Although wealthy and industrious, small towns like Macau and Singapore gain a lot from the foreign employees who travel to work there, but they protect their own by implementing laws that prioritize locals first. Unsurprisingly then, both cities have seen non-resident’s laid off from casinos at a higher rate than locals, and an exodus is beginning.

Macau’s Statistics Census Bureau reports the total population of the special administrative region (SAR) has decreased 10,700 in the last quarter, and now sits at 685,400.

At the same time, the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) suggests non-resident workers dropped by about 3,000. However, Lei Wai Nong, Secretary for Economy and Finance, has said that as many as 10,000 have lost their jobs, which lines up perfectly with the decline in population. With many employees being furloughed, this could come down to a difference in definition for the two numbers. With little opportunity for new jobs, the number of non-resident worker arrivals in the first half of the year has also dropped just over 3,091 as well.

In Singapore, it’s pretty much the same story. The Ministry of Manpower has revealed that layoffs at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) primarily targeted foreign workers. While exact numbers aren’t known, before the pandemic RWS had 66% Singaporean staff. It now has 75%, and it’s speculated that as many as 2,000 staff lost their jobs.

The $10,000-entry GGPoker Heads-Up Championship has been whittled down to just four players and with the final day scheduled for this Saturday, there’ still a lot to look forward to.

Much of the talk pre-tournament was about the participation of Dan Bilzerian, who has not been in the mood in recent weeks for anyone acting out, calling the year in general on Twitter.

2020 got everyone acting like a bitch

— Dan Bilzerian (@DanBilzerian) June 21, 2020https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t hurt the U.S. expansion plans of sportsbook PointsBet. The sportsbook has announced a major multi-year partnership with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, LLC (KSE). 

PointsBet will be the official partner for all the major sporting franchises at the Pepsi Centre in Denver, Colorado. This will include partnerships with the Denver Nuggets (NBA), Colorado Avalanche (NHL), Colorado Mammoth (National Lacrosse League) and the Pepsi Centre.

The Denver based sportsbook’s deal will also see them become the betting partner for KSE’s Altitude TV and Altitude Sports Radio. The agreement covers online and retail betting, daily fantasy, online casino and free-to-play games.

PointsBet will have naming rights at the Pepsi centre for the 2020-21 seasons and includes naming rights to several entertainment areas throughout the stadium. 

Pansy Ho Chiu-King wants to make sure she gets what’s coming to her. The daughter to Macau’s late casino magnate Stanley Ho has filed court papers ensuring she has a say in what happens with his estate.

Ho passed away on May 26, 2020 at the age of 98. He was estimated to be worth $6.4 billion at the time he passed away, making him one of the richest men in Asia that we know of. He was survived by 15 children from four wives.

The eldest child of Ho’s second marriage, Pansy has lodged a caveat at the Probate Registry in Hong Kong. She demands her solicitors, Baker & McKenzie, be notified before her father’s grant is sealed.

Pansy, a rich woman in her own right now, is being looked to as a new leader for the Ho clan, but not without some competition. Deborah Ho, the youngest child of Ho’s first marriage, has also filed for some control of the inheritance. Michael Hotung, also known as Mak-Shung-ming, Ho’s nephew from his sister, filed as well.

The Sahara doesn’t want anybody spreading rumors about them, ok? The casino has enough trouble right now, and the last thing it needs is for people to be talking about if they might be shutting down, Vital Vegas blog founder Scott Roeben has discovered.

Lawyers are getting involved over a just a handful of words. In a since deleted tweet from the Vital Vegas account, Roeben speculated:

“Rumor is Sahara Las Vegas could close permanently in September. Permanently.”

That was enough for the Sahara to file claims that Roeben had misrepresented the resort in a suit filed August 6 in Clark County District Court. The company is asking for compensation in excess of $15,000 for “widespread fallout,” including employees scared that they may lose jobs, and visitors worrying their reservations may not be honored.

