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Guinness Gambling World Records

January 7, 2020 by Admin

Gambling is an international pastime and passion, with its own set of astounding records and achievements. We scoured the Guinness world records archives to bring you some of the more significant records held today.

Guinness Gambling World Records: The Slot Machine

Most slot machines running the same game simultaneously

Online casino news details that the record for most slot machines running the same game simultaneously was 1610 machines. This was achieved by Bally Technologies on 27th April 2013 at the Mohegan Sun Montville in Connecticut, USA.

Largest jackpot payout from an online slot machine game

Jon Heywood (UK) achieved this enviable record on 6 October 2015. He won an eye-watering €17,879,645 ($20,062,600, £13,209,300) after hitting the jackpot on Microgaming’s Mega Moolah on the Betway website.

Largest slot machine tournament

Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn, Washington, USA, achieved this mammoth record with a tournament that involved 3173 participants on 30 April 2016.

Largest slot machine win

In 2003, an unsuspecting software engineer put $100 into a slot machine at the Excalibur hotel-casino in Las Vegas and was surprised by a massive $39,713,982 win.

Guinness Gambling World Records: Casinos

The oldest croupier

The profession of being a croupier is almost as old as organized gambling. Joanna Dodd (b. 15 January 1936, USA) is currently the world’s oldest croupier at age 79 and still plies her trade at the Flamingo Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The World’s Biggest Casino

The Cosmopolitan region of Macau on the Chinese South coast is home to a monolith of a casino. The Venetian Macau includes a massive 51,100 m2 gambling area, which opened on 27 August 2007. This casino-hotel resort is owned by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation and boasts over 3,400 slot machines and 870 gaming tables. The world’s second-largest casino is the Venetian Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, owned by the same company.

Image: Venetian Macua

Guinness gambling world records: Table Games

Most players in an internet poker room

Online poker news reported that the most players recorded together online were hosted at PokerStars.com on 6 September 2009. The players numbered 307,016, playing at 42,814 virtual tables.

Largest prize money for a baccarat tournament

Lin Hasain managed a huge 100,000,000 HKD (12,890,500 USD) win at the Sands Cotai Central Sheraton Ballroom in Macau on 3 March 2015.

Largest functioning blackjack table

On 13 September 2013, the Viejas Casino (USA) in Alpine, California, celebrated its 21^st anniversary on a grand scale with a novelty blackjack table that measured 206.85 m2 in surface area. One hand of blackjack was played at the table, using oversized casino chips and cards to match the gigantic installation.

Largest roulette wheel in the world

The Casino Du Liban in Lebanon made waves in 2017 by installing a gargantuan roulette wheel that measures 8.75 m2 in diameter. The fully functional mechanism is mounted on the dome ceiling of the casino and can be used via electronic control.

Image: Casino Du Liban Roulette wheel

Guinness Gambling World Records: The Gambling World

Largest gambling city

In 2016, gambling revenue records revealed that Macau, China pulled in $27.8 billion in gambling revenue. Macau’s gambling industry is currently 330% larger than Las Vegas’.

Most money lost by a nation to gambling per capita

Sadly, there are no winners with this record. During 2010 Australia recorded that the average Australian, aged 17 or over, lost US$ 1,199. Approximately 70% of Australians participate in some type of gambling, with total average annual gambling losses hovering somewhere around the US$19 billion mark.

Gambling Law Change leaves Tasmania’s GST untouched

September 4, 2019 by Admin

Despite a possible increase in Tasmania‘s gambling tax rates, the state will not see a change in their Goods and Service Tax (GST) outcome.

Damien Febey, a Department of Treasury and Finance intergovernmental and financial policy branch assistant director, revealed this while answering a question from Murchison Independent MLC, Ruth Forrest, at a hearing in August

Forrest, the chairperson of the Legislative Council select committee, was conducting an inquiry into the Commonwealth GST distribution system’s impact on Tasmanian service delivery and expenses. The inquiry is being conducted, in part, through a comparison of actual and estimated expenses per capita in the state with the national average.

All income is equal

Tasmania currently receives 3.7% of the national GST pool. This will remain unchanged even if the state sees an increase in revenue due to higher gambling taxes. Febey advised that the state’s GST outcome would not be affected, as the income would be treated equally.

Earlier this year, the state government announced that it would introduce as much as a 15% point-of-consumption (POC) tax on net wagering revenue generated within Tasmania. The new tax is set to come into effect on 1 January 2020.

This will put the state in line with South and Western Australia, as well as Queensland and ACT, which also charge a 15% POC gambling tax. Victoria and New South Wales charge a lower POC tax at 10% and 8% respectively. The Northern Territory stands alone as the only state yet to implement a similar tax.

This tax category, which first made an appearance in Australia in 2017, has not been universally accepted.

In a letter to South Australian officials, The Australian Trainers’ Association, as well as Thoroughbred Racing SA, blasted the 15% tax rate, describing it as disadvantageous. They explained that the rate put their operations in jeopardy, due to bookmakers encouraging real money gamblers to bet in states with lower POC rates.

Quarantined Grants Questioned

In addition to the Tasmanian portion of the GST outcomes, Forrest questioned why certain Commonwealth Grants were quarantined. Forrest mentioned the example of the funds granted to the Royal Hobart Hospital for a rebuilding project, pointing out that the grant had been not been subject to GST.

Economic and financial policy deputy secretary Fiona Calvert responded, saying that any quarantined payments had been negotiated with the federal treasury. She added that the treasurer would prefer payments not to be quarantined as they would prefer to dissuade similar requests from other states.

NZ Banks Restrict Gambling on Credit

July 14, 2019 by Admin

Credit cards have long been used as a widely popular and globally accepted iGaming payment method. However, this might not be the case for much longer. It has now been confirmed that within the next few months, major banks and credit agencies across New Zealand might restrict credit card payments pertaining to gambling-related services and products.

In December last year, ANZ Group became one of the world’s first companies to have introduced a new limit on any payments made to online gambling portals using credit cards. Following this measure, the firm’s New Zealand division has initiated discussions with stakeholders in the nation’s gaming industry in a bid to implement its own reasonable restrictions on wagering on credit.

Macquarie Implements New Limits

Just last week, prominent Australian bank Macquarie banned gambling using credit cards for residents Down Under. The bank has become the first major financial institution in Australia to do so, and it is expected that more banks will follow suit over the coming months. According to Macquarie, banning credit card usage for gambling was intended to protect its customers’ best interests.

Head of Personal Banking at Macquarie, Ben Perham, further elaborated that the blocking of transactions registered under a lottery and gambling merchant code, along with putting a cap on cash advance balances, are just a few of the crucial steps his organization has taken. Perham says that these moves will support the ‘financial wellbeing’ of the bank’s customers – while presumably also protecting them from the potential harms of excessive betting.

Opposition to Credit Gaming Grows

Using credit facilities to gamble is a practice that has been widely opposed by numerous social groups across Australia, New Zealand, and various parts of Europe as well. Opponents of the practice warn that gambling on credit could encourage excessive gambling habits while forcing addicts into a situation in which they might battle to repay what they owe, let alone the interest accrued.

Across the pond in the UK, the Labour Party has recently demanded a ban on the usage of credit cards for any gambling-related payments as well, becoming part of a growing trend.

With all this said, considering that credit cards are one of the global iGaming industry’s most widely used (and widely trusted) online payment methods, players and operators alike might find themselves scrambling to find new, similarly secure and convenient options through which to make deposits and withdrawals. Luckily, numerous other reputable eWallets and systems are available to fill the potential void that credit card payments might soon leave in their wake.