PlayOLG, the online gambling site of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG), made its official launch on Thursday. In December, the site began a customer-focused preview involving 3,500 members of its Winner’s Circle Rewards program. Apparently, none of these early adopters spontaneously combusted as a result of their online play, clearing the way for OLG to open up the site to all adult residents of Canada’s most populous province.

OLG spokesman Tony Bitonti said the site underwent “some fine tuning on some of the registration, some of the verification, nothing major” as a result of its customer preview. The site currently offers slots, casino table games and lottery ticket sales while poker, bingo and parlay sports wagering have been promised for a later date.

OLG joins its provincial monopoly counterparts in British Columbia, Quebec, Manitoba and the four Atlantic provinces in offering some form of online gambling. OLG believes half-a-million Ontarians spend around $400m to $500m annually gambling online with international sites and hopes its Spielo G2-powered online site will generate additional profits for the province of $375m over its first five years of operation.

Moving west, the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation announced a new CEO last month. John Stinson will assume the role of CEO on Feb. 16, taking over from Winston Hodgins, who is stepping down after 12 years to “lead various business development initiatives in the corporation.” Stinson has vowed to provide customers with “exciting and innovative products.” Manitoba launched its online gambling site one year ago and has so far been spectacularly underwhelmed by its performance.

Moving even further west, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) has informed the provincial government of 22 technical malfunctions over the past four years. Among the items on the list obtained by the Vancouver Sun was a hiccup in the software for BCLC’s customer rewards program, which failed to pay out $471k worth of loyalty points to Encore Rewards members.

BCLC was forced to examine two years worth of internal records in order to figure out who was owed what, but BCLC repaid the lot to the 2,898 affected players, adding a 10% bonus to smooth any ruffled feathers. However, BCLC opted to keep the $52k it failed to pay out from a separate software glitch because the 82k affected players were only owed an average of 62¢ apiece.

Anyone thinking Russia was set to ease up on its longstanding antipathy towards gambling got a rude awakening after the country said it would no longer issue driver’s licenses to people who can’t handle their gambling.

This week, Russian authorities announced they would no longer issue driving permits to anyone suffering from certain “mental disorders,” including transgender or transsexual individuals, anyone with a fondness for fetishism, exhibitionism or voyeurism, as well as those who suffer from “pathological” gambling.

The new restrictions have come under widespread criticism from human rights activists and the country’s medical profession. The BBC quoted a warning from Valery Evtushenko of the Russian Psychiatric Association, who believes individuals who fall into the aforementioned categories will avoid seeking professional help lest they be ‘outed’ and face the revocation of their driving privileges.

In 2009, Russian authorities restricted most forms of gambling to four geographically isolated designated gaming zones (to which Sochi and the Crimea have since been added). None of these gaming zones have managed to attract any serious traffic, a fact that won’t be helped now that some gamblers can no longer hop behind the wheels of their Ladas. Frankly, we can’t think of a better incentive to gamble online from the safety of one’s home (despite those new fines).

BAN ON CHRISTMAS NEXT?

The timing of Russia’s announcement coincided with Wednesday’s Orthodox Christmas celebrations. Perhaps Russia would be wise to reintroduce the early Soviet ban on celebrating the birth of Jesus, if only to prevent future problem gamblers the state will subsequently have to ban from driving.

A study released shortly before ‘regular’ Christmas found that parents who give their kids too many Christmas presents could be setting them up for gambling problems later in life. Researchers at the University of Missouri and University of Illinois found that “children who receive many material rewards from their parents will likely continue rewarding themselves with material goods when they are grown.” Previous research has shown that adults who define themselves by their possessions are at a much higher risk of developing problem gambling behavior.

