Talk of a potential union of two of the world’s largest casino operators has ended just as swiftly as it began.

Earlier on Tuesday, Australia’s Crown Resorts and America’s Wynn Resorts each publicly confirmed that the parties were having preliminary discussions regarding a potential blockbuster deal. Wynn was the obvious aggressor in this abrupt hookup, which would have involved a 50/50 cash-and-shares takeover of Crown in a deal worth around US$7.1b.

And just like that, it was over. Wynn issued a statement later on Tuesday saying that thanks to the “premature disclosure of preliminary discussions,” the company had “terminated all discussions with Crown Resorts concerning any transaction.”

The Wall Street Journal quoted a source saying that Wynn’s board had been caught off guard and more than a little miffed by Crown’s people talking to the media about the deal. Wynn’s initial release confirming the talks indicated that the company didn’t intend to comment further “unless required by law.”

Italy’s sports betting market took a small step back in March while online casino revenue leaped ahead by nearly one-fifth.

Figures compiled by the Agenzia della Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM) regulatory body show total land-based and online sports betting revenue hitting €106.4m in March, a 4.2% decline from the same month last year. Through the first quarter of 2019, overall betting revenue is up a modest 1.4% to €391m.

Land-based betting was responsible for March’s decline, as retail revenue fell 9% to €54.4m while online betting revenue was up 1.2% to €52m. Similar patterns occurred over Q1, during which online betting rose nearly 10% to €179.1m while retail betting was down nearly 5% to €211.8m.

The Italian-licensed operation of UK betting giant Bet365 claimed the online betting crown with a 15.9% share of March’s total, relegating the Rome-based SKS365 and its flagship Planetwin365 brand to second place with a 13% share. The top-five was rounded by locals Snaitech (11.6%), GVC Holdings’ Eurobet brand (9.85%) and Sisal (9.8%). In terms of overall wagering, the Goldbet group claimed top honors with a 14.8% share.

Dutch gambling regulators have doled out another six-figure financial penalty to an operator serving local punters without a local license.

On Tuesday, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) regulatory body announced it had imposed a €450k penalty on Gibraltar-based Onisac Ltd, which operates the Casino.com gambling site. The KSA maintains that the operator is guilty of offering online games of chance to Netherlands residents in violation of the current rules.

The KSA broke down the financial penalty as follows: €200k was imposed due to the site offering online games of chance without local permission. An additional €200k was imposed because this wasn’t Onisac’s first trip to the KSA’s penalty box, having been similarly penalized way back in 2013. (Onisac appealed this 2013 ruling but found no sympathizers on Dutch court benches.)

The remaining €50k penalty was imposed due to the site charging its customers “unreasonable administration costs.” These charges included a 5% monthly administration fee if a customer’s account was inactive for over 180 days. The inactivity fees ranged from a minimum of €15 to a maximum of €500 and continued until the customer’s account was fully drained of funds. The KSA viewed this practice as “an unreasonable disadvantage for consumers.”

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is trying to salvage a losing hand by claiming that its new Wire Act opinion has nothing to do with state lotteries.

On Monday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein filed a reply brief in the DOJ’s lawsuit versus the New Hampshire Lottery Commission (NHLC), which is challenging the DOJ’s new Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion that the 1961 Wire Act applies to other forms of online gambling other than sports betting if any data crosses state lines.

The gist of the OLC’s new opinion is that the Wire Act bars pretty much all forms of interstate gambling other than horse racing. This has state lotteries such as the NHLC concerned over the future of their hugely lucrative interstate products such as Powerball, while intrastate online gambling operators fear the fact that their data – be it actual gambling data or payment processing info – is occasionally routed out of state, as is most internet traffic.

On Monday, the DOJ issued a memo saying its new opinion never intended to target state lotteries or their vendors and the feds are currently “reviewing” that question. The DOJ further promised that, if its review determines that lotteries do fall under the Wire Act’s scope, the DOJ would give lotteries another 90 days in which to bring their operations into compliance.

