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Daily Archives: April 29, 2022
Casino Games Inspired by Basketball and Other Sports – TalkBasket.net
Posted: April 29, 2022 at 4:09 pm
As the COVID-19 epidemic began to spread over the world, all athletic events were canceled, making it impossible for sports fans to wager on their favorite teams. Fans of sports have been kept in the dark as to how they might satisfy their insatiable demand for wagering choices. It was fortunate that casinos throughout the globe swiftly responded and increased their virtual gaming alternatives. One of the most well-known sports in the world is basketball. Played with a ball and hoop, its a great way to spend time with friends and family. As on a real court, online casino magyar now provides basketball-themed slots games that allow gamblers to get an enjoyable gambling experience. You dont have to be as fit as an NBA player to enjoy the sport, thanks to the proliferation of online slot machines themed after the sport.
Online casino games based on basketball are packed with exciting action and packed with enticing and lucrative features, regardless of whether youre a fan of watching the game on TV or playing it yourself. Because of this, sports fans should check out a Bizzo casino that provides engaging games, and sports-themed slots, to ensure they never run out of things to do. Despite the fact that there are fewer basketball-themed slots than anticipated, the ones that do exist are excellent representations of the sport and are loaded with the same degree of excitement and activity.
A slew of new online slot games based on famous sports, movies, and musicians are being released by casino game developers at breakneck speed. Basketball-themed online slot games, on the other hand, have never received the same kind of attention. They may also be sampled for free at a number of free spins online casinos.
We did some research online and selected some of the greatest sports-themed online casino games that any sports fan should play.
Microgamings Basketball Star Slot is the most well-known online casino game among basketball fans. With 243 ways to win and a starting stake of $0.50 each spin, this is a 5-reel, 243-way slot machine.
The game features a contemporary and original style, with excellent visuals that include sports beverages, courts, basketballs, shoes, 5-in-action athletes, and gold medals. Having the reels roll after a win increases your chances of winning since the machine will keep them spinning.
There are crocodiles, tigers, monkeys, and tigers who pay up to 13000 coins in this basketball-themed slot machine game called Slot Dunk. There are also rhino fans scatters and wild hippos to cheer you on as you win big in this game.
Every time a 3+bonus symbol appears on an active pay line, the games generous free spins and bonus round are activated. During free spins, you may also use the bonus.
Slam Dunk is a great online slot if youre a fan of NBA dunkings like Michael Jordan, Vince Carter, or LeBron James.
The game was released in 2013 and is inspired by the 1996 blockbuster film Space Jam, which starred none other than NBA legend Michael Jordan. With 5 reels and 20 pay lines, Slam Dunk is the finest pick for a terrific gaming experience because of its amazing and unique features. Basketball-themed icons including shoes, cheerleaders, uniforms, players, and venues may be found throughout the game. With a $0.01 minimum stake, it has one of the nicest features: an auto spin mode that lets you spin the reels without any intervention.
Playing Money Shot is one of WGS Gamings best-known games. Even though its a conventional online slot with traditional visuals, the pictures are vibrantly colored, and the bonus bonuses properly suit the basketball theme. Throwing the ball over the net is made even more fun and exciting by the inclusion of interesting and timely symbols such as team jerseys, full-court play, mascot footwear, and cheerleaders.
The Free Spins bonus (Money Shot) is triggered when two identical symbols appear simultaneously on the second and fourth reels of the game. 15 free spins are given out in the Money Shot bonus mode, and each shot is multiplied. Its a great choice for basketball fans since its simple to learn.
RealTime Gamings Basketbull is a 5-reel, 25-pay line slot machine with an animal-player twist. Taking inspiration from the Chicago Bulls basketball club and stars like Rodman, the wild bull, Basketbull uses wild features, free spins, scatter symbols, and a unique Free Throw game to give players an unrivaled experience.
It boasts a jackpot of 10,000 coins and an RTP of 95%. You may engage the free spins to increase your winning potential after the Free Throw feature concludes, as well as generate more free spins before the feature ends.
With basketball slots at an online casino, the action is never off. As far as slots go, basketball-themed ones are your best bet for a good time. A variety of games, including those with unique features and multiple paylines as well as bonus rounds that enable players to shoot hoops, are available for gamers to enjoy. Regardless of your interests, youll be able to discover high levels of excitement and pleasure at your favorite online casino with these games and many more.
When you play tennis, you arentmerely hitting a ball back and forth over the net for the sake of scoring a point after point. Additionally, its a game of strategy and skill, as well as athleticism and agility. Basketball, football, and even hockey have many of the same characteristics.
As a result, its no surprise that some of the most popular online casino games are based on tennis and other sports. In addition, tennis lovers that play at the best paying online casino prefer having games that they can immediately identify with, even more so.
Tennis Champion is one of the most popular tennis-themed online casino games. Players must spin the reels and attempt to hit matching symbols on the available paylines in this online slot game.
A famous online casino game developer, Spinomenal, released Tennis Champion. This companys online casino games are noted for their stunning visuals and animations. Tennis Champions is a great online slot game to play since its both entertaining and lucrative at the same time.
Online casino slot machine Tennis Stars is another great example of a game based on the sport. You may win the jackpot by striking the proper symbols on the current paylines in this game. This games visuals and animation are of a very high caliber.
The game provides for immediate payouts, which is a feature not seen in many online casino games.
A table game called Lucky Tennis may be played either alone or against the dealer at an online casino. You must guess the location of the ball on the roulette-style wheel in order to win. Tennis players are represented by one of 37 pockets on the wheel.
You may win money if you make a good prediction. The winnings in Lucky Tennis are determined by the odds of each participant. Those who bet on Rafael Nadal to win Wimbledon, rather than Novak Djokovic, will be paid out more.
Tennis Showdown is the perfect online casino game if youre seeking a fast-paced, entertaining tennis-themed game. Tennis fans will enjoy the same thrills and spills as before, but this time the action takes place in a casino. Betting on individual points is possible, as well as betting on the whole match.
Tennis Showdown has tremendous potential for winnings and is a breeze to learn. As a result, its a fantastic option for those just getting started. Its hard to find a better online casino game than Tennis Showdown if youre a tennis fanatic seeking a new challenge.
Football aficionados are well aware that there is no such thing as too much football in their world. As a result of internet gambling, football-themed slot games are now available. Its no secret that video slots based on sports like boxing, wrestling, and ice hockey are popular in the casino industry, but its the football-themed slot machines that generate the most money. And while everyone else is glued to the television, you might be spinning the wheels of a football-themed slot machine for a chance at a big prize.
It is possible to play as a player or a coach in order to guide your favorite football team to victory in the World Cup. Football-themed slot games dont need years of practice since theyre simple to play and you can handle them even if youre just a beginner in the gambling market. There are football grounds in the backdrop, players, footballs, and other football-related items as game symbols, and the scream of the fans as our primary music in football-themed slots.
Even if you dont know a lot about football, its easy to play Football Mania. The spin button is easily identifiable on most Wazdan pokies, and all it takes to get the reels rolling is a simple click. Coin values vary from 0.50 to 100.00 in this slot, so you may modify your bets to your liking. If youd like, you may use the Autoplay function to choose how many automated spins youd want to get.
Because there are no paylines in this video slot, there hasnt been any mention of them so far. Football Mania is a game in which winning depends on landing a few similar symbols anywhere on the board. It usually needs four to nine symbols, but in the Football Lottery, three symbols are all it takes to win the least amount of money.
Many gamers will love the Block Symbols function since it allows for more victories even after youve already received a prize. You gain a cash reward if you get three or more of the same symbols in a winning combination. After earning a prize on your first spin, this function is also activated.
