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. Our Press Release section is updated constantly. We also roundup the latest slot game releases for you every Wednesday.

Vivo Gaming Launch new European Studio

Vivo Gaming is proud to announce the launch of a new European Studio. The state-of-the-art studio boasts the latest technology giving players a technically advanced experience coupled with a luxurious look and feel. Offering Live Dealer Roulette, Live Dealer Baccarat and Vivo Gaming’s most recent table addition launched in the first week of 2021 a VIP Live Dealer Blackjack table.

Welcome to 2021, dear CalvinAyre.com readers! I’ve banged out a New Year conference schedule piece every year for as long as I can remember, one as predictable as the next, but not this year. How weird is it without ICE and iGB Affiliate London to prepare for straight after the holiday season???

A lot is up in the air right now and 2021 is proving to be just as challenging as 2020 was in terms of planning ahead. While there is a light at the end of the tunnel with vaccines and warmer weather on the horizon, we don’t know how long it will take to vaccinate the whole planet, nor do we know how effective vaccines will be.

Each organizer is handling the planning challenge in their own way, with some banking on in-person events returning soon, some taking a more conservative approach with a robust digital event schedule and everything in between.

Seeing as we are in the first week in January, all of this in-person conference information is subject to change – especially the Q1 events – and should be viewed only as a loose guideline. Assume that most, if not all, of the scheduled in-person events will include some sort of online element as well, so don’t panic if you can’t even think about traveling just yet.

The Philippine government has temporarily stopped collecting its controversial online gambling turnover tax, while a new controversy swirls over whether 100k Chinese gambling workers received an unauthorized COVID-19 vaccine. 

On Tuesday, the Philippine Department of Finance announced that it will halt collection of the 5% franchise tax on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs). The announcement followed a Supreme Court ruling on Monday granting a temporary restraining order (TRO) sought by 14 POGOs who felt the tax was a violation of their right to equal protection under the law. 

The Philippine government announced the tax last September and began collecting it the following month. The tax was justified as a means of funding the government’s pandemic response but POGOs felt they were being asked to bear an outsized share of this burden. 

The Manila Bulletin quoted Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III (pictured) saying that his department would “respect” the restraining order without indicating the government’s long-term response. The Philippine treasury has been severely depleted by COVID’s impact on the overall economy and the government’s share of gambling revenue fell by as much as 80% last year.

This week’s GGPoker Super MILLION$ final table had more big names at the virtual felt than perhps ever before. At the end of the drama, one man stood alone as the winner, with Darren Elias winning his second Super MILLION$ title in stunning fashion.

The $10,300-entry event always has a good turn-out, but this week’s Super MILLION$ saw a top prize of $448,842 on offer for the winner. Before play kicked off, the betting odds were put up on Poker Shares and quite against the likely probability of Elias taking it down going into play 4th in chips, the American attracted the least money from sportsbettors, despite having pre-final odds of 8.3.

Play got underway with Seth Davies the 6th most fancied player, but he left three places earlier when he lost a big pot with pocket sixes against the pocket tens of Estonian player Aleks Ponakovs. With just a few big blinds left to his name, he was out shortly afterwards when his turned straight was outdrawn by Enrico Camosci’s set of tens that rivered a full house.

It was the turn of Bert Stevens to depart next. Stevens was all-in for 13 big blinds with king-queen, but lost a race against Brazilian Rui Ferreira’s pocket jacks. Next to go was Estonian player Ponakovs, his king-seven of diamonds turning a king but losing to Camosci’s flush which came in on the same card.

Two pulsating Carabao Cup semi-final saw Premier League sides Tottenham and Manchester City both reach the final in dramatic fashion as 2-0 victories on consecutive nights saw a reunion for the 25th April scheduled between two of modern football’s biggest managers as Spurs and Man. City reached the Wembley showpiece. 

With two massive matches to look back on, as well as the odds for the final as they stand, let’s hunt the value as we recap the action and preview the odds for the final.

Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Brentford

The first semi-final took place on Tuesday and saw Mourinho’s men complete the job with relative ease against Championship side Brentford. The Bees were buzzing to be taking part but any sting in their front line was dramatically reduced when Spurs took the lead inside 14 minutes through a Moussa Sissoko header.

Michigan’s online poker players could get a chance to match wits (and bets) with rivals in other US states after their governor signed interstate online poker legislation. 

On Tuesday, word broke that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had signed a variety of bills from the 2020 legislative session on December 29, including Senate Bill 991, which will allow the state’s online poker licensees to share player liquidity with commercial and tribal gaming operators in other states that have legalized the activity. 

