THE AMERICAS
The news the online poker world has been waiting for finally arrived as PokerStars agreed to pay $731m to acquire Full Tilt Poker’s assets, repay FTP’s former players and settle its own Black Friday civil charges, clearing the path for a relaunch of FTP outside the US and a potential return to the US for both companies, a prospect that sent bwin.party stock into a tailspin; Harry Reid’s still having trouble getting Republican support for his online poker bill; Maryland surprised everyone by suddenly throwing online gambling on the legislative table (maybe); Cantor Gaming inked an online poker deal with California racetracks; Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson beat an apology out of some Democrats over big pimpin’ allegations but the DoJ hit back with a money laundering investigation; both Zynga and Facebook shares hit new lows and affiliates pondered life in a future US regulated market.
EUROPE
Ladbrokes’ H1 was a tale of digital disaster rescued by robust retail; William Hill planned a legal challenge of the UK’s proposed point-of-consumption tax yet still found enough money to make it rain for their forward-looking staffers; Italian gamblers are spending more, but only on VLTs, and Stanleybet has a bone to pick with the Italian government regarding VLT licenses; iPoker suspended Swedish skin Moore Games for a ‘material breach’ of network policy and Portuguese legislators weighed three online gambling liberalization options.
ASIA
Macau’s revenue growth in July was the slowest since 2009, which may have helped convince officials not to enforce the table cap all that strictly; junket operator AERL saw a serious dropoff in rolling chip turnover; Pagcor officials got an all-clear from the ombudsman on misconduct allegations; Carlos Chang took down the APT Macau main event; Crown Ltd. solidified its position to be awarded the next Sydney casino license and Macau officials want to talk about prostitutes with Sands China.
