In an attempt to reduce the potential for criminal activity in their casinos, Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd. announced that they would be updating their facial recognition technology at its operations in Macau and Manila this year. This information was provided at the Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2018.

The report noted that in 2016, “Melco became the first operator in Asia to deploy real-time facial recognition security systems at every entrance to our gaming areas in Macau.” Since then, the casino operator said it has been “refining the technology and is preparing to install the latest generation in its properties in both Macau and Manila in 2019.”

The concern within the executive offices at Melco has been driven by a desire to deter criminal activity. In March, members of the Macau Unitary Police welcomed the addition of cameras and facial recognition software within the city’s casino operations, explaining that this should greatly deter criminal activities in and around the casinos. A representative for the Police Department was quoted by GGRAsia saying that this would help to combat loansharking as well as other illegal activities.

The technology would allow casinos to be able to detect persons who have been restricted or excluded from gaining access to the casino floor. Yet, the company explained in their report that they would still be complying with data privacy requirements. This has become a growing concern in many Western cultures where facial recognition software has been seen as a breach of individual privacy.

StarPick, a prominent daily fantasy sports (DFS) portal in India, is breaking its ties with the Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG). It has announced that it is cancelling its membership, effective immediately, due to differences of opinion between the gaming industry body and the DFS operator.

According to an announcement by StarPick, it had been developing newer formats of fantasy gaming, including the recently released Fantasy MatchUp games. However, these new formats were rejected by the IFSG, forcing the company to withdraw from the organization.

Starpick CEO Trigam Mukherjee explained, “StarPick is focused on engaging the users with superior technology and innovations. However, we believe that that current IFSG charter is not conducive for us as a company to innovate in the fantasy sports gaming space and hence are withdrawing our membership with immediate effect.

“Though fantasy sports gaming and some platforms have been around in India for over a decade, this space is still in its infancy. There has been no real innovation in this space until we launched StarPick in 2018. We believe that platforms such as ours need the freedom to disrupt and innovate to bring new game-play formats to the Indian users in addition to the tried and tested older game-play formats.”

March Madness proved to be extremely lucrative for sportsbooks across the country. In New Jersey, in particular, FanDuel and DraftKings enjoyed extra bonuses, with FanDuel taking a larger piece of the sports pie. The collegiate basketball tournament helped propel FanDuel ahead in the race and it doesn’t appear that its lead is going to slip anytime soon.

DraftKings was the first to offer a sportsbook in New Jersey when it launched its operations in August. FanDuel followed a month later and both companies were out of the starting blocks. By the end of the year, they were both running neck and neck.

DraftKings took the first three months that had both operators in the race. It recorded revenue of just over $20 million compared to FanDuel’s $8 million to have a solid lead. In December and January, however, the lead narrowed substantially as FanDuel began to close the gap. In those two months, DraftKings maintained a lead of less than $1 million, a huge jump forward for FanDuel.

Now, FanDuel has pulled ahead. In February, FanDuel’s sportsbook operations earned $6.86 million – DraftKings only picked up $3.72 million. March, driven by March Madness, saw FanDuel reach $13.22 million compared to the $7.28 million of DraftKings.

New Zealand has been battling an issue with offshore gambling sites attracting Kiwis, but the operators are now taking a different approach in order to attract bettors. There are now at least 13 offshore gambling sites that use New Zealand website addresses and at least one is using the official coat of arms of the country, making it appear to be more legitimate to unwitting gamblers.

The sites are all registered as “nz” domains; however, none is run from with the country. Neither are they subject to the strict gambling regulations in New Zealand, leaving gamblers unprotected and without any way to claim damages if something goes wrong. Given that the sites are purportedly run by criminal organizations, the chances of something going wrong are very high.

According to a statement by the Department for Internal Affairs (DIA), it has already reached out to the website hosting providers in order to try and have the sites taken down. The DIA’s director of regulatory systems (gambling), Chris Thornborough, states, “One of the sites we contacted was brazen enough to use the government’s official Coat of Arms. We can only presume this was done to suggest some sort of formal connection with the New Zealand government or our local gambling laws.”

While most of the sites appear to be offshore, at least one could be located within New Zealand, says Thornborough. If that’s true, the operator is looking at serious legal and criminal charges. For the others, however, there isn’t much that authorities can do apart from trying to have the sites taken down by providers.

