Virtual Horse Racing

What is Virtual Horse Racing?

All nine of Atlantic City’s casinos agreed to new labour deals this summer without a strike, although its union opted for just one-year deals instead of the typical length of three or more years. This was in response to increased uncertainty related to looming competition from both New York City casinos and New Jersey’s own online gaming industry.

In Las Vegas, the Culinary Union has unionised the entire Las Vegas Strip and secured historic wage increases during the last round of negotiations. Those deals are about halfway done now, and Culinary is no stranger to strikes, having used them as leverage to secure new deals in the run-up to the inaugural Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix in 2023 and and Super Bowl the following February.

Jess has covered the global gaming industry since 2022. A native of Reno, Nevada, he’d like to note that it’s Ne-va-da, not Ne-VAH-da.

About Virtual Horse Racing

Before joining the Ministry of Finance, Fabio Macorin served in Brazil’s Federal Police for 17 years. For a decade, he focused specifically on the investigation and prevention of banking and financial fraud. This experience helped shape his approach to betting regulation, particularly regarding anti-money laundering, financial monitoring, combatting the illegal market and inter-agency cooperation.

Brazil’s regulated betting market formally launched in 2025 and has since become one of the most closely watched regulatory initiatives in the global gaming and betting sector. Macorin, who also served as the SPA’s undersecretary for monitoring and enforcement, has been directly involved in initiatives to combat illegal operators, strengthen cooperation with financial institutions, telecommunications providers and other government authorities, as well as develop data-driven tools for regulatory oversight and enforcement.

Commenting on his election, Macorin expressed his honour at joining the IAGR board and contributing Brazil’s experience to the association’s international work.

About Virtual Horse Racing

In April, a federal jury sided with Skillz (now operating as Firy Inc.) on its claims that Papaya deceived consumers by utilizing computer bots in its head-to-head mobile games.

Three months later, Judge Denise Cote ordered Papaya to pay Skillz $719 million in damages for poaching players from its skill gaming platform on the belief that Papaya had more players and therefore facilitated considerably faster peer-to-peer pairing times.

Papaya, headquartered in Israel, quickly secured a temporary stay of proceedings from the Tel Aviv District Court and filed a Chapter 15 petition with Delaware’s U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The Chapter 15 petition seeks to prevent Skillz from initiating collection efforts until its appeals play out.