The Football Mania pokie has bonus spins, and you can discover how to get your hands on them by reading on. Begin by focusing on the 33 board located on top of the little goal; this is the Football Bonus Matrix Table. If a football lands on any of the pokies three primary reels, youll be awarded nine extra spins. If you get three or more football icons on the reels, youll win nine extra spins if youve covered all nine fields in the goal. Because of the games Block Symbols feature, all previously landed footballs remain in position for the following round, granting an extra nine bonus spins for each subsequent touchdown.
A sports-themed video slots game from Microgaming, Football Star, will put you to the test. Its the slots game every football lover has been waiting for, with large jackpots and low buy-ins. The games 53 reels and 243 paylines provide players with several opportunities to win big.
The games wilds, which may appear anywhere on the reels, might be scattered, stacked, or even strike you as a single symbol. In order to reward players with many wins in a row, the game has rolling reels.
There are 243 ways to win in the football-themed game, which comprises a 53 reel and five rows. The only thing you have to do is choose your bet and spin the wheel. You may use the auto roll option to play the game for you if you want a more smooth gaming experience.
While the primary game is nice, the additional features are what make the game so interesting and entertaining to play. Isnt that the finest part? If you manage to land 5 Scatters anywhere on the reels, youll be awarded 25 free spins. If you manage to hit five scatter symbols, you might win up to 50 times your initial stake.
If youre searching for large wins, keep an eye out for the Striking Wild feature. The center reel will be completely crazy when a random striker appears and shoots towards the goal. If you want to increase your chances of winning big, this is a great option.
The games collapsing reels are also a highlight. Once a winning sign is removed from the board, all of the symbols above it fall to the bottom of the board. Allows for bigger or lower rewards based on the amount you initially earned.
Football Star may also be played on a mobile phone. To offer a seamless and simple experience on smaller displays, the mobile version has been thoroughly designed. Because of the mobile gaming feature, this casino slot becomes more popular in Canada as the number of customers who play in the mobile casinos increases as time goes on. You dont lose any functionality by shrinking the desktop version to a mobile devices screen size. Open the game in your web browser to play it while youre on the move. A game may be started during halftime or even on the way to training to keep you involved in the world of football. If youve got some extra time and want to be a professional footballer, this is the game for you.
The Benchwarmers Football Girls slot machine is one of those games that is designed to appeal to men. It depicts a group of five strikingly beautiful young women clutching footballs. The Benchwarmers are the name given to them. As far as we can tell, this is one of Playtechs least innovative ideas. Playtech, a company famed for its innovative and interesting ideas, has fallen a touch short with this one.
Sure, itll appeal to the man at home who wants to win some money and gaze at beautifully clad women, but thats about where the punchline of this one lands. The slot is very standard on all accounts. It contains the usual five reels, 30 paylines, and a maximum stake jackpot. It doesnt stand out visually or graphically; in fact, it doesnt leave much to the imagination.
No surprise that one of the additional features in a game called Football Girls is called Football. When the Bonus Symbol appears on reels five and one, the Bonus Round is triggered. It is also worth noting that youll be presented with five footballs held by benchwarmers during the bonus game, and youll be able to click on three of them to reveal a cash reward.
Creatively titled Wild, this symbol may substitute for any other sign save for the Scatter Symbol. The Benchwarmer feature is triggered when three or more Benchwarmers Logo Scatter Symbols appear anywhere on the reels. Your 10 free spins are activated by this beauty.
The stakes for Benchwarmers Football Girls are really high. Only 20 cents may be wagered every spin, but the highest stake is a whopping fifty cents. High rollers who arent frightened of dropping a few nickels may play up to $1500 on a single stake. In the event of a victory, you may expect a dividend of 10000 times the amount of your wager.
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Royale500 online review: High aims for this online casino – The Telegraph
Posted: at 4:09 pm
Royale500 introduction
Royale500 has entered the online casino market and one of its aims is to give customers the best playing experience possible.
But what else can it offer to new and loyal customers? We take a look at Royale500 and tell you everything you need to know.
For absolute clarity, this section refers to the welcome bonus offer for the Casino section of the Royale500 site.
Already a Royale500 member? Check out more of the best casino bonus offers for new customers.
The Royale500 offer is very easy to claim all you need to do to begin the bonus process is to sign up.
At Royale500 there are a lot of different games for customers to enjoy and an array of different slots to try out with all the typical casino slots available for users.
However, there arent as many as other casino sites, although Royale500 shows the most popular games on its front page, which can be very attractive to the user.
The Royale500 live casino offers a range of different tables to customers and some new live games, making it an innovative pick when opting to go into the live casino.
The layout itself looks full of class when youre in the live casino and also has live casino games with live dealers who interact with the customers at the tables. The pictures are slightly blurred at first when youre in the original lobby, but apart from that it is a high standard.
The interface of Royale500 is easy to navigate and use, with a nice colour scheme with the dark colours making it easy on the eye for all to read.
There are certain photos on the website, as mentioned, that make it difficult to read which is a slight negative on the interface, but with very few pages, Royale500 is easy to get through and see all the different games that are available.
It is important to know how you can deposit money into your betting account and how you can get money out.
Most bookies use a variety of methods from debit cards to eWallets and Royale500 is no different, and on top of that it allows deposits and withdrawals via PayPal, which a lot of other sites do not.
The Royale500 casino site does the job, and is sufficient in terms of casino games and live casino games, with a decent selection for customers.
There are slight issues with certain photos and their sizes that can be a little detrimental to the user experience, however that is made up for by the homepage, which shows the majority of the top games available to play.
The sign-up bonus can give a good amount in bonuses to a new account when joining, although it could be improved with lower wagering requirements.
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Royale500 online review: High aims for this online casino - The Telegraph
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ICE 2022 Has Been a Great Success for NetGaming: First Official NFT-Related Slot, New Games and Crypto Casino Features – Yahoo Finance
Posted: at 4:09 pm
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The Casino Games Provider Is Looking Forward to All the New Collaborations
NetGaming NFT wall at ICE
NetGaming NFT wall at ICE
LONDON, April 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ICE London attracts the crme of the gambling business since it is the world's largest meeting of gaming experts searching for product and/or service solutions across all industries. For all B2B gaming industry specialists, ICE London is the Global Gaming Hub. The leading gaming technology convention for company growth, development, and networking, the event continues to be unmatched when it comes to gaming conventions.
NetGaming's NFT Debut
This great reputation was, of course, what was behind NetGaming's efforts to get a spot at the very lucrative exhibition. The company is an up-and-coming online casino developer that has been defying expectations with each new release. One of the highlights of their ICE London display was their membership in Mutant Ape Yacht Club, which marked their formal entry into the realm of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Pallavi Deshmukh, CEO of NetGaming.com, commented on the news, saying that they are thrilled to have obtained four rare MAYC NFTs while working to be the first in the business to build crypto and NFT-related games of that caliber.
"As an innovator in this space, we aim to get this title in the hands of our players in Q2 this year as we continue to offer unique propositions and make investments into the finest talents to ensure longevity for NetGaming with more exciting updates on the horizon," Pallavi Deshmukh adds.
Since August 2021, the company's crypto projects have undergone various adjustments to provide the finest possible product for its clients and ever-growing userbase. It has embraced this electric desire for a real NFT slot game by leveraging its world-class team to create the world's first Mutant Ape-themed AAA standard slot game.
Hundreds of online gaming sites, including industry giants Unibet, Videoslots, and Parimatch, now have access to this new material.
Story continues
The Rise of Crypto and NFT Casinos
It is impossible to ignore the rising popularity of online casinos that take cryptocurrencies. In fact, an increasing number of gamblers are experimenting with online casinos where they may deposit cryptocurrencies rather than fiat currency. Thankfully, it is now easier than ever to gamble using any of the popular currencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, at an online casino that supports them.