If Genting doesn’t try to take on any more projects in the near future, it should be safe, asserts credit rating agency Fitch Ratings, Inc. The firm reports that the company has the liquidity to fund current projects, such as Resorts World Las Vegas (RWLV) in the U.S. and another in Singapore, but if it takes on any more, its deleveraging trajectory could be taken off course.

Genting announced yesterday that it had completed the issuance of $1 billion in debt to complete and open RWLV. That debt was issued through senior notes that will come due in 2029 and which offer an interest rate of 4.625%. They were supplied directly by the wholly-owned Genting subsidiary RWLV LLC and RWLV Capital Inc.

In conjunction with the issuance of the notes, Genting closed $1.6 billion in senior secure credit facilities, which included a $400-million term loan and a $1.2-billion revolving credit facility.

Fitch now states that the long-term issuer default rating and unsecured rating of RWLV is A- and that the venture has a stable outlook. It also gave an A- rating to the proposed senior secured revolver and term-loan facilities.

The casino market in Arkansas is picking up and the state’s neighbors are feeling the heat. Penn National has decided that it will close one of three properties in Tunica, Mississippi, which sits to the east of Arkansas, as the three properties combined are not keeping up with the regional competition.

Resorts Casino Tunica is located in Tunica County, Mississippi. It borders Arkansas, which has seen an increase in casino activity in the past several months, and the venue is scheduled to shut down on June 30 after receiving approval from regulators in the state.

Penn National purchased the casino, as well as Bally’s Casino Tunica (now called 1st Jackpot) for $44 million in March 2017. Both are leased from Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc., a real estate investment trust that was previously a division of Penn National before it became independent in November 2013. Penn National also operates a third casino, Hollywood Casino Tunica, which is adjacent to Resorts Casino Tunica.

Since 2014, three casinos in the area have closed and there are now only six functioning casinos in the immediate area. Tunica County was once a major casino market after the state legalized gambling in 1992 and was, for a long time, the only area that saw casinos. In 2001, there were 13,000 gaming jobs in the county – now there are less than 5,000.

“I’ve learned from my mistakes. Now I can repeat them exactly.”

Dudley Moore

It is a reversal of a reversal of a reversal, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) stands exposed in an untenable contradiction. The new 2018 party line is that the Wire Act makes all Internet gambling illegal, regardless of the format or the types of games offered.

But this policy is a reversal of the policy before that, delivered by the Obama administration in 2011. And the 2011 shift followed the language of the statute and the case law to determine that the Wire Act only covered sports bets. But this in turn contradicted the announced policy of the last Bush administration, that the Wire Act was interpreted (or twisted) to cover all online gaming. Before that, under the Clinton administration, the matter had been essentially left to the states. At least that’s constitutionally sound.

Latvia is targeting both unauthorized online gambling operators and their local customers following amendments to the country’s gambling laws.

Earlier this month, Latvia’s parliament (Saeima) approved amendments to the nation’s gambling laws to limit its citizens’ ability to access to internationally licensed online gambling operators. Going forward, banks are prohibited from processing payments between Latvian punters and sites not approved to operate in the country.

Financial institutions and internet service providers (ISPs) will also be required to forward the names of Latvian citizens who attempt to transact with unauthorized gambling sites. Individuals caught attempting to commit such heinous acts will henceforth face administrative fines of up to €350 per incident. Gamblers couuld face additional punishment for avoiding taxation on their winnings (currently 23% on any sum over €3k).

The amendments also require ISPs to more fully comply with orders to block unauthorized gambling domains. To date, the Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspection of Latvia has blacklisted over 1,500 gambling domains, but local media reported that ISPs have blocked less than one-third of these rogues.

Latvia is targeting both unauthorized online gambling operators and their local customers following amendments to the country’s gambling laws.

Earlier this month, Latvia’s parliament (Saeima) approved amendments to the nation’s gambling laws to limit its citizens’ ability to access to internationally licensed online gambling operators. Going forward, banks are prohibited from processing payments between Latvian punters and sites not approved to operate in the country.

Financial institutions and internet service providers (ISPs) will also be required to forward the names of Latvian citizens who attempt to transact with unauthorized gambling sites. Individuals caught attempting to commit such heinous acts will henceforth face administrative fines of up to €350 per incident. Gamblers couuld face additional punishment for avoiding taxation on their winnings (currently 23% on any sum over €3k).

The amendments also require ISPs to more fully comply with orders to block unauthorized gambling domains. To date, the Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspection of Latvia has blacklisted over 1,500 gambling domains, but local media reported that ISPs have blocked less than one-third of these rogues.