This past July, the Ivy League announced that it would not hold any athletic activity the rest of the year. Several FCS conferences, which are included in the NCAA Division 1-AA, went down next, and it now appears that the dominoes continue to fall. The Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC), which comprises 18 colleges that compete in the NCAA Division III, has now become the first FBS conference to waive the white flag and surrender to the coronavirus. This is not boding well for all college football – or any other sport – this fall, and at least a couple of college athletic directors (AD) are now almost 100% certain that sports fans can forget about watching any college football games this year. 

Two ADs spoke with Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports recently, providing their take on the subject of fall sports. One is an established AD at a Power Five school, and he said, “It’s not fair what we’re doing to our coaches and student-athletes. The sooner we can come to a finality, the better.” He added, “I’m of the opinion it’s when, not if [the 2020 season is canceled. The MAC announcement] adds more momentum to the finish line. I think everyone’s medical group is now all telling them the same thing. We all keep having the same conversations.”

The other, also a Power Five AD, added, “I think it’s inevitable [the season will not be played in the fall].” They both chose to remain anonymous due to the lack of any official position from the NCAA or individual teams. 

With the MAC standing down, the remaining nine FBS conferences are predicted to follow suit. One school involved, the University of Connecticut, plays in the NCAA Division I and the Big East Conference, and announced last week that it had canceled its fall sports programs. Leaders of the Big Ten and the PAC-12 met independently this weekend to discuss their options, and the rumors are that the Big Ten leadership is overwhelmingly in favor of dropping sports. The conference already canceled practices, and commissioner Kevin Warren has said he is “very concerned” about the possibility of seeing fall college football. 

Anyone who thinks they have the next best invention since sliced bread, but who isn’t yet sure what it is, can take some tips from science to get the creative juices flowing. There is apparently a better time of day to think about innovating and a better way to make it happen. All would-be innovators and entrepreneurs need to take a hike – literally. 

Everyone knows that the after-lunch nap is common. We come back from a meal, ready to tackle the afternoon’s tasks, only to find that are eyelids want to tackle the darkness. However, after lunch is actually the best time to be creative, according to Shane O’Mara. O’Mara is a neuroscientist and a professor at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. He’s also the author of In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration, which dives into the brain and when it can be more creative. 

O’Mara, who is also a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator, explains that there are two forms of thinking, referred to as default and active modes. Active mode allows the brain to accomplish task-oriented jobs, such as creating a schedule or washing the car. Default mode is where the real, life-altering ideas are born, and this mode is activated more when people go out for a walk. 

He explains, “It’s the idea that the core online function of the brain has these two flickering modes, one where we pay close attention to the task, sometimes called the dorsal attentional network, and it turns off the big picture network. When you focus on the detail it is very hard to focus on the big picture. Our waking life is predominated by flickering between these states.”

Professional sports in the US are back – the NBA, the NHL, MLS and MLB are up and running, and there has been no shortage of other activity, either, such as Premier League or Bundesliga soccer, or any one of a number of golf tournaments. Despite all the action, and several states seeing a nice turnout, Washington, DC remains at the back of the pack. Perhaps it’s because of Intralot’s jaded past, and Karma’s catching up to it. Regardless of the reason, the sports gambling money is not yet flowing in the national’s capital. 

Intralot is running Gambet, the sports gambling app launched by the DC Lottery. While the per-wager amount is higher than it is in other states, partly because of the odds Intralot sets for gamblers, the total handle isn’t that great. According to WTOP, a DC media outlet, the DC Lottery took in almost $1.2 million from May 30 to August 3. By way of comparison, Colorado, which launched legalized sports gambling at about the same time, has seen a total of $63 million in handle – $25 million in May and $38 million in June. Apparently, June saw Colorado sports gamblers put down more money only on ping pong than those in DC bet as a whole between the two months.

One of the reasons for the huge difference could be how the DC sports gambling scene is set up, and this is exactly as most people had feared. Intralot is essentially operating a monopoly in DC, while Colorado has opened its doors to the industry, with 20 mobile sports gambling apps now available. According to gaming consultant Sara Slane of Slane Advisory, “Because it is really much more of a monopoly, the odds that were being offered to consumers were not terribly appealing for them to want to place a bet. I just think it’s been a lackluster experience so far and hasn’t really attracted the demand the city was hoping would be create.”