Sheldon Adelson isn’t the only casino tycoon to see his fortunes fall in 2014 thanks to the ongoing revenue slump in Macau, the world’s top gaming hub. Forbes has just released the Hong Kong version of its annual rich list and the four casino operators who made the grade each saw their personal fortune dip in 2014. None surpassed the $10.8b decline experienced by the Las Vegas Sands chairman, but you know, a billion here, a billion there… pretty soon you’re talking about real money.

Galaxy Entertainment Group chairman Lui Che Woo (pictured) led the casino decliners by losing a hefty $7b last year, leaving him with a mere $13.4b with which to somehow bravely soldier on. Lui slipped three places from last year’s list to rank fifth on the 2014 chart.

Pansy Ho, co-chair of MGM China and daughter of Macau’s old godfather Stanley Ho, slipped from ninth place last year to #12 this year with a $5b net worth. Stanley’s son Lawrence, who controls two-thirds of the Melco Crown Entertainment joint venture, slipped from #12 to #31 with $2b, down 41% from the year before.

Angela Leong, Stanley’s fourth ‘wife’ and a major shareholder in Stanley’s original casino operation SJM Holdings, slipped from #19 to #36 with a net worth of $1.8b. Another of Stanley Ho’s wives, Ina Chan, fell off the list entirely this year. Chan holds a 13% stake in casino operator Macau Legend as well as a stake in SJM. She was #46 on the 2013 list with $1.1b but her wealth has since been cut by half.

Both Lui’s Galaxy and Lawrence Ho’s Melco Crown have new projects opening in Macau during 2015, which they hope will backstop their falling fortunes and possibly even jumpstart a little growth. But for the moment, hope comes at a premium. Wells Fargo just issued a note saying it expect Macau gaming revenue to fall between 16% and 19% in January, based on current trends. Happy new year!

Computer scientists working out of the University of Alberta are claiming to have created a computer program called Cepheus that is unbeatable playing Heads-Up Limit Hold’em

First there were the Texas Road Gamblers. Men who carried more weight in Smith & Wesson than coinage. Let’s choose a figurehead of that time: Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson.

Then there were the online grinders. Wizards of a virtual world who managed to play more poker hands in a day than Brunson played in decade. Let’s choose a figurehead of that time: Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom.

So what does the future hold?

According to the boffins at the University of Alberta Computer Poker Research Group, they have created a computer program that has played a billion billion hands. That’s more hands that human beings have managed in the history of civilization. Let’s choose a figurehead of the future: Cepheus.

Doyle ‘Texas Dolly’ Brunson, Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom or Cepheus – if they squared of in pairs, who would come out victorious after a series of Heads-Up Limit Texas Hold’em games?

“Cepheus loses to no one over a long enough time. You just have to play enough hands so that luck goes away,” Neil Burch, a computer scientist involved in the project told The Guardian.

Lee Davy gives you a short update on the important milestones of 2014 for Raising for Effective Giving, a community of poker players interested in making an impact in the world.

As I write this, Steve O’ Dwyer, Bryn Kenney and Roger Sippl are locked in a battle to win the $1.8m first prize at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $100,000 Super High Roller. Three men have each paid $100,000 for the privilege of playing cards and the winner will win $1.8m.

I think it was the great Winston Churchill who said, ‘We make a living by what we get.” And whoever gets that $1.8m will be making a quite wonderful living. But there was a second part to that Churchill quote. One that deserves a line all on its own.

“We make a life by what we give.”

The poker community generates a lot of money, and thanks to the likes of Philipp Gruissem, Igor Kurganov and Liv Boeree there is a way to turn a fantastic living, into a great life.

A year ago, that trio, helped create Raising for Effective Giving (REG). The beginning of a movement of poker players all sharing the same goal: to hand a percentage of their poker winnings to those less fortunate, and therefore make a positive change in the world.

Great men and women in the world don’t look for opportunities – they make them. It was T. Boone Pickens who said that all too often people tend to ‘Ready! Aim! Aim! – Nobody likes to fire!’ Well, Gruissem and the gang took action. They fired. And they have hit the jackpot.

