Poland’s state-owned gambling monopoly is only days away from launching its new online lottery and casino platform, according to the company’s CEO.

Earlier this month, Olgierd Cieslik (pictured), CEO of Poland’s state-owned Totalizator Sportowy lottery and slots (outside casinos) monopoly, told Money.pl that the company planned to launch its new website and mobile app by ‘the end of November or the beginning of December.’

The digital platform – which will encompass not only digital lottery sales but also online slots, table games and poker – will operate under the name iLotto. The casino games will be powered by UK-listed technology provider Playtech, which won the exclusive contract in March, back when the online product was to be called eKasyno.

Totalizator Sportowy is coming off a record year, having recorded sales of over PLN5.6b (US$1.5b) in 2017, roughly 43% of the overall Polish gambling market‘s turnover. Poland has so far authorized a dozen online sports betting operators but Totalizator Sportowy was granted the online casino monopoly in 2016 under the country’s amended gambling legislation.

The Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines) Corp (MRP) is preparing to redeem the remainder of an allocation of corporate secured notes. The notes offer a fixed rate of 5% and the company hopes to move $38.2-million worth in this ultimate round, according to a filing by the company with the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday. The notes were issued in January 2014 by the company’s subsidiary, Melco Resorts Leisure (PHP) Corp. and have a maturity date of January 24, 2019.

Secured notes are a type of loan that is backed by the borrower’s assets. If the borrower defaults on the loan, the pledged assets could be sold to repay the debt. In business, they are typically issued to allow a business to expand its operations. In the event the expansion fails, the lender will take possession of the assets that were pledge to secure the loan, including any real estate and equipment.

The facility and security agreement for the notes will see Deutsche Bank AG, Manila Branch and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. as the joint lead managers. The facility agent, paying agency, registrar and security trustee will be the Philippine National Bank – Trust Banking Group.

Last month, MRP announced that the company’s majority shareholder, MCO (Philippines) Investments Ltd., had initiated a tender offer in order to require the shares in the company that it didn’t already own. The new offering closed yesterday and the company reported that the price would be $0.138 per share, in line with previous announcements.

A few days ago, Genting Malaysia announced that it was suing the Walt Disney Company and Twenty-First Century Fox after the two decided to terminate Genting’s contract for the “Fox World” theme park at Resorts World Genting in Malaysia. The lawsuit specifies breach of contract and breach of “implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing” and seeks compensation of $1 billion. Fox and Disney have now issued their response to the lawsuit, calling it frivolous and without merit.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, California. In Fox’s statement, the company asserts that the allegations that Disney and forced the termination of the theme park was “simply made up.” Disney issued a separate statement, saying that the lawsuit is “utterly without merit.”

Genting believes that Disney could have forced the issue because of its anti-gambling stance. However, it has not been able to prove any evidence. On the other hand, not much information has been provided regarding why the company saw its contract prematurely cancelled. The only information was a statement sent to Bloomberg News from Fox that said that Genting had not met agreed-upon deadlines. The dispute has apparently been going on for the past several years.

A statement by Twentieth Century Fox Film, another defendant in the case, asserts, “The allegation that Disney, rather than Fox, finally decided to declare a default is simply made up.”

A new poker gaming portal in India is emerging. Hippo52.com, a site operated by Ultimate Gaming Technologies Pvt. Ltd out of Delhi, and poker portal PokerHigh will be combined to improve the position of the two companies and help them compete against larger players in the industry.

Hippo52.com mentioned on its website the new endeavor, stating that it has merged with PokerHigh, a company that is operated by Quatumskill Gaming and Tech Pvt. Ltd., adding that player balances have already been transferred to accounts on PokerHigh. The merger reportedly involves 1,400 users of the Hippo52 website and will lead to more participation in offline events in India, as well as abroad.

Founder and Managing Director of PokerHigh, Mithun Rebello, stated of the merger, “Having been in the game from the early days, we’ve always believed that consolidation would be a natural next step for the industry in the years to come, and we saw this as a great opportunity to further cement our position in the market. Having collaborated with Hippo52 during multiple events in the past, we are now excited to work together as one unit with their combined expertise in offline poker and community engagement.”

Hippo52 founder Sumit Khurana added, “We have been watching the growth of online poker in India for some years now, and with this move we wish to offer even better experiences to our combined patrons and to set the ball rolling in our endeavour of making poker reach its true potential in India. PokerHigh has been known as one of the most fun brands out there for over 3 years now, and we are truly excited to be working together with them. The idea will be to focus on bringing recreational poker players into the main fold, through specially curated poker experiences at exotic destinations across the globe. These expeditions will be multi dimensional [sic] and will blend poker with other unique experiences.”

Bulgaria’s gambling market is on track to bring the local government a much larger payday than it collected last year if current trends persist.

Last week, Angel Iribozov, chairman of the Bulgarian Association of Producers and Organizers of the Gaming Industry (BTAPOI), announced that the government had derived BGN174.4m (US$101.6m) in taxes and fees from locally licensed gambling operators in the first nine months of 2018.

The sum is BGN30m higher than was collected at the same point last year, and Iribozov suggested the full-year figure will come in 13-15% higher than the total BGN200.5m the government earned in all of 2017.

Iribozov said between BGN28.5m of this amount in 9M18 – 16.5% of the total – was derived from the country’s online gambling licensees, of which there are now 12. These primarily include sites belonging to local offline operators, but also such recognizable international names such as Bet365, Betfair, GVC Holdings’ Bwin brand and The Stars Group’s flagship brand PokerStars.

Asian casino operator Donaco International says its new online gambling operation is producing “small amounts” of revenue but the company is working hard to grow the business.

On Thursday, the Australian-listed Donaco held its annual general meeting and issued a trading update for the first four months of its current fiscal year, which began June 30. Donaco is coming off a AU$125m loss in fiscal 2018 and the company cautioned that fiscal 2019 has gotten off to a “soft start.”

Star Vegas, Donaco’s primary casino in Poipet, Cambodia, saw VIP gaming turnover more than double in the first four months of FY19, but VIP win rate fell to 2.47% compared to 3.65% in the same period last year. However, the November win rate shot up to 4.4%, and Donaco expects this will smooth out the five-month average.

Slot machine revenue was down 22% despite the property’s average daily visitation shooting up 38% thanks to increased marketing. Donaco has booked new market tour groups from China and Korea in the hopes of further boosting foot-traffic, some of whom will hopefully gamble.

A Chinese tech tycoon is denying that his nine-figure gambling losses at Saipan’s Imperial Pacific casino are to blame for the near-bankruptcy of smartphone giant Gionee.

Last weekend, Chinese business media outlet Securities Times published an interview with Gionee chairman/CEO Liu Lirong in which he denied reports that he’d lost up to RMB10b (US$1.44b) gambling at the Imperial Pacific Resort casino on the island of Saipan.

Gionee, which holds 6% of China’s smartphone market, is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, with around RMB17b in debts on its balance sheet. Suppliers have cut off the company after several months of non-payments, leaving the company’s future severely in doubt.

In January, a court in the Chinese city of Dongguan ordered a two-year freeze of Liu’s 41% stake in Gionee, reportedly based on growing awareness of the exec’s mounting gambling debts.