THE AMERICAS
Caesars Entertainment finally spun off its interactive arm into a separate but majority-controlled entity; Pennsylvania’s long-awaited online gambling bill finally appeared but the word online disappeared from Illinois’ gambling bill; Connecticut’s Mashantucket Pequots inked an online casino deal with GameAccount Network; Nevada senators approved entity betting legislation; the CEO of Boyd Gaming said the Borgata would be first in line in New Jersey’s online gambling market; Caesars’ Jan Jones and the PPA’s John Pappas nearly came to blows over PokerStars; Bally posted record revenue; Churchill Downs Inc. profit fell; Zynga made money but lost players; Lock Poker found a new reason not to pay its players; World Sports Exchange co-founder Steve Schillinger was found dead of an apparent suicide; ‘James666’ Sudworth discussed grinding in Costa Rica and Rebecca Liggero hit up San Francisco, where she lost her heart, mind and several years off her life dragging her cameras all over GIGSE.
EUROPE
888 Holdings enjoyed record revenue in Q1; Playtech revenue rose despite iPoker’s poor performance; Betfair spurned CVC Capital Partners’ takeover bid; Microgaming pondered its future in a Ladbrokes-free online poker world; the online poker room of UK bookies Coral earned an iPoker upgrade; Kenny Hallaert surveyed the Belgian online poker market; Lee Davy examined the evolution of mobile gambling at the mGaming Summit while Rebecca Liggero discussed the fusion of social media and sports betting with Betfuze chairman Richard Skaife.
ASIA
Wynn Macau’s mass market was very good to Wynn Resorts but Universal Entertainment boss Kazuo Okada saw Wynn’s ex-FBI man and raised one ex-Homeland Security chief; Japan’s politicians are threatening (again) to introduce integrated casino resort legislation; Belle Corp. asked for more land on which to build in Manila’s Entertainment City; Aussie bookmaker Tom Waterhouse defended his burgeoning TV career; Crown Melbourne reportedly decided against prosecuting the pair behind an alleged $32m casino heist; Entertainment Gaming Asia announced the grand opening of Dreamworld Poipet; Bodog Asia announced their new marketing director and Angelia Ong congratulated Khac Trung Tran for his APT Philippines main event triumph.
