Casino operator MGM Resorts says its Borgata property in Atlantic City will commence its legal sports betting operation on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Borgata confirmed that it will take its first sports wager at 11am on Thursday, roughly half-an-hour after state racetrack Monmouth Park takes the state’s first legal wager from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who signed the state’s sports betting legislation into law on Monday.

That is, assuming the New Jersey Racing Commission plays its role and approves temporary betting regulations at its Wednesday meeting, after which Murphy can issue waivers to allow legal betting to commence while the permanent regs are finalized.

MGM operates sports betting at its Nevada casinos and the Borgata already had a leg up on its AC rivals thanks to its race betting book (pictured), which has been rebranded as The Race & Sports Book while the Borgata finishes construction of its permanent sportsbook.

Finland’s Paf is claiming to be the first online gambling operator to introduce a fixed annual loss-limit as part of its responsible gambling protocols.

Paf, which operates in Finland’s autonomous Swedish-speaking Åland islands region, says it is prepping a program that will impose a hard cap on customer losses at €30k per year. The program will take effect on September 1 and will apply to all customers on all markets.

Paf CEO Christer Fahlstedt said the new program will likely trim the company’s annual income by around 5%, but claimed the good sides of the loss-limits “simply outweigh the bad.” Fahlstedt added that the new restrictions would force the company to “recruit customers who play at a sustainable level.”

Paf reported turnover of €116.5m in 2017, €3m higher than 2016’s total, while profit hit €27.6m, in part due to the sale of its Italian-based Winga operation to LeoVegas. Most of this profit (€18m) will be redirected to Åland’s regional government to fund social programs.

The Philippine Ombudsman has named a former Immigration official as the ‘main plunderer’ who extorted PHP50 million (US$939,750) from casino and online gambling operator Jack Lam.

Rappler reported that the Philippines Sandiganbayan (anti-graft court) granted the request of the Ombudsman to amend its complaint on the Bureau of Immigration (BI) bribery scandal, with the agency’s former Deputy Commissioner Al Argosino now identified as the mastermind in the scheme.

With the amended complaint, the defendants in the case are Argosino, former BI deputy commissioner Michael Robles and Lam’s alleged middleman Wenceslao “Wally” Sombero.

“Argosino, by himself and/or in conspiracy with his co-accused, Michael Robles, and Wenceslao Sombero did then and there accumulate and acquire, directly or indirectly, ill-gotten wealth in the aggregate amount of P50 million,” the amended complaint read, according to the news outlet.

An anti-gambling activist in India went into full beast mode after busting an open betting in the Himalayan state of Sikkim.

The Voice of Sikkim reported that activist Noel Sharma channeled his inner Jesus Christ as he hurled and kicked the hoarding of Golden Gaming Company, which he caught running a betting operation on FIFA World Cup 2018.

Several people and children witnessed how an angry Sharma unleashed his brute force as he vandalized the stall of Golden Gaming, which had been allegedly luring its customers to gamble by letting them play a darts-like game where they could strike the flag of the country they think will win the 2018 World Cup.

The company reportedly offered a Rs 1,000 ($14.80) coupon for those who will visit and participate their gaming arena located at their three betting places, according to Sharma.

The proposal seeking to regulate online gambling in Michigan has passed the thorough scrutiny of the State House.

The Detroit News reported that Michigan lawmakers voted 68-40 in favor of a bill that would authorize casinos to offer internet gaming. The piece of legislation will now be sent to the Senate for their consideration.

According to the House-approved online gambling bill, casino operators must secure a license in order for them to be able to offer online versions of their games. The state planned to impose 8 percent tax on online gambling revenues.

The state has allocated 35 percent of its revenues from online gambling to the Internet Gaming Fund, which was tasked to enforce regulations, while the Michigan transportation fund and school state aid fund would each get 5 percent. The city of Detroit would take a lion’s share from the online gambling revenue with 55 percent.

Hong Kong-listed company Suncity Group Holdings Ltd. is seeking to diversify its business from being the biggest gaming promoter to “pure gaming” by 2020.

GGRAsia reported that Suncity is busy window shopping for casinos in South Korea, the Philippines, Russia and Myanmar, which it hopes to acquire in the near future as part of the gaming firm’s diversification plans.

