THE AMERICAS
Amaya Gaming renewed its temporary New Jersey license but offshore company records exposed potential links to the company’s insider trading scandal; attorneys general in both Alabama and Tennessee declared daily fantasy sports to be illegal gambling but FanDuel co-founder Tom Griffiths believes DFS has a bright future; a Nevada casino was fined $1m for “wilful disregard” of its AML obligations; the PGA Tour explored the fiscal possibilities of selling live tournament data to online betting operators; Iowa police made another arrest in the Multi-State Lottery Association insider fixing scam; poker pro Jay Sharon was charged with illegal bookmaking; Steve Wynn told poor people to get off Wynn Resorts’ lawn; gaming attorney Martin Owens bemoaned the sorry state of US gambling law while Betsson CEO Pontus Lindwall expressed frustration at the slow pace of US regulatory change; gaming attorney Lionel Iruk said the Panama Papers had some useful lessons for gaming operators and Rebecca Liggero recapped all the doings at the iGaming North America 2016 days One, Two and Three.
EUROPE & AFRICA
NYX pulled off its £270m acquisition of OpenBet (with a little help from William Hill and Sky Betting & Gaming); Paddy Power Betfair revealed plans to cut 10% of its merged workforce; Malta’s gaming regulator suspended the licenses of GLX Services Ltd; SeanieMac and Amaya’s BetStars signed on as Authorized Betting Partners of UK racing; the UK government lent its support to an Olympic-style event for eSports; South Africa sought harsher penalties for illegal online gambling operators; Landing International doubled down on its Asian VIP strategy for London’s Les Ambassadeurs Club while a VIP who stiffed the Ritz Club Casino was sentenced to 10 months; English Premier League footballers blamed their poor play on worries over how much they’d lost playing poker with their teammates and Lee Davy reviewed the opening night of the Global Poker League.
ASIA
Las Vegas Sands paid $9m to end a US federal probe into its dirty dealings with Chinese consultants; SkyCity Entertainment CEO Nigel Morrison announced his resignation; a majority of Macau’s gamblers now spend less than $125 per trip; Mukesh Choudhary took us inside the nuts and bolts of the Indian state of Nagaland’s new online skill games bill; Vietnam deported a major online gambling operator to China; South Korean police busted a bunch of high school hackers blackmailing online gambling sites; NagaCorp’s Q1 revenue rose more than one-third; Australian authorities revoked Norfolk Island’s power to issue online gambling licenses to international operators; Australia’s Greens party sought a tobacco-style total ban on betting adverts; the digital architect of China’s ‘Great Firewall’ turned out to be a closet VPN fan and the Calvin Ayre Foundation brought some happiness to a typhoon-damaged Philippine town.