Steve O’Dwyer has beaten Roger Sippl, in heads-up action, to win the record breaking $1.8m first prize at the $100,000 Super High Roller at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

When it comes to winning Heads-Up Limit Hold’em games then a computer program called Cepheus is the undisputed master, yet when it comes to winning $1.8m first prizes there is nobody better than Steve O’Dwyer.

Steve O’Dwyer was an absolute revelation in 2013. He won over $2.4m in live tournament earnings, including victory at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Monte Carlo, for his first-ever seven figure score.

So when 2014 seemed to be running towards his lowest annual haul since he started playing the game, he could be forgiven for taking his foot off the gas a little. Then – BOOM! O’Dwyer took a trip to Macau, threw HK$500,000 into the ring and walked away with the title of the APPT Asia Championship Super High Roller winner and $1.8m in prize money.

Today, O’Dwyer becomes the only player in history to have consecutive $1.8m wins on his Hendon Mob profile, after winning the $100,000 Super High Roller at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) just two months later.

The event didn’t just break all PCA records for a Super High Roller event, it broke the PokerStars record for any of their $100,000 buy-ins worldwide. 50 unique players, and 16 players mental, or rich enough, to re-enter, created a total prize pool of $6,402,000, with the winner getting their hands on $1,872,580, a $15k Steel and Diamond SLYDE watch, and the bragging rights belonging to the victor of the first major tournament of 2015.

Day 1 ended with Sam Greenwood in charge, and it was a rather expensive day for Dan Shak, Mike McDonald, Scott Seiver, Cary Katz and Daniel Colman (2 buy-ins) and Bill Perkins (3 buy-ins).

A European Union court has ruled that the Greek government’s decision to give betting operator OPAP an exclusive video lottery terminals (VLT) license and an extension of its monopoly on games of chance did not constitute unlawful state aid.

In December 2011, the Greek government awarded a 10-year exclusive contract to OPAP to operate 35k VLTs. In exchange, the state was to receive €560m. Greece also extended OPAP’s monopoly over 13 “games of chance by any means” by a further 10 years (from 2020 to 2030). For this, OPAP agreed to pay €375m plus 5% of gross gaming revenues.

At the time, the cash-strapped country was preparing to sell its one-third stake in OPAP in order to raise funds to help repay the €240b bailout Greece received from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Critics have charged Greece with unfairly fattening up OPAP at the expense of private operators in order to boost OPAP’s value on the open market. In 2013, the Emma Delta consortium purchased the government’s OPAP stake for €652m.

In April 2012, seven Greek casino operators filed a complaint about the VLT deal, saying the €560m price could have easily been exceeded had the government allowed for more than one VLT license to be issued via a public tender.

The Commission’s study of the two deals showed that the VLT deal was “significantly” more valuable than €560m, yet it found that OPAP had overpaid for the monopoly extension. To close the gap between these two deals, Greece announced it would pay an additional 5% on VLT gross gaming revenue if daily revenues breached certain thresholds.

In October 2012, the Commission okayed the VLT deal, saying the rejigged compensation was adequate and therefore the state was not conferring an advantage on OPAP. The casino operators filed a protest, saying the Commission had failed to initiate a formal investigation procedure, infringed their right to effective judicial protection and had failed to correctly assess the question of whether OPAP was being given an unfair leg up.

On Thursday, the General Court of the European Union rejected these arguments, saying it hadn’t encountered serious difficulties in assessing the deals and thus no need to initiate a formal investigation. The Commission’s redaction of economic data in the non-confidential version of the decision didn’t prevent the casino operators from grasping the Commission’s reasoning, nor from challenging the decision in court. The Court also said the casino operators had failed to demonstrate that the Commission erred in assessing both the VLT deal and the monopoly extension at the same time.

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The former Portuguese enclave, Macau, recorded its worst year, ending a decade of expansion that turned the city into the world’s gambling hub, which is why we decided to ask our readers, “How will Macau perform in 2015?”

