THE AMERICAS
California got two new online poker bills, one offering wiggle room on bad actors, and state gaming regulator Richard Scheutz thinks the time for passage is now; Nevada finally got its third online poker site; New Jersey filed its Supreme Court sports betting appeal; Oklahoma’s Cheyenne & Arapaho shut down PokerTribes.com; Sen. Dean Heller promised a federal bill to ban online gambling with a poker carveout; the Interactive Gaming Council won a procedural victory in the Kentucky domain forfeiture case; those hacked Las Vegas Sands’ websites came back online but the hackers got deeper than Sands thought; Nevada sportsbooks caught FIFA World Cup fever and Jason Kirk put on his cranky old man hat and remembered a time when the poker world wasn’t so completely shite.
EUROPE
Playtech has an exceptionally profitable 2013; an activist hedge fund’s new seat on Bwin.party’s board suggested change is coming; the big five UK bookie bosses unveiled their new responsible gambling code; PokerStars got its Bulgarian license; the UK Gambling Commission said it was still monitoring the Canbet situation but the Commission suspended Bodugi’s license after customers complained about accessing their money; Williams Interactive sold JackpotParty to SkillOnNet and Gtech paid £18m for Probability PLC; William Hill played down rumors of CEO Ralph Topping’s early exit; poor football results put a dent in Gala Coral’s Q1 profits; Betfair claimed an industry first tie-up with photo messaging app Snapchat; Ladbrokes put the brakes on further retail expansion while Betfred looked to shift from tenant to landlord; a Dutch court denied bail to Sheriff Gaming CEO Stijn Flapper; Mike O’Donnell wondered if sports sponsorships were gambling firms’ only options; Lee Davy talked altruism with Philipp Gruissem and pondered the impact of negative feedback; Rebecca Liggero examined survival in the evolving iGaming affiliate marketing environment and discussed Bitcoin payment processing with Coinapult director Gabriel Sukenik.
ASIA
Genting Singapore’s results suffered as VIPs got lucky but Singapore maintained its spot as the world’s #3 casino hub; China launched a war on vice in which some top cops became casualties; Crown Resorts said the super tax on its Crown Melbourne property was keeping VIPs away; MGM Resorts had its best year since the recession thanks to Macau; Bloomberry Resorts joined the ranks of those expressing Japanese hopes and dreams and Kirby Garlitos welcomed the world to the Winter Warmer Asia iGaming Social in Manila.
