Nevada casino sportsbooks posted their first losing football month in four years last month.

Figures released Tuesday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board show statewide gaming revenue of $1.04b in January, a healthy 12% higher than the same month last year and the highest monthly total since February 2013. The last time the state topped the $1b mark was July 2016.

The year-on-year gains were higher on the Las Vegas Strip, which rose 14.4% to $609m. But Downtown Las Vegas posted the month’s largest percentage gain, rising 32% to $55.5m, while North Las Vegas was up 26% to $28.7m and the Boulder Strip improved 24.5% to $84.9m.

January’s gains were driven by the timing of the Chinese New Year celebrations, which typically straddle the end of January and the beginning of February but this year came entirely in January. The Asian influx was reflected in the month’s baccarat revenue, which shot up over 55% to just under $158m as baccarat turnover jumped nearly 48% to $935m.

Roughly one in six UK adults gambled online last year, thanks in part to excitement over a pair of quadrennial sporting events.

The UK Gambling Commission’s latest gambling participation survey shows that 48% of respondents aged 16 years or older reported engaging in at least one form of gambling last year, although this figure drops to 33% if you exclude National Lottery play.

Around 17% reported gambling online, up from 15% in 2015. Here too, excluding the National Lottery pushes online participation down to 13%, but this is up four points from 2015. At least some of the online surge was credited to the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament and the Summer Olympic Games in Rio.

Laptops remain the online gamblers’ device of choice at 55%, although this was down six points from 2015. Similarly, desktop PC use fell four points to 34%, while mobile phones gained six points to 29% and tablets were up five points to 21%. Men were more likely to gamble on their phone, while women held the edge in tablet use.

The new industry body representing Antigua-licensed online gaming operators has laid out its plan to restore Antigua’s position as a premier online gaming licensing jurisdiction.

Nigel Pigott (pictured), president of the Antigua Leisure and Gaming Association (ALGA), recently unveiled the new group’s website Alga.ag. The site contains an unsparing assessment of the factors that contributed to Antigua’s decline as a licensing jurisdiction, while offering detailed proposals for assisting the government in turning this ship around.

Antigua has endured a decade-plus decline as an online gambling licensing hub, from a peak of nearly 200 licensees to just eight. The ALGA believes it’s not too late to pull Antigua back from the brink, but this will require “a fundamental re-evaluation of the country’s approach to the sector and its value-proposition to both existing and potential licensees.”

ALGA president Pigott told CalvinAyre.com that while restoring Antigua’s gaming industry to its former glories will be difficult, “there is no reason why the industry, the government and regulators should not come together to advance the structure of things to a more modern competitive international standard. Allowing Antigua to showcase all the great things that historically made and will continue to make it a premier place to do business.”

Laxmikant Parsekar has had enough of casinos.

The Goa chief minister said that he is leaving the decision to renew the license of the sixth floating casino in Indian state to the new government.

Golden Globe Hotels Private Ltd. (GGHPL) has been after the state government of Goa to renew the license of its casino vessel, M/S Hotel Leela Ventures. Goa initially issued a license to M/S Hotel Leela Ventures to operate on the Mandovi river in 2006. Hotel Leela’s operations were later transferred to GGHPL on the condition that GGHPL will pay for the renewal of the casino license from the year 2011 to 2016.

But in January, the company filed a petition before the Bombay high court claiming that the government of Goa failed to decide on whether to renew its license even though the company had been paying its annual recurring fees of $6.5 million for the past five years.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced that it will cease offerings its services to bitcoin enthusiasts in Hawaii.

The decision, according to the company, was due to the requirements of a new policy imposed by the Hawaii Division of Financial Institutions (DFI).

In a blog post, Coinbase explained that it was notified by the DFI that digital currency businesses in the state will be required to be licensed under the state’s Money Transmission Act—which the company doesn’t object to. However, DFI said last September that digital currency businesses like Coinbase will have to maintain cash reserves or similar liquid assets like “permissible investments” in an amount equal to the aggregate face value of digital currency funds held on behalf of customers.

