Technology giant Google will permit real-money gambling apps in its Google Play marketplace in a host of new countries as of March 1, as the company continues to relax its formerly strict anti-gambling stance. 

On Thursday, Google announced updates to its Google Play Policies, dramatically expanding the number of countries in which real-money gambling apps, gambling-related ads and daily fantasy sports apps are permitted. At present, real-money apps are permitted only in the UK, Ireland and France, as well as Brazil (but only for state lottery operator Caixa Economica Federal).

As of March 1, real-money gambling apps will also be permitted in (deep breath) Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. 

While Google’s real-money policy encompasses online casino, sports betting, lotteries and DFS, there are market-specific restrictions for each of the above countries (listed here). For example, Australian law doesn’t allow online casinos, so those are out, while Canada’s real-money apps are restricted to “governmental operators only” (at least, for the time being).

Nevada casinos took a gaming revenue gut punch in December 2020, with sportsbooks the only gaming vertical to post year-on-year growth. 

Figures released Thursday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board show the state’s casinos generated combined gaming revenue of $683.7m in December, a 35.3% decline from the same month last year and $87.5m below November 2020’s total. It’s the lowest monthly total the state has endured since August 1997.

The figures were laid low by Gov. Steve Sisolak’s November decision to halve the casinos’ already restricted capacity to just 25% of normal. The fallout was most apparent on the Las Vegas Strip, which saw its December gaming revenue fall by more than one-half to $292m, while Downtown Vegas was down a comparatively mild 28% to $45.5m. 

December’s statewide slots revenue was down more than one-third to $459m, while the ‘table, counter & card games’ segment fell 37% to $224.7m. Every single product in that latter category suffered double-digit declines, led by baccarat ($63.2m, -17%), blackjack ($48.4m, -54.9%), craps ($19.6m, -48.5%) and roulette ($14.8m, -42.4%). 

UK gambling regulators have reached a £1.3m settlement with licensee White Hat Gaming after the company’s approach to social responsibility (SR) and anti-money laundering (AML) was found wanting. 

On Thursday, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced the regulatory settlement with White Hat Gaming regarding its “inadequate” policies and procedures for identifying and managing customers deemed to be at a higher risk for problem gambling and money laundering.

The shortcomings involved seven customers’ accounts at four White Hat sites – Grandivy.com, 21Casino.com, Hellocasino.com and Dreamvegas.com – that emerged following a March 2019 UKGC compliance assessment. The following January, the UKGC notified White Hat that the regulator had commenced a review of its remote operating license. 

In one case, a customer lost £70k over a three-month span in 2018, after which White Hat created a customer intelligence report that eventually concluded the customer was sufficiently well-heeled to absorb these losses. However, White Hat failed to lock the customer’s account while it was identifying their source of funds (SOF), a move the company acknowledged was incorrect. 

As things stand right now, Macau is set to issue new casino concessions next year. The operating licenses, technically, cannot be renewed due to the city’s gaming laws, but there has been little concern that existing operators would be at risk of losing their licenses. However, putting all of the pieces of the puzzle together, there is growing concern that China may try to exert more control over Macau and its gaming industry, which could lead to U.S. gaming operators with a presence in the city becoming unwilling pawns in the ongoing tug-of-war between China and the U.S.

City University of Macau Associate Professor Priscilla Roberts believes that the concessions might be used as a ploy by China to exert pressure on the U.S. Casino operators like Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts have an entrenched position in the city with millions of dollars at stake. Roberts said during an event hosted by the France Macau Chamber of Commerce yesterday that the ongoing trade war between China and the U.S. could see China holding those concessions as a bargaining chip to get its way.

She explained in her discussion, “America´s New President: A Turning Point for U.S./China Relations?,” “I think it’s quite possible that American casinos will no longer be as welcome in Macau” after the concessions expire. The expert on U.S. foreign policy added, “There may be some pressure for the casinos to be more China operated, which may be an opening for localization, so to speak.” Roberts also believes that China could try to influence Macau in a way that would hint at its willingness to kick out U.S. gaming operators if the U.S. doesn’t bend further to its wishes.

The countdown toward the issuance of new concessions continues, with existing agreements set to expire in June of next year. However, there has already been a lot of talk that a delay in issuing new concessions might be in the cards, given that updated gambling laws have to be introduced before the agreements are discussed. Those changes might come this year, despite a new Legislative Assembly coming into Macau, but there is still more work to be done before they could be implemented.

