UK-listed gambling operator Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) is rebranding as Flutter Entertainment after reporting a double-digit profit decline in 2018.

On Wednesday, PPB revealed that its 2018 revenue hit £1.87b, 7% higher than the year prior, while underlying earnings fell 5% to £451m and pre-tax profits slipped 11% to £219m. The profit plunge was blamed on the company’s US market expansion efforts, including its purchase of FanDuel’s US-facing operations last spring. Unimpressed investors pushed the share price down 2.6% at the close of Wednesday’s trading.

The report’s biggest headline was the company’s proposal to rebrand as Flutter Entertainment plc in May, subject to shareholder approval at the company’s annual general meeting. The company insists that here are “no plans to use this historical name for consumers,” but believe the name change will reflect the “increased diversity of our brands and operations.”

The Flutter brand originally belonged to a betting exchange rival to Betfair, which ultimately merged with Betfair in 2001. Flutter co-founder Josh Hannah was a member of Betfair’s board until 2014, roughly two years before Betfair merged its operations with Paddy Power.

Online gambling giant The Stars Group (TSG) hailed its “landmark” 2018 financial performance following the transformative acquisition of UK betting operator Sky Betting & Gaming (SBG).

On Wednesday, TSG revealed that its Q418 revenue jumped 81.2% to US$652.8m, adjusted earnings gained nearly 63% to $239.4m while posting a net loss of $38.2m, thanks to ongoing costs related to its SBG acquisition, TSG’s various Australian add-ons (now grouped under the BetEasy banner) and US market expansion costs.

For the year as a whole, revenue rose 54.6% to just over $2b, adjusted earnings improved 30% to $781m while the company posted a net loss of $108.9m versus a $259.3m net profit in 2017. Investors apparently liked what they saw, as TSG’s share price was up over 14% on the Nasdaq in Wednesday’s early trading.

The company’s ongoing transformation is most evident in its product mix. Poker accounted for 35% of TSG’s overall revenue last year, down significantly from the dominant 65% share in 2017. Betting claimed a 32% share, while casino wasn’t far back with 30%.

The good news keeps on coming for South Korean operator Paradise Co Ltd. They have reported revenues have increased by 28.5% in February, or approximately KRW55.83 billion ($49.6 million USD) compared to the same month in February 2018, according to GGRAsia.

This increase reflected better revenues across the board. Table revenues increased 28.8 perecent, and machine games brought in an additional 24.5 percent as well.

The operator runs four casinos in South Korea, all accepting only foreigners. Their locations include Walkerhill in Seoul, Jeju Grand on Jeju Island, Busan Casino in Busan and the Paradise City in Incheon, a short drive from Seoul.

This adds to a strong January, and as a whole, Paradise Co is up 15.2% for the first two months of the year.

Despite attempts at preventing them, illicit money exchanges are still a part of the gambling landscape in Macau. Now the gaming industry has agreed to step in and try to burst the bubble, agreeing to take a more active role in trying to prevent the activity.

During a meeting with government officials, including the local gaming regulator and high-ranking police officials, last Friday, representatives from Macau’s casino industry pledged to cooperate with ongoing enforcement activities and to improve the checks conducted at their own facilities in order to curb illicit money exchanges.

The representatives pointed out that the activity has decreased, thanks to the efforts of the police force, but that the casinos are ready to help tackle the issue more proactively.

Over the past two months, according to government sources, there have been around 1,000 arrests of individuals suspected of participating in illicit money exchanges. Over the course of 2018, a total of 3,050 from outside of Macau were their alleged involvement in the activity. All of those were escorted out of the city, but no information has been offered regarding to where they were sent.

If anyone expected California to open its doors to sports gambling anytime soon, those hopes have been squashed. A proposed initiative that would have allowed the activity in the state didn’t even gain enough support to qualify for an appearance on the 2020 ballot, and the deadline for introducing new sports gambling-related bills expired last month.

The initiative was created by Californians for Sports Betting, a group campaigning for legislative changes to allow sports gambling in The Golden State. It was introduced last June, which should have given it more than ample opportunity to gain support. However, out of the approximately 623,000 signatures needed for the measure to be placed on voters’ ballots next year, the initiative did not receive even one.

Russell Lowery, a consultant for the group, asserts, “We never advanced to get a single signature. It started a conversation in California gaming on what is the right path forward, and those conversations will continue until they figure out the puzzle.”

