OpenSea removes NFTs from Sands Vegas Casino Club after cease and desist orders
Key ideas:
- OpenSea removes NFT Sands Vegas Casino Club Gambler.
- This month, two US states issued cease and desist orders to the Sands Vegas Casino Club for NFT sales.
- The Sands Vegas Casino Club reportedly sold NFTs to fund a Metaverse casino, classifying them as securities.
It’s been a mixed year for NFT market leader OpenSea. In January, OpenSea saw trading volumes hit an all-time high before a sharp decline in February and March.
NFT market conditions improved in April, with OpenSea Ethereum (ETH)-based NFT trading volumes already surpassing March levels.
According to Dune Analytics, Ethereum-based NFT trading volume for April sits at $2.68 billion with one week ahead. For March, trading volumes were $2.49 billion.
With NFT market conditions improving, OpenSea appears to be taking a more cautious approach to avoiding regulatory fallout.
OpenSea Removes Sands Vegas Casino Club NFT Sales
This week, OpenSea suspended the sale of the NFT Sands Vegas Casino Club Gambler Ape. This time last week, OpenSea continued to allow Gambler NFTs to be traded despite regulatory measures against the virtual casino.
According to the Sand Vegas roadmap, Sand Vegas Casino acquired 27 plots in Sandbox in January 2022. The virtual casino aimed to meet all regulatory/legal requirements between March and August 2022.
The OpenSea Help Center says it removes NFTs if it determines that the NFT:
- Infringe protected intellectual property,
- Promote suicide or self-harm,
- Incite hatred or violence towards others,
- Degrade or dox another individual,
- Otherwise, violate our Terms of Service.
The write-off will reduce a source of funding for the virtual casino.
The owners of Gambler NFTs allegedly share half of the profits generated by the casino.
The delisting of OpenSea follows cease and desist orders from the states of Texas and Alabama.
While the casino website is still up and running and says SVCC NFTs are sold out, the Twitter account @sandsvegascasino no longer exists.
Alabama and Texas issue cease and desist orders from Sands Vegas
This month, FX Empire reported that Alabama and Texas had issued Cease and Desist orders to the Sands Vegas Casino Club.
Both states said the online casino was selling NFTs to fund operations. Under the state laws of Alabama and Texas, NFTs constituted an illegal offering of securities.
The Texas State Securities Board press release said the virtual casino offered,
“11,111 NFT Gambler in relation to their development metaverse casinos in popular metaverses such as Sandbox (SAND), Decentraland (MANA), Infinity Void and NFT Worlds.”
The press release went on to say,
“Players, acting through avatars, can enter the metaverse casino and play poker and other games using cryptocurrencies. Buyers of Gambler NFTs profit from these operations. metaverse casinos, but they also allegedly share half of the profits generated.
