In announcements made to the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange, Bursa Malaysia, Genting Bhd has indicated that the son of the chairman and CEO of Genting and Genting Malaysia has been appointed as the Deputy CEO of the company. Lim Keong Hui is the scion of Lim Kok Thay, who is also the major shareholder in both Genting and Genting Malaysia.

The 34-year-old Lim begins his new assignment as of today. He previously served as the executive director of Genting and Genting Malaysia, as well as being the companies’ Chief Information Officer. Lim is a shareholder of both companies.

Genting Malaysia has also announced that Alwi Bin Jantan has been tapped to become its deputy chairman. He replaces 79-year-old Mohammed Hai Bin Omar, who is stepping down after an illustrious career. Alwi is an 83-year-old Malaysian who served as a non-executive director of the company. He also begins his new responsibilities as of today.

Genting Malaysia is one of Asia’s top gaming companies. It operates Resorts World Genting and has additional venues in the UK, the Bahamas and the U.S. It is behind Resorts World Las Vegas, which is currently the subject of a lawsuit by Wynn Resorts over concerns that the architecture of the venue is too similar to that of Wynn’s property on the Vegas Strip. In actuality, the only way the two venues could be confused is after a heavy night of binge drinking.

Emperor Entertainment Hotel Ltd. is bumping up its stake in a casino in Macau, the Grand Emperor Hotel. It is reportedly working on a deal that will see it grab another 5% of the casino’s parent company, British Virgin Islands-registered Luck United Holdings Ltd., giving the company an equity stake worth 80% in the company. The deal is expected to be finalized on or before March 15 of this year.

The company announced its intentions in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last Thursday. It added that it considered the purchase a “tremendous opportunity for the company to further increase and concentrate the stake in Luck United at a deep discount.”

Emperor further asserted, “In recent years, the target group continued to achieve a stable performance in entertainment and hospitality services in Macau and generate recurrent income for the group. Such acquisition can enable the group to realise such good investment opportunity and utilise financial resources efficiently.”

During the first half of last year, Emperor saw a decrease in total revenue of 5.2% year-on-year. This was attributable to a decline in gaming revenue. The company said at the time, “While [the] VIP segment delivered stable performance, [the] gaming concourse segment was lacklustre as a result of capacity expansion in Cotai. Nevertheless, the group strived to enhance the table yield and improve customer segmentation, which enabled the group to mitigate, to a certain extent, the impact of heightened competition.”

Last week, Dr. Shashi Tharoor put forward a bill in the Lok Sabah, the lower House of Parliament for India, that would provide for regulations of sports betting and match fixing. Jay Sayta, founder of Indian gambling news site Glaws.in and expert on the Indian gambling industry, recently sat down for an interview with moneycontrol.com to shed more light on what this regulation means for India.

When asked who would benefit from this new bill, Sayta responded “The Bill, if passed, will ensure that competitive sports become cleaner and less prone to rigging or fixing. Thus, it will benefit sports federations, sports fans and the entire sports industry.”

More specifically to gambling, Sayta continued, “Regulation of online sports betting will benefit technology companies that are trying to innovate in this space, it will benefit consumers by ensuring they get a cleaner product and also benefit the government by enabling it to earn huge tax revenue.”

Glaws founder goes on to describe the fractured gambling laws and regulations that have been established by state legislatures, in the absence of serious legislation from the federal government. Most legislation doesn’t account for online gambling and games of skill are exempted from definitions of gambling in most states.

Playtech, the online gambling technology firm, has come to an agreement with Israeli authorities following a civil tax audit. As a result, Playtech has agreed to pay an additional €28 million (approximately $32 million) in taxes for the period covering 2008 to 2017.

This announcement came on January 2, although the agreement was reached on December 31, 2018. The adjustment comes due to transfer pricing adjustments for their business conducted in Israel, or in other words, transfers between different parts of the company.

This tax adjustment may be the result of a fairly routine audit, but it piles on to other bad tax news for Playtech. Back in December, Playtech warned investors they would be pulling back on their 2019 earnings forecast due to tax hikes they estimated to be at €20-25 million. That was based on Italian senate legislation, so this additional tax hit will likely further sour investors. At the time of that announcement, Playtech shares took a 7% dump.

It’s not all bad news for Playtech however. In December, their subsidiary Quickspin was announced as one of the first providers that will be allowed into the regulated Swedish market. They also announced a new partnership with iovation, as well as the launch of Poland’s first regulated online casino. These are all signs of growth for the firm, and will pay dividends over time. Those announcements preceded the Italian and Israeli tax news however, so they are unlikely to help the stock price anytime soon.

Macau-based casino operator Macau Legend Development Limited has agreed to purchase several parcels of land in Siem Reap Province, Cambodia totaling 1,200 hectares, for the development of an integrated resort (IR).

In its filing at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the company said that the shares in Howing Enterprises Co., Ltd, which holds the land, were sold by Wang Jiemin, also known as Wang Kitman, for $90 million.

A memorandum of understanding between the two parties had already been signed as early as June 6, 2014, when a $90-million refundable amount had been deposited.

Macau Legend is the operator of the Babylon and Legend Palace casinos in Macau, as well as one in Savan Legend Resorts Hotel and Entertainment Complex in Laos. The company said that the planned Siem Reap casino will allow it “to take part in and benefit from the tourism industry of Cambodia, which is important for the Group’s long-term development as well as the broadening of its revenue base.”

