Leisure estate and gaming firm Belle Corporation remains bullish that it will continue to enjoy positive revenues in 2016 despite the bleak regional forecast for the gaming industry in Asia and stiff competition from other Manila-based casinos.

The Philippine Star reported that the City of Dreams Manila is expected to buck the downward gaming revenue trend in Asia, as it relies on the benefits of gaming promotions and full-year operations.

Belle’s vice chairman Willy Ocier did not give an exact figure or revenue percentage of their expected profit for 2016, but he said that the prospects for 2016 gaming sector are positive.

“I think we will be achieving very, very good growth. I’m not sure of the percentage but it will be a big jump (this year) because we are now fully open,” Ocier said. He also said Melco Crown’s management performance has been paying off and that the company has been able to control operational costs significantly.

Talk about getting kicked while you’re down. Atlantic City continues to be eaten alive by both its state and local governments with no mercy. As of May 27, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed a bill into law that would see Atlantic City casinos collectively robbed for a 9-year period, initially of the sum of $120 million, to increase by 2% every year for the 9 years. This is according to the New York Times.

I would say that the hypocrisy is astounding here, but there is nothing astounding anymore about what governments can do these days. What makes this especially infuriating is that Christie put out a big press release about how this “pro taxpayer” bill will really teach the Atlantic City politicians a thing or two about “responsible spending”. In what really amounts to nothing more than self-righteous buffoonery, Christie spewed forth this gem of a line:

“These new laws will ultimately accomplish my mission to reform Atlantic City’s overblown municipal government, and in turn protect local and state taxpayers from being perpetually abused by the special political interests who admit to owning this city’s elected officials.”

Pots have more of a right to call kettles black than Christie has the right to call Atlantic City’s government “overblown”, and then recharacterize yet another government bailout in terms of “protecting taxpayers” and casting himself as incorruptible. The truth is, New Jersey’s state government, headed by none other than Christie, is one of the most profligate in the United States, with the highest absolute and per capita debt levels in the country. The way Christie berates the spending habits of his Atlantic City underlings makes you think that he’s a Ron Paul libertarian, when he’s actually closer to Bernie Sanders when it comes to tax-and-spend like there’s no tomorrow.

Talk about getting kicked while you’re down. Atlantic City continues to be eaten alive by both its state and local governments with no mercy. As of May 27, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed a bill into law that would see Atlantic City casinos collectively robbed for a 9-year period, initially of the sum of $120 million, to increase by 2% every year for the 9 years. This is according to the New York Times.

I would say that the hypocrisy is astounding here, but there is nothing astounding anymore about what governments can do these days. What makes this especially infuriating is that Christie put out a big press release about how this “pro taxpayer” bill will really teach the Atlantic City politicians a thing or two about “responsible spending”. In what really amounts to nothing more than self-righteous buffoonery, Christie spewed forth this gem of a line:

“These new laws will ultimately accomplish my mission to reform Atlantic City’s overblown municipal government, and in turn protect local and state taxpayers from being perpetually abused by the special political interests who admit to owning this city’s elected officials.”

Pots have more of a right to call kettles black than Christie has the right to call Atlantic City’s government “overblown”, and then recharacterize yet another government bailout in terms of “protecting taxpayers” and casting himself as incorruptible. The truth is, New Jersey’s state government, headed by none other than Christie, is one of the most profligate in the United States, with the highest absolute and per capita debt levels in the country. The way Christie berates the spending habits of his Atlantic City underlings makes you think that he’s a Ron Paul libertarian, when he’s actually closer to Bernie Sanders when it comes to tax-and-spend like there’s no tomorrow.

British Columbia’s gaming enforcers say they goofed by publishing data that showed a 735% rise in the number of Gaming Control Act (GCA) violations in the most recent fiscal year.

Last week, a Business in Vancouver article noted that BC’s Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch (GPEB) had released a report showing the number of GCA violations in the Canadian province rising from 385 in 2013-14 to a whopping 3,215 in 2014-15.

Shortly after CalvinAyre.com reported on this story, we were contacted by a GPEB rep who informed us that the data contained in the story was “inaccurate, by a large margin,” and requested that we take down the article in question “forthwith.” However, the rep declined to offer specifics on which aspects of the story were so inaccurate.

