A US federal appeals court has upheld the concept of net neutrality, dealing a major blow to broadband providers who wished to establish a tiered system of internet access.

On Tuesday, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit handed down its ruling (viewable in full here) upholding the Federal Communications Commission’s 2015 Open Internet Order classifying internet service providers as a public utility subject to the same type of rules as other essential communications services, such as the telephone.

Providers like AT&T and industry associations had filed their lawsuit based on their desire to offer higher traffic speeds to deep-pocketed customers, while relegating less wealthy website operators to the internet’s slow lane. The ISPs also claimed the right to block access to sites they found disagreeable.

Supporters of net neutrality argued that equal access to high-speed internet was integral to the ability of small startup firms to catch on with consumers, and that today’s internet giants like Facebook and Google wouldn’t have been able to attain such heights had they faced such obstacles.

UK bookmakers Betfred have been fined £800k for not asking enough questions regarding a VIP gambler’s source of wealth.

On Tuesday, the UK Gambling Commission announced that it had reached a settlement under which Betfred will pay over £800k in compensation and contributions towards socially responsible causes to atone for the bookie’s failures in observing proper anti-money laundering procedures.

The brouhaha stems from an individual who stole nearly £857k from their employer, then blew a “significant” portion of the stolen funds gambling online, with the “largest portion” spent with Betfred. The individual in question was sentenced to 40 months in prison this January.

Despite the punter being in the top 5% of Betfred’s customers in terms of spend and profit, the UKGC determined that Betfred had made only “informal, ad-hoc” efforts to identify the source of the punter’s wealth and had failed to keep proper records of these checks.

Representatives of international casino operator Las Vegas Sands were seen gallivanting around South Korea’s port city of Busan not for pleasure, but to scout for a possible location for Sheldon Adelson’s new integrated resort, reported the Korea Economic Daily.

According to the report, “key members” of Adelson’s Sands Group made their way to Busan North Port last June 8 to take “a look around the land for establishment of the entertainment resort.” Adelson’s men also reportedly met with the Busan city government to talk “investment strategy.”

The Las Vegas-based casino operator has been eyeing South Korea as its next location for an integrated resort.

Back in March, Las Vegas Sands said it will continue promoting its plans to build a $10 billion casino resort in the country. Now, it appears the U.S. casino operator has found a location for its “large-size” casino resort. Sands, however, may be in for some challenges because it wants to let the locals allowed inside the casino doors.

Representatives of international casino operator Las Vegas Sands were seen gallivanting around South Korea’s port city of Busan not for pleasure, but to scout for a possible location for Sheldon Adelson’s new integrated resort, reported the Korea Economic Daily.

According to the report, “key members” of Adelson’s Sands Group made their way to Busan North Port last June 8 to take “a look around the land for establishment of the entertainment resort.” Adelson’s men also reportedly met with the Busan city government to talk “investment strategy.”

The Las Vegas-based casino operator has been eyeing South Korea as its next location for an integrated resort.

Back in March, Las Vegas Sands said it will continue promoting its plans to build a $10 billion casino resort in the country. Now, it appears the U.S. casino operator has found a location for its “large-size” casino resort. Sands, however, may be in for some challenges because it wants to let the locals allowed inside the casino doors.

With horse racing’s Triple Crown just wrapped up over the weekend, is it time to buy Churchill Downs with the expectation of an earnings bump? Not so much. Rarely is a stock totally untradeable but it looks that way with Churchill Downs. It’s a shame because the company itself is quite well run, except for its debt load.

First the good news. The trend that Churchill has been following for the last 3 years, taking focus away from racing and towards casino and games is continuing and the company is turning itself into a primarily casino/online gaming company rather than primarily a horseracing outfit. Casino gross margins went up from 40.7% to 41.8% year over last quarter, and this after only averaging about 26% from 2012 to 2015. Casino plus Big Fish Games now account for over 72% of revenues. Essentially, Churchill is only really a racing company for one quarter a year. Other than that they lose money every quarter on horseracing proper. TwinSpires, basically online horseracing, helps the horseracing segment as a whole break even and even made a small profit of $5.4 million last quarter. The path to growth in an old segment, once again, is going digital and especially mobile, as we’ve seen again and again with the failures and successes of various UK bookies.

That said, one potential shot in the arm for Churchill Downs and other mobile gamers would be Google Android supporting gambling apps on their phones so users can take advantage of TwinSpires mobile. Right now it’s only available on iPhones but if Alphabet ever changes its policy it could be big for Churchill. TwinSpires has been doing very well even without Android, with handle up 10.6% in the first quarter after being up 11% in the fourth quarter. As discussed in their last earnings call, the industry was up 3.1% so TwinSpires is growing faster than competition by 7.5 points.

In the meantime, the company keeps slowly expanding its casino and Big Fish operations. $25 million is being sunk into a hotel in Maine, a big expenditure for a company like this. Big Fish expenses revolve around user acquisition, a highly statistically-driven enterprise that costs a lot at first for a big return later. When a user is first acquired through marketing spend, it can take years for the ROI to establish itself as the user plays games. Once the cost of a new acquisition outweighs average user value, the campaign is stopped and moved on to another promising game that needs more users.

With horse racing’s Triple Crown just wrapped up over the weekend, is it time to buy Churchill Downs with the expectation of an earnings bump? Not so much. Rarely is a stock totally untradeable but it looks that way with Churchill Downs. It’s a shame because the company itself is quite well run, except for its debt load.

First the good news. The trend that Churchill has been following for the last 3 years, taking focus away from racing and towards casino and games is continuing and the company is turning itself into a primarily casino/online gaming company rather than primarily a horseracing outfit. Casino gross margins went up from 40.7% to 41.8% year over last quarter, and this after only averaging about 26% from 2012 to 2015. Casino plus Big Fish Games now account for over 72% of revenues. Essentially, Churchill is only really a racing company for one quarter a year. Other than that they lose money every quarter on horseracing proper. TwinSpires, basically online horseracing, helps the horseracing segment as a whole break even and even made a small profit of $5.4 million last quarter. The path to growth in an old segment, once again, is going digital and especially mobile, as we’ve seen again and again with the failures and successes of various UK bookies.

That said, one potential shot in the arm for Churchill Downs and other mobile gamers would be Google Android supporting gambling apps on their phones so users can take advantage of TwinSpires mobile. Right now it’s only available on iPhones but if Alphabet ever changes its policy it could be big for Churchill. TwinSpires has been doing very well even without Android, with handle up 10.6% in the first quarter after being up 11% in the fourth quarter. As discussed in their last earnings call, the industry was up 3.1% so TwinSpires is growing faster than competition by 7.5 points.

In the meantime, the company keeps slowly expanding its casino and Big Fish operations. $25 million is being sunk into a hotel in Maine, a big expenditure for a company like this. Big Fish expenses revolve around user acquisition, a highly statistically-driven enterprise that costs a lot at first for a big return later. When a user is first acquired through marketing spend, it can take years for the ROI to establish itself as the user plays games. Once the cost of a new acquisition outweighs average user value, the campaign is stopped and moved on to another promising game that needs more users.