Gaming Industry News Weekly Recap – Stories You Might Have Missed

december-19-new-weekly-recapTHE AMERICAS
Pennsylvania gave up trying to pass online gambling legislation in 2015; a Kentucky court ordered Amaya Gaming to pay the state $290m but Amaya says it would ask PokerStars’ former owners to foot the bill; Intertain’s shares fell one-third following a hedge fund’s damning analysis; daily fantasy sports activity fell to its lowest level this NFL season; Sheldon Adelson was revealed/exposed as the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s new owner and the paper suggested he tried to dig up dirt on a Nevada judge; New Jersey’s online gambling market notched a new revenue high; US lottery officials expanded their investigation into multi-state jackpot fixing; Caesars Entertainment lost its Hail Mary bid to revise federal bankruptcy rules; Bible verse apps contain more malware than gambling apps; online gambling topped the charts of distributed denial of service attacks; William Hill US chairman Vic Salerno insisted that sports betting isn’t hurting anybody but betting spoiled Pete Rose’s latest attempt to overturn his lifetime baseball ban; proud Lithuanian Tony G challenged Canada’s new prime minister to a poker match and Neil Channing joined Tatjana Pasalic for this week’s episode of Chats with Tats.

EUROPE
Amaya officially launched the BetStars sports betting brand; the UK competition watchdog okayed the Paddy Power-Betfair merger; UK racing relaxed some provisions of its controversial new Authorized Betting Partner scheme; Italy said it would impose a 22% tax on online sports betting revenue; Betsson refuted allegations regarding its recent Europe-Bet acquisition; Clarion Events acquired a majority stake in iGaming Business; DraftKings delayed its UK market launch again while Rob O’Connor wondered if DFS had a future in Europe; the European Commission announced stiff new penalties for data privacy violators; eight companies filed formal bids for the lone Cyprus casino license; Willem van Oort offered his critique of the Netherlands’ remote gaming bill; Sportingbet founder Mark Blandford explained why he was bullish on blockchain technology; Caesars Entertainment UK was fined £845k for anti-money laundering lapses; EA Sports announced it would create a competitive gaming division while NewZoo CEO Peter Warman said eSports growth was “only going to accelerate;” GVC shareholders approved the takeover of Bwin.party and Rafi Farber suggested GVC could be more forthcoming regarding its public earnings reports; Team PokerStars pro Alex Millar resigned in protest of Stars’ VIP changes and Lee Davy wondered if PokerStars was creating an ecosystem in which its players didn’t wish to reside.

ASIA
Macau pawnshops fear the worst after Beijing announced tighter controls over UnionPay devices and Macau promised real-time monitoring of UnionPay transactions; Ladbrokes relaunched its live sports betting app; James Packer was rumored to be taking Crown Resorts private; Sri Lanka casinos said their government is trying to put them out of business; Australian media companies began eyeing daily fantasy sports; barcode payment processor Alipay confirmed that it won’t handle gambling transactions; Paradise Entertainment hopes casinos will buy its robot card dealers and the owners of the Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino filed for bankruptcy.