Kenyan’s parliament has rejected plans to offer local gambling operators a break from their recent tax hike, potentially dealing another blow to local sports sponsorships.

On Thursday, Business Daily reported that the National Assembly committee on Labor and Social Welfare had withdrawn proposed amendments in legislation seeking to amend to the recently revised Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act.

The Act was changed last summer to impose a uniform 35% tax on all gambling revenue, resulting in drastic increases in taxation on Kenyan betting operators, who previously paid a tax rate of just 7.5%. The changes took effect on January 1.

Betting operators like SportPesa, who claimed the tax hike made their local operations unviable, continued to dialogue with the government in the hope of achieving some compromise. This approach appeared to be working when National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale proposed reducing the uniform tax rate to 15%, while simultaneously introducing a 20% tax on gamblers’ winnings to offset the hit to the government’s coffers.

Nevada gaming operator Station Casinos has unveiled a new marketing campaign to pimp its $620m renovation of the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

On Thursday, the Palms announced its new ‘From Dust to Gold’ marketing campaign, reflecting the property’s “vision of ushering in a new era of Las Vegas by destroying the old.” The Palms’ new raison d’être is “to destroy is to progress,” a belief sure to come as news to anyone who’s ever written off their car in a fender bender.

Station acquired the Palms in 2016 for $312m and the property has been a solid earner for Station’s parent company, Red Rock Resorts. But the Palms, which opened in 2001, had been showing its age, prompting its new owners to embark on the largest refurbishment project any Vegas casino has ever undergone.

The “multi-phased reimagination” of the Palms includes Thursday’s opening of a new bar, steakhouse, social club, cocktail lounge and redesigns of the Pearl concert theater and the Palms’ gaming floor, with a new VIP gaming lounge. A new 29k-square-foot nightclub and a 73k-square-foot pool club are set to follow next spring.

European sports betting technology provider Kambi has inked its first US-facing deal with online gambling tech outfit Rush Street Interactive (RSI).

On Thursday, Kambi (which was spun off from Nordic online gambling operator Unibet a few years ago) announced a “multi-year” sportsbook technology deal with RSI (the online arm of brick-and-mortar casino operator Rush Street Gaming).

The deal calls for Kambi to integrate its sportsbook tech into RSI’s proprietary platform and will cover both online and retail services in the US and internationally, should RSI choose to set its sights beyond US shores at some future date. (RSI currently operates the New Jersey-licensed PlaySugarHouse online gambling site.)

Rush Street Gaming operates four land-based casinos, including the SugarHouse in Pennsylvania, which authorized legal sports wagering as part of the sweeping gambling expansion legislation approved last year.

Italy’s new coalition government appears set to do some major damage to the local gambling industry, according to their new policy framework.

On Tuesday, the latest draft of the ‘government of change’ coalition agreement between the Five Star Movement (M5S) and League parties – which won the most votes in the March general election – was leaked to Italian media.

While some of the original leaked draft’s anti-European Union proposals have been watered down in the latest draft, the two paragraphs relating to the gaming industry remain intact and spell trouble for local operators.

The previous Italian government had imposed a 35% reduction in the number of amusement with prizes (AWP) machines and video lottery terminals (VLT) in Italian retail shops, but the coalition agreement talks of “the elimination of gambling machines (slot machines, video lottery terminals) and strong limitations on forms of gambling with repeated bets.”

The US body overseeing college athletics has flip-flopped on its policy of not holding championship games in states that permit legal sports betting.

On Thursday, the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) issued a statement saying that, in response to the US Supreme Court striking down the federal sports betting prohibition, the NCAA’s board of directors had decided to “temporarily” suspend its “championship host policy related to sports wagering.”

The NCAA had previously used its championship host policy as a cudgel with which to threaten states like New Jersey into abandoning their pursuit of legal wagering. The NCAA argued at the time that the threat was justified in order to defend “the integrity of sports and student-athlete well-being” from the alleged scourge of legal wagering.

But that was then, this is now. The NCAA now claims that it supports “a federal model addressing legalized gambling.” NCAA president Mark Emmert acknowledged “the critical role of state governments” in the whole democracy thing, but “strong federal standards are necessary to safeguard the integrity of college sports and the athletes who play these games at all levels.”