Casino operator Golden Play Pvt Ltd has been okayed to launch a new casino in a hotel in Gangtok, the capital of the Indian state of Sikkim.

On Thursday, Indian gaming authority Jay Sayta reported that Golden Play, a subsidiary of Mumbai-based Golden Gaming International, has been issued a provisional license to set up a 12k-square-foot casino in the Hotel D’Wang in Gangtok’s Deorali area.

Golden Play director Manoj Sethi said the provisional license gives the company six months in which to establish the necessary infrastructure and then apply for a permanent casino license. Sethi said the plan was to have the casino ready to roll by April 2018.

Sikkim is one of only three Indian jurisdictions in which such activity is permitted, and Golden Play’s launch will bring the state’s total number of casinos to four.

Australian casino operator Crown Resorts’ international retreat took another step backward on Thursday via the sale of its Las Vegas landholdings to Wynn Resorts.

On Thursday, Crown announced that it had agreed to sell its interest in a 34.6-acre piece of vacant real estate on Las Vegas Boulevard to US casino operator Wynn Resorts for US$300m. After accounting for minority interests, Crown said its share of the proceeds will come to roughly $264m.

The land in question is directly across the Las Vegas Strip from Wynn Las Vegas, and Wynn has reached a separate deal to buy an additional four acres of land adjacent to the Crown land. The additional purchase brings Wynn’s total outlay to $336m.

Wynn described its enlarged Vegas footprint as “a unique assembly of contiguous real estate of approximately 280 acres.” Wynn isn’t saying much regarding its plans for this space, saying only that whatever emerges will “further change tourist visitation patterns in Las Vegas drawing more visitors to the north end of Las Vegas Blvd.”

UK-listed online gambling operator 888 Holdings has reassured investors that the ups and downs of its turbulent 2017 won’t have a significant impact on its full-year results.

In a trading update issued Thursday morning, 888 announced that its adjusted earnings for FY17 will be “in line with market expectations.” The market reacted with a shrug, leaving 888’s share price at 277.5p at the close of Thursday’s trading, virtually unchanged from the day before.

The company hailed “further progress in Casino, strong momentum with 888Sport, increased activity on mobile devices and continued expansion” on the European continent, “most notably Italy and Spain.” 888 CEO Itai Freiberger also emphasized the company’s “firm focus on enhancing operational efficiencies.”

This result will come despite 888’s 2017 exits from five markets – including Australia and Poland – and what the company described as an “increased regulatory focus, primarily in the UK.” Freiberger said a “major focus” of the company’s 2017 activity has been on “leading the way in terms of compliance and responsibility.”

Turkey’s crackdown against unauthorized online gambling ratcheted up another notch after the national banking regulator announced new curbs on mobile money transfers.

Late last month, Turkish media reported that the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) was prepping new restrictions on money transfers and ATM transactions in order to combat unauthorized online gambling activity, which studies have shown accounts for over 10% of all online commerce in the country.

On Thursday, Turkish media outlet Hurriyet offered specifics on the BDDK’s plans, including a new daily maximum of TRY 500 (US $128) on transfer orders to mobile phone numbers.

The BDDK is also restricting Turkey’s mobile users to two financial transactions per day, while requiring senders to list their ID numbers and putting a 24-hour window in which passwords sent to transfer recipients will remain valid.

Philippine-listed game technology provider PhilWeb Corp. has gone on a last-minute shopping before saying goodbye to a tumultuous year.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, PhilWeb announced that it acquired an eGames café of Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and a PAGCOR Bingo Game station in Cainta, Rizal, through the firm’s subsidiaries BigGame, Inc. and Easy E-Bingo, Inc.

Ching Bu Gaming Corporation received 2.25 million PhilWeb common shares in exchange for the two gambling facilities, according to PhilWeb. The gaming technology provider also announced that it swapped some 1.25 million PhilWeb common shares to Florante O. Castillo in exchange for his PAGCOR eGames café in Pasay City.

The recent acquisitions of PhilWeb come at a time when the state regulator had finally issued a provisional certificate of accreditation recognizing the firm as an electronic gaming system (EGS) provider.

UK online gambling giant Bet365 has won a partial victory in its ongoing quest to protect its brand identity in European Union member states.

On Thursday, the EU General Court (EGC) issued a ruling on Bet365’s challenge of a previous ruling that declined to enshrine trademark protections on the Bet365 brand because the terms ‘bet’ and ‘365’ were deemed insufficient to acquire “distinctive character.”

In 2007, Bet365 applied to trademark its name in the EU, but an examiner rejected the application, claiming ‘bet’ was a generic term and ‘365’ merely applied to the number of days in a year. Bet365 challenged this ruling, saying its extremely popular brand had acquired sufficient association in the minds of EU punters to warrant trademark protection.

In 2008, the examiner conceded that Bet365 had a point. Then in 2013, an individual named Robert Hansen filed to have Bet365’s trademark declared invalid, based on Hansen’s desire to trademark his own ‘b365’ brand.