The week that was:
THE AMERICAS
Calvin Ayre was indicted by the US Department of Justice and the dormant Bodog.com domain was seized by Homeland Security, but (as usual) the mainstream media got many of the facts wrong; social gamers Zynga decreased their reliance on Facebook with the launch of a standalone site and hinted at a joint venture with a US casino; Ryan Lang became the fourth indicted Black Friday figure to plead guilty; Donald Hellinger pled guilty to processing gambling payments unrelated to Black Friday; Canada’s parliament approved a single-game sports betting bill; Caesars Entertainment saw a full-year net revenue increase cancelled out by rising interest payments on its massive debt; Scientific Games’ Q4 revenues rose; Loto-Québec saw its fledgling online revenues grow nearly three-fold; Mexico’s Grupo Caliente struck a deal with Playtech; the Epic Poker League filed for Chapter 11 and gaming firms continued to spend big on federal lobbyists in Q4.
EUROPE
Sportingbet’s pullout from Turkey hurt its H1 bottom line but the company is pressing ahead with talks on a US-facing joint venture; Codere revenues were up in 2011; the Netherlands’ highest court tossed out Ladbrokes’ appeal of Dutch gaming law; Boylesports restructured its land-based and online businesses; French regulator ARJEL hinted at major changes to the country’s gaming laws; Chilipoker merged with Poker770; Italian firm SNAI aborted its planned acquisition of Cogetech; Las Vegas Sands’ Sheldon Adelson can’t make up his mind which Spanish city will host his new gaming zone, and the European Union’s top court threw out the football fixture list copyright suit.
ASIA
The Kazuo Okada v. Steve Wynn feud ratcheted up with Okada saying he had not yet begun to fight, a Philippines House of Representatives committee tried to ban Wynn from ever doing business in the country and Sheldon Adelson added a measure of support to Okada’s statements regarding Asian business practices; SJM Holdings saw net profit rise 49% in 2011; Macau’s February revenues topped MOP24b; James Packer’s Crown Ltd. wants its own Sydney casino and the first Chinese mainland-owned casino cruise line set sail.
