EBITDA to $86 million, according to its Q3 2026 business update released Oct. 13.
States Review Sportsbook Draft Bets, But Not Kalshi’s 598,464 Contracts on Cardinals’ Pick
Kalshi customers traded more contracts on Jeremiyah Love going third in the NFL draft than on any other player, most of them on draft day. Arizona and Massachusetts are reviewing betting tied to the Ryan Gold case at the sportsbooks they license, but no regulator has publicly confirmed an examination of prediction market trading on the draft.
Kalshi’s Random Bonus of Up to $2,000 Outlasts CFTC Warning on Chance-Based Rewards
Kalshi bonus codes that pay new customers a random amount of up to $2,000 were still being promoted this month, about eight weeks after CFTC staff warned prediction markets against chance-based rewards. The promotions also put CBS on both sides of Kalshi. Kalshi sponsors the prediction market data in CBS News’ midterm election coverage, while CBS Sports publishes Kalshi promo code articles that may earn it commissions on sign-ups. On Aug.
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