Despite pressure from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte has not backed down from her city’s new ordinance, which would charge locals a fee for entering a new Bloomberry casino in the city. In a press statement sent to CalvinAyre.com, PAGCOR continues to argue Belmonte has crossed a line.

As has become their habit, PAGCOR continues to point to legal precedent of what will happen if Belmonte forces a court case. This new statement points to three court decisions that they believe will foreshadow a loss for Quezon City, if the ordinance isn’t repealed first.

In the 1991 case of ‘Basco vs. PAGCOR,’ the court ruled that PAGCOR’s charter gives them the sole right to set taxes and fees for gambling operations. Cities can only tax up to the limitations of what the national congress allows. This should remove the ability of Quezon City to impose its local fee.

Then to add on to that, they cite the 1994 ruling of ‘City of Cagayan de Oro vs. Pryce and PAGCOR,’ where the court determined that municipal governments are only agents of the national government, and “cannot be superior to Congress from which they derive their powers.”

On March 5, Scientific Games announced that they would be offering notes in an attempt to raise $1.1 billion, which could be used to pay off unsecured notes that were due to mature in 2022. That goal appears to have been reached, as they have exceeded the $1 billion in outstanding unsecured notes.

The rate of return on the notes will be 8.25% according to the company and will exist as senior unsecured debt notes. They are to be paid by the year 2026 as the company guarantees payment of 100% on the issued price plus interest.

This appears to be a rather shrewd move by Scientific Games. By paying off the $1 billion in unsecured notes, they have actually decreased the amount of interest that they will have to pay to investors. The notes that were set to mature in 2022 had a 10% return on them, saving the company 1.75% per note while giving them additional time to pay those who purchased the notes. According to Deutsche Bank Securities, this is expected to save Scientific Games at least $9 million a year in interest payments.

Scientific Games has found itself in a bit of a financial mess over the last couple of years. Despite seeing a significant increase in profit in the fourth quarter of 2018, reaching nearly $207 million, the company still reported a net loss in 2018 of $353 million. This was an increase of over $110 million from the previous year.

The ASEAN Gaming Summit 2019 came to a close after the discussion of potentially the biggest untapped market in the world, India. Ankush Gera of Junglee Games led a round table of several important figures in the Indian gambling industry, including Naveen Goyal of Khel Group, Amar Gahlot of L&S Attorneys, Sudhir Kamath of 9stacks Poker, and Jaydeep Chakravartty of Nektan.

The discussion began on the topic of sports betting. According to the panel, some areas of the subcontinent could see the activity become legalized in the next two years, but that could take longer. The expectation is that India will follow the American example, and different states will regulate sports betting according to their own preferences.

The group asked themselves what will happen to the already fairly successful fantasy sports market once sports betting is introduced. One participant noted that in Europe, were sports betting came first, fantasy sports has never taken off. Goyal felt there’s room for both, if they are marketed correctly. Fantasy sports can be seen as the more casual, entertainment activity, whereas sports betting can be presented as the faster, simpler option of betting.

The discussion then turned to poker, which by the looks of it, will be huge in India. It currently brings in somewhere between $50 to $60 million in revenue with 60% growth year over year, which Gera noted will add up quickly. It gets this growth from a younger, metropolitan audience, who see it as a much cooler, more sophisticated game than the more popular rummy.

Sweden’s gambling regulator has fined two of its online licensees for allowing self-excluded gamblers to access online gambling products.

On Friday, the Spelinspektionen regulatory body announced that it had imposed a SEK4m (US$430k) penalty on Genesis Global Ltd, which operates nine Swedish-licensed online gambling brands, for allowing play from customers whose names appear on the Spelpaus self-exclusion register.

The failures date back to the first few days of Sweden’s new regulated online gambling market in early January. Genesis Global said at the time that the problem stemmed from “a failure in a third-party’s system integrating to Spelpaus” and that it had taken adequate steps to fix the integration problem.

Spelinspektionen also imposed a SEK100k fine on Paf, the online gambling operator in Finland’s autonomous Swedish-speaking Åland Islands region, for similar self-exclusion failures. Spelinspektionen director-general Camilla Rosenberg told Dagens Media that the disparity in the two fines issued Friday reflected the two companies’ respective gambling turnover, how long the infractions persisted and how each company responded to the issue.

Kosovo plans to ban gambling within its borders following two murders at local gambling venues.

On Friday, an extraordinary session of Kosovo’s parliament approved a measure to suspend operations at all gambling venues ahead of a permanent ban on their operations. Avdullah Hoti, leader of the opposition Democratic League of Kosovo (DLK) party, put forward the motion, which received unanimous support from all 74 sitting MPs.

Kosovo officials wasted no time enforcing the government’s suspension of gambling. Serbia’s Tanjug media outlet reported that police, customs and tax authorities launched a coordinated effort Friday morning to ensure the immediate closure of all gambling venues. (Presumably, outlets flogging the state-run Lotaria e Kosovës lottery and betting products will be exempt.)

The government now plans to introduce new legislation within 30 days that will permanently outlaw gambling venues. Friday’s anti-gambling push received a thumbs-up from Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, who posted a note on Facebook saying the government would seek cabinet approval of the measure next week. Haradinaj added that the government could no longer allow casinos and betting shops “to be arenas of crime that claim people’s lives.”

UK-listed gambling operator GVC Holdings is on the hunt for a new chairman as current chair Lee Feldman is heading for the exits.

On Friday, Sky News broke the story that Feldman (pictured) planned to surrender his chairman’s seat on or about the company’s annual general meeting on June 5. Following the report, the company confirmed Feldman was on his way out and that the process of identifying his replacement was “under way and in its early stages.”

Feldman has been GVC chairman since 2008 and recent changes to the UK corporate governance code recommend that chairs of publicly traded companies not occupy their position for longer than nine years, making Feldman’s exit something of a foregone conclusion.

However, the announcement comes just two weeks after Feldman sold 900k GVC shares – more than three-quarters of his total stake in the company – netting a £6m payday in the process. GVC CEO Kenny Alexander sold 2.06m shares – also over three-quarters of his stake – worth £13.7m on the same day. The ensuing investor panic resulted in the shares closing the day’s trading down 14%.