We can readily explain why the cryptocurrency-based gambling sector is flourishing. Many modern players prefer to play online casino games without having to bother with currency conversion or payment processing costs. This is especially true for international iGaming sites.
With crypto-powered casinos, these gamblers can avoid any financial transaction costs, obtain faster withdrawals, and still play most of the popular casino games offered in typical fiat-based casinos by using cryptocurrencies.
Similar to digital currencies, the adoption of NFTs has also had a significant impact on a variety of businesses in recent years. The gambling industry is catching up as well. Currently, NFT initiatives are focusing primarily on this area, setting the tone for future advancements. The potential for development is huge, and some players have even discovered new ways to earn money as a passive income.
It'll be fascinating to see how utility NFTs like NetGaming's latest product fare once they enter the market and mature. This could be an excellent way to generate indirect, passive income from the online gambling industry.
There have been a few hiccups along the way. Still, the rate of development and advancement in the sector has been nothing short of impressive. Developers and stakeholders from various industries have been at the forefront of championing advancements, most of which are user-centered.
About NetGaming
Launched in 2019, NetGaming has proven to be a force to reckon with in the iGaming industry. It is currently giving other casino game providers including industry leaders a run for their money, which goes to show just how much potential it has.
It has an edge thanks to the fact that it was founded by a diverse group of industry professionals with a variety of experiences. These include former NetEnt executives, who have helped it to shake up the iGaming industry with great products and outstanding services. In just two years, it has built a handsome portfolio of over 30 high-quality slot and table games. By releasing new NFT and crypto products, the company is looking to extend its footprint even further.
For more information, you can contact NetGaming at info@netgaming.com or by phone +35621636734.
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Image 1: NetGaming NFT wall at ICE
An image of the NetGaming stand at ICE London 2022 NetGaming.com
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Stock Market And Casino Industry – A Match Made In Heaven? – KHTS Radio
Posted: at 4:08 pm
Can you gamble on the stock market? This is a question that has been bogging the betting crowd ever since the first appearance of the stock market. And every time, someone tried to allow this type of activity, the governments worldwide pretty much reacted in the same way blocking such operations and creating laws that hinder the speculative nature of such activities.
The last time someone tried to do it, it turned out to be a scam worth millions. Im talking about binary options. This type of pastime convinced customers it is something like betting on stocks market, but in my personal opinion, it was nothing but a scheme to deceive customers, explains Anna Rosak (more about her here). This gaming specialist from Poland has extensive knowledge of the casino industry, and doubts even the incredibly popular forex platforms will survive years to come.
The thing is pretty simple. If you want to buy and sell stocks, CFDs, and whatnot, it is a completely legit way to use your money. The same goes for gambling. Very few governments in the world will prevent you from playing slot machines or poker, as long as you are of legal age, claims Anna Rosak. However, there are plenty of online platforms that essentially allow you to buy and sell certain assets on a short-term basis, which is incredibly risky.
Our expert believes such websites are more often similar to gambling sites than legit stock markets. But, unlike licensed online casinos, they hardly emphasize the importance of responsible gaming or spending limits. Even more so, they try to convince customers they can master the skill of short-term trading in a very short time.
Ask any real broker what they think of such sites, and dont be surprised if they say that is not what trading is all about. Honestly, I think an average game of poker gives you higher chances of making money than this type of entertainment, says Rosak and adds, At least you know you are exposed to a certain risk and dont take yourself so seriously.
Anna Rosak may be quite a pessimist when it comes to the connection between gaming and stock markets, but that doesnt mean there is no room for the more fruitful development of events. The popularity of certain companies among the gaming community has led stock markets to include them in their portfolio.
We are talking about payment methods, of course. For instance, the number of Paysafecard casino brands is on the rise, and more and more gamers opt for this particular type of payment method. Simple, discreet, and cheap, it is something every casino customer dreams of. The high interest in this particular type of online voucher resulted in the company being listed on the New York Stock Exchange with great success. It is expected the price of a Paysafe stock (NYSE:PSFE) will only rise, as the company recently signed a deal with several US bookies. With the US gaming market constantly growing and opening, it is only a matter of time when this brand will reach the status of PayPal.
That is the exact same scenario that happened in the past. PayPal, one of the first online banking companies, has been a favorite payment method of gamers from all over the world. In fact, some might argue, this e-payment system would be a complete failure without online casinos who were looking for affordable and simple payment solutions. In time, PayPal got somewhat notorious in the community due to its collaborative approach to local governments who wanted to fight tax evasions. Still, it remains listed on stock exchanges as one of the most coveted brands ever.
Besides payment companies, another type of firm that regularly occurs on stock exchanges worldwide are gaming businesses. To put it simply, those are the companies that run online and land-based casinos or create casino games. They might not be a household name like PayPal or Coca-Cola, but for experienced brokers, they are nothing new. Ladbrokes, Caesars Entertainment Corporation. NetEnt, and Playtech, just to name a few, have been solid investing opportunities.
People who want to combine gambling and stocks trading should definitely consider buying some of these. Keep in mind this is legit stocks trading, and requires far more money than any simple forex site you might find online, reveals Rosak. And while she is not hesitant to recommend companies one might consider for investing, she still doesnt encourage the idea, as she believes stock markets ask for patience many gamers simply dont have: Dont get me wrong, there might be an opportunity there, but the question is whether an average gambler can wait for it to come true. In gambling, it is all about instant gratification, after all.
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Churchill Downs: Q1 reflects decision to exit online sports and casino – Casino Beats
Posted: at 4:08 pm
Churchill Downs has suggested that its performance through the first quarter of the year backs up a decision to exit the US online sports betting and casino scene, and transition its digital strategy to that of horse racing.
February saw the operator detail its exit within a six month time frame, stating that it does not see a path that the business model delivers predictable and acceptable margins for at least several years.
In the groups first quarter earnings call, William Carstanjen, CDI CEO and Director, asserted that its online performance justifies its decision to exit.
Despite TwinSpires horse racing performance being down, CDI attributed this decline to a return to retail wagering properties, while decreased marketing and promotional activities across igaming and online wagering is said to have led to marginal increases.
Turning to our TwinSpires business. Revenue and adjusted EBITDA for our TwinSpires horse racing business was down compared to the prior years quarter as more people returned to wagering in person at racetracks and other brick-and-mortar facilities.
As you may recall, there were still restrictions in place during the early part of last year that limited attendance last year.
As those restrictions have lifted, we have seen a gradual shift back to wagering at brick-and-mortar facilities.
However, it has stabilised at around 50 per cent based on the trends we saw in the second half of 2021 and into the first quarter of this year.
In 2019, the online share was nearly 40 per cent and then jumped to 61 per cent during 2020. Compared to first of 2019, handle from our online horse racing business was still up 68 per cent in the first quarter of 2022.
Our TwinSpires sports and casino business results for the first quarter reflect our decision to exit the online sports and casino business while maintaining our retail sports operations and our gaming facilities.
The group said that it will switch focus to retail sports betting operations where we are profitable, and will look to monetise market access rights to other participants, where appropriate. It was added that CDI remains absolutely committed and excited about its TwinSpires horse racing top line.
We experienced strong adjusted EBITDA from our retail sportsbooks and the reduction in online marketing spend as we execute the plans to exit each state help to minimise the losses related to our online sports and casino business, Carstanjen continued. The reduction in spend and costs will be more pronounced in the upcoming quarters.
We are pleased with our progress to exit online sports and casino and are working to monetise where appropriate our market access rights to other participants. We have received interest from numerous other groups with respect to market access.
