Macau looks like it will likely be adding new players to its gambling industry. It’s Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong Vai Tac, told local media the government is taking steps towards a fresh public tender process for new concessionaires, reports GGRAsia.

Although the current six concessions will expire in 2022, Leong said on May 11 that work is being done now to introduce new licenses as well. These won’t be blank checks for operators to just put up a casino and be done with it though, it has to match the new vision of Macau.

Leong inferred that applications would need to increase non-gaming elements present in their resorts, guarantee social safeguards for employees, and contribute to a more diversified economy.

He also talked about the extension of concessions for SJM Holdings and MGM China holdings. Those concessions were set to expire, but were extended to June 26, 2022, so that they would expire at the same time as the other four concessionaires in the city. He believes that adjustment would “benefit the preparation for the public tender,” adding that the added benefit of time would help the government prepare for new licenses in “an orderly manner and avoiding any negligence.

Growth is an important part of the Philippines casino story right now, and two resorts are reporting on their situation. Okada Manila has recently announced their results for April, while Resorts World Manila has produced numbers for their performance in the first quarter of 2019.

Okada Manila continues to report on their significant growth in gross gaming revenue (GGR). In their filing, they noted GGR reached PHP2.48 billion ($47.5 million), up 26% from the previous year. At the same time, this was a 24.6% decline from the GGR of March 2019.

Universal Entertainment Corp, the operator of the casino, didn’t comment on the month over month decline, however one could guess that it had less action with the Easter weekend landing in April, a time where the resort shut down to locals for two days.

VIP revenue was also up 20% year over year, but fell 33.4 month over month. Mass market revenue came in even better, 42.6% higher year over year, but down 4.9% from March. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) came in at PHP314 million ($5.99 million), an increase of 224% year over year, but down 39.3% from March.

Manchester City becomes the first team to retain the English Premier League title after beating Brighton at the Amex by 4-1 with Liverpool winning at home against Wolves 2-0.

Not since men with deep pockets ran an electric razor over the scalp of the old First Division to create the English Premier League (EPL) back in 1992 have we had such a riveting battle at the top.

It’s just a shame that we didn’t have a Game of Thrones Red Wedding style ending.

On any given day, any team in the EPL can beat any other, but with Manchester City winning 13 straight EPL ties, there was no way that Brighton was going to be the horse kick in the chest that Liverpool fans needed to win their first top tier title since 1989-90.

A lottery player in Canada who has been purchasing weekly tickets for more than two decades didn’t realize that she didn’t have good odds of winning. Martha Karas believed that Loto-Quebec did a poor job explaining the odds, so she did what anyone desperate to win millions of dollars would due – she sued the lottery.

Karas has been purchasing tickets to Loto-Quebec’s 6/49 and Lotto Max games for more than 20 years, according to court documents. However, she believed that the odds of winning were around five million-to-one, per her argument, and not the 14 million-to-one (6/49) or 28.6 million-to-one (Lotto Max) they actually are.

Karas sued for $112 million in punitive damages, as well as all profits generated by the game for everyone who had played it since July 2013, asserting that Loto-Quebec never informed the public of the actual odds. Her case actually made it as far as the Quebec Superior Court in 2017 before being rejected.

Not content with the court’s ruling, Karas tried again and pushed her luck further. Last week, Quebec’s Court of Appeal tossed the case, just like the Superior Court had done two years ago.

In 2017, Macau decided to upgrade its casino smoking policies, restricting the activity to only certain locations. VIP rooms were still authorized for smoking, but only until the end of last year when these, too, would be off-limits. The government said that smoking lounges could be allowed in the casinos, provided they met a long list of stringent requirements and were approved by the city, a process that had to be completed by the beginning of this year. A last-minute rush for approvals by casino operators bogged down the authorization process, leading to many lounges not receiving their approval until February or March. Now, MGM Cotai has officially been given the thumbs-up for its smoking lounges.

