Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines) Corp. (Melco Philippines) has been issued a warning by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). The casino operator has been told that it needs to either float at least 10% of its stock on the exchange by June 11, or the exchange is going to move forward with a delisting of the company.

The PSE already suspended Melco Philippines trading last December when it was noted that the company was not adhering to certain rules. Most notably, it wasn’t in compliance with the rule on minimum public ownership and the PSE gave the company six months to rectify the situation. It still hasn’t taken any action, leading to the ultimatum.

Melco Philippines is a subsidiary of Lawrence Ho-run Melco Resorts and Entertainment. It operates the City of Dreams Manila and had previously announced plans for a voluntary delisting in September of last year. However, it backed down after shareholders spoke up against the move and it withdrew its petition.

MCO (Philippines) Investments Ltd. had been the company’s majority shareholder before a tender offer that ended on November 29 of last year. It held a tender offer that dropped the amount of public shares to just under 4% and, then, 2.1%. It was at this time that Melco Philippines initially violated the PSE rules, which specify a minimum of 10% in public shares, but has not taken any corrective action since.

Japan has decided to open its arms to casinos, to a certain degree, but the decision hasn’t come easily. In order to best gauge how the industry will be managed over the long term, the country is putting together strict regulations for its integrated resorts (IR) and these controls are beginning to show their impact. Particularly where financing is concerned, these regulations and restrictions might be problematic and could ultimately cause delays in IR rollouts. This has already started to become an issue and some industry insiders believe that it could cause Osaka’s plans for a 2024 launch to be delayed passed even 2025.

Japan wants all the IRs to be of certain sizes, with limits on casino floor spaces compared to overall square footage and a certain number of hotel rooms. There is also the subject of fees and taxes – the tax rate is 30% – that are going to eat into the venue’s bottom line. As a result, securing financing from traditional banks or financial institutions may prove cumbersome if not virtually impossible.

According to Delta State Holdings Managing Partner David Bonnet, “Due to the huge disconnect between what the Japanese government will write into legislation and what the Japan megabanks are saying they require in order to underwrite a project financing loan, there will be difficulty in obtaining traditional integrated resort mortgage loan financing from local lenders. That being said it creates a huge opportunity for global investment banks to raise senior bonds on a global level. There are significant opportunities for a number of investment groups but the structure needs to be different from what we are discussing today.”

Another industry insider, Kentaro Maruto of KPMG Tokyo, points out that the bids submitted by casino companies to the national government will most likely need to be accompanied by a written letter of commitment from a financial institution. However, banks are going to have a difficult time providing any type of commitment for an endeavor that has no foundation in the country.

Carl Icahn may want to get rid of Caesars properties as quickly as possible but, in the meantime, the show must go on. Caesars Entertainment Corp. is planning on rebranding a property in Southern Indiana in conjunction with a multimillion-dollar expansion, and will also add sports gambling operations to the venue.

Horseshoe Southern Indian is currently undergoing a renovation and expansion project worth $85 million. The project was launched last June and is expected to wrap up sometime next year, with Caesars unveiling the casino section of the new project later this year.

In order to break away from the old public image of the venue, the casino will be called Caesars Southern Indiana, a simple swap of Horseshoe for Caesars. The name change is expected to take place after the expansion is carried out.

As part of the project, an existing riverboat casino is going to move onto dry land, in accordance with recently passed legislation. In addition, Caesars is installing a new 100,000-square-foot gaming facility close to the Horseshoe Southern Indiana hotel. The casino will add more slot machines and table games, as well as poker and lounge areas. The venue’s lounge, bars and restaurants are still on schedule to open next year.

President Donald Trump doesn’t always get his way. He had spoken out against a bill that would authorize the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe of Massachusetts to be designated as a federally-recognized tribe, despite not meeting certain criteria, and many thought that his criticism of the legislation would cause it to crumble. However, this past Wednesday, lawmakers showed that they don’t always have to follow the President and approved the bill.

The House of Representatives approved Bill 312 by a vote of 276-146. The House is controlled by the Democrats, so their support against the Republican Trump isn’t too surprising, but the bill also found support among 47 Republicans.

According to current federal regulations, only those Indian tribes who were recognized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (IRA) are provided certain concessions, such as land ownership. The Mashpee people didn’t receive their status as a recognized tribe until 2007 and it was then that the Department of the Interior designated land to the tribe. That designation was later struck down by the Supreme Court, which ruled that the federal government didn’t have the authority to sidestep the IRA.

The approval in the House is just one step. The Senate still has to approve similar legislation and Maybank Investment Bank analyst Samuel Yin Shao Yang points out, “If a similar bill is passed in the U.S. Senate and President Donald Trump does not veto the bill, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe can build their First Light Resort and Casino and repay Genting Malaysia.”

Casino and hotel operator Caesars Entertainment is selling its 70% stake in South African property Emerald Resort & Casino as it shifts its focus to more “strategic markets.”

In a statement, the casino operator said it’s already negotiating with Peermont Hotels, Casinos, and Resorts for the acquisition of Caesars’ ownership in the casino property. Peermont is expected to pay $39 million in cash after adjustments, while the remaining 30% ownership in the casino operations will remain in the control of local partners.

The casino resort, located in Vanderbijlpark, is valued at a total amount of about $70 million, meaning that Caesars’ has a $49 million investment in the casino operations.

Caesars said it will continue operating the Emerald Resort & Casino until the transaction closes, which is expected to take place in late 2019.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) announced that they would be seeking the assistance of an investment bank or a stockbroker to sell the nearly 80 million shares they possess in Donaco International Ltd. This comes just days after the Australian Takeovers Panel blocked the sale of nearly 10% of the stock to Orchard Capital Partners.

It has been a bad period for Donaco. Falling revenues, a huge multinational legal dispute, and now one of its largest shareholder wants out. This looks to be a company that may not survive many more of these kinds of situations.

The company first looked like they were going to be a star, as Donaco purchased Star Vegas in Poipet in 2015. The $360 million purchase was a huge deal, given that Donaco was only valued at $120 million at the time.

A major mistake appears to have been that the company left Somboon Sukjaroenkraisri in charge of running Star Vegas for two years, as he guaranteed them a $60 million margin annually. The markers were met, but the stock price of the company kept falling.

Macau continues to try to clean up its image and to remove any blotch that could give the gambling city a bad name. Although the city has witnessed a reduction in certain suspicious financial activities, it hasn’t been able to eradicate all of them, but continues to try. Money-laundering within casinos has dropped over 6% in the past 12 months, but loan-sharking continues to be a problem. It has increased 14.1% and local law enforcement is taking a stronger stance in order to try to prevent the number from going up any further.

According to law enforcement figures released yesterday, there were 438 gambling-related crimes reported in the first quarter of the year. They included illegal loans, which increased 37.3% to 81 cases. Among these was the recent case of a gambler being killed for not paying his debt.

The increase, and the high-profile murder, is making law enforcement become more active in fighting gambling-related crime. It has already busted several organized crime syndicates this year and has more plans in the works. Macau Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak states the improvements already seen in the number of busts come from an increased focus on the activity, which led to 71 people being arrested in February after they were found to be part of a group conducting loan sharking and kidnapping.

The Macao Judiciary Police has created a new operations center that is designed to coordinate the efforts of criminal investigators and the city’s four inspection teams. The center operates around the clock and more oversight is going to be placed on casino activity in order to continue the crackdown.