Italy’s regulated online gambling market posted a new online casino revenue record in March, while sports betting revenue shot up over four-fifths.

According to figures compiled by Italian gaming industry news outlet Agimeg, online sports betting revenue topped €51.3m in March, a year-on-year gain of 82.4%, despite online betting turnover rising a comparatively tiny 12.4% to €546.2m. Retail betting revenue totaled €59.8m on turnover of €385.4m.

As ever, UK-listed operator Bet365 captured the lion’s share of both revenue (16.3%) and turnover (29.1%), with SKS365’s Planetwin365 in second place, GVC Holdings’ Eurobet brand coming third, with Snaitech and Sisal rounding out the top-five.

The online casino vertical had a banner month, with overall revenue rising 27% year-on-year to €60.6m, a new market record, exceeding the €59.7m recorded in January 2018. Topping the online casino earnings was The Stars Group’s flagship PokerStars brand, which scored a 9.3% share, relegating local lads Lottomatica to second with 8.8%, while the rest of the top-five played out as follows: Sisal (8.3%), Eurobet (6.2%) and 888 Holdings (5.5%).

Malaysia-listed conglomerate Genting BHD is building its financial war chest in anticipation of a bidding war for Japan’s casino licenses.

In its 2017 annual report, Genting BHD expressed optimism that the long-awaited Japan Integrated Resorts (IR) Implementation Bill will be approved in this year’s Diet session. This reason alone has prompted Genting to “diligently” prepare for the much-coveted gaming licenses in Japan, according to the company.

“Many global gaming operators have pronounced their very keen interest to bid, and Genting Singapore will be facing fierce competition for the limited number of licenses,” Genting said in a filing before the Bursa Malaysia on Monday.

Genting’s annual report showed that its Genting Singapore subsidiary raised a total principal amount of JPY20 billion (US$177 million) in October 2017 via publicly-offered Samurai bonds.

The island of Cebu is quickly becoming the next destination—after Manila—for online gambling operators in the Philippines after Manila.

Cebu Daily News reported that the online gambling operators’ demand for Cebu office spaces significantly grew 25,700 square meters, accounting for a quarter of recorded transactions last year.

Data provided by property consultancy firm Colliers International Philippines shows that there are at least two internationally licensed gambling operators in Cebu.

One of the firms occupy a 22,000-square meter space at the Tower 1 Plaza Magellan in Mactan Newtown in Lapu-Lapu City, while the other opened nearly 3,700 square meters of office space at Momentum Building in the Cebu Business Park in Cebu City.

The allure of glitzy pachinko parlors dotting the streets of Japan continues to fade as the country prepares for the entry of integrated resorts.

At least 420 pachinko halls were shuttered in 2017, as Japanese residents became more exposed to an expanding number of entertainment options, according to a Japan Today report.

Data from the Tokyo-based Yano Research Institute showed that at the moment, only 10,258 pachinko halls remained in operation. This meant that one in 25 pachinko halls closed shop in 2015, according to Yano Research analysts.

In 2017, at least 177 pachinko operators were out of business, the study showed.

The newest cryptocurrency online poker room on the block, Cryptonia Poker, has gone old school with the signing of Scotty Nguyen to act as brand ambassador as the company prepares to launch s pre-Initial Coin Offering.

CoinPoker and Virtue Poker have company.

A new kid is on the block{chain} and his name is Cryptonia Poker.

Founded by the Indian pairing of Lakshay Anand and Vivek Jain, Cryptonia Poker is preparing for a pre-Initial Coin Offering (ICO) followed by a two phase ICO.

The brand images of the Heartland Poker Tour and Westgate Las Vegas took a scuffing after someone decided to offer players a 50% discount on seats when it appeared an overlay was forthcoming angering players who paid full whack.

Money.

It makes people do the strangest things.

I’ve been fortunate enough to work for a variety of live tournament operators throughout the years, and I can say with some authority that when it comes to ‘guarantee squeaky bum time’ typically sane, respectable people act like monkeys watching a bonfire of bananas.