Last Thursday, Macau’s Health Bureau published an announcement about the approval and, as a result, all of Macau’s six casino operators, in some form, are now compliant with the new regulations. Virtually all of the other venues had been given their approval prior to the end of March and there were no details provided regarding why MGM Cotai’s authorization was delayed. It was reportedly approved on April 30, but only announced last week.

As of the end of April, the Health Bureau has signed off on a total of 546 smoking lounges that meet the new requirements, among which is an advanced air filtration system. Those lounges are all located in 31 casinos across the city. The move is seen as a plus for the casinos, which have been concerned that the lack of smoking ability would cause gamblers to leave the premises in order to smoke and that they wouldn’t return.

According to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ, for its Portuguese acronym), there are 47 active gaming venues in Macau. Well over half of these have multiple gaming floors and/or gaming areas, as well as VIP areas that are separate from the main facilities.

The gambling industry of the Philippines might finally be getting the big break it was waiting for, and a lot sooner than it expected. After years of railing against gambling, President Rodrigo Duterte is finally showing signs that he might relax his stance against gambling expansion.

At a May 11 campaign stop, where Duterte was present to support his political allies in the lead-up to the May 13 mid-term elections, the president chose to use some of his stump time to talk about his efforts against gambling. He said, “That gambling-gambling, I will not meddle with it anymore, just do not enter. I cannot control it, really… I will let you in, but not extortion or drugs.”

Beyond Casinos and online gambling operations, there are several local games that are popular amongst friends and families, like jueteng (a type of numbers game), tongits (a card game) and hantak. Citing the difficulty and economic problems of banishing these games, Duterte admitted he’s given up. “I am not trying to encourage you… I cannot stop it anyway and I know I am lacking,” the Manila Times reported the president said.

This is a big change in tone for the fiery president, who in the past has said “I will not allow gambling… I hate gambling.” Because of that stance, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has been barred from approving new licenses to potential casino operations, a policy which Andrea Domingo, the head of the regulatory group, has publically begged Duterte to back off of.

For his hard work and dedication last year, Melco Resorts and Entertainment Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho was given bonuses of over $10 million between shares and cash. That’s enough to put a smile on anyone’s face. However, it seems that the bonuses may have come at the expense of the casino operator’s employees. Melco is reportedly trying to pay off certain employees in Macau to get them to quit, which could save the company money if it were forced to let them go, instead.

According to a report by GGRAsia, Melco is offering pit bosses as much as $62,045 to walk away – not bad for someone who earns $3,700-$5,000 a month. Other employees have been offered different types of incentives to leave their posts, including transfers to non-gaming jobs or up to a year in unpaid leave.

The changes come following a solid first quarter. According to company figures released last week, the company’s revenue reached $1.36 billion – about 4% higher than the first quarter of last year. However, the company’s operating income dropped to $188 million and net income fell to $117.4 million.

Despite that performance, the company, as with the entire Macau gaming industry, has seen a drop in VIP gaming that has been ongoing for the past year. However, Macau has always seen better stability in the segment than most. This year, though, the segment dropped below mass market gaming for the first time.

Over the last few years, there has been a lot of speculation that MQ Tech would be expanding its operations into Southeast Asia. in December 2016, there was talk that the tech company would be getting involved with a Cambodian casino operation, something that MQ Tech denied.

While Southeast Asia may not be the spot for MQ Tech to advance, they have now chosen a market in Asia to get involved with, making a deal with Monvest Group Pte Ltd to purchase shares in the Mongolian gaming operation. According to the report, the company acquired 19% of the shares at a cost of about RM8.55 million.

Monvest operates the Mongolian national lottery. This lottery is operated by Modern Capital Vest LLC (MCV) and Biz-Invin LLC, both of which are subsidiaries owned by the Mongolian company. MCV is the lottery management business while Biz-Invin holds the license for the lottery operation in the country.

