Gary McFarlane
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Editor-in-chief at cryptonews.com
and also equity research writer at gamblinginsider.com
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Articles by Gary McFarlane
Polymarket Whale Risks $846,000 to Win $54,000 on a Democratic House
A Polymarket trader staked $846,000 on Oct. 30 that Republicans will lose control of the House, the largest single bet on the 2026 midterms across Polymarket and Kalshi. The wallet, trading as “rdba,” bought 900,000 NO shares at 94 cents in Polymarket’s market titled “Will the Republican Party control the House after the 2026 Midterm elections?” according to the onchain transaction record.
Florida Has Now Raided Same Arcade 3 Times In 3 Years As State Targets Illegal Gaming Machines
Florida continues to target illegal gambling businesses in the state with the latest raids seizing $1.6 million, over 200 machines, and arresting 10 individuals. One of the venues, Spin City Arcade, has now been raided three times in three years, but its owner is facing up to 45 years in prison. On Tuesday, authorities in Florida raided five arcades in Lee County, including Spin City Arcade.
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.
Breakers’ Lawsuits Say TikTok Banned Them, Then Pointed Them to Fanatics
By August 2025, MVP Breaks was taking about $475,000 a month selling autographed NFL helmets and card breaks on TikTok Shop and had “one of the top three (3) follower counts on TikTok for sports memorabilia,” according to a lawsuit the Arizona seller filed last month. By September 2025, its revenue had fallen to $283,000 after repeated account “strikes” for “purported trademark and intellectual property infringement as well as alleged gambling,” the filing says.
Whistleblower Suit Calls Fanatics Live Card Breaks Unlicensed Lotteries
Fanatics bans spins and raffles on its Fanatics Live streaming platform but allows random team breaks, which a California whistleblower suit calls unlicensed lotteries. Are card breaks gambling? Gambling Insider investigates.
TikTok Shuts Sellers Out of Random Card Breaks, Routes Them Through Its Own Tool Original
TikTok Shop now allows random team breaks, the card-break format most often compared to a lottery, only through Surprise Sets, a randomized auction product that TikTok itself controls. A card break is a livestream sale where buyers purchase a share of one or more boxes of trading cards before the seller opens them on camera. In a random team break, buyers pay for a spot and are randomly assigned a sports team, then receive any cards pulled for that team.
Ryan Gold’s NFL Appeal: What Draft Betting Monitors Saw Is Undisclosed
The NFL suspended a Cardinals scouting director over an alleged draft leak and parlay bets; he denies the findings, and his appeal is set for Sept. 23. Massachusetts’ regulator received no report as Jeremiyah Love’s odds fell from 30-1 to around 2-1. The NFL’s statement does not mention that market. In March, BetMGM opened Jeremiyah Love at 30-1 to be the third player taken in the 2026 NFL draft, ESPN reported. Two days before the draft, the former Notre Dame running back was around 2-1.
EKG Forecasts 2026 NFL Wagering at $40 Billion, Prediction Markets to Grab 21%
Americans will wager roughly $40 billion on the 2026 NFL season, Eilers & Krejcik Gaming (EKG) estimates in a Sept. 16 note titled “NFL Wagering To Hit $40bn This Season.” The firm forecasts $31.7 billion of regulated sportsbook handle, retail and online, plus $8.4 billion of what it calls prediction market “Handle Analog (HAN).” On that basis, prediction markets would take about 21% of combined NFL wagering and sportsbooks 79%.
The NFL’s Sportsbook Ad Rule Rests on a List It Hasn’t Published
Sportsbook partners may advertise only an "approved product" during games, the league says — no general advertising, no prediction markets. The list of approved products has never been published, and the league has not said who decides what goes on it. The NFL’s rule for its sportsbook partners is no longer a matter of inference.
DraftKings Says Prediction Markets Don’t Cannibalize Its Sportsbook. Its Own Map Shows Why They Can’t
The company sells sports event contracts in the 18 states where it has no online sportsbook, and in none of the 27 where it does. That design is what lets it tell investors the products barely touch, tell the NFL its ads never cross the line, and tell fans it’s in all 50 states. It also rests on an assumption the Supreme Court has been asked to settle: that a contract on a Cowboys spread, sold in Texas, is not sports betting. Image: Jakarta - August 06, 2026: DraftKings logo signboard.
NFL Confirms Outright Ban on Prediction Market Ads, Bars Sportsbook Partners From ‘General Advertising’
The league has, for the first time, put on the record a policy that had rested on a single anonymously sourced report: no prediction-market advertising in games, stadiums, club deals, or player endorsements, and no company-level branding from the sportsbooks it does allow. DraftKings says every spot it runs in NFL windows is pre-cleared by the league. The NFL prohibits all prediction market advertising during its games.
Matusow Names Haxton in Poker ‘Fake Earnings’ Row — But is He Right?
Matusow told Gambling Insider that Ike Haxton “won $32m at Triton, but in actuality he’s down $8m.” A public database does put Haxton $7.72 million in the red at Triton once every buy-in is counted. But those are gross-of-staking tournament results, not the personal loss the word “fake” implies. Mike “The Mouth” Matusow has spent more than a year arguing that high-roller poker earnings are a “mirage.” Now Matusow has done something he had mostly avoided: he named a name. In an Aug.
