Monthly Archives: July 2018

Tony Miles Apologizes to John Cynn for Slowroll Accusations Following Final Hand in WSOP Main Event

In “how grown ups should handle a dispute” news, runner-up Tony Miles apologized on Twitter for accusing WSOP Main Event champion John Cynn of slowrolling him on the final hand […]

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Kentucky Lottery doubles online sales; Jackpocket has $1m winner

Kentucky’s state lottery doubled its online sales in fiscal 2018, helping spur the overall sales figure to a new record.

On Tuesday, the Kentucky Lottery announced that its sales during the 12 months ending June 30 totaled $1.042b, a $42m improvement over fiscal 2017’s result, and another record result for the lottery. Scratch-off tickets claimed the biggest slice of the sales pie, rising 1.5% to $613m, while daily draw games added $204.7m and keno sales improved 9.3% to $82.8m.

The Lottery launched online sales in April 2016, offering a mix of traditional draw tickets and instant-win games from the International Game Technology-powered Play.kylottery.com site.

The iLottery division reported sales of $10.2m in FY18, nearly twice the $5.2m generated online in FY17. However, it’s worth noting that it’s taken two years for online lottery sales to exceed the original projections of $7m in sales in its first year.

Lottery betting sites form new trade body to educate regulators

Online lottery betting operators have formed a new umbrella group to defend their business model from overzealous gaming regulators and protectionist lottery monopolies.

The European Lotto Betting Association (ELBA) is a new trade body comprised of Lottoland, Multilotto, myLotto24, Lottogo and Legacy8. ELBA spokesperson Lena Patel, myLotto24’s head of corporate affairs, told iGaming Business that the new body’s stated goal is to “dispel myths” about the lottery betting business.

Lottery betting operators are under fire in multiple markets, having been banned outright in Australia last month, while the UK has imposed new restrictions on operators’ ability to offer betting markets on non-UK EuroMillions lottery draws.

Patel noted that the “general tone and language about lottery betting in the media is negative,” despite the ELBA’s view that a lot of this talk “has not been backed up by evidence.” Patel said the “collective voice of the industry hasn’t been strong enough” and the ELBA aimed to inform the public that lottery betting operators are “legitimate” and “we do give back to good causes.”

Poland seeks data on citizens’ attempts to access forbidden sites

Poland’s government intends to force local internet service providers (ISPs) to report citizens’ attempts to access unauthorized online gambling sites.

On Tuesday, the Panoptykon Foundation digital rights watchdog reported on the Polish government’s plans to create a central registry of unapproved websites “used to offer goods and services contrary to the law.”

Polish courts recently upheld the legality of the country’s blacklist of internationally licensed online gambling operators who don’t have a local license to serve Polish punters, but the government appears eager to slap its scarlet letter on sites offering everything from unauthorized drugs and financial services to ride-sharing service Uber.

According to the Panoptykon Foundation, the government plans to authorize a ‘chief sanitary inspector’ to compel data from ISPs that indicate which Polish citizens attempted to access blacklisted websites and which citizens were successful in these attempts.

Combined UK regulator clampdown gives operators warning about future conduct​

Pavlos Sideris is the founder of NoWagering, If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

Changing circumstances can alter personal opinion, just like a shift in culture can also steer social relations, and what follows is coloured by both. England have not so much crashed out of World Cup 2018 as done themselves proud by reaching the semi-finals, but winning and losing in sport are divided as neatly and starkly as winning or losing a bet. The element of chance is part of the appeal of sport, gambling and betting on sport, and a surge in optimism in the fate of our national team has led to a comparable surge in the level of betting on the tournament.

Bloomberg report that the British are set to wager an estimated £2.5 billion on the outcome of Russia 2018, a colossal sum of money that is itself a giant increase of 50% above what was parted with at the previous tournament. How much of this leap is down to England resembling an actual football team that might be competitive again, or whether we can point to the pervasiveness of gambling advertising as being responsible as Bloomberg do, is a cagey question. But when the UK’s online gambling market earns gross revenues of $5.7 billion, making it the overwhelmingly largest in all of Europe, fuelled in part by the power of advertising and marketing and the permissive gambling regulation in the UK, we are given pause for thought.

Let’s make one thing clear though. The England football team has changed, and for the better. Whether that change persists and transforms into success, only time will tell. But change has this in common, whether it be tiny or overwhelming – it all starts somewhere, no matter how long the process, and has a point of origin that might be obvious or covert. The UK’s Gambling Commission (GC) are looking to be the clear instigator of a profound level of change in their own industry, seeking as they do nothing less than a transformation in the culture of relations between operators and users. That aim is contained in the thrust of Raising standards for consumers: Enforcement report 2017-2018, a document which puts certain operators on notice about some of their more dubious conduct.

Macau casino self-exclusion request grew 34% in H1 2018

The list of problem gamblers looking to be excluded from Macau casinos grew longer in the first half of 2018, according to the special administrative region’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ).

