Casino operator Wynn Resorts reported falling revenue and earnings in Q1 as VIP gamblers gave its Macau and Las Vegas casinos a wide berth.

Figures released Thursday show Wynn’s revenue falling 3.7% year-on-year to $1.65b in the three months ending March 31, while adjusted earnings fell 12.3% to $494.8m and net income totaled $104.9m versus a net loss of $204.3m in Q1 2018, although that loss was attributable to costs associated with resolving ex-CEO Steve Wynn’s legal woes.

Wynn’s operations in Macau were a mixed bag, with the new Wynn Palace property reporting revenue up 9.1% to $665.8m and earnings up 5% to $212m. By contrast, the Wynn Macau venue’s revenue fell 15.3% to $524m while earnings fell 22% to $164m.

Both properties reported significant declines in VIP gambling turnover, with Wynn Palace down 18% to $12.6b and Wynn Macau tumbling 40.3% to $10.2b. A reprieve of sorts came via Wynn Palace’s 3.91% VIP win rate, a full 1.3 points higher than the year before and well above the normal 2.7-3.0% range, while Wynn Macau’s win rate rose 0.3 points to 2.9%.

The Parliamentary All Party Betting and Gaming Group (APBGG) had its latest meeting on May 7, and the gathering discussed if “the gambling industry is giving players enough control.” Unfortunately for all involved, the consensus was a resounding “no.”

The four panelists were Sarah Hanratty, chief executive officer at the Senet Group; Damon De Ionno, managing director and head of strategy at Revealing Reality; Wes Himes, chief executive officer at the Remote Gambling Association (RGA); and John White, chief executive officer of BACTA.

All panelists agreed that the industry needs to do more to give players control over their own fate. Each panelist had different ideas of how that could be achieved, and all agreed that multiple steps needed to be taken to improve the situation.

Himes argued that players should have more direct control over the ability to close their account. Letting them access their account history and self-exclusion tools will lead to better outcomes for problem cases, he argued. Some operators offer these types of controls, but Himes wants to see more of it in the industry.

The casino industry in South Korea looks like it will be getting some serious competition soon. Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment’s President and CEO, Mario Kontomerkos, announced the tribal casino operator has secured everything it needs for its upcoming Inspire project in South Korea, reports GGRAsia.

They expect the Inspire resort to be ready to open to some degree by 2021, with a second phase slotted to open in 2022.

“We have begun to mobilise construction at our development site in Incheon, South Korea, having completed our negotiations with our general contractor and following the receipt of all necessary construction permits and approvals,” said the CEO.

The resort is going to go up near the Incheon International Airport, the main hub of the country, and not far from the capital of Seoul. The operator has also previously announced a deal with Live Nation, an events and venue operator, as well as a partnership with Paramount Studios for a theme park. If they’re planning to have Star Trek and Transformers rides, count me in.

It might be the beginning of a new streak of gross gaming revenue (GGR) increases for South Korean casino operator Paradise Co Ltd. The operator reported a return to growth with a 49.5% increase in April, reports GGRAsia.

That number turns out to be KRW57.13 billion ($48.5 million) in GGR, a healthy improvement from the KRW38.21 billion ($32 million) last April.

A bulk of that increase came from table revenue. It increased 50.8% to a total of KRW53.53 billion ($45 million), from KRW35.49 billion ($30 million) in April 2018. Machine table also increased 32.5%, but made up a much smaller portion of total GGR. It went from KRW3.61 billion ($3.1 million), from KRW2.72 billion ($2.3 million) in the prior-year period.

For the year so far, Paradise Co is doing very well. Aggregate casino revenue is reported to be up 17.2% Like April’s numbers, that’s mostly off the back of table games, with machine games making up a percentage of the total gross.

We have received word that online gambling site WeBet is shutting down it’s Manila office. Sources have informed us that the sportsbook and casino site laid off nearly all their staff and are winding down Manila operations quickly.

The cause of the shutdown appears to go back to the sudden death of Gary Murphy, co-owner of Malta payments company Pay Secure Online Ltd. (Pay Sec) with his brother Andrew. While business continued as usual for some time, employees of Pay Sec were informed on May 7 that the company was shut down, and approximately 80 staff were immediately let go, most of them located in Manila, sources tell us. Staff were informed that funding was no longer available to continue running the business.

WeBet, run by Andrew Murphy, had its operations funded by Pay Sec. With that funding no longer available, Andrew Murphy has been in downsize mode and WeBet’s Manila operations were the first victim. A visit to their site now allows one to choose their region, but then leads to a blank page regardless of region chosen. We’ve not been told what will happen with their customers, however it appears a skeleton staff is being kept on to wrap up loose ends.

Another source close to the situation tell us that after Gary’s death, which was well known in the company, there was still plans to keep the business going with no issues.

The Poarch Band of Creek Indians out of Alabama wants to add Pennsylvania’s Sands Bethlehem casino to its portfolio. The potential acquisition was announced more than a year ago and, as with all casino transfers, is contingent upon the successful approval by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB). It only took the board a year, but it will finally discuss the potential acquisition in a meeting next week, just ahead of the expected close of the deal by the end of this month.

The PGCB is scheduled to meet on May 15 in Harrisburg, the state’s capital. The planned agenda for the meeting has not been made public, but Bethlehem’s mayor, Bob Donchez, let local news outlets that the Sands Bethlehem deal is definitely on the list.

Wind Creek Hospitality, the gaming and hospitality company of the Poarch Band, announced that it would purchase the venue last spring for $1.3 billion. The acquisition was billed as a way for the company to strengthen its position and would be added to a portfolio that contains three casinos in Alabama and one each in Florida and Nevada. It also owns two other venues, one in Curaçao and the other in Aruba.

