Monthly Archives: March 2017

PhilWeb targets 15 PAGCOR eGames parlors

Philippine-based gaming technology provider PhilWeb Corp. is set to acquire 15 eGames parlors, which form part of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) network.

In a filing before the Philippine Stock Exchange, PhilWeb said that its board has given the go-signal to buy the stations after its talks with PAGCOR to revive its license to operate e-Games stations failed.

“We continue to be bullish that we will be able to renew our license with PAGCOR at some time in the near future,” President and Corporate Information Officer of PhilWeb Dennis O. Valdes said, according to BusinessWorld. “We also wish to support those operators that we have worked with over the past 14 years. Some currently wish to exit the business so we are offering them an ability to exit by selling us their businesses in exchange for WEB shares.”

During its heyday, PhilWeb has remitted more than P14 billion to PAGCOR, which the state regulator uses to fund government projects. It also has employed 700 personnel and 5,000 others as eGames operators.

Becky’s Affiliated: Secondary lottery opportunities & challenges with Phil Wilson

Its not about growing the lottery market, its about changing lottery player behavior.  At least this is the motto of Phil Wilson, COO of Winners Group, a lottery software company that has been in business for over twenty years and offers a sharp software solution for the secondary lottery vertical.

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JCM Global’s award-winning bill validator and printing solutions lead company’s exhibit at AHG 2017

SYDNEY, Australia (9 March 2017) – JCM Global’s portfolio of award-winning products is recognised worldwide for helping operators make better customer connections. Now JCM is exhibiting its better, smarter, faster bill validators and printers at the Australasian Hospitality & Gaming Expo.

AHG 2017 takes place 29 & 30 March at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, and JCM will be on stand #200.

JCM will show its line of bill validators, led by the iVIZION® and the UBA® (Universal Bill Acceptor). JCM’s industry-leading iVIZION protects operators from counterfeiters and cheats with a powerful combination of sensing and anti-stringing technology. iVIZION’s CIS technology captures the entire note or ticket for the ultimate in security.

The landmark UBA accepts currencies up to 85mm wide and has superior magnetic and optical sensing technology, coupled with anti-pullback technology and an automatic retry feature.

BetVictor launches headline new customer offer for Cheltenham Festival

BetVictor has today announced its headline offer for the forthcoming Cheltenham Festival, which will see new customers who bet £10 receive a £2 free bet on every race for the duration of the four-day meeting.

Thus if you place a £10 bet ahead of the opening Supreme Novices’ Hurdle on Tuesday the customer will receive 28 (number of races at the Festival) separate £2 free bets. Not limited to horse racing markets, the initial £10 can be placed on any sport.

The offer, available to new customers only, is now live across all platforms and will be supported by a new TV ad campaign, airing for the first time across BT and Sky channels later today.

The headline offer is the latest in a series of industry-leading horse racing offerings from BetVictor, whose rich pedigree in the sport saw them launch the in-house developed Betfinder and Lengthen The Odds in 2016. The firm have been non-runner no bet on all Festival races since the 1st March.

Pokerstars extends £600,000 helping hand to global children’s charity Right To Play

Extension of partnership brings total support to more than £1.5 million

ONCHAN, Isle of Man – March 2017 – PokerStars, an Amaya Inc. (NASDAQ: AYA; TSX: AYA) brand, has announced its corporate giving programme, Helping Hands, has extended its partnership with global sports and education charity Right To Play for a further two years, taking its total support to more than £1.5 million.

Right To Play is a global charity which uses sport and play to educate and empower over one million children in some of the world’s poorest communities across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Their approach is simple but effective: if learning is fun then children are better able to absorb lessons. Through their specially-designed games, vulnerable children learn critical life skills, such as leadership, self-confidence, how to avoid disease and how to resolve conflicts without violence.

Extending this partnership for a further two years will provide Right To Play with additional funding of £600,000, which will help the charity to continue to deliver high impact programmes and scale up its work. This includes building on its play-based approach in the classroom to help engage children in their core academic studies, such as maths, science and literacy, and to drive up the quality of education.

AGS signs exclusive Dai Bacc™ distribution agreement

Company to Bring Popular California Card-Room Game to Casinos Worldwide

LAS VEGAS, March 2017 – AGS (“the Company”) announced today that it has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with EGC LLC that will allow the Company to begin worldwide distribution of the popular commission-free baccarat table game, Dai Bacc™, outside of California card rooms. Over the last year, Dai Bacc has gained a following among players in Southern California card rooms, thanks to its three bonus bets that offer the possibility to hit at least 30-1 odds on every round.

