Suncity Group Holdings has reported a staggering increase in its losses for the first half of the year. For the first six months, the losses increased by 160% to $240.97 million. The loss was higher than previously projected and comes after a loss related to a change in fair value of convertible bonds’ derivatives. During the same period last year, the company reported losses of $92.35 million.

Suncity’s liabilities are now greater than its assets by approximately $438 million, in spite of the fact that its revenue for the period increased 27.9% year-on-year to $63.2 million. The results come from the company’s four primary segments, property leasing, property development, consultancy services for hotels and integrated resorts (IR) and travel-related products and services. They do not, however, include revenue from the company’s junket operations.

The company had already announced that it was anticipating greater losses, but it apparently wasn’t ready for what was to come. Last month, it said that the losses would be “significant,” but didn’t provide a target amount. It had confirmed then that the losses would be attributable to an increased loss in the convertible bond derivative, which cost the company an additional $137.7 million.

Almost all of Suncity’s revenue came through its travel business. It reported that the segment’s revenue had more than doubled to $36.62 million, based in large part on a continued expansion plan that began after the company acquired Sun Travel Ltd. in August 2016. Sun Travel primarily offers bookings for clients to visit Macau and arrangements for luxury entertainment and accommodations.

It would seem that Tokyo is becoming more interested in hosting one of the initial three integrated resorts (IR) planned for the Japanese landscape. GGRAsia reports that it has collected information that indicates that the city is considering an impact study and is looking to commission an organization to conduct the necessary research.

This past Monday, Tokyo government’s Bureau of Port and Harbor announced that it was planning on commissioning what it called an “IR impact study on Tokyo.” It opened a tender process for the research and should make a decision on which firm will lead the study on October 10.

The study will research and analyze what kind of impact an IR would have on the city. It will gather data on economic factors, gambling addiction and public policy to build its profile. If it is launched, it is expected to be completed by the end of next March, which coincided with the end of the Japanese financial year.

Previously, it was thought that Tokyo could be moving away from being considered for an IR. Morningstar Inc., an investor services firm, reported in July of last year that the local government seemed to be uncertain of whether or not it wanted to get into the IR license race. It would now seem that it has reversed that opinion.

West Virginia’s land-based sports betting options grew to two on Thursday, while The Stars Group’s betting brand made its US debut.

On Thursday, the Greenbrier Resort’s Casino Club launched its FanDuel Group-powered sportsbook, having struck a deal to bring betting to the members-only venue back in June. Penn National Gaming’s Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races popped the state’s betting cherry in late August.

However, entry to the new sportsbook is limited to Greenbrier members or guests either staying at the property’s hotel or attending an on-site event. The Greenbrier sought to reassure the state’s plebs that they will eventually be able to wager via their FanDuel-powered Greenbrier App at some point before the year is through.

A little further south, FanDuel is in the process of rebranding the sportsbooks at Boyd Gaming’s gaming venues in Mississippi. Thursday saw Boyd’s IP Casino Resort in Biloxi relaunch under its new FanDuel Sportsbook moniker, in accordance with the deal FanDuel reached with Boyd last month. Boyd’s other Mississippi property, Sam’s Town in Tunica, is undergoing a similar brand transformation.

In compliance with the New General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that are currently sweeping across Europe, The Hendon Mob is allowing players to delete their account information from the world’s largest poker database, and Lee Davy seeks a view from the man who created it all.

If The Hendon Mob (THM) were to crumble, it would make life complicated. THM is my home. Homeless; I spend more time there than anywhere else. When I was a porn addict, I spent more time looking at live tournament stats than grainy homemade videos of vices we’re too ashamed to mention.

Over the weekend, a thread appeared on 2+2, advising the community that the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) currently causing anarchy in the 28 states that call themselves European Union (EU) chums, allows players to instruct THM to delete their records or change their name to an alias.

For a person who writes about poker and is a fan of poker that thought is a nightmare.

South Korea’s first (and to date only) major integrated resort casino Paradise City is set to grow larger this month as the property opens its second phase.

Paradise City, the joint venture of South Korean casino operator Paradise Co Ltd and Japanese pachinko operator Sega Sammy Holdings, will open its second phase of non-gaming amenities on September 21.

The new features include a shopping plaza, a spa facility complete with infinity pool and ‘aqualoop waterslide,’ a 3k-capacity nightclub (the largest in Northeast Asia, a 58-room boutique hotel, a film and TV production studio, plus an art exhibition hall that will eventually host 2,740 objets d’art. A kid-friendly theme park, Wonder Box, will join these amenities in the first half of 2018.

The $1.4b Paradise City opened its doors in April 2017, but it limped rather than exploded out of the gate, the victim of a diplomatic spat between South Korea and China that caused the latter country to cut off the flow of tourists to South Korea’s Chinese-reliant casinos.

Greek betting and lottery operator OPAP saw its profits jump nearly one-third in the first half of 2018 thanks to the FIFA World Cup, new gambling products and less onerous corporate taxation.

On Wednesday, OPAP reported its revenue rising 7% year-on-year to €737.5m in the six months ending June 30, while gross profit also rose 7% to €288m. But earnings jumped 20.5% to €167.4m and net profit spiked 33% to €66m.

The positive trends were even more evident in OPAP’s Q2 figures, with revenue up 9.3% to €360m, gross profit up 9% to €140m, earnings up 34.6% to €70.2m and net profit up a whopping 58.8% to €26.2m.

The gains were attributed to OPAP’s ongoing rollout of its allotment of 25k video lottery terminals (VLTs). The company had installed 13,775 VLTs by the end of Q2, roughly 2,250 more than at the end of Q1. VLT revenue totaled €89.4m in H1, up from just €9.4m in the same period last year.

Mobile casino specialists LeoVegas have dipped their toes into the eSports betting market via the acquisition of Pixel.bet.

On Thursday, the Stockholm-listed LeoVegas announced that its LeoVenture investment arm had taken a 51% stake in Malta-based “mobile-first” eSports betting operator Pixel.bet, which made its debut earlier this year. LeoVegas said it would fund the €1.5m deal, which is expected to close in the current quarter, through a new share issue.

LeoVegas CEO Gustaf Hagman called eSports “an international and fast-growing area” and the Pixel.bet acquisition would offer LeoVegas “unique insight into a new and fast-growing segment” of the gambling marketplace.

Pixel.bet CEO Eirik Kristiansen hailed LeoVentures as a “unique partner and investor who understands and shares our passion” for eSports. Pixel.bet has made Sweden and other Nordic markets its initial geographic focus, which should help smooth its entry into the LeoVegas fold.