Maryland’s six casinos set a new gaming revenue record in March, and even the struggling Horseshoe Casino Baltimore got in on the fun for a change.

Figures released by the Maryland Lottery & Gaming regulatory agency show statewide casino gaming revenue hitting $163.3m in March, an 8.8% rise over the same month last year and a 3.4% improvement on the state’s previous high-water mark of $158m set last October.

March’s improvement was entirely due to the casinos’ slot machines, which collectively reported revenue of $105.3m, nearly $13m higher than March 2018’s take. By comparison, last month’s table game revenue was up less than half-a-million to just under $58m.

Maryland Lottery & Gaming director Gordon Medenica said March’s record result was even more impressive given the “intense competition and expanding gaming options in surrounding states.” Maryland could have availed itself of some of those new gaming options but state legislators balked at joining the cool kids in other states by approving legal sports betting.

Analysts are bearish about MGM Cotai’s prospects, and they all agree on the reason why: room size. According to a recent report by GGRAsia, several analysts are worried that until the resort can increase their number of large suites, it will lose out to the competition.

Australian investment bank Macquarie Capital Ltd., after comparing the resort to its Cotai competition, stated:

“[MGM Cotai] may be too base mass-centric, and given limited cross-play/traffic on Cotai versus the peninsula, the property’s core room sizes may not attract enough quality overnight guests needed to quickly ramp EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization].”

The 43 square meter room size (463 square feet) of a MGM Cotai standard room might be good enough for an average joe like me, but it won’t compete well with larger room sizes found in the majority of the other resorts in Cotai. Only five operators of the 18 have smaller rooms. So if I’m going to Cotai anytime soon, my wife would probably be happier if we stay at one of the other resorts.

Osaka lawmakers are willing to do anything to ensure the prefecture and city are chosen for an integrated resort (IR) in the country. There have already been a number of strategic moves designed to help strengthen its position but a recent game of musical chairs could be the most novel approach yet.

The former Osaka City mayor is now the Osaka prefecture governor and the former Osaka governor is now the Osaka City mayor. Both politicians were closing in on the end of their terms and resigned last month in order to run for the other’s position. The move paid off, as voters overwhelming showed their support at the polls.

Former Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura is now the governor of the Osaka prefecture, and former Governor Ichiro Matsui is now the mayor of Osaka City. Both have been strongly supportive of an IR in Osaka, especially given the city’s fame is the host of the 2025 World’s Fair. That event is expected to attract as many as 28 million tourists and, if an IR is ready on time, Osaka is set to receive a major economic windfall.

The legislative musical chairs isn’t just about the IR. The Osaka Ishin political party, with which both politicians are affiliated, has sought to merge the 24 wards in Osaka into one entity in an effort to cut costs and promote growth. The party believes that Yoshimura and Matsui will be able to help continue that battle, which was defeated in a public referendum last year.

Osaka lawmakers are willing to do anything to ensure the prefecture and city are chosen for an integrated resort (IR) in the country. There have already been a number of strategic moves designed to help strengthen its position but a recent game of musical chairs could be the most novel approach yet.

The former Osaka City mayor is now the Osaka prefecture governor and the former Osaka governor is now the Osaka City mayor. Both politicians were closing in on the end of their terms and resigned last month in order to run for the other’s position. The move paid off, as voters overwhelming showed their support at the polls.

Former Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura is now the governor of the Osaka prefecture, and former Governor Ichiro Matsui is now the mayor of Osaka City. Both have been strongly supportive of an IR in Osaka, especially given the city’s fame is the host of the 2025 World’s Fair. That event is expected to attract as many as 28 million tourists and, if an IR is ready on time, Osaka is set to receive a major economic windfall.

The legislative musical chairs isn’t just about the IR. The Osaka Ishin political party, with which both politicians are affiliated, has sought to merge the 24 wards in Osaka into one entity in an effort to cut costs and promote growth. The party believes that Yoshimura and Matsui will be able to help continue that battle, which was defeated in a public referendum last year.