As senators and media have emphasized the number of Chinese migrants working in the Philippine Offshore Gambling Operator (POGOs) industry, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) have mostly stayed quiet. That changed on March 11, as CEO Andrea Domingo decided it was time to get the numbers straight.

c“While Pogos cater to foreign customers and employ foreign customer service representatives who could effectively address their concerns, other areas such as information technology support, live studio and gaming platform providers employ local workers,” Domingo told reporters.

In total, she cited 30,521 Filipino employees currently working at POGOs. “This number does not include employees in the ancillary industries, such as real estate, transportation and retail,” Domingo added.

This is a minority of the 120,976 workers in the industry, with 69,613 of these being Chinese. But considering the vast majority supporting the industry through ancillary services are bound to be Filipino, and most Filipinos can’t deliver the Chinese language skills required at most POGO firms, its still a significant chunk.

Betway is paying a high price for getting on the U.K. Gambling Commission’s (UKGC) bad side. The firm has been ordered to pay a record £11.6m settlement for accepting stolen funds and ignoring cases of gambling addiction.

The regulator cites an instance where Betway failed to do their due dillgence on a “VIP” customer who deposited £8 million and lost £4 million over a four-year period. It also cites a separate incident where Betway allowed a player to lose £187,000 over a two-day period. They add:

“The investigation found that as a result of a lack of consideration of individual customers affordability and source of funds checks the operator allowed £5.8m of money to flow through the business which has been found, or could reasonably be suspected to be, proceeds of crime.”

“The actions of Betway suggest there was little regard for the welfare of its VIP customers or the impact on those around them,” said Richard Watson, Executive Director at the UKGC.

Genting Singapore has decided it doesn’t need to keep the world up to date on its financial health. After recent changes were made to listing rules at the Singapore Exchange, where the casino operator is found, it has determined that quarterly financial reports aren’t necessary, and will begin to offer only six-month reports. As a result, no updates will be made available by the company until it releases its revenue and earnings statement that will cover the first half of 2020.

Producing the quarterly reports is time-consuming and resource-intense, asserts Genting. It explained in announcing the changes that it will no longer “continue with quarterly reporting and will instead release the financial statements of the Company and the Group on a half-yearly basis. Accordingly, the Company shall cease quarterly reporting with immediate effect, and its next financial results announcement shall be in respect of the half-year ending 30 June 2020.”

At least for now, the company, which operates Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore, is willing to share financial data with shareholders for the first and third quarters, but only on a voluntary basis. Genting Singapore’s board “believes that a half-yearly financial reporting cycle and the provision of voluntary quarterly business updates, together with the observation of strengthened disclosure requirements, is sufficient to keep the shareholders informed of the Group’s state of affairs.”

It’s probably just a coincidence that the timing of the shift in reporting comes after Genting suffered downturns last year. For the second quarter, revenue increased by 13.6%; however, net profit showed a year-on-year decrease of 5.2%. In the third quarter, revenue dropped by 7% compared to a year earlier, and net profit plummeted a massive 24% year-on-year. The last quarter of the year brought a 9% year-on-year decline in revenue, but net profit was up by 4%. However, across the entire year, Genting had to settle for a year-on-year drop of 9% in net profit.

Sports gambling is sweeping across the US, with over 20 states already onboard and many more putting the final touches on their own legal frameworks. Companies are diving into the sports gambling ecosystem on a non-stop basis, ready to offer anything that can be tied to the activity in some manner. The latest company to get in on the sports gambling craze is Roundhill Investments, which wants to launch a sports gambling exchange-traded fund (ETF). If it’s able to pull it off, it would become the first ETF-related company to offer such a fund.

Roundhill has already submitted the necessary paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC to be able to offer the Roundhill Sports Betting and iGaming ETF. It hopes to launch on the New York Stock Exchange using the ticker symbol BETZ, and would be used to track the performance of the common stock of publicly-traded companies in the sports gambling space. It would include “pure play” entities, those whose main business is sports gambling, “core” sports gambling companies, those with a focus on the ecosystem, and non-core companies, those that derive an income by supplying technology and equipment to sportsbooks.

