THE AMERICAS
Daily fantasy sports operators may have lost a major payment processor while both Hawaii and Mississippi declared DFS to be illegal gambling; Atlantic City’s Borgata casino is reportedly rethinking its online partnership with Bwin.party; social casino player ranks thinned in 2015; Nevada sportsboks posted their third straight year of record revenue; Wynn Resorts and Boston ended their casino feud; both PokerStars and its aggrieved VIP players issued statements on their Montreal meeting; former Full Tilt Poker exec Ray Bitar resurfaced at a wedding ceremony; and Jason Mo joined Tatjana Pasalic in this week’s episode of Chats With Tats.
EUROPE
Paddy Power said 2015 profits would rise 10%; Unibet used a cycling sponsorship deal to urge the Dutch government to lower its online tax rate, which even the Dutch regulator believes may be too high; Lithuania debuted its first online gambling blacklist; PokerStars’ casino diversification boosted its Italian market share; Rank Group chose Kambi Sports Solutions for Grosvenor Casinos’ new sports betting offering; the European Union declined to regulate virtual currencies; a Swedish ISP warned of the government’s IP-blocking plans; French politicians rejected online poker liquidity sharing proposals; Denmark’s Danske Spil took a chance on a stock market pool-betting startup; Portugal’s casino market staged a comeback in 2015; a UK granny may have lost out on a £33m lottery jackpot after washing her ticket; Slots Million’s Alexandre Tomic said virtual reality would connect social gaming with real-money gambling; Jonas Odman previewed plans for his recreational poker model 2.0; Catena Media’s Erik Bergman discussed the effects of consolidation in Sweden’s online gambling affiliate market and Rebecca Liggero previewed the top-five attractions at the ICE Totally Gaming 2016.
ASIA
Pinnace Sports claimed to have identified suspicious betting patterns on an Australian Open tennis match but a former Betfair exec called the claims a publicity stunt; Macau’s slump dragged down Las Vegas Sands’ 2015 results; an Australia politician hinted that the government would end its online in-play betting ban; Macau lost nearly one-quarter of its junket operators last year while casino-related crime soared; Melco Crown Entertainment denied reports that it was interested in a Cyprus casino; South Korea’s lottery sales hit a record high in 2015; while the country’s foreigners-only casinos had a bumpy Q4; Thailand mulled launching a lottery; Malaysia unleashed its religious offers on gambling operators and election results could delay Vietnam’s gambling expansion plans.
