UK-listed gaming operator Rank Group posted decent profit gains in its fiscal H1 despite only a modest growth in revenue. The company reported revenue of £361.7m in the six months ending Dec. 31, up less than 3% over the same period the previous year. But earnings rose 14.5% to £62.1m and operating profit rose by a quarter to £40.8m.

Rank’s Grosvenor Casinos drove the gains, with revenue rising 6% to £205.6m. The Mecca bingo brand was flat at £143.3m while the Spanish-facing Enracha bingo brand dipped by a fifth to £12.8m. Overall operating profit would have been much higher were it not for £14m in costs stemming largely from Rank’s efforts to beef up its online infrastructure.

Rank’s online operations reported revenue up 16% and operating profit up 75% year-on-year. Grosvenor’s online operations saw revenue surge over 70% to £9.9m, while turning in an operating profit of £1.9m versus a £900k loss in the comparable period a year ago. Mecca’s digital revenue rose a more modest 5.7% to £31.5m but profit rose nearly 24% to £8.4m. Nearly two-thirds of Mecca customers play via mobile devices, generating 37% of Mecca revenue.

Rank also announced it was shifting its core online platform to one provided by Bede Gaming, who beat out incumbent OpenBet for the contract. However, OpenBet will remain a key content provider for Rank and will continue to provide its remote gaming server for specific game integrations.

The Rank deal marks the first ‘tier one’ operator deal for the Newcastle-based Bede, which currently serves over 20 casino and bingo sites and won Bingo Supplier of the Year at the most recent eGaming Review Awards. The deal allows Rank the option of taking an equity stake in Bede via a convertible loan.

Rank says it plans to sequentially migrate all three of its brands to the Bede platform, with the first brand to accomplish the move this year. The new platform will allow the introduction of new games content from IGT, Playtech, Bally, WMS, Novomatic and other firms. Rank’s H2 plans include the formation of a shared digital marketing team and a single digital agency for all three brands. Former William Hill and Ladbrokes veteran Colin Cole-Johnson was recently appointed to tne newly created role of Group Director of Digital and Cross Channel Services.

It took almost three years and numerous trips to bankruptcy court, but finally, Revel was on the receiving end of some good news. The former Atlantic City casino reached a settlement with the city that will reduce its property tax assessment for 2015 from $625 million to $225 million. Likewise, its quarterly tax payments, which are due this weekend, have been reduced from almost $10 million to just under $2 million while its municipal tax rate for the year could drop from under $40 million to $7.5 million.

Chris Filiciello, a spokesman for Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian, defended the settlement from critics angered by the way AC’s casinos have successfully appealed their tax payments, depriving local municipalities of badly needed revenue.

To quell the growing concern, state lawmakers are laying out a plan that would allow casinos to make payments in lieu of taxes for 15 years in exchange for dropping plans to file tax appeals. This proposal would give casinos cost certainty in advance while also ensuring the city a guaranteed revenue stream.

According to Filiceillo, if the senate approves the alternative payment plan, Revel’s tax settlement would become a moot point after the first quarter payment of $2 million is received.

CREDIT AGENCIES TAKE AC TO THE WOODSHED

Meanwhile, AC’s financial struggles led two credit ratings agencies to lower their ratings for the city. Moody’s Investors Service was the first to take action, cutting its rating six notches deeper into junk territory. A few days later, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services took a similar step, cutting its rating four notches to junk at ‘BB’.

The two rating agencies are particularly concerned by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie taking the unprecedented step of appointing an emergency management team for the city and ordering it to consider the possibility of debt restructuring through bankruptcy.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) has found itself indirectly involved in another controversy after documents signed by city officials in Baguio City allowing the opening of an electronic bingo parlor were found to be erroneous.

The documents, which were “endorsed” by Mayor Mauricio Domogan, indicated that the city did not object to the opening of the bingo parlor last year. But the documents have now been deemed a “misrepresentation of the city government’s position.”

Vice Mayor Edison Bilog revealed earlier this week that the resolution, dated March 25, 2014, was actually fake and contained forged signatures from Bilog himself.

According to a separate document, Domogan wrote to PAGCOR chair Cristino Naguiat Jr on April 14, 2014, endorsing the company’s application to operate e-bingo in Baguio. Such a document is required to be submitted to PAGCOR, although gaming applicants could also attach forms of certificates of no objections from communities in the event actual certifications can’t be produced. Domogan was reportedly misled into believing that the resolution was legitimate.

Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda claimed the resolution, which carried a note that read “duly received by the council,” was never actually approved by the city council. Tabanda pointed out that the date the resolution supposedly passed couldn’t have happened because that was a Tuesday and the city council holds its regular sessions on Mondays.

Fellow councilor Richard Cariño backed up his colleague’s statements, saying the proposed resolution to bring an e-bingo parlor to Baguio never got off the ground.

While not explicitly calling out the operator, Vice Mayor Bilog did say that the operator of this parlor, a Laguna-based company, was tasked to come up with the certificate that has since been questioned by the city council.

Casino operators’ hopes for building large-scale integrated resorts in Sri Lanka bit the dust on Thursday as the country’s newly elected government officially put the kibosh on three pending projects. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament that the new administration had “decided to ban such approval for casinos,” fulfilling a campaign promise by new president Maithripala Sirisena.

The previous government had offered operators like Crown Resorts significant tax concessions to help attract large-scale development but the plans were strongly opposed by other political parties and the nation’s influential Buddhist leaders. Sri Lanka has around five small casinos that operate in a legal grey area and the previous government had planned to dodge the issue of authorizing new casino licenses by allowing these operators to transfer their licenses via partnerships with large developers.

In addition to Crown’s $400m project in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, property developer John Keells Holdings and local politician/businessman Dhammika Perera had proposed similar projects, although none of these had yet to begin construction. The government insists all three operators can build resorts if they so choose, but casinos cannot be a part of the entertainment options.

Sri Lanka is also casting a fresh eye on its existing small-scale casinos. Cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said all current casino licenses will be reviewed because government officials “want to see the legal basis of those operations.” A new one-time casino tax of Rs 1b (US $7.5m) will be demanded of all current license holders. Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said the tax must be paid by April 15 or the whip would come down.

Senaratne also revealed that plans are underway to restrict casino gambling to a specific area of Sri Lanka. The previous government had designated its own gaming zone in the D.R. Wijewardena Mawatha area of Colombo but Senaratne said the exact location of this new gaming zone had yet to be determined.