Gaming Industry News Weekly Recap – Stories You Might Have Missed

april-26-new-weekly-recapTHE AMERICAS
PokerStars announced a California online poker deal just as state legislators were hearing why Stars shouldn’t be allowed over the state’s borders; the Minnesota Lottery’s first in the nation online scratch-off tickets won’t be online much longer; Bitcoin sports betting site Coinbet shut down after stiffing a winning bettor; DoubleDown Casino was the star of IGT’s Q2 results; Churchill Downs investors wondered when the company’s online gambling platform would start earning revenue; art dealer Helly Nahmad said he shouldn’t go to jail for illegal sportsbetting because his father gambled; Genting and Caesars applied to build casinos in upstate New York; Antigua said its WTO dispute with the US proved might makes right; Zynga Poker posted its first booking gains in nearly two years; Phil Hellmuth appeared in a Carl’s Jr. commercial while Blair Hinkle set all sorts of WSOP-C records and Rafi Farber explained why Penn National Gaming has a brighter future than Pinnacle Entertainment or Boyd Gaming.

EUROPE and AFRICA
Rumors flew that UK would give local councils veto power over new bet shop openings; Jason Ader launched a website to save Bwin.party from itself and Google imposed a search penalty on Bwin.party for dodgy link building; William Hill’s Q1 profits were undone by two bad weeks of football; Betsson profits rose despite continued online poker weakness; South Africa published its draft online gambling legislation; the Czech Republic began drafting an online gambling bill; Russia introduced legislation to bring gambling to the Crimea; the UK’s ad watchdog banished Paddy Power’s Oscar Pistorius advert but Paddy Power and PokerStars were named social stars of social media; Victoria Coren Mitchell became the first European Poker Tour two-time champeen; Eurobet’s Marco Trucco discussed the differences between the European and Asian betting markets; PokerStars announced the SCOOP 2014 schedule and Rebecca Liggero quizzed industry voices on the future of real-money gambling on Facebook.

ASIA
Las Vegas Sands was declared the king of Macau’s mass market; Lawrence Ho boosted his stake in his Russian casino project; Macau announced that VIP gaming room policies would be discussed during casino license renewals and the wife of the owner of junket operator Neptune Group was arrested by Hong Kong police; NagaCorp’s VIP-focused strategy worried analysts; Australia’s Crown Resorts was said to be looking to buy the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas; Japan’s largest travel agency said it wants to build a casino in Nagasaki; the CEO of PhilWeb said the Philippines isn’t ready for online gambling and the WSOP Asia-Pacific announced its 2014 schedule.