60% said, “Decline in 2015” and 40% voted, “Decline in 2015.”

Financial analyst UBS Securities Asia Ltd. believes that Macau casino operator Galaxy Entertainment could supplant SJM Holdings as the market leader in shares of gross gaming revenue (GGR) by the end of 2015. If UBS’s estimates prove to be correct, it would be the first time SJM goes through an entire year without being the market leader in the category.

According to its note, UBS is estimating that Galaxy Entertainment would see its market share in GGR shoot up to 22.7%, compared to 20.7% share it had in 2014, with its VIP share increasing to 27% for the year. That would beat out UBS’s GGR market share forecast for SJM of 22.4% in 2015.

The analyst cited the upcoming opening of Galaxy Macau’s Phase 2 project as a big reason in the expected jump in VIP business for the operator. “We expect around 150-200 net new tables will be granted to Galaxy Macau phase 2, with roughly 50-70 allocated to VIP and 100-130 to the mass floor,” UBS analysts said.

Apart from the opening of Galaxy Macau phase 2, UBS also indicated that Galaxy Entertainment is poised to take full advantage of its relationship with critical junket operators to help increase VIP turnout in its existing high-roller tables. Likewise, the expected opening of 300 Grand Waldo hotel rooms in the early part of the year could also boost turnout from the mass-market segment for the year.

UBS’s bullish forecast for Galaxy Entertainment comes at a time when the operator has steadily gained ground over its casino rivals in Macau. Back in September 2014, Galaxy became only the third operator to lead the shares lead in GGR, upending longtime champ SJM and perennial second-place finisher Sands China Ltd.

In related news, Galaxy Macau’s ongoing construction of the phase 2 development hit a temporary  snag when a fire broke out on the roof of an extension that was currently under construction.

According to the South China Morning Post, the fire began Thursday morning just as workers were carrying out welding work in the area. An investigation by the fire department revealed that sparks from the welding work “set alight construction materials on the roof of the building.”

For the fifth year in a row, Sports Betting Community and iGaming Business has joined forces to bring a networking event on the first night of ICE Totally Gaming in London, Feb 3 at Café de Paris.

Formerly known as ICE ICE Baby and rebranded as London Baby will be one of the biggest networking events around ICE with an estimated 1,000 industry professionals expected to attend, providing sports betting and iGaming professionals the chance to network in a fun and relaxed environment, away from the show floor at ExCeL.

Jacob Curciel, CEO of Optima MGS—this year’s London Baby’s Headline sponsor—said, “We are proud to be associated with London Baby! which is well recognised as one of the best events around ICE Totally Gaming for sports betting and iGaming professionals. London Baby! has provided the perfect platform for us to highlight our new improved platform OptimaMGS, powered by MarginMaker to the key people in the industry.”

Shona O’Donnell, Head of Operations at iGaming Business and organizer of the iGaming Super Show, also commented, “I am looking forward to this year’s event so much as it is in such a wonderful venue. Café de Paris will provide the perfect backdrop for people to socialize and network, with the perfect balance between business and fun.”

“We are proud to co-host with the iGaming Super Show again for the London Baby Party. All the signs are suggesting this year’s party will raise standards yet again. We have more sponsors than ever before and more people have already pre-registered,” Rasmus Sojmark, Founder of SBCNews.co.uk added.

The event is free to attend plus the bar is totally OPEN, Baby! Click here to register.

Sparked by Shane Warne’s departure from 888Poker, Lee Davy continues his confessions series with a little ditty about his brushes with celebrity stardom during his time in the poker circus.

Did you know there is a disorder known as Celebrity Worship Syndrome? It’s a bone fide disorder that affects people that become obsessed with the details of a celebrity’s personal life.