SB 991, which will take effect at the end of March, sought to update the online sports betting, casino and poker legislation the state passed one year ago to specifically authorize interstate poker liquidity. Online poker operations in states where such activity is permitted have to date struggled due to a lack of a sufficiently large player base.

New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware have been sharing poker players since 2018 but only Caesars Interactive Entertainment and its 888 Holdings partner are currently operating poker sites in all three states. Pennsylvania has authorized online poker but has yet to join these other states in a liquidity pool, in part due to legal concerns.   

It’s easy to look at modern-day poker heroes as transitory legends, players who might one day fade into the ether, unlike solid gold stars of the game such as Doyle ‘Texas Dolly’ Brunson or Phil ‘The Poker Brat’ Hellmuth.  

Some, however, stand out no matter what age they are and one such phenomenon is German super star Fedor Holz.  

Image Courtesy www.casinochecking.com

With over $32 million in live tournament winnings alone, Holz is 8th on the all-time money list and has been semi-retired for a few years too. Where did Holz spring from and how did he turn into one of the best poker players of all-time?  

South Korean casino operator Paradise Co Ltd saw its 2020 gaming revenue fall by more than half, which may be why the company chose to reopen its Seoul venue despite little improvement in the country’s COVID-19 situation. 

On Wednesday, Paradise announced that its December casino revenue totaled KRW42.2b (US$38.9m), a nearly 40% decline from the same month last year but more than quadruple the company’s November revenue. December’s gains were entirely due to table games, which quintupled from November, while electronic gaming machine revenue fell by more than one-fifth. 

December’s take brought Paradise’s full-year revenue to KRW335.3b ($308.5m), down 57.2% from 2019’s result. Table games were down 58% to KRW310.4b, while EGM revenue slid 44.4% to KRW24.9b. 

Paradise operates four foreigner-only casinos, including the Paradise City integrated resort in Incheon, along with three smaller venues in Busan, Jeju Island and the Paradise Walkerhill in South Korea’s capital Seoul. 

New York sports bettors are rejoicing as their governor finally appears to be on board with mobile wagering, while Massachusetts bettors are lamenting their elected reps failing to achieve betting consensus. 

Late Tuesday, the New York Daily News reported that Gov. Andrew Cuomo would make a pitch for legalizing mobile sports betting when he delivers his annual State of the State address next week. Cuomo issued a statement saying legal online betting would “keep millions of dollars in tax revenue here at home” and help the state recover from pandemic-related economic carnage. 

New York legalized betting in 2019 but confined it to in-person wagering at four upstate commercial casinos and their tribal counterparts. Returns to date have been underwhelming, partly due to the distance between those casinos and the state’s major population centers. 

Cuomo, who’d long opposed mobile betting, signalled his change of heart shortly before Christmas, publicly musing about ways New York might offset reductions in its tax revenue following lengthy pandemic shutdowns. Cuomo said this week that he aimed to stop New York bettors from crossing over into New Jersey, where mobile betting is thriving (in part due to those New York bettors). 

Peergame was very busy in December 2020, making several big announcements to advance the Bitcoin gambling industry. The Bitcoin SV online gambling site added two new games, and an important wallet integration to get around one of the last barriers to instant transactions.

On December 8, HandCash made the momentous announcement that Peergame would be the first app added to their Connect App Gallery.

To all our Early Access testers: first app added to the Connect App Gallery – PEERGAME! @PeergameCom

Keep in mind it’s for testing purposes, so any feedback to improve the user experience is more than welcome!

While its neighbors on all sides begin to legalize sports gambling, Kentucky seems content to allow much-needed revenue to continue to slip through its fingers. Since the U.S. Supreme Court showed lawmakers they were wrong and reversed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) almost three years ago, a number of states have scrambled to introduce their own legalized sports gambling markets. This has proven to be especially beneficial during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Kentucky continues to remain on the sidelines and is apparently happy with not getting onto the field. 

An initiative to introduce sports gambling to the Bluegrass State fell flat last year after legislators fumbled the ball and couldn’t recover it. Now, as the new legislative session got underway yesterday, it seems that there will be a repeat of last year’s performance. State lawmakers gathered for the first time in 2021 yesterday, but neither Kentucky’s House nor Senate is overly anxious to explore sports gambling opportunities. 

Two Kentucky legislators, Senate President Robert Stivers and Speaker of the House David Osborne, participated in an interview with media outlet Kentucky Education Television (KET) and its Kentucky Tonight program. With Tennessee, Maryland, DC, Virginia and others getting in on the sports gambling movement, the conversation eventually turned to whether Kentucky lawmakers would push for a legalized market, and the legislators made it clear that it isn’t a priority. Stivers, a Republican, seems to be under the impression that horse racing and sports gambling are synonymous, explaining that the state’s horse racing industry needs to focus on its own activity before new gaming options are introduced to the state. He asserted, “I think the horse industry and individuals who are interested in the wellbeing of the horse industry need to focus on historic horse racing before they start thinking about sportsbook and gambling in that realm.”