Kalshi’s Strongest Legal Defense Leg Rests on Less Than 1% of Its Business
Kalshi's case against the states rests on a single claim: that its event contracts are swaps, putting them under exclusive federal jurisdiction. Two federal appeals courts have now split on whether that holds for sports. Gambling Insider rebuilt Kalshi’s entire trade record and found that the contracts with the strongest claim to being swaps — interest rates, inflation, elections, index levels — took 0.6% of the money customers staked in August.
Evolution Was Sued By California in 2025. Not One Earnings Report Names the Case. Why?
Los Angeles named Nasdaq Stockholm-listed supplier Evolution AB as a defendant in its Stake.us case in August 2025. The suit could redraw where legal liability stops for B2B gambling suppliers, yet Evolution has neither responded on the court docket nor told shareholders it is being sued. Evolution is a leading B2B solution provider for casino operators.
The Illusion of Poker’s All-Time Money List: When Gross Earnings Mask Net Realities
In the modern era of professional poker, financial success is publicly measured by a single, glittering metric: The Hendon Mob All-Time Money List . But does it add up? Gambling Insider investigates. High stakes Texas hold 'em poker game at the casino Originally named after a legendary group of British professionals, Ram Vaswani, Joe Beevers, Barny Boatman and Ross Boatman, The Hendon Mob now operates the world’s largest and most authoritative live poker database.
What Kalshi’s LeBron Market Reveals About Betting on News: 11x Your Money in 303 Milliseconds
The trade-by-trade record of Kalshi’s “LeBron James’s next team” market shows nobody traded ahead of the scoop. And then, within milliseconds (or deciseconds if you will), automated traders swept up every cheap contract within a third of a second of the news being posted that he was moving to the Philadelphia 76ers. They locked in the opportunity for an elevenfold payout collected faster than any human could read the headline.
ADI Predictstreet’s $6.9B Blockchain Generates Only $7,248 a Day
Prediction market startup ADI Predictstreet, which, seemingly out of nowhere, became a FIFA partner, values its network in the billions. But Gambling Insider’s investigation reveals a venue that earns just ~$7,000 in daily fees, settles in someone else’s dollar, and answers to three keyholders it has not identified. When ADI Predictstreet appeared on the display boards at the FIFA World Cup this summer, it sold itself as more than a betting operator.
The Strange Case of ADI Predictstreet, IHC and the Abu Dhabi Royal Family
Why is ADI Predictstreet so guarded about its connections to International Holding Company (IHC) and the Abu Dhabi royal family? That’s the question we have been seeking answers to over the past couple of weeks. Here’s what we found out. Abu Dhabi downtown with palm trees in the background (Image: Shutterstock) ADI Predictstreet was the official prediction markets partner to the FIFA World Cup 2026 and remains in a multi-year partnership with FIFA.
Kalshi Parlay Bettors Lose More Than Headline Numbers Show — Money Betting Against Them is Masking it
Bloomberg reports Kalshi parlay players losing as much as $294 million since the start of the year, but the actual number is probably a lot more. Gambling Insider investigates. image by evan_huang (Shutterstock) A widely cited measure of what bettors lose on prediction market parlays lumps together two opposite groups: the recreational customer backing a parlay and the flow betting against them.
PENN Posts Record Retail Q2 as Digital Losses Narrow to $9.5 Million
PENN’s four regional divisions combined to generate $1.505bn in revenue for a retail segment record. Adjusted EBITDAR rose 5.6% to $517.2m, lifting the retail margin to 34.4%. PENN shares closed up 2.6% at $20.13. June 23, 2023, Brazil.
Flutter Margins Hit as US Sportsbook Falters, Guidance Cut, Peter Jackson Leaves End Sept
Flutter revenue was up, but profit down. What's more, management slashed guidance, and CEO Peter Jackson announced he is leaving at the end of September. The market didn't like what it heard. Flutter owns the FanDuel brand (Image: Shutterstock) Flutter Entertainment (FLUT) published its second-quarter 2026 results before the U.S. market opened on Wednesday, Aug. 5, and the verdict arrived within hours.
Wynn Resorts Q2 Beats on Macau Hold as Las Vegas and Boston Earnings Slide
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) Q2 2026 earnings results comfortably cleared Wall Street's second-quarter bar on both the top and bottom lines. But the beat was narrower in quality than the headline suggests. Wynn Macau (Image: Shutterstock) Released after the closing bell on August 4, 2026, the Wynn Resorts results showed total operating revenues of $1.86 billion, a 6.9% increase over the $1.74 billion booked in Q2 2025 and roughly $25 million ahead of the $1.83 billion consensus.
WSOP Patch Wars: How Poker’s New Owners Decide Which Rivals Get Seen on TV
As the World Series of Poker Main Event final table begins today, Monday, August 3, all eyes are on the cards… and the players’ patches. Here’s why. Las Vegas, Nevada, USA | May 29, 2026 | Giant World Series of Poker Sign Isolated | WSOP Sign Inside Paris Hotel Casino Las Vegas near the Champagne Ballroom with Hallway and No People WSOP under GGPoker’s ownership introduced a secret approval process for sponsor logos, and the brands shut out are the ones competing with its owner.
