Paf is a gaming-centric company that initially began in 1966, well before the idea of online gaming was conceived. Its goal was to provide responsible gaming content to help the autonomous Åland Islands and it has continued to abide by that mantra ever since. As the gaming space has changed, so has Paf, and it continues to explore new ways to remain relevant in an increasingly competitive industry. Its latest endeavor includes a partnership with Red Rake Gaming, which will see the company offer all of Red Rake’s content across its entire lineup of brands and markets.

As far as responsible gaming goes, Paf consistently ranks at the top of the charts. After getting its start in Finland decades ago, it now provides iGaming solutions in Estonia, Latvia, Spain and Sweden, as well. Red Rake, which is based in Spain and Malta, will be providing titles such as its Super12Stars and Mystic Mirror virtual slot machines, as well as the rest of its award-winning portfolio of products.

The managing director for Red Rake Malta, Nick Barr, explains in a statement about the new partnership, “We are passionate about our game development and diversity within our games portfolio and could not be happier to welcome onboard Paf as our newest partner. As a leader in the industry it is very rewarding that Paf chose to launch the Red Rake Gaming content and we look forward to working closely together with the Paf team in delivering the best content to their players.”

This is the second high-profile deal for Paf this month. It announced about two weeks ago that it was acquiring Mandalorian Technologies, a competing iGaming operator out of Sweden that holds licenses in that country, as well as in Malta. That acquisition came after the two began working together on responsible gaming solutions in September of last year.

Professional Wrestling might be fake, but the business Vince McMahon’s company brings in is very real. Thousands pack arenas and stadiums to see the faces and heels of the company duke it out, and no event is bigger than Wrestlemania. In our current COVID-19 coronavirus world, what does Bodog’s odds say will happen at the Showcase of the Immortals?

Before even considering the matches and the bookmakers lines, we have to take a look at how the current epidemic has affected the show. As the NBA, NHL and MLB have suspended their leagues, the WWE originally intended to go through with their biggest show of the year, to be held at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on April 5. But rather than risk infecting a potential 74,512 in attendance with COVID-19, the company has taken the precautious step of deciding to broadcast from their WWE training facility in Orlando, Florida, without an audience.

If you saw any of the WWE’s product from the past week, you know this is going to be weird. Wrestlers stood in the ring, taunting other wrestlers they just left behind in the locker room. It was a novelty to watch, but the pretend-combat and drama of the WWE doesn’t make a lot of sense without a crowd to watch it.

Credit should be given to the director and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, though. When Austin asked the crowd to give him a “Hell Yeah,” the feed cut to a live shot of empty seats.

Macau shut down in February for a couple of weeks in order to help keep the coronavirus from spreading. While the local economy definitely suffered as a result, the closure seemed to have served its purpose at the time as, by the end of the lockdown, health officials reported that the gambling city was virus-free. Now, new cases are beginning to appear as some people simply can’t avoid making the news, no matter what the reason is, and Macau is being forced to take drastic measures once again. Local casinos are going to take another hit as all tourism to the city, except for those individuals coming from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China, is banned.

The return of the quasi-isolation comes after a businessman, reportedly from Spain, landed in Macau this past Monday by way of Beijing. The 47-year-old tested positive for COVID-19, even though Spain began taking measures to thwart the virus last week and the country had been listed as a potential threat. He was Macau’s 12th recorded patient, and was followed by a lucky number 13 yesterday. That individual is said to be a 20-year-old resident who had just returned from a trip that took her from London to Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong before entering Macau via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. Upon arrival, as is still protocol, she was tested for the virus and shipped off to a hospital when she registered a fever.

Macau had been able to go a complete month without any new coronavirus patients and seemed to have gotten COVID-19 under control. However, the World Health Organization-designated pandemic has not even remotely finished running its course elsewhere in the world, and, as long as travelers continue to show a lack of common sense, obliterating the virus is going to be difficult.

Residents of Macau who are coming in from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China won’t be subjected to a mandatory 14-day quarantine. However, they will, if traveling into the city from high-risk areas, have to spend a little time under medical surveillance at designated locations. Depending on how those visits go, they could then be forced into self-quarantine for up to two weeks.

Students in the U.K. wiil soon get an education on how to approach gambling the right way. Starting in September, the Department of Education has ordered gambling to be a compulsary part of the curriculum for teenagers..

U.K. Schools Minister Nick Gibb noted the program will focus on the harms of gambling as well as other debt-related matters. It will be included as part of a compulsory ‘Personal, Social, Health and Economic’ (PSHE) education program.

Gibb explained: “I want to ensure every child understands the risks, which is why we are making health education — including issues such as addiction and cumulative debt — compulsory from September.”

