Sweden’s international online gambling licensees have referred the state-run former gambling monopoly Svenska Spel to the country’s media watchdog for promoting its products without including responsible gambling messaging.

On Monday, the Branschföreningen för onlinespel (BOS) trade group representing Sweden’s independent online gambling licensees filed a complaint with the Granskningsnämnden media regulator regarding Svenska Spel promoting its Triss, Keno and Lotto products via TV morning shows and other family-friendly programs.

A morning show on broadcaster TV4 includes a regular spot in which guests are invited to play Svenska Spel lottery products, including scratch cards. While the guests are quizzed as to what they’ll do if they strike it rich, BOS notes that these segments don’t include any responsible gambling messaging, as required under the country’s new regulated market rules.

BOS referred to the segments as “clearly promotional” in nature, given the prominence in which Svenska Spel’s product logos are displayed. BOS further notes that Svenska Spel hasn’t denied that it compensates the broadcasters for airing the segments, despite that fact going unmentioned on-air.

Macau might be out of the rough now and looking to grow once again. That’s the sentiment of analysts, who expect the administrative region will see growth in May 2019, reports GGRAsia.

This analysis is based largely off of a winning start to the month. The Labour Day weekend saw a 37% increase in tourism year-on-year, and as a result, early reports indicate that gross gaming revenue (GGR) reached MOP5.5 billion (US$680.5 million), representing an average daily rate (ADR) of MOP1.1 billion (US$140 million), an increase of 40% compared to April, and 18% year-on-year.

Brokerage firm Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. explained where they believe the increase came from:

“[The] ADR improved on a lengthened Labour Day holiday in China, bringing in higher Chinese traffic. VIP hold rate is estimated to have normalised from the higher hold rate [in the] last two months. Mass and VIP volume is estimated to be up double digits [in percentage terms] month-on-month.”

Paddy Power Betfair just released its Q1 earnings, and this is an investment enigma if I ever saw one. Cases can be made for both bulls and bears, though I tend to come out on the bull side. Paddy certainly is not a momentum play, but the stock does have a lot of appeal for conservative income investors. There is the potential for significant growth out of the U.S. and Australia, that is if you ignore the fact that Australia is in the middle of a major housing bust as we speak even worse than 2008, and has an off chance of being on the verge of a currency debacle as well. On a side note, if want to buy a house in Perth, now’s the time.

But if you want to own Paddy Power Betfair, don’t do it because you believe Australia is the immediate key to growth for the company. Also don’t do it thinking the US market could push it back to new highs. It might, but not any time soon. Do it, rather, because Paddy Power Betfair has a very strong balance sheet, a strong brand and stable business, and can’t fall much farther than it already has. Own Paddy Power Betfair for the boring reasons, the kinds you may hear in a dry lecture on how to parse your retirement portfolio that puts you to sleep. Don’t do it for the potentially exciting reasons. Those may end up working out or not, and at this point it’s hard to tell. Long term, everything should be fine for the company if you’re not actively trading it.

As my colleague Steven Stradbrooke points out, Paddy is treading water, using its recent acquisitions to make it look like it’s growing when it isn’t so much. A case can be made that it is, in truth, growing, sort of, and that bad luck has been stunting it. Then again, excuses excuses. If it were really growing, organic expansion should counter bad luck. The good news is that online sportsbook stakes increased 5%, stakes in the Australian market increased 17%, and retail sportsbook stakes increased 4%. So yes, more people are betting with Paddy than before, which means they’re doing something right.

The company’s press releases have a tendency to use hyperbolic language that overstates successes and hides weaknesses, which is consistent with its tendency for extreme political correctness that borders on saccharine adulation for the blithering PC trends of the day, as can be seen its annual reports. To some extent I can’t blame them because you have to play the right tune to all possible ears, but just going through its annual report is really annoying and eye-rolley. How many pages are dedicated to employment “diversity” (meaning superficial diversity of physical appearance or function or preference) while admitting that the gaming industry is not known for this sort of superficial diversity, but then saying that said diversity leads to better companies and yada yada. Pages and pages of this stuff. As far as I can tell, only diversity of talent and mind leads to better companies and everything else is irrelevant.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal is good at uncovering what actually goes on behind the scenes in Las Vegas.  In its latest exposé, the media outlet discovered something about the city’s sports gambling industry that most probably didn’t realize. Two individuals who served time for a million-dollar Ponzi scheme are now in charge of six sports gambling mutual funds in Vegas. I guess it’s not called Sin City for nothing.

