Pennsylvania casino revenue fell 1.44% to $3.07b in 2014, the fourth straight year that casino gaming revenue in the state has topped $3b. It’s also the second consecutive year of negative growth, although the total was enough to maintain the state’s status as America’s #2 casino gambling market.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) had previously released the state’s slots figures for 2014, which showed revenue down 2.7% to $2.31b. On Thursday, the PGCB revealed that table game revenue had risen 2.7% to $749.5m, the highest total since the state allowed table games five years ago. However, table revenue growth was less than the 6.2% gain recorded in 2013.

The state’s high water mark came in 2012, when overall revenue topped $3.15b. Since then, new casinos have opened up in neighboring Maryland and Ohio, giving Pennsylvania a dose of the same medicine it has inflicted on New Jersey, where gaming revenue has fallen every year since 2006, the same year Pennsylvania launched its own slots venues.

Still, don’t cry too much for Pennsylvania, as the state’s highest-in-the-nation tax rates – 54% on slots and 14% on tables – diverted $1.34b of 2014’s haul into the government’s coffers.

The full-year numbers were aided by a boffo December, which saw slots rise 6% and table games jump 15.3% over December 2013. Sands Bethlehem led December’s table tallies with $14.2m in winnings, followed by Parx with $10.2m (+13%) and SugarHouse with $7.3m (+12%). Sands benefited from having 206 tables in action during December, compared to just 183 in December 2013. Parx’s gains are all the more impressive considering its table total fell from 165 to 154 over the same period.

For the year as a whole, Sands Bethlehem’s tables earned $189m, up 7% year-on-year and representing nearly one-quarter of the total statewide haul of $749.5m. The Parx’s tables were up nearly 9% to $130m, about 17% of the statewide total. Just four of the state’s dozen casinos – Harrah’s Philadelphia, Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course, Meadows Racetrack and Presque Isle Downs – were in negative table territory for the year.

Macau casino fortunes may have taken another body blow on Wednesday after China’s President Xi Jinping announced plans to intensify his anti-corruption campaign in 2015. The crackdown, which began in earnest about a year after Xi took power in March 2013, has been widely credited for Macau’s ongoing casino revenue decline as high-profile individuals curbed their conspicuous consumption in a bid to stay under Xi’s radar.

The fifth plenary session of the Communist Party of China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) concluded on Wednesday, after which a communiqué was issued listing seven priorities for 2015. These include ensuring senior officials “toe the line” with regards to central leadership policies. All state-owned enterprises (SOEs) will be subject to new inspections and officials found to have embezzled funds or engaged in the selling or buying of government posts will face “serious penalties.”

SOE execs and the heads of Party and government departments will be held accountable for any serious corruption cases that occur on their watch. The government also intends to “strengthen international cooperation in the hunt for fugitive officials and asset recovery.” The CCDI says it punished a total of 71,478 Chinese officials for corruption in 2014, with 68 of these cases involving high-level officials.

Perhaps sensing that their language might spur the anti-corruption team’s rank-and-file members to break out the pitchforks and torches, the state cautioned that this was not a “whirlwind campaign” but a “step by step” process that required “political composure, restraint and patience.” In other words, anyone hoping that Xi would ease up on the throttle has another thing coming.

As for what impact this broadened campaign might have on Macau, one only has to look at the damage previous efforts have done to Macau’s VIP gambling sector (and the junket operators that cater to these VIPs). High-rollers traditionally account for as much 70% of overall gaming revenue but this has fallen to as low as 56% in recent months.

Pre-crackdown studies by the Polytechnic Institute of Macau found that around half of Macau’s high-rollers were either government officials or SOE executives. One assumes that the smarter VIPs have already cottoned on to the fact that playtime is over, so anybody caught in the act from this point forward is merely bent on proving Darwin was right.