This has been tried before by Demos, which released the results of a two-year pilot education program in 2018. The program was intended to give students the tools so they would recognize risky behavior, such as gambling. The program included 650 14-year-olds who were shown how to “weigh risk, identify manipulative behavior, manage impulses and help others” who may have a problem.

Just as Cyprus Casinos (C2), the Melco Resorts and Entertainment-backed casino operator, was finding its groove in the Mediterranean island nation, everything is coming to a grinding halt. In an effort to help keep the coronavirus from spreading its evil, C2 announced that, as of March 16, all of its gambling activity is going to stop for four weeks. The initiative comes as Cyprus recorded its 49th case of COVID-19.

Four satellite casinos, and one temporary casino, run by C2 have been in operation, as development continues on the massive City of Dreams (COD) Mediterranean integrated resort. The company, which is led by a joint venture, ICR Cyprus Holdings, between Melco and Cyprus-based Cyprus Phassouri (Zakaki) Ltd., made the decision to shut down in order to be “in full compliance with the decision of the Council of Ministers, announced on 15 March 2020, to suspend operations of certain private businesses including casinos, which tend to attract larger groups of individuals.”

C2 had, prior to the temporary closure, taken measures designed to slow COVID-19’s spread and had reduced the number of people allowed at any given time in the casinos. A maximum of 75, comprised of both visitors and staff, were allowed at all five venues, the C2 Paphos, C2 Ayia Napa, C2 Nicosia, C2 Larnaca and C2 Limassol. The Limassol property is designed to be a precursor to the larger, COD Mediterranean venue.

In announcing the closure, Melco Chief Operating Officer, International Andy Choy stated, “In these challenging times that call for extreme measures, we rally behind the government of Cyprus and the actions implemented to curb the spread of Covid-19… We fully support the decision to temporarily suspend the operation of entertainment facilities across the country in the best interest of all. We are also standing alongside our local partners and the entire tourism industry who have prioritised the safety of their personnel and guests with the utmost responsibility to safeguard their health.”

On March 17, Gamesys Group reported gaming revenue for 2019 rose by 34.7% over the previous year. That was the good news. The bad news was that the company still experienced a decline in net income, due to higher spending and foreign exchange fluctuations.

In a financial statement released by the company, Gamesys reported that gaming revenue for the 12-month period amounted to £415.1 million. That was a significant increase of nearly £107 million over 2018.

The U.K. continued to prove to be the company’s main source of revenue, as the country provided £214.6 million of the total revenue, a 30.9% increase over the previous year. There were positive results in Asia as well, which saw a 137.2% increase over the previous year, or about £122.4 million.

The news was not good everywhere, however. Across Europe, gaming revenues fell by 13.5% to a total of £68.6 million, while the revenue for the rest of the world slipped by 29.1% to £9.5 million.

India’s largest casino operator Delta Corp is reeling after the two states in which it operates ordered the closure of all casinos to minimize the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Delta Corp’s shares fell 9% during Tuesday’s trading on India’s National Stock Exchange, closing at Rs77.95. The stock was trading at Rs124 as recently as last Wednesday and was worth Rs241 one year ago this week.

This latest plunge came as the company announced Tuesday that its Casino Deltin Denzong in the state of Sikkim had been ordered to close, effective immediately, until at least April 15 to reduce opportunities for further spread of the coronavirus. The closure order impacted all casinos in the state, along with cinemas, discotheques and fitness clubs.

Sikkim’s order followed a similar edict this weekend in the state of Goa, where Delta operates three floating casinos and one land-based gaming venue. The order, which took effect Sunday at midnight, required all casinos in the state to remain closed until at least March 31.

Nevada’s governor has ordered the state’s casinos to halt all gaming operations as of midnight Tuesday to prevent further spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

On Tuesday, Gov. Steve Sisolak held a press conference at which he announced a 30-day shutdown of all casinos and other ‘nonessential businesses’, which includes restaurants and bars but exempts gas stations, pharmacies, banks and grocery stores. Sisolak already ordered the closure of schools and state offices last weekend.

All gaming operations across the state must halt at midnight, while the rest of the casinos’ operations must wrap up by noon Wednesday. Sisolak (pictured far right) got a little testy with a followup question regarding whether some non-casino gaming machines might be allowed to continue operating, telling people to “stop looking for a loophole” and repeating that “every gaming device across the state” must cease operations by midnight Tuesday.

Sisolak said the state government would re-evaluate the situation at the end of the 30-day period to determine if the shutdown would be extended. Sisolak said he knew that people might think he was overreacting to the pandemic, but he said this was an “appropriate and informed reaction” because at present “there is no treatment” for COVID-19.

