Vietnam’s crackdown on illegal gambling rings continue, and they put a stop to two major operations recently. More than 30 have been arrested or brought in for questions for two online gambling rings, VNExpress reports.

Police arrested 19 in the northern province of Hung Yen on May 23, shutting down an operation that had over 100 bookmakers and volume worth VND2 trillion ($86 million). The alleged leader of the operation, Pham Cong Bang, was 29 years old, with three accomplices operating out of a rented house in Thai Binh province.

They didn’t run their own site, that would be too easy to catch. Instead, they opened sites with international gambling sites and acted as brokers for locals who wanted to make bets.

In another raid on the same day, police in Hai Duong announced they were investigating 16 people for gambling crimes. Their operation is a bit different, using software provided by the suspects to play online dice and card games for tokens which can be sold for cash. Police suspect the opation is worth VND 1 trillion ($43 million).

Aristocrat Leisure Ltd saw its net profit (after tax and amortization) for its fiscal first-half year climb 16.8% year-on-year. The Australia-based gaming machine manufacturer’s profit came in at US$290.05 million, driven by better performance in its North American operations.

In a filing with the Australian Securities Exchange (ASE) yesterday, Aristocrat stated that its first-half operating revenue grew by around 30% to around $1.45 billion. Its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) increased by 19.2%, reaching $528.6 million compared to the $443.5 million a year earlier.

Strong growth in its North American operations helped improve the company’s earnings, according to the filing. It was also able to improve its performance in its home country and in New Zealand by introducing fresh technology and expert talent.

In a statement from an included press release, Aristocrat CEO and Managing Director Trevor Croker stated, “Aristocrat continues to deliver above market profitable growth, leading to strong free cash flow and the ability to reinvest to self-fund future growth, whilst ensuring strong foundations remain in place.”

A vice cop with the New York Police Department (NYPD) was supposed to be fighting crime and eliminating activity such as mafia shakedowns and illegal gambling. Instead, he decided to use his position, and the knowledge he gained on the streets, to operate his own illegal gambling and prostitution ring that earned $2 million a year and services clients across Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. Ludwig Pax was ultimately busted for his entrepreneurial endeavor, along with his wife, Arelis Peralta, and the pair have copped to their activity in a Queens Supreme Court.

The 51-year-old retired cop pleaded guilty to attempted enterprise corruption and promoting prostitution. His wife pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted enterprise corruption after having rejected a plea deal that would have led to a tougher sentence seven months ago.

Paz will be sentenced June 27 and is looking at four to 12 years behind bars. Peralta was sentenced to 364 days, much less than the four-year sentence she would have received if she had accepted the plea deal.

There have been seven police officers from the NYPD that have been caught up in Paz’s scandal. Three are now former sergeants and two are former detectives. In many cases, the officers would tip off Paz, in exchange for $500, when police were going to raid any of the locations that Paz operated. One of the vice cops, former detective Rene Samaniego, was also found to have provided Paz with descriptions of undercover officers to help keep the operations under wraps. Samaniego accepted a plea deal earlier this month and is looking at up to six years behind bars.

Genting Malaysia Bhd had a hard first quarter. The casino operator saw its profits drop more than 25% year-on-year, despite reporting higher revenue. Genting, in certain parts of its operations, had to spend twice as much money, which led to the reduction in profits, giving the company just $64 million in profit compared to the $85 million it saw in the same period last year.

Revenue for the quarter came in at around $653 million, an uptick on the $572.5 million from a year earlier. “Other expenses,” according to the company’s earnings report (in pdf), jumped 83% to $121.98 million year-on-year, partly as a result of activity at Resorts World Genting. The company stated that the results had been “impacted by a provision for contract termination related costs of MYR198.3 million [$47.3 million] in relation to the outdoor theme park at Resorts World Genting.”

Genting Malaysia has three primary operating areas – Malaysia, the UK and Egypt and the US and the Bahamas. Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) in each, respectively, were $132.5 million, $9.7 million and $15.7 million for an aggregated Adjusted EBITDA of $158.05 million.

As a result, Maybank Investment Bank issued analysis today that gives the company “upside potential” if its Resorts World Genting theme park bounces back from the loss of backing by Disney and Fox. Additionally, Genting Malaysia would also need to resolve its issues with the Mashpee investment to find recovery.

After about eight years, there is still no clear resolution to what has been described as a massive money-laundering enterprise running rampant in British Columbia’s casinos. An official investigation has been underway in the province for the past several years and a push has begun to extend the investigation across the entire country. However, Canada federal officials only balk at the idea.

The federal minister for organized crime reduction, Bill Blair, said this week that a nationwide investigation isn’t necessary. The opinion comes in spite of the fact that the BC government, through its Expert Panel on Money Laundering in BC Real Estate, asserts that the problem in the province could be just a small part of a larger problem. That panel states that the province’s casinos and real estate markets were involved in laundering around CAD$7 billion ($5.2 billion) last year, but that the markets across Canada may have helped facilitate the laundering of as much as $47 billion ($34.91 billion).

The panel also believes that BC is not at the heart of the dilemma – that honor goes to Alberta. As much as $8 billion is estimated to have been laundered through the province in 2015, with additional activity seen in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

According to the panel’s chair, Maureen Maloney, “We thought, ‘No, we need to do this, because people need to know it’s not just a BC problem.’ It’s a big BC problem, but it’s everybody’s problem. And to the extent that BC starts fixing our problem or at least makes our province less enticing to money launderers, they’re going to go elsewhere. They’re not going to disappear.”

