UK medical experts have declared war on gambling, calling it “an urgent, neglected, understudied, and worsening public health predicament.”

This week, The Lancet Public Health journal announced the launch of its inaugural Commission on Gambling, which it claims will be a “scientific inquiry.” However, these scientists appear to have pre-judged the outcome of this inquiry by declaring early on that gambling is “not an ordinary activity: it is a health-harming addictive behavior.” 

To be charitable, starting with the conclusion and working backward to arrive at that conclusion is the polar opposite of a scientific approach. It brings to mind the efforts of evangelical Christians to get ‘intelligent design’ taught alongside the theory of evolution in US schools. 

Intelligent design, if you’ve forgotten, was the ‘evidence-based scientific theory’ that there was an intelligent creator who created the natural world all at once rather than it happening in fits and starts as the universe expanded from the big bang. How did these evangelicals know this? Well, they just knew, and they wanted kids to know, too. 

The Americas

The Wall Street Journal reported that MGM Holdings is interested in buying out Entain (formerly GVC Holdings). It was reported that a bid of $10 billion was rejected, and MGM are considering returning with a higher offer; Main Event champion and prop bet legend Huckleberry Seed was finally inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. Huckseed finished ahead of Matt Savage and Isai Scheinberg in the final voting; The Navajo Nation, a native Indian tribe that operates casinos in Arizona and New Mexico, continues to struggle with COVID restrictions in 2021. The group is set to furlough over 1,100 employees, and permanent closures may be on the way; Casino operator Bally’s Corp has struck a deal to build a new Pennsylvania mini-casino. The operator announced that it had signed a framework agreement to develop the mini-casino near Penn State University; Florida lawmakers continue to try and push the state and tribes to come to an agreement on sports betting. State Senator Jeff Brandes proposed three bills in late December in a bid to legalise sports betting in the state; Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) is replacing its sports betting brand with a more established brand in a bid to compete in the U.S. online market. TwinSpires is expected to partner with CDI in a long-term arrangement; New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is set to push for his state to legalise mobile sports betting. Media outlets have predicted Cuomo will make a pitch for mobile betting in his State of the State address; Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson is taking leave for cancer treatment as the Sands chairman has battled non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma since 2019.

Europe

Sports betting operators continue to watch the situation in the U.K. as the Premier League ponders a shutdown. U.K. Prime Minister has initiated a third national lockdown as several players have also tested positive; Oryx Gaming is making final preparations to enter the Dutch market in 2021 as the Dutch government adds the final touches to iGaming legislation for operators; U.K. gambling company Entain has made a £252m offer for Baltic online operator Enlabs in a bid to expand Entain’s Eastern European presence. Enlabs shareholders have until mid-February to accept the offer.

Casino operator MGM Resorts is furloughing more staff from its Las Vegas resorts, adding to the city’s nation-high unemployment rate. 

On Thursday, the Reno Gazette Journal reported that MGM planned to furlough 140 managers at its Las Vegas properties starting Monday. MGM spokesperson Brian Ahern said the “temporary reductions” were the result of projections showing business volumes will “remain low for the beginning of the year due to the pandemic.”   

MGM furloughed thousands of staff last spring when the pandemic shut Nevada casinos for months, but capacity restrictions imposed as a condition of reopening led MGM to permanently lay off 18k staff – one-quarter of its workforce – in August. Other Vegas casino operators were forced to make similar cuts, including some announced earlier this week after capacity was further limited late last year.

On Tuesday, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed Las Vegas had an unemployment rate of 11.5% in November. That’s lower than the 16.4% reported in El Centro, California, but Vegas has the dubious honor of boasting the highest jobless rate among 51 metropolitan areas with a population of 1m or higher (second place went to New Orleans at 9.8%). Vegas also had the highest year-on-year rise in its unemployment rates, gaining 7.9 points from November 2019. 

Tennessee sports bettors will soon have a fifth online option while one of its current licensees’ ties to a high-interest lending firm are raising responsible gaming concerns. 

This week, the Tennessee Education Lottery’s Sports Wagering Committee gave conditional approval to Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) to launch online betting (the only kind permitted in the state) under its BetAmerica brand. CDI, which recently announced plans to rebrand BetAmerica as TwinSpires, still needs to clear a few technical hurdles before launching in Tennessee.

CDI joins existing licensees BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel and local firm Action 24/7, with another three would-be licensees – William Hill, Wynn Resorts’ WynnBET and ZenSports – still waiting in the wings. It remains to be seen whether any of the latter trio will be able to launch in time for this year’s Super Bowl on February 7. 

