New Jersey’s regulated online gambling market earned a respectable $24.8m in August but couldn’t sustain its record-breaking summertime pace.

Figures released Wednesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) show the state’s licensed online gambling operators generated revenue of $24.8m in August, a 16.6% improvement over the same month last year but $1.1m below July 2018’s record performance.

Following the market’s by now predictable pattern, the online casino vertical did all the work in August, with revenue rising nearly one-fifth year-on-year to just under $23m. The poker vertical lived down to its reputation, falling nearly 13% to just over $1.8m.

For the year-to-date, New Jersey’s online revenue is up 16.5% to $190.2m, of which $175.4m came via casino products. Online poker contributed just $14.8m so far in 2018, and that’s down more than 11% from the same period last year.

New Jersey’s regulated sports betting market handled total wagers of $95.6m in August, more than twice the volume handled in the previous month.

Figures released Wednesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) show the nine sports betting licensees – six casinos, two racetracks, one purely digital operation – that were taking wagers in August attracted $95.6m in total handle, a significant improvement from the $40.7m the state’s then-three (two, really) betting licensees handled in July.

The DGE reported sports betting revenue of just under $9.2m in August, although, as previously noted, the DGE’s definition of ‘revenue’ includes wagers that are still pending, such as futures, as well as “unredeemed winning wagers” that laggard bettors haven’t got around to collecting.

The DGE says revenue from “industry completed events” since regulated betting began in late June is just over $7.2m, representing a nearly 5% hold of the market’s total handle of $146.1m.

Casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corporation has applied for trademark protection in Macau, despite its lack of any gaming operations in the special administrative region of China.

On Wednesday, Macau’s Official Gazette announced that two Caesars subsidiaries – Flamingo Las Vegas Operating Company LLC and Corner Investment Company LLC – had applied for trademark protection of The Cromwell and Flamingo brands. The names currently adorn two of Caesars’ Las Vegas properties.

The filings, which were made in early June, seek trademark protection for operations spanning casino services, casino management, gaming services, interactive gaming and hotel operations, to name just a few.

This isn’t the first time that Caesars has sought trademark protection in Macau, having filed to protect the Caesars and Caesars Palace brands in the summer of 2017. It should be noted that brands associated with US President Donald Trump filed similar brand protection applications around the same time.

Online gambling operator MRG’s Mr Green brand has been fined €312,500 for offering online casino products to Dutch punters.

On Wednesday, the Netherlands’ Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) regulatory body announced that it had imposed the six-figure penalty against MRG’s Malta-licensed subsidiary Mr Green Ltd for offering online games of chance to Dutch punters via the MrGreen.com website without a local license.

The fine was imposed on July 17 but MRG challenged publication of the fine in court “to stop disclosure,” according to the KSA. But a local judge dismissed MRG’s efforts on Tuesday, leading to the publication of the regulatory sanction.

The KSA says its investigation of Mr Green’s activities in the Netherlands found that the site was failing to block Dutch customers from gambling during the period spanning July 13-November 7, 2017. The site was also found to be offering a Dutch-language option, Dutch-speaking customer service and popular Dutch payment processing options like iDeal.

Tiger Resort Asia Limited (TRAL), owner of the Okada Manila casino, will be purchasing two-thirds of Asiabest Group International Inc. (ABG), a holding firm listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

ABG stated in a filing that it had sold 200 million shares, approximately 66.6% of the company, for PHP646.5 million ($12 million). TRAL’s parent company Universal Entertainment Corp. (UEC), in its announcement, said, “The purpose of acquiring the… shares is to locally list the shares of casino operating company in Philippines.” It added, “The view of the Company is that the impact that the agreement in question will have on its consolidated business results for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2018 is minute.”

The sale will be conducted “by way of Special Block Sale through the PSE on 12 November 2018 or at a date which may be mutually agreed upon by the Parties (‘Closing Date’)… Soon after this Agreement, Tiger shall conduct a Tender Offer to be completed prior to Closing Date.”

News outlet the Philippine Daily Inquirer had reported that TRAL had considered other listed firms prior to the agreement with ABG, but “an intra-corporate squabble” prevented any deal from pushing through.

As part of its MILLIONS series of tournaments, partypoker has launched a new $500,000 Passport online poker promotion. The promotion will award the winner the opportunity to compete in live high-stakes poker tournaments at a number of destinations around the world.

The promotion kicked off two days ago and will run until the end of the month. Partypoker will give the winner the backing and means to make the move into live poker action. As part of the MILLIONS promotion, it will see a number of online satellites, which give winners seats at the $20 million MILLIONS Online tournament that will get underway on November 25. That tournament is billed as the largest online poker tournament ever to be recorded.

The MILLIONS Online tournament will have a buy-in of $5,300. However, through the satellites, players can compete for a seat for much less. The satellites run every day and the buy-in is as low as a penny.

To be eligible for the Passport promotion, a player has to win a seat to the November Online event by participating in the satellites that are running this month. After that, a win at the $20-million GTD MILLIONS tourney running from November 25 through December 5 is needed.

Just as quickly as it started, PokerStars’ Unfold is now facing an imminent demise. Any day now, at any time, hopefully sooner rather than later. Unfold was initially expected to be removed this past Monday, but PokerStars has a difficult time letting some things go.

In a statement to the poker news outlet pokerfuse, PokerStars Director of Poker Innovation and Operations Severin Rasset said, “Following a strategic review, we have made the decision to fold ‘Unfold.’”

Unfold was a simple option. It allowed a player to pay to unfold his cards if he or she determined that the flop was actually suitable. While it was billed as a way to “add a fun twist” to poker, it was, quite bluntly, just another way for PokerStars to increase its rake and went against everything poker stands for.

Rasset also told pokerfuse, “PokerStars is invested in creating and testing products and new variants of poker to suit a variety of player tastes. While not every new development will be a home run, we will keep trialling, listening to player feedback and analysing engagement with our goal of continuing to offer fresh promotions, formats and updates that enhance our players’ experience and bring more people to the game.”