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How to play Xmas Coins
Investors began 2026 expecting multiple rate cuts, which tend to juice capital markets and spur dealmaking activity. But on 28 February things changed quickly after joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran largely curtailed traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the vital Middle East waterway where some 20% of the world’s oil transited before the conflict began.
Several factors weighed heavily on the decision to raise rates. The average nationwide gas price now is $4.36 compared to $3.18 a year ago, per AAA, and the average diesel price of $6.31 is a record. Brent crude oil has crested over $100 per barrel compared to about $68 a year ago. Inflation was 3.4% in August, compared to 2.9% last year. And US 10-, 20- and 30-year Treasuries have reached their highest rates in decades.
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh assumed the top role in May, and the central bank held rates steady for all of Warsh’s first three meetings. The decision to stand pat at the start of Warsh’s tenure came despite increasing calls for a hike as inflation remains solidly above the Fed’s 2% target. Those calls became too loud to ignore, prompting the first rate hike since August 2023.
How to play Xmas Coins
the studio took two of its most recognizable characters and brought them together
BGaming’s product chief tied the release directly to prior results. Julia Alekseeva, CPO at BGaming, said duel slots have proven to be a hit in the past, with titles like Clash of Gods Power Duel driving strong engagement, so the studio decided to take this further with Johnny vs Chicken. She added that the studio took two of its most recognizable characters and brought them together in what she called the ultimate BGaming IP showdown.
That language, an “IP showdown” between established characters, points to where the strategy could go next. If a duel format plus familiar faces reliably lifts engagement, BGaming has a repeatable template for future crossovers drawn entirely from its own library. Johnny vs Chicken reads less like a finished idea. It reads more like a first test of a shared-universe approach to slot IP.
What is Xmas Coins?
“Operators failing compliance checks is never a good look,” he says. Campaigners often claim that financial sanctions are priced in and that the Commission should revoke more licences, although Waugh does not believe operators view settlements merely as a cost of doing business.
Nor are regulatory breaches unique to gambling. Waugh notes that Tesco was fined more than £8 million for food hygiene failings in 2021, without parliamentarians demanding that it should be prevented from selling cornflakes.
“There are valid arguments to be made in relation to raising the barriers to licensing, but this may come at a cost of diminishing competition and entrepreneurship,” he says.