An affiliate of Macau casino junket operator Suncity Group has warned shareholders of “significant” losses over the first half of 2018.

On Friday, Suncity Group Holdings Ltd informed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that a preliminary review of its unaudited results for the six months ending June 30 had led the company to expect “a significant increase” in its H1 losses compared to the same period last year, when the company lost RMB1.06b (US$154.6m).

The company won’t release its final H1 results until August 27, but it says the expected fiscal plunge was “mainly attributable to the increase in loss of approximately RMB944.1m ($137.7m) in respect of the change in fair value of derivative component of convertible bond.”

Suncity Group Holdings is a separate entity from the privately held Suncity Group, which is considered Macau’s dominant junket operator. But both entities are linked via Suncity chairman Alvin Chau (pictured), who recently claimed that his company controls over 40% of Macau’s VIP gambling market and handles rolling chip turnover of over $19.2b per month.

UK-listed gambling technology provider Playtech has reportedly enlisted the help of Sportech’s former CEO to help guide its US market ambitions.

This weekend, the Sunday Times reported that Playtech was preparing to announce that it’s adding Ian Penrose as a non-executive director to the company’s board. The Times further claimed the company was grooming Penrose to take over as Playtech chairman from embattled incumbent Alan Jackson.

Playtech is set to deliver its H1 financial report on Thursday, and will reportedly use the occasion to announce the hiring of Penrose (pictured, in green), a longtime industry veteran who resigned as Sportech’s CEO last year. The Times claimed Penrose was being brought in to “spearhead” Playtech’s desire to enter the US gambling market.

Playtech formerly held a 9.9% stake in Sportech, but sold out in 2013. Prior to that sell-off, Playtech CEO Mor Weizer had touted Sportech’s US-facing online and land-based pari-mutuel betting operations as Playtech’s way of getting its foot in the door of the US market.

Tech giant Apple has removed thousands of gambling apps from its China-facing App Store, but Chinese authorities appear to believe that the purge was far from complete.

On Sunday, the state-run Global Times media outlet announced that Apple had removed over 2,000 gambling-related apps on August 9, following that up with the removal of over 500 apps related to “fake lottery tickets.”

However, the report claimed that “loopholes” remained that allowed app developers to continue providing updates and push notifications to users who’d already installed the apps on their mobile devices. The report urged Apple to “cut the account link between illegal apps and the App Store” after these apps are purged from the site.

On Saturday, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reported that Apple had actually purged 25,000 apps – although that figure is stated only in the headline, as the article itself cites only the 2,000 and 500 figures repeated in the Global Times article.

China has broken up two major online gambling rings, including one that utilized trademarks associated with legitimate Macau casino operators.

On Sunday, state-run media outlet Xinhua reported that police in Jiangsu province had arrested over 50 suspects connected to a “transnational” online gambling ring that handled turnover of around RMB7.8b (US$1.1b) in the past two years from around 114k customers, netting the ringleaders some RMB650m in profit.

Police said the Philippines-based gambling site – which operated under the Diyi (Emperor) Entertainment brand – first appeared on their radar in January 2016 following a tipoff from an irate customer. Sina.com repored that the customer, who’d lost over RMB150k ($21,900) in one week, had been introduced to the site by a friend in an internet café at a local shopping mall.

Police subsequently determined that the site’s average daily turnover was around RMB10m, while the ring relied on a network of 27 agents, who in turn utilized around 5,700 sub-agents to recruit customers and enable money movement. The scale of the operation was sufficiently vast that the feared Ministry of Public Security took over coordiantion of the investigation.

Malta-based MRG has set its sights on a Swedish online gambling license.

In a statement, MRG CEO Per Norman said, “Finally, Sweden has become a regulated market,” referring to the June passage a legislation opening Sweden’s online market to international gambling operators, effective 2019. MRG’s subsidiaries, Mr Green Ltd and Evoke Gaming Ltd, have applied for the Swedish licenses.

MRG is already operating in 13 markets, and has gaming licenses in Italy, Latvia, Malta, and the UK, as well as a casino license in Denmark and a sportsbook license in Ireland. In its Swedish license application, MRG included its online gambling sites Mr Green, Redbet, Vinnarum, Bertil, and MamaMiaBingo.

The company reported for the first half of the year revenue of SEK793.8 million ($86.66 million), a 40.8% increase from the same period last year. Earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to SEK91.2 million ($9.96 million).

Amendments to Australian Capital Territory’s (ACT) gambling laws are underway, and to be finalized for presentation before the end of 2018, according to ACT Attorney General Gordon Ramsay.

According to the Canberra Times, the changes are intended to clarify provisions on problem gambling and will require casino employees and board members to undergo further training on the matter.

Another amendment will require casinos to have a trained staff member on standby whenever a poker machine is running. There will also be changes to self-exclusion laws, which will make it easier for casinos to keep out problem gamblers who request to be denied entry into a casino but later change their minds.

The Canberra Times earlier reported that the ACT government had been remiss in ensuring that casinos’ mandatory contributions were being spent as intended. This is based on findings of the ACT auditor-general after an inspection of the casinos, which are required to give 8% of net gaming machine revenue to community groups.