Osborne, also a Republican, supported a sports gambling bill last year drafted by Representative Adam Koenig. However, he showed his hand when addressing the issue, explaining, “[Horse racing facilities] are existing facilities that have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Kentucky, and I think that because of that, it will probably take most of the focus initially away from sports betting.” He added, “That doesn’t mean that there’s not support for sports betting amongst the members of the House, amongst the members of our caucus. It remains a bit of a divisive issue, certainly. There’s ongoing interest in discussions about it, but I do believe it will take a back seat initially to historical horse racing.”

Macau celebrated the end of an old, unstable year and the beginning of a new, potentially great one with a great performance. After suffering a drought all year caused by COVID-19 and its crazy antics, Macau recorded its best day in 11 months on New Year’s Eve, welcoming a greater number of visitors than it was probably expecting. Hopefully for the city, its residents, its casinos and all its businesses, the traffic is a sign of what’s to come in 2021.

The final tally of visitors on December 31, according to data released by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) yesterday, was 30,747. November 20, when the Macao Grand Prix was being held, saw 28,247 and 27,755 visitors passed through border controls into Macau on Christmas Day. In typical fashion, the majority of the visitors from December 31, 2020, to January 3 came from China. The daily average across the period was 21,242, of which 19,629 were mainlanders and 1,368 were from Hong Kong, based on the MGTO data.

While Macau was able to go out with a bang at the end of 2020, the numbers are still way off from where they should be. Last January, there were around 92,000 visitors on average each day, but this dropped to 5,585 the following month as the control COVID-19 was wielding began to really be seen. By May, that figure had dropped to an average of 520 per day; however, things began to pick up in the second half of the year as China gradually reduced travel restrictions and Macau was able to begin to see more traffic.

The end-of-year celebration in Macau was welcome relief to area hotels, as well. The average occupancy rate, per the MGTO, was around 70%, with 3-star hotels reporting slightly better performances, at 73%. The combined occupancy rate for all hotels in the city was 67.2% during the final push of the year, which was 15.1% higher than the average for the rest of December. It was also 23.2% higher than what had been seen in November and 4- and 5-star hotels did even better. 4-star hotels averaged an occupancy rate of 69.9% and the upper end of the range saw an average of 67.6%. Price didn’t appear to be too much of a deterrent, as the average room rate was about $140, or 21.7% higher than the December average.

One thing is perfectly clear about Nevada – the pace at which the state can recover from COVID-19 is perfectly unclear. It has previously been predicted that bringing Las Vegas and other Silver State cities back to their normal operating levels would take at least three years, but the introduction of the coronavirus vaccine gave analysts and industry insiders reason to believe things would move quicker. That now seems like a somewhat dubious claim, as the M Resort has announced a new round of job cuts. This isn’t the last of the workforce reductions in the state, either, as other properties are hinting that they may be forced to let some employees go, as well.

Located in Henderson, Penn National Gaming’s M Resort has been a popular hotspot over the years, but the continued fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has caused it to turn into a veritable ghost town, operating well below its normal levels. As a result, and with yet another COVID-19 spike in Nevada appearing, the casino announced this week that it is breaking off the relationship it has with 159 employees. Jeff Morris, a spokesperson for Penn National, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal (LVRJ) that the cuts are “the very unfortunate reality of not knowing how long this global public health threat will last or when we’ll be able to resume full operations.”

Nevada has been reeling from the effects of the coronavirus since last March, never able to find a steady course. Commercial activity in the state has been drastically reduced, with casino floors, bars, restaurants and other public venues forced to operate at just 25% of their normal levels. Hotels have had difficulty attracting guests, which has led many to shut down completely on weekdays as reservations dried up. 

Per updated COVID-19 data from yesterday, Nevada has 2,423 new positive cases of the virus, with 29 more deaths recorded. There have been over 235,455 cases in total since the virus first landed in the state and the statistics have forced Governor Steve Sisolak to maintain his restrictive posture regarding commercial activity in the state. This isn’t sitting well with most people, including Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, who has dubbed Sisolak a “dictator” that is sending Nevada back to the Dark Ages. 

When it became clear that the COVID-19 pandemic was going to cause major issues for casino operators last March, Matt Maddox and other Wynn Resorts executives decided to help the company out by foregoing their salaries for the rest of the year. In return, they were given shares in the company, which proved to be a smart move on their part. Maddox, according to a recent filing (pdf) by Wynn with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has been busy selling some of his shares and can’t complain about his return.

