On Friday, Sir Ronald Sanders, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States and the Organization of American States for Antigua and Barbuda, appeared before the World Trade Organization’s Dispute Settlement Body, to update his government’s position on its 14-year online gambling trade fight with the United States.

The dispute, which has been covered at length on this site, involved US efforts to block Antigua-licensed gambling sites from doing business with US customers. The WTO found the US to be in violation of its international trade obligations, and dismissed US efforts to overturn this ruling.

To pressure the US into abiding by its obligations, the WTO authorized Antigua to collect $21m in annual penalties from the US. To date, the US has neither altered its protectionist stance on the online gambling issue, nor has it paid Antigua a single penny of the $270m in outstanding penalties that have piled up since the WTO first ruled in Antigua’s favor.

Earlier this month, Sanders (pictured) urged the US to honor its debt to Antigua to help fund the rebuilding efforts in Barbuda, which was devastated by Hurricane Irma’s Category 5 fury.

Casino operator MGM China says it’s pushing back the opening of its new integrated resort in Macau due to damage caused by Typhoon Hato.

In a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday, MGM China said its previously stated Q4 2017 timeline for the opening of its in-development MGM Cotai resort casino was no longer attainable, and thus the company was delaying the property’s launch date until January 29, 2018.

Many of Macau’s casinos were forced to completely shut down in mid-August due to Typhoon Hato, the most powerful storm to hit the special administrative region of China in 53 years. Ten Macau residents lost their lives as the storm raged, bringing widespread power outages and flooding.

MGM Cotai didn’t escape Hato’s wrath, and the company says repairing the damage will “slightly” delay the inspections by local government officials that are necessary for MGM Cotai to obtain its various operating licenses.

UK bookmakers Ladbrokes are under investigation by the UK gambling regulator after betting shop staff allegedly allowed a gambler to take out payday loans to play fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT).

On Friday, the Guardian reported that the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) was investigating claims by a self-described recovering gambling addict that staff in a Ladbrokes betting shop in Birmingham watched him take out high-interest payday loans over the phone so that he could continue playing the shop’s FOBTs.

The addict, 39-year-old Paul Jones, said he took out the maximum loan available (£200) over the telephone, then proceeded to lose it all to the FOBT within 15 minutes. Jones then took out a second payday loan, losing that sum as well. He claims to have only stopped because his phone’s battery died.

Jones says he has bank statements supporting his transaction claims, and further claimed the Ladbrokes staffers were plainly aware of his activities, as he kept checking with them to determine whether the funds had been added to his credit card account.

Nevada casino sportsbooks saw revenue jump 1,651% in August thanks to enormous hype over the Mayweather-McGregor boxing match.

Figures released Friday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board show the state’s casino operators generated revenue of $$989.5m in August, a hefty 14.9% increase over the same month last year but slightly less than the $998m the casino earned in July 2017.

The state’s slot machines were humming happily in August, with revenue rising 5% to $624.7m. The casino’s two top table games were even more buoyant, with blackjack rising 33.6% year-on-year to $108.5m, while baccarat jumped 37.9% to $101.5m.

In fact, all of the state’s table games were in positive territory, with most of them enjoying double-digit gains, except three-card poker, which dipped 5% to $11.5m. This is a 180° turnaround from July’s results, in which only craps showed signs of growth.