Monthly Archives: September 2020

AXES announces the release of space

Las Vegas, Nevada (September 15, 2020) – AXES.ai (“AXES” or the “Company”) announces the release of SPACE – the Social Distancing Application for its Cloud Information Management System. SPACE is free of charge for all cashless AXES clients (smart card and ticket) is now available worldwide.

SPACE empowers AXES clients to designate neighboring electronic gaming machines (EGM) through its IoT devices in each EGM and the AXES Cloud. When a player initiates a gaming session, the neighboring EGMs are made unavailable for play to ensure social distancing is enforced. Once a player ends their gaming session, that EGM is made unavailable and an alert is sent to disinfect the EGM. Simultaneously, the neighboring EGMs are re-enabled to ensure maximum availability.

“COVID has been hard for everyone”, stated Earle G. Hall, CEO of AXES.ai. “Economic recovery requires innovation and that is where we excel. Our IoT devices are smart and our engineering team had developed a simple, efficient cloud-based application to ensure that our clients can continue to offer their players the full breadth of their product offering while respecting social distancing requirements.”

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Paysafe Group appoints Ismail (“Izzy”) Dawood as Group Chief Financial Officer

London, U.K. & Houston, U.SA. September 15, 2020: Paysafe Group (Paysafe), a leading specialized payments platform, has appointed Ismail (“Izzy”) Dawood as its new Group Chief Financial Officer. Based in the U.S., Dawood will report into Paysafe CEO, Philip McHugh, when he joins the company on September 28.

Dawood brings to Paysafe a proven track record of over 25 years in financial leadership and has previously held CFO positions in both public and private organizations.  His extensive experience includes corporate finance, treasury, investor relations, tax, financial planning and analysis, operational performance management, controllership, M&A and strategy.

Dawood joins Paysafe from Branch International, a financial services organization targeting the mobile generation, where he was their CFO.  Before that, he was CFO for WageWorks, who administer consumer-directed benefits (CBDs), and prior to that he held CFO roles at Santander Consumer U.S.A. and BNY Mellon.  Earlier in his career, he spent 14 years in a range of finance and corporate leadership roles at Wells Fargo, a leading financial services company.

Philip McHugh, Paysafe CEO, said: “Izzy is a talented finance executive with a proven track record in strategic thinking and driving impressive results.  I know he will be a real asset to our team as we continue our path to become the world’s leading specialized payments platform.”

Loto-Quebec’s online gambling up 29%, still can’t catch BC rival PlayNow

Quebec’s online gambling monopoly reported revenue rising 29% in its most recent fiscal year, but the site still can’t catch up to its west coast rival.  

The Loto-Quebec gambling monopoly in the Canadian province of Quebec released its fiscal 2019-20 annual report on Tuesday, which showed revenue of C$2.74b (US$2.07b) in the 12 months ending March 31, a 3.1% decline from fiscal 2018-19’s result. Net income slipped 3.9% year-on-year to C$1.35b.

The decline was expected, given the chilling effect that COVID-19 inflicted on the province even before the shutdown of all non-essential retail operations in March. Loto-Quebec CEO Lynne Rotier noted that the impact on the current fiscal year will be significantly greater, but the company was doing its best to reduce expenses to offset the damage.  

The Espace-jeux online gambling site reported revenue of just under C$135.9m, up from C$105.4m last year. Online lottery revenue rose 37.8% to C$39.4m while online casino gained 25.7% to C$96.4m. Loto-Quebec said online lottery sales soared nearly 160% following the complete suspension of retail sales in March.

Thinking on your feet – the benefits of a stand-up desk

In terms of office toys, a stand-up desk is the new black. Looking out across the office cubicles, the air tastes that little bit sweeter with a stand-up desk. When we spend most of our day in front of a laptop, the stand-up desk has proven to be that small change to the routine that boosts your health and productivity.

All standing desks are basically the same. A fixed height standing desking will cost you $100 USD, but a nice electric standing desk can set you back up to $1000 USD.

The benefits of a stand-up desk far outweigh the costs over the long term.

Standing Desks Relieve Back Pain

Could your new Poker Club be on Nintendo Switch?

Poker has often been present in video games that are 18-certificate as a way of gaining credibility among the pixels that depict action of an adult nature. From Grand Theft Auto to Red Dead Redemption, poker in video games has often been used to spice up the content.

That certainly isn’t the case when it comes to Poker Club, which is a bona fide attempt to bring the game we all know and love from casinos, Las Vegas and our own home games to the console.

