Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International Holdings‘ (IPI) in-development permanent gaming venue caught fire on Monday, likely imposing further delays on the project’s already sketchy completion date.

On Monday, a fire broke out at the construction site of the Imperial Pacific Resort Hotel Saipan, the company’s planned permanent gaming venue in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. IPI currently operates a temporary casino, Best Sunshine Live, from a high-end shopping mall on Saipan.

The Marianas Variety media outlet reported that a worker had called emergency services around 3pm on Monday to report a “trash fire” breaking out at the construction site. The all-clear was sounded approximately four hours later and no one was reported harmed.

The authorities are still investigating the cause of the blaze but observers reported that the fire originated due to welding sparks falling onto “construction material debris” that had been piled up against the in-development structure.

There’s no denying that the Philippines’ thriving gambling industry has seen a lot of changes in the last couple of months.

The local gambling industry has flourished in the past decade, especially the casino sector, which investment bank Credit Suisse forecasts to generate gaming revenue of $6 billion by 2018—making the country one of the top four players in the world. The growth can be partly credited to President Benigno Aquino III’s administration that has worked hard to support the casino industry, which it regards as critical to the economy.

2016 saw the country elect a new president, and it’s someone who’s not from Aquino’s party. Before he won—by a landslide, no less—Rodrigo Duterte got a thumbs down from industry executives because he tends to flip-flop on issues related to gambling.

True to Duterte’s campaign promise, change did happen across all sectors. The gambling industry saw a purge following the new president’s “online gambling must stop” missive, while state regulator Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) started looking into the activities of the special freeport zones that license Asian-facing online gambling companies.

Beleaguered Las Vegas sportsBook operator CG Technology is reportedly set to be auctioned next month.

The rumored auction of CG Technology was brought upfront by former oddsmaker Todd Fuhrman, who made a series of tweets on the matter.

$15M and there are multiple operators interested including an existing Vegas presence, Irish group, and 3rd European entity (2/2)

March 13, 2017

The new fantasy sport law in Mississippi has now finally been signed, sealed and delivered.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has officially signed House Bill 967, making the state the first to pass such a law in 2017.

According to Legal Sports Report, Bryant signed the bill, which empowers the Mississippi Gaming Commission to regulate fantasy sports contests online or in a casino, on Monday after it was forwarded to his desk by lawmakers on March 2, 2017.

Majority of the legislators voted in favor of the measure.

The Winklevoss twins get shafted again. It would have almost gone against the grain of the universe as we know it had Cameron and Tyler succeeded in their endeavor to list a Bitcoin-backed ETF. This time though, it wasn’t Mark Zuckerberg. This time it was Dr. Michael Piwowar, PhD of Economics, and head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Piwowar having a doctorate in economics from what is considered the “Public Ivy League” raises red flags all over. Nearly all economists, and especially PhD economists, are paper money fanatics. They spend their academic careers crafting voodoo econometric equations trying to predict and understand human behavior with differential calculus, when the sad truth is that if calculus could predict human behavior with even any loose degree of accuracy, all PhD economists would be millionaires, knowing when to buy low and sell high.

But they’re not, at least not with their own money. They get plenty of tax money though. And they are almost always wrong. One of them runs one of the most powerful regulatory agencies in the financial world. Helps you sleep well at night.

So why did Piwowar really smack down the bitcoin ETF? Mainstream media, the kind that is losing money and struggling to survive, says it’s all for consumer protection. But that, of course, has nothing to do with it. The SEC doesn’t protect retail investors from anything, least of all bitcoin. It protects big megabanks from prosecution and competition. How can we be sure? Because pump and dump scams are everywhere. A nothing company with zero employees can merge into a shell by technical SEC rules and then start blasting ads to first time investors. This is all perfectly fine. Banks don’t buy into these scams. Retail dumb money does. No protection there.

Bitcoin is taking in stride the decision made by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to refuse the request to list what could have been the country’s first exchange-traded fund built to track the popular digital currency.

