Pennsylvania casinos set a new all-time revenue record in their most recent fiscal year, thanks to a new record table game performance.

On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) announced that the state’s 12 licensed casinos generated table game revenue of $895.3m in the 12 months ending June 30, a new all-time best and nearly $30m more than fiscal 2017’s total.

Combined with the previously released FY18 slot machine revenue of $2.35b – which fell just short of FY16’s record $2.39b haul – the combined gaming revenue tally hit just under $3.25b, a 1.4% rise over FY17’s total and a new record for the state. The state’s previous high-water mark was $3.23b set in FY16.

As usual, Sands Bethlehem led the state’s table revenue chart with $235.7m in FY18, although this was essentially flat year-on-year. Parx Casino, the state’s perennial slots revenue leader, enjoyed far stronger table growth, rising 9.3% to $185.9m. Parx’s combined slots and tables total hit $586.6m, easily outpacing Sands’ $537.7m.

A Dutch cabinet member has poured cold water on plans to prohibit naughty international online gambling operators from applying for Dutch online licenses.

On July 13, Sander Dekker, the Netherlands’ Minister for Justice and Security, issued a formal response to the Dutch Senate’s second round of questions regarding the country’s Remote Gaming Bill. The bill, which was approved by parliament’s lower house in 2016, recently resurfaced in the Senate after a long period of inaction.

Dekker’s reply notes that the primary objective of the Bill is the ‘channelization’ of Dutch punters from their current patronage of internationally licensed gambling sites to sites holding new Dutch licenses. Only with an acceptable level of channelization can the government achieve its wider aims of consumer protection, minimizing gambling addiction and combating gambling-related crime.

Dekker (pictured) further notes that some Dutch pols believe that, once the Kansspelautoreit (KSA) gaming regulatory body issues its new licenses, Dutch punters will automatically switch to the approved operators. As such, these pols see no reason why international operators that have been previously sanctioned by the KSA should be eligible for a Dutch license.

China’s 2018 FIFA World Cup sports lottery sales demolished previous records, despite fierce competition from unauthorized online gambling sites.

According to the Chinese government’s official sports lottery website, total sales throughout the World Cup hit RMB46.34b (US$6.9b), nearly quadruple the sum generated during the 2014 tournament. The result came in slightly below early estimates of a RMB50b tally, but it’s a staggering achievement, all the same.

The government said that payouts to sports lottery players totaled RMB33.8b, leaving the government with gross revenue of RMB8.34b ($1.24b) from the month-long tournament in Russia, funds that will go toward social welfare programs.

On July 15th, the date of the final match between France and Croatia, sports lottery sales hit a record high of RMB2.74b, while the highest single-day sales total in the 2014 tourney was a comparatively puny RMB874m. Average daily sales over the 2018 event were RMB1.4b, roughly what the sports lottery was earning per week prior to the event kicking off in June.

U.S. President Donald Trump is back on every punter’s radar following his Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Irish bookmaker Paddy Power.

Yahoo News UK reported that Paddy Power noted a sudden change in the odds of Trump being kicked out of the White House after he refused to denounce Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections at a joint press conference with Putin.

From 8/1, the Irish bookmaker said that Trump became a favorite for impeachment with 2/1 odds. More punters believe that it is likely for President Trump to get the boot this year with odds going from 12/1 to 2/1.

“After the carnage of the last few days, we’ve seen plenty of punters Putin money on Trump’s impeachment again—although I’m sure they’ll soon get a message, in Russian, urging them to stop,” a Paddy Power spokesman told the news outlet.

If state-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) can afford to buy 18-karat gold memento rings for its loyal employees, surely it can also pay the PHP21 billion ($393 million) it owes the government?

This was the question raised by Philippine Commission on Audit (COA) as it demanded the state gaming regulator to pay billions of pesos it owed the government, according to The Philippine Star.

In its latest report, COA claimed that PAGCOR erred in computing the amount of money it remitted to the government for the past seven years. Under the Philippine law, the national government received 50 percent of the state gaming firm’s “aggregate gross earnings.” That money would, in turn, be allocated for the government’s infrastructure and socio-civic projects.

However, the state auditors found that PAGCOR based its computations on the state regulator’s gaming operation earnings and not on the entire income of the state-run corporation. The computation errors that PAGCOR made from 2011 to 2017 denied the government billions of funds, according to COA.

The French national football team wasn’t the only winner in the recently concluded World Cup 2018 in Russia.

On Wednesday, UK-listed gambling firm GVC Holdings PLC announced that its net gaming revenue for the first six months of 2018 jumped 8 percent on a constant currency basis, thanks to a vibrant World Cup 2018 betting.

The fair weather during the first half of the year also played a role in the company’s positive net gaming revenue growth story, according to GVC.

Data showed that GVC’s online business saw the fastest growth, up 20 percent on a constant currency basis during the six-month period. A pipeline of new products and high-profile marketing campaigns also continued to be a boon for GVC’s online brand.

Gaming device maker Aruze Gaming America Inc. will test the waters of the casino chip market with a little help from radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.

On Tuesday, Aruze announced it has inked a licensing deal with casino game automation company Walker Digital Table Systems LLC (WDTS) in June, allowing the game device maker to use the latter’s phase jitter modulation 3.0 (PJM3.0) RFID chip technology.

Las Vegas-based WDTS provides automation for live-dealt casino games for game security, accuracy and efficiency, while delivering the player’s preferred live gaming experience. In 2015, the company licensed its RFID tag technology to casino currency and table layout company Matsui Gaming Machine Co Ltd.

Aruze has touted PJM3.0 to be “the fastest, most secure, and most reliable RFID technology in the world for gaming applications.” PJM3.0 can read tags embedded on chips faster compared to other technologies because of its robust and high frequency signals, according to the Aruze.

“Jurisdiction is not given for the sake of the judge, but for that of the litigant.”

Blaise Pascal

Once upon a time, the question of legal jurisdiction was fairly simple. When in Rome, you follow Roman law. When elsewhere, the laws governing that elsewhere. Of course there were exceptions: diplomatic immunity, privilege of clergy, and so forth. But in general, location equaled jurisdiction the world over. And it was understood that if, for whatever reason, you decided to buck the system, and assert that your political creed or religious beliefs or whatever were paramount, then you had two choices: stand by to take the consequences, or get out of Dodge.

Even telecommunications didn’t really upset this paradigm. You may be watching, say, a moon landing on TV, but that doesn’t mean that you, in your living room, are suddenly subject to whatever lunar laws may exist. Ditto for telegrams and telephone. Communication does not, by itself, extend jurisdiction.