It was hoped that this would be the year that legalized gambling in Georgia would occur. That vision died when the annual “Crossover Day” session wrapped up on March 13 without the state’s House of Representatives even considering a constitutional amendment to legalize any form of gambling.

As late as just a week, it looked like gambling get a vote from lawmakers. Several within the state legislature were pushing for an initiative to give the Georgia State Lottery the power to offer mobile sports gambling, at the least. The idea of allowing sports gambling is very popular in Georgia, and state representatives were growing concerned about the $1.5 billion sports gambling market operating within the Peach State, with no revenue coming to state coffers.

As the Georgia House of Representatives wrapped up Crossover Day, only one sports betting bill had made it through a legislative chamber. This bill was heard in the state Senate, but no measure was taken up in the legislative body before the Senate adjourned.

Representative Alan Powell attempted to push forth a bill that would legalize three forms of gambling: casinos, sports betting, and horse racing. He proposed a constitutional amendment on March 11 that got through committee and was actually scheduled to be heard on Crossover Day in the House of Representatives. However, the House didn’t even take up the bill before calling it a night.

The Imperial Palace, once expected to be Saipan’s gambling treasure chest, has had to deal with a string of difficulties that were all caused by the developer, Imperial Pacific International (IPI), and its lack of ability to play by the letter – and the spirit – of the law. An inability to make good on licensing fees, improper working conditions, continuous rumors of bribes and shady deals, among other issues, have plagued the casino resort and kept it from becoming profitable. It now has to deal with another setback, but IPI isn’t necessarily to blame this time – it had some help. The coronavirus, which has devastated the gambling industry across the globe, has taken its toll on the company and the Imperial Palace is going to have to be shuttered temporarily to keep IPI from losing more money than it already has.

As of midnight last night, Imperial Palace is closed “until further notice,” according to the Saipan Tribune. IPI explains, “This measure will help with the reduction of social engagements and associated health risks,” adding that public interest has always been more important than business interests in the company’s operations model, although some of its previous actions don’t necessary reflect that assertion.

When the resort will be back in business isn’t yet known. IPI indicates that it will continue to monitor the situation and recommendations from public health officials, and make a determination based on the data. “We look forward to welcoming back our customers and employees at that time. We appreciate your understanding and thank you for your continued support and business,” states IPI.

IPI had already been forced to reduce its staffing levels as a result of COVID-19 making its way through the Asian region. It cut workforce hours by 30% in the middle of last month in order to stave off revenue losses, and the new shutdown isn’t going to help the company recover. Imperial Palace has been operating in the red for the past couple of years, and there’s not much of a chance, at least for the first six months of this year, that it will be able to bounce back.

It took well over six years, but a native Indian tribe out of South Carolina has finally received approval to build a casino. The US Department of the Interior (DOI), which oversees virtually all aspects of tribal activity in the country, has agreed to put 16 acres into a trust for the Catawba Indian Nation, paving the way for the tribe to develop its casino and become more financially independent. Despite the good news, though, the Catawba people aren’t free to bring in the heavy machinery and break ground just yet. The land that has been allocated for the casino isn’t even in South Carolina, and a new fight is about to begin.

The land in question lies in North Carolina. It’s in an area called Kings Mountain about 35 miles above the border between the two Carolinas, and this could be a problem. In North Carolina, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have a virtual lock on all gambling activity, and they have already made it clear that they’re not happy with the DOI’s decision. A new legal fight is almost certainly about to begin.

The Catawba originally wanted to put the casino in South Carolina and tried to do everything within its power to make it happen. The tribe received federal recognition in 1993, which led to the DOI erasing 34 years’ worth of economic suppression for the people. In 1959, the federal government had decided, without much thought, to strip the Catawba of its lands and its government, essentially asserting that the tribe never existed.

That order has now been reversed by the new DOI decision, which also earmarks $50 million for the Catawba to use in order to reclaim ancestral lands in both North and South Carolina. Any claims attempted on lands in North Carolina, however, are going to meet immediate attacks by the Cherokee, who dispute the Catawba Indian’s historical presence in the area. After the DOI announcement was made, the tribe’s chief, Richard Sneed, didn’t waste any time issuing a statement and told The Charlotte Observer, “The federal government has no right or authority to create a new reservation for the Catawba Nation across state lines, into Cherokee historical territory, just to build a casino.”

The coronavirus won’t affect the timetable for Japan’s integrated resort (IR) process. Several analysts expect cities will push ahead with their application processes.

