THE AMERICAS
Las Vegas Sands’ Sheldon Adelson delivered not one but two polemics on the evils of online gambling; Playtech apparently gave up on its US online gambling dreams; Kentucky received $6m from the feds for dropping its claim to the Black Friday online poker domains; federal agents busted the Macho Sports online credit betting operation; Zynga acquired social casino developer Spooky Cool Labs; prominent Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox “temporarily” suspended US-dollar withdrawals; New York reached a deal for four upstate casinos; Atlantic City’s Revel promised customers a 100% refund on slots losses; as usual, Lee Davy covered the hell out of the World Series of Poker while Jason Kirk pondered Black Friday’s effect on US players’ bracelet wins; NorthernBear Casino’s Bernie Shepherd told Rebecca Liggero why First Nations tribes should get into online gambling in Canada while Vince Martin pondered the complexities of interstate online gambling compacts.
EUROPE
Bet365 became the world’s biggest online betting company; Paddy Power won its legal showdown with Newham Council; the European Commission approved France’s online betting levy; William Hill topped an iPhone betting app survey; Ongame returned its Spanish online gambling license; Mike O’Donnell wondered when casinos would get wise to cloud computing; sports betting outfit Matchbook previewed its Sam Tricket documentary; Kirby Garlitos previewed the Bitcoin London Conference and the Bodog Poker Network’s Jonas Ödman reviewed 18 months of fully anonymous poker.
ASIA
South Korea rejected casino license bids by both Caesars Entertainment and Universal Entertainment; Chinese authorities busted a cross-border online betting ring; PAGCOR projected Philippine gaming revenue to grow 25% this year thanks to Solaire Manila; Japanese pachinko revenues grew for the fourth straight month; Macau Legend said it’s been promised 350 gaming tables above and beyond Macau’s table cap; Vietnam proposed a 10% tax on casino winnings; Tabcorp renewed its NSW retail betting monopoly; Sri Lanka planned to cluster its casinos in Colombo and Sportsbet’s very public salute to sodomy didn’t go over well with Aussie politicians.
