The house always wins. In this case, the house is Hard Rock International and the loser is New Jersey’s Atlantic City. A report by the Press of Atlantic City reveals that Hard Rock has won a dispute over tax obligations in the city and will now receive $4.8 million from Atlantic City’s wallet.

Atlantic City will have to pay $1.2 million a year for four years, with the financial obligation beginning next year, according to a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Community Affairs, Lisa M. Ryan. The county in which Atlantic City lies, Atlantic County, will be responsible for 8% of the tab.

Dennis Levinson, Atlantic County Executive, stated, “We were told this was totally, completely settled. They can do whatever they want right now, as long as the cost is not passed along to county taxpayers.”

In 2017, New Jersey had asserted that all casino tax appeals, worth around $80 million, had been settled and bonded by Atlantic City. However, one small action had been overlooked. Ryan states, “Because of the timing of Hard Rock’s purchase of the [Taj Mahal Casino Resort] and the work that needed to be done to get the casino into the PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes agreement for casinos), the 2017 appeal was not able to be included in the $80 million bond ordinance the city approved in August 2017 to fund other property-tax appeals.”

PH Resorts, the Philippine-listed firm owned by businessman Dennis Uy, has received approval from the Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to hold a follow-on offering intended to fund several projects.

Local media outlets reported that the PHP18.48-billion ($350.46-million) follow-on offering for stock in PH Resorts, formerly known as Philippine H2O Ventures Corp., would involve selling 1.786 billion common shares at PHP9 ($0.17) apiece, with an option for an additional 267.94 million shares, or up to a total of 2.054 billion shares.

The company has acquired the services of CLSA Ltd. and UBS as international underwriters, with China Banking Corp. serving as the domestic lead underwriter for the offering.

The follow-on offering is set to be conducted within the first quarter of the year. It will be used to fund the development of the Emerald Resort and Casino in Mactan Island in Cebu province, an integrated resort in the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga, and the expansion of the Donatela Hotel in Panglao, Bohol in Central Visayas.

Casino operator Genting Malaysia is hoping that the Kuala Lumpur High Court will provide larger tax savings for the company.

In its filing, Genting Malaysia said that the High Court has granted its application for leave to begin judicial review of the Malaysian Ministry of Finance’s (MoF’s) amendments of an agreement that gave the company certain tax incentives, including an income tax exemption equivalent to 100% of qualifying capital expenditure incurred for a 10-year period.

The approval of such incentives had been granted in December 2014 in connection with the Genting Integrated Tourism Plan (GITP), but in December 2017, an amendment was made that “does not remove the tax incentives previously granted but will effectively prolong the utilisation period of the tax allowances significantly.”

According to a Maybank IB Research note cited by GGRAsia, this meant the payment of an additional MYR166.2 million ($40.1 million) in income taxes, increasing the losses the operator incurred in the third quarter of last year.

Two stories from the beginning of the World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open including a victory for Pascal Zaklama in the $600 buy-in Kickoff, and Barry Leventhal winning his third senior’s event since the start of 2018.

It’s what poker is all about, folks.

Where else in the world can you spend $600 on a bit of fun and walk away with close to $400,000 and a lifetime of stories to tell.

The 2019 World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Winter Poker Open is off to a cracking start after Pascal Zaklama took down the 5,130-entrant, $600 buy-in, $2m Guaranteed No-Limit Hold’em DeepStack Kick Off.