Explained Brendan Bussmann, a partner at casino industry consultancy Global Market Advisors LLC and its director of government affairs, while the coronavirus had limited the ability to host some of the public forums, the suitor-cities were simply not “letting their timeline slip as they seek to find the right operators to develop an IR in their region.”

The government has been trying to do everything possible to stick to the timeline. Even amid an alleged bribery scandal, there was still a push to stick to the timetable that would give local governments between January of this year to July of next year to apply for the right to host one of these resort-casinos.

However, the recent coronavirus had seemed to soften that deadline. With over 1500 cases reported in the country, many were fearing that this virus could have nearly as dramatic of an impact as the Fukushima disaster, which occurred in March 2011 and cost more than 18,000 lives.

Police have raided a property suspected of hosting gamblers from across Haryana, India. As they rated the building, shots were fired. Some fled, others were arrested.

These kinds of parties are weekly occurrences in Mewat district. However, they are still illegal, leading to police attempting to break them up.

Pinangwan Station House Officer Rattan Lal explained that he and other officers pulled up at the building when they were noticed by several of the gamblers. A group pulled out their guns and fired at officers, with 12 managing to escape. Police were able to apprehend 11 persons along with about Rs 1 lakh ($1,350).

Each of the 11 was booked on charges of gambling, and violations under the Arms Act. They were also charged with attacking police.

Feeling queasy? Goosebumps? Not sure where the world is heading? At least you’re still alive. That’s a good thing. Cheer up. The world is about to look a lot different. The dead underbrush of the global economy is about to be cleared away. The next domino to fall will be the bond market.

But first, this is a gambling site, and I am hired to write about gambling investment opportunities. Let’s start off with the positive. I see one major gambling investment opportunity right now, and that is Summit Ascent in Russia’s Primorye gambling district. Yes, it has debt, but most of its liabilities are denominated either in US dollars or Hong Kong dollars pegged to USD, and the ruble is the only hard paper currency in the world right now. Russia has been backing the ruble with gold for years, increasing its gold reserves as it increases the ruble supply. If, in a worst case scenario, Summit Ascent fails, it can be bailed out by Putin with real money. Putin has proven he knows what he is doing. He may be the puppet master behind a lot of this, what with his move to crash the oil markets earlier this month.

I don’t think a bailout of Summit will be necessary, as I believe once the currency markets go haywire, the ruble’s purchasing power will skyrocket and Summit Ascent will be able to pay off its dollar debts easily. This is one of the only casinos fully equipped to deal with what is coming, with a government that really can stand behind it if and when needed.

Second piece of good news, Australia does not have a hard currency, but it can have one if it chooses, as one of the world’s biggest gold exporters. Australian gaming stocks should survive this. They’ll be hurt, but most will be left standing if the Australian government does the right thing and backs the Aussie dollar.

News of the COVID-19 coronavirus has taken center stage around the world, specially with major North American and European leagues suspending their seasons. But this has had a perticularly harsh effect on the Nigerian sports betting market, as they are seeing record losses due to the pandemic.

Leadership, a Nigerian newspaper, reports owners of sports betting outlets and football viewing centers are reporting massive losses following the suspension of all major sporting activities across to the globe. A lack of European football has had the most dramatic impact of all, with all of the five major leagues having suspended operations until April.

Nigerian viewing centers and gambling establishments have remained open in Lagos, Abuja, and other regions. However, even with these facilities open, they are seeing a decreased number of visitors.

Bet9ja has not been immune from reduced volumes. Ibrahim Omofaderera, an agent for Bet9ja, discussed visiting viewing centers only to find them nearly empty. “I have a match viewing center that is now vacant. So, this is really affecting our business. Although there are virtual soccer games that can be played but they are only just computer programmed games and can’t be compared to staking bets on teams you have knowledge of and how they perform.”

Sweden’s state-run gambling operator Svenska Spel has dodged an anti-competitive bullet fired by its privately-held online gambling competitors.

Last Friday (13), the Konkurrensverket (Swedish Competition Authority) dismissed a complaint filed against Svenska Spel by Branschföreningen för onlinespel (BOS), the trade group representing Sweden’s independent online gambling licensees. BOS accused Svenska Spel of abusing its monopoly in Sweden’s lottery market to unfairly raise its profile with Sweden’s online gamblers.

Before Sweden launched its regulated online market in January 2019, it forced Svenska Spel to split into three separate units: one that retained the lottery monopoly, one that involved purely land-based operations (Casino Cosmopol & Vegas), while the other included online casino and sports betting (Sport & Casino AB).

