Eastern European gaming operator Olympic Entertainment Group (OEG) reported a modest bump in Q1 revenue despite a shrinking retail footprint.

Figures released Thursday by the Estonia-based OEG show revenue in the three months ending March 31 rising 1.8% year-on-year to €52.4m, while earnings improved 11% to €10.9m and net profit gained nearly one-third to €7.4m.

The gains came despite OEG’s total number of casinos falling to 115 from 120 at the end of Q1 2017 and betting points falling by six to 25. OEG currently operates in six European markets and also operates online using its Malta-licensed OlyBet brand, which recently announced plans to establish an Italian-licensed site to complement its land-based operations in The Boot.

Latvia remains OEG’s core market, although local revenue declined 1.5% to €16.3m in Q1. This market will likely face further declines in future, as Latvian authorities have taken an increasingly hostile approach to some of OEG’s casinos in the capital Riga.

Gaming regulators in the Australian state of New South Wales have launched a probe into Tatts Group’s campaign against online lottery betting operator Lottoland.

On Thursday, the Australian reported that Liquor & Gaming NSW had sent Lottoland a letter indicating that it was conducting an initial assessment of the company’s complaint that rival Tatts may have violated its licensing obligations by engaging in a A$5m “misinformation” campaign designed to turn the public, government and lottery newsagents against Lottoland.

Last September, Tatts teamed with the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association (ALNA) on a Lottoland’s Gotta Go campaign intended to combat “fake lotto betting.” Lottoland doesn’t actually operate a lottery but instead offers players the opportunity to wager on lottery results, including international lotteries unavailable to Aussie players.

The campaign led Lottoland’s regulator, the Northern Territory Racing Commission, to prohibit the company from offering wagers on domestic lotteries. The federal government subsequently introduced legislation to ban betting on lottery or keno results, a scenario Lottoland has vowed to challenge in court.

Police in China’s southern Guangdong province have broken up yet another major online gambling ring.

On Thursday, the state-run Xinhua media outlet announced that the Shenzhen public security bureau had rumbled an illegal gambling operation in a series of raids in the cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Jieyang. The raids occurred on March 20, but the details are only now coming to light.

Over 150 suspects, including the five alleged ringleaders, were detained in the raids, after the public security bureau of Jieyang City launched an investigation in February. Police also seized computers, bank cards and other gambling paraphernalia.

Police claimed the ring had nearly 2k agents and promoters responsible for collecting cash from and paying out winnings to the ring’s roughly 50k registered punters. The ring reportedly operated numerous gambling sites and generated estimated profits of over RMB400m (US$62.7m) before police kicked in the doors.

Stockholm-listed online gambling operator Cherry AB says its CEO will remain under detention as the authorities proceed with an insider trading case.

On Wednesday, Cherry announced that its CEO Anders Holmgren had been detained by officials from Sweden’s Economic Crime Authority (EBM) on suspicion of ‘severe’ insider trading of Cherry stock ahead of an unexpectedly positive earnings report.

On Thursday, Cherry confirmed that a hearing at Stockholm District Court had resulted in a detention order against Holmgren (pictured), based on the court concluding there were reasonable grounds for the validity of the EBM’s allegations.

If found guilty of the charges, Holmgren could face a prison sentence of between six months and six years. Gunnar Lind, chairman of Cherry’s audit committee, has been named acting CEO of the company until further notice.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy is moving heaven and earth to bring the lucrative sports betting market to the Nutmeg State.

The Hartford Courant reported that Malloy has reached out to the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes in an attempt to resolve the thorny issue over who has the right to offer sports gambling in Connecticut. Lawmakers and tribal gambling operators have locked horns over whether the tribes have an exclusive right to betting under the tribes’ current agreement with the state.

Though they were in favor of having sports wagering in the state, the two tribes insisted that wagering on sports was a commercial casino game that fell within the exclusivity provisions of their tribal-state gaming compact.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, contended that the tribes couldn’t claim control over sports betting using the agreement since betting was never contemplated when the compact was signed.

Net profit of Australia-listed poker machine manufacturer Aristocrat Leisure Ltd.  grew 2.8 percent in the first half of its fiscal year, fueled by more than three-fold growth in its digital segment.

Aristocrat reported to the Australian Stock Exchange on Thursday that its net profit after tax for the six months to March 31, 2018, stood at AUD256.5 million (US$193.94 million), higher than the AUD249.6 million (US$187.4 million) it posted during the same period last year.

On the other hand, Aristocrat’s half year revenue grew 28.5 percent to nearly AUD1.58 billion (US$1.19 billion) compared with AUD1.23 billion (US$928.46 million) a year earlier. Shares of Aristocrat jumped to more than 8 percent or AUD2.23 (US$1.68) before the bourse closed for the day.

Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose 28.9 percent to AUD642.9 million (US$485.29 million) in the six months to March 31, 2016 from AUD498.9 million (US$376.59 million) in the same period last year.

Australian MP Andrew Wilkie may have found the final nail that will seal the coffin of Crown Resorts Ltd. after a video on supposed ‘Crown pick’ enabling autoplay on poker machines has surfaced on video sharing website YouTube.

Wilkie, who is already in touch with the YouTube whistleblower, believes that the latest piece of evidence on poker tampering will compel Victoria’s gambling regulators to impose a greater penalty against the casino operator, the ABC News reported.

He also presented before the local reporters a plastic pick that was double the size of a guitar plectrum and has a Crown casino logo, claiming that it was used to tamper on the poker machines.

“[We have] a new whistleblower, new allegations, and even video footage of these picks being used at Crown Casino to, in effect, illegally modify a poker machine,” Wilkie said, according to the news outlet.

The year has been kind—so far—to Japanese pachinko hall operator Dynam. In an environment that has seen pachinko slide in recent years, Dynam reported revenue gains before taxes of 13.3% in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018, when compared to the prior year period. Dynam controls about 5% of all the pachinko parlors in the country.

, JapajnDynam operated around 450 pachinko halls through the end of March. In a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the company reported that overall revenue in fiscal year 2017 reached $1.37 billion and profits before taxes topped $152.7 million.

Despite a steady decline of pachinko in Japan, Dynam maintains profitability by running its halls at a lower cost than other competitors. In its filing, it said, “By reaping the benefits of the economies of scale through multiple-hall development when purchasing game machines and general prizes, the group has positioned itself in a strong, advantageous position to develop the pachinko hall operation business.”

Part of the strategy includes the standardization of the types of halls and a focus on additional halls only in regional areas with smaller populations. Dynam didn’t detail how it would overcome the rapidly shrinking interest in the once-ruling game in the country.