Things could get worse before they get better – if it’s even possible that they can. Virginia is bringing sports gambling online and Maryland might do the same. Both are close DC neighbors that are home to many of those that work in the DC area. With more options available, the DC Lottery’s sports gambling monopoly may not survive. 

Those looking forward to the next ASEAN Gaming Summit will have to wait a while longer. The fourth edition has been postponed out to the second quarter of 2021, Asia Gaming Brief has announced.

Originally, this conference was due to take place in March, 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic quickly put an end to that schedule. First postponed to July, 2020, and then September, 2020, with host city Manila now under a modified Enhanced Community Quarantine, that date seemed unlikely as well.

Citing continued uncertainty and travel restrictions, managing director Luis Pereira said they had no choice but to push the event back to next year. “While it was a difficult decision to postpone our 4th edition past the 2020 calendar year, we felt it was the right call to make to ensure our delegates’ safety, and to give enough time for the industry to regain its balance,” said Pereira. 

“This will also prompt us to concentrate on delivering a truly outstanding event in 2021. We’ll be going for a hybrid approach – a live, physical conference for those local to Asia, with unique and exclusive content and activities specially catered to a digital audience. In the meantime, Asia Gaming Brief remains committed to improving and expanding its full range of services to the Asia gaming industry,” Pereira continued.

To many, Las Vegas is synonymous with casinos. Since the first gambling halls were built in the middle of the desert, the city has concentrated most of its energy on creating a global gambling hub that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with nothing standing in the way. However, Sin City was hobbled by a submicroscopic pathogen that has been determined to threaten the world’s economy. As Nevada’s governor, Steve Sisolak, tried to help the state get back on its feet, the approach taken would be one of baby steps toward the all-out sprint Las Vegas is known for. While some balked at those baby steps as being too small, it turns out that they were actually exaggeratedly huge. 

Despite shutdown orders being lifted in Nevada starting in the middle of June, with casinos expected to allow just 50% of their normal capacities, the numbers aren’t even coming close. That month, visitor volume topped out at 70.5% of the figure for June of last year, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA). Across the first six months of the year, the total number of visitors has dropped 54% to 9.7 million, around 11.4 million fewer than during the first half of 2019. 

Las Vegas casinos and resorts are not attracting gamblers and have no difficulty adhering to the 50% capacity rules. As a result, revenue remains well below last year’s levels. What is interesting to note is that Las Vegas, for all its glitter and popularity, stays crippled, but Maryland, on the other hand, saw gaming revenue last month that was greater than what was reported a year earlier. There’s been no shortage of casino spending on the East Coast. 

The continued crunch in Las Vegas has led resorts to try to be creative with their marketing schemes. MGM Resorts just announced its “Viva Las Office” program and Wynn Resorts is offering a Buy-One-Get-One (BOGO) Free deal – unheard of in the gambling industry. Pick a weekend night to stay at Wynn, and the second night is on the house (you’re still on the hook for taxes, resort fees and any fine-print charges that might appear). 

Even if sports betting isn’t what we imagined it would be this year, the competitive U.S. market continues to grow. Vic Salerno, President of US Bookmaking, has a lot of experience with what works and what doesn’t, and he was the perfect person to speak to about how to gain an edge. He joined our Becky Liggero Fontana for the latest episode of The Long Con.

Although sports without crowds isn’t necessarily the same, the enthusiasm to bet on the action is still there, and Salerno notes the pandemic has made everyone anxious to get back to betting. “I think they are all pent up, and you’ve probably seen it with the EPL (English Premier League), we’re even seeing an increase here in the EPL. People really want to get back in the action, have something to do. They can’t just watch reruns of old games.

Since the U.S. market opened up to wider sports betting action, the competition to win over players has been fierce. Overseas talent have brought in a talent skill set that Americans haven’t needed before. “They’re more in customer acquisition than we are,” Salerno said of the British and European bookkeepers. “It’s a new world for us over here, we never we never had to pay for customers, customers would just come to us. So I think the way you can differentiate yourself is, you have to have a large menu of course, and then you have to have more favorable odds.”