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Lottery has issued a betting vendor registration to Advance Financial, a Nashville-based fintech firm that offers so-called ‘flex’ loans, which are effectively a line of credit with seriously high interest rates (279.5% APR) for borrowers with few other options. So, payday loans.

Of all the players to fully embrace the modern poker career, Jason Koon is one of the most respected and revered players at the table.

It’s been hard work to get to the top, but Jason Koon is today one of the best poker players of his generation. How did he get there, and which parts were inspiration and perspiration? Let’s take a look.

The Cure Beats the Injury

Jason Koon hails from West Virginia, and had a tough time growing up, victim of bullying and abuse, as he revealed in this highly personal interview.

The casino cash stolen over the holidays from South Korean operator Landing International Development was the work of more than just a single employee, according to local police. 

Earlier this week, the Hong Kong-listed Landing confessed to investors that an employee had apparently made off with over KRW14.5b (US$13.4m) in cash from Jeju Shinhwa World, the company’s gaming venue on South Korea’s Jeju Island. 

The Yonhap news agency reported Thursday that Landing had asked police to track down a female Malaysian employee the company suspects of being behind the heist. The unidentified staffer apparently didn’t return to her post after the holidays and her whereabouts are currently a mystery.

The staffer apparently wiped the casino’s security footage before she fled the scene, leaving police without any hard proof of her involvement in the theft. But police are working on the theory that she had at least two accomplices, both of whom presumably possess strong backs. 

The latest PokerStars winner of their Blowout Series events is the biggest winner of 2020 at the live felt- Canadian pro Timothy Adams.

Taking down the Progressive Knockout High Roller NLHE event which cost $5,200 to enter and saw 148 entries in total, Adams would earn $167,591 for his latest phenomenal performance at a final table that featured players such as Matthias Eibinger, Patrick Leonard and Ole Schemion.

With eight players assembling at the official final table in the tournament, it was Eibinger who busted first, his move with ace-five shot down in flames when running into Ramiro Petrone’s suited ace-king that found a flush by the river.

With seven left, it was Petrone who left next, the Argentinian going down in the big blind, correctly calling off the small blind shove from Finnish player Eelis Parssinen. Petrone’s queen-ten was ahead of nine-six off-suit, but a nine on the turn did for the South American’s hopes of spinning up his 11 big blind stack before the hand.

Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson is taking medical leave for cancer treatment, the second such break since his 2019 diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. 

On Thursday, Sands announced that Adelson would be taking a medical leave of absence as he resumes his cancer treatment. Sands president/COO Rob Goldstein has been named acting CEO/chairman of Sands and Sands China during the 87-year-old Adelson’s absence.  

It’s unclear how long Adelson’s treatment will take. His cancer diagnosis became public knowledge in the spring of 2019 and Adelson didn’t return to active duty until October of that year. Adelson also suffers from peripheral neuropathy, a condition that often leaves him reliant on an electronic scooter to get around. 

Investors initially took the news hard, pushing Sands’ share price down around 1.5% by mid-morning, but the shares have since rebounded and are currently sitting close to where they started the day. Deutsche Bank analysts issued a note suggesting Goldstein was “more than simply well equipped” to hold the fort until Adelson’s return. 

UK-listed gambling giant Entain has made a £252m offer for Baltic online operator Enlabs in a bid to expand Entain’s Eastern European presence. 

On Thursday, Entain (until recently known as GVC Holdings) announced that it had reached agreement with an independent bid committee of Enlabs on an SEK2.8b cash offer to acquire the Latvia-based company, whose online gambling brands include Optibet, a fixture in Baltic markets. Enlabs also recently absorbed Ninja Casino parent Global Gaming.

Entain’s bid has the acceptance of shareholders who collectively possess around 42.2% of Enlabs and the bid committee has recommended that the rest of Enlabs shareholders get on board. Entain needs to secure approval of shareholders controlling 90% of Enlabs within a four-week window expiring February 18. 

Entain says the proposed acquisition would not only boost its Baltic presence – Enlabs is the top operator in Latvia, the second-biggest in Estonia and a top-five player in Lithuania – but also offers potential to expand into Belarus and Ukraine, as those two markets proceed toward regulated online gambling launches. Entain plans to retain Enlabs chair Niklas Braathen to ensure the success of these expansion aims. 