At least 233 people requested casino exclusion in the January to June 30, 2018 period, up 34.2 percent from 179 requests received in the same period last year. Of the 233 requests, the DICJ said that 33 were applied for by third parties, such as family members.

The number of requests for self-exclusion was also higher in the second quarter of 2018 than in Q1. Despite the increase, it’s fair to say that the figures still look miniscule compared with those who want to gamble in Macau casinos.

Last year, Macau welcomed 32.6 million visitors, the majority of whom spent their time playing games inside the city’s biggest casinos. The DICJ received at least 376 applications for exclusions in 2017.

Macau mass market gaming growth still in the shadow of a trade war

Statistics are like religion. We may think values are based on interpretation of data, but in reality, most of the time our interpretation of data is based on an outlook, weltanschauung we already have, what we assimilated in childhood or young adulthood, an outlook that doed not budge or change easily. It’s easy to make data fit our outlook or to reinterpret data, or manipulate data, or to simply ignore data that doesn’t fit into our preconceived notions of how things should be.

It’s much harder for us humans to honestly change our outlooks if we see that the data just don’t fit. It’s almost impossible to be completely objective, especially considering that the amount of data flying out of the world’s servers is starting to rival the size of the known universe. Even picking the data that we want to focus on and ignoring the data we don’t care about is itself part of trying to make the world fit into our own systems.

Take VIP vs mass market revenues in Macau for example. The encouraging headlines all over the internet now are that mass market revenue growth has outpaced VIP revenue for Q2. That sounds good, and maybe it is. But maybe it doesn’t indicate anything important. Regardless, bulls will read the headline bullishly, making the argument that mass market revenues are more stable and therefore Macau is stabilizing into a less volatile market long term. Bears will either ignore the data point as irrelevant or reinterpret it as VIP growth slowing down too much, rather than mass market growth improving. Macau still depends on VIP, they’ll say, as over 55% of Macau gross gaming revenue is still from VIP. Even if mass market growth outpaces VIP, Macau is still heavily reliant on VIP and one quarter of outpaced growth doesn’t change that.

Let’s do a test, a game of sorts. I’ll put a link to a headline below and before you click on it, guess what year it’s from. Ready?

Arkansas casino proponents beef up campaign war chest

Casino proponents in Arkansas are beefing up their campaign funds to ensure that games will be legalized in the state.

The Associated Press reported that pro-casino group Driving Arkansas Forward (DAF) have collected $1.2 million in June from several donors, including the Downstream Development Authority of the Quapaw Tribe and Cherokee Nation Businesses LLC.

DAF reported that it spent around $715,711 in June just to encourage residents to sign a petition to place an amendment to the state constitution on the November ballot. The group’s expenses includesome $385,728 for advertising.

The group has been proposing for Arkansas to legalize gambling at a Hot Springs horse track and a West Memphis dog track, where video poker and other electronic games were already offered, as well as legalize casinos in Jefferson and Pope counties.

Canadian operators bow out of Niagara Falls casinos bidding

Two of Canada’s biggest casino operators conceded defeat to U.S. gambling companies in the Niagara Falls casinos bidding wars, according to The Globe and Mail report.

Canadian casino operators Gateway Casinos and Entertainment Ltd. and Great Canadian Gaming Corp. folded their respective bids for Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. (OLGC)-owned Casino Niagara and Fallsview Casino Resort after the prices of the two Niagara properties became too steep.

With the Canadian casino operators out of the picture, the remaining bidders for the two properties were Caesars Entertainment Corp., Hard Rock Cafe International Inc. and Mohegan Sun Inc.

Sources involved in bids claimed that two of the U.S. casino operators have been aggressive in placing offers, which resulted in the increase of the properties’ values. What made the Niagara Falls casinos attractive to American casino operators was the fact that they could link it to their global client loyalty program.

Insights of the Hungarian gambling industry with Gábor Helembai (Bird&Bird) at CEEGC2018 Budapest

Budapest – 17 July 2018 –The online gambling industry in Central Europe is the subject of many restrictions. This is the situation especially when it comes to regulation the market and creating a fair licensing law.

For years operators have been struggling to enter the market, but not many have succeeded as under Hungary’s gambling regulations, only operators of land-based casinos across the country are able to obtain licenses from local regulators to provide online casino games. CJEU ruled against Hungary this year that the particular provision in the country’s gambling law represents a “radical restriction” of EU treaties for the free movement of services across Member States.

If we take a look on the service provider side, it hasn’t been subject of such restrictions. Earlier this year, Scientific Games Corporation (NASDAQ: SGMS) (“Scientific Games” or the “Company”) announced that it has successfully launched an online sports betting channel for SzerencsejátékZrt., the largest gaming service provider in Hungary. SzerencsejátékZrt. is fully owned by the Hungarian State, has the exclusive right to sell sport games as well as instant and draw-based lottery games.

If we take a look at the land based industry, things are also positive. Just recently, EGT has launched its T-Line touch table live roulette multiplayer in Hungary. This is the first time this model is installed in the country.