Racing, casino and social gaming operator Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI) generated record revenue in Q2 thanks to a strong Kentucky Oaks and Derby week and continued strength at its online operations.

CDI’s total revenue in the three months ending June 30 came to $409.2m, a 35% improvement over the same period last year. Adjusted earnings rose 34% to a record $157.2m while net earnings fell 4% to $55m thanks to costs associated with last year’s $885m acquisition of the Big Fish Games social and mobile games operation.

Company CEO Bill Carstanjen said all of CDI’s verticals showed improvement in Q2, but Big Fish was the “largest growth catalyst.” The division reported revenue of $112.7m, with $48.2m coming from social casino, $36.5m from free-to-play casual and $28m from premium games. Total bookings were up 40% from the comparable quarter prior to CDI’s acquisition.

Social casino bookings were up 31% year-on-year, as average paying users rose 24% and average bookings per paying user rose 6%. Free-to-play casual reported average paying users up 173% and average bookings per paying user up 78%. Premium bookings fell 22% as customers continued their shift away from paid PC games to free-play mobile products.

Canadian online gambling operator Amaya Gaming says it’s on track to realize second quarter earnings projections after online casino revenue doubled from the previous quarter.

Amaya, which operates both the PokerStars and Full Tilt online gambling brands, says it expects to post revenue of between C$314 and C$318m in the three months ending June 30, with earnings coming in around C$135 and C$139m. Final Q2 numbers will be revealed on Aug. 13, but Amaya says it’s sticking with its previously issued full-year revenue guidance of between C$1.45b and C$1.56b.

Amaya said its new online casino operations accounted for around 12% of the company’s overall Q2 revenue, roughly twice the vertical’s contribution during Q1. Amaya said contributions from its fledgling sports betting division were “negligible” due to its limited rollout in select markets during the quarter.

Amaya said its core online poker operations grew on a year-by-year basis, but the combination of its reported Q1 results with its Q2 projections suggest that H1 poker revenue was either flat or actually contracted slightly on a constant-currency basis, which would jibe with global trends in online poker activity. Regardless, Amaya said Stars and Tilt’s combined real-money and free-play customers grew by 1.9m from Q1 to 95m.

China’s lottery sales grew 5.2% to RMB 187.7b (US $30.7b) in the first half of 2015.

Figures released Wednesday by the Ministry of Finance showed welfare lottery sales rising 4.4% to RMB 102.8b in the six months ending June 30, while sports lottery revenue rose 6.2% to RMB 84.8b.

The gains came despite a 22% year-on-year decline in lottery sales in June, although June 2014 benefitted immensely from activity surrounding the FIFA World Cup. The gains are all the more impressive considering China suspended online sales of lottery products at the end of February after an audit of provincial lottery administrators uncovered evidence of widespread corruption.

The online suspension had a disastrous effect on the second quarter performance of Shenzhen-based online lottery vendor 500.com. On Wednesday, the New York-listed company revealed that it “did not generate any revenue from sports lottery sales” in Q2, which understandably led to a net loss of RMB 81.4m ($13.1m) for the quarter.

The Alabama Jobs Foundation (AJF), a group of businessmen working for passage of bill to allow lottery and casino gaming in the state, have presented data showing that Alabamians want an opportunity to vote on potential lottery and casino expansion.

The poll, which was released on Monday found that: 89% of state voters want a vote on gambling; 80% support a lottery for education; 69% support a gambling/lottery constitutional amendment. 77% support a gambling compact between the state and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians and 66% oppose new taxes to solve the state’s current budget crisis.

Gambling expansion has been a hot topic in Alabama for years. State Sen. Del Marsh has introduced a bill that will pave the way to legalize gambling at four sites across the state and create a lottery that will generate $400 million for the state’s coffers, 11,000 new jobs and an economic impact of almost $1.3 billion.

Now, with the ever growing budget crisis, gambling has even become a bigger issue with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians joining the debate, by offering the state $250 million to bail out the budget shortfall in exchange to exclusive rights for casino gaming.