According to David Bonnet, managing partner for Delta State Holdings, it’s possible that all the strutting and politicking may not help foreign operators too much when casino licenses are finally issued in Japan, Asia Gaming Brief reported. Bonnet feels that the best-case scenario for non-domestic operators is that they will be relegated to nothing more than minority partner status if they’re accepted at all.

During a press conference in Tokyo, Bonnet stated, “How the consortium looks to me is that it’s primarily a Japanese-led enterprise. We know the Japanese government has a preference for public-private partnerships, or working with established Japanese companies.”

He further opined that many Japanese companies have been remaining in the background simply because the government has yet to finalize its decision. He anticipates things to turn around after integrated resorts (IR) are approved and says that there will be “…departments becoming formed, part of their real estate departments, and you can say that a lot of companies will start looking at the IR business much more holistically.”

Bonnett also expects non-gaming operations in an IR to be a major factor that determines who wins the bidding wars. He explained, “The winner will be the group that promises to build the biggest Integrated Resort with the smallest casino.”

It is seen as a trial run for casino license renewals. Bus concessions in Macau are currently going through the renewal process and it has been anything but quick and easy. There have been numerous extensions, delays and a gross lack of transparency. International brokerage Union Gaming (UG) has been watching the process, and anticipates the same to occur once casino licenses come up for renewal, adding that there won’t be any clarity on the matter for at least several more years.

All bus licenses in the city state expired as of July 31. This followed several extensions offered after the original concessions were issued to two operators in 2008. A third operator was added in 2009, and now all three are trying to negotiate with the government for renewals with less than two weeks remaining until the deadline. The bus companies were being forced to rebid on their licenses, instead of simply seeking a renewal.

In a similar fashion, UG anticipates licenses held by casino operators SJM and MGM to be extended through May 2022. No changes in how the concessions are managed are expected until Macau sees an administration turnover in January 2020. Following the turnover, there could be a study by the new administration on the licensing process, which potentially could last several years. This would more than likely result in all six license concessions being granted extensions until some point past 2022.

The potential for the study was exacerbated by lobbying efforts currently being led for the introduction of a seventh, and possibly eighth, license being offered. According to UG, the efforts could result in the process “dragging on until the middle of the next decade,” giving current Macau casino licensees a little breathing room and pushing out the concession risk further. UG puts the odds of the additional concessions being granted at 50/50.

Philippine-listed game technology provider PhilWeb Corp. swapped some of its company shares for an eGames café located north of Manila worth PHP3 million (US$56,122).

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday, PhilWeb announced that it has acquired an eGames parlor in Bulacan, owned by Lucky Winner Bingo and Gaming Corp. The acquisition had been made through its subsidiary, BigGame Inc.

PhilWeb paid Lucky Winner Bingo with 552,050 common shares worth PHP5.44 (US$0.10) each.

The Manila-based firm has been playing catch-up with its local competitors after the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) granted itsrequest to resume operations in the fourth quarter of 2017.

The post originally appears on http://www.gamblingandthelaw.com/ and we republished with permission.

President Donald Trump has escalated his trade war with China. Last week he announced that he intends to slap tariffs on another $200 billion of imports from China. Stock markets around the world fell dramatically, as did the value of China’s currency, the yuan.

China responded, as it always does, with retaliatory tariffs on American produce and products. The People’s Republic of China understands that the fight is political, not economic. So the PRC is micro-targeting which US companies and regions will be hurt.

For example, the PRC imposed a 25% tariff on soybean imports from the U.S. China used to buy 40% of the total U.S. crop; and 60% of the soybeans grown in Iowa. Just the announcement of the tariff knocked down the price of soybeans by 20%, devastating American famers and costing the state of Iowa nearly a billion dollars.

Melco International Development’s new Cyprus casino claims attendance is on the rise since the property opened three weeks ago.

On Wednesday, the Cyprus Mail quoted Craig Ballantyne, Melco’s top man in Cyprus, saying the new Cyprus Casinos (C2) ‘pop up’ venue had welcomed 34k guests since its June 28 opening. Ballantyne claimed that the figure had “exceeded our expectations and we are very gratified with the response from our guests.”

That’s a far different reaction than Ballantyne offered earlier this month, when he said the 7k unique visitors over the property’s opening weekend was “below expectations.” This week, Ballantyne said attendance was “accelerating,” driven by “strong, positive word of mouth and self-discovery by the market.”

C2 is the temporary venue Melco was allowed to open while its primary City of Dreams Mediterranean integrated resort – scheduled to open in 2021 – is being built in the Limassol area.

