About this app
About Shark Meet
I’d like to thank our leader, Calvin Ayre, for giving me an opportunity to write about the gambling industry, but also for creating a platform that spoke to a different side of the industry, and wasn’t afraid to reveal uncomfortable truths when necessary. I’m excited to see what comes next in his campaign to wake the world up to the power of Bitcoin SV.
Bill Beatty, our Editor-in-Chief, was my guiding light. I learned to think of journalism, the gambling industry, and even life, in whole new ways thanks to him, and I’ll always count on him as one of my mentors.
But I couldn’t have accomplished half of what I did without all of my colleagues, past and present. Our talented team of writers, editors, web site development guys, production team, on screen reporters, Human Resources, Accountants, everyone. It took the whole team to make sure we put up the latest news and opinions every day, and everyone deserves their fair share of the credit.
What is Shark Meet?
For anyone who watched David Letterman or listened to Howard Stern in the last millennium, there was no reason to judge his material firsthand—the pop-culture verdict was already in: Carrot Top was an unfunny prop comic.
For the better part of two decades, both the king of late night and the self‑proclaimed King of All Media leaned heavily into Carrot Top as a recurring punching bag.
Because he relied on props, sported a wild look, and established a dominant Las Vegas presence, he fit perfectly into the “anti-showbiz” persona cultivated by both arbiters of Gen-X cool. Across the 1990s and early 2000s, “Carrot Top” became universal shorthand for lazy, cringeworthy comedy.
What is Shark Meet?
The VGT dispute and construction reset are the latest chapters in a long and bumpy road for Bally’s since winning Chicago’s sole casino licence in 2022. Work has been halted for debris overflow and for unapproved contractors, and the company faced an $800 million funding gap that was eventually filled through a financing agreement with Gaming and Leisure Properties. Potential interference with city water lines also necessitated a significant redesign of the hotel plan.
At one point, the IGB ordered a temporary work stoppage at Bally’s permanent casino following reports of alleged ties between an unapproved dumpster service with organised crime.
Bally’s has been granted two years’ worth of extensions for the permanent project. State law allows for two-year temporary licences, but the Illinois Gaming Board approved an extension to three years in 2023. That pushed the deadline to this September, but Bally’s ultimately received another year’s worth of extensions through language included in the state’s omnibus revenue bill that was passed in June.
