Nevada gaming regulators have begun accepting sexual harassment complaints about Steve Wynn via its website, apparently because handling the volume of complaints via traditional means was interfering with its other regulatory responsibilities.

On Monday, the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s website added a Voluntary Statement Information section to handle the “numerous communications regarding publicly announced investigations.” The GCB insists that all submissions will be handled “in a secure and confidential manner.”

The Wall Street Journal quoted GCB chair Becky Harris saying the regulator has been deluged by phone, email and snail-mail complaints since the initial reports of a decades-long pattern of sexual harassment by Steve Wynn against Wynn Resorts’ female staff members.

Harris said the volume of complaints had become “disruptive … It was a challenge to conduct the necessary business of the board.” GCB members will contact individuals should the GCB have questions regarding the specifics of their complaint.

The nominations for the 4th Annual American Poker Awards (APA) are out, and poker media content is the entree of the night with Poker Central and Doug Polk up for a combined 11 awards.

Hoodies remain on octopus-like hooks. Sunglasses sleep in the undisturbed draw. Hair as thick as a lion’s mane sees a brush for the first time in yonks. Bottled scents get to breathe. Expensive clothes blinded by the light. Heels prepare to make a dent in the earth. The smell of polish permeates the air.

It’s time for the American poker community to get dressed up. It’s time for teary-eyed speeches. It’s time for massaged egos. It’s time to find a space in the trophy cabinet. It’s time for the 4th Annual American Poker Awards (APA).

APA sounds like a type of alcohol, and one imagines the Andaz West Hollywood, Los Angeles will drown in the stuff when the poker community mass together on February 22nd to celebrate the performances, princes and princesses of 2017.

A swarm of hedge funds is said to be vying for the fair hand of Spanish gaming giant Cirsa Gaming Corp.

Over the weekend, multiple Spanish media outlets reported that several US hedge fund giants, including Advent International, Apollo Global Management, Blackstone Group and Cerberus Capital Management were all sniffing around Cirsa, Spain’s largest casino and bingo hall operator.

Cirsa’s majority owner, billionaire Manuel Lao Hernandez, let it be known last November that he’d tapped financial advisory firm Lazard to help weigh several strategic options, including a potential initial public offering, the sale of a minority stake in the company or an outright transfer of ownership. Analysts have suggested the company has a valuation that tops off around €2b.

None of the funds mentioned in the Spanish media reports deigned to comment on their potential interest in Cirsa. Unidentified gaming companies are reportedly also making tentative kicks at Cirsa’s tires. Lazard is requiring all interested parties to submit non-binding bids in the coming weeks.

The ill-fated Fontainebleau casino project in Las Vegas will get a new shot at life in 2020 under new ownership and a new name.

Last August, billionaire investor Carl Icahn struck a $600m deal to sell the unfinished Fontainebleau casino hotel to a consortium including an affiliate of development and investment firm The Witkoff Group and New Valley LLC, the real estate arm of Florida’s Vector Group holding company.

On Monday, the Associated Press reported that the Fontainebleau’s new owners intend to rebrand the property as The Drew Las Vegas, with an eye towards welcoming its first guests by 2020. Hospitality giant Marriott International has been tapped to run the 63-story property’s hotel operations, which will include around 4k rooms and suites.

Witkoff Group CEO Steven Witkoff said The Drew would be “a design-forward building” and that the existing unfinished structure was “so well-conceived, even from nine years ago,” that the new owners could envision any number of design possibilities.

Spain’s regulated online gambling market reported gains across all major verticals – yes, even poker – in the final quarter of 2017.

Figures released Monday by Spanish gaming regulator Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) show Spanish-licensed online operators generated revenue of €173.3m in the three months ending December 31, 2017. The figure represents a 38% improvement over Q4 2016 and is 23.5% higher than Q3 2017’s total.

Active customer ranks improved nearly 12% year-on-year to over 676k, while customer deposits soared by 53.2% to €495.5m. These gains came despite operators cutting their Q4 advertising spending by 1.4% to €31.3m. However, bonus offers to customers were up 13.1% year-on-year to €21m, while affiliate marketing expenses jumped 38.6% to €7.5m and sponsorship expenses more than doubled to €3.15m.

The online casino vertical handily usurped the online turnover crown from sports betting in Q4. Casino spending topped €1.77b in Q4, a year-on-year improvement of nearly 48%, which gave the casino vertical a 49.9% share of all turnover, while sports betting’s €1.34b (+5.2%) relegated it to second place with a 37.7% share.

Malta’s gambling regulator is conducting a review of its Italian online licensees, following that country’s latest anti-Mafia police action targeting illegal gambling operations.

Last week, Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) executive chairman Joseph Cuschieri (pictured) told Italian gaming news outlet Agimeg that he wanted to “start a collaboration” with Italy’s Anti-Mafia Commission and any other authority that “needs to know the activity of Italian gaming operators in Malta.”

Cuschieri’s comments came one week after the MGA suspended the license of Phoenix International Ltd, which operated multiple gambling sites linked to Italy’s ‘betting king’ Benedetto Bacchi, who was arrested in an Italian police anti-Mafia action dubbed Game Over.

Italian authorities alleged that Bacchi operated a network of data transmission centers (CTDs) – essentially betting shops with terminals linked to Malta-based sites – that circumvented Italian gaming authorities to avoid paying local taxes.

Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) chair Andrea Domingo is expecting no less than PHP6 billion ($115.4 million) from the Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) licensing scheme this year as all the licensees become operational.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that Domingo has set an ambitious target for Pogo firms after the state regulator collected a total of PHP3.1 billion in revenues from them in 2017.

She pointed out that the PHP6 billion target is attainable since all 45 firms that have been awarded with a license to operate in the country are now up and running. PAGCOR issued 35 gaming license when the POGO was introduced last year.

PAGCOR licensees had reportedly paid the regulator application and processing fees of $50,000 for e-casino and $40,000 for sports betting. The operators were also charged $200,000 (e-casino) and $150,000 (sports betting) after their licenses were approved.

Myanmar is taking a second look at casinos in a bid to boost the country’s tourism industry.

Eleven Media Group reported that the Myanmar parliament is considering allowing foreigners-only casinos in some of the country’s island resorts after package tours from Western countries dropped last year.

Myanmar’s Minister for Hotels and Tourism Ohn Maung clarified that the government doesn’t oppose plans to construct casinos in the country, especially if it will help shore up tourism. The problem lies with Myanmar’s 1986 Gambling law, which prohibits casinos. Maung suggested that the antiquated law be revised for the sake of the country’s tourism development.

Minister Aung Hlaing Win pointed out that opening casinos would give the government additional revenue that could be used to pay the country’s debt.