The Spartan Poker wrapped up its latest Millionaire tournament as this past Sunday. The event is part of the portal’s India Online Poker Championship (IOPC) and resulted in a huge success, awarding several impressive cash prizes. This year’s IOPC began on July 13 and runs until July 22, offering more than 55 tournaments.

With a buy-in of just 7,700 rupees (around US$112), there was plenty of participation for a chance at winning a piece of the 1 crore (about US$146,048) prize pool. By the time things wound down, Nikhil Ramesh was the last player standing out of the original 1,298 and pocketed 25 lakhs (US$36,513). The win came only a few days after winning another event of the series and is only the second person to win two IOPC titles this year. He beat out Hemanth Motepalli in the final heads-up action to take the win, with Motepalli receiving 15 lakhs (US$21,904) for his runner-up finish.

After claiming the victory, Ramesh said, “The journey was tremendously tiring but very rewarding. I ran good, stuck to the charts, tried not to flip often and played good poker. I had a decent chip stack going into the final 4 and figured I could easily win from there. I was so wrong about this and had to play for the next 2-3 hours to finally ship it. I didn’t have high hopes and just concentrated on my game.”

The Spartan Poker co-founder Amin Rozani commented on the tournament series, saying, “As the leading platform in the country with one of the highest number of registered users, we are glad when our players win big and feel rewarded. The India Online Poker Championship’s special edition Millionaire tournament is the highest prize-pool activity among our offerings, and seeing such a high participation is always encouraging for us. We are glad to offer our players more such opportunities to become Millionaires overnight.”

Ludovic Geilich has joined the ever-expanding brand ambassador team at partypoker vowing to put some oomph in the Pot Limit Omaha side of the business.

I don’t know what took them so long.

They had the Three Lions sorted with the #1 UK all-time live money earner, Sam Trickett, on the books. The green, green, grass of home was also taken care of thanks to the Welsh #1 all-time live money earner, Roberto Romanello, and they drafted in Padraig Parkinson to take care of the Emerald Isle.

But what about Scotland?

Italy’s gambling advertising ban has already had an effect on Google search results, achieving the exact opposite of the government’s stated goals.

On Monday, search engine giant Google updated its policy page in accordance with Italy’s so-called Dignity Decree and its prohibition on nearly all forms of gambling advertising and sponsorships. Google’s notice reminded operators that, as of July 16, “only state lotteries with deferred drawing will be allowed to run gambling advertisements in Italy.”

While the Decree’s full effects won’t take effect until January 1, 2019, Italian gaming news agency Agimeg reported that Google’s notice has already resulted in Italian-licensed operators dropping down local search results, while international operators that serve the market without a local license have risen to the top.

Some operators, such as Stanleybet CEO Giovanni Garrisi, believe the Decree will be “changed at the parliamentary level.” And indeed, this week saw the Senate and Chamber of Deputies Studies Service submit a report suggested that the Decree’s absolute prohibition “does not appear compatible” with existing legislation upholding the legality of most gambling advertising.

Justin Bonomo wins the Big One for One Drop for $10m, taking his 2018 earnings to the $25m mark, and replacing Daniel Negreanu as the All-Time Live Tournament Money Earner with close to $43m locked up in a vault somewhere.

At the end of 2017, when us writers are struggling to find something to write about, I wrote one of those ‘predictions’ articles that end up in Google Ghost Town.

I predicted that Daniel Negreanu would not be sitting at the top of the All-Time Live Tournament Money Earned list. In his stead would be Erik Seidel. The theory was simple and yet stable. Seidel was a high stakes regular. Negreanu, not so much.

I got part of that prediction right.

Live dealer online casino providers Evolution Gaming went from strength to strength in Q2, with revenue, earnings and profit all rising more than one-third.

Figures released Wednesday show the Stockholm-listed Evolution generated revenue of €59.3m in the three months ending June 30, a 40% improvement over the same period last year. Earnings were up 36% to €26.2m while profit jumped 37% to €20.1m.

Evolution credited the gains to the company’s voracious expansion, which has seen the revenue contribution from the ‘rest of world’ geographic category grow from 14% in Q217 to 25% in the most recent quarter.

This international growth was spurred in part by February’s launch of Evolution’s live casino studio in British Columbia, the company’s first outside Europe, in partnership with the British Columbia Lottery Corporation. International expansion is set to continue in Q3, when the company expects to launch its new studio in New Jersey.