Feng Shen

What is Feng Shen?

The financing, added Bob Louzan, managing partner at WhiteHawk Capital Partners, reflects its ability to structure flexible capital solutions for complex transactions to “support the project’s pre-construction work as Bally’s advances its broader financing plan”.

In its application materials in New York, Bally’s said it would begin construction “eight to nine months” after securing a licence, which would be this month. The project calls for a single-phase opening sometime in 2030 if timelines hold.

Jess has covered the global gaming industry since 2022. A native of Reno, Nevada, he’d like to note that it’s Ne-va-da, not Ne-VAH-da.

What is Feng Shen?

While sports event contracts remain the headline-grabbers for prediction market operators, there’s evidence that other categories are experiencing growth. As Bernstein points out, cryptocurrency event contracts account for at least 20% of the turnover on the two largest prediction markets.

In another encouraging non-sports sign, one of those operators notched just $2 million in commodities volume last year, but that figure surpassed $410 million in August alone and is approaching $600 million on a year-to-date basis.

Bernstein estimates the global market for financial contracts will grow to $900 trillion by 2035, up from $700 trillion last year, and if prediction markets capture just 0.5% of that total, volume would increase by $4.7 trillion per year.

What is Feng Shen?

Overall, it’s been a busy stretch for the board since the start of 2025. In that time the regulator has issued five multimillion-dollar anti-money laundering fines to entities on the Las Vegas Strip, an unprecedented run of sanctions for America’s gambling capital.

Four of the investigations – those involving Resorts World Las Vegas, MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and the Venetian – centred around AML violations related to illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer, who was placed on the state’s exclusion list in April. The other case involving Wynn Las Vegas did not pertain to play from Bowyer.

Wynn forfeited $130 million to the federal government for a slew of proxy betting violations, which was “believed to be the largest forfeiture by a casino based on admissions of criminal wrongdoing”, per federal prosecutors.