New Jersey’s online gambling market failed to set a new revenue record in February, despite online poker posting an extremely rare year-on-year improvement.

Figures released Wednesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) show the state’s licensed online gambling operators generated revenue of $31.75m in February, a 44.4% improvement over the same month last year but nearly $2m below January 2019’s record haul. It’s worth noting that February had three less days in which to generate revenue than January.

The state’s online casino licensees had a solid month, with revenue up 48.1% to $29.94m, although January’s online casino year-on-year percentage gain was a more robust 58.5%.

Online poker reported revenue of $1.8m last month, a modest year-on-year gain of 2.1%, but the market’s poker vertical has been on a seemingly unending downward spiral for years, making February’s improvement akin to spotting Chris Christie riding a unicorn down Atlantic City’s boardwalk.

If you’ve been looking forward to a little taste of London in Macau, then you’ll be happy to know that its slowly becoming a reality. GGRAsia reports the Sands Cotai Central has begun their renovation efforts, with the aim of being rebranded as “The Londoner Macau.”

The makeover is already apparent. Billboards have been put up in the atrium area of the ground floor, featuring the iconic red-circle logo of the London Underground subway system. There’s also images of an escalator, with a sign that reads in both English and Chinese, “Next stop, London.”

Wildred Wong Ying Wai, president and chief operating officer of Sands China, told reporters who might not have gotten the hint, “That is for the conversion of… The Londoner Macao hotel.” He also mentioned the new signs somehow related to the Holiday Inn Macao tower portion of the resort, but did not specify if parts of that hotel were now under renovation or closed to the public.

Las Vegas Sands originally announced their intention to rebrand the Macau casino in October, 2017, with a price tag of $1.1 billion. They’ve since doubled that estimate.

In a city that is specialized towards casino entertainment, a close eye has to be kept on problem gambling amongst the citizenry. Pleasantly for Macau, 2018 registered as their best year for that category yet, with the lowest total of problem gamblers registered ever.

GGRAsia reports that since Macau opened up registration for those who had gambling problems in 2011, a total of 1,146 people have registered for the list. In 2018, the lowest total ever joined the list, at just 133 people, 15.3% lower than the previous year.

Macau’s problem gambling program, called the “Central Registry System of Individuals with Gambling Disorder,” is used to both help the individuals who sign up, and to gain statistical information on those who sign up.

In 2018, 81% of those who signed up indicated that they were gainfully employed. Of that percentage, 12% worked as dealers in one of the local casinos.

The Greek philosopher Sophocles is quoted as saying, “I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.” That doesn’t appear to be the mantra of one dealer at the Melco Resorts temporary casino in Cyprus, following reports that he allegedly assisted a player to win at roulette on 18 different occasions over a one-month period.

According to reports, the 44-year-old dealer, whose name was not released, had been assisting a 53-year-old man win on the roulette table. Staff at the Cyprus casino found that he was acting suspiciously around the security cameras on the property.

The man was arrested immediately and has been in jail for the last four days, and the casino issued a statement, saying that they “won’t tolerate such behavior.” Currently, the dealer is facing fraud charges, which could be expanded as the investigation continues.

This revelation is a black mark on Melco Resorts. They had opened their casino in Cyprus in June as part of the development of four separate casinos across the Mediterranean. €550 million ($621.25 million) had been spent on the City of Dreams Mediterranean resort and casino facility, which is expected to be complete in 2021. A temporary structure is in place until the City of Dreams project can be completed.

Santa Ana Pueblo launched New Mexico’s first sportsbook in October of last year at the Santa Ana Star Casino Hotel. It got the jump on other tribes in the state and was able to operate as the sole sportsbook in New Mexico – until now. The Pojoaque Pueblo tribe introduced its own sportsbook, and the second in the state, this past Monday. The local market is just starting to pick up and odds are great that additional competition will soon follow.