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, at the very least, deserves points for trying. He is aware of what expanded gaming and sports gambling would mean to the state and set out to try to get tribal gaming compacts rewritten to allow more options. However, the tribes fought back and then found support from some of Oklahoma’s lawmakers. They argued that Stitt had taken on a task that wasn’t his to assume, and the state’s Attorney General, Mike Hunter, agreed. Now, the Oklahoma Supreme Court has weighed in, as well, and has come to the same conclusion.

Stitt had worked with two tribes in the state, the Kialegee Tribal Town and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee (neither of which operates a casino in the state), in order to update the existing gaming compacts. This past Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that he didn’t have the authority to take the bull by the horns to change the rules, reaching the same conclusion it determined on a similar agreement Stitt made with the Comanche Nation and Otoe-Missouria tribes last July.

Oklahoma residents voted on a tribal gaming compact in 2004, establishing the foundation upon which their gambling activities could be built. However, Stitt’s attempts went beyond what was stipulated in those initial agreements, forcing the Supreme Court to overrule the governor and return everything to square one. 

The judges can’t be viewed as the bad guys in the case, as two lawmakers, Speaker of the House Charles McCall and Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat, were the ones to complain about Stitt’s attempts to change the gaming compacts. The governor had felt that the original compacts, those that had been established in 2004, expired on January 1, 2020, giving him a certain amount of leeway to change the language. The tribes had argued that the compacts automatically renewed and the legislators were supportive of that assertion. The Oklahoma Supreme Court has been, as well.

Rush Street Gaming (RSG) is excited about today. The land-based casino developer has an established presence in Virginia and is now getting in into the state’s mobile sports gambling market. It is the first developer to be issued a license to operate an online sportsbook, which it will be introducing today through BetRivers.com. With this addition, Virginians will now have four different mobile sportsbooks to choose from.

Rush Street Interactive, RSG’s arm for its online gaming operations, will flip the switch to allow online sports wagers today after the Virginia Lottery Board handed it its license. However, for now, only sports wagers will be allowed, although this could change down the road. FanDuel is already up and running with its online sportsbook, following a launch last week, DraftKings entered this past Sunday and BetMGM went live yesterday.

Virginia, as of last year, has a new gambling bill that is helping the state find new sources of revenue. That bill authorizes a total of 12 sports gambling licenses, but adds that “a permit shall not count toward this maximum if it is issued pursuant to an applicable major league sports franchise.” FanDuel’s license is covered through that caveat, as it joined forces with the Washington Football Team last week. As a result, there are still nine more licenses that can be issued, more if operators find other teams with which they can partner. 

RSG can thank Virginia for a lot of its future success. The company is behind a casino resort coming to the city of Portsmouth, Rivers Casino Portsmouth, as well as its new online sports gambling operations. The planned resort, which is expected to cost around $300 million, was made possible after the city’s residents approved a ballot measure last November that authorized the construction of a casino resort. In addition to Portsmouth, Bristol, Danville and Norfolk will also host gambling properties. Hard Rock International was given approval for the Bristol resort last December, while the other two cities are still working out the details, but Caesars is reportedly inking out a deal with Danville and the Pamunkey Indian Tribe is expected to make its gambling debut with a casino in Norfolk.

In the fast-moving world of gambling, sometimes you might miss news that could be important to you. To make sure you’re all caught up on gaming industry news, be it online or brick and mortar, we’re rounding up the some of the announcements and partnerships from the last week that you might have missed.

Don’t miss out on all of the latest announcements from the gambling industry, our Press Release section is updated constantly.

Spinola Gaming enters the eSports Lottery Sector

Spinola Gaming, one of the leading authorities in lottery software announces the world’s first eSports-based and customizable lotteries. These products have gained interest in the LatAm and Asian markets, with LatAm eSports operators and suppliers already in discussion on integrating our new and updated eSports lottery platform for these regions. These eSports lottery products are built around integrating global lotteries, custom eSports based lottery products, digitised scratch cards, along with instant spin and win games, designed around eSports events and tournaments in perspective.

On February 7, friends and families across the U.S. – and in many parts of the world – will gather to watch Super Bowl LV. The Kansas City Chiefs are looking to defend last year’s championship as they take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and gambling money is already flying. The Chiefs are slight favorites to beat Tom Brady and the Bucs, but prop bets are getting a lot of attention, as well. For those who plan on rounding up the troops and watching the Big Game, WagerTalk has created an easy way to create gambling pools, introducing a prop bet “cheat sheet” that lays everything out for gamblers.

