Nektan made a dramatic move on June 3, when Simon Hay was named as their new chief financial officer. Hay comes over from GVC, where he had served as its director. Hay will take command of his new role effective June 17 and take over for Patrick Sinclair, who had been in the position of CFO since January 2017.

The new CFO comes with an impressive set of credentials. He has over 20 years of accounting and consultancy experience, including serving in a variety of roles at KPMG. He had been serving as the finance transformation director at GVC Holdings before coming on board at Nektan.

“We are delighted to welcome Simon as CFO. He joins us at a very exciting time for the business as we continue our rapid growth and path to sustained profitability,” Nektan chief executive Lucy Buckley explained in a statement.“His international expertise will be especially valuable as we expand into new emerging territories, providing leading gaming and casino brands with our technology and premium content globally.”

Hay will be joining Nektan at what appears to be an opportune time. The company announced in March that they had broken even in 2018, the first time the company had reached that point since beginning operations in 2013.

If you invest like a poker player, The Stars Group is the perfect stock for you. Its price action makes little fundamental sense and resembles a follow-the-herd type of movement. Shares can go any which way and upper management keeps TSG’s hand close to its chest. It’s hard to tell exactly what cards TSG is holding.

Bullish sentiment sets shares on fire, but then mood sours and a selling avalanche begins for little apparent reason. The bull run from 2016 – 2018 can be explained in the context of the broader recovery in global equities that coincided with the easing of pressure off the Macau VIPs. This got much of the gaming sector moving after the collapse of 2014 and the wider consolidation of 2015. But if you zoom in at TSG’s collapse from highs of $39 last year, there is no clear and obvious reason to explain it other than a change in sentiment.

Last year’s fall in the US indexes began in late September, TSG’s three months beforehand. So its collapse can’t be explained by beta market conditions, or liquidation to raise cash in a broader bear market. Plus, TSG has not participated at all in the massive slingshot rally since late December (that appears to be cooling off now). Shares remain pretty much unchanged while the S&P 500 rocketed 25% higher.

Consider the circumstances of TSG’s collapse last summer. On August 13th, shares plummeted 16%, with analysts looking for post facto explanations that contradicted headlines put out the same day. On the one hand TSG beat revenue and earnings expectations. On the other hand, the market had “higher expectations”. Which one is it? The one thing you could point to that had something to do with TSG’s collapse since last year was dilution throughout the decline. A forced conversion of preferred shares to common shares and the elimination of the rights of preferred shareholders led to a 52.66:1 conversion ratio and the issuance of about 60 million common shares in early June. Another 20 million shares were issued in a public offering two weeks later. Even factoring this in, that the stock could not rally on the back of one of the most powerful short term rallies in the US stock market ever, is a worrying sign.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) has enjoyed a solid first few months of the year. According to a statement released by the state-run gaming operator, it saw strong revenue growth from January to April, reaching 11.4% higher than the same period last year. By the end of April, PAGCOR had taken in gross revenue of approximately $482.5 million (PHP25.09 billion) and total revenue came in at $460.45 million.

The statement explains the source of the company’s revenue, saying, “A huge bulk of PAGCOR’s revenues (P23.84 billion [$460 million]) came from its income from gaming including fees from licensees and offshore gaming operators. Further, PAGCOR’s other income as well as its income from other related services amounted to P1.24 billion [$23.92 million].”

PAGCOR operates several publicly-owned casinos in the Philippines and acts as the country’s gaming regulator. The figures for the first four months follow on its first-quarter year-on-year improvement, which was $29.93 million, or 9.5% higher than the first quarter of 2018. Gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the period was $101.43 million.

In the recent PAGCOR statement, chairman and CEO Andrea Domingo asserted, “We will do our best to sustain this momentum. Right now, we are recording a monthly average of PHP6.27 billion [$1.21 million] in revenue.”

Just a little more than a month after Suncity Group increased its stake in Tigre de Cristal promoter Summit Ascent Holdings to just under 29%, its chairman has been appointed the chairman of the latter casino resort in the Russian Far East. According to a statement filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last Friday, Alvin Chau, who is also the founder of Suncity, is now wearing two chairman hats, one for each of the two entities.

Tiger de Cristal, which is located near Russia’s port city of Vladivostok, has been actively targeting Chinese gamblers, as well as other East Asian markets nearby. The increased stake by the Macau-based junket brand was seen as a way to allow it to use its influence to help increase the resorts productivity and was a “significant positive” for the venue, according to statements made by executive director Eric Landheer to GGRAsia.