The sportsbook is being managed through a partnership between the tribe, the owners of National Sports Book Management (NSBM) and South Point Hotel & Casino and is operating from the Hilton Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino in Santa Fe. It is the largest casino in Northern New Mexico and is the first to offer wagers on both sports and races.

NSBM co-founder John Gaughan will see his other company, Las Vegas Dissemination Company, provide a suit of solutions for the sportsbook and for pari-mutuel races. It will install gambling kiosks and offer hardware and software support and will incorporate technology provided by the Stadium Technology Group.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) last May, only a few states have already implemented legalized sports gambling, but more are prepared to follow. New Mexico does not have any legislation in place that specifically addresses the activity; however, state lawmakers have interpreted compacts between the tribes and the state as giving the tribes the green light to launch their own sports gambling solutions.

A huge scandal is surfacing across the U.S. that revolves around a large number of high-profile individuals. From Hollywood celebrities to bankers to industry executives, parents have been paying millions of dollars so that their children could go to elite colleges and universities, even if they weren’t qualified. The scandal has hit the casino industry and the fallout could be wide-reaching.

The U.S. Attorney General’s Office for the District of Massachusetts has revealed that at least 33 parents have used their wealth and position to secure entrances into higher education facilities for their children. Among these is Gamal Aziz, also known as Gamal Abdelaziz, who has held positions at casino giants such as MGM Resorts, Wynn Resorts and Caesars Entertainment. Most recently, he has been the president of Wynn Macau, as well as president and Chief Operating Officer of Wynn Resorts Development, but left the company in 2016. Aziz was fundamental in the launch of the Encore Boston Harbor casino in Massachusetts for Wynn Resorts.

The issue isn’t just that the parents used their wealth to secure the school admission. They are also being charged by the Department of Justice (DOJ) with bribery and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud.

According to the scheme, parents would pay “contributions” to a for-profit college counseling and prep organization run by William Singer. That business would then use those contributions to manipulate anything from sports programs to college entrance exams in order for the children to be accepted to schools such as Yale, Stanford, the University of Southern California (USC), Georgetown and more. The DOJ complaint reads, “Between approximately 2011 and February 2019, Singer allegedly conspired with dozens of parents, athletic coaches, a university athletics administrator, and others, to use bribery and other forms of fraud to secure the admission of students to colleges and universities.”

A lawsuit pending in Massachusetts against Wynn Resorts and its former CEO, Steve Wynn, seeks to settle, once and for all, the case surrounding how the Encore Boston Harbor project came to be approved. The lawsuit was submitted by the previous owners of the Suffolk Downs Racetrack in East Boston, Suffolk Racecourse LLC. Suffolk had bid on, but ultimately lost to Wynn, the Massachusetts license in 2014 and has asserted that the eventual winner was awarded the license only through racketeering and circumvention of laws. Wynn has now filed a motion to try to have the case thrown out, and might be able to pull it off.

Suffolk is seeking $3 billion under what is known in the U.S. as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as the RICO act. Wynn lawyers assert that the statute of limitations on filing a RICO claim has expired and, therefore, the lawsuit shouldn’t be valid. They explain in seeking the suit dismissal, “A plaintiff must bring a RICO claim within four years of the date that he knew or should have known for his injury. The Amended Complaint fails to transform alleged misrepresentations to a state licensing authority — a garden variety state law issue — into a federal crime.”

Suffolk has alleged, almost since the deal was awarded to Wynn, that the plot of land that ultimately became the home of the Encore Boston Harbor project was compromised and that local politicians and Wynn officials were aware of it. The property had been owned by FTB Everett Realty, which was partially owned by Charles A. Lightbody, a convicted felon who reportedly had ties to organized crime.

Lightbody was also tied to Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria and Suffolk has argued that the government official accepted kickbacks in order to sway the deal to Wynn. The company has argued that former Massachusetts Gaming Commissioner Stephen Crosby was involved, as well, and used his position to direct the license to Wynn.