Roundhill points out that the fund will “generally invest all, or substantially all, of its assets in the component securities that make up the Index. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of any collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in the component securities of the Index and depositary receipts representing Index components.” It adds that it will use a “replication” strategy in order to “achieve its investment objective, meaning the Fund generally will invest in all of the component securities of the Index in approximately the same proportions as in the Index. However, the Fund may use a ‘representative sampling’ strategy, meaning it may invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return, and other characteristics closely resemble the risk, return, and other characteristics of the Index as a whole, when the Fund’s sub-adviser believes it is in the best interests of the Fund (e.g., when replicating the Index involves practical difficulties or substantial costs, an Index constituent becomes temporarily illiquid, unavailable, or less liquid, or as a result of legal restrictions or limitations that apply to the Fund but not to the Index).”

Roundhill has previous experience with sports-related ETFs. It presented its Roundhill BITKRAFT Esports & Digital Entertainment ETF to the SEC in May of last year, and is found on the NYSE Arca exchange under the ticker NERD. It was introduced on June 7, 2019, at $15.39, and, after seeing gains that took it to $16.75 last month, is now trading at $14.30.

This year could find the Philippines as the exception to the gaming trend. While countries are recovering from the fallout caused by the coronavirus, most are expecting to see weak returns, with some possibly even coming in lower than last year. The Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR), the country’s gaming regulator and operator of some casinos, remains optimistic about the annual performance, according to local media outlet The Inquirer, and anticipates gross gaming revenue (GGR) will be higher than last year. According to PAGCOR’s chair and CEO, Andrea Domingo, the local industry is projected to see around $5.69 billion in GGR by the end of the year.

The multibillion-dollar figure would be an improvement over last year’s GGR, which was previously reported as $4.86 billion, and includes all gaming activity from state-owned properties, private-sector venues and online operations. The latest project was established by the Governance Commission for Government-owned or -controlled Corporations, which based its figures on the potential revenue generation of the casinos and large-scale resorts, as well as Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO). It’s possible that POGO revenue could take a hit as pressure is applied to halt the operations, but President Rodrigo Duterte has already said that he has no plans to order them to shut down.

In creating the GGR projections, PAGCOR’s Domingo admits that there is one factor that wasn’t taken into account, and which might completely alter the results. She explained, “We haven’t factored in the effects of Covid-19 in this year’s target yet, so we’ll have to see. But, so far, it [business] looks good.”

The lack of consideration given the virus could be a problem, and could ultimately mean that the end result is much lower than PAGCOR currently expects. While the Philippines have yet to take the same drastic measures seen in other countries and jurisdictions, the impact the virus has had on those areas has been tremendous. For example, Macau reported a tax revenue deficit of $4.9 billion for the first two months of the year, a direct result of the coronavirus. The same period last year saw a tax revenue gain of $6.42 billion. Numbers in the US are still coming in, but it’s already known that the gambling market will suffer and casino stocks are down as much as almost 14%.

When Austrian casino owner Peter Zanoni was told he needed to cover a €600 million ($677 million) tax bill in the mid-90s, he balked. The man behind Concord Card Casinos (CCC) and CCC Gruppe couldn’t figure out how the state taxman could have come up with the outrageous figure and felt it was his duty to stand up to the government. However, after carrying on his fight for almost 15 years, the man known locally as the “Poker King” has decided that enough is enough and he’s folding his hand and has declared the company bankrupt.

The decision makes sense, too, once the numbers are broken down. According to Zanoni, there is no way to justify the amount of the tax liability, as it equals as much as five times what the casino operator takes in through gross gaming receipts. He explained to the media outlet Austrian Press Agency, “Not even dear God can pay that … For every gross euro I have to pay a five-euro tax… This is simply a chase that is now over.”

