It was probably a plan that sounded good at the time – trick gaming machines at Miccosukee Resort & Gaming into spitting out false payout vouchers and cash in the winnings. However, what looks good on paper doesn’t always work in real life, and eight people that carried out the scheme at the Florida casino, walking away with more than $5 million, have found this out the hard way. According to a Department of Justice press release, they have now pleaded guilty to various crimes and will spend substantial time behind bars concocting their next scheme.

Michel Aleu, Lester Lavin, Yohander Jorrin Melhen, and Leonardo Betancourt are previous employees of the casino. In 2011, they hatched their plan with the help of one who worked on the video games for the venue. The machines began to offer the fake vouchers, which were handed off to co-conspirators to be exchanged for cash. When it appeared that the casino had not wisened up, they kept their plan in motion and walked away with $5.3 million, until finally being caught four years later.

When the theft was uncovered, the group was rounded up and prosecutors began exploring which legal books to throw at them. In the end, prosecutors finally charged them last July with conspiracy to steal funds of more than $1,000, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Next stop, a courtroom to enter their plea. That has now happened, according to a press release from prosecutors, and they have pleaded guilty to all of the charges.

They wouldn’t be facing a judge alone, however. Also implicated in the scheme were the wives of three of the suspects, Maria Del Pilar Aleu, Anisleydi Vergel Hermida and Milagros Marile Acosta Torres. They had also been dragged into the saga and have pleaded guilty to money laundering. All defendants entered their pleas over several different court appearances, with the last, Yohander Jorrin Melhen and Milagros Acosta Torres, admitting to their crimes last Friday.

Virginia may be the next state to legalize casinos, and five cities will likely have facilities soon. A Staet Senate committee advanced legislation on February 4 which would allow voters in Richmond, Norfolk, Bristol, Portsmouth, and Danville to hold a referendum on whether they wish to approve casinos in their cities. A similar bill is expected to advance in the Virginia House as well.

Virginia is one of just a small number of states that actually forbids these types of casinos from operating. However, there has been a number of moves in recent years that the government has made toward legalizing them.

The first move occurred in 2018 when the Colonial Downs horse-racing track in New Kent County was purchased and set to reopen in 2019. The Chicago-based group that purchased the track, Revolutionary Racing, had planned to bring back racing to the only such track within the state.

This sale likely occurred because the General Assembly had already voted to allow gambling at the Colonial Downs track and approved off-track betting sites throughout the state. This created the possibility of casinos at locations across Virginia, opening the door to this inevitability.

Things are worse for Macau than it seems. The coronavirus has caused casino shares to plunge due to travel bans, but the long term impact of the virus could make things even worse. Fitch Solutions Macro Research believes a slowdown of the Chinese economy is the real threat.

As reported by Macau Business, the research firm rightfully points out that the immediate threat is in restrictions on travel. “Even if the coronavirus is contained, a prolonged slowdown of the Chinese economy would weigh on gaming revenues,” they wrote. “Over the coming months, we expect Macau’s services exports (which accounts for approximately 80 per cent of GDP ) to take a hit as the coronavirus epidemic will significantly impact tourist arrivals from the Mainland.”

But the knock-on effect to the Chinese economy, and what that means to VIPs who would normally visit Macau, is the long term nightmare some are starting to realize. “We currently forecast China’s real GDP growth to slow to 5.9 per cent in 2020, from 6.1 per cent in 2019,” they wrote. “Indeed, gaming revenues have already contracted by 2.5 per cent y-o-y over in January-November 2019 amid slowdown of the Chinese economy.”

That’s not all, the forecasts could get even worse. Macau casinos are current shut down for a period of no less than 15 days, to help deter the potential spread of the coronavirus. That closure period could go on longer. “Given that a vaccine to the coronavirus has yet to be found, we note a significant risk of an extended closure of the casinos”

Betting on football is becoming a growing concern across the globe, but Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters recently admitted that more regulation is going to be needed to keep the gambling industry from having a bigger influence over the sport. Until then, there is little he can do to limit their involvement, which means that there will not be a ban on gambling establishments sponsoring teams.

In a statement provided by the new chief executive, Masters made it clear that he would resist any ban on clubs accepting sponsorship from these betting companies. He explained that he would cooperate with a government review of gambling legislation, but stated that he was “not sniffy or judgmental” about gambling.

Masters noted that “Sport and gambling have a long association.” He further pointed out that while the league does not have a commercial gambling partner, he acknowledged that all 20 clubs in the league have betting companies as one of their shirt sponsors. “We’re certainly not sniffy about it; it’s up to our clubs whether they want to have their own gambling relationships.”

The discussion comes on the heels of the British government ministers committing themselves to reviewing the 2005 Gambling Act. This review is expected to tighten restrictions on betting organizations and their involvement with sports. In a recent story by The Times, they even reported that some lawmakers are considering a blanket ban as one possibility.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has provided a $1 million per year grant over the next three years to the University of Massachusetts (UMass) to investigate the impact of casino gambling in the state. The most recent grant will allow the school to specifically study the economic and social impact in the Springfield and Boston Harbor areas.

This study will be the final piece of a 12-year investigation entitled “Social and Economic Impacts of Massachusetts.” The UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences had been responsible for the research, with the final part of their study focused on MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor.

The findings of the UMass Amherst study on the Springfield area will be released either in the spring or summer this year. The Encore Boston Harbor assessment is expected to be released in the fall.

