Stop us if you’ve heard this one, but Italian police have busted yet another illegal gambling operation with ties to Malta-licensed online betting sites.

Thursday saw over 200 police in the Palermo region descend upon dozens of betting shops in an anti-mafia operation dubbed Game Over. The raids resulted in the arrests of 23 individuals, including Benedetto Bacchi (pictured), the so-called ‘betting king’ who reportedly controlled a network of around 700 betting shops across Italy.

Police said the 700 shops generated illegal gambling profits of over €1m per month, a good chunk of which was allegedly kicked back to the Palermo clans to help fund other criminal activities. Police closed at least 40 of Bacchi’s shops, while freezing bank accounts and seizing real estate, companies and other assets with a combined worth of over €4m.

The betting agencies in question are known in Italy as data transmission centers (CTDs), essentially internet cafés with terminals connected to internationally licensed online gambling sites. Recent years have seen similar busts of CTD networks with connections to sites based in Malta, including the Betuniq crackdown in 2015 and last year’s MediaLive Casino arrests.

UK-listed gambling operator Rank Group’s digital division reported a 56% rise in operating profit despite new taxes on customer bonus offers.

On Thursday, Rank released its fiscal H1 report, which saw like-for-like revenue (before customer incentives) essentially flat at £378m in the six months ending December 31, 2017.

H1 earnings (pre-exceptional items) improved 6% to £63.3m and operating profit gained 14% to £41.7m. Meanwhile, statutory results showed pre-tax profits falling 7% to £32.8m, thanks mainly to nearly £6m in impairment charges from two Grosvenor Casinos in Dundee and Didsbury.

However you wish to slice it, Rank’s UK digital operations were the belle of its ball, reporting revenue rising 16% to £60.6m and operating profit up 56% to £11.4m. Rank CEO Henry Birch hailed the “particularly strong” digital results, especially following the recent application of gaming duties on customer bonuses.

UK online gambling operators face strict new bonus offer rules following an investigation by the national competition watchdog.

On Thursday, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that certain terms in online gambling promotional offers were “likely to be ‘unfair,’ in breach of consumer protection law, and could mislead consumers.”

The CMA opened its investigation into online bonus offers in October 2016 following complaints to both the CMA and the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) that operators were using restrictions in these offers’ fine print “to block players’ payouts.” Last June, the CMA said five online operators were likely to face “enforcement action” for violating consumer law.

The CMA previewed the results of its findings last November, and said Thursday that three online operators – William Hill, Ladbrokes and Playtech offshoot PT Entertainment’s TitanBet and Winner sites – had “formally committed to change the way they offer bonus promotions to ensure players can always access and release their own money.”

Macau casinos are off to a good start this year as gross gaming revenue (GGR) climbed 36.4 percent in January, with both the VIP and the mass market remaining vibrant.

Figures provided by Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) showed that Macau’s casino GGR climbed to MOP26.26 billion (US$3.26 billion) in January compared with the MOP19.3 billion ($2.4 billion) it posted in the same month last year.

The sum well above financial analysts’ expectation of between 25 and 30 percent year-on-year.

“We estimate VIP GGR was up 50 percent year-on-year (versus 22 percent year-on-year in fourth quarter) and mass GGR was +22 percent to 24 percent year-on-year (versus +17 percent year-on-year in fourth quarter), both of which showed big accelerations from recent trends and beat recent expectations, partly helped by easy comps (given Chinese New Year calendar shift) and VIP luck,” international brokerage JP Morgan Securities said in a Thursday note.

A lawmaker in the Philippines has started digging into the alleged attempt of the country’s “No.1 gambler” to bribe chief of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

On Tuesday, PCSO General Manager Alexander Balutan said government gambling consultant Charlie “Atong” Ang dangled a monthly bribe of PHP200 million ($3.87 million) in September 2016 in exchange for the full control of the country’s Small Town Lottery operations.

To shed light on his claim, The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that Senator Panfilo Lacson has summoned Balutan to the next legislative hearing on STL operations.

Lacson pointed out that Balutan first mentioned the PHP200 million (US$3.87 million) as an estimated government earning if it took over the STL operations nationwide and not as a bribe during the January 24 hearing.