South Korean casino operator Paradise Co Ltd reported revenue up 3.8% to KRW 591.3b (U $544.5m) in 2014. Paradise operates five of the country’s 17 casinos and is currently building the $1.7b Paradise City integrated resort joint venture with Sega Sammy Holdings on Yeongjongdo island.

Table games continued to be Paradise’s dominant revenue driver in 2014, rising 3.5% to KRW 558.7b for the year thanks to table drop rising 12.7% to KRW 5.3t ($4.9b). Electronic gaming machines rose 10.4% to KRW 32.6b.

Meanwhile, South Korean politicians are coming under increased pressure to pass legislation that would allow locally owned cruise ships to offer onboard gambling. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Chung Hong-won urged the National Assembly to pass 14 pending motions, including a bill that would allow Korean-owned cruise lines to equip their vessels with casinos. Like all but one of South Korea’s brick-and-mortar casinos, these floating casinos would be accessible only by foreign tourists.

A member of the Prime Minister’s staff reminded the Korea Herald that the Harmony Cruise line, which launched with great fanfare in 2012, went bankrupt just two years later. The official compared Harmony Cruise with casino-equipped Malaysian cruise ships, which traditionally generate between 30% and 40% of revenues from gaming.

The desire to jump-start the domestic cruise industry is shared by the country’s president, Park Guen-hye, who made it among her election campaign pledges. The tourism industry employs some 850k citizens and Park wants to boost that to 1m by 2017. The country has also set targets of attracting 16m foreign tourists and raising tourism revenue to $24b by 2017.

Accused online bookie Paul Phua has lost his bid to play poker while he’s waiting for his illegal sports betting trial to commence. Phua and son Darren have been charged with operating an online sportsbook out of three luxury villas at Caesars Palace during last year’s FIFA World Cup.

The Phuas had asked the courts to allow them to pass the time by playing some poker at casinos on the Vegas strip while they’re out on bail. Phua Sr. is a known high-stakes player, having participated in the original $1m buy-in Big One For One Drop event at the 2012 World Series of Poker.

The Phuas’ attorneys noted that (a) the charges against their clients had nothing to do with poker, (b) casinos weren’t exactly lax when it came to keeping an eye on their customers and (c) the Phuas are rapidly burning through the entire Netflix catalogue (we may have made ‘c’ up). Prosecutors argued against allowing the Phuas to ante up, saying the Phuas’ alleged illegal behavior had been “furthered through associations made and maintained through poker gambling salons.”

On Thursday, US Magistrate Judge Bill Hoffman denied the Phuas’ request, saying they’d offered no new evidence to justify lifting the court order preventing them from entering casinos and they remained “a danger” to the public. The trial is scheduled to get underway on Feb. 9.

CARD-COUNTER SUES PLANET HOLLYWOOD, CAESARS

Sticking on the Strip, a pro gambler from New Jersey has sued Caesars Entertainment’s Planet Hollywood Resort, claiming he was illegally detained by security in June 2013 after they caught him counting cards. Ross Miller has also filed charges against Caesars in New Jersey over similar claims of illegal detention at three of Caesars’ Atlantic City casinos in 2013.

Miller told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he was originally detained in May 2013 at Caesars Atlantic City, then again at Harrah’s AC in July and at the Showboat in November. In each case, Miller was charged with disorderly conduct, only to be acquitted on one charge while the other two charges were dropped. Multiple patrons have sued Harrahs in the past year over alleged overzealous and violent tactics by security personnel.

PokerStars should receive its New Jersey online gambling go-ahead by March, according to state Senator Ray Lesniak (pictured). The senator, who has been a fierce champion of the gaming industry in New Jersey, made the prediction in response to queries via Twitter. When asked why Stars’ application has continued to languish, Lesniak suggested it was down to “more due diligence window dressing” on the part of the state Division of Gaming Enforcement.

For the record, this isn’t the first time Lesniak has made such a prediction. In September, Lesniak suggested Stars would be popping a US-made bottle of champagne within “weeks, not months.” On Friday, Lesniak offered his apologies, saying he “didn’t factor in [Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon] Adelson’s influence.”

Adelson is vehemently against the spread of online gambling in the US via his Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling (CSIG) and his support for the Restore America’s Wire Act (RAWA). In October, Adelson told attendees at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas that Amaya Gaming’s acquisition of Stars had done nothing to expunge the illegality that resulted in the Black Friday criminal charges against Stars and thus Stars had no business doing business on US shores.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is reportedly very keen to secure the Republican party’s nomination for president in the 2016 election campaign. Adelson is one of the GOP’s top campaign donors and would presumably frown on any prospective nominee who failed to do their utmost to keep Stars out. Asked why Christie might risk Adelson’s ire, Lesniak said “Adelson’s play to ban eGaming in Congress is dead and PokerStars new ownership too formidable to deny.”

In related news, the Associated Press reported that the New Jersey poker sites of WSOP.com and 888poker.com would begin sharing liquidity as of Monday. Caesars Interactive Entertainment, which operates WSOP.com, believes more bodies at the tables will give a boost to the state’s sagging regulated online poker market, which hit a new record low revenue of $1.87m in November, barely half its January 2014 peak of $3.4m. The state is due to release December’s numbers on Wednesday (14).