This means that for every one bitcoin that Coinbase holds for a customer in Hawaii, the exchange needs to have the equivalent cash value of that bitcoin—nearly around $1,200 at the moment—as redundant collateral.

Security officers at Sheldon Adelson’s Sands casino in Bethlehem made history last week, when they signed a union contract with the casino operator.

Last Wednesday, members of the International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America signed a three-year contract with Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem that will give its security guards an 8 percent pay increase—effective immediately—as well as a seniority structure and a greater say in work rules for its 146 members, The Morning Call reported.

David Hickey, president of the union, said the contract was approved in a 70-6 vote.

Under the contract, Hickey said most guards will receive a raise between $1 and $1.21 per hour, but they will have to pay union dues equivalent to 2.5 hours in wages every month.

Billionaire Carl Icahn’s Taj Mahal casino continues to court trouble even after it closure last year.

The Associated Press reported that Taj Mahal is facing fresh lawsuits over the ownership of the signs that once adorned the shuttered casino.

Philadelphia-based Recycling of Urban Materials for Profit (RUMP) brought the operator of Taj Mahal to court last week in order to determine the ‘Trump’ signs’ rightful owner and, in the process, be able to get fair market value for the return of the controversial sign.

The recycling firm insisted that they are now the rightful owners of the Trump sign after the operator of the former Taj Mahal decided to hire someone to throw away the letters once they were removed. It estimated that the signs were worth more than $100,000.

UK bookmaker Coral today announced the launch of the world’s first dynamic video advertising product for online gaming. Partnering with Fresh8 Gaming, Coral will use the Fresh8 technology to power auto-generated videos with real time offers and odds across their digital video campaigns including on Facebook and YouTube.

shThe Fresh8 video platform enables a sports betting operator to personalise video content to any digital end point – social media, pre-roll ads, YouTube, and even in-store. This includes any sport, event, market, bet type, and customer offer – as well as visual content such as logos, backgrounds and any other imagery. The video content is then autogenerated in real time from a live bet feed and served within minutes.

The high fidelity compatible video product also has huge potential for delivery on broadcast TV, in-stadium into fan TV networks, as well as into sports betting shops. The Fresh8 platform enables the most relevant content to be generated for that specific target audience.

Paul Soithongsuk, Senior Mobile Marketing Manager at Coral, said of the deal “The automation and simplification of the video production process is a total game changer. The Fresh8 platform will allow us to build real time adverts ensuring that we are always serving the most relevant content to our entire digital audience. This relevance is especially crucial in the light of the IGRG code changes meaning we have to be much smarter in our approach to messaging in video outside of free offers”.

Improved gaming revenues from newly opened casinos will propel Macau’s 2017 gross domestic product by 2.5 percent.

This was the prediction of international credit debt watcher Fitch Ratings Inc. as it affirmed Macau’s AA- rating, with a stable outlook. It said that the new casino openings will bolster Macau’s gaming revenue by 6 percent this year.

In affirming its rating, Fitch pointed out that their outlook for Macau is “underpinned by the territory’s credible policy framework and exceptionally strong public and external finances, which continue to strengthen despite three consecutive years of economic contraction.”

Official data shows that Macau’s market-wide casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) expanded by 10.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016 – the best quarterly performance that the Asia’s premier gambling hub has seen since 2014.

At least 15 Chinese nationals and one Filipino were arrested after authorities in the Philippines busted an alleged unlicensed online gambling operation.

Members of the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group raided the office of YD International Inc., located on the 18th floor of the Belvedere Tower in Pasig City on Monday night, police said in a statement obtained by CalvinAyre.com.

Police said the condominium unit was being used by YD International for its illegal online gambling operations since the company does not have a permit from state regulator Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) or from accredited economic zones in the country.

Police Supt. Jay Guillermo, spokesman for the Anti-Cybercrime Group, told GMA News the company had been projecting “that their website is legal,” but they direct the visitors of their website to another website.