The Philippines have added another hurdle for international online gambling operators. On February 18, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has asked that all Philippines offshore gaming operations (POGOs) register with them first before securing a gambling license.

It’s not just asking though, they’ve also reached out to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR), the licensing body for POGOs, asking them not to issue any licenses until BIR certification was granted. This applies for both new and renewed licenses.

Cheering on the move, the President’s office said this would help the country keep tabs on Chinese nationals working in the country, and ensure those persons were following all national laws. “That’s a good measure to determine exactly how many Chinese nationals who are here in violation of our laws,” said Salvador Panelo, President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesperson.

How additional paperwork with what amounts to a tax agency can keep tabs on Chinese nationals is not made clear. It would seem that this additional requirement is much more of an additional fee system than any kind of immigration check, as the Bureau of Immigration is already looking at the matter of Chinese workers in the industry.

According to GGRAsia, a soft launch of the first phase of a new multi-billion dollar casino resort being backed by Suncity Group Holdings in Vietnam is coming this fall. The resort, called Hoiana, is located in Hoi An on Vietnam’s central coast and phase one includes three hotels, a condo-hotel complex with 270 units dubbed the Hoiana Residence and an 18-hole golf course.

Suncity Executive Director Andrew Lo Kai Bong told GGRAsia, “We expect it [the first phase] to open in October, and by then basically 90 percent of the first-phase content will be launched – such as the golf course, and hotels. But that should be a soft opening. We’ve aimed a grand [full] opening of it before the Chinese New Year period in 2020.”

The complex is being built by VinaCapital Group, an asset management firm belonging to Vietnam-based Hoi An South Development Ltd., and a subsidiary of Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Ltd. out of Hong Kong. Suncity became involved last August when it acquired a 34% stake in the project.

When the casino opens, locals will unfortunately not be allowed. Vietnam is currently running a pilot program at one casino, the Corona Resort in the country – with one more to be added – that allows locals to gamble. However, Hoiana will have to wait until the end of the two-year trial ends before a determination is made if locals will be allowed to gamble in casinos.

Malta-licensed online gaming operators have illegally been targeting gamblers in Norway. This is the assertion of the Norwegian Gaming Authority (NGA), known as the Lotteri- og stiftelsestilsynet, which is now going after six companies for violating the country’s laws.

According to the Times of Malta, Norway has banned all transactions related to the six “illegal” firms, which include the Kindred Group, Dino Gaming Ltd., the Betsson Group, Co-Gaming, Ltd., L&L Europe Players Ltd. and the Gaming Innovation Group (GIG). The first two received warnings this month, while the others had been issued warning letters last November.

As a result of the ban, banks in Norway can no longer transfer money to any account held by the companies. The NGA asserts that they were all marketing their services in Norway and providing online betting services to Norwegians without state permission.

Only two companies are authorized to provide gambling services in the country – sportsbook and casino games operator Norsk Tipping and race betting operator Norsk Rikstoto. The crackdown comes as Norway tries to clean up its local gambling space and prevent unauthorized companies from operating there.

Universal Entertainment Corp. can extend its gratitude to Wynn Resorts for having a successful 2018, although Wynn might not take the appreciation seriously. The Japan-based gaming company said in a filing with the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) last Thursday that its net profit came in at around $1.56 billion last year – up from the $121.47 million it lost a year earlier – due primarily to a settlement between the company and Wynn.

Wynn paid Universal $1.437 billion in compensation last year in order to settle a dispute over stock redemptions. Part of the reason for the 2017 losses stemmed from the litigation over that dispute.

Net sales at Universal increase to just under $843.67 million in 2018, a significant jump above the $620.06 million it reported a year earlier. The increase came as revenue increased from both the sale and manufacture of pachinko machines, as well as an increase in revenue at the Okada Manila. The Okada Manila was able to add more hotel rooms and restaurants, as well as open new VIP gaming areas and cater to gamblers on junkets, in order to lift its sales.

In its filing with the TSE, Universal stated, “[The] Philippine gaming market in 2018 continued to grow at an annual rate in excess of 13 percent, and [the] Okada Manila’s share in the market increased due to the opening of integrated resort components and differentiations in terms of the scale of facilities and the quality of services.”

The process that ultimately saw Wynn Resorts receive a license to build a casino resort in Boston, Massachusetts was a fraud. This is the claim of a competing company, Sterling Suffolk Racecourse, which is seeking $3 billion in compensation from the Las Vegas-based casino giant.

Sterling filed its lawsuit last September, asserting the licensing processing was rife with fraud, cronyism and marred by “a number of improprieties. The lawsuit was recently amended to include complaints that the former chairman of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC), Stephen Crosby, had been compromised due to a “decades-long” friendship that he had with one of the owners of the property that had been purchased by Wynn Resorts for the new complex.

Wynn purchased the 36-acre tract of land from FBT Everett Realty, which was born as a joint venture that includes Paul Lohnes as its majority owner. Lohnes is reportedly a long-time friend of Crosby, who was in charge of the MGC at the time the purchase was made.

Sterling asserts in its lawsuit that Lohnes and Crosby had repeated contact in 2012, coincidentally at the same time Wynn was searching for property for its resort. The lawsuit specifically points out that the two met in May 2012 and that Crosby showed “an interest in brining casino operators to Everett, even though the Everett Site had not yet been marketing before that time, even by its owners, for use as a casino.”

The recent crackdown on money transactions in China doesn’t seem to have impacted Macau’s casino industry. At least, not yet. This is the takeaway from a recent announcement by the Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. brokerage, which asserts that the new rules have not had a negative effect on the city’s gaming market.

Analysts with Bernstein, Vitaly Umansky, Eunice Lee and Kelsey Zhu, pointed out that the new rules don’t appear to have hurt the industry, but that only time will tell the real outcome. They stated, “The devil is in the details and enforcement. It’s unclear as of yet what (if anything) the government will target.”

The analysts further noted, “The junket conversations we have had so far are that there has been some ‘chatter’ around these new pronouncements, but this seems more like talk and nothing more at this stage. From our sources, there has been no meaningful disruption in money flows in the channels – i.e. ‘business as usual.’”

At the end of January, China introduced new rules, or variations on existing rules, that regulate certain types of foreign currency transactions. Bernstein’s industry experts explained, “The rules, issued by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (the prosecutor general), highlight a slew of foreign exchange movement transactions, most of which are already illegal in China.”