John F. Thomas III—aka John F. Rodgers, John Frank, Jonathan West and John Marshall—manages six funds that are now being put under the microscope by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC had received complaints from investors that their dividends had dried up, and the commission wants to know what has happened.

The six funds include Wellington Sports Club, Einstein Sports Advisory, Vegas Football Club, Sports Psychometrics, Vegas Basketball Club and Quantum Sports Advisory.

Assisting Thomas and his multiple personalities is Thomas J. Becker, according to Nevada Secretary of State records. That name precisely matches that of an accomplice of Thomas, who was locked up with him over the Ponzi scheme.

Sports leagues can breathe a little sigh of relief. As New York lawmakers are debating two sports gambling bills that could introduce mobile betting to the Empire State, their “integrity fee” has remained intact. The bills have undergone a number of changes and were introduced at the end of last week, but the leagues will always be given their cut if the bills are approved as they stand.

Senator Joe Addabbo and Representative Gary Pretlow have been pushing for the expansion of legalized sports gambling in New York, including the introduction of mobile platforms. They have submitted identical companion bills to their respective chambers and believe that lawmakers have the ability to approve sports wagers without the need for a change to the state’s constitution. Unfortunately for them, however, Governor Andrew Cuomo is not in agreement.

In changing the two bills, the license fee was set at $12 million. It is the most expensive license in the U.S.—higher than Pennsylvania’s $10 million—but the population in the state, which is greater than either New Jersey or Nevada, could justify the amount. In addition, gross gaming revenue (GGR) on mobile wagers would be taxed 12% and land-based wagers, 8.5%.

To protect residents and prevent gambling from becoming a problem, gamblers’ accounts will be frozen if they exceed $2,500 in deposits. The account holder will have to acknowledge the amount in order to have the account unfrozen, and will also have to determine whether or not to establish responsible gaming deposit limits.

There won’t be any sweetheart real estate deals for Singapore’s casino operators. That was the message from the country’s Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Chee Hong Tat, who said the two operators will have to pay “fair market value,” Channel News Asia reports.

He had to address these concerns in a recent session with members of parliament (MPs). The two operators, Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, were given approval by the government in April to expand their resorts, so long as they invested SGD9 billion ($6.6 billion) in the country. Since they will be expanding their properties, the MPs naturally wanted to know how they were going to pay for the additional land.

In his comment that they would pay market value, Chee noted, “[This is a] longstanding policy that has been extended to both local and foreign companies across different industries.”

Thanks to his further explanation, we know more about what the operators plan to do. Marina Bay Sands has targeted a 3.3 hectares (8.15 acres) expansion site for a cost of SGD1.3 billion ($950 million). Resorts World plan, Chee said, is to use a “SGD1 billion (US$730 million) to intensify the use of existing land and purchase around 1 hectare of new land.”

It was just a year ago the Paytm launched their new gaming platform, Gamepind. According to a report from the company, they have reached the 30 million registered user mark, a remarkable achievement for a platform that has only been in operation for about 12 months.

Gamepind Entertainment Private Limited is the collaborative project of Paytm and Alibaba and has seen dramatic growth since its inception. They reported a 20 percent growth per month since it began operations with over 70 million gameplays each month.

The Indian based company has long established itself as a leading digital wallet and e-payment system but jumped into the online gambling world in May 208. In February 2019, Paytm added another arm to their building empire, adding additional features to their mobile app, including both rummy and fantasy sports.

This came through a joint venture with One97 Communications Limited, which offered their products through Paytm’s homepage. This integrated well with Gamepind, created by VinfoTech for Paytm, which offered such daily fantasy sports (DFS) games as football, cricket, and others.