Marcia Dall, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of CDI, voiced an expectation of eliminating a more than $30m loss from adjusted EBITDA in 2022 compared to 2021 as a result of the withdrawal.
Furthermore, the company also issued an update on its agreement to acquire all of the assets of Peninsula Pacific Entertainment for total $2.485bn, noting that we will be ready to close the transaction as soon as we obtain the necessary regulatory approvals after completing the financing necessary.
All entity and individual applications through the Virginia Racing Commission, the New York State Gaming Commission and the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission have been submitted, said CDI.
In the interim, we are working on our integration plans, including participating in the development work for the Dumfries and Emporia expansion projects, added Carstanjen.
We are very excited about the Dumfries project and view that as a potentially transformative project for our company.
We are also analysing where to deploy the remaining three HRM licences in Virginia and working with Urban One on the Richmond casino initiative, which we hope to see on the ballot in Richmond this November.
The P2E acquisition consists of a very unique set of assets that provides significant growth through its existing and 2B constructive facilities, expands our geographic footprint and provides meaningful additional scale to our company in the coming years, all at it attracts multiple.
We are on track to close this transaction before the end of 2022 subject to the necessary approvals.
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Churchill Downs: Q1 reflects decision to exit online sports and casino - Casino Beats
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BetMGM wins Casino Operator of the Year award in New York – Yogonet International
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Sports betting and digital gaming company BetMGM has been named Casino Operator of the Year at the EGR North America Awards 2022, the company announced on Wednesday. The awards ceremony, which celebrates excellence in North American online gaming, was held in New York City on Tuesday.
BetMGM says the industry honor follows a year of tremendous growth for the online entertainment company, a joint venture between casino and hospitality giant MGM Resort International and LSE-listed sports betting and gambling company Entain.
Based on EGRs award criteria, Casino Operator of the Year is the operator that has dominated the sector through their global reach and quality of their product. Nominees for the award were judged on the originality of their product, the strength of the brand, and the innovations that set their offering apart from competitors.
"We are honored to be recognized by our peers as the Casino Operator of the Year," said Adam Greenblatt, Chief Executive Officer, BetMGM. "With continued support from MGM Resorts and Entain, we are confident our casino product will continue setting the bar for years to come."
Organizational growth, product quality, customer engagement, customer acquisition and retention strategies were also considered for the award. BetMGM was recognized for offering the nations largest exclusive state-by-state in-house progressive jackpot network, a robust games and engagement tool portfolio, first-class partnerships and an omnichannel focus.
"We spent the last year at BetMGM working to solidify our position at the top of the iGaming industry in North America, commented Matthew Sunderland, Vice President of Gaming at BetMGM. Our team is humbled to be recognized as the industry's best and our success is a testament to our player-focused operational mindset."
Founded in 2018, BetMGM is headquartered in New Jersey. It is the exclusive sports betting partner to MGM Resorts nationwide, both online and in MGMs physical casinos in the US. It is also an online casino gaming and poker product, along with sister brands Borgata Online, Party Casino and Party Poker.
The MGM and Entain joint ventures most recent launch was in Ontario, Canada. The province -the largest jurisdiction in the country and the first to begin taking bets in a legal private online gambling market- commended iGaming and online sports wagering operations earlier this month, on April 4.
BetMGM debuted in the province -its 23rd operational jurisdiction- on market launch. The brand jas established partnerships with Canadian athletes in an effort to strengthen brand awareness for the new market, including Hockey Hall of Fame member Wayne Gretzky and Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid, set to appear in BetMGM's marketing campaigns.
Today marks a significant milestone for BetMGM and a momentous occasion for sports fans and online players in Ontario, Greenblatt commented at the time. We're confident that customers in Canada will enjoy the unique, interactive and world-class experience that only BetMGM can provide.
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BetMGM wins Casino Operator of the Year award in New York - Yogonet International
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Progressive Jackpots VS Classic Casino Slots: What is the Difference – Wales 247
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A wide assortment of video slots is offered at any online casino. This is the most popular category of entertainment on modern gambling websites. Gamblers can find hundreds of exciting slot machines on https://nomini.com/hi/, play them for free and real money, and immerse themselves into the game reality forgetting about routine.
Slot machines are divided into several groups according to different parameters. For example, there are classic, video, and 3D games if judging by animation. In terms of the playing ground, products fall into 3-, 5-, 6-reel groups. Games also differ in the way of forming jackpots. Here, software with fixed and accumulative prize pools is distinguished.
The Essence of Progressive Prize Pools
A progressive jackpot is a kind of prize fund that is formed by deducting a certain percentage from each game session. Each spin of the reels by a gambler means that a certain share, from 1% to 5% of the bet, is credited to the jackpot amount. Thus, the final reward is accumulated over time and depends on how many sessions are played in a game.
Kinds of Progressive Rewards
Typically, three types of games with progressive prize pools are offered on gambling websites.
The amount of the final win increases within one online casino. The prize fund is created from one or more slot machines.
In this case, gamblers receive fewer payouts for combinations, but the size of the jackpot will grow many times faster. Players pay less to be able to win big money.
This type of reward collects huge sums, forming a total prize fund in several dozen casinos at once. Players around the world create a single jackpot that can be hit by a random player.
TOP-5 Best Progressive Jackpot Slots
What Is the Probability of Hitting the Jackpot?
Since the probability of winning such a large amount is initially low, some developers mean to rank prize pools. For example, the well-known Swedish developer NetEnt equips games with several types of jackpots at once. Gamblers who choose small-amount rewards have more chances to win.
For instance, in Mega Fortune, one of the most generous jackpot slots, three types of prizes are formed:
Mega 5.39% of all bets;
Major 1.1%;
Rapid 1%.
The current amounts of possible winnings can be found at the top of the interface. The fight for the main reward begins during the bonus game, during which the gambler will have to collect a winning combination directed at the center of the reel.
The Cosmic Fortune slot has even 5 progressive prizes at once: Mega, Major, Midi, Mini, and Rapid. The percentage of deductions here ranges from 1% to 3.8%.
Accumulative Jackpots VS Video Slots
The main difference is that classic video games have fixed prize pools. Thus, gamblers know the maximum payout of the slot. The final sum of progressive rewards can not be set since its size depends on the number of sessions played and the number of bets made.
Pros of Progressive Prize Pools
Pros of Online Video Games
Each gambler chooses are game to his/her taste. There is no one answer to what slot is more profitable or exciting. Each game has its own features, gameplay, mechanics, and other peculiarities. Players select games by their preferences. That is why such a variety of games are offered at an online casino.
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This week in B2B news (29 April) | EGR Intel | B2B information for the global online gambling and gaming industry – EGR Global
Posted: at 4:08 pm
All of the latest news from the supplier sector of the industry, including updates from Pragmatic Play, Push Gaming and Pariplay
Playson agrees deal to supply slots portfolio to Admiral Croatia
Digital entertainment supplier Playson has agreed to supply its catalogue of slot games to Admiral Croatia.
Part of the Admiral Group, the online casino is one of the most prominent operators in Croatia.
Playson will supply its range of casino games to the operators online platform as part of the deal.
Blanka Homor, sales director at Playson, said: We are thoroughly pleased to announce this deal with Admiral Croatia, a leading player in the countrys online casino market.
This agreement means that our content can be found at the 10 most popular online operators in Croatia, which is great news for fans of our slots in the country, as well as our efforts to extend our foothold in this important region.
Slot Factory adds to its client base through latest partnership with MrQ
Online casino operator MrQ has added the portfolio of games from Slot Factory in a new partnership.
MrQ players will now have access to Slot Factorys catalogue of games, including Money Grows on Trees, Mega Cube, Fishing for Wins and Pick a Pot of Gold.
