Efforts to authorize casino gambling in the state of Georgia appear to have gone down to defeat for at least another year after legislators failed to drum up sufficient support.

On Monday, state Senator Brandon Beach (pictured) told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that his SB79 legislation, which would have authorized construction of two casinos in the state, lacked the votes to get out of the Regulated Industries Committee.

Previous bills had sought to approve up to six gaming venues, but Beach’s most recent effort reduced this to two: one major ‘destination resort’ in the Atlanta area – requiring a minimum investment of $2b – and a second smaller facility elsewhere in the state. But opposition, particularly from the state’s religious organizations, remained high.

Striking a defiant tone, Beach told the AJC that he was “not discouraged” and that he would “double down” and “crisscross the state starting in April” to drum up support for yet another casino legislative push in 2018. Despite the setback, Beach managed to maintain a sense of humor, saying “tell everyone, like Arnold Schwarzenegger said, ‘I’ll be back.’”

UK betting operator Ladbrokes owes the government £71m after losing its court fight over a bogus tax avoidance scheme.

In December 2015, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) won a £54m judgment against Ladbrokes after the company admitted engineering a deal between two of its divisions that resulted in an artificial share price drop of one entity that allowed the other to claim a tax loss.

The deal, which was crafted by accountants at Deloitte, took advantage of a legal loophole that originated in 2008 and was closed that same year after HMRC realized its vulnerability. HMRC pursued legal action against all 11 firms that attempted to take advantage of the loophole.

Ladbrokes appealed the 2015 court ruling, saying the company had a “strong argument” that it had done nothing wrong. But the Upper Tribunal of the Tax and Chancery Chamber has since disagreed, dismissing all three of Ladbrokes’ legal arguments and ordering the bookie to cut HMRC a £71m check.

Online casino products were the star performer in Denmark’s regulated online gambling market in 2016, according to new year-end statistics.

Figures released Monday by the Spillemyndigheden regulatory agency show sports betting and online gambling revenue rising 13% year-on-year to DKK 3.74b (US $533.3m) in 2016. For the three months ending December 31, the figure was up 7% to DKK 960m.

Overall sports betting rose 8.8% to DKK 2.17b in 2016 despite flat Q4 figures. Online betting accounted for DKK 1.4b of 2016’s total, representing slightly less than two-thirds of all sports wagering, in keeping with recent trends.

The biggest year-on-year gainer was online casino, which shot up nearly 24% to DKK 1.41b. The gains came primarily from online slots play, which rose to 72% of online casino revenue from 68% at the start of 2016.

Casino operator Wynn Resorts has appointed industry veteran Craig S. Billings as the new chief financial officer.

Billings will replace Stephen Cootey starting March 1, the Las Vegas operator said in a statement. Cootey, who held several Wynn financial positions since joining the company in 2014, resigned “to pursue other interests.”

Billings, who specializes in digital innovation, mergers and acquisitions and capital structure management, Billings has held leadership positions at Aristocrat Leisure Limited, including chief digital officer as well as managing director of strategy and business development, and at International Game Technology. He is also a director of Nyx Gaming Group. In 2012, Billings was the president of Zen Entertainment, which supplied Nevada online poker license applicant South Point Poker with its digital back end.

A certified public accountant, Billings was also an executive in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs, where he served numerous clients in the gaming industry, and he began his career in the audit practice of Deloitte & Touche. He received a Bachelors degree from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and a Masters of Business Administration from Columbia Business School.

Macau casino junket operator Neptune Group Ltd. reported a net profit of HKD25.9 million (US$3.3 million) for the six months ended December 31, 2016, a turnaround from the net loss of HKD257 million (US$33.11 million) in the prior-year period.

Neptune announced in a regulatory filing on Friday that its reported revenue for its 2016 fiscal first half is up 2.2 percent to HKD135.9 million (US$17.51 million). The rise in revenue was due to a better rolling chip turnover in the VIP rooms that the company’s associates promoted.

For the July to December 31, 2016 period, Neptune’s rolling chip turnover in the VIP rooms posted nearly HKD136 million (US$17.52 million), slightly higher than the HKD133 million (US$17.14 million) it reported a year earlier.

The good numbers in the first fiscal half is the fruit of its “extra efforts” they have taken in 2016 to collect overdue trade receivables, according to Neptune. Thus, the firm’s outstanding debt declined from HKD654 million in 2015 to HKD363 million in 2016.

In a bid to move Japan’s casino policies forward, members of the opposition party have come up with a new legislation that will deal with problem gamblers in the country.

The Osaka-centric Nippon Ishin no Kai party is hoping that a cooperation with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will boost the city’s chances of being picked for one of the casino resort licenses, the Japan Times reported.

“The Nippon Ishin bill sets out a variety of measures to deal with problem gamblers to ensure that the problem is dealt with in a comprehensive manner,” said Nippon Ishin policy chief Hitoshi Asada, according to the news outlet.

Nippon Ishin’s bill, submitted to the Upper House in early February, targets “problem gamblers and their families.” In it, the opposition party “identified the need for policies to deal with crime, suicide, poverty, debts and other problems that occur as a result of problem gambling,” noting the need for the creation of a basic program “that will be subject to revision at least once every five years.” The bill is also seeking a set of rules for casino advertising and admission charges.

Idaho lawmakers have thumbed down proposal to amend the current state law classifying gambling machines at tribal casinos in the state as illegal slot machines.

But the decision to kill the bill authored by Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, came down to a narrow 8-7 vote by members of the House State Affairs Committee on Thursday.

The Idaho Statesman reported that the state had averted a legal headache by rejecting the Loertscher’s measure. On the other hand, Tribes hailed the decision of the House State Affairs Committee to junk the bill, which they said would violate contracts between the tribes, state and federal government.

“It’s discouraging to see a bill like this come up, but we are pleased that the committee members recognized the confusion that would be created by this bill and saw fit to keep it from moving any further,” Coeur d’Alene Tribal Chairman Chief Allan said in statement.

Florida-based company Casino Holdings Inc. has set a new record price for a .casino domain.

Last week, the company shelled out $28,000 to acquire the Bitcoin.Casino domain on Sedo—making it one of the highest publicly known prices for new domain extensions, trailing behind domains such as Gambling.com, which was bought in 2011 for a record $2.5 million, as well as Casino.com, which was sold in 2003 for $5.5 million.

Bitcoin.Casino provides one of the largest compendiums of bitcoin casino reviews and bitcoin gambling resources online. Currently, the site has more than 75 reviews of bitcoin online casinos and popular bitcoin wallets used today.

The news of the acquisition couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Recent reports showed that the demand for casino domains is increasing as .casino domains start to rank higher in the search engines.