Ticket To The Stars

What is Ticket To The Stars?

An Australian casino player is taking Royal Caribbean to court, arguing that the company banned him from sailing with its services and from playing at its casinos over his ability to count cards. After previously winning a legal battle against Star Casino, Mark Timothy Grant is now moving to confront the cruise line. 

Grant argues that he has booked five Royal Caribbean cruises that were valued at a total of AUD 22,000. He booked the cruises with money he won playing at the Royal Caribbean’s ships’ casinos. 

However, before he could even board the first cruise, Grant was told that he would not be able to proceed onboard. Grant had his son and partner along with him. The company only then went to inform Grant that he had been placed on a “no sail” list, effectively a ban, because of “breaking the house rules” in the casino.

What is Ticket To The Stars?

This followed a period of restrategising for the operator, after rebranding from GVC Holdings and committing to having 100% of its revenues come from regulated markets.

But its share price has taken a tumble over the last year, dropping up to 37% since September 2025. Its market cap currently sits at £3.39 billion.

The operator first started trading on LSEG’s main market in February 2016 under its previous company name GVC Holdings. This followed its delisting from the Alternative Investment Market (AIM exchange).

How to play Ticket To The Stars

When walking back to our hotel after finishing CalvinAyre.com EiG coverage in October of 2013, I looked over to my producer (Rob) and camera operator (Mani) and said, “I think my calling is Bitcoin”. 

As a team that year we had already covered several Bitcoin events including Bitcoin London and Le Web, both featuring Bitcoin enthusiasts who were eager to educate the world on this groundbreaking technology. EiG 2013 attracted several professionals in the Bitcoin space as well, at the time with a focus on introducing Bitcoin as a payment system for iGaming operators.

Calvin took notice of Bitcoin in the early days, immediately identifying its vast potential for his “first love”, the iGaming industry. Little did I know just how significant Bitcoin would become for CalvinAyre.com, Calvin Ayre as a person and myself as a professional. Fast forward to February 2021 and its time for CalvinAyre.com to hang up its hat. Bitcoin has actually become my calling.