Monthly Archives: April 2017

Icahn’s casino tax refund could spell disaster for Atlantic City

The closure of the iconic Trump Taj Mahal casino has opened a big pandora’s box.

Billionaire casino investor Carl Icahn is seeking millions of dollars in property tax refunds from the now cash-strapped Atlantic City, according to a report of the Press of the Atlantic City.

Icahn asked the state tax court to look into this year’s property assessments for the former Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal casino for tax years 2014 through 2017, which may cost Atlantic City huge fortune if he wins the appeal.

Not completely satisfied, Icahn also included Tropicana Atlantic City’s assessment for 2015 and 2016.

Aussie ministers sign off ‘milestone’ online gambling reform framework

In response to last year’s review of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, state and federal ministers in Australia have given the green light on 11 new initiatives for online gambling reform.

Under the new National Consumer Protection Framework, which was signed on Thursday, companies will be banned from offering sign-up incentives to bring in new players as well as requiring players to turn over their winnings before they can be withdrawn, The Australian reported. Companies will also be forbidden from offering lines of credit via advertising on their apps or websites, according to the report.

Australian ministers also agreed to establish a voluntary, opt-out pre-commitment scheme and a national self-exclusion register for online gambling. This, according to the report, will allow problem gamblers to ban themselves from gambling for “between three months and a lifetime.” Those who signed up will be given a mandatory cooling off period during which they may revoke their decision.

The framework is expected to be “legislated as quickly as possible, largely through Commonwealth legislation” for consistency across jurisdictions.

Junket operator Iao Kun rebrands as LiNiu Technology Group

Goodbye Iao kun Group Holding Co. Ltd (IKGH). Hello LiNiu Technology Group.

Nasdaq-listed junket operator IKGH is dropping its current business name to officially mark its venture into the non-gaming sector.

The company announced in a regulatory filing before the U.S. Bourse on Wednesday that it is changing its name to LiNiu Technology Group (LTG).

The newly-named LiNiu Technology will start trading on Nasdaq under its new ticker symbol ‘LINU’ today. The stock will no longer be traded under the symbol ‘IKGH.’

EPL week 34 review: 1-0 will do as Spurs, Arsenal and Boro all win

Week 34 of the English Premier League is nearly over after a trio of 1-0 victories saw Spurs move within four points of Chelsea, Arsenal move within a point of Man Utd, and Middlesbrough pick up their first win of 2017.

Spurs might not know how to play at Wembley Stadium, but they do know how to turn it on when they face Crystal Palace. Mauricio Pochettino’s vibrant side arrived at Selhurst Park knowing that Chelsea had extended the gap to seven points at the top the Premier League. The magnifying glass was focused on the men in white. And they played like champions.

It wasn’t your usual run of the mill Spurs win with full backs raiding the wings like Vikings fresh onto a new shore. Instead, it was a mature dig deep, and it will come performance, and it did. If Spurs can learn to dig out these types of results, they will be a true force in the coming years.

Crystal Palace had lost their previous three ties against Spurs and their home form in London derbies, at home, is as bad as Spurs Wembley form having lost seven of their last eight. But in recent weeks they had found a way to beat Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool.

Florida legislators break gambling plan stalemate

Florida has moved closer to a gambling deal after members of the House back off its long-time stance of blocking gambling expansion in the Sunshine State.

Palm Beach Post reported that the House broke the gambling plan impasse on Wednesday after it decided to offer a compromise with Senate leaders to get the deal done before the legislative session adjourns next week.

House and Senate negotiators met in the morning to get an omnibus gambling bill for 2017 done. Sen. Bill Galvano, the Senate’s chief negotiator on gambling issues, said the House made what he described a “substantial offer” as part of a compromise to move the gambling deal forward.

The offer includes authorizing decoupling for dog and horse tracks if county voters OK it in a local referendum. Under Florida’s law, dog and horse tracks are required to run live races if they wish to offer other gambling such as cardrooms. Getting rid of that requirement is known as decoupling.

Becky’s Affiliated: How using humor can be a powerful way to enlighten the masses

Some people are so good at making you laugh.  A few nights ago I attended the Gambling Compliance Global Regulatory Awards and was pleasantly surprised when the event’s host, English comedian and actor Hugh Dennis, hit the stage.  This man was funny.  He transformed an otherwise boring scene and turned it into a fun and engaging experience for everyone in the room.  He cracked tasteful jokes throughout the awards delivery, breaking up any awkward silences and loosening up shy individuals on stage.