The BOS complaint noted that Svenska Spel’s lottery website and mobile app contained references to the Sport & Casino product, including “continuous information” on the need to hold two separate online accounts to access both Svenska Spel product lines, “even to customers who only play lottery games.”

The US casino lobby is seeking a federal bailout as the coronavirus crisis forces operators to shutter their operations for an unknown period.

On Monday, the governors of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut collectively announced that their states would indefinitely close all casinos, pubs, restaurants, movie theaters and gyms effective 8pm Monday.

Connecticut’s two casinos plan to stay closed for at least two weeks but New Jersey’s governor said only that Atlantic City’s casinos would stay shut until “it is deemed safe for their reopening.” It will be only the fifth time that AC’s casinos have been ordered to close, of which three times were weather-related.

Similar casino closures have been ordered in other states, including Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington. Casino operators in Nevada, including many on the Las Vegas Strip, have been closing on an individual basis.

Macau casino operator SJM Holdings saw revenue fall but profits rise in 2019, as the market-wide VIP gambling slump led to reduced payments to junket operators.

Figures released Monday show SJM’s net gaming revenue hit HK$33.2b (US$4.27b) in 2019, a 1.5% fall from 2018’s total. But SJM’s adjusted earnings for the year rose 13.2% to HK$4.2b and profit attributable to SJM’s owners was up 12.5% to HK$3.2b.

SJM’s VIP gambling revenue was down 30.4% year-on-year to HK$13.7b, pushing the VIP share of SJM’s overall gaming revenue down more than 10 points to 34.2%. VIP turnover was up 37.4% but VIP hold was up more than a quarter-point to 3.26%, above the 2.7-3.0% expected win range.

Also helping to offset the VIP segment’s decline was a significant decline in commissions and incentives last year. The VIP freebies were down by one-third year-on-year to HK$6.84b.

The 2019 Global Poker Awards were celebrated in Las Vegas, Nevada on Friday night at the PokerGO studios as Joey Ingram was among the headline winners on a star-studded night in the poker industry.

With plenty of awards to hand out, the presenting duties were split between Maria Ho and Drea Renee as the great and glorious of the poker industry bubble saw gongs handed to them – or presented via video link – and a slick show wow the poker fans. Here are some of the highlights.

Breakout Player

There was no surprise in this category as Robert Campbell managed to triumph against Ramon Colillas, Ben Farrell and PLO expert George Wolff. Campbell emergence coincided with his run to becoming WSOP Player of the Year.

After seeing his name called out in Las Vegas at the 2019 Global Poker Awards, Paul Phua has etched another notable victory in his considerable career of poker success at the felt in the former Olympic village city of Sochi, Russia.

One of the latest and certainly greatest of the recent winners on the MILLIONS Sochi list, Phua’s victory over Austrian high roller Matthias Eibinger heads-up earned him an additional $500,000 as the two men battled for the title. It was some fight and was the fourth final table and first victory for Phua in the series.

With nine players returning to action on the final day, Phua was one of the short stacks to begin with, but he arrested that trend in the opening orbits, doubling up to put himself in the chasing pack. With 42 entries overall, only six players would be paid and three players had to leave the final day without any recompense at all.

Both Poker Central owner Cary Katz and British super high roller Ben Heath were out of the door very quickly, but play always slows down on the bubble and it took longer for Michael Soyza, who was runner-up to Phil Ivey in Event #7 and bubble boy in this event. Soyza was favourite to survive, too, calling off his stack with ace-king from the small blind after Eibinger had shoved from the button with ace-deuce. The board, however, played out in the Austrian’s favour as he hit running straight cards to propel himself up the chipcounts.

The coronavirus outbreak in the United States has forced the postponement/cancellation of essentially everything in the American sports world, and there was no NCAA Tournament for the first time since it began in 1939. The Big Dance was even played during World War II.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

There will be no official champion named for the 2019-20 men’s basketball season, but the 2019 NCAA Tournament winner, the University of Virginia, is the early +900 co-favorite with Gonzaga to cut down the nets at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on April 5, 2021.

One thing to keep in mind regarding handicapping NCAA basketball futures odds is that they are going to change fairly dramatically depending on which underclassmen declare for the NBA Draft. The deadline to declare for the 2020 draft – scheduled for June 25 but quite likely going to be pushed back due to the coronavirus – is April 26 and the early entrant withdrawal deadline is June 15. Again, at least for now it is.