On Monday, Business in Vancouver published a followup that finally shed more light on the discrepancy. According to Brennan Clarke at the Ministry of Finance, an “administrative error” led the GPEB to mistakenly include 2,910 incident reports of voluntary self-exclusions by gamblers from BC-licensed gaming venues in the 2014-15 report. As a result, the actual number of GCA violations last year was 305, a 21% decline from the previous year’s report.

British Columbia’s gaming enforcers say they goofed by publishing data that showed a 735% rise in the number of Gaming Control Act (GCA) violations in the most recent fiscal year.

Last week, a Business in Vancouver article noted that BC’s Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch (GPEB) had released a report showing the number of GCA violations in the Canadian province rising from 385 in 2013-14 to a whopping 3,215 in 2014-15.

Shortly after CalvinAyre.com reported on this story, we were contacted by a GPEB rep who informed us that the data contained in the story was “inaccurate, by a large margin,” and requested that we take down the article in question “forthwith.” However, the rep declined to offer specifics on which aspects of the story were so inaccurate.

On Monday, Business in Vancouver published a followup that finally shed more light on the discrepancy. According to Brennan Clarke at the Ministry of Finance, an “administrative error” led the GPEB to mistakenly include 2,910 incident reports of voluntary self-exclusions by gamblers from BC-licensed gaming venues in the 2014-15 report. As a result, the actual number of GCA violations last year was 305, a 21% decline from the previous year’s report.

This is a guest contribution by Valéry Bollier, co-founder and CEO of Oulala. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

2008 became the year when FanDuel launched the commencement of Daily Fantasy Sports. The relationship between games, sports and statistics was thus fruitfully revolutionized by this idea. The first great jump in the right direction came in the form of offering customers a real skill game. Customers were finally able to showcase their knowledge in sports to their peers and prove that their understanding was superior enough that it enabled them to become a better manager.

Initially, the market progressed at a rather slow rate, where FanDuel had only 4,000 customers to speak of in 2011. Incidentally, that also turned out to be the year of DraftKings’ arrival on the market, subsequently bringing about a healthy competitive spirit that highly benefited the sector’s growth. While FanDuel’s strategy helped them grow organically, DraftKings developed through a number of acquisitions. These respective strategies, in addition to the aggressive marketing strategy they had set in motion, led to a great growth spurt in their numbers, increasing at a rapid pace. By 2014, FanDuel had successfully acquired 1 million customers.

With this success under their belt, they both went on to raise $350M between August 2014 and August 2015. Despite becoming a major game changer, this money also influenced a major change in the whole nature of the game itself. Up until that point, DFS operators were viewed as real market places. Customers had the option to create or join leagues, enter money into a common pot and potentially go on to win that pot. The invisible hand (Adam Smith) was effective in auto regulating the customer market faultlessly due to the lack of any external influence prevaricating the market. Conversely, the vast marketing plan that followed was grounded on a simple formula, that is, to replace common pots with more attractive guaranteed prizes.

This is a guest contribution by Valéry Bollier, co-founder and CEO of Oulala. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

2008 became the year when FanDuel launched the commencement of Daily Fantasy Sports. The relationship between games, sports and statistics was thus fruitfully revolutionized by this idea. The first great jump in the right direction came in the form of offering customers a real skill game. Customers were finally able to showcase their knowledge in sports to their peers and prove that their understanding was superior enough that it enabled them to become a better manager.

Initially, the market progressed at a rather slow rate, where FanDuel had only 4,000 customers to speak of in 2011. Incidentally, that also turned out to be the year of DraftKings’ arrival on the market, subsequently bringing about a healthy competitive spirit that highly benefited the sector’s growth. While FanDuel’s strategy helped them grow organically, DraftKings developed through a number of acquisitions. These respective strategies, in addition to the aggressive marketing strategy they had set in motion, led to a great growth spurt in their numbers, increasing at a rapid pace. By 2014, FanDuel had successfully acquired 1 million customers.

