Paraguay’s online gambling monopoly is kicking back less than $4m to the government on an annual basis, a situation the gambling regulator blames on unauthorized competition.

This week, José Ortiz, head of Paraguay’s National Gambling Commission (Conajazar), revealed that the Aposta.la online sports betting monopoly was contributing about G2.1b (US$325k) per month to the state treasury, which works out to around $3.9m on an annual basis.

Paraguay has a population of only around 7m residents, but Ortiz (pictured) justified the government’s paltry online betting returns from Aposta.la on the activities of at least three unauthorized online gambling operators. Ortiz singled out one of these companies as Crown City, which operates the Apuestasjockey.com domain (pictured behind Ortiz).

Crown City’s parent firm, Montego Trading, operated under a Conajazar permit until last year, when Aposta.la’s parent Daruma Sam S.A. was awarded a five-year betting monopoly despite suggestions that the government and Ortiz’s predecessor at Conajazar had rigged the tender to ensure Daruma Sam won the prize.

Paraguay’s online gambling monopoly is kicking back less than $4m to the government on an annual basis, a situation the gambling regulator blames on unauthorized competition.

This week, José Ortiz, head of Paraguay’s National Gambling Commission (Conajazar), revealed that the Aposta.la online sports betting monopoly was contributing about G2.1b (US$325k) per month to the state treasury, which works out to around $3.9m on an annual basis.

Paraguay has a population of only around 7m residents, but Ortiz (pictured) justified the government’s paltry online betting returns from Aposta.la on the activities of at least three unauthorized online gambling operators. Ortiz singled out one of these companies as Crown City, which operates the Apuestasjockey.com domain (pictured behind Ortiz).

Crown City’s parent firm, Montego Trading, operated under a Conajazar permit until last year, when Aposta.la’s parent Daruma Sam S.A. was awarded a five-year betting monopoly despite suggestions that the government and Ortiz’s predecessor at Conajazar had rigged the tender to ensure Daruma Sam won the prize.

Brazil’s casino legalization efforts may hinge on the support of evangelical Christian legislators, who don’t appear wild about authorizing new sins for their flock.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro recently met with members of the ‘Central’ bloc of the federal Chamber of Deputies, who urged him to press forward with a proposal to authorize casino gambling. Bolsonaro has previously stated that he is personally opposed to gambling expansion but also believes that the issue should ultimately be left up to individual Brazilian states to decide whether they want casinos in their backyard.

However, while Bolsonaro told the Central deputies that he was open to ‘talking’ about casino authorization, he appeared to give the chamber’s significant evangelical bloc a veto over whether the idea advances beyond the talking stage.

One of the members of that bloc is Marcelo Crivella, mayor of Rio de Janeiro and an evangelical bishop. Rio is one of the most desired locations for international casino operators and Crivella has signaled his support for okaying a casino within his city, with the proviso that its gaming floor would be accessible only by international tourists.

Brazil’s casino legalization efforts may hinge on the support of evangelical Christian legislators, who don’t appear wild about authorizing new sins for their flock.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro recently met with members of the ‘Central’ bloc of the federal Chamber of Deputies, who urged him to press forward with a proposal to authorize casino gambling. Bolsonaro has previously stated that he is personally opposed to gambling expansion but also believes that the issue should ultimately be left up to individual Brazilian states to decide whether they want casinos in their backyard.

However, while Bolsonaro told the Central deputies that he was open to ‘talking’ about casino authorization, he appeared to give the chamber’s significant evangelical bloc a veto over whether the idea advances beyond the talking stage.

One of the members of that bloc is Marcelo Crivella, mayor of Rio de Janeiro and an evangelical bishop. Rio is one of the most desired locations for international casino operators and Crivella has signaled his support for okaying a casino within his city, with the proviso that its gaming floor would be accessible only by international tourists.

The UK’s online gambling market suffered its first ever revenue decline, with race betting fingered for dragging down the numbers.

New figures released by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) show the UK gambling market generated gross gambling yield (GGY) of £14.4b in the 12 months ending March 31, 2019, a modest 0.3% decline from the 12 months ending March 2018. The decline is slightly greater compared to the 12 months ending September 2018, which saw GGY of £14.5b. The UKGC’s next market report will come in May 2019.

The headline takeaway from the UKGC’s latest report is the first recorded decline in online GGY. Online remains the biggest single chunk of the UK gambling market at £5.3b, or 37.1% of the total pie. However, that sum represented a 0.6% year-on-year decline, thanks to sports betting falling nearly 11% to £1.83b despite a 2.7% rise in turnover.

Most of the betting decline came courtesy of the horseracing segment, which saw GGY fall 15% to £522m. Football GGY was down a comparatively modest 4.4% to £991m while virtual sports GGY slid 12.5% to £68.6m. Exchange betting, which isn’t included in the overall betting stat, saw GGY slip 1.4% to £166.4m.

