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Finance

Texas, Alabama Securities Regulators Block Sales of ‘Metaverse’ Casino NFTs

“What happens in the Metaverse, does not stay in the Metaverse,” says Texas Securities Commissioner.

By Sam Reynolds
AccessTimeIconApr 14, 2022 at 5:59 a.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 7:15 p.m. UTC
(Duncan Nicholls and Simon Webb/Getty Images)

(Duncan Nicholls and Simon Webb/Getty Images)

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Cyprus-based Sand Vegas Casino Club, not to be confused with Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands (LVS), has been ordered by securities regulators in two U.S. states to stop selling non-fungible tokens that promise a cut of profits from casinos on metaverse platforms.

  • Sand Vegas Casino Club is using part of the proceeds from the 11,100 “Gambler” NFTs to purchase land in Decentraland and The Sandbox.
  • Holders of the NFT can participate in profit-sharing from the operations. The team forecasted proceeds of up to $24,480 from the “Gambler” NFTs and up to $81,000 per year from the higher-end “Golden Gambler” NFTs.
  • Authorities in Texas allege that Sand Vegas said the NFTs are not regulated as securities, despite using the profit-sharing model as a selling point.
  • On-chain datahttps://opensea.io/collection/sandvegascasinoclub-official?tab=activity shows there are currently 4,200 holders of the Gambler NFTs and 624 owners of the Golden Gambler NFTs.
  • Data shows the Gambler NFTs have a 30-day average price of 0.3293 ether (ETH), or $1,030, while the Golden Gambler NFTs have an average price of 1.89 ETH, or $5,900.
  • Sand Vegas Casino Club is also developing a regular web-based casino, which it plans to launch in the summer, according to a published roadmap, as many metaverse platforms only have a few thousand users at most.
  • This order from regulators appears to be a first for the metaverse. But as Sand Vegas Casino Club is not based in the U.S., it's unclear if this order will actually have any material impact on its operations.

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