THE AMERICAS
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie did an about face on legal sports betting, setting up an Oct. 6 showdown with a federal judge and Monmouth Park Racetrack gave itself a 45-day window in which to launch its sportsbook; Antigua fired attorney Mark Mendel and made the US a new offer to resolve its WTO dispute; New Jersey online gambling revenue rose 5% in August and Ray Lesniak said PokerStars would announce its return to US shores within “weeks, not months:” MGM Resorts was authorized to return to Atlantic City, where casinos had another soft revenue month while the Trump Taj Mahal filed for bankruptcy and put its employees on 60-day shutdown notice; a druggie peed himself and drove his pickup truck through the doors of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas; Sheldon Adelson’s latest rent-a-pol suggested online gambling didn’t care about black people while Jason Kirk examined how politics was sinking online poker in the USA and industry figures weighed in on whether ‘bad actor’ decisions were best left to legislators or regulators.
EUROPE
UK bookmakers hatched a plan to appoint an independent watchdog to curb their baser impulses while Rafi Farber examined the potential damage to UK bookies’ bottom lines in the event that Scotland votes for independence; Pinnacle Sports became the latest online gambling firm to quit the UK market; Locus Gaming shut down its JackGold site; online gambling operator Mansion announced layoffs in Gibraltar to offset new UK taxes; the Dutch gaming regulator warned two sites to stop filling the void left by fleeing operators; iGaming Ideas’ David Sargeant discussed efforts to inject new ideas into the online gambling space; Becky Liggero brought highlights of BiG Foundation’s first annual BiG Sports Dinner while Lee Davy trawled the WPT Cyprus tourney, talking shop with Albert Daher, James Dempsey, Alexander Lakhov, Toby Lewis, Sofia Lovgren, Luca Moschitta, Dominik Nitsche, Oliver Price, Daniel Rudd and Sam Trickett.
ASIA
Singapore introduced legislation to penalize online gambling operators and sentenced a former Singapore Pools staffer to five years in prison; Cambodia mulled letting its citizens gamble in casinos; SJM Holdings was hit with another labor protest; online gambling site Betjack was accused of stiffing Aussie customers while a New South Wales report suggested payment blocking was the only way to combat international online gambling sites; Clubs Australia’s leader raised eyebrows with his offer to host daycare services at pokies venues; a Crown Melbourne high-roller was shot dead on a Sydney street and CalvinAyre.com shared highlights of the Monsoon Meetup in Makati.
