Gaming Industry News Weekly Recap – Stories You Might Have Missed

weekly-recap-september-7THE AMERICAS
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) got caught playing online poker (for virtual money, sadly) during a Senate hearing on military intervention in Syria; two more defendants pled guilty for their roles in that New York/LA poker and sports betting ring; Atlantic City casinos laid off hundreds of employees thanks in part to strengthening regional competition leading Jason Kirk to suggest online gambling is AC’s only hope; Lee Davy reviewed a trio of poker books, got the female perspective on poker from Sarah Grant and took a walk down memory lane detailing the history of the World Poker Tour Borgata Open; Vince Martin was an equal opportunity National Football League offender, telling both AFC and NFC fans why they were bound to be disappointed this year and legendary sports betting figure Billy Walters said online sportsbooks were better than their Vegas counterparts.

EUROPE
Betfair revenues continue to fall but margins improved after cost-cutting measures; high-stakes poker players were targeted by malware scammers at EPT Barcelona; PokerStars announced an ingenious way to return frozen Full Tilt account balances to Italian players while Italian senators mistakenly banned online gambling for a 12-month period; Party Poker’s new software got off to a bumpy start; Ladbrokes began its next round of layoffs and picked Best Gaming Technology to power its self-service betting terminals; Deutsche Telekom applied for a German sports betting license; William Hill completed its acquisition of the Spanish-facing Miapuesta brand; Gian Perroni discussed affiliate payment options while Rebecca Liggero got an affiliate success story from CasinoCity’s Michael Corfman; the release of new social casino games continues unabated but 1710 Gaming’s Christine Thakor-Rankin questioned whether it was possible to convert social casino gamers to real-money gambling; JVH Gaming’s Eric Olders talked convergence in the Netherlands; Skill In Games’ founder Dave Thornton said first-time online poker winners don’t become long-term customers; Kirby Garlitos examined the football transfer season’s winners and losers and Vince Martin pondered European iGaming’s continued resilience.

ASIA
Macau casinos had their second best revenue month in August but SJM Holdings’ status as market leader is slipping; Australia voted in a new federal government that believes online gambling is more offensive than banana hammocks; Ladbrokes bought into the Australian market while William Hill announced it would scrap Australia’s Sportingbet and Centrebet brands; the Philippine Economic Zone Authority took Kazuo Okada’s side by disputing those Entertainment City bribery allegations but the Philippine DOJ still sent agents to Japan to investigate the matter further; Japan’s push for casinos got a major boost after Tokyo won the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games and Osaka officials went on a fact-finding mission to Crown Melbourne; Sportsbet squared off in court with a punter whose action they’d limited; Sands China ousted COO David Sisk while BetVictor added Magnus Grinneback as their man in Asia; SJM Holdings boosted its Cotai construction budget and suggested it should be cut some slack on Macau’s new smoking restrictions while Cambodia got tough(er) on online gambling within its borders.