Sports betting drove Poland’s regulated gambling market in 2017, according to a new report by the country’s Ministry of Finance.

Last Friday, the MoF issued its annual review of the country’s regulated gambling market, which saw overall gambling turnover of PLN12.9b (US$3.5b) in 2017, a 22% improvement over 2016’s turnover figure. The government’s tax take improved 17% to PLN1.64b over the same span.

The Polish market remains dominated by casinos (PLN4.8b, +13%) and lottery operations (PLN4.6b, +1.4%), but sports betting stole the show, posting annual turnover of PLN3.4b, a year-on-year improvement of 105%, which pushed betting’s share of the overall market from 15.7% in 2016 to 26.4% in 2017.

The betting boom was spurred in part by a 29% rise in the number of retail betting outlets, but Poland’s newly regulated online betting market was the vertical’s prime mover.

Singapore hopes lottery and sports bettors have an environmental conscience, while authorities warn that playing online ‘mystery prize’ games are a one-way ticket to prisonville.

On Tuesday, the Singapore Pools sports betting and lottery monopoly announced the launch of a new mobile app targeting customers who still prefer walking around with a paper betting ticket in their pocket.

Singapore Pools and its horserace betting counterpart Singapore Turf Club began operating online in 2016 and already offer apps that allow customers to make their wagers in digital fashion. The new eBetslip app, which is available for both Android and iOS devices, is aimed at punters who remain partial to the certainty that comes with a physical record.

The new app requires users to fill out a digital betting slip via the app, then proceed to a Singapore Pools retail outlet, where they scan their digital slip’s unique QR code and receive a paper betting ticket. This eliminates the need to fill out a physical betting slip, which Singapore Pools estimates could reduce its annual paper usage by 71 tons, thereby sparing over 1,200 trees from the woodsman’s axe, if only 10% of paper bettors make the switch.

Growl. Macau stocks are officially in a bear market, defined as a 20% decline from highs, just in time for Typhoon Mangkhut. What happens from here over the next six weeks into earnings will be telling for Macau shares longer term. Turning points only become obvious in retrospect and we could have been at one back in May when the Market Vectors Gaming ETF (BJK) topped out. If Macau doesn’t reverse quickly from here, we could continue deeper into bear territory for a year or more.

The magic bear number 20% has no particular significance other than the bear nomenclature itself, which has the effect of pulling people out of their preconceptions about market trends. Since 2008, Macau has only experienced one 20% fall that didn’t result in a long term downtrend, and that was August to October 2011. Macau shares fell 31% over two months but then quickly reversed, ultimately continuing an uptrend that ended only in March 2014, 51% higher than the August 2011 top. So it is possible to reverse a 20% bear market, but it must be done quickly with a sharp reversal. October 2011 saw that, and Macau continued a pattern of higher lows and higher highs.

2011 didn’t have the liquidity panic nor the speculative bubble that needed to correct in 2008, and it didn’t have the fundamental aspect of the VIP crackdown of 2014 that took gross gaming revenue to the woodshed. There was a brief panic in equities globally in the summer of 2011 that quickly reversed itself. Will 2018 be the same? A quick bear flash that ended up being only a blip on a long term chart?

Probably not.

Financial research firms Nomura and Sanford C. Bernstein projected lower gross gaming revenue (GGR) in Macau for the month, in the wake of Typhoon Mangkhut which struck during the weekend and led to the closing of casinos for more than a day.

According to GGRAsia, Instinet, a Nomura company, reported it had adjusted its forecast of Macau GGR for September, to MOP23.44 billion ($2.9 billion), lower than its original forecast of MOP24.5 billion ($3 billion). The adjusted forecast is still 10% higher than September last year.

In spite of the changes, Instinet did not update its forecast for the third quarter. “Typhoons tend to interrupt travel for short periods but, consistent with past instances, they do not change underlying demand trends,” it said.

Sanford Bernstein, on the other hand, forecast GGR in the range of MOP21.3 billion ($2.6 billion) to MOP22 billion ($2.7 billion) for this month, about 8% lower than its earlier projection. The updated figures are 0%-3% higher than the same period last year.

New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone has said that he will no longer work to pass a bill he authored that would provide federal regulations for sports betting.

