THE AMERICAS
The Borgata casino accused Phil Ivey of ‘edge sorting’ them out of $9.6m; CG Technology inked its first Latin American deal with Mexican casino operator Logrand Group; Atlantic City confirmed its casinos had a truly lousy 2013; online gambling lobbyists’ more mercenary instincts were exposed; the Gaming Standards Association talked up the need for a unified set of rules to guide the online gambling industry; Sen. Lou Correa discussed his latest effort to legalize online poker in California; rumors flew that Tropicana Entertainment was purchasing Sands Bethlehem; IGT launched the nation’s first multistate progressive slots jackpot network; the golden handshake given to BCLC’s former CEO had critics crying foul; the Golden Nugget’s Thomas Winter discussed the factors limiting New Jersey’s online gambling revenues while Becky Liggero revealed the number of former Costa Rica-based iGaming talent currently plying their trade in the Garden State and Jason Kirk wondered which events should make up a poker Grand Slam.
EUROPE
Bwin.party’s quarterly revenue fell again, causing Jason Ader to suggest a senior management shakeup was required; a French court recommended a €40k fine to settle Bwin.party CEO Norbert Teufelberger’s illegal gambling charges; 888 Holdings posted record revenue in Q1; GVC Holdings quarterly profit more than doubled thanks to its Sportingbet acquisition; Unibet decided to sell off its Kambi Sports Solutions B2B division; the European Commission questioned OPAP’s online betting monopoly; TurfTV celebrated a successful 2013 at UK racetracks; Betfair joined the list of companies fleeing the Russian market; the UK Gambling Commission revoked Bodugi.com’s license but Bet Butler offered a lifeline to Bodugi’s former customers; the UK’s Football Association wants to ban its players and officials betting on football; PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up took the definition of ‘overlay’ to new heights; Plumbee’s Raf Keustermans discussed the differences between social casino games and their real-money counterparts; Lee Davy profiled new PokerTube face Natasha Sandhu and discussed final table deal making with Jared Tendler while Rafi Farber wondered how low Ladbrokes shares have to dip before bottom feeding investors decide to buy buy buy.
ASIA
Ladbrokes expanded its Australian presence by acquiring independent bookmaker Betstar; Macau police arrested the operator of the Wonderful World ‘name and shame’ gambling debtor website; a South Korea court said gambling loans “need not be repaid”; Echo Entertainment released a positive trading update; China’s Sports Lottery added 10 new sports to its list of wagering options; pachinko outfit Dynam Japan went looking for a local partner to develop a Japanese casino; Crown Resorts’ James Packer wants Australia to lower visa barriers for Chinese high rollers and a team of scammers tried to pass counterfeit chips at Galaxy Macau.
