Casinos are now legal in North Carolina—kind of, sort of, with a huge caveat. In what has traditionally been a conservative state on the U.S. “Bible Belt,” North Carolina is easing up a little bit, taking a baby step into the gambling world. However, casino operators don’t need to start frothing at the mouth.

Last Friday, Governor Roy Cooper signed a bill that authorizes “casino nights” that can be organized by charitable organizations. Previously, the activity was controlled on a county level, with some county district attorneys prosecuting entities that held casino nights for charity, while others turned a blind eye.

The new law will allow games such as blackjack, roulette, poker and other table games, provided the money is destined for charity. It also allows something that most thought would never be possible in North Carolina—alcohol.

There are some other limitations, as well. Any area west of where Interstate 26 runs through the state—just south of Asheville to Pisgah National Forest—is still off-limits. This area is too close to two Harrah’s Casinos that are run by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, which has an exclusive agreement with the state to operate gambling activity.

Sweden wants to crack down on those gambling operators who don’t comply with regulations. It recently went after Aspire Global for violating the rules last month and, in February, slapped Genesis Global on the wrist, as well. The country’s gambling regulator, Spelinspektionen, wants to step up its efforts but acknowledges that it can’t go at it alone. It is now looking for a company that can help it enforce its rules and assist with the license application verification process.

The entity will be responsible for investigating the applicant’s ownership and business structures, as well as all pertinent company information and other details that can be used in the verification process. The partner would also need to be able to verify the details submitted by the operator and to monitor current licensees’ activities to ensure compliance with regulations.

Sweden, as with many countries, is cracking down on gambling. It wants to make the activity less accessible in order to prevent gambling addiction and has introduced rules to ban certain types of advertising. While most countries issue fines if the rules are broken, Spelinspektionen is willing to revoke licenses of rule violators. There is also talk that gambling—in particular iGaming—could be completely off-limits from any type of advertising.

In addition to the fines that were levied against Aspire and Genesis, there has been a number of other operators who have been fined for not preventing underage gamblers from placing bets on soccer matches. Underage bettors were found to have placed wagers on a game between IFK Göteborg and AIK in the Swedish Allsevenska league and, in addition to the fines, all of the gambling operators are now subject to close scrutiny by Spelinspektionen to ensure that they play in according to the rules.

Sports gambling legislation in New York State continues to push forward, even though everyone is almost certain Governor Andrew Cuomo is going to block any bill. A Senate committee approved a piece of legislation Monday that would allow online platforms to be created by brick-and-mortar casinos in upstate markets and the legislation will now move to its next stop, the Senate Finance Committee.

The bill’s sponsors believe, based on legal input, that New York can introduce sports gambling expansion without requiring input from state residents. On the other hand, Cuomo is insisting that the state’s Constitution requires a public vote, and has said that he would most likely not sign any sports gambling expansion bill. At the same time, several horseracing tracks and racinos have voiced their opinion that the expanded sports gambling could impact their operations. The link between their opinion and the governor’s position is most likely more than just a little tenuous.

New York Senator Joe Addabbo, sponsor of the bill and the chairman of the Senate Racing and Wagering Committee that just approved the bill yesterday, recognizes that there is a lot of work to be done. He explained to reporters after the vote, “This is a cement that’s nearly not yet hardened and hopefully we can mold it, and hopefully we can mold it to be more inclusionary.”

The horseracing tracks and racinos are controlled by the New York Racing Association (NYRA), which already allows bets to be placed through mobile apps. Addabbo believes that it would be possible for the gambling industry’s different elements to merge and explained, “It’s the future of our state that maybe we include horse racing in with the gaming. We need to streamline our gaming industry. This may not be phase one, it may not be tomorrow, but in the future I envision we streamline and reform the industry by including horse racing.”

After defaulting twice on a loan payment, Parq Vancouver’s future looked more than a little wobbly. Standard & Poor’s even downgraded the casino’s status to “selective default,” but Parq remained optimistic, certain it would find the financial relief it needed to keep the wheels turning and the cards flying. It has found the support it wanted, but whether or not it will be enough for long-term growth remains to be seen.

Parq has announced that it has picked up a new equity partner and has been able to refinance its massive loans. According to executives with Dundee Corp., which has a 37% stake in the casino, the new partner will take a 34.9% interest in the casino, with the option to take more than 50% through additional investments. Previously, PBC Group, a real estate firm out of Ottawa, had been the controlling owner, holding 63% of the company.