I have always been very anti-celebrity. I remember once being sat opposite the former Wales, Liverpool and everybody else striker, Dean Saunders, on a train ride home from Manchester. I texted my mate to tell him and he asked me to get his autograph. There was no bloody way I was going to ask him for his autograph. Although I did share my bag of crisps with him.

Then there was the time I was standing in the urinal next to the former Welsh footballer Barry Horne. I remember telling everyone that I got to see Barry’s Horne. I mean, come on. You’ve got to have a little look haven’t you? Although that wasn’t the case when I found  myself peeing next to the New Zealand winger Jonah Lomu, in a Swansea nightclub. I thought the size of it would create psychological scars from which I would never recover.

In all seriousness I think my celebrity phobia is based around my little man syndrome. I hate it when there is a hierarchy. I have no time for authority. I guess I view celebrity in this way. Either they believe they are a superior class, or I believe they believe they are a superior class. Either way, it bugs the shit out of me. I don’t know why I let it bother me. Most celebrities I have met all seem very nice and down to earth.

But I still get star-struck on occasion and poker has been fortunate to me on more than one occasion in this regard. One of the greatest things I love about poker is it breaks down social and cultural barriers. You can sit down next to Don Cheadle and shoot the shit whilst playing cards. There are no burly minders, no distance, no rules around what you can say and what you can’t.

Think about it.

January 2015, London, UK (Press Release) – Lyceum Media, organizers of Fire & Ice, are proud to announce Swedish games developer Play’n GO as one of its headline sponsors of the 14th annual Fire & Ice event on 4th February at the Troxy London.

Play’n GO is generously supporting the year’s Victorian-themed event entitled Fire & Ice: The Reign of Queen Vic – by sponsoring the Fire & Ice Victorian bar with complimentary themed cocktails and a wild cast of Victorian entertainers. This year’s event will certainly wow spectators while introducing guests to a golden age of Great Britain.

“We are super excited to be part of yet another Fire & Ice party! The perfect way to kick off 2015 together with friends and business partners! ” Says Ebba Arnred Director Account Manager Play’n GO

“The continued support from Play’n GO is appreciated by the entire industry. Companies like Play’n GO recognize the importance of events like Fire & Ice, and understand that they are how we maintain such a close-knit industry,” says Jodie Thind, event organizer.

Lyceum Media’s Fire & Ice, the original party of iGaming, takes place this year on Wednesday 4th February at London’s Troxy Theatre and will host up to 2,000 iGaming executives on its main floor.

Free to attend for all iGaming professionals, Fire & Ice will open its doors at 9pm with the Stage Show commencing at 10pm and ALL guests are invited to take part in the golden era of Victorian England.

Other sponsors of Fire & Ice – The Reign of Queen Vic, include:  Affiliate REPUBLIK, Bluff Europe, Callcredit Information Group, CalvinAyre.com, CORE Gaming, Dafabet, EveryMatrix, Gamesys, Gaming Realms, iGamingBusiness, iGamingCalendar, iGaming Capital, Income Access Group, Lyceum Media, Magnet Gaming, Openlot, Plain Gaming, Picante Gaming/GGL, Secure Trading, Sure International, VegasKings.com and WMS Interactive.

New York’s decision to award three new casino licenses has naturally met some opposition from anti-gambling lobbyists. One of the most vocal groups has been the Coalition Against Gambling in New York and recently, the group made it known that it was opposing New York’s plan to add a fourth casino in the state’s Southern Tier.

The group was responding to comments made by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who came out last week saying that he would ask the Gaming Commission to reconsider reopening the bidding process to allow a Southern Tier casino.

Last month, the commission approved three casino projects in the Catskills, Schenectady and the Finger Lakes, leading to officials in the spurned region to voice their disapproval of being left out in the cold. The Commission hasn’t decided on whether to grant Cuomo’s request.

SCHENECTADY CASINO ZONING ISSUES

Speaking of the Schenectady casino project, the Galessi Group, which won approval to build a casino in Schenectady, has made a formal request to change a zoning code for the site of the Mohawk Harbor development where the group’s casino will be built.