In one of his last moves as President of the United States, and while dealing with protestors overtaking the Capitol, President Trump has issued an executive order that could ultimately cause issues for some U.S. companies operating in Asia. The order bans eight Chinese payment apps and prohibits any U.S.-based persons or companies from using them, and, as a result, U.S. casino operators with properties in Macau might find it more difficult to maintain their normal business activity. MGM Resorts International, Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts are now trying to figure out what is going to happen next.

As the relationship between the U.S. and China continues to sour, Trump decided to prohibit the use of WeChat Pay, Alipay and others, and also requires that the apps be removed from Apple’s App Store and Google Play in the U.S. The order reads, in part, “The pace and pervasiveness of the spread in the United States of certain connected mobile and desktop applications and other software developed or controlled by persons in the People’s Republic of China, to include Hong Kong and Macau (China), continue to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”

The move might never be worth more than the paper it’s written on, since President-elect Joe Biden will have the authority to reverse the move after he takes office on January 20. There is also a strong possibility the order will be contested in court in a similar fashion to what was seen after Trump banned WeChat and TikTok last August. That ban led to lawsuits and federal court discussions that resulted in the order being blocked by judges.

Platforms such as WeChat are used extensively throughout Asia and much of Macau’s casino industry relies on them daily to carry out their normal functions. There will be a lot of resistance to the executive order, just like there was last August. At that time, David Sisk, the chief operating officer for Melco Resorts & Entertainment’s Macau Resorts, stated, “It’s kind of a silly thing in terms of the statement that was made that you’re going to cut that off. You’ve got over a billion people and WeChat is the primary device in which they communicate. [It’s] a primary device in which a lot of commerce is done as well.”

In one of his last moves as President of the United States, and while dealing with protestors overtaking the Capitol, President Trump has issued an executive order that could ultimately cause issues for some U.S. companies operating in Asia. The order bans eight Chinese payment apps and prohibits any U.S.-based persons or companies from using them, and, as a result, U.S. casino operators with properties in Macau might find it more difficult to maintain their normal business activity. MGM Resorts International, Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts are now trying to figure out what is going to happen next.

As the relationship between the U.S. and China continues to sour, Trump decided to prohibit the use of WeChat Pay, Alipay and others, and also requires that the apps be removed from Apple’s App Store and Google Play in the U.S. The order reads, in part, “The pace and pervasiveness of the spread in the United States of certain connected mobile and desktop applications and other software developed or controlled by persons in the People’s Republic of China, to include Hong Kong and Macau (China), continue to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”

The move might never be worth more than the paper it’s written on, since President-elect Joe Biden will have the authority to reverse the move after he takes office on January 20. There is also a strong possibility the order will be contested in court in a similar fashion to what was seen after Trump banned WeChat and TikTok last August. That ban led to lawsuits and federal court discussions that resulted in the order being blocked by judges.

Platforms such as WeChat are used extensively throughout Asia and much of Macau’s casino industry relies on them daily to carry out their normal functions. There will be a lot of resistance to the executive order, just like there was last August. At that time, David Sisk, the chief operating officer for Melco Resorts & Entertainment’s Macau Resorts, stated, “It’s kind of a silly thing in terms of the statement that was made that you’re going to cut that off. You’ve got over a billion people and WeChat is the primary device in which they communicate. [It’s] a primary device in which a lot of commerce is done as well.”

The Philippines casino industry could be facing tough times ahead, as the difficulties of operating post Covid-19 will soon combine with rising competition. Several experts predict hard times ahead for the sector, as new players emerge and plans start to emerge.

The New World Manila Bay Hotel and Casino is looking to upgrade its property into a full Integrated Resort (IR). Westside City will eventually finish construction. And the Waterfront Philippines have won a long court battle to go ahead with their own plans. That all adds up to a pretty crowded Entertainment City.

“It’s difficult to gauge the demand of the industry now that we are in a very difficult situation,” Richard Laneda, an analyst with COL Financial, told Asia Gaming Brief. “We also do not know the timing of these new resorts and their respective sizes. Nevertheless, I believe in the short term this will increase competition in the area and will lead to some market share being taken from existing IRs. This will also lead to some margin erosion. But history shows that new IRs are able to grow the pie over the long term.”

That’s not the end of it either. A moratorium on new casino licenses was put in place in 2017, but is set to expire 2022. While many were anticipating that to happen so the casino industry could really explode (or get saturated, depending on your perspective), President Rodrigo Duterte started hinting in 2019 that he may be open to more casinos already.

