Spanish Passion

About Spanish Passion

Baldwin and fellow casino entrepreneur Shawn Scott arrived in Laos in 2007 with ambitious plans to build a casino business aimed partly at customers crossing the country’s borders.

The pair established Sanum Investments and partnered with Laotian conglomerate ST Group. Baldwin later testified that the investors initially committed around $7.5 million to the venture, which envisaged two casino resorts and several slot clubs.

Their biggest success was Savan Vegas, strategically located near the Friendship Bridge linking Laos with neighboring Thailand across the Mekong River. A planned second resort, Paksong Vegas, was never built.

About Spanish Passion

The arrests come amid a surge in burglaries targeting Illinois’ vast network of nearly 50,000 video gaming terminals.

Illinois Gaming Board data obtained earlier this year by the Chicago Sun-Times revealed that 502 gaming-related burglaries had been reported through June 22—already topping the 473 recorded during all of 2025. More than $1.5 million was stolen during the first half of 2026 across more than 100 municipalities.

The attacks have shown little sign of slowing. Earlier this month, law enforcement noted that a single crew is suspected in coordinated burglaries across Wheeling, New Lenox, and Peotone, where masked offenders armed with sledgehammers hit gaming venues within a 24-hour span.

What is Spanish Passion?

Operators may not use data from individuals who have self-excluded, are undergoing treatment, or have requested to block marketing in order to attempt to reactivate them. Repeated or intrusive messages and offers directed at users who have reduced their gaming frequency, registered significant losses, triggered limits or shown signs of risky behaviour are also prohibited.

The text also bans exploiting situations of economic crisis, unemployment, debt, emotional distress, grief, anxiety, depression, loneliness, or other conditions of vulnerability to attract, retain or reactivate gamblers. 

Operators must maintain permanent mechanisms for age verification, self-exclusion, voluntary time and wagering limits, and information on the user’s own gambling behaviour. Self-exclusion must be effective with all authorised operators.