According to the Daily Gazette, the Galessi Group and its Rush Street Gaming partner need the zoning change because the current district zone does not allow the building of parking facilities, signages and other features deemed necessary to move forward with the $300 million project, which is estimated to employ 877 full-time and 193 part-time workers.

A public hearing on the issue has been scheduled for January 26 after the groups’ zoning amendment request was presented at a City Council meeting earlier this week.

Florida real estate developer Glenn Straub has finally revealed his plans for the former Revel casino once his acquisition of the property is completed. No, he’s not re-opening it as a casino (at least not yet), nor does he plan to turn it into a school campus like what Richard Stockton College plans to do to the old Showboat Casino. Instead, Straub is planning to use the property to open a water park.

Yep. A water park. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Ridiculous as it sounds, Straub appears serious about his plan, telling reporters this week that he’s toying with the idea of opening a high-speed ferry service between the site and New York City. He didn’t give a timetable on when the park will open, but it’s likely contingent upon the conclusion of ongoing court proceedings Straub is currently in the middle of pertaining to the bankruptcy sale of the property.

A New Jersey bankruptcy judge awarded the sale of Revel to Straub for $95.4 million after Brookfield Asset Management, the winning bidder from a December auction of the property, walked away from the deal. Despite being handed the property seemingly on a silver platter, Straub has threatened legal action to halt the sale because he only wants to pay the initially agreed-upon price of $90 million, minus $3 million in deposit fees.

While Straub appears serious about the water park, his attorney Stuart Moskovitz said Straub hasn’t nailed down plans for the property. Moskovitz suggested some kind of casino could be re-opened, but at a much smaller scale than Revel’s original operation.

PENNSYLVANIA REAL ESTATE FIRM TO BUY ATLANTIC CLUB

Meanwhile, another one of Atlantic City’s shuttered casinos could finally have a buyer. According to multiple reports, a Pennsylvania real estate company that specializes in residential projects and senior citizen housing has agreed to buy the shuttered Atlantic Club Casino Hotel.

Struggling casino operator Caesars Entertainment says its bankruptcy plan has secured the support of 60% of its first-lien creditors, paving the way for its debt-laden Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. (CEOC) division to be reborn as a real estate investment trust. The plan will split CEOC into two divisions: one to operate 44 casinos in 13 states and another to own the land on which these casinos stand.

Furthermore, the company says the consenting creditors are in the process of securing control over an additional 7% of first-lien notes, clearing the two-thirds hurdle demanded by bankruptcy courts for approval of the reorganization. That additional 7% was hinted at on Thursday after ValueWalk reported that the BlackRock Inc. investment management firm had sold $500m of its first-lien Caesars bonds to pro-bankruptcy creditors.

Caesars will likely file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by Jan. 15, after which it will have until Feb. 2016 to be reborn under its new structure. A further 60 days will be tacked on to the end of that deadline to allow Caesars to obtain regulatory approval from gaming regulators in each state in which it currently operates.

The bankruptcy plan will shave nearly $10b off CEOC’s $18.4b debt but nearly all the pain will be borne by second-lien creditors, who will get pennies on the dollar from a Caesars restructuring. To win the bankruptcy court’s approval, Caesars has to demonstrate that its restructuring is fair, which seems a bit like convincing the Nuremberg judges that Hitler was really only a bit naughty.

Junior creditors holding billions of dollars of potentially worthless notes have filed multiple lawsuits against Caesars, protesting the asset-shuffling they claim left them holding significantly devalued shares. While a bankruptcy filing would put the brakes on lawsuits against Caesars, the creditors have vowed to pursue claims against Caesars management, who enjoy no such protection. A letter sent on Thursday by the creditors to the Delaware court hearing the suit accused senior Caesars execs and its hedge fund owners of “looting” assets from CEOC in order to protect them from creditors.