In a statement by lead investigator Rachel Volberg, she said, “This will continue to be the longest-lasting study of the impacts of the introduction of a new form of gambling in a jurisdiction. What’s going to be most interesting going forward is being able to have a fine-grained understanding of the disparate impacts that introducing different kinds of casinos has on communities that are differentially at risk of experiencing gambling-related harms.”

Two of South Korea’s foreign-only casino operators reported a very strong increase in revenues for January, 2020. According to data revealed on February 4, Paradise Co Ltd reported a 28.3% increase year over year. Meanwhile, Grand Korea Leisure Ltd (GKL) saw casino revenues increase by 57.2%.

At Paradise, the total January revenue reached nearly KRW72.0 billion ($60.63 million). Within their reporting data, the group explained the table revenue in January rose by 30.6% over the previous year, reaching KRW68.09 billion. That was a nearly KRW8 billion increase over January 2019. Slot machine revenue did see a minor decline of 1.7%, reaching just KRW3.91 billion.

At GKL, they reported total casino sales of KRW54.58 billion ($46.17). Table revenues for January 2020 were at KRW49.01 billion, a whopping 63.7% increase over the previous year. Even machine revenues saw a significant increase, increasing by 16.9% to a value of KRW5.57 billion.

That the two casino operators are continuing hot streaks that they had in 2019. Both reported strong November revenue increases, as Paradise saw an increase of 31.6% over the same period in 2018, while GKL saw an increase of 8.2% over the previous year.

As the coronavirus continued to spread freely throughout China and began making its way to other parts of the world, several casino-related companies stepped up to try to prevent things from getting worse in the hardest-hit areas.  Meg-Star Group, a junket operator, and Melco Resorts and Entertainment came forward with sizable donations – about $3.84 million total – for the Hubei province in China, as well as the epicenter of the outbreak, Wuhan.  As more precautions are being taken to further control the epidemic, additional companies in the gaming industry are stepping up, willing to make financial contributions to help support treatment and containment efforts in China.

Earlier this week, Galaxy Entertainment Group issued an announcement that it would donate MOP$25 million ($3.12 million) to the Hubei province and Macau.  The money is being allocated from the company’s Galaxy Entertainment Group Foundation, with $2.49 million earmarked for Hubei and the remaining $624,500 going to Macau.

Joining the effort is Guangdong Group, a Macau junket operator.  It is, through its Guangdong Charity Foundation, donating $1.3 million to Hubei and Macau in the form of medical and preventive supplies.  It is also canceling public activities and will provide free face masks for all staff members in an attempt to keep the virus from spreading.

Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, S.A, better known as SJM, became the latest to give to the cause, allocating $2.49 million.  Some of the funds are to be used for the purchase of medical supplies and protective gear, and the contribution was coordinated with China’s liaison office in Macau.  Adds SJM chair Daisy Ho, “The donation carries with it our sincerest wishes for the Hubei people and for our Motherland. SJM stands firmly with the Macau SAR government and all Macau people in efforts to contain the spread of the Coronavirus. We wish a speedy recovery to all people and all economies that are affected by the virus.”

The Calvin Ayre Foundation is celebrating the rebirth of a family-run small business in the Philippines following a devastating fire.

Roland Tatel is a 52-year-old resident of Manila who for years had run a convenience store with the help of his wife Florence. The pair have six kids of their own – three in college, one in high school and two in primary school – and also pay for the education of four other children unrelated to them, all thanks to the income provided by the family store.

In July 2019, a fire broke out near the Tatel family’s house and the whole area was quickly engulfed in flame. By the time the fire was extinguished, the Tatel’s home – in which they’d lived for 30 years – and their store had been reduced to ashes. With no financial reserves with which to rebuild their business, the family’s future appeared grim.

Into this breach stepped a variety of governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the CAF, which provided the Tatel family with PHP300,000 (US$6,000) worth of goods, including appliances and products to restock the shelves of the family business. Buoyed by this support, the Tatels are determined to rebuild the life their family once enjoyed.

With the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure something of the past and partypoker beginning their live poker year at the Dusk Till Dawn felt in Nottingham, 888poker had a chance to be the first major brand to venture to mainland Europe as they welcomed players to the Spanish capital of Madrid for the first stop on their 2020 tour.

With a very healthy 1,067 entries and an €800,000 prize-pool, the 888poker LIVE Madrid Main Event cost just €888 to enter and had plenty of takers for a huge value tournament.

In the end it was Italy’s Marco Biavaschi who took the title, winning a career-high €150,000 after beating Kazakhstani player Daniyar Aubakirov heads-up.

The Casino Gran Via in Madrid was the setting for the first Main Event on the 888LIVE tour, and the final day didn’t disappoint. All the field were in the money from the get-go, so the aim of almost everyone in the room was to build a stack with which to attack the latter stages of play and fight for the really big prizes.

Ukraine is intensifying its campaign against unauthorized online gambling as the country continues its slow march toward a regulated online market.

On Wednesday, the Cyber Police of Ukraine announced that it had teamed up with the Office of Strategic Investigation in the Kiev region to target a number of illegal online casinos that disguised themselves as “legitimate IT development” businesses.

The illegal operators reportedly served both Ukrainian and international customers, generating a “monthly income” of around $1m. The authorities seized the usual combination of computers and documentation, all of which are being studied to trace the operation up the food chain to the big cheese(s).

That action followed a late-January bust of a Kiev-based online casino turnkey service disguised as a software hub for online video games. That bust resulted in the arrest of some 50 IT staffers who reportedly served a total customer base of around 300k gamblers.