The cheat sheet can be downloaded, printed and shared with everyone who wants to participate in the pool – it can also be turned into a money-making venture, complete with entry fees and payouts. Once signed up, participants only have to circle their prediction on each of the 21 questions, as well as the tiebreaker question of the total number of points that will be scored (hint: the Over/Under hovers around 57 points).

Some of the props included for the game are an Over/Under 2 minutes for the singing of the National Anthem and the results of the coin toss, always popular with gambling pools. There are also props on the jersey number (odd or even) of the first player to score a touchdown and which team will have the first sack. According to Covers.com, Tampa Bay had 48 sacks during the regular season, while Kansas City got past the offensive line and took out the opposing quarterback 32 times. None of the NFL’s sacks this season, however, topped the one received by the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes in the postseason, sending him into concussion protocol. He returned for the AFC Conference Championship Game completely ready to go and is most likely pushing his offensive line to be a little smarter in the Super Bowl.

The Bucs are making history this year, becoming the first team to play in and host a Super Bowl at the same time. Brady is looking for his seventh Super Bowl ring, as well as his first with Tampa Bay, and will have seen ten Super Bowl appearances with the upcoming game. The Chiefs, on the other hand, want to be the first team since the 2004-05 season to have back-to-back Super Bowl wins (Brady’s responsible for that during his time with the New England Patriots). The Chiefs are getting the advantage from oddsmakers, but are only 3.5-point favorites. The team is 7-0 in its most recent games against NFC opponents, including a 27-24 win over the Bucs in Week 12. However, that game marked the last one of the season that Tampa Bay has lost, and this is undoubtedly going to be a heated contest between two of the greatest quarterbacks currently in the league.

It seems as though Imperial Pacific International (IPI) is in the news every other day, and never for good reasons. The closest thing to positive news to come out of the embattled casino operator lately was the acknowledgement that it has been able to repay its employees, but this came only after the company’s chairperson, Cui Li Jie, was under threat of being put in jail for contempt of court. Now, as the company behind the long-overdue Imperial Palace resort in Saipan continues to face scrutiny, IPI has confirmed what many already knew. Its problems stem from ignorance and lack of funds. 

IPI has been called in front of lawmakers, judges and gambling regulators to explain why it is having so much difficulty. It has been accused of forcing employees, unable to return home because they weren’t paid for months, to live in squalor as bills continued to pile up and everyone wants to know how things could have gotten so far out of control. According to Cui, part of the reason is because she is ignorant – unfamiliar with her responsibilities as chair of IPI and unfamiliar with U.S. laws. 

The Saipan Tribune quotes Cui’s lawyer, Juan Lizama, who said, “This isn’t the place she grew up. She’s never experienced how businesses are run here in the United States. If it is that difficult for [former CEO] Donald Browne to stand before the system, you can imagine how difficult it must be for someone like Cui.” However, as commonly-accepted knowledge, ignorance of the law does not excuse a failure to comply with the law. In addition, the captain always goes down with the ship. 

Lizama also tried to assert that Cui is “just the chairperson” and that she “doesn’t have control over the company.” However, his attempts at trying to make Cui seem like a simple and helpless female aren’t working. She is a billionaire entrepreneur who has invested in a number of industries and has also been involved with casinos since at least 2009, the year she and her son became active in Macau’s junket business. 

When Tennessee launched its sports gambling market last year, it took a mobile-only approach since there are no physical casinos in the state. That was more of a bonus than anything, since the reaction to the launch was nothing but positive. In the first two months of operation, Tennessee’s sportsbooks took in $312.3 million in wagers, giving the state $5.4 million in tax revenue. Lawmakers in Mississippi, just to the south of Tennessee, are envious of the results and two have introduced bills to bring mobile sportsbooks to the state. 

The two senators, Philip Moran and Scott Delano, are leading efforts to allow mobile sports gambling after the state’s initial entry into the activity was limited to just physical casinos. As an indication of how much more Tennessee’s online gambling market has been, Mississippi’s land-based sportsbooks took in $55.3 million last December, substantially lower than its northern neighbor. However, tax revenue generated from that handle was $7.8 million for Mississippi, which was a welcome pile of cash for the state. 

Both bills, Senate Bills 2732 and 2396, are relatively simple and straightforward. Casinos that have sportsbook licenses would be able to partner with companies that offer mobile sportsbook solutions, paving the way for an easy entrance into online sports gambling. It’s a step in the right direction, but the bills have to first go through Mississippi’s legislative obstacle course and be approved by Governor Tate Reeves. Even Moran knows it’s not an easy task, explaining, “I would certainly love to get a bill out of committee, to bring it to the floor and discuss it, though it takes a while, nothing happens overnight.”

