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About Star Blast
Kim’s comments Monday were less detailed than others made before the Chicago City Council’s License Committee last week.
At that venue, the company’s president and interim chief financial officer, George Papanier, told officials that Bally’s will “deliver the event centre, 100 rooms of the hotel and the required food and beverage components” in early 2027, per the Chicago Sun-Times. That said, the company is reevaluating about 12% of the project’s other planned amenities in response to potential cannibalisation from video gaming terminals. The hotel plan calls for an eventual total of 500 rooms.
The city council legalised VGTs in its latest budget that took effect in January. Mayor Brandon Johnson opposed the move but was overruled by a council majority. Johnson and his colleagues have fought over the issue all year, which is still largely unresolved.
About Star Blast
Is the monopoly safe, is it set in the law that it will operate forevermore? No, it’s under constant evaluation, Petra explains: “The Dutch state, represented by the Ministry of Finance, is our shareholder and they evaluate every seven years, not only us as Holland Casino, but all state-owned companies.”
One of the operator’s most significant challenges is the increase in gambling tax enforced over recent years. Petra has been particularly vocal about this and the company’s profitability has taken a reasonable hit, since the first tax increase to 34.2% of GGR came into effect on 1 January 2025.
Holland Casino now pays 37.8% of GGR to the state, as per the additional increase in 2026, but with labour tax on top the business pays around 52% before they can look at their base running costs. It is not a small burden by any stretch of the imagination, so it is heartening to see the business doing well despite the tightening tax burden.
About Star Blast
Former Scientific Games veteran Chris Armes was appointed as the new executive VP of Gaming Technologies in early August. Armes is set to take up his new role in the autumn of 2026, leading Veikkaus’ technology organisation from its Helsinki headquarters.
In July last year, Veikkaus iGaming EVP Jarkko Nordlund told iGB: “The competition will be fierce when the market opens, so we must be very competitive. Our aim is to challenge the mentality of our current position, so we need to secure market leadership.”
According to its interim report for the first half of 2026, released this week, Veikkaus reported a 1% yearly increase in sales revenue of €471.3 million ($546.8 million).
