Casino operator MGM Resorts has lost yet another round in its quest to overturn a Connecticut law granting a third casino to local tribal gaming operators.

In June, a federal appeals court rejected MGM’s bid to overturn a Connecticut court’s dismissal of MGM’s challenge of a state law authorizing a joint venture casino by the state’s two casino operators, the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, who respectively operate the Foxwoods Resort Casino and the Mohegan Sun gaming venues.

MGM had argued that the law, which allows the tribes to build and operate a casino off tribal lands, didn’t allow other commercial casino operators to bid for the third casino license, and thus ran contrary to the US Constitution’s Equal Protection and Commerce clauses.

On Monday, The Day reported that the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had denied MGM’s bid for a rehearing of its appeal. The Court offered no reasoning behind its decision to reject MGM’s pursuit of a rehearing by either the same three-judge panel that ruled against the company in June or by a full slate of Court justices.

Asian casino operator Donaco International is plotting an ambitious geographic expansion of both land-based and online gaming operations.

On Friday, Donaco CEO Joey Lim Keong Yew told Malaysia’s The Star that his company hopes to expand from its current casino foothold in Cambodia and Vietnam into other Asia-Pacific markets, including Macau, South Korea, the Philippines and Japan, over the next five years. The expansion could take the form of either new development or acquisitions, according to Lim.

Lim said “the next three to five years” would be a pivotal period for the Australian-listed company in terms of regional expansion, “particularly by digitizing gaming experience.” It was nearly one year ago that Donaco first informed investors of its Cambodian online gambling license and Lim said the company was eager to assume a role in “this lucrative business.”

In late August, Donaco announced that its flagship StarVegas casino in Cambodia planned to launch its online gambling operations this month. Last week, Lim told The Star that the online gambling platform would launch “in next month,” leaving open the possibility that the launch could be delayed until October.

Online lottery betting operator Lottoland’s Australian division is under threat from state governments looking to defend traditional lottery retailers.

On Monday, the Herald Sun reported that three Australian state governments – Victoria, Western Australian and Queensland – were considering imposing new regulatory curbs on Lottoland’s business model, in which players wager on the outcome of local and international lottery draws.

South Australia’s Independent Gambling Authority has already prohibited Lottoland from conducting business in the state, based on the regulator’s view that Lottoland is cannibalizing local lottery sales without remitting the same amount of revenue in taxes and contributions to social and community causes.

Victoria’s government is reportedly convinced that Lottoland’s operations will result in a A$90m reduction in the state’s share of lottery revenue over the next three years. However, the federal government reportedly remains as yet unconvinced on the immediate need to restrict Lottoland’s operations.

The well-known Spanish games development company, Red Rake Gaming, has just signed a new collaboration agreement with the games operator Avento, it will thus be rolling out its full range of video bingos and video slot machines at the company´s three casinos: SlotV, Frank Casino and Drift Casino.

Among the latest developments by Red Rake Gaming it is worth highlighting the newly released video slot machine “Ryan O´Bryan and the Celtic Fairies”, an incredible Html5 slot machine that has been a real success among all the players that have already had the chance to try it.

With this new agreement, Red Rake Gaming continues to extend its presence in the Online Casino sector, with its games having an increased presence on the main platforms.

Carlos Fernández, Director of Business Development at Red Rake Gaming expressed his satisfaction with this agreement: “We are very satisfied to have signed with Avento as this has enabled us to increase our presence in the Casino world. We hope to continue to extend our games catalogue this year in order to offer the latest new developments to its players.”

Macau casino investor Success Universe Group Ltd. is disposing its stake in a gaming technology firm as it tries to mitigate its ballooning losses.

In a disclosure to the HongKong Stock Exchange on Friday, Success Universe announced that it is selling its stake and loans in Honour Rich China Development Ltd. at a loss to Wide Fortune Group Ltd for a sum of for HKD12 million (US$1.5 million).

Honour Rich, which was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands on September 21, 2010, provided technology services platform and related technical support for lottery in mainland China.

Success Universe cited the uncertainty brought by the continued suspension of the paperless lottery sales agency services as one of the primary reasons why it had decided to cut its exposure to Honour Rich.

The Philippines’ Finance Department has deferred its initial plans to sell government-operated casinos by the end of the year.

Instead, The Manila Bulletin reported that Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III eyes the privatization of state-run casinos by the first quarter of 2018. To make the sale more appealing, Dominguez said that 17 casinos will be put on the auction block.

One of the Philippine Amusement Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR)-run casinos that will be privatized by next year is the Fort Ilocandia casino in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, which is located at the northernmost part of the Philippines.

“We are working on the Pagcor deal, the first item is those casinos being operated directly by Pagcor, I think those should be privatized first,” Dominguez said, according to the news report. “We don’t have the valuation yet, it is very difficult because the data on operations are not robust, what I am saying is that we should figure it first by capacity. How many tables they have, or how many visitors did they have last year, what’s the projection, etc.”

Australia’s Black Economy Taskforce (BET) has given law enforcement agencies the green light to hunt down illegal betting exchanges that are believed to be connected to Asian crime gangs.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the BET has identified at least 10 illegal exchanges that reportedly yields AUD1 billion (US$805 million) annually and is reportedly funneled into a single exchange.

BET chairman Michael Andrew claimed that these illegal betting exchanges are linked to local and international crime syndicates, particularly Asian crime gangs. He said they were able to get these pieces of information from the 147 submissions they received, some coming from the racing industry insiders.

“We have for several months been gathering information on these agents and punters but welcome any more intelligence from the community,” Andrew told the news agency in an exclusive interview.