Malta’s online gambling regulator has unveiled a new anti-money laundering program, part of the regulator’s ongoing efforts to bolster its battered public image.

On Tuesday, the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) announced the formation of a new Anti-Money Laundering Supervisory Unit. The move follows Malta’s adoption of the European Union’s Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive last December.

The new AML Supervisory Unit is now fully operational and will be conducting on-site and off-site inspections of MGA licensees, some of which will be conducted jointly with Malta’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU). The MGA says its AML supervisory plan for 2018 includes a “significant number of on-site visits” to both land-based and online licensees.

While the new AML unit has obviously been in the works for some time, it’s formal debut comes just one day after the MGA launched a probe of its Italian-based online gambling licensees. The probe is a response to this month’s arrest of Italy’s so-called ‘betting king’ and his MGA-licensed operation’s alleged links to Mafia clans.

Turkey is making good on its pledge to stamp out illegal gambling operators, particularly those who ply their trade over the internet.

On Tuesday, Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News quoted a report from the state-run Anadolu Agency that over 1k police officers had staged a series of simultaneous raids across nine provinces in an operation targeting illegal online sports betting operators.

The raids, which were launched by Turkey’s cyber-crime unit, targeted 140 different house addresses in Istanbul, Ankara and other major cities. The report failed to specify the names of the gambling sites targeted in the police action.

Roughly 100 individuals were detained during the early morning raids and taken to police stations for questioning. Hurriyet reported that the suspects were all “initially taken to hospital for a health checkup,” which seems like an odd detail to include, unless the police were particularly, er, enthusiastic in rousting these alleged cyber-criminals from their comfy beds.

An increased uptake in digital products and more favorable online gambling regulation will help spur an uptick in digital wagers in 2018, the latest Juniper Research data show.

Juniper’s Mobile & Online Gambling: Casinos, Lotteries, Betting & VR 2018-2022 claims that total online wagers will jump by as much as 11.4 percent to $700 billion this year compared to just over $620 billion in 2017.

Gambling analysts found that the casino vertical will remain at the forefront of driving online wagers this year.

By 2022, Juniper forecasts that global online gambling wagers will reach a total of $1 trillion while the number of online gambling users will double to 684 million.

Macau-based MGM China Holdings Ltd. has opened the doors of the $3.4 billion MGM Cotai just in time for the busy week-long Lunar New Year holiday.

The opening of the multibillion-dollar casino resort on the family-friendly Cotai strip is MGM China’s biggest gamble to date, especially now that its local gambling concession will expire in about two years. MGM agreed that its newest investment in Macau was a leap of faith.

“We live in a world with many business distractions. Any business needs to have the resilience and capacity,” MGM China CEO Grant Bowie told Bloomberg TV. Bowie is confident that the Macau market can “overcome any of these challenges that present themselves.”

MGM’s newest property features 1,390 rooms and suites, including 1,248 resort rooms or the standard room type, 99 suites, 16 sky lofts and 27 mansion villas. MGM Cotai’s first guests are expected to check into the hotel on Wednesday.

Four Connecticut lawmakers are demanding a federal probe of the U.S. Department of Interior’s (DOI) decision to sit on the request of tribal casino operators to expand their operations in the state.

Politico reported that U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and U.S. Reps. John Larson and Joe Courtney prodded the federal Office of the Inspector General to investigate the DOI for what they described as “highly unusual decision to take no action” on the state’s request to amend two tribal gaming compacts.

Tribal operators Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun needed the DOI’s nod to be able to proceed with the construction of a casino off tribal land in East Windsor.

In a letter to the Inspector General, the four lawmakers accused the DOI of refusing to talk to the members of the Connecticut delegation, who were tasked with explaining the proposed changes in the tribe’s gaming compacts, which are opposed by commercial casino operator MGM Resorts International and its allies.