Many of those foreign offerings are just far ahead of what Americans are used to. “I think the biggest thing with the European platforms is they are way ahead of the American platforms,” Salerno said. “They’re light years ahead of where we were. The tracking is unbelievable. But we came from a market where we really had a monopoly here in Nevada, we didn’t have the competition.”

There’s one thing that’s perfectly clear about Japan’s integrated resort (IR) plans – it’s that nothing is perfectly clear. By now, everyone had expected the industry to be much further along than it is; however, as with any type of construction, there are always unforeseen delays. In developing the IR Basic Policy that would govern the gambling space, Japan has had to overcome several obstacles, including a pesky worldwide pandemic that doesn’t seem to want to go away. Even though there may soon be a vaccine for the coronavirus, the damage has already been done. According to Japan’s tourism minister, it is almost a necessity that the IR Basic Policy framework is reevaluated before it can be released, and this is going to slow down the process even more.

The news that delays are coming doesn’t come as a surprise, as there were rumors floating around last month that the release of the Basic Policy would miss its July deadline, possibly leading to several more months of having to wait. Now, though, Japan’s Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Kazuyoshi Akaba, has confirmed that COVID-19 is forcing lawmakers and regulators to take a look at the policies more closely as they consider making significant adjustments. One of the biggest adjustments could center on the amount of cash needed to get a project going.

Akaba said, according to Japanese news outlet Sankei Biz, “Some IR operators who have partnered with local governments are in a difficult situation due to the impact of the new coronavirus, and there have been opinions saying that the future is uncertain. We will act carefully, and once we have properly confirmed the situation with local governments on the ground.”

Several casino operators have already decided to put their Japanese plans on hold due to the delays, as well as the amount of money that would be needed to make a play for one of the first three IR licenses. Now, the prefectures that would most likely host the properties and the operators are dealing with cash squeezes because of the pandemic, which makes things more difficult. Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts, MGM Resorts and others have gotten cold feet, while continuing to assert that a casino in Japan remains on their long-term radars. Of the three MGM Resorts is the only one still in the game, but it has already hinted that it could withdraw if unfavorable investment conditions were applied.

After an epic final table, Daniel Dvoress has taken down the $1,500-entry Millionaire Maker for a humungous payday of $1,489,289. The Canadian player, used to mixing it with the very best in the business, pushed himself past $15 million in tournament earnings after he outlasted 6,298 opponents on his way to a famous win.

Dvoress could legitimately be christened one of the best players never to win a bracelet – a little like Stephen Chidwick was before he broke his personal duck last summer. However, Dvoress doesn’t play many WSOP events and is not a regular in Las Vegas, so in many ways, the WSOP 2020 Online Series replacing the summer Las Vegas World Series has been a positive for Dvoress’ chances of scooping a fabled gold bracelet.

It was a case of the haves and have-nots as the final table kicked off, with Dvoress holding 30 big blinds as chip leader, but many players with a lot less, including four players well below the 10-big blind level. The shallow nature of the final got even more pronounced within a few minutes as the blind level was increased after the very first hand. The first player to bust was Lithuanian player Aneris Adomkevicius, and no sooner were they down to eight was another player leaving.

Polish player Tomasz Cybulski bit the dust before Swiss player Ronny Kaiser, who had folded to leave himself with half a big blind in order to ladder up earlier, made his way from the tournament with just a couple of blinds hoovered up in the process.

The Champions League was always going to be a tough Round of 16 to escape, but for the eight teams who took part in the final matches over the weekend, it was a rollercoaster ride to the quarter-finals. 

There were scares, jolting highs and crashing lows, and when the ride ground to a halt, some felt sick and had to leave. Others just wanted to stay on the ride and go again, as they will in Portugal to find a winner. 

Manchester City 2-1 Real Madrid (4-2 on aggregate) 

It would be trite to say that Real Madrid threw the tie away at The Etihad Stadium, especially given the effort The Citizens put in five months ago in winning the first leg at the Bernabeu.