Easter Surprise

What is Easter Surprise?

Chumba Casino, VGW’s flagship brand, says in its Sept. 16 updated terms and conditions that the platform is not available in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Washington, and West Virginia.

While Alabama ranks 27th among the 50 states in population, the limited availability of gaming makes the state attractive to companies like VGW.

Alabama has only parimutuel betting, small games of chance for charitable purposes, and electronic bingo machines at three tribal casinos in Atmore, Montgomery, and Wetumpka.

What is Easter Surprise?

For all the hoopla surrounding prediction markets and expectations that the industry will eat away at sportsbooks’ NFL handle this season, the old guard industry is expected to control nearly 80% of pro football wagers this year.

Eilers & Krejcik Gaming (EKG) estimates that bettors will plunk down $40.5 billion on the NFL this season through regulated channels. Traditional sportsbooks are projected to capture $31.7 billion of that total, compared to a handle analog of $8.4 billion for prediction markets—a 79% to 21% split in favor of legacy operators.

Handle analog is a metric used as a cleaner comparison between sportsbooks and prediction markets because the latter’s volume doesn’t compare evenly with sportsbook handle.

What is Easter Surprise?

In a written response published in January 2026, Arno Rutte, the state secretary at the time acknowledged that enforcement against such sites remained limited, particularly for domains not registered under the .nl extension.

According to KVA, KT van Bruggen, the current state secretary for Justice and Security, has pointed out the urgency of implementing effective countermeasures to limit access to such illegal platforms.

Last week a committee made up of MPs from across the Netherlands’ political spectrum also raised concerns around the role of Meta and Google in supporting the black market.