As opposed to watching the clock and hoping the delivery of the awards was almost finished, I actually found myself wishing there were more awards to be delivered that night.  This is an example of how humor can be such a powerful tool for holding attention and getting a point across, especially with it comes to less “exciting” matters.

Here’s another example.  Take CalvinAyre.com’s latest video series, The Industry Eye, which has been on hiatus for a few weeks due to logistical challenges but will be returning in a few weeks, we promise.  Anyway, this series is pure comedy- our host, Ed Pownall, finds a way to make the latest gambling industry news funny and entertaining, something you didn’t think was possible, right? For this reason, The Industry Eye has quickly become one of the most popular shows on CalvinAyre.com and has reached an audience far beyond the gambling industry alone because its funny for everyone.

Now for one of my favorites, our quarterly earnings report humor.  CalvinAyre.com writer Peter Amsel found a way to inject some humor into one of his earnings report pieces, this time in the form of attractive women.  Both factual and funny, I loved it.  Personally I would give most earnings reports a miss, they are not my thing, but this post of Amsel’s grabbed my attention and I read the whole thing, laughing out loud along the way.

Gaming Laboratories International (GLI®) authorized by Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) as designated test laboratory for the state of Michigan

LAKEWOOD, NJ (April 26, 2017) – Gaming Laboratories International (GLI®) was recently authorized by the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) as a designated test laboratory for the State of Michigan, effective July 1, 2017.

The MGCB is prepared to receive the test results on electronic gaming devices or associated equipment that GLI submits on behalf of manufacturers and suppliers. Test results for the following will be accepted by the State of Michigan:

• Games and game variation

• Gaming devices and gaming device modifications

All eyes are on San Diego as North American thought leaders converge on GiGse

Thought leaders from the North American gaming industry are converging on San Diego for the 2017 edition of GiGse, which runs across 26 – 28 April at the Marriott Marquis Marina. GiGse delegates will be presented with three days of information, insight and networking, with the accent firmly on the future of gaming on the continent.

Speaking ahead of the opening, Clarion Gaming’s Head of Content, Ewa Bakun said: “GiGse’s objective is to bring a disruptive influence to the gaming debate. Throughout the world the accepted way of doing things is being challenged and the gaming industry is no different. As well as posing the difficult questions, GiGse’s role is also to debate and to resolve. To this end, we will be exploring the technology, innovations and potential regulatory hurdles facing all brands operating in the gaming space and courtesy of outside industry input and C-Level debates, enable them to keep their vision in line with the future.”

Headline sponsor, Vantiv Entertainment Solutions believes that education is at the core of the GiGse experience. Joe Pappano, SVP and Managing Director explained: “Vantiv places a premium on educating the Gaming and Entertainment markets about payments; and education has been among our top priorities since our inception. GiGse, as a brand event, absolutely mirrors this same approach. From the beginning, GiGse has remained focused on education as the hallmark of the event.  The conference agenda is topical and forward leaning in its content.”

Two key highlights will be the outcome of the GiGse Launchpad competition and the iGNA Awards, which for the first time are being held as part of GiGse.

Ganapati Malta at Betting on Football

Ganapati Malta will be exhibiting at Betting on Football (BoF) this year for the first time as part of a year-long partnership agreement with SBC Events. The agreement sees Ganapati sponsoring both the Asia – still leading the way in global betting market session and the C-Level Dinner at The Kensington Roof Gardens on May 3rd.

Richard Hogg, Director at Ganapati Malta commented, “I have been a regular attendee to the various SBC Events over the years and it was an obvious decision for us to make to become part of this established conference. There is an excellent list of high-quality speakers and delegates which will surely ensure the content is top class. I personally look forward to welcoming everyone to our stand, where we will be giving demonstrations of our exciting new slot games.”.

Rasmus Sojmark, CEO of SBC Events added, “We welcome Ganapati to BoF, everywhere they go there seems to be an air of excitement and a vibrant stand.”

Ganapati would welcome discussions with Senior Management and Casino / Product Directors and to discuss how they are able to help your existing or new business. Visit the Group COO, Mitsuya Fujimoto, Richard Hogg and the team at BoF 2017 Stand 4, Chelsea Football Ground, May 3-5 www.ganapatilmata.com

Moscow hosted Russia’s largest conference on blockchain and cryptocurrencies

On April 2017 – Moscow-based Digital October hosted an annual, Russia’s largest conference, dedicated to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, – Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Russia. It gathered 750 visitors and 30 speakers – blockchain practitioners and theoreticians from Europe, America, and Africa.

Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference has been held in Moscow for the fifth time. According to organizers, Smile-Expo event company, the topic moved beyond the IT scope long ago. Now it’s a whole ideology and a giant development area for business and society.

