THE AMERICAS
Nevada casinos suffered a double-digit revenue decline in November while Atlantic City posted its sixth straight year of revenue decline and Pennsylvania humble-bragged that it had a record 2012; the Poker Players Alliance conceded that US legislative momentum has shifted from DC to the individual states; Lottomatica and Golden Gaming got initial Nevada online poker approval; Zynga acquired a bunch of online gambling patents and the American Gaming Association is losing the only CEO it has ever known.
EUROPE
Ladbrokes admitted it was considering acquiring betting exchange Betdaq; the Italian sports betting market had a ‘meh’ 2012, while some Danish operators had more fun than others; the Dutch government wants operators to offer suggestions on how to liberalize their online gambling market; the UK decided not impose further restrictions on fixed-odds betting terminals; Rank suggested Blue Square may not be long for this world; Lottomatica and IGT teamed up in Italy; Gamesys acquired Virgin Games; Betfair joined iPoker’s top tier; Betfred expanded its Totepool deal with UK racetracks; Russia decided to label gambling addicts as “incompetent” individuals and the totally not incompetent ISPT changed formats and reduced expectations (again).
ASIA
Macau hinted at some flexibility in their table game cap; MGM China got its Cotai okay; Indonesia busted some online gambling credit betting agents; Paradise Entertainment prepared for a US invasion; Universal Ent. asked an independent panel to investigate bribery allegations, but the FBI is already on the job; a court in Vietnam upheld a slot player’s $55.5m win; Tom Waterhouse wrestled the NRL partnership from Tabcorp; Bodog88 launched a new smartphone interface and 188Bet went the anonymous poker route.
