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

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.