Gaming Industry News Weekly Recap – Stories You Might Have Missed

may-30-new-weekly-recapTHE AMERICAS
Sportech sold its stake in the SNG Interactive joint venture; a federal judge dismissed evidence against Paul Phua but prosecutors won’t let him return to Malaysia without a fight; California’s online poker ‘shell’ bill cleared another procedural hurdle but conflict of interest allegations claimed another California gaming regulator; the Department of Justice lost control of seized Black Friday poker domains; Delaware’s online poker market got a boost from interstate liquidity sharing; a new study proved the link between sports betting and TV ratings while another study said Facebook use can lead to greater financial risk-taking; daily fantasy sports operator FanDuel released a new ‘full’ Android app while DFS startup ScoreStreak ran out of money; Nevada casinos broke a two-month losing streak; I. Nelson Rose asked regulators to reconsider why certain rules are necessary; Caesars Entertainment got more time to arrange its bankruptcy rescue plan; the 46th annual World Series of Poker kicked off in Vegas; Becky Liggero offered video highlights of the CalvinAyre.com fifth anniversary party and recalled her top 10 memories from five years of greatness.

EUROPE & AFRICA
PokerStars signed some footballer named Cristiano Ronaldo as a brand ambassador while the football world was rocked by the arrest of top FIFA officials on corruption charges;; 666Bet revealed that it needed to raise more money to fulfill customer withdrawal requests; OPAP posted its seventh consecutive quarter of growth; Italian gambling spending fell in 2014; bwin.party announced plans to close WPTpoker.com; Rafi Farber examined how UK bookies were coping with new tax challenges; Kiron Interactive and Vermantia launched virtual gaming in Uganda; Sky Bet announced its interest in re-upping its Football League sponsorship; Binary Options Pty Ltd.’s Chris Morton discussed the options for affiliates in the binary options sector and Lee Davy examined the controversy surrounding new voice activated remote software on PokerStars’ Heads-Up Sit n Go games.

ASIA
The launch of Galaxy Macau Phase 2 has other Macau casino operators watching nervously; China warned that it won’t let its citizens travel to Taiwan to gamble in casinos; SunCity Group’s Poker King Club officially opened at the Venetian Macao; Macau casino crime rose more than one-fifth in Q1; some senior Thai police officers were reassigned following an online gambling bust; Macau junket operator Iao Kun Group saw VIP turnover fall more than half while New Zealand casino operator SkyCity Entertainment Group saw VIP turnover double; Entertainment Gaming Asia posted its first profit in two years; a Singapore man was charged with defrauding Manila’s Solaire Resort and Casino and Cambodia’s Grand Dragon Resort was accused of torturing its Indonesian staffers.