China plans to loosen restrictions on package tour operators ferrying mainland tourists to destinations in South Korea, potentially offering a badly needed boost to the peninsula’s foreigners-only casino market.

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that China had decided to permit travel agencies to resume booking package tours to South Korean cities from airports in Beijing and Shandong. Other Chinese cities are expected to be added to this list in short order.

China imposed a blanket ban on group tours to South Korea after the latter country’s former government approved the deployment of additional US anti-missile missile systems last year. Some regions of South Korea, like the casino-heavy Jeju island, had relied on China for over 80% of their inbound tourists, but by this summer Jeju’s volume of Chinese tourists had fallen nearly 90%, resulting in similar declines in casino gaming revenue.

The election of a new South Korean government in May saw the scrapping of further missile deployment plans and other diplomatic efforts to resolve the standoff between the two countries. And while Tuesday’s news will be welcomed in South Korea, it isn’t entirely without hitches.

Colombia has officially welcomed Spanish gaming operator Codere as its newest online gambling licensee, while rumors swirl about Codere merging with Spanish rival Cirsa.

On Monday, Colombian gaming regulator Coljuegos officially announced that it had issued its fifth online gambling license to Codere, which is now taking sports wagers via the Codere.com.co domain.

Coljuegos noted that Codere has a long history in land-based operations in Colombia, with 33 years of experience running venues offering everything from electronic gaming machines, bingo and casino games.

Coljuegos says Codere Colombia SA paid just under US $7m for its five-year license, which is nearly twice the $3.7m paid by local operator Colbet, which received its Coljuegos approval in October.

Chinese authorities are hinting that the country could rescind its ‘temporary’ suspension of online lottery sales, nearly three years after online sales were curtailed.

On Tuesday, Spanish gaming regulator Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) posted a notice to its website regarding a bilateral meeting its officials held on Monday with representatives of China’s General Directorate of General Affairs of the Ministry of Finance.

Among other issues, the DGOJ claimed the two nations’ representatives – including DGOJ director general Juan Espinosa Garcia and Chinese commissioner Liu Jinyun (pictured) – had discussed “various aspects related to knowing the control system of lottery activity and other games, particularly in the online context.”

Prior to March 2015, China had allowed two companies – Shanghai Media Group and Nasdaq-listed 500.com – to participate in a ‘pilot program’ to monitor the impact of online lottery sales on the general public. In reality, many other Chinese lottery operators, including tech giant Alibaba, also offered online sports lottery and welfare lottery sales.

A fourth Crown Resorts employee has come forward to blow the whistle on the alleged manipulation and tampering of Crown Melbourne casino’s poker machines.

ABC News reported that an unnamed worker has attested to the veracity of the claims of three other ex-Crown casino employees that the casino operator gave its blessing to alter its gaming machines to prevent punters from winning too much.

The new witness was described by the news outlet as someone who worked at Crown Melbourne for many years. The latest witness claimed that he was personally ordered to remove betting options on the Players Choice Super machine because punters were winning too much.

“There was an instance where this particular game was paying out too much on the gamble function so technicians were instructed to remove the gamble button completely,” he said, according to the news agency.

International credit watcher Fitch Ratings is painting yet another rosy picture for the global gambling industry for 2018 amid a strong economic backdrop.

In its latest note, Fitch noted that healthy balance sheets and leverage profiles and continued economic growth across gaming key market will help lift the global gambling industry’s revenue next year.

“2018 is set to be a good year for gaming operators and suppliers globally amid a strong economic backdrop and a relatively benign new supply environment,” Fitch senior director Alex Bumazhny said in a note. “While many gaming companies will ramp up returns to shareholders, we expect these returns to be balanced with preserving, and in some instances improving, balance sheet strengths.”

Fitch, however, reminded operators to be very watchful of possible global headwinds which may dampen momentum in certain jurisdictions.

China’s takedown last weekend of two underground banks caught funneling money to Macau is a good sign that the Chinese are successfully circumventing Beijing’s capital controls. The banks implicated were reportedly responsible for moving $3.1 billion worth of yuan to Macau for 10,000 clients. This is both bullish and bearish for Macau stocks because on the one hand, it shows that money is successfully slipping though the mainland. Macau needs this to maintain its recovery, and the more that gets through, the better for the industry. On the other hand, it’s bearish because it means that Macau is still pitted against the Chinese government, and at their mercy should their mood change.

The question is, can Beijing really stop the money flow, and do they even want to anymore anyway?

The end result of the bust was the freezing of only RMB30 million. That’s nothing. A tiny drop in the bucket that will have no effect on the industry. It signals that money smuggling is happening most likely everywhere, and two, that it doesn’t seem that Beijing is taking it all that seriously anymore. If they were, we would have seen headlines of huge busts in the billions of dollars, not just RMB 30M, a paltry $4.5M.

The act of busting an underground bank is like nabbing a dime-bagger on a street corner. Put one behind bars and the next one is just waiting in line right behind him. These banks are likely a dime a dozen, no pun intended. All that can happen is that the commission for taking the risk of moving money to Macau may tick up slightly, just like the prices for illegal drugs tick up after a drug bust, merely subsidizing the players that have not yet been caught. Capital controls are as futile as the drug war. They do not work.