On April 8, Ainsworth Game Technology Ltd (AGT) issued named former Novomatic executive Lawrence Levy as their new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), reports GGRAsia. This move will take effect on July 1.

Levy comes with an impressive record. The new CEO has spent 37 years in the gambling industry, most recently as the vice president of global sales at Novomatic. In this capacity, he helped develop strategies that turned his former company into one of the leaders in innovative gambling technology across the globe.

Ainsworth had announced last September that their current CEO, Danny Gladstone, would be leaving the company as of June 30 of this year. The group has been looking to find an executive that can get them out of a recent slump in sales.

In February, the company reported that despite showing an increase in overall profits, its revenue dropped by 2% over the second half of 2018. In addition, the amount of profit after tax dropped by 47% in comparison to the same period of time for 2018.

On April 8, Ainsworth Game Technology Ltd (AGT) issued named former Novomatic executive Lawrence Levy as their new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), reports GGRAsia. This move will take effect on July 1.

Levy comes with an impressive record. The new CEO has spent 37 years in the gambling industry, most recently as the vice president of global sales at Novomatic. In this capacity, he helped develop strategies that turned his former company into one of the leaders in innovative gambling technology across the globe.

Ainsworth had announced last September that their current CEO, Danny Gladstone, would be leaving the company as of June 30 of this year. The group has been looking to find an executive that can get them out of a recent slump in sales.

In February, the company reported that despite showing an increase in overall profits, its revenue dropped by 2% over the second half of 2018. In addition, the amount of profit after tax dropped by 47% in comparison to the same period of time for 2018.

The clock is ticking on Macau longs. The movement in Macau stocks since the beginning of April has been largely technically driven and it won’t last much longer.

A potential for a short term trade opportunity in Macau was pointed out in late January, and since then, the Macau proxy BJK ETF is up 6%. On BJK, I had said that breaking through strong resistance at $37 would mean skies are clear until at least $38, with a decent chance we could see $40 if earnings come in above expectations in late April. At this point, sitting at a $38.83 handle we’re close enough that scaling out for the next trade is probably the wisest move. You may miss the end of the move higher but in the scheme of things it doesn’t really matter, because things are likely to get pretty rough over the summer.

The “wynner” here if I may be punny is Wynn, which at the beginning of April gapped up through both its 50 and 200 day moving averages simultaneously, a classic bullish signal that sucks in all kinds of technical short term traders. This is the first time since 2017 that Wynn has broken above its 200DMA, so dumb money is probably piling in on the breakout. There has been so much buying that the 14 day relative strength index (RSI) has jumped to oversold from weak to overbought for the first time since the major 2016 bottom, excluding a brief anomalous surge in late January 2018. This is causing sentiment to rise to bullish extremes, sucking in more short term traders looking for quick profits.

The situation now is the opposite of what it was in January, when Macau sentiment was bearish and analysts were expecting bad numbers. Sanford C. Bernstein had been forecasting an 8-12% dip in gross gaming revenue for the month, and it came out down only 5%. Now the expectations of a resolution of the US trade war with China are making traders bullish again, which could be setting up for a sell the news type of event when Trump and Xi finally announce that a “deal has been made”. There is no reason for them to announce this any time soon though, that is until both economies are clearly in trouble again. Save the big ammunition for later, as Trump is fully aware that his chances of reelection depend on the “big fat ugly bubble” in his own words being continually inflated. So there is little chance that a deal will actually be announced until the global economy is already in serious trouble, and at that point the announcement of a piece of paper isn’t going to do much.

Finland recently recognized that there’s a gambling problem in the country and has been trying to take action to clean up the space. Part of the issue stems from illegal offshore operators that target Finnish residents and the state’s gambling operator, Veikkaus, has a plan to change the tides. It wants to invest between €4 million and €8 million ($4.5-$9 million) in the digital gambling arena to compete with the offshore operators.

Veikkaus announced that it will add new online casino operations to update its portfolio and meet the growing demand for more diverse online gaming options. The entity is the only one authorized to offer gaming in the country, whether online or physical, and has maintained its monopoly since being formed decades ago.

Lawmakers have not been willing to break the monopolistic hold Veikkaus has and this has been part of the issue. A company that holds a monopoly doesn’t have to innovate as often and offshore operators have been able to take advantage of Veikkaus and lax Finnish regulations to enter the country and capture a significant share of the customer base.

In order to help fulfill its goals, Veikkaus is reportedly negotiating with online content providers to bring their products to Finland. According to the Finnish media outlet Hämeen Sanomat, some new titles should be introduced within the next couple of months.

Police officers in Thailand have been very busy recently, cracking down on illegal underground gambling machines. The Bangkok Post reported on April 6 that the 5th Infantry Regiment task force had seized 159 slot machines in the country’s Sadao district.

The illegal machines were found in two shops, along with other gambling machine parts. Along with the seizure, two men were detained for questioning. No gambling was happening in the houses, it appears. The machines were waiting there before they would be shipped off to other locations in the country.

The police received a tip off that the slots were smuggled in from the Ban Dan Nok border checkpoint, which is a connection between Thailand and Malaysia.

Casino gambling, like on slot machines, has been completely illegal in Thailand since the Gambling Act of 1935. As a result, the only way citizens could legally gamble, if they wished to, would be to travel for their entertainment, with casinos in Cambodia being the nearest option.

In an effort to curb problem gambling, Sweden’s state gambling operator is making a big move. Svenska Spel has pledged to stop advertising its online casino for the rest of 2019, local media outline Resumé reports.

The operator is promising it will not advertise any of its channels, following an internal discussion regarding how it can best protect customers. CEO Patrik Hofbauer said of the decision:

“Svenska Spel has always pushed the line that all the games in the licensed market risk should be classified based on risk levels, and that stricter rules should apply for the more risky games, both in terms of design and marketing. By ending advertising for online casino, we are now taking the plunge.”

This doesn’t impose any kind of blanket ban on advertising though, and many private operators, now under the new regulatory regime in the country, will be free to continue with their current marketing plans.