As the group tried to drum up support for the initiative, they met a considerable amount of resistance as many who want to see sports gambling come to California are hoping lawmakers can make progress. Lowery believes those individuals are looking at the problem from the wrong angle. He states, “The difference between June and today is everyone understands it’s not going to happen legislatively without some sort of pressure from an initiative. In the cardroom and sports betting industry, I think everyone now understands that if it’s going to happen, it’s going to be through an initiative.”

The gambling space of Sri Lanka just got a little more costly. The government has introduced a number of changes in order to boost its revenue, but which will almost certainly not make casino operators happy. The changes were announced by Sri Lanka’s finance minister, Mangala Samaraweera, on Tuesday.

Currently, casino operators have to pay an annual license fee of $1.1 million. Going forward, that fee has been increased substantially, with operators now forced to pay a fee of $2.2 million.

If that doesn’t sting enough, operators are going to pay 15% in taxes on gambling turnover. That tax will be assessed on the operations as of April 1.

Additionally, casino patrons are now going to have to give casinos more money. Samaraweera stated that the casinos will be obligated to collect an entry fee of $50 per person, per visit. While many believe that this is going to be detrimental to gambling revenue growth, the minister points out that casinos in Singapore charge an entry fee, and that fee is higher than what Sri Lanka is now charging. Singapore casino patrons pay $100 for a 24-hour visit or about $1,475 for an annual entry fee.

In a lawsuit that has been brewing for the past decade and a half, Las Vegas Sands and Richard Suen are ready to argue their cases in court once again. The two are scheduled to appear in court next week as Suen continues to fight for a million-dollar payout from the gambling giant. Unlike in previous instances, Sands’ top man, Sheldon Adelson, won’t be present, as he is currently suffering ill health due to treatment for cancer.

Suen is a Hong Kong businessman who helped Sands gain entry into Macau. He reportedly massaged relationships, set up meetings and otherwise “greased the wheels” that ultimately led to the company being able to expand its international footprint into the gambling mecca. Subsequent to having offered his assistance, Sands didn’t provide the compensation Suen had expected and the businessman filed suit against the company in a Las Vegas court.

The lawsuit claimed breach of contract and asserted that Suen had not been able to collect $5 million, as well as 2% of the profits of the casino operator’s Macau operations. Previously, on two separate occasions, Suen has won in court. In 2008, a Las Vegas court ordered Sands to hand over $43.8 million to the businessman. However, that ruling was vacated two years later. In 2013, it was ordered to pay $70 million in a retrial of the case and Sands appealed, taking the case to the Nevada Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court issued its ruling in 2016, deciding that a jury trial would need to be held in order to determine the level of compensation, if any, due Suen. That brings us to today, with jury selections currently being held and the trial set to get underway next Monday.

The idea of casino expansion in Australia’s Gold Coast region has been the subject of debate and controversy over the years. However, the idea never seems to make any movement, forward or backward. Now, Queensland wants to know if there is interest in a second casino resort in the area and is giving casino operators the chance to weigh in.

Gaming and hospitality operators can offer their opinion on the matter until April. The government introduced an expression-of-interest process on Tuesday to allow developers to present their interest on constructing and operating a second casino resort alongside the Star Gold Coast, located in the Broadbeach suburb.

A “world-wide search” is now being conducted, according to Australian Minister for Innovation and Tourism Industry Development Kate Jones. The government is looking for the best proposal that would create a boost for the “tourism and entertainment” offering of the Gold Coast.

The development would be part of a plan by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to create a Global Tourism Hub (GTH), similar to that seen in the integrated resorts of MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) locations. The hub is expected to include, in addition to casino resorts, entertainment venues, convention facilities, retail stores, luxury hotels and high-end food and beverage venues.

For the first time in three years, Macau casinos could see a negative EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) this quarter, as well as next quarter. This is the prediction of analysts with JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd, the stockbroking division of JP Morgan. The analysts paint a dark picture, adding that there doesn’t appear to be any support for positive gains in the near term.

This past Monday, DS Kim and Sean Zhuang, the JP Morgan analysts, explained, “For the first time in three years, we forecast industry EBITDA to print negative growth both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year in the first quarter to second quarter of 2019, driven not only by anaemic GGR [gross gaming revenue] momentum (expected), but also by relatively soft margins (lesser-known).”

They added that the gaming industry margins in Macau have deteriorated over the past nine months, in spite of the fact that the market had experiences “higher top-line” earnings and improved revenue.

The analysts predict that there won’t be any near-term positive gains in the GGR, asserting that the growth comparison of March and April was “very tough given unfavourable calendar year-on-year.” They added, “The impact of rising operating expense could be felt more acutely this year, where top-line growth will likely slow materially to flat to negative (versus +14 percent in 2018).”