If the PGCB approves the deal—which it is expected to do—the tribe plans on putting the venue through a major renovation. It has said it will spend $190 million to renovate, rebrand and expand the resort, part of which includes a new 300-key hotel. The upgrades will begin as soon as the gaming board gives the green light to the acquisition and the new venue will be called the Wind Creek Casino and Resort.

Melco Resorts and Entertainment has stepped forward and decided that supporting Macau’s non-obligatory pension plan is a good idea. The plan is designed to give employees better benefits in their old age and to offset any possible reductions in the government’s social security program. Melco announced that it would join, following a similar announcement by Wynn Macau earlier this month.

The “Non-mandatory Central Provident Fund System” was created in January of last year and Macau has stressed that businesses are not required to participate – that it is a completely voluntary program. However, the city also didn’t hide the fact that it would be in the casinos’ best interests, especially when it came time to consider things such as concession renewals.

Melco will join the program this coming July. All new-hires form July 1 will have the option of enrolling in the program, while existing employees that are in one of the company’s only pension plans can opt to switch or keep going with their current enrollment(s). The changes will affect employees at the company’s four venues in the city – Altira Macau, City of Dreams, Studio City and the Mocha Club electronic gaming machine facility.

Melco’s boss, Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho, explained in a press release (in pdf), “Our colleagues are integral to the company’s achievements, and we are pleased to support the Macau SAR Government’s Non-Mandatory Central Provident Fund for our Macau resident employees.”

Businesses looking for an easy payment solution for their website have a new powerful option, with support for Bitcoin SV (BSV) baked in. Relay, the developers of the RelayX BSV superwallet, have announced their new payment solution, Relay One.

The announcement was made on May 9 in a Medium post. The new service is advertised as a “a simple button for online e-commerce, platforms, and independent sites.” It also features the ability for online merchants to accent local payments.

The new Relay One system will allow merchants to receive funds directly to their RelayX superwallet. Relay specifically worked on this new app as a way to broaden the options available to merchants. They wrote:

“Our long term vision is to empower everyone in the world to participate in the real-time global economy and a large step towards that is providing a method for merchants to open their stores to the world and for content creators to build a direct relationship with their audience.”

Genting Singapore Ltd. has delivered its financial report for the first quarter of the year and things could have definitely been better. The company’s profit slipped 5.4% year-on-year, as did its revenue, which fell by a similar amount, 5.1%. The company took in $150.7 million, down from the $159.3 million a year ago.

Genting Singapore has a mix of gaming and non-gaming operations and is behind the Resorts World Sentosa resort in Singapore. The company’s gaming revenue dropped 7.9% year-on-year to $315.6 million, compared to $342.8 million last year, and non-gaming revenue saw a slight, 1% uptick to $153.5 million. That revenue comes from operations that include, among others, the Universal Studios Singapore theme park.

Hurting the company’s bottom line in the quarter was a net impairment on trade receivables. This is nothing more than a fancy way for a gambling company way to say that it gave out too much credit that it wasn’t able to collect. Genting Singapore showed this impairment, or bad debt, to be $8.1 million, which was 34% higher than it was a year ago. The good news is that the amount was lower quarter-over-quarter – the company only gave away $28.6 million in the fourth quarter of last year.

Despite the drop in revenue, Genting Singapore is a glass-half-full kind of company. It said in its filing, “The group continued to perform healthily in the first quarter of 2019. Non-gaming business registered its eighth consecutive quarter of year-on-year revenue growth with higher spend per visitor. Our key attractions drew in a daily average visitation of over 19,000.”

Gamblers seem to have developed a preference for slot machines this past quarter. Many casino operators have reported an increase in slot machine activity and revenue and Konami Corp. is happy because of it. The Japanese company manufactures slot machines, among other items, and the increases in slot activity allowed Konami to report a gain of 9.6% in its annual revenue for the period ending March 31.

Across the board, Konami saw net income increase by 12.1% year-on-year, reaching $311.6 million. A jump of 5.2% in net revenue was reported for the company’s gaming and systems division, delivering $284.3 million. The division’s profit increased by 8.2% year-on-year, reaching just over $42.8 million.

A company press release on its finances indicated that Konami had “enhanced” its portfolio to include the KX43, a new upright cabinet. The cabinet was introduced last year in Las Vegas at the Global Gaming Expo 2018. Konami added, “We also promoted market revitalisation by providing new entertainment with the installation of Fortune Cup mainly in the North America and Asia.”

Several standard offerings also helped move the company forward. The press release explained, “The sales of the latest cabinet in the Concerto series, including Concerto Crescent and Concerto Stack, as well as Concerto Opus … continued to perform strongly,”

If a bet on Tony Romo winning a major PGA tournament that could turn $100 into $1 million isn’t enough of a draw, perhaps another golf bet proves more attractive. Tiger Woods has seen some sports gambling action already, but one gambler thinks that he could sweep the next three majors. It’s a risky wager, but one that has substantial rewards. If Woods pulls it off, the bettor will pick up $10 million.

Woods would need to win the PGA Championship, the US Open and the Open Championship, the next three PGA majors. A gambler who has shown he isn’t afraid to take chances before is so confident that Tiger will pull off the impossible that he put up $100,000 against overwhelming odds.

Of course, most didn’t believe that Tiger would when the green jacket at the Masters, and look what happened. That triumph gave one gambler $1.19 million on a bet of $85,000. It was reportedly the gambler’s first sports bet ever, according to him. That gambler was James Adducci and his name is becoming a little stressful for sportsbooks.

Adducci is the gambler who now thinks Tiger is going to sweep the next three majors. He went into the SLS Las Vegas on Wednesday and placed his bet, looking at 100-to-1 odds of Tiger pulling it off.