If you’re going to operate an illegal gambling house, the best advice is to try to fly as far below the radar as possible. Anything that can attract unwanted attention should be avoided if the business is to survive. One example of something that would most likely not need to be included in the operational scheme is dumping raw sewage onto the beach. That won’t exactly allow the business to hide from authorities and a Chinese casino in Cambodia operating without a license is learning that lesson the hard way.

Sihanoukville provincial authorities are ready to crank up the bulldozers and level a Chinese casino, the Jin Ding Hotel and Casino, that refuses to close. The venue is operating without a license since last April and has reportedly been polluting an adjacent beach on its home of Koh Rong Samloem Island. Residents have started to report the casino to authorities who don’t want the island to be a repeat of the Boracay Island fiasco in the Philippines.

The venue has already been ordered to shut down its operations several times, but the owner, Zhou Jianhua, won’t comply. Sihanoukville city officials are now reaching the end of their patience and a spokesperson, Kheang Phyrum, asserts, “We will forcefully demolish the casino and file a complaint to the court. The casino has operated without a license and there are no permits from local authorities. Those two reasons are enough.”

However, as much as authorities might want to have fun with the heavy machinery, things aren’t quite that easy. Getting the equipment to the island is logistically difficult, as it would require bringing in boats capable of carrying the forty-ton vehicles.

The Four Seasons Macau is becoming a hot bed of criminal activity. Macau’s Judiciary Police have announced two robbers have robbed the resort of HK$3 million ($382,000) in chips after a stunning May 24 morning raid, reports the South China Morning Post.

A croupier and a security guard were incapacitated by the robbers’ pepper spray, the police noted, and they got away, with the resort reporting the crime to officials at 5:30 AM.

As of 12:30 PM, the police still haven’t caught anyone connected to the crime.

GGRAsia notes that this shocking robbery comes just two days after police met with the security department of the Venetian Macao resort hotel, the Sands China property connected to the Four Seasons Macao – and the local casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. The purpose of the meeting was to coordinate faster response times to any major incident. It didn’t appear to do much good in this case however.

Jay Monahan, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, sees a very bright future for a golfing industry that includes sports gambling. He is anticipating a huge benefit to the sport thanks to sports wagers and is already setting in motion a number of initiatives to help further the integration of the two and expects the continued interaction to help make golf popular again. Many of the initiatives, according to Monahan, will be ready to launch by the end of this year.

Monahan spoke at the Sports Business Awards this past Wednesday where he alluded to the new developments. He stated, “We’ve spent a lot of time over the last two and a half years clearly understanding all of our options and getting ourselves in a position where we can participate. Participate with the right partners, and participate in a way that we think resonates with fans. Without getting in front of it, I think you can expect to hear developments from us in the second half of this year.”

One of the initiatives is a new and improved version of the ShotLink Plus data system. The platform collects and disseminates scores and statistical data on every shot in real time, greatly enhancing the in-game betting experience. Because of the enhances, sports bettors can make multiple wagers on prop bets during golfing rounds, offering more gambling options.

Monahan explained of ShotLink, “I think it allows a fan to be well-informed about how a player plays on a certain golf course, how a player plays in certain tournaments, how a player plays in certain conditions. I think it’s going to feed the heavy appetite that people have not only to consume our content but, as gaming continues to develop, if they’re going to participate.”

The rush to fill the Philippines with casino resorts is on, and another player entered the game on May 23. PH Resorts Group Holdings, the gambling and tourism company of Dennis Uy, announced they are working on a $600 million funding deal to build a resort in Mactan, Cebu, reports The Manila Standard.

The reveal was made on the sidelines of the company’s annual stockholders meeting. Raymundo Martin Escalona, president of the company, told reporters, ““We are hoping to complete our fundraising activity over the next two to three months.” They also expect construction complete by the end of 2020.

The structure of the financing program looks like it will lean on the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR) for 70% of the amount, with an additional 30% coming from equity infusion.

The Emerald, the name of the soon to rise resort, has been announced previously, and plans were divulged for a 1,300 room hotel. We now know a little bit more of how construction will progress, with 400 rooms constructed in phase one, with 100 tables and 600 electronic gaming machines.

Betting on the male winner of the French Open – which starts May 26 – takes no homework, at least since Spain’s Rafael Nadal won his first title on the clay of Roland Garros in Paris in 2005. Nadal has won the only clay-court major a record 11 times and is 86-2 all-time in the event. If he’s healthy, he’s probably going to win as the best clay-court player, male or female, in history.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

The women’s side, however, has largely been a crapshoot in the past five years with five different champions. In fact, since Justine Henin won a third straight French Open in 2007, there have been nine different champions. Russia’s Maria Sharapova has accounted for two wins in that stretch but won’t play in 2019 due to a shoulder injury.

The betting favorite entering this year’s tournament is defending champion Simona Halep at +400. The Romanian took her first-ever Grand Slam title (and still only one) with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over American surprise finalist Sloane Stephens. Halep was the second female from her country to win the French Open, joining Virginia Ruzici in 1978. Halep, who lost the 2017 French final to Jelena Ostapenko, hasn’t even reached the quarterfinals of the three Grand Slam tournaments since.

Japan’s casino launch timeline faces further delays after the government opted to postpone the formation of a new regulatory body for its proposed integrated resorts (IR).

On Wednesday, Japanese media reported that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was backing off plans to create a new five-member casino management commission by July 1. The decision will likely delay the body’s formation until next year.

Abe (pictured) is reportedly skittish about putting the casino issue on the media’s front pages ahead of this July’s elections for the Diet’s (legislature’s) upper house. The subject remains hugely controversial with the general public, who fear the potential downsides to society of casinos.

The delay also applies to the government finalizing its ‘basic policy’ of IRs, which includes where the country’s maximum possible three IRs will be situated and the rules governing the casino licensing process.