By the time the 2019 NFL season kicks off, it looks like Las Vegas might have its biggest, newest sportsbook for patrons to take in the action. Folks from the Golden Gate Casino have been approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission on April 25 to take wagers, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

In coordination with the D and the upcoming Circa resort, Golden Gate is looking to operate the biggest sportsbook in town. Owner of the D and Golden Gate Casino Hotel Derek Stevens said it will eventually have “the biggest screen in sportsbook history” when construction on Circa is completed in 2020.

But 2020 is so far off, and sports bettors might want something new a little sooner. Matthew Metcalf, Circa’s sportsbook director, said they will open the first Circa branded book at the Golden Gate on June 1 to get everyone started.

It won’t be chopped liver either. The Moser Architecture Studio has designed it to have 18 screens and an LED board to display odds. Two betting kiosks will be available at launch.

Lawrence Ho, the CEO, chairman and executive director of Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd., can’t complain about his salary from last year, unless he believes $14.99 million is something to complain about. Of course, he could always gripe about the fact that it was about 6.5% less than the $15.97 million he received just a year earlier. Financial hardship is approaching.

According to a filing with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from this past Wednesday, Melco indicated that Ho was given $3.75 million in salary and benefits. He was also given $8.41 million in share-based compensation, over $2.83 million in performance bonuses and $2,000 in contributions to his retirement plan. The filing also indicated that all of the Melco directors earned a combined $17.42 million for their efforts in 2018.

The income package comes as Melco reported a net profit of $351.5 million last year, about $3.5 million more than the $347 million a year earlier. However, net revenue dropped from $5.3 billion to $5.2 billion year-on-year.

As of the end of this past March, Ho controlled 54.05% of Melco’s ordinary shares that entitle him to share dividends paid by the company. Another 0.95% is held by the executive through vested restricted shares or through the exercise of options that have been granted to him.

Last year, Vietnam busted a major gambling ring that reportedly saw action worth over $420 million. After police swooped in and started making arrests, they launched an investigation to try and determine how widespread the group was and a high-ranking political figure has now been arrested and charged for his role in the operations.

The Vietnamese Information Ministry’s chief inspector, Dang Anh Tuan, is currently being detained for allegedly being involved in the illegal gambling ring. Police investigators have uncovered evidence that Dang was possibly assisting the gambling ring’s leaders, as well as protecting them from any potential police action. That last part apparently didn’t work out too well for either the leaders or Dang.

Police have now raided the 49-year-old’s home and his office in Hanoi. However, no information is available regarding the outcome of those raids.

In 2016, the Information Ministry learned of the possibility that an illegal gambling ring was operating in the country. Dang, in his position as chief inspector, was assigned to investigate the tip, only to subsequently report that he didn’t find any evidence of wrongdoing. He also convinced the ministry to drop the investigation.

MGM Resorts CEO Jim Murren rolled out his “MGM 2020 Plan” at the beginning of the year, an extensive project that hopes to eliminate unnecessary overhead and increase the casino company’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) by $200 million over the next two years. Part of the plan’s design could see certain employees replaced by robots, but the company has also decided that it has too many managers. 254 employees in managerial positions with the company are about to lose their jobs.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, MGM released a memo to employees yesterday to inform them of the upcoming layoffs. In total, Murren is hoping to reduce the company’s staff by around 2,000, of which many will be “managers or above” and Murren seeks to “transform the way we operate and leverage the most effective operational architecture for our company.”

The layoffs – and the 2020 Plan in general – don’t exactly coincide with what Forbes Magazine recently said of the company. On the list of “America’s 500 Best Large Employers” for this year, MGM came in at number 18. Perhaps the actual name of the list was “America’s 500 Best Large Employers from which to get laid off.”

The casino industry is changing drastically and is becoming overrun by private equity groups, hedge funds and activist investors such as Carl Icahn, who now controls almost 10% of Caesars Entertainment. The concern is that this transition is resulting in a lack of empathy toward employees, with a greater focus solely on the operation’s bottom line. So far, those concerns have been legitimized by some of the decisions casino operators have taken.