Charles Mott, head of commercial at Slot Factory, said, Its an opportunity for us to continue growing our UK presence. MrQ is focused on delivering richer gaming experiences for their players and we are well-positioned to contribute to their player offering.
Satpal Chaggar, head of gaming operations at MrQ, commented: We are delighted to add Slot Factory to our list of partners. Slot Factorys commitment to immersive mobile games and data makes them a welcome addition to our library of games.
Pariplay powers on with new Fusion partner Leap Gaming
Pariplay has engaged in a new partnership with Leap Gaming that will see its Fusion gaming platform bolstered by a new line-up of products.
Leap provides virtual games for online and retail markets and has a portfolio which includes virtual sports betting and casino titles.
Thanks to this deal, the Fusion platform now has over 12,000 games.
Callum Harris, director of partnerships at Pariplay, said: We are extremely grateful to be able to welcome Leap into our offering and look forward to developing what we are confident will be a positive and productive relationship for the both of us.
Leap has proven that they are industry leaders in their vertical and we look forward to seeing how much our community of players will enjoy the addition of their content.
Yariv Lissauer, CEO at Leap Gaming, said: With Pariplays extensive footprint and advanced igaming solution, we are confident our products will reach new audiences and further enrich the gaming experiences of end-users who are served by Pariplays leading operator partners.
Push Gaming signs partnership agreement with NetBet
Gaming supplier Push Gaming has entered into a new agreement with online operator NetBet. This latest deal will see Pushs most popular titles become available to NetBet.
The games will initially become available to the operators platforms in the UK and Romania before being rolled out to the Dutch market.
Fiona Hickey, head of sales at Push Gaming, commented: Were delighted to maintain our recent record of partnering with tier-one operators, with NetBet being testament to our continued European expansion.
Its presence in a host of key markets will prove a fantastic boost to our commercial growth, and were thoroughly looking forward to working together.
Claudia Georgevici, PR manager at NetBet, added: Pushs games are among the most popular in the industry, and so this deal represents a significant move forward for us. Its content will fit in perfectly among the diverse range of quality entertainment we have to offer our players.
Pragmatic Play expands Estelarbet deal with bingo offering in Brazil and Chile
Content provider Pragmatic Play has strengthened its position in the Latam market with a new deal with operator Estelarbet to provide its bingo offering.
Estelarbet now has access to Pragmatic Plays collection of bingo titles, as well as the variants of the numbers game.
Victor Arias, VP of Latin American operations at Pragmatic Play, said: We are pleased to be expanding upon our initial agreement with Estelarbet; over the past year, our current deal has seen impressive engagement from their customers.
Extending this partnership will see us delivering our fan favourite bingo games in addition to the three verticals we currently supply the operator, this seems like a natural progression of our agreement.
Sebastin Salazar at Estelarbet said: We are always looking to enhance our customers experience at Estelarbet and working with Pragmatic Play has allowed us to bring great content to players.
We are excited to be growing the number of verticals and titles we will have on offer through this flourishing relationship, and look forward to seeing how these new bingo products are received by our players.
Braggs ORYX Gaming selected as platform provider for Betnation.nl
ORYX Gaming is to provide its Player Account Management (PAM), igaming platform and content to the new online site Betnation.nl in the Netherlands. The site is set to go live later this year.
Chris Looney, CCO at Bragg, said: We are eager to deliver a smooth passage into the online casino industry for Bet Nation providing it with our market-leading platform as well as a wide range of exclusive content as it embarks on this transition.
Robert Schouten, MD at Betnation.nl, said: We are delighted to be partnering with ORYX Gaming as we enter the gambling industry for the first time.
The reputation for class and professionalism the company upholds was a real selling point for us and gives us confidence as we launch our brand onto the market.
Soft2Bet gains a gambling licence in Ireland
Casino and sportsbook platform provider Soft2Bet has obtained a licence from the Irish Revenue Commissioners, which allows the provider to offer its services in the region.
This move comes in addition to the providers growing presence in Europe, after gaining a licence in Denmark, earlier this year and in Sweden in 2019.
Boris Chaikin, CEO at Soft2Bet said: Soft2Bet is absolutely delighted to secure this Irish licence. Theres a rapidly growing iGaming player base in Ireland and we cant wait to join this extremely promising market at this stage in its development.
The Irish authorities have made this an incredibly smooth process, providing a positive, collaborative and helpful dialogue all the way through, we look forward to offering our services throughout the country.
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Mental Health Startup Journey Colab Aims To Develop Mescaline As An FDA-Approved Treatment For Alcohol Use Disorder – Forbes
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Mescaline molecule, a natural hallucinogenic substance present in the flesh of several cacti, 3D ... [+] illustration
Pushed to the periphery of public awareness during Covid-19 pandemic, the disease of substance addiction continues to ravage humanity. Substance abuse deaths are often deaths of despair, as addiction is a brain disease that is often coincident with other mental illnesses, such as anxiety and depression. The need for new ways to treat substance use disorder has never been greater, yet medicine possesses few pharmacological tools with which to combat this pernicious disease. In addition to the burgeoning opioid epidemic, addiction to alcohol has been increasing, driven in part by the stresses of pandemic life and by the economic disparities made worse in the wake of Covid-19.
The treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD), in particular, has limited pharmaceutical options with which to augment non-pharmacological therapies. Among the few drugs approved in the US for treatment of AUD, disulfiram, green-lit by the FDA in 1949, causes patients to experience swift and powerful hangover symptoms if they consume alcohol, thereby acting as a deterrent. More recently-approved naltrexone blunts the pleasure derived from alcohol consumption, while acamprosate helps to protect against the neurotoxicity that can occur during alcohol withdrawal. While these pharmaceuticals can be used to treat AUD, each has limitations and drawbacks. There is therefore a high unmet medical need for additional FDA-approved therapeutics targeting this disease.
After decades of neglect by the scientific community, a renaissance is occurring in the study of entheogens in the treatment of mental health disorders, with the goal of developing approved therapeutics. An entheogen is a psychoactive substance that has been historically used in spiritual contexts. For millennia, societies have used entheogens to improve their members well-being. Since many effective therapeutics, including the heart drug digoxin and the anti-malarial artemisinin, have been derived from traditional medicines, there is interest in exploring entheogens to treat mental illnesses. Among the sources of these psychoactive substances is peyote, which has been used by Native Americans for thousands of years. Apache, Huichol, Utes, Comanche, and Navajo peoples are among the current heirs of peyotes ancient discoverers and stewards of its spiritual and medicinal uses.
Journey Colab, a California biopharma startup, leads the effort to develop an FDA-approved form of mescaline, a psychoactive molecule that occurs naturally in peyote, as a therapeutic to assist with the treatment of AUD. Cognizant of the traditional discoverers of this potential therapeutic, this company, in an arrangement that is to my knowledge unique among biopharma startups, set aside a 10% equity stake to benefit traditional peyote stewards and the AUD treatment communities. I spoke with Journey Colabs founder and CEO, Jeeshan Chowdhury, its acting COO and CLO, Rebecca Lee, indigenous rights activist, impact advisor and trustee Sutton King, and addiction expert and recently-appointed scientific advisor Kelly J. Clark about the companys goals, genesis, and unique structure.
The prevalence of alcohol use disorder has increased during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Louis Metzger: Why is Journey Colab developing mescaline for AUD?
Jeeshan Chowdhury: Mescaline is very interesting relative to other psychedelics because it has a relatively long duration (10-12 hours). The extended experience allows people to navigate core traumas in a way that other psychedelics don't. Mescaline may give people more of an opportunity for extended neuroplasticity, which allows them to make the most of talk therapy and community support as part of holistic therapy for AUD. Despite the medical worlds best efforts, conventional therapies for AUD have yielded abysmal rates of durable remission and harm reduction. We have very clear observations that mescaline, when combined with therapy and community support, is incredibly powerful at alleviating suffering from this disease.