The AGEM Index had a tumultuous 2020, just like the gaming companies it represents. The index tracks the stocks of many of the leading firms around the world, including IGT, Ainsworth Game Technology and more and, after slipping in October by just over 36 points, November brought an increase of 136.41 points, followed by a 60-point gain to close out the year. Much of the December improvement came as IGT showed a stronger December performance. 

By the end of the year, the AGEM Index was sitting on 691.90 points, having overcome its 2020 obstacles and adding 26.7% to its December 2019 figure. IGT’s stock was the biggest catalyst for the improvement after it added 34.6% in the month to boost the index by 20.13 points. Crane Co., which is behind, among other things, payment solutions, had a strong finish, as well, showing an increase in its stock price of 11.7% and contributing 8.86 points to the AGEM Index. 

In month-over-month terms, the Index improved by 9.5%, which is better than any of the other major stock indices. The NASDAQ finished the year by adding 3.5%, while the S&P 500 saw an uptick of just 1.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) barely moved in the final stretch of 2020, improving by just 0.5%

IGT had seen several key moves in December that allowed it to finish the year strong. At the beginning of the month, it announced that it was preparing to sell its B2C gaming operations in Italy to Gamenet Group S.p.A., an Apollo Global Management affiliate, for $1.15 billion. That gave the gaming technology company a substantial pool of funds from which to draw to pay off some of its debt. Shortly after, it announced that it had signed an exclusive deal to offer its Intellectual Property rights associated with its GALAXIS and SYSTEM2Go solutions to Luxembourg-based Modulus for use everywhere except North America.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions surrounding Imperial Pacific International (IPI) and its Imperial Palace casino in Saipan, with concerns over how it intends to make good on millions of dollars in outstanding debt mounting. That isn’t the only struggle found in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), though, as the territory’s governor is facing some problems of his own. Governor Ralph Torres has had issues of his own over the past couple of years, facing investigations by the US FBI and others that centered on whether he had been leading some creative financing. One of the investigations led to a subpoena requested by the House of Representatives to explore his expenses, but the House committee in charge of the investigation is throwing in the towel. However, that doesn’t mean that it is going to put the issue behind it.

The Saipan Tribune reports that the committee, the Special Committee on Fiscal Review of Executive Expenditures, has reached an impasse in its investigation, unable to deal with the mountain of data it has received. The chairman of the committee, Representative Ralph Yumul, is uncomfortable with the situation and would prefer to hand the case over to the Office of the Public Auditor (OPA), which he explains has the legal authority to scrutinize all expenses related to public funds. 

Yumul authored a letter that he sent to Jonathan Blas Attao, the CNMI House Speaker, in which he explained, “I, as chairman and given the nature of the matter at hand, find that it would be at risk of acting without any legal authority and in violation of House rules if it proceeded with its investigation.” Attao had created the committee last July following allegations of potential corruption and misuse of public money, and Yumul added that he believes the OPA is better suited to lead the investigation.

In the subpoena that followed the creation of the committee, documents related to Torres and his wife between October 1, 2014, and December 10, 2019, were requested from a number of sources, including Mathilda A. Rosario, Triple B Forwarders station manager Paul Manglona, and Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC chief executive officer Donald Browne, and subpoenaed Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig, Finance Administrative Services director Margaret Bertha C. Torres, and legal counsel to the governor Gilbert Birnbrich. The committee also wanted to see expenses related to security, housing, utility payments and more, as well as any credit card or bank transactions during the same period. 

The Dutch iGaming segment is now just months away from flipping the switch and the race is on to see who will be able to command a larger share of the market once everything goes live. The final touches of the Remote Gambling Act are now being added in preparation of a March completion, and a subsequent September iGaming launch, but operators aren’t waiting for all the rules and regulations to be revealed. Several have already begun to make deals to get in on the action, and Oryx Gaming has stepped up to join in. It has reportedly partnered with a leading commercial gambling operator in the Netherlands, JVH Gaming & Entertainment Group, to become part of the Dutch iGaming market as soon as possible.

Oryx Gaming, owned by Bragg Gaming Group, will offer the Oryx Hub to JVH’s Jacks Casino brand. In addition, it will also provide integration with the Kambi Sportsbook, third-party content and other Oryx-branded content to the operator. JVH Chairman and CEO Eric Olders said in a statement, “The Dutch online gambling market becoming regulated has been some time coming and we are excited about the opportunities now lying ahead. We’re confident that with ORYX’s experience and the quality of their products, we will be able to offer our customers the best level of service and an unrivalled player experience. They have a great team and we look forward to partnering with them as one big team.”