Jonathan Goodman, Dundee’s chairman and CEO, was speaking on an earnings conference call Monday when he made the revelation. It wasn’t specifically mentioned, but Dundee will most likely drop its holdings to 24.1% and PBC will drop its stake to 41%. Goodman didn’t name the new partner, only stating that it was a “private Canadian group that wants to remain private. But I can tell you they are not that private. They have been approved by the regulators of B.C. They’re going to be very active in the day to day business.”

The request for privacy won’t last long. According to British Columbia (B.C.) regulations, any entity with a stake of 5% or more in any gaming company has to be approved by regulators. The policy is designed to ensure the integrity of the gambling industry in B.C., and the details could be made public.

Asia Pioneer Entertainment Holdings, which owns a gaming equipment distribution company out of Macau, took a deeper dive in earnings in the first quarter of 2019 than it had expected. However, it expects things to pick up beginning in the current quarter, as more customers are now placing orders for Asia Pioneer’s equipment.

In a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE) last Friday, Asia Pioneer reported a loss of $244,000 in the quarter. This followed a loss of $222,958 in the first quarter of last year. Revenue in the period dropped 42.8% to around $101,924 after having reported revenue of about $177,000 in the first quarter of 2018.

The drops came as the gaming equipment subsidiary, Asia Pioneer Entertainment Ltd. (APE), saw its technical sales and distribution channels drop 49.7%. The channels took in about half of what they had a year earlier—$833,228 compared to $1.65 million. All of the revenue generated for Asia Pioneer came from APE.

In its filing with the HKSE, where it is listed on the small-cap exchange, Asia Pioneer stated, “Management is confident that the group’s loss in the period can be reversed with new orders in the pipeline for the remainder of 2019. In technical sales and distribution, we are in discussions with several customers in [the] Macau SAR and Southeast Asia, including planned new casinos in [the] Macau SAR.”

Wynn Resorts has had a rough year already, and 2019 is just getting started. After receiving a record fine of $20 million by Nevada regulators for not keeping its founder and former CEO, Steve Wynn, on a tighter leash, the casino giant was slapped with another record fine by Massachusetts authorities for $35 million. Some would say that the company got off light compared to what was at stake, but Wynn doesn’t see it that way and has announced that it might appeal the Massachusetts fine.

On an earnings call last week, CEO Matt Maddox told listeners, “We are still reviewing the decision as it relates to some of the secondary and tertiary conditions imposed by the commission. We do not believe if we choose to appeal if that will impact our ability to open the project at the end of June.”

Maddox was also fined by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) $500,000 because he demonstrated a “clear failure to require an investigation about a specific spa employee complaint brought to his attention.” He was also ordered to participate in leadership training courses. It wasn’t clear whether or not Maddox would try to appeal his personal fine, but it is definitely a realistic possibility.

The smart money would have been on Wynn breaking out the checkbook, paying the fine and putting this nightmare to rest. Wynn was already given the green light by the MGC to retain its license for Encore Boston Harbor – a license worth $85 million – and should have been grateful that more drastic actions weren’t taken. The MGC has stated that its decision is final and that Wynn Resorts isn’t entitled to “any further review from the commission’s determination of suitability.” If it tries to challenge the fine in court, the gloves are going to come off and everything could change.

Big economic and political news is coming out of the woodwork this week. Let’s try to digest it all as we move around the world.

First and foremost, the wooly mammoth in the room. The trade war between the US and China has finally erupted in a blaze of tariffs after months of annoying tweets from Donald Trump about how everything was going so well. The two most powerful governments in the world are now fighting each other openly over how much they can economically strangle their own populations. Trump has gone full Mad King, riding his tariff dragon through the streets of America and burning every Chinese import he can find. Unlike Game of Thrones though, the writing isn’t as bad. It at least makes sense with Trump’s character development over many years as a bloviating economic ignoramus and was somewhat predictable. It’s not like Danaerys Targaryen just suddenly burning a bunch of innocent peasants totally out of the blue for absolutely no conceivable reason whatsoever. Maybe she was trying to thin out their numbers so they don’t starve.

