THE AMERICAS
Wynn Resorts lost $140.6m in Q1; Bwin.party signed an online poker joint venture with a federally-recognized California tribe; Lock Poker decided to leave the Merge Gaming Network and gorge itself on Cake Poker; the American Gaming Association’s annual ‘state of the states’ report said the US casino biz was looking up, but monthly revenues were down in both Nevada and Atlantic City; a New Jersey Assembly committee approved an online gaming bill but questions remain as to Gov. Christie’s willingness to sign it into law; MGM Resorts CEO Jim Murren says House Republicans are to blame for the lack of federal online poker legislation; Churchill Downs Inc. had a healthy Q1; Caesars Entertainment sold it’s Harrah’s St. Louis casino for $610m and got a 20-year casino license extension in Uruguay; Bodog Poker signed Jennette ‘Jay’ Tan and Vince Martin called Zynga one of the five dumbest stocks on the market.
EUROPE
A flurry of Q1 results this week, including Rank Group, Unibet, Bet-At-Home, CryptoLogic, Tipp24; Lottomatica, Cherryföretagen and Fortuna Entertainment; Rank Group paid £205m for Gala Coral’s casinos; Spain announced it will hand out online gaming licenses on June 1; sports betting and horseracing improved in the French market; Belgium added 10 names to its online gaming blacklist; William Hill CEO Ralph Topping survived an attempt by shareholders to deny him his pay packet and PokerStars gave some more data miners a case of black lung.
ASIA
SJM Holdings saw profit rise 21.7% in Q1, Galaxy Entertainment Group saw earnings hit an all-time high, Melco Crown saw profit rise 17-fold and junket operator Asian Entertainment & Resources saw net income grow 19%; Japan’s social gaming companies announced the end of their lucrative ‘complete gacha’ games; there could be a three-way fight to acquire Australian casino operator Echo Entertainment; Universal Entertainment’s Kazuo Okada restated his commitment to the Pagcor Entertainment City project and to kicking Steve Wynn in the nuts; the Asian Poker Tour’s coming back to Goa, India and G2E Asia kicks off May 22.
