AMERICAS
The District of Columbia looks set to repeal its first-in-the-nation online gambling law; Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and Bally Technologies posted financial results; MGM Resorts, Boyd Gaming and Fertitta Interactive filed applications for Nevada online poker licenses; a US District Judge dismissed most of a class action suit against Full Tilt Poker, but Groupe Bernard Tapie claims their deal to acquire FTP’s assets from the DoJ may turn on outstanding debts owed to FTP by poker pros; Facebook and Caesars Entertainment are looking to go public, and Caesars Interactive extended its relationship with 888 Holdings offshoot Dragonfish; Florida’s casino bill is dead for another year; Canadian outfit Amaya Gaming Group’s deal to acquire Cryptologic will go ahead; the Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corp. extended the bidding deadline to become its online gambling tech supplier; the World Series of Poker killed off the November Nine, but as we move closer to Black Friday’s one-year anniversary, contributor Jason Kirk sees light at the end of the tunnel for US poker players.
EUROPE
Rank Group announced it was in talks to acquire Gala Coral’s 24 UK casinos; the Jersey Gambling Commission inked a memorandum of understanding with their Danish counterparts, while the Alderney Gambling Control Commission did a similar deal with the Canadian province of Ontario; Betfair’s legal eagle Martin Cruddace told racing to wake up and smell the horseshit; Germany’s Tipp24 posted record profits; the chief of Greece’s horse betting monopoly was arrested over the state-run company’s debts, and 3D poker outfit PKR took on even more dimensions by adding Zukido’s mobile games and OpenBet’s casino product.
ASIA
Chinese New Year produced the expected boom in Macau gaming revenues; Universal Entertainment’s Kazuo Okada got grief from Steve Wynn and Manila fisherfolk; a Thai politician looked to make a name for himself by suggesting police have ties to illegal casinos; Philippine politicians want a couple Pagcor execs investigated, and mobile gambling is officially out of the question in North Korea.
VIDEO PICK
But enough looking backward… Let Rebecca Liggero clue you in as to what’s happening on the online gambling industry’s events calendar for the month of February.