Kalshi’s Penny Parlay is the Worst Bet in America — and the Smallest Bettors are Buying it
Trade-level data from Kalshi shows that losses on multi-leg bets scale almost perfectly with how long the odds are and how small the stake is. Buyers of sub-2 cent combos lost 92 cents of every dollar; bettors staking under $5 lost three to five times more per dollar than those staking $100 or more. Put simply, the cheapest ticket on Kalshi is the most expensive bet in America.
Churchill Downs Q2 Results See Record Kentucky Derby Quarter, Puts 8 Casinos On the Block
Churchill Downs Inc. delivered all-time record revenue and earnings on the back of the 152nd Kentucky Derby — and, in a filing made the same evening, disclosed it is exploring the sale of eight regional gaming properties. Churchill Downs Incorporated (CHDN) posted the biggest quarter in its 150-year history on Wednesday, with the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby driving all-time record revenue and adjusted EBITDA.
Caesars Files Last Public Quarter with Fertitta Acquisition Pending; Regional Strength Hides Las Vegas Slide
Revenue edged past consensus, and the net loss narrowed, but adjusted EBITDA missed — and with the Fertitta take-private pending, there was no earnings call to explain any of it. The second quarter of 2026 is the last Caesars Entertainment (CZR) will report as a public company. It reported it the way a company on its way out of the market does: with a press release at 4 p.m. No conference call, no guidance, no executives taking questions. The absence is itself the story.
BetMGM Q2 2026 Earnings: Prediction Markets and Customer Win Rates Weigh on Results
BetMGM's inability to compete against the prediction markets threat is impacting top-line growth, as net revenue grew by just 3% in Q2 2026 BetMGM, the 50/50 joint venture between MGM Resorts International and Entain, released its second-quarter 2026 business update on July 28, delivering revenue and earnings that came in below consensus forecasts.
Crypto Casino Investigation: How Big (or Small) is the Industry?
Gambling Insider investigates what's behind the controversy surrounding the radically different claimed sizes of the crypto casino industry. To help us, we ran the numbers at the blockchain analytics platform Dune. The crypto casino industry is growing fast, but how big is it really? (image: Shutterstock) Crypto casinos should be transparent, right, because the transaction data is on a public blockchain? Not so fast.
Boyd Gaming Q2 Earnings Navigates Las Vegas Softness with Midwest Muscle
Boyd Gaming wrestles with an uneven regional picture, but strength in the Midwest and South and the promise to return $150 million per quarter to investors keep shareholders onside. Boyd Gaming (Image: Shutterstock) Boyd Gaming (BYD) released its second-quarter 2026 financial results after the closing bell on Thursday, delivering a mixed but ultimately stable report that highlighted the company’s geographical diversification.
Las Vegas Sands Q2 Earnings: Hold Volatility, World Cup Headwinds Mask Underlying Growth
Las Vegas Sands was down on its luck in Q2 2026, but it is gaining market share in Macau and printing cash at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. View of the Venetian buildings in Cotai, Macau, owned by Las Vegas Sands.
Evolution Q2 2026 Earnings: Americas Surge, Europe Regroups, Galaxy Deal in Doubt
Evolution results disappoint despite Americas revenue strength and RNG bounce back. Plus, new doubts emerge on deal in US to buy Galaxy. KONSKIE, POLAND - September 15, 2021: Evolution Gaming Group AB logo displayed on mobile phone hidden in jeans pocket Evolution AB (EVO) released its Q2 2026 earnings results today, which slightly missed analyst consensus expectations.
How Matchbook-Powered Prediction Markets Could Shake Up the Industry
Matchbook has partnered with ADI PredictStreet to bring regulated prediction markets to major jurisdictions – it could be a game-changer. We spoke exclusively to company insiders. ZHONGSHAN China-July 19 2025: 2026 World Cup soccer in the outdoor at horizontal composition. Prediction markets are the gambling industry’s most disruptive force right now, and Matchbook could be the dark horse that rocks the current established order.
Exclusive: ADI Predictstreet Source Reveals Trading Numbers, Strategic Gameplan
ADI Predictstreet is the new kid on the prediction market block — its trading volume may be small, yet in exclusive comments to Gambling Insider, insiders claim it has a winning strategy Gambling Insider can reveal that ADI Predictstreet, the official prediction market of the FIFA World Cup 2026, has generated around 126,000 trades in its first 18 days since launch, “demonstrating early consumer demand despite the platform’s nascency”, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Kalshi and ADI Predictstreet – Who Are the Real World Cup Winners?
Gambling Insider can reveal that, contrary to reports in the New York Times and Bloomberg, the partnership between ADI Predictstreet and Kalshi is not as enmeshed as some believed. When asked whether it was accurate that Kalshi is providing market-making services to ADI Predictstreet, sending volumes its way, and discussing plans to invest in ADI Predictstreet’s ADI Chain, the answer was unequivocal no.
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