Asian casino operator Melco Resorts & Entertainment (MRE) enjoyed double-digit gains in revenue and earnings in 2017, while net income nearly doubled year-on-year.

Figures released Thursday show MRE’s group-wide revenue hitting $1.332b in the three months ending December 31, 2017, while adjusted earnings gained 12% to $340m and net income surged 87.5% to $81.2m.

For the year as a whole, revenue rose nearly 18% to $5.3b, adjusted earnings gained 31% to $1.42b and net income very nearly doubled to $347m. MRE investors rejoiced as the company decided to share the wealth by boosting its quarterly dividends by 50%.

MRE CEO Lawrence Ho credited the gains to the Macau market having “rebounded strongly” last year following three years of decline, while MRE’s Philippine operations enjoyed “robust” growth across all gaming segments.

As Pennsylvania braces for a flood of online gambling license applications, one local casino operator wants licensees to be limited to a single online gambling ‘skin.’

This week, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) posted the application forms for would-be Interactive Gaming Manufacturers, Suppliers and Interactive Gaming Service providers. Applications will be accepted as of April 2, while a date for accepting applications for Interactive Gaming Platform Providers will be posted at “a future time.”

Pennsylvania became only the fourth US state to approve intrastate online gambling last fall, and hopes are that the lessons learned from online-friendly states like New Jersey will allow Pennsylvania to accelerate its online market launch timeline.

However, as the crafting of online regulations continues, gaming stakeholders continue to lobby hard for certain rules to be adopted. In the case of the state’s market-leading land-based Parx Casino, the issue of how many branded ‘skins’ each online licensee will be permitted to offer is front and center.

South Africa’s biggest hotel and casino operator Tsogo Sun Holdings Ltd. is playing Moses to its guests by striking a rock and build its own water supply in the face of a tremendous drought that hit the country.

Bloomberg reported that the deepening water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa, has forced Tsogo Sun to build a desalination plant in its luxury seafront hotel to ensure that the guests will have free-flowing water available to them.

Tsogo Chief Operating Officer Ravi Nadasen pointed out that the alternative water supply will start operating by March, two months before city authorities closes the taps to residential suburbs.

“There is a plan in place that all of the alternative water sources will come on board before Day Zero comes,” Nadasen said, according to the news outlet. “The current situation in Cape Town is going to become the new normal. We’ve got to be responsible as well.”

Japan-based Nikkei Inc. is betting on Asian gambling operators to become one of the biggest and fastest-growing companies in the region.

Nikkei has created an exclusive list of 300 “companies to watch” from 10 Asian countries and regions, which includes several gaming companies in Asia Pacific.

The gaming companies who made it in the newly-created Nikkei Asia 300 Investable Index includes Hong Kong-listed gaming company Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG); Philippine-listed casino operator Bloomberry Resorts; South Korean casino operator Kangwon Land Inc; Genting Singapore Plc, the operator of Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore; and Genting Malaysia Bhd, which runs Resorts World Genting, Malaysia’s only casino resort, and operates casinos in the United States, the Bahamas and the United Kingdom.

In handpicking the companies to be included in Nikkei Asia 300, Nikkei said they considered the market capitalization, as well as growth potential and geographic balance.

This is a guest contribution by Rob Lawson. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

As part of the build-up to the ICE Totally Gaming show in London, Rob Lawson, head of Customer Success at UK-licensed lottery games and iLottery software business LOT.TO, gives us his take on the future of the lottery sector.

Lottery is the single most significant growth area for the global gambling sector, yet compared to other channels such as betting and casino, it remains in the Dark Ages when it comes to technology and online engagement. This represents both a threat to the established operators, and an opportunity for those who seek to challenge them.

The lottery sector currently accounts for 30% of the global gaming industry, which is expected to turn over $635bn annually by 2020. Yet, in terms of embracing the opportunities offered by the internet, lottery remains way behind the curve. This means that many profitable lottery operators, either inadvertently or due to local legal frameworks, now find themselves at risk of extinction.

It was only four years ago since the Sochi Olympics but for many athletes, it felt like a lifetime.

Who would forget kind-hearted Olympians like U.S. slopestyle skier Gus Kenworthy who decided to bring some stray dogs from Sochi back to his country instead of medals? What about U.S.’s missed gold medal after American-born snowboarder Vic Wild competed under the Russian flag?

The Sochi Olympics had been ripe with heart-warming and heart-breaking storylines. Fast forward to 2018, in a place called Pyeongchang, South Korea, expect new personal records and memorable moments will be written in sports history books.

This year, Norway has become the clear favorite to win the most medals at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics with an 11/10 odds, according to online sportsbook Bodog.

The City of Dreams is hosting PokerStars’ Macau Poker Cup, and the turnout has been far greater than expected. While it’s had to compete with the Aussie Millions schedule for press time, it has still received its fair share of publicity, especially for the much-anticipated Red Dragon Main Event.

The main event attracted 280 players on Day 1A, and an additional 349 on Day 2. By the time registration was closed, 1,122 entries had been placed. Several well-known personalities made appearances for the tournament, such as PokerStars pro Celina Lin and ex-premier league soccer player Anthony Gardner. Lin had previously won the event twice, but was denied this year after being eliminated just before the end of Day 2.

366 players made it through the first three days of action. China’s Ying Tang led at the end of Day 3 with an overwhelming stack of 1,339,000 chips. The tournament wraps up on Friday, February 9, with the winner taking home HK$3,055,000, or a little more than US$ 390,000, as well as a seat at the Asia Championship of Poker Main Event.

Tang has shown impressive play for someone with little experience. He recently began his trek down poker road and has only accumulated just shy of $61,000, which he earned last year. He finished 5th at the WPT Sanya Main Event in November, where he earned $60,000. At the WSOP Deepstack tournament in December, he cashed in 47th place for $438.

One of Oklahoma’s most well-known casinos is about to be converted a hot spot.

The Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant will once again play host to the Card Player Poker Tour, set to begin on April 5. This year should see an even better turnout than previous years with a massive $1 million in guaranteed money up for grabs with the main event.

The series consists of 47 different events, and will be kicked off with a $240 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) tournament that has a guaranteed prize pool of $50,000. The main event, a $1,100 NLHE tournament, begins on April 20 and will run until April 22. Direct buy-in is available for the main event, or players can take advantage of a number of discounted satellites for as little as $65.

There will be a wide range of games available to cover virtually every poker player’s favorite. The routine games of NLHE and Omaha are joined by HORSE, 2-7 Triple Draw and Badugi. The series will also present variations of popular games, such as a hold’em seniors tournament, “win the button,” team, congress and bounty tournaments.