THE AMERICAS
California prepped for its first Assembly floor vote on online poker legislation while Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives gave preliminary approval to online gambling and DFS legislation; GAN inked another mystery social casino deal and was fined $25k by New Jersey regulators for a half-baked Android app; DraftKings inked a marketing deal with the Canadian Football League; the Michigan Lottery’s online site quadrupled users since its launch; the NHL downplayed the role betting will play in its new Las Vegas franchise; Caesars Entertainment received the okay to hold a creditor vote on its restructuring; BetConstruct’s Vahe Baloulian talked up the vast potential of Latin America; MGM Resorts’ Lovell Walker explained how millennials are changing the dynamic of gaming and Lee Davy recapped all the goings-on at the 2016 World Series of Poker.
EUROPE
The online gambling industry pondered (a) the fallout from the UK’s Brexit vote and (b) how the bookmakers got the vote so wrong; William Hill shook up its online division’s senior management; Russia blocked access to Amazon Cloud service over an 888poker advert; DDOS attacks against online gambling sites are on the rise; DraftKings acquired UK fantasy operator TransferKings; PokerStars eliminated microstakes games in Belgium; Roo Wright offered tips on how to successfully sell an affiliate business; Win Technologies’ Adam Savinson explained why communication in eSports betting was absolutely essential and Rebecca Liggero recapped the GamCrowd-organized online gambling sessions at London Technology Week.
ASIA and AUSTRALIA
South Australia imposed the nation’s first online betting point of consumption tax; Bloomberry Resorts sold its South Korean casino to Macau junket investor Iao Kun Group; Tabcorp was among three companies vying to handle the New Zealand TAB’s fixed-odds betting while one lucky Kiwi won $10.1m playing forbidden online slots; the Chinese city of Turpan bet on cockfighting to boost tourism; China’s Taobao online marketplace cracked down on prop bets disguised as insurance policies; Melco Crown rethought Studio City’s lack of VIP gaming tables while Lawrence Ho said the property’s slow start was a marketing failure; Euro 2016 betting could push Macau’s casino revenue to a five-year low; Lamson Macao’s David Schmidt talked up the potential of its RoboCasino product and the Calvin Ayre Foundation brought some relief to the typhoon-affected Philippine village of Chitongco.
