America’s casino industry is reeling from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with casino closures leaving over 600,000 staff out of work.

On Thursday, the American Gaming Association (AGA) released an update on the mounting economic toll of the coronavirus outbreak, which has resulted in 95% of the nation’s 465 commercial casinos and 76% of tribal casinos having shut their doors either voluntarily or under the orders of state authorities.

AGA CEO Bill Miller said around 616k casino employees “are prevented from working because of the important health and safety decisions made by state governments.” Around 206k of these employees (used to) work in Nevada. Miller also claimed that “nearly 350k small business employees that rely on gaming for their livelihood” are facing dire straits.

The AGA offered a litany of numbers to illustrate the plight of these employees, some of whom have been given greater assurances of support from their employers than others. The AGA says casino staff earn a combined $74b in annual wages, while casino operations generate $41b in annual tax revenue and tribal revenue sharing.

China’s state-run lottery operations are now working at about two-thirds of their capacity before they were shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Thursday, China’s National Sports Lottery Center issued an update on the progress made since March 11, when the authorities gave the okay to resume operations following the unprecedented 49-day shutdown prompted by the coronavirus crisis.

The notice said that over 110k sports lottery terminals had resumed operations as of March 17, representing over 67% of the nation’s total complement of installed units. The notice didn’t specifically mention the welfare lottery, but its sales have also resumed.

The March 11 announcement specifically acknowledged that sales would only resume in ‘eligible areas,’ and Thursday’s notice indicated that sales had yet to resume in Hubei province – the site of the original coronavirus outbreak – as well as in Beijing and Tibet.

[Image credit: Doug Polk Poker via YouTube]

After announcing his retirement from playing the game of poker, Doug Polk has also ended his association with the game in terms of YouTube content.

Posting what he calls his last ever poker video, which has already been viewed 125,000 times in a matter of days, Polk explained that while he has loved his time producing record-breaking – if not perhaps award-winning enough – poker content, the time where he cares about doing so has come to an end.

Here’s that fateful final video:

League of Legends games are never simple and another example of this should take place this weekend as LNG Esports take on Rogue Warriors in the Legends Pro League, with bookmakers offering LNG at a best price of 1/2 heading into the game. Rogue Warriors are currently trading at +2.62, but is that fair?

While the odds for Rogue Warriors are a larger 13/8 at their best – via Bet365 and William Hill – the match up should be closer even than that, and we’ll tell you why.

Rogue Warriors have recent form for proving the bookies wrong, as they showed in stunning fashion when they took down Suning Gaming at the start of this year. Not only was the defeat for SN unexpected, but the cous de gras was a late, late snatch in Map2 that got the whole Esports world to sit up and take notice.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNdsO0qPJRI?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

Esports is one of the fastest-growing forms of both entertainment and sportsbetting, and as a business, is expected to grow by a massive 18% between 2019 and 2023.

Why is that?

With a rise in the value of advertising in Esports, branding both within the game and around the most successful brands and lucrative mainstream crossovers such as the collaborations between Fortnite’s Battle Royale platform and the DJ Marshmello, TV programme Stranger Things and film franchise Star Wars to name just three, Esports is clearly big business.

For many years, media outlets argued that Esports had to many hurdles in its way. From the lengthy lead-time in creating famous players to a limited and finite audience to bickering over media and image rights to the perennial argument that video games can be harmful, Esports has achieved its success against a backdrop of doubt.

Australia’s media watchdog has threatened a major broadcaster with a six-figure fine for violating the rules regarding gambling advertising during live sports events.

On Thursday, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) announced that it had issued a ‘remedial direction’ to free-to-air commercial broadcaster Nine Network for poorly timed gambling advertisements during online streams of the 2019 National Rugby League’s State of Origin matches.

In 2018, Australia introduced new rules that prohibited gambling ads during live sports broadcasts between 5am and 8:30pm. Gambling ads were to cease five minutes before the start of a scheduled live sports event and couldn’t air until five minutes after the conclusion of a match. The rules, which originally applied only to TV and radio, were later extended to online live-streamed sports.

The ACMA found that Nine’s streaming platform 9Now had aired gambling ads during its State of Origin pre-game coverage. This is allowed under the rules only if the broadcaster informs viewers 24 hours in advance of the kick-off time of a sports event. In this case, Nine failed to inform its viewers far enough in advance.

UK gambling operator Sportech saw dramatically increased losses last year as the costs of US sports betting expansion mounted and one of its Connecticut retail venues failed to live up to the company’s expectations.

Figures released Thursday show the Bristol-based Sportech generated revenue of £64.8m in 2019, a modest 2% improvement over 2018’s result. Gross profit was up £1m to £46.9m, adjusted earnings rose a similar amount to £7.5m while the company’s pre-tax losses more than tripled to £8.4m.

The tide of red ink came courtesy of a £5m impairment charge on its Bobby V’s Restaurant and Sports Bar in Stamford, Connecticut, as well as costs associated with Sportech’s ongoing efforts to reinvent its US-facing race betting operations to take advantage of the country’s rapid transition to a legal sports betting environment.

Sadly for Sportech, Connecticut’s fractious gaming market shows no signs of breaking the current impasse that is keeping legal wagering from becoming a reality. But the company continues to develop a B2B sports betting platform while conducting a “relentless professional pursuit” of a state betting license.

The UK’s gambling regulator is warning its online licensees not to abuse opportunities provided by the COVID-19 pandemic, while the industry’s lobby group is slamming the government for abandoning the retail betting industry.

On Wednesday, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) reminded its licensees to “continue to protect consumers” during the coronavirus crisis. The UKGC specifically warned online licensees about the fact that so many individuals are now practicing ‘social distancing’ that may keep them from patronizing retail gambling venues.

With so many white-collar workers now toiling remotely from home, the UKGC said online licensees have an obligation to monitor customers’ activity for signs that individuals are going stir crazy and spending more time and/or money than they normally would.

The UKGC said online licensees “must continue to act responsibly, especially in regards to individual customer affordability and increased social responsibility interactions.” With many individuals “experiencing disrupted income,” operators are advised to “assess individual affordability on an ongoing basis.”

Italy’s top football league is asking the government to relax its gambling advertising rules to help the sport recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, while retail gambling operators are catching a viral tax break.

On Thursday, authorities from the Serie A football league offered a series of suggestions to the Italian government regarding ways to help the sport recover from the current suspension of play caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Among these suggestions was scrapping the blanket prohibition on gambling advertising and sponsorships that the government announced in 2018 via the so-called Dignity Decree. The sponsorship ban alone, which took effect last summer, is projected to cost Serie A teams around €100m in lost revenue on an annual basis.

That loss looks even worse given the losses the league and its members are now facing given Italy’s virus-related ban on public gatherings. In addition to lost ticket and concession revenue, the teams could face the loss of TV revenue should the currently suspended season be abandoned altogether.