The Philippine gross gaming revenue may rise 9.4 percent in 2018, with online casinos playing a big part in the country’s gaming growth story.

Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) chair Andrea Domingo estimated that the country’s gross gaming revenue will rise to PHP186 billion ($3.57 billion) with the bulk of growth coming from Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) licensees.

“The gross gaming revenue, our target now, is PHP186 billion. It is different from PAGCOR’s gross revenue target. From there, we will be extracting PHP 65 billion ($1.25 billion) and we will be contributing 72 percent of that [revenue] to the state coffers,” Domingo told reporters at the sidelines of the ASEAN Gaming Summit 2018 in Manila.

Domingo said PAGCOR plans to double its revenue target for POGO license holders to PHP6 billion ($115.2 million) this year from PHP3 billion ($56 million) in 2017.

Kazakhstan National Lottery has tapped the services of New York-listed game technology provider Scientific Games Corp. as its exclusive lottery supplier.

In a disclosure to Nasdaq, Scientific Games announced that it plans to introduce instant, scratch and draw-based games to some 3,000 retailers in Kazakhstan as the exclusive supplier to the national lottery.

JSC Satty Zhuldyz operates Kazakhstan National Lottery under a 15-year contract awarded in February 2017. Alexander Ten, president of Satty Zhuldyz, said Scientific Games’ offerings will enable them “to bring the fun and entertainment of lottery to the Republic of Kazakhstan.”

In addition to the enormous entertainment value for players, Ten hoped that the lottery will deliver important revenue to the government to support the Kazakhstan Ministry of Sports and Culture, including the Kazakhstan Olympic team.

MGM customer volumes are falling again. That means the MGM economic indicator is flashing red. Back in July 2014 I introduced this little technique here as one part of a triangle for predicting a shift in economic trends. As the largest employer in Las Vegas and still primarily a Las Vegas company, customer volumes at MGM can be used as a proxy for the amount of money flowing through Las Vegas as a whole. In turn, the amount of money flowing through Las Vegas can be seen as an indicator of overall economic health in the US. If volumes are rising at MGM, credit is rising and boom times are continuing. If customer volumes are falling, credit is falling and the economy may be in trouble.

Due to the pitfalls of using only a single indicator for assessing these trends, I suggested a triangulation approach back in 2014. The second part of the triangle is the money supply coming out of the Federal Reserve, and the third is economist Andrew Lawrence’s Skyscraper Index, which he proposed in 1999. That is, the construction of the world’s tallest building tends to coincide with recessions.

Last week we discussed how the second part of the triangle, money out of the Fed, is already faltering, and this during a time of the year when it typically is not a problem. Now, the third part of the triangle might be in place as well. In a January article, CNN wrote an expose on one monstrosity of a skyscraper, Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Tower, what would be the world’s tallest building scheduled to be completed by 2020 and standing just over 1 kilometer high. If and when completed, it will put the Tower of Babel to shame. It will cost about $1.4B to complete.

Interestingly, a modern reading of Biblical story of the Tower of Babel can reinterpret the tale as the world’s first recession. Everyone gets together for an enormous construction project, but it is never completed and the economy breaks up again as people return to more earth-bound interests, AKA the consumer sector. In recessions, grand projects get put on hold and people return to their more basic needs. Granted it’s probably not the intended message of the story, but it fits well enough.

A withdrawal from the German market is in the cards for online gambling group 888 Holdings, after the company’s 2017 profits took a hit from the recent regulatory changes in the country.

On Tuesday, the British gambling operator reported that its revenue increased 4% to US$541.8 million in 2017, from the US$520.8 million it posted in the prior year period. However, pre-tax profit took a nosedive from 2016’s US$59.2 million to US$18.8 million in 2017, no thanks to the exceptional charges resulting from a potential German VAT bill—amounting to $45.3 million—as well as the $5.5 million fine that the UK Gambling Commission slapped the operator for failing to help its customers.

In its annual earnings report, 888 highlighted the “regulatory uncertainty” that exists in some territories where it operates, specifically Germany. Online and land-based gambling operators were left reeling by a court ruling that prohibits online gambling in parts of Germany, including the state Baden Württemberg where an 888 subsidiary was already banned from operating. Additionally, a number of payment processors are now refusing to provide certain services, including hold deposits, for gaming companies operating in Germany, according to 888.

888 said that while it is “highly disappointed” with the ruling, it may consider an appeal—or maybe, just leave the country altogether. The company said its board of directors is already “assessing the status and breadth of its offerings in the German market,” indicating that it could soon follow in the footsteps of other gaming providers who have already withdrawn from the German gaming market.

A lawyer for Steve Wynn has reported one of the women who accused him of sexual misconduct to the FBI, claiming the victim tried to extort the beleaguered one-time King of Las Vegas despite receiving a settlement more than a decade ago, new court documents showed.

In the filings received by a Las Vegas state court in early March, the lawyer disclosed that he and Wynn sought the help of the federal agency in February to investigate the woman who allegedly tried “to extort [Wynn] by threatening to go public with details” from the settlement that happened in December 2006, the Associated Press reported on Monday.

According to Wynn’s legal representatives, the “former Wynn employee” contacted the lawyer who represented Wynn in the settlement in January, right after the Wall Street Journal report came out. In her emails, the woman informed the lawyer that of her intention “to reveal the details of the settlement publicly” on the belief that “telling her story would be a good thing,” even though she signed a non-disclosure agreement.

The woman’s emails did not ask for money, but Wynn lawyer Donald Campbell told the court they “clearly evidenced that she was engaged in an effort to ‘shakedown’” the embattled casino mogul, prompting them to seek help from the federal investigators.