Some analysts agree with the predictions. Union Gaming Securities Asia recently asserted that, because of Suncity’s involvement in the project, its VIP gambling turnover could increase as much as 250% year-on-year in 2020. It has been stated by many analysts that Suncity is the largest single contributor to VIP volume in Macau, which gives it a substantial amount of sway with gamblers.

In addition to Chau being tapped as the chairman of Summit Ascent, Suncity’s chief financial officer, Philip Wong, is now a non-executive director of the entity, as well. This past April, Suncity Chief Investment Officer, and executive director, Andrew Lo became Summit Ascent’s deputy chairman.

Downtown Los Angeles was the scene of even more high-profile activity than usual last Friday, thanks to the city’s law enforcement departments. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), in conjunction with a SWAT team, raided a business in downtown LA that was apparently a major hub of illegal activity, including gambling, drug trafficking and prostitution. By the time the operation was over, at least 35 individuals had been arrested.

Everything began simply enough with police officers showing up with a search warrant to investigate the location for illegal activity that including gambling, firearms sales, drug possession and trafficking and prostitution. Police were forced to get more serious when one of the individuals present decided to barricade himself in a room, resulting in the LAPD deploying tear gas to draw him out.

There is a known underworld of illegal gambling in California, a state that allows tribal casinos but no commercial venues. Those legal operations are low in numbers compared to California’s population, making it a breeding ground for illicit entrepreneurs who know how to game the system. Police have a difficult time preventing the activity, with a new one appearing each time they take down an illegal venue.

The illegal gambling houses aren’t always centers for extreme criminal activity. A bingo hall was raided this past January by LAPD after receiving a tip from a disgruntled resident – the activity was taking place in a retirement community in Woodland Hills. It had been operating without a license, which is free for senior groups.

The CEO of Wynn Resorts, Matt Maddox, and his wife Katherine have a very strange method of celebrating their anniversary. Maybe she was a little miffed at the thought of her husband losing his job at the hands of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC), but Mrs. Maddox apparently used her husband as a punching bag on an outing in Las Vegas recently when the two were out supposedly honoring their 17th anniversary.

According to a report by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the story goes like this. Mr. Maddox and his wife reportedly went out to dinner at the T-Bones Chophouse at the Red Rock Resort. The executive was in the midst of his battle with the MGC and was most likely under a little pressure that night, but something happened to send his wife off the deep end and she began to attack her husband.

The two retired from the restaurant, but were paid a visit by local police at their home. Katherine asserted that the attack took place in their home, which would have carried less of a penalty than a public assault, and said that she hit her husband several times with an open hand (yet another example of a crime that carries a lesser penalty than that associated with a closed-fist attack) after he tried to grab her phone.

There’s just one minor problem with her account. Casinos have cameras and some of the cameras capture the venues’ restaurants, as well. Casino surveillance refutes the pugilist-in-training’s account and shows that Katherine hit Matt “four to five times in his face” and also shoved him before going full Mike Tyson and attacking him “with an under hook closed fist punch, strik[ing] him in his jaw once [and slapping] the phone out of his hand.”

Swedish gambling regulator Spelinspektionen made it clear that it would work diligently to prevent gaming operators from breaking, or even bending, the rules. It has already fined a number of companies, including Betway and Mandalorian Technologies, for violating its rules on bonus offers and self-exclusion procedures, and is at it once again. This time, two more operators have been tagged by the regulator for trying to bypass the bonus restrictions. Making matters worse, the entities had already been warned for violating other rules.

According to Swedish gambling law, licensed gambling operators can offer only one-time bonuses to new customers. Other types of bonuses and incentives are not allowed. Either Genesis Global Limited and AG Communications Ltd. missed the memo or simply chose to ignore it. They are now on the hook for around $232,000 in fines.

Genesis operates Vegas Hero and Slot online casinos and has been ordered to pay around $180,000 for offering bonuses inconsistent with Sweden’s gambling laws. AG Communications, which operates Casino Luck and Karamba, is going to have to pull out the wallet and fork over $52,722.

Both of the companies have previously been fined by Spelinspektionen for not adhering to the legal gambling framework. Genesis paid $430,000 in March when it was determined that the company had not adequately linked its operations to the country’s self-exclusion database, Spelpaus.se. AG was fined for the same thing last month and had to pay $321,000.