Metzger: Kelly, youve recently joined Journeys scientific advisory board. What drew you to Journey Colabs approach?
Kelly J. Clark: I was pleased to see that Journey Colab is approaching the development of mescaline for AUD treatment in a way thats evidence-based, with appropriately designed clinical trials. AUD is an underserved disease and has suffered from addiction treatment being largely segregated from the rest of medicine. I see mescaline as having the potential to assist psychotherapy by enabling acute episodes of care within a chronic care paradigm. The medical community and regulators are moving toward measuring addiction treatment outcomes in terms of harm reduction and functioning, rather than utter abstinence. Journeys work is part of that paradigm shift.
Metzger: Jeeshan, what inspired you to found Journey Colab and to create its unusual ownership structure?
Chowdhury: I never thought that I would start a psychedelic drug company. I'm very much a product of two things: First, coming from a conservative Muslim family, where there's a very strict conservative view on substances; and second, being a child of the 1980s from Canada with its war on drugs. I grew up thinking that psychedelics would fry your brain.
I founded this company through my own mental health journey. From the outside, my life looked great. I became a physician and was subsequently a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, where I earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in health informatics. Later, much to the chagrin of my immigrant parents, I dropped out of medical residency to come to San Francisco to participate in a startup incubator program called Y Combinator. My first company was ListRunner, a digital health startup that was acquired by Commure through its expansion.
Everything looked great from the outside, but I always felt like I was drowning in my mental health problems. I sought out care, the best that we had available at the time antidepressants and talk therapy. These helped, but to a limited extent. It was like having a life preserver to keep my head above water, but these therapies didnt get me out of my immersion in depression.
I came to psychedelic medicine out of desperation for something that would work after trying so many things that didn't improve my mental wellness in a transformative way. Psychedelic therapy enabled me to see maladaptive patterns that had formed since childhood, and in combination with talk therapy, enabled me to change them. It also helped to catalyze my understanding of how these patterns arose. Psychedelic therapy completely saved my life.
I have been on both ends of the stethoscope and have seen that there are people suffering from mental illnesses, including AUD, far more intensely than I had. I realized that we don't have adequate tools with which to help many of them. I took the California Institute of Integral Studies course on psychedelic training and research. On this learning journey, I met Sam Altman (board member of Journey Colab). Together we realized that not only do we need to advance psychedelic therapy, particularly around addictions, but we need to do it in the right way. If we take psychedelic medicine and just put it into an existing system that does not serve us well, we will not get transformational results. Thats why we set up Journey Colab as a stakeholder model, where 10% of the founding equity is set aside in reciprocity to give back to the communities where psychedelic use originated and to help the therapist and community partners with whom were working.
Metzger: How is Journey Colab learning from these traditional users of mescaline?
Chowdhury: We are creating a space of trust and dialogue in our consultation process to apply what we learn from traditional mescaline users to clinical and scientific methods. We aim to create a clinical protocol that is accessible to people where they are. We are making something new that fits into a clinical environment, and we are ensuring that we share the value that is created from this dialogue with these communities.
Metzger: Can you tell me more about how this sharing of equity is structured?
Rebecca Lee: We created a perpetual purpose trust that holds 10% of our founding equity. It's different from more familiar forms of trust because instead of naming a particular person or entity as the beneficiary, the beneficiary is a defined purpose in this case, the purpose of the Journey Reciprocity Trust is to share the value created by the company with Indigenous communities that have traditionally used psychedelic medicine, with groups that are working on the conservation of the organisms producing naturally occurring psychedelics (because so many of theses are threatened due to environmental degradation and over-harvesting), with the therapists who will be delivering this care, with other nonprofit psychedelic partners in the space, and with communities that are under-served by mental healthcare. We wanted to share this sort of co-founder ownership of Journey Colab with our stakeholder community. The trust will be led by an independent stewardship committee of five members, who will each represent the beneficiary communities. One of the seats will be filled by Sutton King, a powerful advocate for Native Americans, a descendant of Wisconsins Menominee and Oneida Nations, and Journey Colabs founding Head of Impact. Sutton has spent her whole life advocating for underserved communities.
Metzger: Sutton, as impact advisor and trustee at Journey Colab, in what ways do you envision the trust impacting indigenous communities? What is the type of impact you would like to see?
Sutton King: The Journey Reciprocity Trust represents a principle that is central to my identity as an Afro-Indigenous woman: the Seventh-Generation Principle. This Haudenosaunee philosophy inherited from my people holds that our decisions today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future. The Journey Reciprocity Trust embodies this principle by sharing the success of Journey Colab with stakeholders far into the future, supporting equitable access to mental health services, and ensuring the protection of sacred plant medicines. Indigenous-led, the trust emphasizes the importance and validity of Indigenous voices and their autonomy to make decisions. Such voices are oftentimes excluded and alienated. We cannot use the medicines that Indigenous cultures have protected without valuing Indigenous ways of being and thinking. The trust has the ability to support Indigenous communities with the economic investment necessary to continue strengthening sovereignty and the preservation of culture and land. Through centering access and benefit-sharing, the trust has an opportunity to redistribute wealth in a way that respects the plight of Indigenous peoples and begins using money as a tool for restorative healing.
The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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Breaking down the decrim movement: Discoveries, doubts and personal ins & outs – Aspen Daily News
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In her youth, Martha Hammel suffered from severe anorexia, anxiety and suicidality. One chance encounter with psilocybin mushrooms changed everything.
She recalls being in an outdoor atmosphere sitting on blankets with a small group of friends. Soft music played in the background. She and her peers had researched the correct way to engage with the psychedelic compound and designated a sitter the term to describe a sober person who assists others under the influence of psychedelic drugs to accompany their trip.
At the time, Hammel had never drunk alcohol, consumed marijuana nor smoked a cigarette. Eating the entheogenic fungi was her first intake of any sort of mood- or mind-altering substance. And it was done mindfully and respectfully, Hammel said: It was done well.
In that experience, I felt the eating disorder lift, and this anxiety that had been weighing me down for my entire life and this self-hatred intention I had been feeling, it all lifted, Hammel said. And I distinctly remember experiencing this thought of, I dont need that anymore. And it stayed gone.
It would be years before Hammel tried psilocybin mushrooms again, because the initial encounter was such a relief, she said.
Psilocybin is the naturally occurring psychedelic compound produced by more than 200 species of mushrooms. It is among chemicals such as ayahuasca, mescaline, LSD and ibogaine, known as entheogens. Commonly interchanged with the term psychedelics, entheogens refer to a psychoactive substance derived primarily from plant sources when it is used for its religious or spiritual effects.
Entheogenic plants and fungi have been used by humans in indigenous and religious rituals for centuries. These compounds trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness which often include hallucinogenic effects and if exercised in a safe set and setting, Hammel explains, they can produce therapeutic outcomes.
In just a three-hour time span, I found my way out its really powerful medicine, Hammel said. It was actually the moment I decided to become a nutritionist; I had this realization that I wanted to help other women with eating disorders.
Hammel is now a certified nutrition specialist, natural food chef, addiction recovery coach and psychedelic integration coach. She earned a masters degree in nutrition and integrative health from the Maryland University of Integrative Health and has undergone advanced training programs for mindfulness-based psychedelic therapy and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.
She spends her time between Aspen and Boulder, where she is the nutritionist and guide at the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness one of the first legal psychedelic therapy clinics to operate in North America that offers services in cannabis- and ketamine-assisted therapies.
