The week that was:
AMERICAS
Two weeks before his trial was to begin, Black Friday defendant Chad Elie struck a deal with prosecutors; Elie’s co-defendant John Campos struck a similar deal the next day, but the judge handling the case hasn’t decided whether to accept it; America went apeshit over a lottery; Delaware to introduce online gambling legislation this week; WMS wants a Nevada online poker license, so it’s a good thing the Nevada Gaming Policy Committee held its first meeting in decades; the National Football League may permit casino advertising at its stadiums; the makers of the BlackBerry decided to exit the consumer market; Magic Johnson (and friends) bought the LA Dodgers for $2b; Atlantic City wants you to do it but would you do an online poker site run by Phil Hellmuth?
EUROPE
Bwin.party, 888 Holdings, Intralot, JAXX SE and Tipp24 turned in earnings report cards for 2011; the Alderney Gambling Control Commission got off easy in the Dean report on the Full Tilt Poker debacle; gambling regulators in European countries mused about memoranda of understanding; Sportingbet will challenge the Spanish court ruling brought by Codere; the UK’s National Lottery went mobile; Portugal’s betting monopoly sicced its lawyers on Betclic; France Pari got a fixed-odds license; OPAP revealed its online vendor shortlist and mused about international expansion while Rank Group broke off talks to acquire Gala Coral’s casinos.
ASIA
Constant allegations of cricket match-fixing have produced calls for India to regulate sports betting; a Philippine politician wants jueteng legalized; a Thai politician made some wild allegations about Russian mob casinos in Phuket; China broke up yet another gambling ring; looks like the UFC is coming to Macau; Betfair and Sportsbet lost their long-running court fight with Racing NSW; Wynn Resorts protested the move of its lawsuit against Kazuo Okada to federal court while a Louisiana police retirement fund launched its own lawsuit against Wynn over those University of Macau ‘donations’ and CasinoLeaks-Macau took another shot at MGM Resorts.