Melco is interested in acquiring a 20%-stake in Australia’s Crown Resorts, but the deal is coming under scrutiny by the country’s gaming authorities. Anytime an acquisition or merger is discussed in the casino industry, regulators have their hand in the equation to ensure there won’t be any issues, but the Melco-Crown deal is raising flags because Australian authorities believe Melco chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho could have ties to the largest Chinese mafias, better known as the Triad.

Lawrence Ho reportedly has ties to operations founded by his father, Stanley Ho, who ran a gambling monopoly in Macau until 2002 through his SJM Holdings company. Stanley has often been seen as someone with links to organized crime and authorities have alleged that he is connected to the 14K and Sun Yee On mafias. Those allegations have continuously been denied by the Ho family.

More than a decade ago, MGM Resorts, which was known as MGM Mirage at the time, was looking to operate the Borgata casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Authorities with the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE) released a report in 2010 that took four years to compile and which argued that there were concerns over the company’s viability due to its dealing with Pansy Ho of the Ho family for the MGM Macau. The NJDGE asserted that Stanley was an associate of the triads and that he had introduced VIP gambling rooms at his Macau venues that “provided organized crime the entry into the Macau gaming market that it had previously lacked.”

Whether or not Australian authorities will take four years to conduct their investigation remains to be seen, but there is a general belief that the Melco-Crown deal won’t be approved quickly. Lawrence Ho expects to prevail, though, and states, “Both Crown and I have always stressed that my business dealings are independent of my father’s interests. We have already been in partnership with Crown for 12 years and have passed probity screens from regulators without an issue.”

Matthew Wantman dominates the final table of the World Poker Tour ARIA Summer Championship, beating Igor Kurganov, heads-up, to claim his first major title. 

The first time that Matthew Wantman made the final table of a World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event he was like footprints in the sand washed away by the sea.

Wantman’s sixth-place finish came at the 2016 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open, and it’s safe to say he’s exorcised any remaining demons after overcoming a 192-entrant field to win the ARIA Summer Championship.

It’s Wantman’s fourth live tournament win, and this one tops his previous personal best – a runner-up finish to Wenhao Ying in the Borgata Fall Poker Open Championship earning him $172,449 last winter.

The UFC loves the Windy City as this Saturday the promotion will stage its seventh overall card at Chicago’s United Center and second time for a pay-per-view event. UFC 238 is headlined by a bantamweight title fight between Henry Cejudo and Marlon Moraes.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

If you go look at the UFC’s rankings page, you will not see a picture or listing of a bantamweight champion. That’s because the division’s former champion, T.J. Dillashaw, vacated it when he tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. He has since been suspended for two years, not able to return to the Octagon until January 2021. That test result came out after Dillashaw fought for the flyweight title in January against Cejudo and lost just 32 seconds in by TKO (punches). So the bantamweight title has been vacant since.

Cejudo (14-2), a 2008 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling, will attempt to become the UFC’s next two-division champion as he’s moving up from flyweight for this bout. However, he is a -105 underdog on the UFC 238 betting lines. The 32-year-old Cejudo has won four in a row since back-to-back losses to Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez. Interestingly, Cejudo has that wrestling background yet has never won a fight by submission.

Our daily review from the 50th Anniversary of the World Series of Poker and it’s a first cash and bracelet for Derek McMaster in Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-Better.

Can you remember the first time you tried to fix a puncture, danced in a nightclub or made a clay ashtray for your mum?

One doubts you were perfect.

Not the first time.

Craig Varnell rises like Lazarus to win the World Poker Tour Choctaw Main Event when at one point he was down to a mere three big blinds.

A diamond-studded red dress by Vera Wang, a trip to see the fornicating baboons at the zoo, or the skin of an apple – you never know what gifts you’re going to receive on your birthday. On Craig Varnell’s 36th birthday, he was never going to wear a dress, he couldn’t get to the zoo, and he didn’t fancy the apple peel. Nah, Varnell wanted one thing and one thing only – a World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event title.

WPT Choctaw began where the name suggests, and ended in the HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas. Varnell started second in chips to Will Berry and was the most decorated player at the final table with a WPT500 title and World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet hogging space on his bookshelf back home.

“I never would I have thought I’d have a WPT title,” Varnell told PokerNews.