Phil Galfond, an online poker legend who used to crush the high-stakes PLO cash games on Full Tilt, is months away from launching his own poker site. The poker pro […]
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A colt by Shakin It Up breezed a quarter-mile in :21 3/5 and colts by Flatter and Mark Valeski worked an eighth-mile in :09 4/5 during the April 20 under tack show session for the Ocala Breeders’ Sales spring 2-year-olds in training sale.
Calumet Farm’s graded stakes winner Bravazo breezed six furlongs in 1:15 2/5 April 20 at Churchill Downs in preparation for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) May 5.
Multiple graded stakes-placed, black-type winner Cat Burglar has been retired sound from racing and will enter stud for the 2018 season at Barton Thoroughbreds in Santa Ynez, Calif., for $2,500.
This year Take Charge Indy and Poseidon’s Warrior have sons that will try to pull a Kentucky Derby (G1) hat trick for second-crop sires.
Three-year-olds will command national attention as the Triple Crown series unfolds in the coming weeks, but older stakes horses will be spotlighted in three grade 2 stakes races April 21.
A fatal incident at Santa Anita Park that also resulted in the injury of an exercise rider shut down training for more than three hours April 20.
Entourage Stable’s Pink Lloyd swept a trio of awards April 19 at The Jockey Club of Canada’s 43rd annual Sovereign Awards ceremony, topped by a Horse of the Year trophy.
Season XVI of the World Poker Tour is almost in the books, but all the action—27 episodes from nine different tournaments – was recorded and will be televised when the […]
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They say the captain always goes down with the ship.
Case in point is MP Branko Zorman, who decided to quit the ruling Modern Centre Party (SMC) after the Slovenian parliament suddenly decided to veto his motion to liberalize the country’s sports betting market.
On Thursday, The Slovenian Press Agency reported that Zorman’s sports betting liberalization bill saw a double whammy: it not only failed to pass in the Senate, but the National Assembly also sent it to the gutters in a re-vote.
Everyone thought that Slovenia has moved closer to online sports betting liberalization after the National Assembly made a surprise vote in March to allow European Economic Community-based operators to apply for online sports betting licenses.
Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich announced Thursday that he intends to retire in late 2018 or early 2019. Rich has led the Iowa Lottery since February 2009 and is just the second person to serve as its CEO since the lottery’s start in 1985.Administration, Iowa, Announcement, Retire, Director
Expert Eye heads a field of eight 3-year-olds for the £60,000 Al Basti Equiworld Supporting Greatwood Greenham Stakes (G3) at seven furlongs April 21 at Newbury.
Net Gaming has signed a letter of intent to acquire affiliate assets, primarily in the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland)
STOCKHOLM, April 20, 2018 – The operations show strong growth and are currently expected to generate quarterly sales of approximately EUR 200,000, with an operating margin of approximately 75%. About 75% of the revenues are generated via revenue sharing.
“I am very pleased that we have the opportunity to strengthen our position in the DACH region. This is an exciting market which we consider to have good growth opportunities ahead. In addition, completion of this transaction will give us further opportunities to grow our existing operations in the region, and expand these assets to other markets,” comments Marcus Teilman, CEO of Net Gaming.
The acquisition of the operations is expected to take place after completion of a due diligence process. The initial purchase consideration of EUR 2.29 million will be settled with existing cash resources. Payment of a maximum additional consideration of EUR 1.25 million may also be required. The additional consideration is based on the outcome of the acquired assets’ EBITA for the 12 months following completion of the transaction. For the full additional consideration of EUR 1.25 million to apply, the outcome of the acquired assets’ EBITA is required to be at least EUR 1.0 million over the next 12 months.
At least 80 online gambling operators are in the running to secure a license from Italy’s gambling regulator Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM).
Local gambling news website Agimeg reported that 80 online gambling firms managed to pass the initial scrutiny of ADM when it opened all applications on Thursday. The Italian regulator noted that all of the license applications, which will be valid through December 31, 2022, have complied with their requirements.
The applicants, some of whom were applying for multiple licenses, were required to shell out €200,000 ($246,097) for a one-off application fee. Among the online gambling firms that applied for a license in Italy are include bet365, PokerStars, Luckia, Videoslots, and Lottomatica. Land-based casino operators in Italy also applied for online gambling licenses.
From the initial step, ADM was already able to collect a total of €16 million ($19.69 million).
In the ever changing gaming landscape, Singaporean Second Minister for Manpower and Home Affairs Josephine Teo says it pays to be smarter than the gambling operators.
Teo is pushing for a greater consolidation of casino regulatory functions amid the growing complexities of the country’s gambling industry, according to The Business Times report.
The Singaporean minister noted that the country has different regulations and agencies for casinos, remote gambling, and private club-operated slot machines instead of having a unified law and governing body to address these three segments.
At present, the country plays host to two casino properties: Genting Singapore Plc.’s Resorts World Sentosa and Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s Marina Bay Sands.