Casino operator Las Vegas Sands has belatedly joined the list of major operators who have decided to curtail operations on the Las Vegas Strip to reduce further spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus.

On Tuesday, Sands announced that it was closing its Venetian and Palazzo resorts in Las Vegas until at least April 1 “out of an abundance of caution and in line with recent guidance from federal and state governments” regarding limiting further spread of the coronavirus.

Sands president Rob Goldstein said “these are clearly challenging times for our country and our community” and the company’s “most important commitment is the one we have made to the health and safety of our team members and guests. Right now, the best way to fulfill that commitment is by asking people to not come to work.”

Goldstein acknowledged that while the company might “hope this closure is a short-term necessity, we are realistic that it may be a prolonged event.” Goldstein assured staff that the company was committed to paying them during the shutdown, that no layoffs or furloughs were being contemplated and the closure won’t affect employees’ health care eligibility.

Poker an television might not originally have seemed easy bedfellows, but when Late Night Poker changed all that at the turn of the Millennium, it seemed like no-one could get enough of the card game that was transformed into a sport.

Which is where Celebrity Poker Club came in.

Spawned in 2003, a derivative of Late Night Poker featuring only celebrity players was thought to be a hugely popular idea at the time. Plenty of poker’s biggest names were becoming celebrities anyway, so why wait until we’d grown to love them when there were people out there we loved already who we could fit into a poker format.

Just like the U.S.A.’s attempt at this with Celebrity Poker Showdown, there were some issues with this. Chief amongst them was the content itself. What some producers and directors of the celebrity-based format didn’t get was that poker fans were – in the months following Chris Moneymaker’s legendary WSOP Main Event victory that summer – rapidly turning into poker players. As such, they were learning a vast amount about poker and knew a good bluff or a bad call when they saw them.

Poker an television might not originally have seemed easy bedfellows, but when Late Night Poker changed all that at the turn of the Millennium, it seemed like no-one could get enough of the card game that was transformed into a sport.

Which is where Celebrity Poker Club came in.

Spawned in 2003, a derivative of Late Night Poker featuring only celebrity players was thought to be a hugely popular idea at the time. Plenty of poker’s biggest names were becoming celebrities anyway, so why wait until we’d grown to love them when there were people out there we loved already who we could fit into a poker format.

Just like the U.S.A.’s attempt at this with Celebrity Poker Showdown, there were some issues with this. Chief amongst them was the content itself. What some producers and directors of the celebrity-based format didn’t get was that poker fans were – in the months following Chris Moneymaker’s legendary WSOP Main Event victory that summer – rapidly turning into poker players. As such, they were learning a vast amount about poker and knew a good bluff or a bad call when they saw them.

It’s usually a rare occasion when a player who has battled up the levels in poker wins a Super High Roller Bowl. So, when Timothy Adams scaled that peak in early February this year, winning the Super High Roller Bowl Australia for $1,446,112, he could have been forgiven for thinking that sort of result might not happen again for a very long time.

Adams would have been as utterly wrong as he could be if he thought that, as he proved by winning the very next Super High Roller Bowl to be held, this time in Sochi, for a massive $3.6 million.

With a 40-player field, Adams took down the record-breaking title after a heads-up victory against German crusher Christoph Vogelsang, who himself would have become a two-time champion if he’d won the final duel. Before that, however, there was a money bubble to burst, as although six players would be paid, the final day began with seven still in the hunt.

The bubble boy would turn out to be British tournament king Stephen Chidwick, who busted when Vogelsang busted him, and it was the German who also eliminated Malaysian player Ivan Leow in sixth place for $600,000.

It’s usually a rare occasion when a player who has battled up the levels in poker wins a Super High Roller Bowl. So, when Timothy Adams scaled that peak in early February this year, winning the Super High Roller Bowl Australia for $1,446,112, he could have been forgiven for thinking that sort of result might not happen again for a very long time.

Adams would have been as utterly wrong as he could be if he thought that, as he proved by winning the very next Super High Roller Bowl to be held, this time in Sochi, for a massive $3.6 million.

With a 40-player field, Adams took down the record-breaking title after a heads-up victory against German crusher Christoph Vogelsang, who himself would have become a two-time champion if he’d won the final duel. Before that, however, there was a money bubble to burst, as although six players would be paid, the final day began with seven still in the hunt.

The bubble boy would turn out to be British tournament king Stephen Chidwick, who busted when Vogelsang busted him, and it was the German who also eliminated Malaysian player Ivan Leow in sixth place for $600,000.