These plant medicines, they can be profoundly healing in so many more ways than you could ever see possible, Hammel said. And to discount the power of that big experience is dangerous.
From healing her mental health to shaping her career, Hammel commends the power of her own big experience with plant medicines years ago. She has become a prominent voice in psychedelic activism and education across all of Colorado, and right now, her efforts are honed in on Aspen.
Hammel is the lead campaign manager for Right To Heal Aspen, the citizen-led initiative seeking to decriminalize plant medicines within the city of Aspen for therapeutic use.
Following a yearlong collaborative process involving community members, city council members, attorneys and experts in the field of psychedelics, Hammel and fellow representatives Isaac Flanagan and Laura Betti recently presented a citizen-initiated ordinance and petition regarding therapeutic access to plant medicines and the decriminalization of these compounds in the city of Aspen.
On Tuesday, April 12, Aspen City Clerk Nicole Henning officially approved the proposed petition as submitted. According to her acceptance letter, the petition proponents have 180 days to circulate the petitions following the clerks approval. The letter also notes that 925 signatures of city electors will be required to place this matter on the ballot. Hammel said she aims to collect signatures from 1,500 Aspen voters.
With the petition hitting the ground running, Aspen may be the next city to hop on the psychedelic train.
Renewed scientific interest and clinical research involving psychedelic medicine has gained traction in recent years. In turn, a number of U.S. cities and states are revising their legal frameworks around these drugs.
Denver was the first city to decriminalize psilocybin in 2019, followed by similar initiatives surrounding entheogenic plants and fungi in Washington, D.C.; Oakland and Santa Cruz, California; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Seattle, Washington which became the largest city to decriminalize noncommercial activity around psychedelic substances and Detroit.
On the state level, Oregon was the first to legalize psilocybin-assisted therapy and decriminalize the personal possession of such compounds in November 2020. In Colorado, advocates are pushing to get a statewide decrim initiative on the upcoming November ballot. At the same time, Sen. Joann Ginal and Rep. Alex Valdez, both Democrats, are sponsoring a new bill that would create a panel to study plant medicines in mental health treatment.
Whether it be state lawmakers proposing the formation of working groups for research on these compounds or local governments taking steps to enlist the personal use and possession of entheogenic plants among the lowest law enforcement priorities, America has entered an era of psychedelic drug reform, and its only on the rise.
The Aspen movement was spurred just over a year ago in a city council meeting when Councilmember Skippy Mesirow introduced the idea of psychedelic-assisted therapies as a healing modality amid the communitys mental health crisis.
Pictured is a hut located at the Soltara Healing Center in Costa Rica. Skippy Mesirow experienced his first and second ayahuasca ceremonies within this hut.
It was an offhand comment that I think we should be looking at bringing these incredibly beneficial compounds of healing to our community that is struggling with issues of mental health, suicidality, substance abuse and disconnection, Mesirow said. I expected to get laughed at, and surprisingly, my colleagues were really receptive.
Like Hammel, Mesirows passion and support for the initiative stems from his own life-altering experience with entheogenic plants. Having long suffered from acute and chronic anxiety, Mesirow said he tried out different healing modalities for 15 years.
Three years ago, Mesirow embarked on a weeklong retreat in Costa Rica at the Soltara Healing Center, where he engaged in an ayahuasca ceremony. Ayahuasca which can induce a much more intense experience than mushrooms, Hammel explained is an herbal brew that has been used for ritual and healing purposes since pre-Columbian times.
The ceremonial concoction originated in the Shipibo tribe tradition out of the Amazons Peruvian region. Through a series of ceremonies followed by integration, many Western facilitators understand ayahuasca to clear and cleanse past traumas, to put the entheogen in simple terms.
Mesirow explained that while he did not necessarily uncover a clear answer to the root of his anxiety during the first ceremonies, it was the post-integration work that allowed him to hold onto those learnings, and unknowingly, he had created the environment to answer the question for himself.
The moment you set the intention to work with these plants, they begin to work on you, Mesirow said. But the substances are not the answer in of themselves; theyre a tool or the gateway its the setting, the safety and the integration that allows for them to change lives.
A year later, Mesirow returned to the same retreat in Costa Rica for his second ayahuasca experience, where his intention at that point was to put eyes on his childhood.
He describes this go-around as walking through the Great Library of Alexandria of his own mind, recalling memories that he had blocked out before the age of 13. In this second series of ceremonies, Mesirow said he experienced terrifying moments, followed by a distinct feeling of singularity, in which he said he understood everything he needed to heal.
I may have gotten to where I am now in terms of my well-being without that experience, Mesirow said. But, for me, its been very central to my own healing development it changed my life profoundly.
After Mesirow planted the psychedelic-healing seed at a council meeting last year, council held two public work sessions on the topic. Mesirow brought in neuroscientists, psychiatrists and drug reform activists from all over the country to educate council members on these compounds.
In building this network, one of the organizations Mesirow reached out to was the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness in Boulder, where he connected with Hammel and brought her on board.
A patient undergoes a psychedelic-assisted therapy treatment at the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness in Boulder.
During a council work session held last May, it was apparent not all members were sold on the decrim movement. While there was interest, Mesirow said his colleagues were unsure if council was the right body to be putting this forward. The matter was turned over to Aspen citizens.
We put out the ask to our community to see who would be interested, and it was a huge amount of energy that showed up more than Id ever seen on any other topic, Mesirow said.
Spearheaded by Mesirow and Hammel, the Psychedelic Task Force formed at the start of summer 2021. The working group made up of about 30 community members including Roaring Fork residents outside of Pitkin County met twice a month at the Here House Club in Aspen over the course of eight months.
We opened the first meeting by discussing why we were there, and almost everyone in the room had had their lives saved in some capacity by plant medicines, Hammel said. So there was this deep sense of respect for the medicines, and we wanted to really look at: What is therapeutic use?
Mesirow emphasized the groups focus on therapeutic use, stating that this is the first attempt in the nation a municipal legislation around this movement has been so heavily grounded in the therapeutic and healing benefits of these compounds, he said.
The group came together with a very clear why we have one of the highest suicide rates, substance abuse problems and severe cases of depression and anxiety, Mesirow said. These compounds are showing the most profound ability to mediate, heal and in some instances cure those things plaguing our community.
Another significant discussion Hammel recalls emerging early on in the task force meetings had to do with whether they were looking to decriminalize just psilocybin or all plant medicines.
The thing that we kept coming back to was nobody should ever get arrested for possessing or eating a plant ever, Hammel said.
Through working with activists nationwide and analyzing the language of the Denver petition that led to the capital citys ballot passage three years ago, the local task force crafted a proposed legislation. After undergoing changes and tweaks, the initiated ordinance and petition was finalized in early April and is now circulating in the community. The final version and details on the legislation can be accessed through the Right To Heal Aspen website.
The initiatives three-step framework is rooted in a model Mesirow calls The 5 Ss of Psychedelic Success: screening, set, setting, support and sanctity.
If passed upon voter approval, the ordinance will first establish a six-month advisory committee to develop educational strategies to enable the safe, therapeutic access to plant medicines by adults defined in the document as an individual 21 years of age or older.
Six months after the effective date of the ordinance, plant medicines would then be decriminalized in the city of Aspen. According to the legislation, plant medicines include ayahuasca, ibogaine, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), psilocybin, psilocin and mescaline excluding peyote.
Mayor Torre said that while he supports people using plant-based therapies and is all for the petition process in its intention and essence, he believes the ordinance as drafted could still be improved and hes weary about some of the language.