Beijing is reportedly mulling opening another gambling jurisdiction in Hainan. Will they, won’t they, and if they do what will happen? First of all, the question is mostly irrelevant for the near term because by the time it happens, we’ll be in a different world. Even if tomorrow Beijing decided to start auctioning off Hainan licenses to casino firms, it would take at least 5 years for anything to really get off the ground. The financial world is moving so fast now that 5 years is an eternity.

Consider, 5 years ago was before the 2014 Macau crash, an event that has shaped the financial landscape of the province ever since. Before another 5 years passes you could have another one, and then we can discuss how an active Hainan gambling province might impact Macau at whatever level it’s at in 5 years.

Longer term though, the first thing to say is that competition is a good thing for all involved, so while losing a monopoly on a territory may sound scary for the beneficiaries of that monopoly, ultimately monopolies poison companies and make them lazy, inefficient, and eventually bankrupt. For the most recent example, look at the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA). It’s hard to think of a more inept company with a monopoly over an entire service in a given territory. After failing to get the lights on in Puerto Rico nearly 5 months after Hurricane Maria, the firm is finally being privatized. The modern story of bankrupt monopolies goes all the way back to the British East India Company, which caused some serious famines in Bengal, India before it went bankrupt in the 19th century.

Competition for Macau already exists though in any case. It’s just that this competition is from other countries, so like it or not Macau does have to compete. The question for Beijing is whether Macau will compete against a jurisdiction where Beijing also has taxing authority, or will it compete against a foreign one? Some argue that Beijing will not allow gambling in Hainan because gambling goes against the ideology of communism. This is a silly argument. There is no communist ideology. There is just the drive for wealth, which can either be satisfied through liberty and free markets, which tends to benefit everyone, or through top-down central planning, which tends to benefit cronies and the politically connected at the expense of everyone else. In almost all countries there is a mix of both, in different degrees. No politician runs an economy according to ideology. They run it according to what will get them the most money and votes.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the iGaming Asia Congress (iGA), the longest running dedicated C-level iGaming event in Asia, iGA will be hosting the first ever Gaming Innovation Start-up Launchpad. The Launchpad is a platform for start-ups to present their products/services to leading igaming and technology investors, igaming experts, and over 150 C-level executives.

“iGaming Asia Congress has been the premier C-level igaming event in Asia for the past decade. We would like to bring in more up-and-coming igaming innovators to the event in an attempt to drive innovation and bring new opportunities to the gaming industry in the region,” said Giulia Timarco, Conference Producer at Beacon Events.

Three finalists will be will be offered 8 minutes to showcase their products/services in front of a panel of judges, who are all experts and investors from the gaming industry. Judges include Melissa Blau, Partner of iGaming Capital, Andre Rodrigues, the CEO of GoldBlue AB, Donna NguyenPhuoc, Partner of SPARQ Capital, Markus Nasholm, CFO of Catena Media, and Tobias Svensen, the CEO of CasinoGrounds. The winner will be offered a table top exhibitor booth at one of Beacon Events’ gaming conferences, either at the iGaming Asia Congress, Gaming, Racing & Wagering Australia (GRWA), Asia Gaming Summit (AGS), or the inaugural Investment Opportunities in Asian Gaming (IOiAG).

Technology innovation is the backbone of the iGaming industry, a USD15 billion online business. A dynamic team of IT experts and innovative minds is crucial to the igaming business, one of the most fast-changing, challenging and fun industries to watch. The hottest topics not only include big data, AI, blockchain technology, ICO (initial coin offering), and cyber security, but also new games and online marketing tools to engage and retain players. The finalists will be announced on the week of 19 February 2018. For details, please refer to the official website: https://igamingasiacongress.com/programme/launchpad

Lee Davy shares his opinion on the last-minute decision from PokerStars to remove the Chilean stop from the resurrected Latin American Poker Tour.

Society can’t function without trust. Every relationship we have relies on the exchange of promises. Breakage weakens integrity. Hollowed eyes and unfaithful wives. I’m not only referring to the bonds between family and friends. I’m talking about our connections to business.

Apple.

Bose.