Australian casino operator Crown Resorts’ plan to build a casino in Sri Lanka appears doomed after voters ousted the country’s president and installed an anti-casino politician. President Mahinda Rjapaksa, who had ruled Sri Lanka for a decade, was unseated on Friday by his former ally Maithripala Sirisena, whose New Democratic Front secured 51.3% of the popular vote.

One of Sirisena’s key campaign promises was to roll back plans for a Crown casino. Crown planned to build a $400m resort casino in the country’s capital Colombo, but the project was mired in controversy from the start. Buddhist groups objected to idea of any more casinos beyond the small-scale joints currently operating in and around Colombo. Overly generous tax concessions helped inflame animosity toward the project.

Crown has lots of other expansion plans to keep it busy, both on its own and via its stake in the Melco Crown Entertainment joint venture. Crown is presently adding a new hotel to its Perth casino and plans to do likewise for its Melbourne property. Crown is also finalizing plans for its new $1.5b VIP casino in Sydney and recently entered into a JV with Oaktree Capital on a Las Vegas casino project. Crown has also just announced a new online betting JV with Matthew Tripp’s BetEasy. Melco Crown will officially launch its City of Dreams Manila in time for the lunar new year celebrations and Studio City will open in Macau later this year.

Crown’s Sri Lanka project had teamed with local casino operator Ravi Wijeratne, who planned to shift one of his existing casino licenses to the Crown facility. Two similar Colombo resort casino proposals by local property developer John Keells Holdings and politician/businessman Dhammika Perera are also expected to be scrapped once the country’s new administration officially takes the reins of power.

Meanwhile, Perera’s small-scale Ballys Colombo casino has inked a deal with gaming device supplier Euro Games Technology (EGT). The casino, which had primarily relied on table games like roulette, has been slowly diversifying into electronic gaming. An EGT spokesperson said the casino had accepted delivery of eight Egypt Quest progressive jackpot slot machines and future orders are expected given the positive reaction the new machines have received.

Italy’s online sports betting market has enjoyed a new lease on life ever since the government relaxed restrictions on the types of sports betting operators could offer. Figures viewed by eGaming Review show online betting stakes hit €188m in December, up 65% from December 2013. For the year as a whole, stakes hit €1.6b, a gain of 23% from the previous year. Credit for the gains goes to regulators expanding the range of betting options (this year and last) and the launch in October of Bet365’s Italian-facing site.

Finnish gambling operator Paf has waded into the Italian market via the acquisition of Milan-based Winga. The Playtech-powered Winga.it site offers casino, poker and bingo products and also broadcasts live roulette games on Italy’s digital TV networks. Winga was previously owned by Italian conglomerate Buongiorno SpA. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Winga generated €10m in revenue in 2014.

Paf plans to expand Winga’s offering via additional casino games and a possible sportsbook launch “in the next few years.” Paf CEO Anders Ingves said the acquisition represented Paf’s “continued internationalization and expansion” but Paf’s previous endeavors in European regulated markets have not ended all that well. Paf pulled out of the Spanish online poker market in 2013 and left France the year before that.

Paf has yet to reveal whether its Italian customers will have access to the iBandit (pictured above), the groundbreaking device for fooling slots players into thinking they’re actually in a brick-and-mortar casino. The iBandit, essentially a slot machine lever encased in a small block of oak, was released in December to commemorate both the 15th anniversary of PAF’s online site and the anniversary of the €17.9m slots jackpot a Paf player won in 2013.

Developed by the Nordic Society for Invention and Discovery, the iBandit connects to your computer’s USB port, allowing a more tactile experience to your slots play. Paf communications manager Matias Lindquist said the iBandit “forms a transparent link” between Paf’s digital and land-based casinos. For a small additional fee, Paf employees will come to your home and chain smoke cigarettes for that truly visceral in-casino atmosphere.