After causing plenty of trouble for their Genting Malaysia partner, two leaders of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe are now in hot water themselves. The Cape Cod Times reports Tribal Council Chairman Cedric Cromwell and Vice Chairwoman Jessie “Little Doe” Baird are now at risk of losing their positions.

Both are getting the blame for the more than $500 million owed to Genting, which supported the tribe in a bid to run a $1 billion casino in Taunton, Massachusetts, 40 miles south of Boston. That plan fell through when in September, the U.S. Department of the Interior ruled they could not hold the land in a trust, overruling the tribes claims that they had ancestors there for four centuries.

Tribal Council member Aaron Tobey Jr. said the tribe has had enough of this leadership. “Tribal members are hurt and embarrassed by what the Tribal Council has or hasn’t done and they know it’s time for a change,” he declared.

The move to unseat the two is partly to do with the casino, partly to do with a lack of general results, and just wanting them to go away. The motion suggests Cromwell has wasted everyone’s time since 2009, receiving $1 million in pay with “very little to show for it; no casino, no jobs.”

For just over $10 million a year, Harrah’s New Orleans could have its casino license extended for another 30 years. The only land-based casino in Louisiana will most likely have its license extension approved before state lawmakers take a break in June, but that 30-year extension will cost the company $325 million in investment funds, as well as additional tax payments.

A bill currently being considered by the Louisiana House, House Bill 544 (HB 544), authorizes the 30-year extension, provided the casino’s owner, Caesars Entertainment, agrees to make capital investments of $325 million that would need to be completed by July 2024. That is when the current license expires.

The bill’s sponsor, House Speaker Taylor Barras, asserts, “It is the right thing for Harrah’s and the right thing for Louisiana.” This is the second time in as many years that lawmakers have tried to extend the license.

HB 544 was passed by the House Criminal Justice Committee this past Wednesday by a vote of 13-0-1. It now moves to the House floor for a vote, where it isn’t expected to encounter much resistance before being forwarded to the Senate.

One of the most diverse gaming platforms in India, offering real-money fantasy sports, skills games and eSports, has just wrapped up a Series A funding round that proved to be highly successful. Mobile Premier League (MPL), which is owned by Galactus Funware Technology Private Limited, picked up around $35.5 million in investment funds from companies such as Sequoia Capital India, Indonesia-based Go-Jek’s GoVentures, and Times Internet, which is part of the Times of India Group.

The funds will be used to help the company advance its product base and to support user growth in India. MPL co-founder and CEO Sai Srinivas Kiran G explains, “Our goal is to build India’s largest mobile esports platform which is accessible to all. MPL today provides users access to all formats and types of competitive games. Like with everything else, Competitive Gaming in India will be mobile first and MPL wants to be the platform of choice for the user. In the 7 months since launch, the user love we have received is testimony to that. We are thankful and excited to have investors who share the same bold vision.”

Shailendra Singh, Managing Director of Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore, stated, “Sequoia India is very happy to back Sai and Shubh a second time, and believe solidly in their vision of creating the largest esports platform for India and other emerging markets. We’re thrilled with the early progress at MPL. With their industry leading growth and engagement metrics, MPL has the potential to become a major mobile internet company in India.”

Other entities stepped up to participate in the funding round, as well. Among these were RTP Global, Base Growth, Venture Highway, BeeNext and more.

Bandai Namco is not new to casino games, or games in general but now it looks like they will take one step closer to doing it all on their own. The company has have announced the production of a Pac-Man Video-Bingo machine, which has already hit the market.

Working with Spanish developer Meetronia and UK based Quixant, the three companies developed and began producing the machine earlier this year. It became operational at the beginning of April.

This isn’t their first foray into gambling though. In 2016, they partnered with Australian based Ainsworth Game Technology to begin producing casino-style games. The game developer was responsible for handling the software related aspects of the machine, including such things as sound effects, graphics, and other “game-like” parts to make the machine more appealing to users. This led to the development of a Pac-Man style video slot machine which became a popular choice almost immediately.

In September 2017, Gamblit Gaming made a deal with Bandai Namco in which the game maker would create the software for a Pac-Man style game, as well as drawing off of several of their other popular titles. Games produced by Bandai Namco had become a huge part of the culture in many countries, and so it only made sense to start drawing on that familiarity to produce casino games that would draw consumers to them.