With this success under their belt, they both went on to raise $350M between August 2014 and August 2015. Despite becoming a major game changer, this money also influenced a major change in the whole nature of the game itself. Up until that point, DFS operators were viewed as real market places. Customers had the option to create or join leagues, enter money into a common pot and potentially go on to win that pot. The invisible hand (Adam Smith) was effective in auto regulating the customer market faultlessly due to the lack of any external influence prevaricating the market. Conversely, the vast marketing plan that followed was grounded on a simple formula, that is, to replace common pots with more attractive guaranteed prizes.

Lee Davy continues his birds eye view of the panel activity at the recent eSports Betting Summit held at The Royal Garden Hotel in London, this time, covering in-play opportunities, skin betting & investing in integrity.

In October 2015, Sky Betting & Gaming made eSports betting markets available to punters on their traditional sports betting platform. They partnered with BetGenius, and in the following panel, representatives of both organisations talked about lessons learned in the past year, in particular, surrounding in-play opportunities and integrity.

The panelists were:

• Moritz Maurer, Head of eSports, Betgenius

Lee Davy continues his birds eye view of the panel activity at the recent eSports Betting Summit held at The Royal Garden Hotel in London, this time, covering in-play opportunities, skin betting & investing in integrity.

In October 2015, Sky Betting & Gaming made eSports betting markets available to punters on their traditional sports betting platform. They partnered with BetGenius, and in the following panel, representatives of both organisations talked about lessons learned in the past year, in particular, surrounding in-play opportunities and integrity.

The panelists were:

• Moritz Maurer, Head of eSports, Betgenius

Lee Davy writes about the importance of scheduling the time to think, so poker players can get back to understanding the bigger picture, both on the felt in in every day lives.

I didn’t think for 35-years.

I wandered the earth like a robot. My parents were the programmers. It was an old circuit board. I left school at 16, so I could earn enough money to reach a consistent state of drunkenness. I took the first paying job that came my way to support that habit. A man known as a ‘boss’ took over the programming from my parents.

“Sack him”.

Lee Davy writes about the importance of scheduling the time to think, so poker players can get back to understanding the bigger picture, both on the felt in in every day lives.

I didn’t think for 35-years.

I wandered the earth like a robot. My parents were the programmers. It was an old circuit board. I left school at 16, so I could earn enough money to reach a consistent state of drunkenness. I took the first paying job that came my way to support that habit. A man known as a ‘boss’ took over the programming from my parents.

“Sack him”.

Lee Davy talks about the psychological phenomenon known as the sunk-cost bias and how it can make the most rational and logical poker players do the most irrational and illogical things.

The best poker players are rational and logical thinkers of the highest order.

So, why do the players sitting comfortably on pearl-shell clouds find themselves losing large six figure sums via backing deals that stink of rotting flesh?

During a conversation with a professional poker player about this quirk of logic, the topic of conversation became about one of the most famous players in history. He still kicks golden ass today, and yet there was a time when he backed a mediocre player who ran up a huge six figure sum in make up.

Lee Davy talks about the psychological phenomenon known as the sunk-cost bias and how it can make the most rational and logical poker players do the most irrational and illogical things.

The best poker players are rational and logical thinkers of the highest order.

So, why do the players sitting comfortably on pearl-shell clouds find themselves losing large six figure sums via backing deals that stink of rotting flesh?

During a conversation with a professional poker player about this quirk of logic, the topic of conversation became about one of the most famous players in history. He still kicks golden ass today, and yet there was a time when he backed a mediocre player who ran up a huge six figure sum in make up.

Macau‘s overall crime rate fell in the first quarter of 2016 although there was a significant spike in some gaming-related crimes.

Macau Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak delivered the special administrative region’s latest crime statistics on Monday, which showed police filing a total of 3,333 criminal reports in the three months ending March 31, a 7.1% decrease over the same period last year.

While most subcategories of crime were also down, those related to gaming activities were on the up, a trend that has been building over the past year. Police investigated 368 gaming-related cases in Q1, 11.2% higher than in Q1 2015, while the number of suspects directed to the Public Prosecutor’s Office rose 17.5% to 424.

The number of ‘crimes against individuals’ was up 2.8% to 626. This category includes ‘illegal detention,’ which increased nearly one-third to 89 cases. Illegal detentions in Macau are traditionally associated with individuals being unable to repay gambling loans, leading the lenders to forcibly detain the debtors until they can contact a friend or relative to honor the debt.