“Dai Bacc’s distinctive bonus bets offer very high payout potential with the introduction of The Kill Bet™, which means players have an added advantage of winning even if the other two side bets lose,” said John Hemberger, AGS’ Senior Vice President of Table Products. “Because of its appealing bet structure, we believe Dai Bacc has the potential to become one of the most popular baccarat variations in the world, and our goal is to bring the power of Dai Bacc to casinos worldwide through our well-established sales network.”

“Dai” is a universal Asian term meaning “big” or “large,” and it’s used to describe “the best” of something in multiple Asian languages, thus immediately appealing to a large audience. Dai Bacc’s game-play experience is exceptionally unique because it follows the same game rules and procedures as traditional commission-free baccarat, but with three bonus bets – The Tiger 7™ and Ox 6®, which pay 40-1 odds, and The Kill Bet, which pays 30-1 odds. The combination of all three bonus bets offers an extremely high payout potential and gives players a chance to win even if they lose The Tiger 7 and Ox 6 bets. Additionally, there is also a possibility to win two bonus bets during a single round, which means players can win up to 70-1 odds.

C-Suiters dominate GiGse audience

GiGse is one of the most popular gaming events for C-Suite professionals, according to analysis of the attendance data from the 2016 edition. 61% of delegates at GiGse were classified as C-Level with a further 21% deemed as being either Directors or VPs. The concentration of ‘C-Suiters’ is amongst the highest found in the portfolio of Clarion’s gaming brands and similar to the specially curated Juegos Miami event which was launched last year.

Reflecting on the figures, Rory Credland, Event Director responsible for GiGse, said: “GiGse has always been pitched at decision makers operating at the highest level and the content that we curate reflects that fact. To have 82% of delegates classified as occupying positions of Director or above reflects the seriousness with which North American facing gaming organisations approach GiGse.”

He added: “As an event organiser it is essential to know your audience and many of the topics that will be debated at GiGse go to the very heart of gaming in the United States. Key topics that will be covered in San Diego include the use of social gaming not only as a revenue generator but also as a method of converting players to the casino floor, the monetisation of skill-based gaming, virtual reality and eSports, the future scenarios of sports betting and building loyalty with next generation consumers in face of the very powerful challenges presented by multi-media entertainment brands.”

GiGse has been developed to help gaming brands balance their current and future investment, with features including Activate 2017 which deals with current challenges and opportunities and Activate 2027 which draws on outside industry input in order to help navigate a profitable path for serious gaming brands that are planning ahead.

GOP health care fix has weird fixation on lottery winners

The Republican Party’s plan to repeal and replace Obamacare suggests that lottery winners are the real reason health care costs are so high.

The GOP finally made good on its seven-year promise to repeal and replace former President Obama’s Affordable Care Act by releasing the American Health Care Act (AHCA). The main selling point of the new bill, according to current President Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer, is its diminutive size, weighing in at a light 67 pages. (Easy to pick up with extremely small hands, we presume.)

Weirdly, over 10% of those pages deal with one very specific way to reduce the costs of Medicaid, the government program that subsidizes health care for people of limited means. Yep, a full seven pages of the bill that was seven years in the making are devoted to denying Medicaid benefits to anyone lucky enough to win a significant lottery jackpot.

Under the header ‘Letting States Disenroll High Dollar Lottery Winners’ – the very first item under the ‘Reducing State Medicaid Costs’ section – the AHCA proposes that anyone who wins up to $80k be excluded from Medicaid coverage for one month. The timeout rises incrementally by one month for each additional $10k won, topping out at a 10-year exclusion for winnings of $1.26m. The AHCA also authorizes states to “intercept” gambling windfalls to recover Medicaid benefits furnished to the individual who had the audacity to win while gambling.

William Hill player scoops $1m jackpot on Age of the Gods: King of Olympus™

Playtech makes player instant millionaire with additional $3,000 bonus

London: March 2017 – Playtech has made a William Hill player an instant millionaire by rewarding him with an additional $3,000 bonus following his $997,690 jackpot win on Age of the Gods: King of Olympus™ jackpot.

Spinning just $1 per spin the anonymous 48-year old male European player hit the big time by scooping the largest progressive jackpot ever won on a Playtech Age of the Gods™ slot game.

Watch a reconstruction of the winning spin here.

PokerStars extends charity partnership; Kevin Martin in Big Brother

PokerStars has extended their partnership with the non-profit organisation Right to Play, and Team PokerStars Pro Online, Kevin Martin, enters the Canadian Big Brother house for the second time. 

Raising For Effective Giving (REG) hasn’t cornered the ‘service’ market within poker. PokerStars also do an excellent job, and this week they announced plans to dig deeper into those silky red pockets.

PokerStars corporate giving arm, Helping Hands, has extended their partnership with the charity Right to Play for a further two years. The revised agreement means PokerStars will plough an additional £600k into the non-profit organisation taking their total outlay to £1.5m.

