The Big Deal

What is The Big Deal?

Under Section 106 of New Zealand’s Gambling Act 2003, a class 4 licence holder, also known as a “corporate society” by the regulator, “must apply or distribute the net proceeds from class 4 gambling only to or for an authorised purpose specified in the corporate society’s licence”.

The DIA worked directly with class 4 gambling operators (commonly known as pokies trusts), and discovered ‘widespread issues’ such as cases where money that should have been available for community grants was instead spent on society expenses, such as the purchase of additional gaming machines.

Vicki Scott, the DIA’s director of gambling, said the investigation had delivered significant results, while stressing that work to improve compliance and ensure communities received their share of gambling proceeds would continue.

What is The Big Deal?

Patent squabbles, including those pertaining to geolocation services, aren’t unheard of in the online gaming space. How things shake out in the Cantor Fitzgerald/DraftKings spat remains to be seen, but it’s possible the deck is stacked against the gaming company.

The Commerce Department has jurisdiction over the USPTO, meaning Lutnick is the boss of the USPTO Director John Squires. Squires, who became 60th director of the USPTO a year ago, has been publicly effusive in his praise of Lutnick.

More relevant to DraftKings is the fact that under his leadership, the patent office has moved to significantly limit access to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) – the very board to which the gaming company is appealing in an effort to have the Cantor patent annulled.

What is The Big Deal?

The Booster menu includes options designed to alter the starting conditions of a session. Players can guarantee scatter symbols, increase starting multipliers across the entire grid or activate enhanced bonus-hunting conditions. The strategic read is that Nolimit City is packaging multiple entry points into the same high-volatility engine. That gives players, and by extension operators, a variety of ways to engage a single title.

The studio has also carried its side-bet layer into the sequel. The slot also introduces a Side Hustles system, which functions as an optional stake increase tied to specific outcomes. Taken together, the expanded upgrades, buy options, and side bets suggest Nolimit City is refining a repeatable framework across sequels rather than reinventing its approach each release.

For players familiar with the first Duck Hunters, the takeaway is continuity with a raised ceiling. For those tracking Nolimit City’s portfolio, the sequel is evidence of a studio comfortable returning to proven mechanical families and layering additional monetization and volatility on top. That pattern fits the broader direction of a slots market increasingly built around recognizable, iterated math models rather than one-off novelties.