THE AMERICAS
Antigua finally got America’s attention with its stated intention to launch a royalty-free download site; Las Vegas Sands announced it would curb international money transfers on behalf of its high-rollers; the Department of Justice declared its intention to intervene in the New Jersey sports betting legal fight; Massachusetts and Mississippi introduced online gaming legislation; Manitoba became the latest Canadian province to launch an online gambling site; the Merge Gaming Network killed off its rakeback program; IGT posted record revenue in Q1; some Bitcoin gambling sites revealed surprising revenue figures; Lottomatica and Golden Gaming received Nevada online poker licenses but Jason Kirk said it was time for a reality check on the US online poker regulation timetable; Mike O’Donnell wondered if iGaming operators shoud do more offline advertising while Bill Beatty found PokerScout’s hypocritical positions on data ownership a little ironic.
EUROPE
The German State Gambling Treaty was referred to the EU Court of Justice, while the same court declared OPAP’s Greek monopoly to be illegal; Ladbrokes completed its acquisition of betting exchange Betdaq; Evolution Gaming hit a live dealer casino milestone; Bet365 maintained its dominance over in-play betting; 32Red had a record 2012; Spain denied showing favoritism toward Codere in back-tax grab; Lottomatica decided to rebrand itself as GTECH; IGT made a deal with Groupe Circus to enter the Belgian online gambling market; Playtech signed a live dealer casino deal in Spain and Intralot received a land-based betting license in Cyprus.
ASIA
Caesars Entertainment entered into a joint venture aimed at building a South Korean casino; Weidner Resorts ramped up its resort casino plans in Taiwan’s Matsu islands; the Venetian Macao sued a couple of Chinese deadbeats for millions; PYE shareholders approved a Macau boutique casino plan and the Philippine banking system got a thumbs-up from Moody’s.
