Amaya Gaming Group has reportedly come to an agreement with bwin.party to purchase Ongame for a figure between $6.5million and $8million. Pokerfuse report that an announcement will be made next week for the transfer of bwin.party’s “surplus asset” and it’s a considerably lower price than the €30m that Shuffle Master was ready to pay earlier on this year. Even at the top end of the estimate it’s a huge loss on the €475m Bwin paid for the network way back in 2006. When they’ve sealed this deal it will give Amaya quite the one-two punch when put together with their Cryptologic casino product and we’ll likely be seeing more of them in the coming years.
Spain has updated its tax laws to allow gambling losses to be deducted from player wins. Spanish paper El Pais reports the change means that when gamblers report their annual winnings at the end of a year they will now enter their winnings with the losses already taken away. The news comes after confusion had reigned over how to enter tournament winnings, losses and entry fees on the end of year tax form. Spain handed out its first licences midway through the year and this is what is thought to have triggered the rethink in the tax law. The law will reportedly be “retroactively applied to the beginning of the year”.
Another Merge Gaming skin is shutting down with BluffRoom.com confirming they’ll be offline in the foreseeable future. Pokerfuse report the site, which has left affiliates unpaid for two months, will close soon and that player funds are held by the Merge cashier so “should be safe”. This stems from the fact that the company itself holds affiliate money and the closure follows another IG & Partners skin, Bluff Gaming, shutting in August due to “liquidity problems”. Malta’s Lotteries and Gaming Authority has yet to withdraw any of the plethora of licences the company holds.
