Gold Digger

About Gold Digger

It was an encounter with that disconnect during the 2022 FIFA World Cup that ultimately set entrepreneur George Yashin on the path to founding Swipe Games.

Yashin had spent around 15 years building businesses across industries ranging from fashion technology and retail hardware to sneaker cleaning, as well as investing in early-stage technology companies. Yet when he attempted to place a football bet, he found the interface so impenetrable that he eventually headed to a betting shop to ask how to do it.

When he subsequently looked at casino games, something else struck him – the experience did not seem dramatically different from the slot machines he remembered seeing years earlier.

What is Gold Digger?

What the president didn’t address is the tax revenue from betting.

In 2025, Brazil collected almost BRL10 billion ($1.97 billion) in tax revenue from the licensed sector. In the first seven months of this year alone, BRL8.7 billion generated by the activity was delivered to public coffers. The Federal Revenue Service itself estimates that the sector should reach BRL16 billion in revenue during 2026.

Besides revenue collection, another concern is legal and economic. Companies have paid over BRL2.5 billion for licences since the sector’s regulation. Certainly, the end of the activity would lead to litigation to recover the amounts paid and compensation for investments made. Furthermore, the revenue from betting is already included in the Annual Budget Law and the Budget Guidelines Law, which define the priorities for federal government spending.

How to play Gold Digger

This week, Casino.org reported on Atlantic City’s difficulties in August, where in-person casino revenue slowed 5.5% to $294.9 million.

The Mid-Atlantic struggles weren’t limited to New Jersey, as Pennsylvania revealed today (Sept. 17) that brick-and-mortar gross gaming revenue (GGR) from slot machines and table games totaled $280.3 million.

Pennsylvania casino revenue for August was almost 6% lower than a year ago, when the state’s casinos won $297.7 million from their physical slots and table games. Pennsylvania’s August 2026 struggles came despite the state having one more casino last month than it did in August 2025, as Happy Valley Casino only opened in April 2026.