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What is Wicked Witch?
Ruby is being funded by numerous gaming entities that want to see Alabama legalize gambling and sports betting. His donor list, along with VGW, includes DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.
VGW gave $20,000 to state Sen. Andrew Jones (R-District 10) and $15,000 to Senate President Pro Tempore Garlan Gudger (R-District 4). State Sens. Donnie Chesteen (R-District 29) and Will Barfoot (R-District 25), along with Republican candidate John Roberts, who is running in the second district, each received $10,000 from VGW.
Longtime gaming and lottery advocate, Sen. Greg Albritton (R-District 22), also collected a $10,000 check from the sweepstakes firm.
What is Wicked Witch?
At a time when sports betting and predictions have reached a fever pitch, the majority of the country’s most prominent sports leagues, along with their player unions, sent a memo dated 15 September to a contingent of 35 state gaming authorities. Among proposed regulatory actions, the leagues recommend mandatory lifetime bans for individuals deemed to have “abusively harassed or issued threats of violence” against any professional athlete.
The leagues, including the National Basketball Association and the National Football League, submitted the memo as Texas Senator Ted Cruz works assiduously to pass a landmark federal framework for college athletics. While the NCAA is not a signatory to Tuesday’s letter, the advisory also urges states to pass mandatory bans for individuals who threaten “amateur athletes” along with coaches, officials and team personnel.
“Threatening the safety of an athlete or their family members over a sports bet crosses a bright ethical and criminal line, and it is entirely unacceptable,” the leagues wrote in the statement.
How to play Wicked Witch
As the NFL season begins, a state in close proximity to the New England Patriots became the latest to attempt to curb the influence of the trading platforms. On 10 September, one day after the Pats’ season-opening loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont addressed the growth of the markets during a speech in downtown Hartford. On the same day, the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection issued cease-and-desist orders to nine unregulated operators, including Polymarket, Robinhood and Underdog Predict.
“Prediction markets have branded themselves as legal and safe, but the reality is they are not adhering to Connecticut’s consumer protection standards,” Lamont wrote in a statement.
While such orders have become customary around the nation this year, Connecticut’s missive took it one step further. The department also issued nearly 30 subpoenas to licensed gaming service providers and a bevy of media outlets. Those issued subpoenas include ones served to PayPal, Sportradar Solutions and Plaid, a payment processing app that holds a gaming licence. Although those companies are not under investigation, the subpoenas appear to be the first against service providers that conduct business with prediction markets in some form.