US-owned casinos in Macau are now in an especially precarious situation. If China runs out of US products to tariff, Xi Jinping could start considering other, more incendiary moves. He could conceivably go after US companies in China directly on the pretext of some regulatory violation and deny that it is at all connected to the trade war for diplomatic cover. China is unlikely to announce a move like this if it is indeed considering it, just like it did not announce its arrest of Crown senior executives two years ago. Xi could do any number of things, as he has near absolute power in China. Special taxes, special restrictions, negative points for any Chinese who gamble at Wynn or Las Vegas Sands as opposed to Galaxy, making use of its shiny new mega-creepy social credit scheme. The possibilities are endless when you’re the ruler of a one-party system looking to lash out. Xi could easily just dump Treasuries en masse and impoverish the US if he really wanted to.

Since April 9th when I advised scaling out of Macau stocks, they are down 6%, though still up about 2% from the original January long call. If you’re still holding any Macau shares, now’s the time to sell the rest of it, whether US-owned or not. The megarich VIPs that are the lifeblood of most Macau casinos feed off the crony trade structure between the US and China, and their numbers will diminish in proportion to how bad the trade war gets. It’s just that US-owned and listed casinos in Macau are in double trouble. Las Vegas Sands perhaps particularly so if Sheldon Adelson is targeted because he is a major Trump ally and financier. That’s a long shot, but it’s not completely out of the question.

Iowa moved one step closer to launching legal sports betting after the state’s governor put her name to legislation that state pols approved last month.

On Monday, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 617, which will allow sports betting at the state’s 19 land/water-based gaming venues as well as via mobile devices. The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission has yet to craft its betting regulations, but the expectation is that (at the very least) land-based betting will be up and running by the time the new NFL season kicks off this fall.

Reynolds’ signature was anything but a given, as she had largely kept her own counsel during the occasionally heated debates over betting between legislators in both state chambers. Whatever her personal views, her signature makes Iowa the third state (so far) to formally legalize betting this year, following recent signings by governors in Montana and Indiana, while Tennessee’s guv has said he’ll let his state’s betting bill become law without his signature.

Iowa’s betting legislation compares quite favorably to those other states, as it boasts a favorable tax rate of 7.5% (6.75% of betting revenue plus a 0.75% cut for local charities). License fees have been set at $45k with extremely reasonable $10k renewal fees. The state has set equally reasonable expectations for its own share of annual betting proceeds at between $2.3m and $4m, so at least we’ll be spared those whingeing ‘where’s the beef’ op-eds.

Iowa moved one step closer to launching legal sports betting after the state’s governor put her name to legislation that state pols approved last month.

On Monday, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 617, which will allow sports betting at the state’s 19 land/water-based gaming venues as well as via mobile devices. The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission has yet to craft its betting regulations, but the expectation is that (at the very least) land-based betting will be up and running by the time the new NFL season kicks off this fall.

Reynolds’ signature was anything but a given, as she had largely kept her own counsel during the occasionally heated debates over betting between legislators in both state chambers. Whatever her personal views, her signature makes Iowa the third state (so far) to formally legalize betting this year, following recent signings by governors in Montana and Indiana, while Tennessee’s guv has said he’ll let his state’s betting bill become law without his signature.

Iowa’s betting legislation compares quite favorably to those other states, as it boasts a favorable tax rate of 7.5% (6.75% of betting revenue plus a 0.75% cut for local charities). License fees have been set at $45k with extremely reasonable $10k renewal fees. The state has set equally reasonable expectations for its own share of annual betting proceeds at between $2.3m and $4m, so at least we’ll be spared those whingeing ‘where’s the beef’ op-eds.

eSports betting operator Unikrn is using artificial intelligence (AI) to enable betting markets on a larger volume of live streamed matches while also adding virtual betting to its product line.

On Monday, Unikrn CEO Rahul Sood proudly announced his company’s new ‘streamer betting’ function, which will enable eSports bettors to wager on any ‘approved’ live streamer’s activity with real-time odds established through “game analytics, new AI trading bots & screen-analyzing technology.”

Sood noted that, unlike traditional sports, the volume of live-streamed eSports matches has virtually no upper limit, causing untold problems in setting odds on individual matches. Sood says Unikrn’s new technology is “five years ahead of any other bookmaker in this space, and lightyears ahead of what is possible in a traditional sports world.”

Sood told CoinDesk that he’d shown the new AI odds-system to some traditional bookmakers, whose “minds were blown,” according to Sood, who suggested there may be a decent B2B opportunity for his company to share their technology.