Suncity, which is considered to be the biggest gaming promoter in Asia, is also currently studying how to inject its present business model into its future casino ventures, according to Suncity Executive Director Andrew Lo Kai Bong.

In its 2017 annual report, Suncity presented some of its on-going projects such as property developments in Shenzhen, part of the mainland’s Guangdong province, and in China’s Anhui province. The junket operator also announced its plans for another property development in China’s Liaoning province.

Although May saw a slight dip in Macau’s gross gambling revenue (GGR), the casino industry in the gambling mecca continued to gain strength. Several industry analysts, basing their opinions on unofficial returns in the industry, have said that GGR growth remains solid, and that June will see an “uptick” in the mass-market segment.

According to DS Kim and Sean Zhuang, analysts with JPMorgan Securities (Asia) Ltd, “Based on our checks, gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the first 10 days of June was estimated at [around $1.05 billion], translating into [about $105.16] million per day.” The pair added in their memo, “This is better than May’s [$101.7] million per day (which was dragged by poor VIP luck), helped by two full weekends during the 10-day period.”

Year-on-year GGR for May increased by approximately 12.1%, reaching $3.15 billion. This followed a 27.6% year-on-year increase seen in April.

Kim and Zhuang continued, “VIP volumes have fallen modestly month-on-month, which is within the typical volatility; and major junkets have had fairly normal luck factor month-to-date, having recovered from poor luck in May.”

This is The Mouthpiece, a guest contribution by Martin Owens. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

“Everybody’s got somethin’ to hide, except for me and my monkey”.

John Lennon

Now that PASPA has been struck down by the Supreme Court, we are surely in for an expansion of legal gambling nationwide. Good news for the industry, but it opens up lots of new legal questions.

According to an announcement on its website, PokerStars is making some radical changes to its poker offerings in India. The world’s number one poker portal is raising weekly tournament guarantees by as much as 40%, while lowering the buy-in for other tournaments. The company also said that has removed multi-table tournaments (MTT) that weren’t performing well, as well as some of its Spin and Go buy-ins.

According to the site, the tournament schedule “now promises more choice, bigger guarantees and even more excitement.” Weekly tournaments such as the Monday Battle Royale, Super Tuesday, Fast Friday saw their guarantees increase, while a new tournament, the Saturday Eliminator, was added to the weekly lineup. The changes went into effect this past Monday. There are now 215 tournaments available with a combined guarantee of approximately $150,000.

The Stars Group (TSG), owner of PokerStars, announced this past March that it had signed an agreement with the gaming company Sugal & Dumani to offer poker in the country. A month later, the lights were turned on for the PokerStars.in website, expanding the company’s global hold on online poker. At the time, Rafi Ashkenzai, CEO of TSG, said, “We anticipate the brand being launched in the second quarter initially on the ring-fenced basis but believe it will take a few years for the business to reach profitability and for us to receive noticeable license fees.”

In conjunction with the launch, Ankur Dewani was appointed as the CEO of Sachiko Gaming Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of Sugal & Dumani that was created to carry the PokerStars brand in the country. Dewani said in a recent interview, “PokerStars.in provides a solid foundation for the domestic poker market which is important for long-term industry growth. By bringing the PokerStars platform to India, we aim to set a high standard in the hope that others will use this as a recognized benchmark. The PokerStars platform has received global recognition and numerous awards over the years, and is known for its industry-leading responsible gaming mechanisms, with second to none player protection and fraud detection mechanisms to ensure the integrity of games and the safety of players.”

The Masters is considered the most prestigious of golf’s major championships and the British Open has the most history, but the toughest test in the sport each year is usually the U.S. Open. The 118th staging of America’s championship begins Thursday at Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, New York.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

That’s the thing with the U.S. Open: the course is often the biggest story, and that should be the case this week. Shinnecock is a world-renowned track and one of the five charter clubs of the United States Golf Association. It’s also the only course to host the U.S. Open in three different centuries: 1896, 1986, 1995 and 2004. South African Retief Goosen won 14 years ago at 4-under.

Last year, the U.S. Open was played at wide-open first-time host Erin Hills in Wisconsin, and because the wind wasn’t blowing the course was defenseless. Brooks Koepka won at 16 under par. It would be a minor miracle for anyone to finish double digits under par at Shinnecock, which is a par 70 and will play at nearly 7,500 yards.