The additional tax revenue would go a long way toward helping the state’s schools, roadways and more. The VP of the Scarlet Pearl Casino, Ben Koff, is supportive of the measure, understanding what it means for helping Mississippi recover from the damage caused by COVID-19. He also realizes that, with 14 states and the District of Columbia now offering sports gambling (and more states regularly added to the list), Mississippi is playing a losing game. He asserts, “Pretty soon we’re going to be left in the dark, and we can’t be the one left in the dark and lose our customers and our guests choosing to go elsewhere with their casino entertainment dollars.”

Andrew Scott, Vice Chairman and CEO at Inside Asia Gaming (IAG) and O MEDIA has been in the gambling industry for 34 years, living in Macau for the past 11 years and focusing on the entire Asian continent. Pre-COVID, on average, Scott flew weekly, constantly visiting neighboring Asian countries such as the Philippines, Japan, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand and Taiwan in addition to making long haul trips to the U.K. and Australia, for example, to attend major industry events.

Aside from a small case of “cabin fever” due to being stuck on a 33 KM island for almost a year, Scott and the IAG team have been plugging away, enjoying a flood of traffic to their site and executing top industry events, albeit with new social distancing rules and other COVID-related restrictions. 

In general, I have always found Asia to be a strange yet fascinating region within our industry, especially now during a time of COVID. To shed some more light on what’s happening on the other side of the globe, I spoke with Scott who was happy to share his insights with us – I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Becky Liggero Fontana: It’s a pleasure to speak with you today, Andrew. Thank you. Lets start with what the COVID situation is like in Macau – how is the government keeping it under control?

Casino operator Las Vegas Sands lost its founder earlier this month and lost another $376m in the final quarter of 2020.

Figures released Wednesday show Sands generated revenue of $1.15b in the three months ending December 31, a decline of 67.3% from Q4 2019. On the plus side, the sum represented nearly twice the $586m Sands reported in Q3 2020. Adjusted earnings of $141m were an improvement over Q3’s $203m earnings loss, but Sands still booked a net loss of $376m in Q4 (half the sum lost in Q3).   

For the annus horribilis as a whole, revenue was down nearly three-quarters to $3.6b, while Sands booked a net loss of $2.14b versus a net profit of $3.3b in 2019. 

The Sands China operations in Macau saw Q4 revenue slide 70% to $675m. Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands (MBS) resort fared better, with Q4 revenue down ‘only’ 60% to $345m, while the Las Vegas casinos tumbled 68.4% to $150m. 

Hawaii, pressured by the effects of Covid-19, may finally be willing to consider legalized gambling. Several bills have now been proposed to help shore up the budget, using gambling to bring in new tax revenues.

House Speaker Scott Saiki has proposed House Bill 359, which would permit the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) to operate one casino resort. Funds generated would help native Hawaiians move back to ancestral lands, which with budget deficits expected, won’t be coming from anywhere else.

State Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole proposed a similar bill for the upper house, but doesn’t seem convinced it’s a good idea yet. “We should have a discussion whether the casino plan is good, viable policy for the state to consider,” he said. “Given this budget situation, it’s not likely that the department will be likely to expect funding to accomplish that. … My priority is on addressing the wait list.”

The wait list he speaks of currently numbers at 28,000 native Hawaiians. Through the DHHL, they would be returned to their native lands to return to fishing, farming, or simply to have a home.

There’s a new requirement for the potential casino operator of a Nagasaki prefecture integrated resort (IR) bid. Whoever gets the deal will have to agree to a JPY 14.7 billion ($141 million) contribution towards traffic infrastructure.

Although Nagasaki is a long ways away from choosing its IR partner, the city council of Sasebo agreed to the requirement at a January 26 meeting, Inside Asia Gaming reports. Applications opened to operators for an IR bid on January 7, and an operator is expected to be selected in August.

Whichever operator is lucky enough to win the bid has a lot of expectations put on them. Nagasaki expects them to not only pay for infrastructure, but to also fund problem gambling initiatives, MICE and surrounding area developments. IF everything goes to the current plan, construction of the new IR would begin in 2023.

Although Japan’s stated goal is to boost tourist arrivals to 60 million by the end of the decade, Covid-19 has all timelines looking rather questionable. Cities like Osaka were hoping to get their bids in by now, but instead are in a holding pattern, as the national IR process waits for the pandemic to blow over.