The industry has significantly advanced in the last four years, Bitcoin capitalization has reached $17 billion, and the number of new projects is growing exponentially. It means that today it won’t be enough to gather everybody in one hall to talk about common topics, says Smile-Expo. Therefore, the conference was divided into two streams (financial-regulatory and professional), and speakers shared successes of launched projects.

Participants included some big names of the Russian-speaking blockchain segment as well as specialists from abroad, who have not presented in Russia yet.

SFM Detector brings BetConstruct Compliance Innovator of the Year award

April 2017: BetConstruct takes home the title of Compliance Innovator of the Year at the Gambling Compliance Regulatory Awards 2017 in London, UK.

Developed to reduce the number of suspicious fixed matches all over the world, SFM (Suspicious Fixed Matches) Detector by BetConstruct protects betting companies from financial loss caused by customers who possess information about suspicious fixed matches.

“We are honored to be recognized for a product we created for operators worldwide. Our aim was to make our partners’ lives easier, saving their time, nerves and money,” says Harutyun Hambardzumyan, BetConstruct Vice Chairman.

In 2016 we saw SFM-related losses decrease approximately by 80%. The few simple steps include: checking the blacklist of athletes and teams, checking IP and data identifications of suspicious customers and their concentration from one or several suspicious IP-addresses, and, eventually, live chat with other betting companies to check information regarding suspicious bets.

Element Wave shortlisted in five categories at EGR B2B awards

‘Innovation in Mobile’ and ‘Data Analytics’ among categories in which Element Wave is nominated

Galway, Ireland — Element Wave, the leading provider of Mobile Marketing Automation technology to the betting and gaming industry, is honoured to be shortlisted once again in multiple categories at the 2017 eGaming Review B2B Awards.

Organised by eGaming Review, the awards now in their eighth year, recognise the best and brightest companies delivering innovative solutions and clear results to all areas of the online gaming industry.

Our Mobile Marketing Automation Technology is shortlisted in five categories, an increase on four nominations last year. Element Wave is shortlisted in the following categories:

Embrace the networking opportunity of the year at Betting on Football

Visitors to Betting on Football next week will be getting access to the best networking opportunity of the year, with over 800 senior decision makers attending the event during 3-5 May at Stamford Bridge.

The fourth iteration of the biggest international football and betting trade conference will see SBC Events present 140 world class speakers to 800+ delegates next week and the organisers have been working hard to enhance the networking opportunities across the week.

SBC Managing Director Andrew McCarron commented: “SBC was founded on networking parties so we take extra care in making sure that we help people attending our events to make valuable connections. This is why we invest more in our networking parties and have also launched our event app on Android and iOS.”

Apart from the high level content provided from the massive speaker lineup spread over the many sessions across two days, a ticket for Betting on Football also provides a whole host of networking and business opportunities. These include:

BetConstruct declares the source code for its front-end as open source

April 2017: Major industry supplier BetConstruct released its front-end source codes as open source. The release allows BetConstruct’s partners to develop landing pages and front-end functionalities of their betting and gaming websites at their choice. The front-end source code for web and mobile is available in GitHub.

“By making the front-end sources open to everyone, we remove barriers for our partners,” says BetConstruct Executive Chairman Vigen Badalyan.

The project is distributed under MIT license. It enables users to take advantage of BetConstruct’s powerful API and build front-end more independently.

Earlier BetConstruct started delivering data replication services. Its purpose is to provide operators with a full control over their data including player information.

Las Vegas Sands says Vegas ops had best quarter in nine years

Casino operator Las Vegas Sands reported revenue of over $3.1b in Q1 2017 while profit soared to nearly half a billion, which, when you really think about it, ain’t too bad for three months’ work.

Figures released Wednesday show Sands generated revenue of $3.11b in the three months ending March 31, up 14.3% from the same period last year. Adjusted earnings were up 25% – up 9.5% on a hold-normalized basis – to $1.14b. Under less forgiving US accounting standards, operating income rose 30% to $763m and net income rose 50% to $480m.

Sands China’s revenue improved 15.3% to $1.88b, while net income gained 12% to $349m thanks mainly to last September’s launch of the Parisian Macao resort. The Parisian reported revenue of $318m, down from $344m in Q4 2016, but this was mainly due to VIP win rate falling back to earth from the absurdly high 4.52% in Q4.

However, the Parisian’s room occupancy fell nine points to 82%, and this was well before word leaked of the property’s recent outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease. Fortunately, all four of Sands China’s other properties stepped up to the plate by reporting solid year-on-year occupancy gains.