After some minor foot issues delayed the start of his season, Agave Racing Stable and Jeffry Wilke’s grade 1 winner Ransom the Moon will get back on the track in a familiar spot April 21 at Santa Anita Park.
Lynda Sasscer Hill has been named winner of the 12th Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award for her mystery novel Flamingo Road.
Sun Dreams SA, born out of a partnership between South African casino company Sun International and Chile’s Dreams SA, is now officially the proud owner of four casinos in Peru. Thunderbird Resorts Incorporated handed over the keys in a deal that was first announced last October, G3Newsire reported. While certainly not the most expensive casino deal ever recorded, not many would balk at the chance to pick up $26 million in cash, which Thunderbird received for the sale.
The four casinos include the Luxor Casino Lima, Fiesta Hotel and Casino Lima, Mystic Slots Cusco and Luxor Casino Tacna. The deal was initially expected to be finalized in January, but was delayed over regulatory hurdles and “transactional conditions.” In a statement provided to the Chilean Financial Markets committee, Sun Dreams’ General Manager Jaime Wilhelm said, “The purchase is part of Sun Dreams SA’s international expansion plans and is expected to have a positive impact on the company’s results, due to the incorporation of assets that generated revenues in the last 12 months of approximately US$19.6 million and the extension of the average duration of the company’s gaming licenses as a result of a regulatory framework that delivers continuously renewable gaming licenses.”
Thunderbird was founded as International Thunderbird Gaming Corporation in 1994, and started by providing equipment and expertise to the Native American casino markets. It opened its first casino in Guatemala City, Guatemala, in 1997 and followed that up the following with a 20-year contract to operate four casinos in Panama. Over the years, it expanded to other Central and South America countries and subsequently changed its name in 2005 to Thunderbird Resorts.
Thunderbird isn’t exiting the gambling business completely. It still operates other casinos in various Latin American countries, as well as a mixed-use, 19-story tower in Lima, Peru. That building houses a hotel with 66 suites, 58,125 square feet of leasable office space and 158 underground parking spaces. Thunderbird plans on releasing its 2017 Annual Report by the end of this month, in which it will detail what it plans for its remaining assets. It is traded on the Euronext Amsterdam under the trading symbol TBIRD.
For poker players in three states, May 1 can’t come fast enough. That’s the day that player sharing liquidity will be launched between New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware, giving players in all three states the ability to meet up at the virtual tables in cash games and tournaments. It’s been a long time coming, too, as Nevada and New Jersey signed their agreement in 2016. The one poker site that will immediately benefit from the poker liquidity sharing will be the WSOP, since it’s the only site authorized to offer games in all three states.
Once the switch is flipped on May 1, WSOP traffic will more than triple. One online poker analyst predicts that traffic will jump to “unprecedented levels.” Bill Rini, WSOP’s head of online poker, told Card Player that the site is approaching “unchartered territory,” and added “it has long been a goal of ours to bring the excitement seen in the Nevada market during the WSOP to everywhere online poker is legal and regulated in the U.S.”
All players sitting down at the virtual felt will see benefits. There will be greater stakes and a wider variety of formats for cash games, and it’s very likely that the community will see the first-ever $2-million online tournament in the U.S. before the end of the year.
Things are just getting warmed up. Once the games begin in May, many expect to see a snowball effect. Pennsylvania is poised to get in on the action soon as lawmakers are pushing legislation that would allow online poker in the state. With a little bit of luck, Pennsylvanians will be joining in before the end of the year. If they do, it’s possible that as many as 26 million players could be back in virtual poker rooms, returning to the numbers seen before Black Friday.
It seems like only yesterday that I was discussing the multibillion-dollar industry of in-game gambling in video games. Where video game developers and related companies are pulling down around $30 billion a year, that number is set to increase to around $50 billion within four years. It’s an amazing amount of money generated from something simple as a virtual hammer or an eye patch. This is probably why the industry is being dissected by lawmakers in several countries, with the Netherlands now raising an eyebrow at four video games in particular.
The Dutch Gambling Authority (DGA) reviewed 10 video games that contain loot boxes, and determined that four were in possible violation of gambling laws. The games were chosen for their popularity on an unidentified platform “that streams videos of games and players.” More than likely, that platform is Twitch, used by about 2 million gamers daily. The names of the four were not released, since the DGA admitted that it hasn’t yet determined which laws were broken, but ordered them to change the games within eight weeks or they would be looking at fines of up to €820,000 (just over $1 million).
Officials surmised that, since there is a gambling component to the loot boxes, the games could result in gambling addiction and, therefore, the developers are required to be treated as casinos, which require a license to operate. The DGA began looking into the video games after a rapid increase in popularity over the past several months.
The loot box itself doesn’t break Dutch laws. However, Marja Appelman, director of the DGA, told Dutch newspaper Volkskrant, “… if the items in such a loot box can be traded outside the game, we speak of a gambling game for which you need a permit in the Netherlands and have to take measures to protect consumers against themselves.”