THE AMERICAS
The week spawned a plethora of online gambling rumours, most of which were due for a thorough debunking; the famous DiCristina ‘poker is a skill game’ ruling got slapped down by a federal appeals court while another federal judge declared that Bitcoin was indeed a currency and could be regulated as such; 888 confirmed it would operate under its own brand in New Jersey while PokerStars took legal steps to block public access to its New Jersey gaming license application; MGM Resorts lost $93m in Q2 and predicted a Nevada-New Jersey online gambling compact in 2014; Station Casinos profit rose in Q2 but its Ultimate Gaming division lost $1.6m; Atlantic City casinos continued their losing ways in July; Delaware doubled its sports betting points of sale and added over/under wagering options; Lock Poker closed its forum on 2+2 and opened a new private forum so it could limit embarrassing questions about its financial state; Global Cash Access’ Tim Richards talked online payments for US gambling with Rebecca Liggero and Lee Davy interviewed the author of a new book on Daniel Tzvetkoff’s role in bringing about the demise of US online poker.
EUROPE
Ladbrokes blamed its shoddy H1 earnings on a surplus of ultraviolet rays; Gibraltar-based online gambling firms found themselves under siege by a new Spanish armada; Unibet unveiled plans to become a top-five UK sportsbook; guest contributor Simon Cross profiled the mobile-only gambler; Rebecca Liggero talked to Tradologic’s Ofri Noier about the role of affiliates in binary options trading; Mike O’Donnell pondered the legacy of PokerStrategy.com; Lee Davy discussed the difficulty in deciding when to retire from the poker game and Vince Martin concluded his history of publicly traded poker.
ASIA
William Hill Australia grew even larger with the acquisition of Australian bookie TomWaterhouse.com; Melco Crown doubled its profits in Q2 by outpacing the Macau market; sweeping changes in Victoria ate into Tabcorp’s annual profits; Vietnam introduced new legislation limiting casinos to five-star hotels; Caesars finally offloaded its Macau golf course for $140m less than it paid for the place in 2007; Cambodian casino operator NagaCorp saw profits rise thanks to new junket deals; Entertainment Gaming Asia plotted a new VIP gambler focus for Dreamworld Pailin; Genting Singapore saw flat Q2 earnings despite a boost in VIP turnover; Australian Liberal party leader Tony Abbott vowed to end online gambling credit if elected Prime Minister in September; junket operator Amax Holdings expressed doubts about its financial future and the new Macao Gaming Show promised to shine a spotlight on the junket business.
