THE AMERICAS
The bombshell of the week came (as usual) from PokerStars, who are reportedly looking to buy the Atlantic Club casino in Atlantic City, the news coming just days after we learned New Jersey had scrubbed the ‘bad actor’ provision from its online gambling legislation; Zynga and Caesars Entertainment took their first steps toward getting Nevada online poker licenses; Nevada sportsbooks got pummeled by football in October; Canada’s sports betting debate took a detour into the no-fact zone while the sports leagues pushed back against New Jersey’s sports betting bid; Genting abandoned plans to push a casino referendum on Florida voters; social casino games lost fans in October; the American Gaming Association pimped the Reid/Kyl online poker bill and Mike O’Donnell wondered if anyone still cared about corporate social responsibility.
EUROPE
Bwin.party co-CEO Jim Ryan is co-CEO no more; William Hill left the Greek market just hours before Greece stunned international firms by hinting that OPAP’s monopoly would extend to the online realm; Sportingbet’s poor results resulted in William Hill and GVC Holdings reaching a conditional agreement to acquire Sportingbet at a reduced price (which could be reduced even further thanks to Greece’s OPAP play); the UK published a draft of its new gambling licensing bill; Italy officially welcomed online slots into the market; Gala Coral saw profits rise this year; Probability had a good six months; Vince Martin lamented gambling’s long hard year; Schleswig-Holstein issued three sports betting licenses and PokerStars pro Theo Jorgensen was shot three times during a robbery at his Denmark home.
ASIA
China detained a number of Macau junket operators in an apparent investigation of former Party bigwig Bo Xilai, which pushed gaming shares down; Macau’s gaming revenue grew 8% in November; South Korea’s Kangwon Land expanded; Japanese politicians suggested 2013 is the year for casino legislation passage; China held its inaugural wankathon to benefit AIDS awareness; the Philippine senate opened its own investigation of Kazuo Okada’s Universal Entertainment, which sued Reuters for publishing the articles that led to the investigations and Bodog Asia staffers partied until they saw the whites of Bill Beatty’s eyes.