Maddox reportedly unloaded just under 56,000 Wynn shares, 50,000 in two transactions on December 30 and 5,966 a day later (the form lists the latter sales date as January 1, 2021, but that’s not possible since the markets were closed that day). The first transaction was locked in with an average share price of $112.94, the second at $113.42 and the third at $112.83. In total, despite losing 8% of his stake in Wynn with the sale, the executive picked up around $6.32 million. He’s not going to be too concerned about taking the hit in his stake, with his remaining 394,549 shares expected to see additional gains as Wynn continues to improve this year. The sales were made at a time when Wynn’s stock had rebounded to its highest level since last February.

After seeing the success Maddox enjoyed with his sale, it’s likely that the other executives who had agreed to the stock deals will follow suit. However, with these only receiving partial compensation through stock, they might be holding out in order to see how to get the most bang for their buck with a resurgence in the price. Last year’s arrangement resulted in executives and board members agreeing to not collect a salary in exchange for anywhere from 33-100% of their pay in the form of stock.

Maddox held onto Wynn when his contract with the company was renewed at the end of 2019. At that time, the contract included a provision that entitles him to a total of 100,000 shares, provided the casino operator is able to achieve certain milestones. Those shares, however, cannot be immediately sold and Maddox is contractually required to maintain an equity position in the company that is equal to six times his annual salary. That is reportedly $1.90 million, with the rest of his compensation coming in the form of bonuses and options.

While most companies operating in the gaming space have been scrambling to keep their heads above water as the COVID-19 debacle continues to keep them down, a few have been able to seemingly walk on water. Suncity Group falls into the latter category based on a couple of announcements it has made this week. The Hong Kong-listed company is pushing forward with two non-gaming resorts it wants to build in Japan and is also preparing to move on to the second phase of development at its resort in Hoiana, Vietnam. 

Suncity confirmed that it wants to build a luxury resort in Hokkaido, Japan, specifically, in the popular ski town of Niseko. It will be designed with all types of travelers in mind and the company said of the resort, “With development plans in the works in 2021, the project will cover an area of approximately 20 hectares, combining the natural beauty of Niseko and convenient leisure amenities.” Suncity hopes it can begin construction on the new property prior to the end of this year and the ultimate goal of its Japanese endeavors is to be in a stronger position to compete for a gaming license once the country gets its integrated resort (IR) market up and running.

That construction will run simultaneously with the construction of a second non-gaming resort on Miyako Island in Okinawa. Suncity purchased a plot of land there about a year and a half ago and has plans to build a property that includes 100 hotel rooms and 40 private villas, each with its own swimming pool. The company added about this endeavor that it “considers that with (i) the continued increase in Chinese visitors travelling to Japan and (ii) the newly operated direct flights to the Shimojishima Airport, the acquisition represents a good opportunity to further expand its tourism-related business and to diversify its focus, in terms of geographical locations, from China to the East Asia region.”

In addition to these plans and a project in the works in the Philippines, Suncity is moving forward with the work on its IR in Hoiana, Vietnam. The first phase of the project opened to select guests last summer and construction on the second phase is about to begin. It is going to target Southeast Asian tourists and Suncity expects the resort to bring “significant revenue and sustainable development prospects.”

Online casino sights need to stay on top of the hottest slot offerings to keep up with the competition. We’ve got the newest slots released in the past week, so you can check them out and decide if you want them on your site.

Don’t miss out on all of the latest announcements from the gambling industry. Our Press Release section is updated constantly, and we publish roundups of the latest partnerships twice a week.

Spin-crease into Higher Symbols with Fort of Fortune

Leading independent casino games provider High 5 Games (H5G) has revealed the latest addition to its Spin-crease games while introducing a brand new feature!

Indian police have discovered a new way to stop the people from gambling: offer them an entertaining alternative. Police in Andhra Pradesh’s West Godavari district are organizing a cricket tournament to keep locals distracted for the upcoming Sankranti season.

The Sankranti festival, falling on January 14 this year, celebrates the deity Surya, but also means lots of gambling typically. Cockfights and other forms of gambling are typical, but illegal. To give something else for the people to win, the police decided to make their yearly cricket tournament a bigger deal, with sponsored prizes and an open invitation for anyone to join.

“Previously also contests like this used to be held but without much publicity. This time we are doing it in a grand manner, involving all the divisions of Eluru town. Involving sponsors and also like a big league,” deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Dilip Kiran said.

Up to 50 teams of 11 will compete for a cash prize of Rs 25,000 ($341.80), with no entry fee required. “It is scheduled till Sankranti festival, so that they will be engaged in the league matches and the final will be scheduled on the festival day. Later on, the prize distribution and closing ceremony will be on the festival day,” Kiran noted.