The father and son operators of an illegal sportsbook at a California cardroom have pled guilty to racketeering conspiracy.

Thirteen months ago, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service and the San Diego Police Department charged 14 individuals with operating an illegal credit betting operation being run out of the Lucky Lady Casino & Card Room. The ring placed wagers on behalf of its customers with betting sites based in the UK, Costa Rica, Curacao and Hong Kong.

On Tuesday, the betting operation’s ringleader Sanders Segal and his son Sydney both pled guilty to racketeering conspiracy following a deal with prosecutors. The San Diego Union Tribune reported that the deal requires the Segals to surrender a combined $232k, their share of the estimated $1m in profits the betting ring generated between 2013 and the 2016 arrests.

Sydney Segal was a cage manager at the Lucky Lady, a position he used to commingle the gang’s betting proceeds with the card room’s legitimate earnings. Sydney was also responsible for keeping the betting operation’s books.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has unloaded the unfinished Fontainebleau casino-hotel in Las Vegas for more than four times what he paid for it seven years ago.

Rumors had been circulating for days, but Tuesday brought confirmation that Icahn Enterprises L.P. had sold the Fontainebleau for $600m to an affiliate of development and investment firm The Witkoff Group LLC, and New Valley LLC, the real estate arm of Florida-based holding company the Vector Group.

Icahn’s group purchased the Fontainebleau in February 2010 for $148m after its original developers – who included Crown Resorts boss James Packer – ran into a credit crunch following the 2008 global economic meltdown. Packer reportedly lost $279m chasing his Vegas dream, and that’s not counting his share of the nine-figure back tax bill the Australian Tax Office sent Crown last year.

While the price is slightly less than Icahn had been seeking for the Fontainebleau, Icahn couldn’t help crowing a little, saying his group had acquired the property “when others were unwilling to invest.” Icahn called the $457m profit was “an example of our ‘contrarian’ modus operandi,” the aim of which is to seek out distressed properties, add a coat of paint and some new shingles, “and ultimately sell them for large gains.”

Two Florida pari-mutuel cardrooms are in hot water with state gaming regulators for continuing to offer ‘designated player’ card games in violation of the settlement the state reached with the Seminole Tribe this summer.

On Monday, Florida media outlets reported that the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) had filed administrative complaints against Pensacola Greyhound Racing and the Sarasota Kennel Club for continuing to offer house-banked card games in their cardrooms.

The so-called ‘designated player’ games allow one player at a card table to serve as the bank, meaning the other players are ostensibly playing against this single player, although courts have ruled that the games are essentially house-banked games in all but name.

The settlement the Seminoles reached with the state in July called for regulators to take “aggressive enforcement action” against non-Seminole gaming venues offering house-banked games. The state’s willingness to act against infringing pari-mutuels offers a hint of the state’s unwillingness to see this settlement – which came after years of setbacks and legal fights – fall apart at the seams.

Asian casino operator Donaco International saw its fiscal year profit fall by more than half due to an unfortunate series of one-off items.

The Australia-listed Donaco released its fiscal 2017 report card on Tuesday, which showed group revenue falling nearly 5% to A$136.4m (US $108.6m), earnings improving 17.6% to A$65.3m while net profit after tax tumbled 60% to A$31m.

Donaco claims the conflicting numbers were the result of over A$24m in positive non-recurring items in FY16, while FY17 was saddled with negative non-recurring items of A$23.6m. Stripping aside these factors, underlying earnings were down 4% to A$84.4m while underlying net profit was flat at A$54.6m.

Donaco’s flagship Cambodian property StarVegas saw its FY17 revenue fall 8.3% to A$110.2m, due in part to last October’s death of Thailand’s king and the lengthy mourning period that negatively impacted cross-border casino traffic. While traffic recovered in H2 2017, the full year figures saw StarVegas’ average visitors per day drop nearly 22% year-on-year.

Concerns over Japan’s plans to introduce casino gambling have resulted in new curbs on the country’s other forms of legal gambling.

As Japanese legislators continue to limp toward finishing their secondary casino legislation, they are ever mindful of public concerns that the nation’s already large percentage of problem gamblers once fare even worse with newer, flashier legal gambling options arrive. A new government study of gambling addiction rates is scheduled to be completed next month.

On Tuesday, the Japan Times reported that cabinet ministers had announced a number of new curbs on existing gambling activities, including unspecified ceilings on how much racing punters can wager online. The online betting limits, which won’t take effect until fiscal 2022, will affect Japan’s legal horse, bicycle, motorcycle and powerboat racing operators.

The government also intends to accelerate plans to eliminate the presence of automatic teller machines from land-based racing events and off-site betting offices. Two of Japan’s three bicycle racing venues have already removed their ATMs this month. The ATMs still in operation at betting venues will have their cash advance functions disabled by the end of March 2018.

Australian casino operator Crown Resorts’ digital arm plans to launch an online lottery betting product to compete with Lottoland’s expanding Aussie presence.

On Tuesday, the Australian Financial Review reported that Crown’s online sports betting division CrownBet would launch its new CrownLotto online lottery as early as this week. CrownLotto will mimic Lottoland’s business model, in which players bet on the outcome of a traditional lottery draw rather than participate directly in the lottery draw.

CrownLotto aims to differentiate itself from Lottoland by offering punters a lower commission rate and thus a larger payout. A CrownBet spokesman told the AFR that the new lottery betting product was intended “to meet the clear and growing customer demand that is driven by huge jackpots in overseas draws.”

Lottoland made a splash down under by launching just as the US Powerball lottery was preparing to draw for its all-time record $1.6b prize in January 2016. Lottoland is now believed to be generating weekly revenue in excess of A$1m and last month the company inked a B2B deal with CrownBet rival William Hill Australia to add a lottery betting tab to the betting operator’s website.