THE AMERICAS
Just days after the feds busted an online credit sports betting operation, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gave legal sports betting the green light and dared the feds and sports leagues to stop him; just for fun, New York introduced its own sports betting bill; WMS Gaming acquired Swedish deveopers Jadestone Group; mobile gambling in Atlantic City casinos took another step towards legalization; MGM previewed its myVegas social casino while RocketFrog’s social casino plans to offer gift cards in lieu of virtual prizes; Vince Martin defended the controversial Facebook IPO and analyzed which US casino tycoon you’d most like to be stranded with on a deserted (because it’s private property) island; oh, and some guy had his 51st birthday.
EUROPE
Online betting companies began settling their tabs with Spain’s back-taxman ahead of the June 1 market liberalization, starting with bwin.party, followed by Sportingbet, Betfair and 888 Holdings; the German state of Schleswig-Holstein issued gaming licenses to bwin.party, Bet365, bet-at-home and Tipico; financial figures were released by Redbet, Cirsa, GVC Holdings and the National Lottery; Maltese regulators washed their hands of shuttered licensee Purple Lounge; Pinnacle Sports and Sportech received Alderney gaming licenses; Paddy Power reshuffled its deck of executives; a five-year-old took spread betting firm Spreadex for £50k; PKR and Betfair released Facebook apps; Bodog and West Brom bade their fond goodbyes; the 2012 Spring Championship of Online Poker was the biggest yet; Rebecca Liggero brought her cameras to the iGaming Super Show in Dublin and Playtech pissed off a billion Hindus.
ASIA
Our Angelia Long showed you around the G2E Asia conference in Macau, where two gaming device makers got into a dust-up; Australia pondered legalizing online in-play betting and giving online poker a trial; Macau’s mass market segment is increasingly interested in slots; Russia plans to catch some Asian whales by expanding its casino operations in the Pacific port of Vladivostok; China’s ecom market will top $420b by 2015 and casino whale Henry Kakavas lost his bid for a $20m do-over at Melbourne’s Crown Casino.
