THE AMERICAS
Amaya Gaming posted a net loss in Q4 as its new casino vertical cannibalized poker revenue; an independent examiner confirmed that Caesars Entertainment could be on the hook for $5b in damages over its pre-bankruptcy asset transfers; US Homeland Security accused online bookie 5Dimes of misusing Amazon gift cards; New Jersey set another online gambling revenue record and legislators approved a November referendum on casinos outside Atlantic City; Oklahoma said it wouldn’t stand in the way of the PokerTribe.com launch; Yahoo Games announced it would shut down on May 13; Nevada’s supreme court ordered yet another new trial in the Richard Suen v. Las Vegas Sands case; Massachusetts announced plans to test slots pre-commitment technology while Wynn Resorts announced a July groundbreaking for its Boston casino; Microsoft announced a new Xbox Live Tournament Platform and Johnny Jaswal suggested online gambling operators mount a legal challenge of Canada’s provincial monopolies.
EUROPE
The UK government announced plans to tax online casino and bingo free bets; Germany proposed doubling its number of available sports betting licenses; Russian online bookmaker traffic fell nearly one-quarter in 2015 and Moscow got its first off-track betting parlor; Swiss casino revenue fell for the eighth straight year and Romanian casinos braced for a new smoking ban; Paddy Power Betfair CEO Breon Corcoran cashed in shares worth £4m; Bettorlogic’s Andrew Dagnall explained why companies would be wise to profile online sports bettors; FanUnite’s Darius Eghdami weighed the appeal of crowdsourcing handicappers’ picks; Clifton Davies Consultancy’s David Clifton said UK gambling operators had “a bit of appetite” for daily fantasy sports; Lee Davy pondered whether online poker training sites were oversharing insights into other players’ games and wondered how long it would be before artificial intelligence conquers the poker world.
ASIA
Philippine legislators probed the casino industry’s connection with those heisted Bangladeshi millions but PAGCOR says banks were more at fault; rumors flew that Australia’s government would tighten online in-play betting loopholes ahead of the federal election; Nagaland became the first Indian state to approve online skill games legislation; Crownbet was rumored to be discussing a daily fantasy sports partnership with Fox Sports Australia; Macau’s junket operators aren’t interested in new Cotai VIP rooms; Cambodian authorities investigated the murder of a Vietnamese casino gambler; Stanley Ho’s nephew was found guilty of sexual exploitation via a prostitution ring out of a Macau hotel; Tasmania’s government plotted the end of the Federal Group’s casino monopoly; ONEworks and Colossus Bets launched a new Asian sports lottery; regulators cast a critical eye on Tabcorp’s past efforts to win a Cambodian online gambling license; Macau academic Zeng Zhonglu said Macau gamblers don’t understand electronic gaming machines and Rafi Farber explained why Macau casino stock growth will continue to prove elusive.