There should be no mistaking the true intention here, and that true intention is therapeutic use, Torre said. The language that decriminalizes it or deprioritizes it was not language that I thought shouldve been in this ordinance.
Torre also said he thinks the six-month advisory committee should go into effect before the actual ordinance, rather than post-approval, emphasizing that there is more educational work to be done in the community prior to the ordinance potentially passing.
One message that needs to be clear is that there is a difference between using any of these substances recreationally versus therapeutically, there is a difference, Torre said. Simply getting some mushrooms and taking them does not always mean that youre going to be using them positively or effectively for yourself.
Aspen School District Board of Education President Katy Frisch expressed concerns on exactly that point when it comes to the youth community.
Im super nervous about having another substance more accessible to kids, Frisch said. No matter what the ballot language is, theres a lot of possible ways that kids will get their hands on this stuff and wont use it in the right way.
Though the school board has not yet held a meeting to discuss Aspens decriminalization initiative, Frisch anticipates this matter as something they will have to deal with which takes more time away from academics to talk about and implement training around yet another substance that is illegal for kids, and illegal for a reason, she said.
Ive already spoken to admin about if something like this passes, we need to think about what well do from an educational perspective for students and staff, Frisch said. A teacher can probably tell if a student is drunk in class, I dont know whether theyre going to be able to tell if a student has taken this sort of drug.
Frisch said she understands why people support the use of plant medicines for mental health issues among adults, but looking at this from the perspective of how access may impact younger community members, she fears the already appalling drug-use levels will worsen.
I can tell you right now, our self-reported numbers for kids drug and alcohol use are extremely high relative to other parts of the country and even the state, she said. We have a huge substance abuse problem here, and the availability of psychedelic drugs is a big question mark for me.
The psychedelic reform movement elicits many question marks from myriad research fields to the legal and political arenas.
As decriminalization efforts meet success in cities around the country, it is worth noting that psilocybin and other psychedelic drugs are still illegal in those jurisdictions under state law. The term decriminalize is technically inaccurate, according to the psychedelic drug policy reform tracker. Rather, local governments have taken steps to deprioritize enforcing criminal penalties on the city level, and these municipal reforms are progressing in different ways based on different cities motives.
With Aspens focus on therapeutic use, the ordinance language around its decrim initiative involves protecting the use of these plant medicines for therapy by deprioritizing the imposition of criminal penalties on adults for therapeutic use.
According to the proposed legislation, therapeutic use includes the possession, storage, planting, cultivating, transporting and noncommercial sharing of these compounds. This does not include the sale of plant medicines for remuneration. Meaning, unlike marijuana, psychedelics would not be displayed publicly nor sold in stores.
To further support that decrim factor, the Aspen ordinance would prohibit all departments, agencies, boards, commissioners, officers and employees of the city of Aspen from using city resources to assist in the enforcement of criminal penalties on adults for therapeutic use of these plant medicines.
Ninth Judicial Chief Deputy District Attorney Don Nottingham said that if this ordinance were to pass in Aspen, not one thing would change in his jurisdiction. Psychedelics like marijuana are still federally illegal, he said, and from his point of view, they would remain illegal.
Aspen can decriminalize all they want, Nottingham said jokingly. My job is to follow state laws, not city laws.
Nottingham did throw in a comment that of all the substance-use related cases that come to the 9th Judicial District Attorneys Office serving Pitkin, Garfield and Rio Blanco counties a very small percentage of those cases involve psilocybin mushrooms.
Like cannabis, psilocybin is considered a Schedule I drug which the United States Drug Enforcement Administration defines as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential of abuse.
Signed into law by former President Richard Nixon, the Controlled Substance Act (CSA) of 1970 established this legal framework in efforts to categorize drugs into five schedules based on their medical application and the drugs abuse or dependence potential. According to the legislation, Schedule I drugs are considered to have the highest potential for abuse and the potential to create psychological and/or physical dependence.
The CSA was a precursor to Nixons War on Drugs, which he proclaimed in 1971, followed by other federal funding for drug-control agencies, such as the Drug Enforcement Agency, and strict drug crime measures under the Nixon administration.
In the two decades prior to the War on Drugs which has been largely condemned as a political campaign motivated by racist ideology rather than medical reasons by many social advocacy nonprofits and academics psychedelic research was rampant, and culture followed suit.
The early 1950s saw breakthrough studies on the therapeutic potential of LSD, for instance. Due to the growing anti-drug legislature, these studies were short lived. By the late 1960s, psychedelic research had halted with only hippy counterculture left in its place.
Thoryn Stephens grew up in San Francisco chasing Grateful Dead concerts and Hunter S. Thompsons lore. While plant medicines were an integral part of his life from a young age, Stephens relationship with the compounds changed after a ceremonial experience involving mescaline (peyote) in the upper Amazon jungles of Ecuador.
Fascinated and inspired, Stephens started ordering plant materials from all over the world, studying and extracting these compounds to understand their nature.
I really began to understand the power of these plants as tools, essentially for us as humans, Stephens said. And thats really what drove me to be really interested in science: molecular biology and biotechnology.
Stephens who now lives in Aspen and was a part of the Psychedelic Task Force is the founder and CEO of the newly launched software company, Eve Health Systems. The digital platform uses data to drive measurement-based care involving mental-behavioral health, which includes case management and data analysis of legal psychedelic therapy and studies.
Connected to plant medicines on a professional, scientific and spiritual level, Stephens is well versed in the nationwide research efforts around these compounds. He mentioned the movement with ketamine-assisted therapies in helping veterans, explaining how many companies are in the process of stewarding different psychedelic drugs through clinical trials. MDMA is in phase three trials for post traumatic stress disorder therapies, Stephens adds, and psilocybin is in phase two trials for multiple indications, including depression, alcohol use disorder and anorexia nervosa.
While it could take years of research and clinical trials to prove any potential efficacies of these plant medicines, many are sold on the anecdotal evidence from their own personal experiences.
Seven years ago, Jim Harris was at a music festival in California. He was in his ninth month of recovery following a snowkite accident on the Patagonian Icecap, where he was paralyzed from the waist down. Given the state of his spine, Harris was not able to stand without a walker on the outdoor field where the festival took place his knees would ache and lock out, and he could not lift up his right foot due to his hamstring and glute lacking functionality.
Harris said his friends were getting loose with booze, but at that point, even a small amount of alcohol would have made it difficult for him to be mobile. He ate half of a small chocolate square containing psilocybin mushrooms.
Jim Harris during his journey to recovery following an accident that paralyzed him waist down. Harris, who is now a printmaker living in Carbondale, once made a living as a mountain guide and photographer.
Harris remembers leaning on his walker in the big-open field with his group of friends, about 100 yards from the stage. He recalls admiring the pink cotton candy patterns in the clouds, feeling slightly stoned in the cannabis sense when all of a sudden, he realized that he was able to pick his right foot up off the ground.
Muscles that hadnt worked in nine months since my accident began firing, Harris said. Through the psychedelic state, some part of my brain was tasked with something it hadnt been.
While the experience did not magically fix the injury, Harris said, that one muscle activation persisted and the recruitment of the nerve pathway stayed, which was a major progression for his walking functionality.
Two months ago, Harris attended a conference on psychedelics and chronic pain. One of the researchers brought up the potential for psychedelics among spinal cord injuries. Harris said he was immediately taken back to the moment at the music festival seven years ago.
Right now, there is a lot of focus in the medical world on different psychiatric uses, and my hunch is, it seems there will be emerging interest in psychedelics and pain management, especially neuropathic pain and phantom pains people have from different nerve damage, Harris said. Psychedelics seem like they have promise to rewire some of that pain reception.
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Breaking down the decrim movement: Discoveries, doubts and personal ins & outs - Aspen Daily News
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