Talk about waiting until the last minute. As the second hand was slowly advancing toward the end of the legislative session, Indiana lawmakers managed to sign off on a gaming expansion bill for the state. It was the largest expansion package Indiana has seen to date and will now go before Governor Eric Holcomb for his signature.

Controversial House Bill 1015 (HB 1015) seeks to make a lot of changes to Indiana’s gambling landscape. It authorizes mobile sports wagers, which will certainly cause a disturbance, as well as the relocation of two riverboat casinos, which is going to cause an even greater disturbance.

Currently, Majestic Star I and Majestic Star II, both owned by Spectacle Entertainment, operate as riverboat casinos while moored at Buffington Harbor on Lake Michigan. They each have their own operating license, but function as a single casino. HB 1015 will allow Spectacle to relocate one of its licenses to a land-based casino in Gary and the other to Terre Haute. However, it would have to compete for the Terre Haute venue against other casino operators.

Spectacle’s new Gary venue would offer the same amount of gaming activity as do Majestic Star I and II combined. This would convert the casino into the largest in the state; however, the taxes assessed would be calculated as if Spectacle were still operating the two riverboat casinos.

This is a guest contribution by Giorgi Mikhelidze. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

When thinking about gambling hubs, people usually imagine places such as Las Vegas, Malta or Macau. But there is one undiscovered spot in the Caucasus mountains—the Republic of Georgia—which, over the last two decades, managed to become a gambling refuge for pretty much every Islamic state in the Middle East.

The population is very small, around 3.6 million people, but this tiny country is able to field a gambling industry that can pack quite a punch.

The gambling industry itself first found its way to Georgia in the 19th century, but the very first casino was opened in the capital, Tbilisi, in 1920, followed by the second largest city in Georgia, Batumi in 1989.

Swede’s former betting monopoly Svenska Spel saw its profits tumble in the first quarter of the year despite the long-awaited launch of its online casino product.

Figures released Thursday show the state-owned Svenska Spel generated net gaming revenue of SEK 2.06b (US$215.9m) in the three months ending March 31, a 6% decline from the same period last year. Operating profit plunged 54.5% to SEK519m while actual profit was down nearly two-thirds to SEK408m.

The quarter began with the launch of Sweden’s new regulated online gambling market on January 1 and with it the realization of Svenska Spel’s long-held dream of being allowed to offer an online casino product alongside sports betting.

The new regulatory scheme also forced Svenska Spel to reorganize with a clear separation between its land-based and digital operations. The latter now operate under the banner of Svenska Spel Sport & Casino, which reported revenue of SEK544m, a modest 4% year-on-year improvement.

The schedule for the 11th World Series of Poker Europe is out with ten bracelets up for grabs, €14m in prize money, and six events allowing unlimited re-entry. 

The partypoker hierarchy may be fans of ‘pure’ tournament poker, but their business partners don’t share the same enthusiasm. The King’s Resort and World Series of Poker (WSOP) have released the schedule for the 11th iteration of the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), and you had better start saving your pennies.

The Rolling Stone of Rozvadov, the Kings Resort, will be the busiest place in the poker world between October 13 and November 4, when players ring the doorbell hoping to compete for one of ten gold bracelets, €14m in guaranteed prize money, and WSOP Player of the Year honours.

The buy-ins range between €350 and €100,000 giving the impression that there’s something for everyone no matter what your home looks like beneath the streetlights, but don’t let that range fool you – this one’s for the rich and famous.

A crucial night in the English Premier League as Manchester City win the Manchester derby putting them firmly in pole position in the race to defend the title, and Arsenal loses ground on Chelsea and Spurs with defeat at Wolves.

As the Manchester City quintet of Leroy Sané, Sergio Agüero, Raheem Sterling, and the scintillating Silva’s moved through the landmines of Old Trafford, the score flashed up in the bottom left-hand corner of the TV screen.

Wolves 2 – 0 Arsenal.

“Nobody wants this fourth place,” said Gary Neville.