For MQ Technology, this is the perfect opportunity. Joining with Monvest allows the company to be able to reap the profits from sales related to the lottery ticket sales, while also playing a major role in the setting up and equipping of booths and lottery terminals using their technical and consultation expertise.

In 2015, British Columbia (BC) realized there was a gambling problem. This one, though, was centered on what could only be described as an out-of-control money-laundering scheme that affected a number of casinos, including most notably, River Rock Casino Resort. Since the revelation was first made, the province and the BC Lottery Commission (BCLC), which oversees gambling activity, has implemented new anti-money-laundering (AML) policies, patting itself on the back for its ability to manage the situation. However, it quickly became obvious that the situation had not been managed and, even as recently as this past February, it was determined that money laundering was still happening – sometimes with the government’s own accounts. Now, the BCLC has thrown its hands up in exasperation and is making a public cry for help.

The BCLC spent about $5.4 million trying to control money laundering. Instead of conducting a competitive bidding process, it awarded a contract directly to a US-based company that supplies AML software to banks, but which had never been tested in a casino environment. As it turns out, the software wasn’t up to the task.

According to Peter German, a former deputy of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), testing was done on the software after it was already put into action. The software was found to contain a number of deficiencies, including the lack of a field for a customer’s middle name, which caused the instances of false positives to skyrocket “through the roof.”

German adds, “The inability of the new system to deliver as BCLC had hoped means that BCLC must rely on its existing systems and manual intervention to monitor patrons. Any attempt by government and Crown agencies to develop hardware and software solutions must always be approached with great caution … [competitive bidding processes] exist for a reason.”

The incumbent president of the Unite Here Local 54 workers union in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Bob McDevitt, is keeping his job. Union members took to the polls last Friday to elect a new leader for the next three years and McDevitt defeated his only competition in what could be described as anything but a landslide. As such, and is becoming the norm in all US-held elections on virtually all levels, the results are being contested and the loser is demanding a recount and, possibly, a do-over.

McDevitt, who has been president since 1996, defeated Al Tabei, taking 932 of the 1,596 votes cast. However, Tabei is ready to challenge the results, asserting that 152 of the votes cast are illegal because the voters are not “up-to-date with union dues.” He also argued that some of the casinos didn’t offer their unionized employees enough time to leave to place their votes, which could have resulted in missed opportunities or erroneous choices.

Unite Here Local 54 represents about one-third of the casino employees in Atlantic City and the number is growing. Hard Rock Atlantic City employees recently voted to unionize and those of Ocean Casino Resort are close to a vote.

McDevitt’s reelection comes as the union is about ready to face to possible fight in Atlantic City. Bargaining negotiations in the gambling industry are expected to launch early next year and the president is prepared for battle if necessary.

As is the case with many countries, Australia has launched a crackdown on online and live gambling in order to try and protect its citizens from becoming addicted to the activity. Limits are being put in place on how much one can gamble and advertising is becoming much more controlled, with companies being fined for any breaches in the new regulations. Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) has been trying to clean up the industry, as well, but the state is finding that gambling operators have gotten very good at dancing and sidestepping regulations.

NSW has laws in place that are meant to prevent online gambling operators from inducing or enticing consumers to sign up. Since last July, no free bet sign offers have been allowed on anything but racing websites. Online operators have been found to be skirting the law by using other websites to attract new customers.

The result is NSW cracking down even further and, on average, is now prosecuting two cases each month. A number of companies have already been fined for breaches, including bet365, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power’s Sportsbet, PointsBet and Tabcorp. Since last June, around US$92,000 in fines have been issued to the violators; however, this is pennies to the companies. Across just those five companies there would be an average of $18,400 in fines – they make more than that in less than a month.

But, some say that this still isn’t enough and call for the licensing to be revoked for those companies that continue to dance around the laws. An associate professor with Monash University, Charles Livingston, says the fines are nothing more than a “slap on the wrist.” The gambling operators even recognize that the fines are not important, that they’re simply a cost of doing business and are worth it based on the reward.