South Korea’s Kangwon Land casino took a serious and as yet unexplained profit hit in the final quarter of 2016.

On Wednesday, Kangwon Land filed a notice with the Korean Stock Exchange indicating that its Q4 2016 revenue improved 1% year-on-year to KRW 410b (US $361m), while profit tumbled 31.4% to KRW 63.75b. The filing offered no justification for the significant decline in the casino’s net results.

For the year as a whole, Kangwon Land’s revenue rose 3.8% to KRW 1.7t, while profit improved 2.9% to KRW 454.6b. Kangwon Land is the only one of South Korea’s 17 casinos that allows local residents to gamble.

South Koreans aren’t allowed to legally gamble on much, besides lotteries, bullfighting and various forms of racing (cycling, boats and the ponies). The latter type of race betting is now making headlines for all the wrong reasons after a South Korean father was handed a lengthy prison sentence for making his family members predict winners – or else.

The name ‘Trump’ is coming off Atlantic City’s Trump Taj Mahal casino because US President Donald J. Trump won’t stand to have his name associated with failure, at least, not the political kind.

This week, the Press of Atlantic City broke the news that workers had removed the name ‘Trump’ from the Boardwalk entrance to the Taj Mahal, which has been closed since last October after owner Carl Icahn determined the property was incapable of turning a profit.

The Trump name is still visible on the property’s front entrance and hotel tower, but these associations appear similarly destined for removal. A 2015 deal between Icahn and Trump required all Trump branding to be removed from the Taj if it wasn’t renovated to a standard that Der Donald felt befitted his particularly garish vision of luxury.

Trump has been down this road before, having sued Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2014 to remove his name from the Taj Mahal and also from the Trump Plaza, which closed in September of that year. Trump had exited Atlantic City’s gaming market over a decade earlier, but he struck a deal to allow the properties to continue using his brand in exchange for a 10% stake.

The CEO of the company behind Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun casino has abruptly resigned without indicating where he was going next.

On Tuesday, Connecticut media outlet The Day reported that Bobby Soper (pictured), who has headed up the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority (MTGA) since 2015, had unexpectedly resigned his MTGA post, despite his current contract not set to expire until March 31, 2018.

Soper has been involved with the tribe’s gaming operations in various roles since 2001. The Day quoted Soper praising his MTGA experience as “a great run,” but he said he was now “happy to take on a new challenge.” Soper declined to specify what that new challenge entailed, due to “certain confidentiality obligations.” Soper also declined to specify whether this new opportunity was in the gaming industry.

Chuck Bunnell, chief of staff for the Mohegan Tribe, indicated that former MTGA CEO Mitchell Etess would act as interim CEO until a permanent successor could be found. Etess currently serves as a senior adviser to the tribe.

Gaming technology provider International Game Technology is set to square off with Florida’s Speaker of the House before over a lottery contract that will require the legislature to pay more money.

WFTV.com reported that the Florida House Speaker is now drafting a perfectly worded law suit against IGT, which inked a deal with the Florida lottery for the gaming vendor to spend more money on vending machines in future years.

IGT is the current provider of lotto vending machines for Florida Lottery.

According to the lawsuit, Florida Lottery has no authority to sign a contract that will require the House of Representative to spend more money.

Singapore-based SportsHero is in for a good start during its debut in the Australian Securities Exchange with its share prices up in Wednesday’s trading.

SportsHero, which claims to be the world’s first social network dedicated to sports prediction, opened at a high of AU$0.06 versus its initial public offering price (IPO) price of at AU$0.05 per share.

Prior to its debut, the company said that it was able to raise AU$3.2 million ($2.44 million) through the issue of 64 million shares. SportsHero’s listing came via a reverse takeover of Nevada Iron Ltd.

Dinesh Bhatia, CEO of SportsHero, said that the fantasy sports app firm will be focusing on customer acquisition, introducing additional sports, and enhancing the features and user experience while sustaining strong engagement among users over the next 12 to 18 months.

Casino equipment and lottery service provider Scientific Games has appointed Karin-Joyce Tjon as its new chief operating officer and president, effective from Monday.

Tjon’s responsibilities will include overseeing Scientific Games’ gaming and lottery operations as well as “driving the company’s organizational strategy, business development and fiscal discipline.”

Tjon served for two years as chief financial officer and executive vice president of Epiq Systems, a provider of technology and services for the legal profession, before joining Scientific Games. She holds an MBA degree in finance from Columbia University, in New York, and a bachelor’s degree in organisational behaviour and management from Ohio University.

“We have tremendous confidence in (Tjon’s) ability to lead our long-term growth strategy and execution, and continue the strong growth across all of our businesses,” Scientific Games’ chief executive Kevin Sheehan said in a statement.

An entire ship “centered” on a casino? It’s not unheard of, but it’s one of the things that could set the Crusino apart from other cruise ships sailing today.

The Kuala Lumpur-based company Podiumspot Capital Group is weeks away from launching Crusino, which it claims will be the world’s largest casino cruise ship. Crusino, which will measure 295 meters in length and 36 meters in width, will be launched in Malaysia on April 3 and is expected to take three years to complete. Once completed, the ship will feature the largest casino on sea with two special decks with a combined floor size of more than 190,000 square feet.

We caught up with Podiumspot Capital Group’s CEO, Tim Leonard, who gave CalvinAyre.com an exclusive look at the soon-to-be-built ship that’s bound “to be a class by itself.”

1. Can you give us a brief overview about Podiumspot Capital Group? What does the company do?