According to Gambling Compliance, Pallone told the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) that federal controls given by the proposed Gaming Accountability and Modernization Enhancement (GAME) Act were no longer sought by him.

“Right now, my own position is—and I’m only speaking for myself—that we shouldn’t move with any federal legislation [for sports betting],” he said.

Pallone also recognized that initiatives in New Jersey and other states have been a “tremendous success,” revenue-wise. Last August, New Jersey posted $9.2 million in sports wagering revenue, wherein $95.6 million of wagers was handled.

Manju Gera has picked up her first WSOP Circuit gold ring. The California resident participated in the $400 HORSE tournament as part of the WSOP series at the Thunder Valley Casino Resort in California when she wiped out the playing field, taking the top prize of $8,303 and the coveted gold ring. She may not be a high-stakes grinder, but she certainly knows how to hold her own, especially in mixed-game competitions.

The WSOP event drew some pretty big names. David Diiorio was there, as was Howard Andrew and Vince Burgio. Gera overcame all of them, as well as last winter’s event champ, Steve Lustig.

The game attracted 74 entries and lasted less than a day. It was perfect for Gera, who spends the majority of her time playing in California and Nevada. The eventual winner started as chip leader, with 240,000 chips, when the final table began, and she never looked back.

After taking out Lustig for the win, she talked about her success, saying that many players don’t see her as a threat since she is a “middle-aged woman.” This makes her opponents believe that she is weak and easily bluffed, two characteristics she is all too happy to disprove. She indicates that she is able to routinely identify the bluffs and uses that skill to her advantage.

The World Poker Tour (WPT) and Partypoker LIVE have launched a series of promotions through their new partnership that will award several players the opportunity to participate in events in Europe and Canada. The first install of the promotions will take place this October during the WPT Montreal festival at the Playground Poker Club. The schedule for the festival has now been released, and the festival will include even more Partypoker promotions.

The series will run from October 21 through November 4. This will be the first year that all of the WPT’s flagship tournament can be found during a single festival. The lineup contains the WPT 500, WPTDeepStacks, a High Roller event and a Ladies tournament, as well as the Main Event. Some of the highlights include:

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West Virginia’s sports bettors could have four local wagering options by the end of September, but state legislators fear plans are afoot to revive mandatory ‘integrity fees’ for betting operators.

On Monday, the West Virginia Gazette Mail reported that the state’s Wheeling Island and Mardi Gras casinos would be testing their sports betting technology between September 24-26, with grand openings of their sportsbooks planned for September 27.

Penn National Gaming’s Hollywood Casino at Charlestown Races launched the state’s legal betting business last month and the Greenbrier Resort’s Casino Club joined the betting brigade last week. The state has yet to witness the launch of its first mobile betting app, but these are tipped to be in the mail.

But West Virginia’s Joint Standing Committee on Finance spent most of its time Monday trying to figure out whether Governor Jim Justice – who owns the Greenbrier – and West Virginia Lottery officials were still pushing plans to offer the major sports leagues a cut of the state’s betting handle or require betting operators to use league-supplied data to judge wagering results.

A recent inquest designed to determine the public’s attitude toward an integrated resort (IR) in Yokohama, Japan was met with a resounding no. 94% of the residents indicated that they opposed the idea of having an IR in their back yard, which doesn’t bode well for the future of a casino in the area. Now, business leaders in Yokohama are renewing their campaigning efforts in an attempt to sway government opinion.

This past Saturday, the municipal government held a conference, the 24th Yokohama Business Council, and the entrepreneurs took advantage of the opportunity to pitch their unwavering support. Morihiko Kawamoto, VP of the Yokohama Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as the president of Kawamoto Industry Corporation, said at the conference, “We are convinced that it will contribute to Yokohama’s economic revitalization and the sustainable development.”

There are quite a few business leaders in the area that are fully behind the possibility of an IR coming to Yokohama. However, not everyone is so excited. Yokohama Harbor Transport Association Chairman Yukio Fujiki has been a very vocal opponent to the plan, given that the casino would more than likely be built at the Yamashita Pier.

The mayor of Yokohama, Fumiko Hayashi, is still on the fence, as would be any good politician. However, she took the initiative to seek out a request for information (RFI) process in anticipation of a possible IR bid.