On Wednesday, it was announced that Diamond Fortune Holdings Prim LLC had receive a sizable investment from a Japanese firm that will enable them to speed up and enhance the casino and hotel scheduled to open near Vladivostok starting in September 2020.

We first reported the project back in June 2017 when ground was first broken on the project. The $900 million resort casino was to be stationed about 50 km outside of Vladivostok, one of the more popular tourist destinations in Asia.

Dubbed Selena, the first phase of the complex was to be open in 2019, but it was clear almost from the beginning that it would not be available until early 2020 at the earliest. The casino was to house up to 100 gaming tables and include 500 gaming machines, with the second phase opening as a 295 room hotel within two years of the completion of the first phase.

The industrious plan found itself behind schedule and there was some concern that it may never reach its final lofty goals. That is until Simple Create Company, Ltd became a partner in the project. Simple Create invested $270 million in the Selena project, which has now been renamed “Imperial.”

Ireland’s youths appear to have no problem accessing forbidden land-based gambling products but it’s a far more challenging environment online, according to the country’s latest (and extremely dated) gambling prevalence report.

This week, Ireland’s Health Research Board released its latest gambling prevalence study, which incredibly dates all the way back to 2014-15, which we guess is in keeping with the country’s tortoise-like approach to updating its gambling laws, but still…

The survey conducted face-to-face queries of 7,005 Irish residents aged 15+ between August 2014 to August 2015. The survey’s definition of gambling included everything from lottery tickets, casinos, online gambling, betting shops, racetracks to playing bingo and card games with family or friends.

Some 64.5% of respondents admitted gambling in some form over the previous 12 months, with 41.4% doing so on a monthly basis. Lottery products led the way with 56.7% participation, followed by betting in a bookmaker’s shop (15.3%), betting at a horse or dog track (12.7%) and playing cards for money with friends or family (7.8%).

Fewer UK sports bettors made in-play wagers during 2018, according to new statistics released by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC).

The UKGC’s latest annual report into the UK market’s gambling participation in 2018 shows remarkable consistency with the 2017 report, with overall participation up one point to 46% (51% for men over 16 years of age, 41% for women). Excluding individuals who only purchase National Lottery draw tickets, participation rose one point to 32%.

Online gambling participation was flat at 18% (23% for men, 15% for women), although this falls to 14% (also flat) when you exclude individuals whose only online gambling activity involves the National Lottery.

The number of online gamblers who made an in-play wager dropped three points to 23% in 2018. This drop was much higher (seven points) in the 35-44 age demo. In fact, all age demos save those in the 65+ group reported reduced participation in in-play wagering.