Nearly four years ago, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss applied for the digital currency ETF with the regulator. Called the “Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust,” the ETF was created essentially to provide exposure for commodity buyers to bitcoin, operating like an investment fund that can be traded like stocks.

SEC announced its decision last Friday, and the news dampened the dreams of investors and the rest of the digital currency community—leading to a price drop of about 18 percent from nearly $1,300 to $1,060. But bitcoin has since recovered back to around $1,200 level.

In a statement, the commission said it decided to reject the proposal because “it does not find the proposal to be consistent with Section 6(b)(5) of the Exchange Act, which requires, among other things, that the rules of a national securities exchange be designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices and to protect investors and the public interest.”

This is a guest contribution by Antoine Tardif is the CEO of GoMarketing.net. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you. 

I recently had the pleasure of attending the first CoinAgenda Caribbean Bitcoin conference, which was held from March 3rd to 5th at the Caribe Hilton, one of the most famous hotels in Puerto Rico.

The CoinAgenda conference focused on investing in bitcoins, and other crypto-currencies.  While the first day featured presentations from institutional investors, and wealth funds, the highlight of this day had to be the panel discussions.

The future of the industry in general was discussed with both pros and cons being debated. While there was overwhelming optimism for bitcoin, there were some major concerns. One of these concerns is how bitcoin transactions often face a bottleneck when there are too many transactions occurring simultaneously. This surge in volume often causes delays for the processing of transactions. The problem is how to scale a significant increase in transactions when bitcoin mining is so cost-prohibitive.

Cambodia’s government reaped a bumper tax crop from its land-based casino industry in 2016, primarily by putting the squeeze on top operator NagaCorp.

According to Cambodia’s Finance Ministry, the government’s share of Cambodia’s casino revenue came to $48m in 2016, over 38% higher than the $34.7m the state earned from casino taxes in 2015. At the end of 2016, the Ministry said there were 77 valid casino licenses, of which 65 were currently operational.

In its 2016 annual report that was released last month, NagaCorp revealed that it had anted up an additional $16.5m in payments last year after reaching agreement with the government over back taxes on the company’s non-gaming revenue.

NagaCorp, which operates NagaWorld (pictured), the only casino in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, also said the company had agreed to boost its monthly gaming obligation to the state from $365k per month to $411k.

Lee Davy sits down with Sam Stoffel, the founder of the matched betting service, Profit Accumulator, to ask him a series of questions about his company and the service they provide.

Simple Tax-Free Money?

Fancy some?

It sounds too good to be true, right?

The 2016 Belgian Poker Awards are in the bag with the likes of Kenny Hallaert, Bart Lybaert, and Davidi Kitai picking up awards at the Casino De Spa.

When I think of Belgium, my mind wanders to 1990. Pavarotti is singing Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot, and tears are streaming down my face courtesy of a twist and volley from David Platt to send England into the semi-finals of the World Cup at the expense of the tiny nation.

I have only visited the place once. It was Brussels to play in the World Poker Tour (WPT) National Series. I spent several hours trying unsuccessfully to find a health food store, and gave up, settling on a diet consisting of fries and pho all week. There was lots of chocolate; pictures of Tintin and an old lady using her six-month-old daughter as a begging tool.

[Image Credit: Casino de Spa’s Facebook Page]

The quarter-finals of the FA Cup come to an end with Chelsea beating 10-men Manchester United by a goal to nil to keep their dreams of a league and cup double alive.

Michael Oliver.

I would like, to begin with, the names of N’Golo Kante, Paul Pogba, or Diego Costa, but it was the man carrying the whistle who was the central figure of this match.

Straight from the first kick of a ball, you could sense these two titans of English football were up for a scrap. United began the far better side, but it was Chelsea who had the two best chances with David De Gea making a couple of world class saves to deny Eden Hazard and Gary Cahill.