GVC Holdings’ Russian-licensed online sports betting operation Bwin.ru is reportedly negotiating a potential partnership with other Russian bookmakers, including Parimatch.

On Friday, Russian media outlet Kommersant reported that Digital Betting LLC, the Russian firm with which the UK-listed GVC launched the Bwin.ru joint venture in November 2017, was negotiating a tie-up with Cyprus-based Parimatch Holding, which operates in Russia via a licensing deal with Betring LLC.

Komersant claimed that Digital Betting was discussing similar possibilities with S8 Holding, the parent company of both Russian-licensed online bookmaker 888.ru (which has no affiliation with UK-licensed 888 Holdings) and the Stoloto lottery operation.

Digital Betting is owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut, who also owns online tech firm Rambler & Co, another member of the Bwin.ru joint venture. Until recently, Digital Betting CEO Dmitry Sergeyev was also involved in Rambler, but Sergeyev announced his exit from Rambler earlier this week.

A long-running feud between two native tribes in Connecticut and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has come to an end, for now. The tribes have dropped their lawsuit against the department, which had been submitted after the former Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, had allegedly worked to prevent the tribes from expanding their casino operations.

The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, along with Connecticut, had sued the DOI in 2017. Lawmakers in the state had asked Zinke to approve amended gaming compacts after Connecticut authorized the tribes to build a joint casino project in East Windsor. Zinke never responded and the state, with the tribes, argued that Zinke had been influenced by MGM, which operates the MGM Springfield in Massachusetts, the northern neighbor to Connecticut.

Zinke vacated his position earlier this year, but is still the target of a federal investigation into his actions.

David Bernhardt now holds the reigns at the DOI and allowed Interior Department Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney to review the tribal compacts. On March 15, she approved the compacts.

A long-running feud between two native tribes in Connecticut and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has come to an end, for now. The tribes have dropped their lawsuit against the department, which had been submitted after the former Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, had allegedly worked to prevent the tribes from expanding their casino operations.

The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, along with Connecticut, had sued the DOI in 2017. Lawmakers in the state had asked Zinke to approve amended gaming compacts after Connecticut authorized the tribes to build a joint casino project in East Windsor. Zinke never responded and the state, with the tribes, argued that Zinke had been influenced by MGM, which operates the MGM Springfield in Massachusetts, the northern neighbor to Connecticut.

Zinke vacated his position earlier this year, but is still the target of a federal investigation into his actions.

David Bernhardt now holds the reigns at the DOI and allowed Interior Department Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney to review the tribal compacts. On March 15, she approved the compacts.

Lawmakers in Maine are discussing proposals that, if approved, would allow the state’s first tribal casino. The idea isn’t sitting well with commercial casino operators or other local businesses in the state, who are concerned that the market could become too saturated. Maine, home to more than 1 million residents has only two commercial casinos.

The Passamaquoddy tribe, represented by Rena Newell, spoke before the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee (VLAC) this week, urging the committee members to consider the legislation in earnest in order to allow the tribe to prosper and to reduce friction between the state and the native tribe.

One bill would see multiple state tribes launch table games and slot machines at a venue located at least 50 miles from one of the existing casinos, the Oxford Casino & Hotel in Oxford and the Hollywood Casino in Bangor. Alongside the Passamaquoddy, the Penobscot Nation, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians and the Aroostook Band of Micmacs could be included under that proposal.

Another bill suggest allowing the Passamaquoddy tribe to install 50 slot machines at a gambling hall in Washington County. That facility already offers beano and the bill allocates 25% of net slot machine income to Maine’s General Fund.

Two casinos in upstate New York are looking to reduce the number of slot machines on their floors. Depending on who you talk to, this is either planning for the future, or a cost cutting move, reports NewYorkUpstate.

Resorts World Catskills, near Monticello in New York, and Tioga Downs, located just outside Binghamton, have received approval from the New York State Gaming Commission to the reduce their number of machines. Resorts World Catskills will drop from 2,150 to 1600 slots, and Tigoa Downs from 942 to 822.

Putting a good face on the move, Jeff Gurral, owner of Tioga Downs, said he’s planning to use the freed up space for sports betting, assuming the state will approve the activity in the near future. Resorts World Catskills didn’t comment on the reason for the reduction, but a pretty strong one can be figured out from looking at the bottom line.

Clyde Barrow, a professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, said:

In 2018, Travellers International Hotel Group Inc. was undoubtedly hoping for a return to normalcy and big profits. It looks like they got just that, as the owner and operator of Resorts World Manila reported a profit of PHP1.4 Billion ($26.6 million), almost 400 percent better than 2017.

Of course, 2017 couldn’t have gone much more poorly. The June 1, 2017 lone gunman robbery and arson of Resorts World Manila shut down the casino for the month, causing the senseless death of 38 people, a loss of revenue, and huge renovation costs.

Because of that attack, Travellers had a PHP312 million ($6 million) loss for Q2 2017, and reduced profits for the year to PHP241 million ($4.61 million), which was a 92% drop from 2016.

These 2018 numbers haven’t caught up yet to those 2016 numbers, they’d need to more than double to do that, so the damage is still there, but at least there’s signs of growth.

UK-listed online gambling technology provider GAN is mulling flogging itself to the highest bidder now that it’s US-based operations are growing.

On Friday, GAN informed investors that its net revenue hit £10.6m in 2018, a 16% improvement over 2017’s tally. However, the company’s so-called ‘clean’ earnings swung to a £1.5m loss from a modest £454k profit in 2017 and the company’s pre-tax losses grew by £2.5m to £6.7m.

GAN insists that the negative numbers don’t tell the full story, noting that its US-facing real-money online gambling and sports betting operations grew much quicker than its free-play Simulated Gaming business, which launched only one new client in 2018. Last year marked the first time that real-money gaming revenue (£5.3m) eclipsed GAN’s social casino operations (£4.3m).

GAN launched its second real-money online casino client in New Jersey (Ocean Resort Casino) last July, joining the New Jersey-licensed Betfair Casino site of UK operator Paddy Power Betfair (PPB). GAN also helped launch online sports betting for PPB’s FanDuel brand in New Jersey.