Announced by Ripstone Games this week, Poker Club will also be available to play on the Nintendo Switch and before parents worry that gaming could lead to gambling, the push for the game isn’t about simply staking your bets and winning or losing. The idea behind the game is to put poker in the area of a ‘social experience’ that finds a way to connect console players and bring poker players and fans to video games.

Developed on the Unreal Engine – a possible cause of concern should Apple follow up on its Fortnite dispute by limiting the mobile availability through the App Store of other games – Poker Club looks a lot like the PKR poker site that relied heavily on the innovative graphics and avatar-led entertainment, albeit it for real money.

Johnson leads odds to win the US Open

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

The 2020-21 PGA Tour wraparound season officially began last week with the Safeway Open in California and the schedule will include a super-sized 50 events. That includes an unusual six Grand Slam tournaments because two were postponed earlier this summer due to the coronavirus. The first of those six is the U.S. Open, which tees off Thursday from Winged Foot Golf Club in New York. It’s a field of 144.

The U.S. Open, previously scheduled to tee off June 18, is annually the toughest test in golf, and Winged Foot’s West layout is one of the toughest courses in the United States. It’s a par 70 at 7,477 yards. This will be the sixth time it hosts the U.S. Open and the last time it did in 2006, Aussie Geoff Ogilvy won at 5-over 285.

Ogilvy didn’t so much win the tournament as Phil Mickelson lost it. Lefty only needed a bogey on the 72nd hole to win, but his drive off the tee was wildly off track and it led to a double bogey. That was one of a record six runner-up finishes in this tournament for Mickelson, the only Slam he has yet to win. Winning this event is easily the biggest career goal remaining for Mickelson, who is a +8000 long shot.

Tak Chun junket boss buys stake in Macau Legend casinos

A major Macau casino junket operator has taken a significant stake in casino operator Macau Legend Development as the lines continue to blur between the two sectors.

On Monday, the Hong Kong-listed Macau Legend suspended trading in its shares ahead of a major announcement. On Tuesday, Macau Legend announced that Perfect Achiever Group Ltd, a British Virgin Islands-registered firm, had acquired a 20.65% stake in Macau Legend for HK$1.34b (US$173m).

Perfect Achiever is owned by Chan Weng Lin, the CEO of the Tak Chun Group junket. Tuesday’s release stated that Chan previously held a 0.1% share in Macau Legend, putting his total current holdings in the company at 20.75%. That puts Chan behind only Macau Legend’s co-chair (and former CEO) David Chow Kam Fai, who holds just under 30% of the company.

Macau Legend operates the Macau Fisherman’s Wharf hotel and also provides gaming services to three Macau casinos – Landmark Casino, Babylon Casino and the Legend Palace at Macau Fisherman’s Wharf – that operate under an SJM Holdings concession.

Unikrn pay $6.1m to resolve SEC probe of 2017 initial coin offering

Online eSports betting operator Unikrn has reached a deal to pay $6.1m to US securities regulators to resolve a probe into its 2017 initial coin offering (ICO).

The Seattle-based Unikrn launched its UnikoinGold (UKG) token in 2017, raising $31m from rank-and-file investors and notable individuals such as billionaire investor Mark Cuban and Ethereum co-founder Anthony Di Iorio. But the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Unikrn failed to register the offering or seek an exemption from rules regarding investment contracts.

Unikrn neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s allegations, but in a settlement order issued Tuesday, the SEC said Unikrn agreed to pay a $6.1m penalty — which represents “substantially all of the company’s assets” — to be distributed to “already-harmed investors” through a Fair Fund.

Kristina Littman, chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Cyber Unit, said failure to follow the SEC’s securities registration and exemption framework “harms investors and our markets.” In addition to ameliorating investors’ losses, the settlement “includes measures to prevent future sales to retail investors, including the [permanent] disabling of the tokens.” Unikrn has requested the removal of UKG from all digital asset trading platforms.

Virginia online sports betting application window starts Oct. 15

Virginia has approved new online sports betting regulations, setting up the likelihood of legal wagering commencing early in the new year.

On Tuesday, the Virginia Lottery Board approved its regulatory framework for legal online sports betting, following passage of the necessary legislation this spring. The Lottery will accept license applications between October 15-31, with the rules dictating a 90-day window for approving or denying an application.

There will be a minimum of four and a maximum of 12 sports betting licensees, and applicants will be judged based on their wagering experience and success in other US markets, reputation for following the rules and capacity to detect “suspicious or illegal gambling activity.”

Applicants will also be judged on their estimates of the betting and tax revenue they expect to generate from their Virginia operations, as well as the number of new jobs they expect to generate in the state. Applicants will need to demonstrate “serious, good faith efforts to solicit and interview a reasonable number of investors that are minority individuals.”