Australian casino operator The Star Entertainment Group has sold a 10% stake of itself to two Asian firms with which it’s partnered on a Queensland integrated resort project.

On Thursday, The Star informed investors that it had entered into an “expanded strategic partnership” with Hong Kong conglomerate Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE) and property developer Far East Consortium International Ltd (FEC). The trio are already joint venture partners on the A$3b Queen’s Wharf casino project in Brisbane, which is expected to open to the public sometime in 2022.

The trio have inked a Strategic Alliance Agreement that will see them pursue several development projects, including up to five joint venture towers on Australia’s Gold Coast for hotel, residential, entertainment, tourism and retail use.

The trio will also collaborate on further expansion of The Star’s flagship Sydney property, as well as form a marketing alliance to leverage CTFE and FEC’s customer bases and loyalty programs to drum up new VIP and premium mass gambling business for The Star’s casino properties.

Online gambling technology provider GAN boosted its revenue and narrowed its losses in 2017, thanks to a surge in US clients for its social casino product.

Figures released Thursday show GAN (the former GameAccount Network) generated gross income of £41.1m in 2017, up 30% from the previous year. Net revenue gained 17% to £9.1m, ‘clean earnings’ came in at a positive £454k versus a £932k loss, while after-tax losses narrowed to £3.5m from £3.8m the year before.

GAN CEO Dermott Smurfitt hailed the company’s “first full year of positive EBITDA since 2013,” and said most of this positive traction was achieved in the second half of 2017, positioning the company well to sustain that momentum in 2018. Around 82% of GAN’s 2017 revenue was recurring in nature.

The company credited the forward progress to having launched a record five new US casino clients for its Simulated Gaming free-play online gaming product last year, compared to three new US launches in 2016. Smurfitt says the company expects “material growth” in its free-play casino business in 2018.

Casino operator Wynn Resorts is considering purging the Wynn brand from its in-development Boston-area casino following the sexual assault allegations against founder Steve Wynn.

On Thursday, Wynn Resorts execs met with members of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) to update them on the progress of the $2.4b Wynn Boston Harbor resort currently under construction in Everett, just outside Boston. The execs confirmed that the project is on track to open in June 2019.

Speaking to reporters following the hearing, Wynn Boston Harbor president Robert DeSalvio said the company was “absolutely considering a rebranding of the project” due to the ongoing controversy surrounding Steve Wynn’s alleged sexual impropriety with Wynn Resorts’ female staff going back decades.

Earlier this month, the embattled Steve Wynn sold off his 11.8% stake in the company he founded after it became clear that holding on to his stake would only prolong the company’s negative association with his alleged behavior.

Malta’s gaming regulator has finalized plans to launch a ‘sandbox’ test of distributed ledger technology that could pave the way for online gambling licensees adding crytpocurrencies like Bitcoin to their list of payment options.

Last September, the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) announced that it had enlisted auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to help orchestrate a “sandboxed test environment” that will determine what benefits and risks the use of cryptocurrencies might offer/pose to Malta’s gaming sector, which contributes 12% of the country’s GDP.

On Thursday, the MGA announced that the test would commence in Q2 and continue for six months, although the MGA noted that the duration is subject to change. But first, the MGA is inviting stakeholders to participate in a consultation over the parameters of the sandbox test. Interested parties need to submit their views by April 30. (The full document can be viewed here.)

While the test will focus on established cryptocurrencies, the MGA says it will also evaluate operator-generated tokens on a case-by-case basis.

Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International Holdings (IPI) saw its profits fall more than one-third in 2017 despite revenue more than doubling year-on-year.

On Thursday, IPI informed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that its net revenue hit HK$8.15b (US$1.04b) in calendar 2017, just over twice the sum generated in 2016. Gross profit more than doubled to just under HK$7b but profit fell 32% to HK$637m.

IPI’s profits were undone by the company’s rising bad debt provisions, reflecting IPI’s risky strategy of avoiding junket operators and offering credit directly to VIP gamblers. Total trade receivables – outstanding VIP gambling debts – stood at HK$8.5b at the end of 2017, up from HK$5.3b in 2016. Of this sum, 8% was owed by IPI’s single biggest gambling whale.

Despite IPI’s insistence that the company “seeks to maintain strict control” over its receivables, the company booked impairment losses of HK$4.75b on its VIP markers last year, a nearly nine-fold increase on the HK$547m the company booked in 2016.