Macau’s casinos are on their first official city-wide shutdown order as Typhoon Mangkhut bears down on the special administrative region of China.

Earlier this week, as the so-called ‘super typhoon’ began tracking a path towards southern China, Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau met to determine whether or not it had the authority to order the temporary closure of all casinos, given the expectation that Mangkhut’s fury could threaten local lives.

Apparently, that answer was ‘yes,’ as Macau’s Civil Protection Operations Center issued an order on Saturday that calls for all casinos to “suspend all gambling activities” effective 11pm. The government further advised all casino operators to implement the agreed upon typhoon contingency plan to protect both casino staff and guests.

Earlier Saturday, the government announced that it had granted requests from four small SJM Holdings-licensed casinos to suspend their operations as Mangkhut drew closer. All border crossings with mainland China will close at 1am and ferry services have been suspended.

Try as it might, China’s sole form of legal gambling simply can’t escape allegations of corruption committed by the officials in charge.

This week, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs announced that Wang Suying, the former director of the China Welfare Lottery Issuance Management Center, was under investigation by the ministry’s disciplinary inspection and supervisory departments for what was described as “serious violations of the [Communist] Party discipline.”

The 57-year-old Wang began working for the welfare lottery in 2008, eventually rising to director of the Management Center in 2015 before retiring in May 2017.

Wang is the fifth lottery official to have been accused of corruption in the past year and a half, including her predecessor at the Management Center, Bao Xuequan, and Bao’s former deputy Wang Yunge, both of whom were booted from the Party for abusing their positions for personal gain. Two other senior lottery officials were demoted for similar crimes in 2017.

Online gambling operators that have been sanctioned by Dutch gaming regulators will have to serve an unspecified ‘time out’ before being allowed to apply for licenses under the new regulated market.

On Thursday, the Netherlands Minister for Justice and Security Sander Dekker said that internationally licensed online gambling operators that have been penalized by the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) regulatory body would be ineligible to operate in the country’s liberalized market, at least, not at the start of the new regime.

In July, Dekker (pictured) pushed back against the KSA’s wish to permanently exclude sanctioned operators from acquiring new Dutch licenses, saying that denying Dutch punters the right to access sites with a “reliable reputation” would negatively impact the government’s desire to ‘channel’ gamblers to locally licensed operators.

However, speaking at a Thursday meeting of the Permanent Committee for Justice and Security, Dekker said that, while a permanent ban would be “legally disproportionate” to sanctioned operators’ alleged crimes, the KSA should nonetheless develop a policy that excludes sanctioned operators from the regulated market for a yet-to-be-determined period.

US-based gambling technology giant Scientific Games Corporation (SGC) has established a new sports betting presence in Gibraltar.

On Friday, SGC announced that it was establishing a new Sportsbook Operations team that will work out of the company’s Gibraltar office. SGC has also appointed Superbet and William Hill veteran Stuart Weston as its new VP of Sportsbook Operations for SGC’s interactive division SG Digital (SGD).

The new team is intended to boost SGC’s ability to help its customers ramp up their sports betting operations. SGC’s sports betting operations are powered by OpenBet technology, which SGC acquired via its 2017 deal for NYX Gaming Group, which had acquired OpenBet the previous year.

SGD’s senior VP of sportsbook Keith O’Loughlin said the expanded Gibraltar presence had created “a new ball game” for SGD and represented “a natural step up for our business” given the rapidly expanding legal sports betting market in the United States and the ongoing popularity of sports betting in international markets.

Online gambling technology provider GAN has sicced lawyers on US gaming operators it believes are using its patented technology without permission.

On Friday, GAN announced that it had enlisted Chicago-based intellectual property litigation firm Irwin IP LLP to rap the knuckles of any gambling company operating in the US that GAN believes is infringing on its intellectual property rights.

The specific technology in question involves US casino operators’ retail rewards program members linking their membership cards to their online gambling accounts, thereby allowing them to earn further rewards points via their online activity.

Irwin’s attorneys will focus on operators plying their trade in New Jersey, Nevada, Delaware and Pennsylvania, i.e. the four US states that have authorized intrastate online gambling activities (although Pennsylvania has yet to actually launch its online market).