The Oryx iGaming platform will become the foundation of JVH’s online operations and will include CRM and promotional tools designed to enhance the user experience, according to the announcement. It will also include fraud protection and regulatory compliance applications, keeping with the requirements established by gaming regulators in the Netherlands. In addition, the Oryx Hub will give JVH access to over 10,000 casino games and more than 100 third-party game suppliers, including Pragmatic Play, NetEnt, Greentube and others.

In a separate press release by Oryx, Managing Director Matevž Mazij stated, “We’ve anticipated the Dutch market opening for some time, so it’s hugely pleasing to get this partnership with JVH group over the line, a company with an impressive heritage in the Dutch gaming market. They’ve been a leading player in the market in the Netherlands for years now and we are thrilled that they have aligned themselves with us for their online debut. We look forward to achieving high levels of success through a close partnership in this new and extremely exciting online market.”

Things are starting to get serious in the race to add integrated resorts (IR) to Japan’s landscape. After many delays, the country anticipates having its final guidelines in place this year and top contending cities and prefectures are busy preparing their own, local frameworks. The first out of the gate is the Nagasaki prefecture, which has officially launched its Request-For-Proposal (RFP) period today in hopes of finding the perfect casino operator to help it wow local residents and government officials. 

The “Kyushu-Nagasaki Specific Complex Tourism Facility Establishment and Operation Project,” which is a fancy name for the Nagasaki IR project, is progressing smoothly and the local government announced the RFP in an official communication today. The guidelines and requirements are outlined in the RFP documentation, as well as through a video available on the government’s website – make sure you have a grasp of the Japanese language to follow it. Candidate operators interested in getting involved will need to move quickly if they want to be considered, though, as the deadline for submissions is January 28. If any questions or concerns arise over the RFP application guidelines, these will only be accepted for another week, and only via email. 

As Masahiko Kunihiro of Nagasaki’s IR planning department explains, the RFP guidelines are thorough and comprehensive, so there shouldn’t be any issues. Once all of the applications are received, they will be scrutinized under a microscope and the pile of submissions reduced until the IR review board finds the best candidate or candidate finalists. Provided there are no interruptions, such as another massive global pandemic, Nagasaki plans on making its final selection this summer or by the fall, at the latest. 

Once the operator is selected and an agreement reached, the next step will be to create an area improvement plan and to hold public hearings to ensure everyone is on the same page with the process. By next spring, the Nagasaki Prefectural Assembly will have a definitive plan in place, but only after it ensures leaders of Sasebo City, where the IR would most likely be built, are on board. This would be followed by a submission of an area improvement plan to the Japanese national government, which would then need to be certified and returned to Nagasaki. That is expected to happen during the last quarter of 2022.

A backer of MGM Resorts International believes the company would do well to relinquish some of its control in Asia to a China-based entity. Snow Lake Capital, an investment management firm in Asia, penned a letter to the casino operator’s board of directors yesterday, laying out its rationale behind the suggestion and asserting that it would give MGM better power in both Macau and Japan. However, not everyone, including MGM, is convinced the idea has merit. 

Sean Ma, Snow Lake’s founder and chief investment officer, signed the letter, explaining that, as the “largest public shareholder of MGM China,” the firm believes that it would benefit MGM to “introduce a leading Chinese consumer internet or travel & leisure company as a 20% strategic shareholder in MGM China.” He explained that the move would allow MGM to bring more non-gaming resources to MGM China, which would help when the operator’s concession in Macau is being considered next year. It would also give the company additional capital, which could be potentially used to fund its efforts to get involved in Japan’s integrated resort (IR) efforts. 

Ma also has his eye on the perfect potential candidates for the partnership, adding in his letter, “We see several suitable candidates as their businesses are highly synergistic with Macau’s tourism industry as well as MGM China specifically, including Chinese travel and local service focused internet platforms such as Meituan and Trip.com, leading Chinese hotel chains such as Huazhu Group, and leading culture & tourism project operators such as Sunac China.”

MGM received the letter and probably mulled it over for all of three or four minutes – enough time to give it a cursory review – before issuing a response to the suggestion. In its best politically-correct and “thanks-but-no-thanks” voice, it said in a statement, “MGM Resorts remains committed to Macau and will continue to take actions that are in the best interests of its shareholders and stakeholders. We appreciate continued constructive engagement with MGM China shareholders.”