Genting Malaysia might be preparing to give its shareholders a little bonus. According to the casino operator, the board of directors is recommending a single-tier dividend of about $0.0122 per ordinary share, which, if approved, would be distributed on July 23. Genting’s shareholders will vote on the payout during a board meeting on June 5.

This past February, Genting declared a special dividend of $0.019 in conjunction with its financial report for the end of its latest fiscal year. The company took a hit of $4.8 million last year, compared to a net profit of $284 million a year earlier.

That loss, according to the company’s financial filing was “primarily attributable to the impairment loss of MYR1.83 billion [$427.5 million] on the group’s investment in the promissory notes issued by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.” That impairment came from a failed investment in a Massachusetts integrated resort project.

Genting Malaysia is a unit of Genting Bhd and is behind the Resorts World Genting casino complex near the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. The company also operates casinos in the UK, Egypt, the Bahamas and the U.S.

Concerns of voter fraud are common in almost any election, but there appears to be legitimate concern that migrant casino employees may have registered to vote in the upcoming Goa elections, according to the Minister for Information Technology, Labour, and Revenue. Minister Rohan Khaunte alleges that 820 employees of the Pride Group registered ahead of the April 23 election at the behest of the casino lobby.

According to Khaunte, voters from Mizoram, Manipur, and Nepal registered to vote and were added to the voter rolls illegally, as they are registered to vote in their own home states as well. To combat the action, the minister has filed a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer, seeking to have the names of the migrant casino employees removed.

The proof of the allegation comes from the fact that all of these employees were enrolled using the same IP address, and he claims were done at the orders of Pride Group Managing Director Shrinivas Nayak. Nayak has denied the allegations, stating that all he has done has been to provide a voter awareness drive to their employees.

According to the report, the vast majority of those who have filed for voter registrations have asked that their names be deleted from the voting rolls. This seemingly supports the allegations made by Khaunte that there was a real risk of voter fraud.

Three stories from the second largest online poker room in the world including a Russian winning the Diamond Elite SPINS promotion in only 58-days, MILLIONS Online $20m GTD part 2 in the pipeline, and a POWERFEST win for Sam Greenwood.

When partypoker launched the Diamond Elite program in February, the thought ‘how do you create $200,000 in rake through a 12-month period,’ must have entered your head (along with how you were going to cure your impotence, why you don’t get art but love walking around The Louvre, and Luxembourg).

Now we know.

A Russian poker player, based in Malaysia, has raked $200,000 across partypoker SPINS games, and it’s only taken him 58-days. Think of a two-month silent meditation retreat, just at this one, you 12-table, 10-16 hours a day.

Executives at casino operator Wynn Resorts helped cover up sexual misconduct allegations against their former boss Steve Wynn, according to a report by Massachusetts gaming regulators.

Tuesday saw the long-awaited release of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) report into the suitability of Wynn Resorts to operate gaming in the state. Wynn hopes to open its $2.6b Encore Boston Harbor casino this June, but first the MGC has to rule on whether the company’s efforts to keep Steve’s shenanigans a secret make the company an unwelcome addition to the state’s gaming family.

The 199-page report (read it here) involved MGC investigators traveling to six different states to interview over 100 witnesses, including many former Wynn staffers who claimed knowledge of Steve’s alleged escapades (which the former exec continues to vehemently deny).

The report determined that some senior Wynn execs chose to either look the other way when confronted with evidence of Steve’s activities or actively chose to cover his tracks, such as the case in which the company cut a $7.5m check to a former Wynn manicurist who alleged that Steve was the father of her child.

Three stories from 888Poker: the release of the 888Live Barcelona schedule, a new partnership with Andrew Neeme, and an award for Chris Moorman.

Writing an article feels like chess. The keys form the board. Sometimes I feel like the king; mostly I behave like a queen. I don’t do pawns – I’m vegan.

To generate something, anything, I will type a word into Google and wait for stories to emerge, pom-poms and all. Thinking about this triumvirate of 888Poker tales, I decided to begin with the release of the 888Live Barcelona schedule.

I typed.

PokerStars’ powerhouse, Lex Veldhuis, partners with the iGaming payment processor, MuchBetter, and Lex Live is an unmitigated success.

There are no poker power rankings, but if there were, Lex Veldhuis would be a permanent fixture in the Top 10.

The long-time PokerStars Team Pro, and Triton Poker Series broadcaster has done something quite extraordinary in creating an environment where like-minded people can gather around the water cooler to talk about poker, games, and how many types of owls there are in the world.

The environment is Twitch, and this week, a new payment processor, MuchBetter, has eye spied with their little eyes, signing him up as a brand ambassador.

Russia’s largest casino appears poised to bid goodbye to its Taiwanese investors, potentially to the benefit of gaming and travel operator Suncity Group.

On Tuesday, Summit Ascent Holdings, the Hong Kong-listed entity that holds a 60% stake in the Tigre de Cristal casino in Russia’s far east Primoyre gaming zone, announced that its board had been informed by First Steamship Company Ltd and Summit Ascent chairman Kuo Jen Hao that they have “been approached by a third party to acquire their entire shareholdings” in Summit Ascent.

In addition to being Summit Ascent’s chairman, Kuo is also chairman of the Taiwan-based First Steamship, which acquired a 12.67% stake in Summit Ascent in December 2017 from Melco International Development boss Lawrence Ho, who exited the stage to focus on his casino expansion opportunities in Cyprus and (possibly) Japan.

The identity of the third party interested in the “significant” holdings of both Kuo and First Steamship remains a mystery, but the finger of suspicion is pointing firmly at Suncity Group Holdings Ltd, which held a 3.29% stake in Summit Ascent as of last November and boosted that stake to an undisclosed level in February.

UK bookmakers are backpedaling furiously after introducing new gambling products intended to fill the void left by the new reduced stakes on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT).

On Tuesday, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) issued a notice saying two of its licensees – Paddy Power Betfair and Betfred – had withdrawn products introduced into their betting shops only the day before, which happened to be the first day that FOBT stakes were reduced to their new maximum £2 rather than the £100 that they’d previously allowed.

The two bookies – and a third (William Hill) who was reportedly contemplating following the others’ lead – were responding to a UKGC warning regarding their new products, which resembled variants of roulette, the same product most prominently featured on FOBTs. Paddy Power’s Pick ‘n’ 36 game allowed a maximum stake of £100, while Betfred’s Virtual Cycling allowed customers to stake up to £500.

The UKGC expressed concern that the new products “undermine the changes made” to the FOBT rules. UKGC enforcement director Richard Watson said the regulator had been “absolutely clear with operators about our expectations to act responsibly following the stake cut implementation this week. We have told operators to take down new products which undermine the changes, and we will investigate any other products that are not within the spirit and intention of the new rules.’’

Calvin Ayre has a warning for the cryptocurrency world’s social media trolls: your words can and will be used against you in a court of law.

On April 1, Ayre’s attorneys served legal papers on the publishers of the UK-based Coin Rivet crypto blog, warning them that their post titled ‘You’re heading down a dark alley, John McAfee warns Calvin Ayre’ was “highly defamatory” and resulted in “serious damage” to their client’s reputation.

The article in question focused on Ayre’s recent trip to Cuba and his subsequent social media posts featuring photos and videos of himself with a local all-girl dance troupe hired to perform at a party he’d hosted.

Coin Rivet’s article, one of a series of posts published following the release of Ayre’s photos and videos, described the girls as “pre-teen” i.e. below the legal age of consent, and quoted McAfee saying Ayre was “wandering down a dark alley” and “dragging down” the overall crypto world.