Casino operator Mohegan Sun has been granted permission to pursue its lawsuit against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) over the awarding of the Boston-area casino license.

The Connecticut-based Mohegan Tribe sued the MGC in January 2015, a few months after the MGC awarded the sole Boston-area casino license to Wynn Resorts, spoiling the Mohegans’ plans to open a $1.3b casino at the Suffolk Downs racetrack in Revere. The Mohegans sued based on their belief that the MGC had given Wynn preferential treatment throughout the application process.

On Friday, Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the MGC had violated the state’s open meeting law in making its decision. The Court cited MGC records indicating that commissioners met at least twice in private to discuss the Boston casino question, which directly contradicted the MGC’s claims.

The Court noted that violations of the open meeting law allowed for a variety of penalties, including “nullifying the action taken at a meeting,’ as well as potential civil penalties. The Court’s ruling sends the tribe’s lawsuit back to Superior Court for further deliberation.

Live dealer online casino specialists Evolution Gaming have signed a new partnership with German-facing online betting operator Mybet.

On Friday, Evolution announced a deal to provide the Mybet Group with its full portfolio of live casino products, including standard and VIP live gaming tables for desktop, tablet and smartphone devices. The service, which will also include Evolution’s Deutsches Roulette German-language product, expects to go live on Mybet sites in Q2.

The deal follows recent announcements of other Evolution live casino signings, including exchange betting operator Matchbook and UK-licensed gaming platform provider White Hat Gaming, both of which are also expected to launch in Q2.

Mybet CEO Markus Peuler said the Evolution deal is the latest step in his Malta-licensed company “completely revamping all of our offerings to create a fantastic user experience across both verticals.”

Canadian online gambling operator Amaya Gaming has announced plans to sell off its stake in its former lottery subsidiary business Innova Gaming Group.

On Friday, Amaya announced that it had reached a support agreement with Canadian lottery services company Pollard Banknote Limited to sell Amaya’s 40.45% stake in the Innova Gaming Group to Pollard. Pollard has agreed to make an all-cash offer of no less than C$2.10 per share for Amaya’s 8.18m shares of Innova, bringing Amaya’s potential payday to around C$17.2m (US $12.8m).

Innova, which primarily provides technology to state and provincial lottery operations, was formed in 2015 when Amaya spun off its Diamond Game Enterprises subsidiary, part of Amaya’s wholesale divestiture of its B2B operations following the company’s 2014 acquisition of the Rational Group, the parent company of online poker giant PokerStars. Innova was designed to hold all Diamond Game shares ahead of a public floatation on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Amaya offered the standard caveats that there was no guarantee that the deal would go through, and Pollard has until May 8 to formally make its share purchase offer/acquisition agreement.

UK-listed bookmakers William Hill have confirmed acting CEO Philip Bowcock as the company’s new permanent chief executive.

On Friday, Hills belatedly confirmed that it was formally appointing Bowcock (pictured) as the company’s permanent CEO, nine months since he assumed the interim CEO role following James Henderson’s abrupt resignation/sacking just two years after Henderson had taken over from Ralph Topping.

Hills was expected to announce Bowcock’s appointment during last month’s release of the company’s 2016 financial results, but, given the one-fifth decline in online operating profit contained in that report, the company may not have wanted to unfairly taint the official beginning of Bowcock’s tenure with the whiff of failure.

In a statement posted to Hills’ website, chairman Gareth Davis credited Bowcock with having “driven the business forward at real pace and we have seen important progress across our online, retail and international businesses over that time.” Davis claimed the 2016 numbers showed that the company was now in “a strong position and Phillip has outlined a clear plan to continue that momentum into the future.”

Macau’s VIP gambling sector may be seeing better days in the past few months but brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein is seeing dark clouds looming over the horizon.

In its Tuesday’s report, Bernstein warned that Macau’s VIP sector may see a slowdown in the second half of the year as signs of slower growth are soon becoming visible. The brokerage was referring to China’s commodity prices, which helped the country “shore up” Macau’s VIP gambling sector.

“As leading indicators, a slowing credit environment may not create headwind in high-end play growth until second half 2017,” Bernstein said.

Bernstein pointed out that China’s total social financing, which is one of the economic gauges used by China’s central government, is slowly becoming a concern.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s pending decision on what would be the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) for bitcoin price tracking in the United States is generating a lot of buzz as the date of the decision draws near.

First, a bit of background. Nearly four years ago, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss—known for slapping a lawsuit on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg—applied for the digital currency ETF with the SEC. The “Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust” was created essentially to provide exposure for commodity buyers to bitcoin, operating like an investment fund that can be traded like stocks. The twins are expected to receive the final decision on whether they can list their ETF on the Bats Exchange on March 13.

Investors and bitcoin traders are confident that SEC will approve the listing, which will pave the way for other ETF listings and even unleash the flow of institutional money.

“We have spoken to a number of our investors, particularly from the U.S., who have indicated to us that they have been buying bitcoin,” Daniel Masters, portfolio manager of Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund Plc, told Reuters. “They think the Winklevoss ETF and other bitcoin ETF listings will succeed.”

South Korea’s Paradise City casino resort has finally set an opening date.

Japanese pachinko operator Sega Sammy Holdings announced that the integrated resort will open its first phase on April 20. In a statement, the Tokyo-based company said the initial phase of the resort, which sits on 330,000 square meters of land near Incheon’s international airport, will consist of a casino, a hotel as well as a convention and banquet hall.

Paradise City’s casino will be “one of the largest” in South Korea, in terms of floor space. The casino will feature 154 game tables, 281 slot machines and four, 62-seat electronic table games (ETG). The casino area will also have restaurants and bars, according to the company.

The project also plans to open a boutique hotel, entertainment clubs, premium spa, and commercial facilities in the first half of 2018.