South Korean prosecutors swooped down on Kangwon Land casino over the weekend and seized documents that they claimed would help pin a former official allegedly involved in a hiring scandal.

The Korea Times reported that prosecutor raided Kangwon Land – the only casino at which South Korean citizens are legally permitted to gamble – to gather evidence against a former senior tourism ministry official accused of cronyism.Aside from Kangwon Land, the prosecutors also raided some offices of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism at the Sejong Government Complex, as well as the homes and offices of three people.

The prosecutors only identified the ex-tourism ministry official as a certain “Kim,” who they claimed had a telephone conversation with Kangwon’s manager.

Records show that the official reportedly granted Kangwon Land’s petition for expansion in exchange for an assured employment of his four relatives in the gambling firm. The prosecutors are apparently looking for official documents with details of the 2013 expansion plan of the Kangwon Land property.

Italy’s licensed online sports betting operators continue to lag their land-based counterparts in generating revenue, despite cleaning their clock in betting turnover.

Official figures published by Italian gaming news outlet Agimeg show overall land-based and online sports betting turnover hitting €878.8m in February, a 6.7% gain over the same month last year.

Italian-licensed online sites saw turnover rise 17% year-on-year to €505m, while land-based operators saw their share decline 4.7% to €373.3m. However, land-based punters are apparently much worse at prognostication, as land-based betting revenue totaled €73.1m while online betting revenue managed only €50.9m.

The SKS365 Group’s Planetwin365 brand hoovered up 16.1% of February’s online betting turnover compared to Bet365’s 15%, the only two operators to achieve double-digit slices of the overall online pie. However, Bet365 claimed a nearly 29% share of February’s online betting revenue, three times the 9.4% share enjoyed by Planetwin365.

Online bookmakers Pinnacle have restricted Australian gamblers’ access to the site for as yet unexplained reasons.

On Monday, the Curacao- and Malta-licensed Pinnacle’s Australian customers reported receiving emails informing them that the company was “unable to offer services in your jurisdiction after March 12th, 2018.” Pinnacle apologized for the inconvenience, but offered no explanation for their decision.

Effective immediately, Pinnacle’s Australian punters have lost the ability to make new deposits or place new wagers. All pending wagers have been canceled and the stakes returned to customers’ accounts. The site has given its Aussie customers until April 20 to withdraw their funds.

Pinnacle lacks an Australian online sports betting license, as required by the amended Interactive Gambling Act. In February, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) announced that it had identified 19 instances of internationally licensed online gambling operators that continued to serve local punters without an Australian license.

Members of Japan’s ruling coalition party are considering granting the coveted casino licenses to as many as six cities.

The Financial Times reported that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and coalition partner Komeito are set to meet this week to deliberate on new rules that will govern Japan’s first casinos, including the push for allowing six Japanese cities to host the integrated resorts.

The success of LDP’s proposal, however, lies in the hands of its coalition partner, which has a more conservative stance on the issue. Citing unnamed sources in the government and gaming industry, the Komeito partner thinks that integrated resorts in two cities will be more than enough for Japan.

Gambling analysts expect the first wave of integrated resorts to sprout in the cities of Nagasaki, Tomakomai, on the northern island of Hokkaido, and Fukuoka, as well as the larger metropolises of Osaka, Yokohama and Tokyo—if LDP becomes successful in persuading its partner.

Gibraltar-based gambling operators may now heave a sigh of relief after the UK government assured the territory of continued access to UK markets until 2020.

The Gibraltar Chronicle reported that UK and Gibraltar agreed to craft a replacement framework that will serve as commercial and business guidance when the British government exits from the European Union (EU).

“Great care has rightly been taken by the UK and Gibraltar to ensure regulatory standards will be maintained between us in a manner that will be designed to assure customer protection and equivalence on regulatory outcomes going forward,” Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said, according to the news outlet.

Robin Walker, minister of state at the Department for Exiting the European Union, pointed out that the decision to continue the barrier-free access to the UK was prompted by the appeal of Gibraltar-based companies.

New York-listed gaming and lottery supplier International Game Technology (IGT) posted a $1.07 billion net loss in 2017, dragged by net foreign exchange loss and its non-cash impairment charge.

In a regulatory filing, IGT announced that its revenue for the January to December 31, 2017 period dropped to $4.94 billion from $5.15 billion in the same period in 2016, representing a 4 percent or $210 million loss.

IGT’s operating income also plunged into a $51.09 million loss in 2017 from the high of $660 million in 2016, while adjusted operating income also dropped by 12 percent to $1.03 billion last year from $1.17 billion in 2016.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell 5 percent year-on-year to $1.68 billion.

The wait is (almost) over for operators wanting to get their hands on Pennsylvania’s long-awaited online gambling licenses.

According to CBS Philly, Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) Executive Director Kevin O’Toole confirmed at a recent House budget hearing that his agency is in the process of crafting temporary regulations for online gambling. The PGCB official is expecting the first wave of online gambling applications to start coming in by April.

The 90-day application period, which will run from mid-April “and will go through mid-July,” according to O’Toole. An all-in-one license covering online slots, online table games, and online peer-to-peer gaming such as poker will be available during this period for a total price of $10 million, a discounted price tag for Pennsylvania casino operators like Parx Casino and Churchill Downs wanting to operate online casino and poker in the state.

Operators who seek only one kind of license will have to wait until the 91st day of the application period to apply for the licenses—which, by then, will cost $4 million apiece. Non-Pennsylvanian operators can apply for the individual licenses after 120 days, or sometime around August.