Gem Star

What is Gem Star?

Both Squires and his predecessor, Coke Morgan Stewart, made it harder for filers to get in front of the PTAB, typically citing patent ages or court rulings.

In April, Interactive Games LLC, a unit of Cantor, sued DraftKings and Flutter Entertainment’s FanDuel, alleging the two largest domestic online sportsbook operators infringed on its patents. That suit arrived a decade after Interactive Games brought similar litigation against the sports wagering giants, which was challenged by both companies.

In the suit brought earlier this year, the Cantor unit accuses the two gaming companies of infringing on five of its patents and requested an undisclosed amount of financial damages.

What is Gem Star?

The bitter, longstanding feud between Station Casinos and the Culinary Union in Las Vegas took another turn this month, this time to Washington, DC and the US Supreme Court.

On 4 September, Chief Justice John Roberts denied Station’s emergency request for a stay of a federal appeals court decision that ordered the company’s Red Rock Casino Resort Spa in Summerlin to comply with a National Labor Relations Board mandate and bargain in good faith with the union following a failed labour vote in late 2019. Roberts gave no explanation for the denial.

The NLRB ruled after the election that Red Rock took steps to prevent a fair union vote, and Red Rock sued in response, although the ruling was upheld by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last month. After the court denied a rehearing request on 6 August, it also subsequently denied Station’s request for a stay pending SCOTUS relief on 24 August.

What is Gem Star?

A separate private member’s bill was tabled by MP Martha Mahrous in January 2025. It proposed prison terms of two to five years and multi-million-Egyptian-pound fines for promoters, agents and payment facilitators. It has also gone nowhere.

Parliament rose on 22 July having passed 162 laws, none concerning betting. Egyptian news outlet Al-Watan reported that electronic betting was still among the committee’s files awaiting discussion on 17 August, listed separately from the cybercrime amendments. The House reconvenes on 1 October.

Neither bill has created a route to license private online betting. Egypt is pursuing an increasingly punitive enforcement model instead.