THE AMERICAS
Pennsylvania gave up trying to pass online gambling legislation in 2015; a Kentucky court ordered Amaya Gaming to pay the state $290m but Amaya says it would ask PokerStars’ former owners to foot the bill; Intertain’s shares fell one-third following a hedge fund’s damning analysis; daily fantasy sports activity fell to its lowest level this NFL season; Sheldon Adelson was revealed/exposed as the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s new owner and the paper suggested he tried to dig up dirt on a Nevada judge; New Jersey’s online gambling market notched a new revenue high; US lottery officials expanded their investigation into multi-state jackpot fixing; Caesars Entertainment lost its Hail Mary bid to revise federal bankruptcy rules; Bible verse apps contain more malware than gambling apps; online gambling topped the charts of distributed denial of service attacks; William Hill US chairman Vic Salerno insisted that sports betting isn’t hurting anybody but betting spoiled Pete Rose’s latest attempt to overturn his lifetime baseball ban; proud Lithuanian Tony G challenged Canada’s new prime minister to a poker match and Neil Channing joined Tatjana Pasalic for this week’s episode of Chats with Tats.
EUROPE
Amaya officially launched the BetStars sports betting brand; the UK competition watchdog okayed the Paddy Power-Betfair merger; UK racing relaxed some provisions of its controversial new Authorized Betting Partner scheme; Italy said it would impose a 22% tax on online sports betting revenue; Betsson refuted allegations regarding its recent Europe-Bet acquisition; Clarion Events acquired a majority stake in iGaming Business; DraftKings delayed its UK market launch again while Rob O’Connor wondered if DFS had a future in Europe; the European Commission announced stiff new penalties for data privacy violators; eight companies filed formal bids for the lone Cyprus casino license; Willem van Oort offered his critique of the Netherlands’ remote gaming bill; Sportingbet founder Mark Blandford explained why he was bullish on blockchain technology; Caesars Entertainment UK was fined £845k for anti-money laundering lapses; EA Sports announced it would create a competitive gaming division while NewZoo CEO Peter Warman said eSports growth was “only going to accelerate;” GVC shareholders approved the takeover of Bwin.party and Rafi Farber suggested GVC could be more forthcoming regarding its public earnings reports; Team PokerStars pro Alex Millar resigned in protest of Stars’ VIP changes and Lee Davy wondered if PokerStars was creating an ecosystem in which its players didn’t wish to reside.