It won’t help that the recent arrest of Stanley Ho’s nephew for operating a prostitution ring at the Hotel Lisboa has local police vowing to beef up surveillance at Macau’s gaming properties. On Tuesday, Macau’s Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak vowed to “strengthen communication with senior executives in casinos and hotels” while simultaneously adding more equipment and manpower to the Public Security Forces to help in “maintaining a secure society.” And, one presumes, less profitable casinos.

Macau junket operator David Group is reportedly cashing in its chips, underscoring the difficulties facing all facets of gaming operations in the world’s largest casino hub.

On Thursday, analysts at Nomura reported that David Group was “in the process of shutting down its VIP rooms in Macau.” David Group is considered one of Macau’s top-10 junket operators, controlling seven VIP rooms containing 58 gaming tables, which are believed to have handled up to 5% of Macau’s total VIP turnover.

Analysts at Daiwa Capital Markets later reported that David Group was planning to close four of its VIP rooms; two each at the Wynn Macau and MGM Macau. The junket also has a presence at Galaxy Macau, Sands China’s Four Seasons and the L’Arc, which operates under an SJM Holdings license. David Group has yet to publicly comment on either report.

Nomura’s sources reported that David Group had recently waived its requirement for gamblers to make a minimum deposit of HKD 100k (US $13k) to open an account at its VIP rooms. Nomura said David Group planned an “orderly” shutdown “over the next few months” as they seek to collect all outstanding debts.

Nomura suggested David Group’s demise might not have too great a negative impact on junket operator liquidity, although the analysts cautioned that they were unclear “whether this is an isolated incident or something more structural.”

Macau’s seven-months-and-counting gaming revenue decline is primarily the result of high-rollers scaling back their spending, which has weighed heavily on the special administrative region’s junket operators. Industry observers have projected Macau could see up to 50 VIP rooms close in 2015.

David Group isn’t suffering in isolation. Last week, Hong Kong-listed Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd warned the market that its 2014 profit stream from the Hengsheng Group junket operation had failed to meet guarantees. Imperial Pacific, which is developing a casino project on the island of Saipan, holds a 5% stake in profits generated via Hengsheng’s junket activities. That stake was supposed to guarantee a minimum of HKD 24m ($3.1m) in 2014 but Hengsheng anted up only HKD 10.7m.

Online poker giant PokerStars says its initial foray into the world of sports betting will make its public debut before the end of March. The news was revealed in a business update issued on Thursday by Star’s parent company, Canada’s Amaya Gaming Group.

In November, Stars announced plans to roll out casino and sports betting products in markets served by its .com site. Amaya now says the sports betting launch will take place in Q1, “ahead of schedule.”

The betting product will launch within the PokerStars 7 poker client “in certain markets” and Stars vows to “gradually” add other markets as well as web and mobile versions throughout 2015. Stars has enlisted former bet365 VIP trading manager Ian Marmion to build Stars’ in-house trading team.

Amaya says it has successfully completed the rollout of casino table games “in eligible markets on PokerStars.com and certain domains sharing liquidity on the global network.” Stars says web and mobile versions of its casino offering are coming later this year, which will be accompanied by an “aggressive” marketing campaign.

Stars’ Spanish-facing site was the first to host its new blackjack and roulette offering in October, but the product was taken offline over the holidays to address local regulations requiring Stars to make hand- and spin-histories available to customers. The casino games are scheduled to be back online within weeks.

Before the product went offline, Amaya says it had managed to capture a “significant double-digit share” of Spain’s regulated online casino market. Stars enjoyed a 30% cross-sell of table games to its active player ranks, a faster cross-sell than Amaya’s ‘B’ gaming site Full Tilt enjoyed, despite Tilt offering a wider variety of casino products, including slots. Spain is still in the process of allowing its licensed operators to offer slots.

Meanwhile, Stars’ French-facing site is testing new ‘surprise’ bonuses that use ‘big data’ to tailor rewards for specific players based on their individual gaming habits. The scheme allows players to swap their regular bonuses for a personalized bonus of unknown treasures. Assuming they choose the mystery option, the specific benefits and requirements will then be spelled out, with players given two weeks in which to clear the necessary benchmarks.