Nevada remains America’s ‘most addicted’ gambling state, according to the latest study from financial fitness firm Wallethub.

Tuesday saw the release of Wallethub’s annual ranking of US states according to their availability of gambling options and the number of residents seeking treatment for gambling disorders. As with last year’s study, Nevada narrowly pipped South Dakota for the non-coveted title of ‘most addicted’ state.

Wallethub’s overall ranking is primarily (70%) based on a state’s perceived ‘gambling-friendliness’, i.e. comparing the number of casinos/gaming machines relative to a state’s population, as well as lottery sales, horserace betting, the availability of newer options such as iGaming and daily fantasy sports and even the presence of illegal gambling operations.

Lesser emphasis is given to the ‘gambling problem treatment’ score, which comprises the number of adults diagnosed with gambling disorders, the frequency of Gamblers Anonymous meetings, the availability of treatment programs and the volume of gambling-related arrests per capita. So the study is really more about gambling availability than anything else, but hey, ‘availability’ isn’t the most clickbait-friendly word, so there you go.

Online gambling technology provider NYX Gaming Group reported record results in 2016 after bolstering its operations via the acquisition of sports betting tech unit OpenBet.

On Tuesday, the Toronto-listed NYX reported revenue of $54.5m in the three months ending December 31, 2016, a 196.6% improvement over the same period last year, while earnings gained 185% to $12.9m.

NYX’s numbers were goosed by the mid-2016 addition of OpenBet, but even discounting OpenBet’s $30.4m contribution, Q4 revenue was up 31.2% year-on-year. Royalty and license revenue rose nearly two-thirds, thanks in part to 2015’s acquisition of software outfits Chartwell Technology and Cryptologic from Canada’s Amaya Gaming and the mid-2016 acquisition of UK gaming content provider Betdigital.

NYX launched 14 new customers on its Open Gaming System (OGS) in Q4, while signing 16 new customer agreements for its OGS and Open Platform System. As of December 31, NYX had 24 customers in the development pipeline waiting to launch, while inking 11 new deals over the first quarter of 2017. NYX’s content division launched 27 new games in Q4.

As a safe haven asset, the price of bitcoin is often linked to economic instability.

This was prevalent during the Chinese yuan’s devaluation last year, when the price of the popular digital currency went on a ten-week high amid an increased demand among traders in Asia.

Now, experts believe that bitcoin—already trading above $1,200 mark—could reach a new high as the Japanese government continues to print massive amounts of cash.

Holger Zschaepitz, senior editor of the financial desk and market maniac at Welt, recently shared a chart showing how Japan’s 10-year yields has dropped back to 0 percent, which could lead to a negative percentage rate “every minute as BoJ [Bank of Japan] keeps printing money like crazy.”

Las Vegas Sands Corp president and chief operating officer Robert Goldstein saw his compensation package drop 18.7 percent year-on-year in 2016.

In a proxy filing, the Las Vegas-based casino operator said Goldstein’s total compensation reached $8.20 million, down from the nearly $10.09 million the Sands executive received in the prior year period.

The news comes after Las Vegas Sands reported a 15.1 percent year-on-year drop in its net income for 2016, to $1.67 billion.

Goldstein, however, received a bonus totaling $3.23 million in February for his 2016 performance, although the executive did not get any stock grants for that year. Sands filing noted that the bonus was “based on the company’s achievement of 95.1 percent of its predetermined nine-month EBITDA-based performance target.”

The Supreme Court has apparently handed Florida senators the winning card to push gambling expansion in Florida when the majority of magistrates cleared the way for a constitutional amendment on gambling.

Members of the upper and lower congress are at loggerheads over which gambling plan will benefit the Sunshine state.

At stake in the impasse is the US$3 billion in additional money from the Seminole Tribe that Florida may gain over the next seven years if both chambers are able to reach an agreement before they adjourn the current legislative session less than a month from now.

The Florida House believes that it is best for the state to allow Seminole to keep its slot machines and blackjack tables for 20 years but would not be allowed to offer additional games. The Senate, on the other hand, wants to expand gambling in the state by allowing slot machines at dog and horse tracks.

The exciting Philippines gambling industry could be in for another shake up following Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Director General Charito Plaza announced that online gambling firms would be barred from leasing office space in PEZA accredited buildings.

Plaza made the announcement late Sunday after the PEZA board met with the highly influential Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP).

“The OP (Office of the President) already wants to legalize online gaming. They asked PEZA for us to allow to locate BPOs (business process outsourcing companies) who are into online gaming,” Plaza said. “After meeting with the PEZA board and the BPO association, we reached a consensus that we will not allow because first, gambling is not a mandate of PEZA. Second, allowing it might affect operations of our legitimate BPO locators.”

When the news first broke there was some confusion as to whether this barring of gaming firms was limited to those companies operating under a CEZA or Aurora gaming license, which, under President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order No. 13, must vacate Metro Manila and operate solely within the CEZA or Aurora licensed economic zones.

Well, that didn’t last long.

From being enemy to friends, casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson and President Donald Trump are now back to being frenemies.

Haaretz reported that the cracks begin to form in the unholy alliance Adelson and Trump when the latter snubbed the casino billionaire’s recommendations for top administration posts in the White House.

Adelson, who donated tens of millions of dollars to Trump’s presidential campaign kitty and another $5 million to the President’s inaugural celebration, was displeased over the fact that his people was not hired by Trump’s White House.

Since first covering 888 on March 3, 2015, shares have jumped 77%. Shares have doubled since January 2015. This despite losing out on its bwin.party bid to GVC and rejecting other merger/acquisition offers. 888 continuing to go it alone has worried investors regarding if it could stand on its own two feet while its competitors were combining forces. The answer looks clear now. Yes, it can. How did they do it?

While acquisition deals have fallen through, and offers for the company have been rejected, this can either be interpreted as weakness or strength. It depends where the company is coming from as a deal materializes. If a company is plateauing and organic growth seems hard to come by, it becomes more desperate for an acquisition as a shot in the arm. If a company is shrinking, it may become more desperate in seeking to be acquired in order to salvage remaining value. But if a company is growing anyway, an acquisition can be a bonus but may not be at the top of its list of priorities, because it is simply not needed to achieve the desired growth. It may be a shortcut, but it is not imperative.

In the immediate aftermath of each deal that didn’t happen, investors got worried. But each deal was rejected for a reason. Bwin.party was too expensive, an offer made for the company by William Hill was turned down for being too low, and in turn 888’s table-turning offer together with Rank Group for William Hill last year was turned down by William Hill. In the meantime, 888 keeps growing, both top line and bottom line, so it is getting more efficient as well.

Year over year, every quarter of 2016 grew by double digit percentages over every quarter of 2015, and growth is not limited to one segment. All segments except poker grew in 2016, poker shrinking by 3.5%. Casino was up 26%, bingo 7%, and sport 57%. While 888 is casino-dominant, it is becoming a more balanced company every year, a 57% growth rate in sportsbook being particularly impressive despite losing out on bwin.party.