THE AMERICAS
New Jersey hired Malta’s former top gaming regulator to help oversee its online gambling plans; Nevada’s ‘entity betting’ legislation and California’s sports betting bill both died in committee; Visa announced it can differentiate between state-sanctioned online gambling and the other kind; Chino Rheem earned $1.1m at the WPT World Championship while David Sands earned $1m at the Super High Roller; Annie Duke issued a statement on the infamous Ultimate Bet tapes; Jason Kirk reminisced over the 10th anniversary of Chris Moneymaker’s WSOP triumph and Becky Liggero talked California online poker legislation with Pechanga.net’s Victor Rocha and the role of affiliates in a regulated US market.
EUROPE
Bwin.party turned in an abysmal Q1 report card; the Netherlands published its draft online gambling legislation; Ladbrokes warned it would be outsourcing 100 UK jobs to Israel; PokerStars took steps to protect its recreational players; the French online gambling market had a so-so start to 2013; guest contributor David Newstead analyzed the psychology of slots players; Mike O’Donnell honored UK bookies for scooping the mainstream media on Sir Alex’s exit from Manchester United; Becky Liggero discussed the UK point-of-consumption tax with attorney Peter Wilson and CalvinAyre.com celebrated the third anniversary of its launch party in Prague.
ASIA
Australia told broadcasters no more live odds promotion during sports broadcasts; the NRL walked away from its gambling partnership with Tom Waterhouse; Chinese authorities busted the ‘largest illegal soccer betting gang’ ever to operate on the mainland; hackers robbed a Macau casino of $386k; India was rocked by yet another cricket spot-fixing scandal; James Packer dumped his 10% stake in Echo Entertainment; a Japanese court ruled that betting slips are a legit business expense; Universal Entertainment said its controversial $25m payment to a consultant was ‘unnecessary’; Pagcor appealed the new 30% corporate tax on its licensees; Vince Martin warned investors to be cautious investing in South Korean gaming firms; Andrew Mosley discussed high stakes poker cash games in Macau and Angelia Ong was all over the G2E Asia.