The partnership began in 2014, and two years ago PokerStars Team Pros Jake Cody and Fatima Moreira De Melo visited Uganda to see how the non-profit was putting the money to good use. Right to Play uses the vehicle of sport as a teaching tool in third world countries.

Roberto Romanello on why Party will win the Title Fight against stars

Lee Davy sits down with the Welsh Wizard, Roberto Romanello, to talk about his newfound love for online poker, his affiliation with partypoker, and to find out which bald man he would donate hair to.

When Roberto Romanello signed for Full Tilt Poker back in the day, he was one of the very few pros who had a deal that allowed him to play primarily live and steer clear of the virtual world.

The Welsh Wizard was a live pro cut out of the old school mould.

Internet Poker was for the kids.

Roberto Romanello on why Party will win the Title Fight against stars

Lee Davy sits down with the Welsh Wizard, Roberto Romanello, to talk about his newfound love for online poker, his affiliation with partypoker, and to find out which bald man he would donate hair to.

When Roberto Romanello signed for Full Tilt Poker back in the day, he was one of the very few pros who had a deal that allowed him to play primarily live and steer clear of the virtual world.

The Welsh Wizard was a live pro cut out of the old school mould.

Internet Poker was for the kids.

Tabcorp-Tatts merger raises competition watchdog concerns

Australia’s competition watchdog says the proposed merger of gaming operators Tabcorp Holdings and Tatts Group is likely to lessen competition in certain regions and sectors.

On Thursday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued a statement of issues involving the impact that the proposed Tabcorp-Tatts union would have on the wagering, racing media and gaming industries.

ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said his office had “consulted extensively” with gaming industry participants and it was the ACCC’s preliminary view that the proposed merger “is likely to substantially lessen competition in the supply of monitoring and other services to pokies (video poker machines) venues in Queensland.”

The ACCC says Tabcorp has already acknowledged this concern by providing the ACCC with a divestment proposal to sell Odyssey, the company’s Queensland electronic gaming machine monitoring business. The ACCC is seeking public comment on this proposal, which has been posted to the ACCC website.

Tabcorp-Tatts merger raises competition watchdog concerns

Australia’s competition watchdog says the proposed merger of gaming operators Tabcorp Holdings and Tatts Group is likely to lessen competition in certain regions and sectors.

On Thursday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued a statement of issues involving the impact that the proposed Tabcorp-Tatts union would have on the wagering, racing media and gaming industries.

ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said his office had “consulted extensively” with gaming industry participants and it was the ACCC’s preliminary view that the proposed merger “is likely to substantially lessen competition in the supply of monitoring and other services to pokies (video poker machines) venues in Queensland.”

The ACCC says Tabcorp has already acknowledged this concern by providing the ACCC with a divestment proposal to sell Odyssey, the company’s Queensland electronic gaming machine monitoring business. The ACCC is seeking public comment on this proposal, which has been posted to the ACCC website.

WSOP get ready for the largest poker event ever held outside Las Vegas

The World Series of Poker release the schedules for the 2017 World Series of Poker Circuit and World Series of Poker Europe festivals at the King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic

The World Series of Poker has high expectations for their forthcoming World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) and World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) Festivals, so much so, they have christened the 44-day poker wet dream the largest poker event ever held outside of Las Vegas.

When Leon Tsoukernik bought a plot of land in a small village with a population of 800 people in Rozvadov, Czech Republic people would have raised an eyebrow. When he told them of his plans to build a casino, I expect most of them wanted to cart him off to the local sanitarium.

15-years later, and Tsoukernik is the governor of the King’s Casino, the largest poker room in Europe, and on September 28, it will play host to the most prestigious brand in poker when it begins dishing out 14 WSOPC gold rings and 11 gold bracelets and well as over €20m in guaranteed prize money.

WSOP get ready for the largest poker event ever held outside Las Vegas

The World Series of Poker release the schedules for the 2017 World Series of Poker Circuit and World Series of Poker Europe festivals at the King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic

The World Series of Poker has high expectations for their forthcoming World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) and World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) Festivals, so much so, they have christened the 44-day poker wet dream the largest poker event ever held outside of Las Vegas.

When Leon Tsoukernik bought a plot of land in a small village with a population of 800 people in Rozvadov, Czech Republic people would have raised an eyebrow. When he told them of his plans to build a casino, I expect most of them wanted to cart him off to the local sanitarium.

15-years later, and Tsoukernik is the governor of the King’s Casino, the largest poker room in Europe, and on September 28, it will play host to the most prestigious brand in poker when it begins dishing out 14 WSOPC gold rings and 11 gold bracelets and well as over €20m in guaranteed prize money.