Gaming Industry News Weekly Recap – Stories You Might Have Missed

weekly-recap-august-31THE AMERICAS
2UP Gaming said it was close to a deal to buy an Atlantic City casino while the Golden Nugget’s owners say they’re open to any offer; Las Vegas Sands agreed to pay $47.4m to settle a money laundering investigation connected to an alleged Mexican meth kingpin; Delaware launched free-play online gambling ahead of its real-money launch in October; Amaya Gaming continues to struggle after its acquisition binge; former Legends CEO Luke King made bail; Google Play put new restrictions on gambling apps; fantasy sports laid a gigantic egg at Atlantic City casinos; Nevada casinos took a pounding in July from baccarat whales; William Hill US added another Vegas sportsbook to its roster; the US Department of Justice decided it hates sports betting more than marijuana; Vince Martin confessed to having underestimated the US regional casino market; Becky Liggero investigated how affiliates have fared since Black Friday while Mike O’Donnell wondered what the future holds for US-facing affiliates.

EUROPE AND AFRICA
Paddy Power, 888 Holdings and Playtech turned in healthy earnings reports while Bwin.party’s downward spiral continued unabated and Greeks, Czechs and Swedes also filed earnings reports; 888 Poker killed off its heads-up cash games while Dusk Till Dawn launched Online Club Cash Games; BetTech Gaming inked more tech deals in South Africa and Uganda; UK gamblers stopped searching for gambling in Google in July while BizUp’s Matteo Monari discussed the importance of social signals in search engine optimization; John Acres reminded casino operators that they need customers more than customers need casinos; Becky Liggero walked readers through a day in the life of an iGaming affiliate manager; the CEO of the Professional Footballers’ Association was called a hypocrite over his alleged betting debts and Lee Davy pondered the cozy relationship between football teams and their online gambling sponsors.

ASIA
Marina Bay Sands won Singapore’s first casino debt collection lawsuit; the Macau Jockey Club closed four off-track betting operations; the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation and the Bureau of Internal Revenue may have reached a deal to spare casinos from paying the proposed 30% corporate income tax on gaming revenue; Echo Entertainment’s Queensland monopoly came under fire from Premier Campbell Newman; Tom Waterhouse lost a defamation suit he’d brought against columnist Peter Fitzsimons and Lee Davy reviewed the Alligator Blood chronicle of disgraced Aussie online payment provider Daniel Tzvetkoff.