Gross gaming revenue (GGR) in Macau totaled MOP302.85 billion ($37.57 billion) for 2018, according to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ).

The amount was 14% higher than the MOP265.74 billion ($32.97 billion) posted in 2017. In a note, Union Gaming’s Grant Govertsen said the year’s revenue would have been even higher by as much as 1%, but for three one-time events, namely Typhoon Mangkhut in mid-September, the mid-Autumn festival’s timing, and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit during the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau (HKZM) Bridge last October.

The GGR figures, according to Govertsen, were “broadly in line with our initial projections for the year (mid-teens) albeit with an even better mix of mass business relative to VIP than originally expected.”

He added that while a 15.3% increase in visitor arrivals to the Special Administrative Region in November has been attributed to the HKZM Bridge, the increase in visits has not made for added casino activity, with the bridge serving as substitute to ferry services to and from Hong Kong and Zhuhai, passing through Macau.

Two stories from the lands of partypoker with partypoker TV screening a Dave’ Devilfish’ Ulliot documentary, and Patrick Leonard earning $100k+ on PokerStars during a mighty fine festive period. 

It’s funny how life deals you a hand. One minute, I’m drunk, sitting in front of the idiot box, watching in awe, as this wizard-like wordsmith tantalises the table on Late Night Poker, and then I’m sitting in a swanky restaurant on the Champs-Élysées wishing he’d tone it down a tad.

That wasn’t his bag.

Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliot was the type of man who emerged from a coal mine without a speck of dirt on his frame, singing like the canary in the cage.

888Live has announced an interim schedule for 2019 including a brand new stop in Vienna, a return to Barcelona, and continued relationships with the World Series of Poker and Battle of Malta.

888Live: new stop in Vienna and continued partnerships with WSOP & BOM

888Live has announced an interim schedule for 2019 including a brand new stop in Vienna, a return to Barcelona, and extended partnerships with the World Series of Poker and Battle of Malta.

2018 belonged to partypoker.

Manig Loeser wins his second live tournament of the month after beating 1,250-entrants in a $400 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Monster Stack event as part of the Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza V in Las Vegas.

I’m going to the shop to buy a lottery ticket, win, and then use the money to buy a Dalí at Sotheby’s, and then wager it on my belief that Manig Loeser will be the Tarzan of the High Roller jungle this year.

As we pulled the Russian fur hat out of the box marked Winter the Vienna-based maestro was taking down a 42-entrant $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at The Bellagio as part of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $321,300.

Here is a reminder of that top quality final table.

Is 2018 finally over? You bet it is. Vegas has 10-1 odds. Let’s all take a moment to reflect on some of the fun things that happened while we all figure out where exactly we are and where we put our various articles of clothing, and what exactly happened last night.

A Year Beginning With Happy Endings

It was a year, first and foremost, of many happy endings, particularly for Steve Wynn, who happily ended his tenure as CEO of Wynn Resorts, after experiencing one too many happy endings from manicurists who were not his wife but whom speculators believe gave really amazing manicures.

The fallout from the allegations had us all captivated for days, profusely sweating gratitude that we would have at least a few hours respite from news stories about Stephanie Gregory Clifford – porn star name Stormy Daniels – and Donald Trump’s sex lives, allowing us to all concentrate on far more pressing matters like Steve Wynn’s sex life. Wynn, whose porn star name according to the Porn Star Name Generator is “Gunnar Dangle”  denied the allegations “hotly”, according to an NBC News expose on the matter that was basically ripped off from the Wall Street Journal. Except for the word “hotly,” which ironically does not appear in the original WSJ piece. It was then copy-pasted to NBC by a reporter by the name of “Corky”, who to my surprise is actually not a porn star, but the brother of actor Kazimierz “Casey” Siemaszko, of Three O’Clock High fame, one of my favorite 80’s movies.

The bowl season wraps up on New Year’s Day – the College Football Playoff national title matchup technically isn’t a bowl – with five games. Is it odd that the NCAA stages bowl games after its semifinals? Yes, but at least the organization didn’t mess with the New Year’s Day annual extravaganza.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

The New Year begins with No. 18 Mississippi State of the SEC facing Iowa of the Big Ten in the Outback Bowl from Tampa. The Hawkeyes will be without one the nation’s best tight ends for the game in Noah Fant as he’s skipping to prepare for the NFL draft. Then again, Fant might not be the best tight end on his own team. Hawkeyes sophomore T.J. Hockenson won the Mackey Award given to the country’s best at the position, and he’s playing. MSU is -7 and covered its past four games as a favorite.

The Fiesta Bowl from Glendale, Arizona, features No. 11 LSU of the SEC and No. 8 Central Florida (AAC), which for the second year in a row couldn’t break its way into the College Football Playoff despite an unbeaten record. Just a shame that a program on a 25-game winning streak can’t compete for a title. The Knights are without star quarterback McKenzie Milton as he suffered a serious knee injury in the regular-season finale. They are 7.5-point underdogs to LSU, and UCF is 5-1 ATS in its past six as a dog.

Week 20 of the English Premier League sees Liverpool slam Arsenal, Spurs slip up against Wolves, and Man City get back to winning ways with a win over Southampton.

Liverpool 5 v 1 Arsenal

I spent the last remnants of 2018 making a Korean dumpling soup called Manduguk. I was back in the womb, worry-free, food on tap, the music of my mother making me merry.

I didn’t want 2018 to end.