The UK’s online gambling market suffered its first ever revenue decline, with race betting fingered for dragging down the numbers.

New figures released by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) show the UK gambling market generated gross gambling yield (GGY) of £14.4b in the 12 months ending March 31, 2019, a modest 0.3% decline from the 12 months ending March 2018. The decline is slightly greater compared to the 12 months ending September 2018, which saw GGY of £14.5b. The UKGC’s next market report will come in May 2019.

The headline takeaway from the UKGC’s latest report is the first recorded decline in online GGY. Online remains the biggest single chunk of the UK gambling market at £5.3b, or 37.1% of the total pie. However, that sum represented a 0.6% year-on-year decline, thanks to sports betting falling nearly 11% to £1.83b despite a 2.7% rise in turnover.

Most of the betting decline came courtesy of the horseracing segment, which saw GGY fall 15% to £522m. Football GGY was down a comparatively modest 4.4% to £991m while virtual sports GGY slid 12.5% to £68.6m. Exchange betting, which isn’t included in the overall betting stat, saw GGY slip 1.4% to £166.4m.

Nevada gaming regulators have pushed back against disgraced casino icon Steve Wynn’s claim that they have no power to punish him.

Earlier this month, Steve Wynn’s attorneys declared that the Nevada Gaming Control Board (GCB) had no power to impose any financial penalty on him or revoke his gaming license based on his alleged sexual harassment of female staff at the company he founded, Wynn Resorts.

Steve was forced to resign from Wynn Resorts in February 2018 and subsequently sold off his holdings in the company, leading his attorneys to conclude that Nevada regulators have no more authority over his actions. But the GCB pushed back hard on that view on Wednesday, rejecting Steve’s motion to dismiss the complaint the regulator filed against him in October.

The GCB stated that Steve’s disengagement from his former company didn’t rob the regulator of its “full and absolute power” to recommend that the state Gaming Commission impose sanctions on Steve for casting the state’s gaming sector in a negative light.

Many poker videos are either deep training videos or ones of just a couple of minutes, designed to hook in the viewer and guide them towards either purchasing something or downloading a poker client. There’s a place for both of those helpful poker tools, both the need to play and the need to improve.

What if there was a YouTube series that instead of diving deeply into the waters of each subject, or pushing their poker platform, simply gave you the skinny on a different subject in a short period of time, inspiring you to put that advice into practice?

There is, and it’s called Poker Simple.

The source of this new and entertaining video series should be no real surprise. Tommy Angelo has taught poker for many years and written several books on the subject, such as the phenomenally popular Elements of Poker. Lee Jones has been an industry insider for many years, knowing PokerStars and the stars of poker in equal measure, gleaning tidbits and knowledge across many years. The two men have combined to produce a simple yet highly effective way of transferring information to the poker fan and recreational player in their series.

It appears that there is more bad news for South Shore Holdings Ltd., as the company announced that their signature The 13 Hotel suffered heavier losses over the first half of this fiscal year than what was expected. This continues the woes of the resort casino, which has seen nothing but pitfalls occur since the project was first proposed.

According to the company, the loss over the six-month period that ended on September 30 reached HKD506.7 million ($64.7 million). That was a more than HKD60 million increase over the same period of time from 2018. The loss related to per basic and diluted shares also widened, going from HKD0.437 to HKD0.50 for each instance.

In a statement, the company explained that the internal loss from the hotel operations was amounting to “approximately HKD508 million” and was mainly due to finance costs for hotel operations, depreciation and amortization charges and other hotel operation costs recorded in the current period.”

The 13 Hotel has been an albatross of sorts for South Shore Holdings for years. In early November, the company sold off 50% of its holdings in the venue, as three companies joined to purchase the half interest in the resort. This helped the company to remove the suspension from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that had been in effect for over two weeks as the stock price had been plummeting due to the financial struggles of the resort.

On November 27, gambling giant Scientific Games Corporation announced they had successfully raised the $1.2 billion sought as part of a private offering of senior unsecured notes. This came less than two weeks after the company had first proposed the sale of these senior notes.

The company was offering notes that comprised $700 million of 7.000% senior unsecured notes that would reach maturity in 2028 as well as $500 million of 7.250% senior unsecured notes that would be due a year later. Each was issued at 100% and reached its goal in less than two weeks as the offering was initiated on November 14.

The net proceeds of the offering will be combined with the available cash and money that has been borrowed under an existing revolving credit line and will be used to redeem all of the $1.2 billion outstanding notes that are 10.000% senior unsecured notes that are due in 2022. It will also include $244 million of SGI notes at 6.250% senior subordinated notes that are due next year. The money will also assist with any unpaid interest, related premiums, expenses and fees, or any other expenses.

Each of the notes will be guaranteed on a senior basis by Scientific Games and certain subsidiaries of the company. However, they are not secured according to the company.