Not only does the tax bill not make any sense, but Austria recently changed its gaming laws and CCC was left drawing dead. The new gambling regime, which took effect at the beginning of this year, forces all gambling facilities to be issued a gambling license, not just a business license under which some facilities, like those of CCC, were previously able to operate. However, there’s a glaring flaw in that protocol. The law stipulates that only Casinos Austria, which is backed by the state, can apply for a license.

The European Union (EU) has already called out Austria for the hypocrisy blatantly shown in the new laws. To make things even worse, Casinos Austria only has pay taxes on revenue – CCC is charged taxes on all stakes. Zanoni was determined to fight the government and filed a complaint with Austria’s Constitutional Court, expecting to receive a response sometime last month. However, given the fact that the government would be open to double standards when it comes to gambling tax liabilities and laws, there’s no reason to believe the high court won’t follow suit.

Sports betting revenues are down sharply for New York’s four commercial casinos, who reported a total loss in February of nearly $180,000. Only the del Lago casino generated revenue for the month.

The total revenue earned in February marked a new low point since sports gambling was allowed within the state. December of last year had been the weakest month when the state generated $780,418. That number was colossal in comparison to February.

The del Lago Resort and Casino reported total revenues of $98,247 from the DraftKings operated sportsbook. This far exceeded any of their competitors. Rivers Casino & Resort reported a loss of $38,802. The Tioga Downs, which offers the FanDuel sportsbook, reported a loss of $94,030 in while the Resorts World Catskills, offering the International Game Technology and Betgenius sportsbook, reported the most significant loss, coming in at $145,008.

Despite the lost revenue, total revenues for the four venues were up by 5.1% from the previous month. Resorts World had the highest increase, seeing a total revenue increase of 20.5% to $19.6 million.

Inspired Entertainment reported that, despite their increase in revenue, they still saw widening losses in 2019. This according to their financial report that was issued on March 11.

They reported that the fourth-quarter revenue increased by 116.2% over the same period of time in 2018. This was driven by $66.4 million growth across “Business Segments and Acquisition of Novomatic Gaming Technology Group (“Acquired Businesses” or “NTG Acquisition”).”

In fact, the fourth-quarter numbers were quite positive for Inspired. They reported an adjusted EBITDA increase of 69.4% over the same period in 2018, an increase of $17.7 million. This, the company concluded, provides a total Annualized Cost Synergies for the Acquired Businesses Projected a $15.0 million for 2020.

The total revenue for 2019 saw an increase, up 9% from 2018, going from $140.7 million to $153.4 million in 2019. The majority of this revenue came from its business unit, which accounted for $134.9 million, an increase of 3.3% over the prior year.

On March 11, online affiliate and content marketing provider Raketech confirmed that they had completed their acquisition of the iGaming affiliate network Lead Republik. This should help the company to strengthen its position as they look to further their global expansion strategy.

Raketech explained that they had “delivered on an important milestone on the company’s geographical expansion strategy by announcing that it acquires all assets of Lead Republik Ltd.” They added that the acquisition should mean that “Raketech’s revenues outside the Nordics are expected to reach approximately 20 percent of the group’s total revenues.”

The purchase price for Lead Republik was €1.4 million, with the possibility of additional payments being made dependent upon performance measures being met.  As part of the acquisition, all of the staff at Lead Republik will join Raketech.

Raketech CEO Oskar Mühlbach stated, “This acquisition is ticking a lot of strategic boxes, as it gives us further footprint in markets important for our key partners at the same time as it contributes with technical know-how in form of a high qualitative technical platform together within competence within conversion optimization and paid media. We further see strong synergies when combining Lead Republik’s offering with our know-how, within organic search.”

Montana businesses are ready to pull the trigger on sports gambling. 142 entities have received their licenses from the Montana Lottery Commission (MLC), the state’s chosen sports gambling manager, and are now waiting for the green light to begin accepting bets. However, the MLC isn’t quite ready to flip the switch. It is still putting the final touches on the necessary infrastructure, but hopes to have everything ready to go by next Monday.

Local media outlet KULR8 reports that the MLC is “still installing” the infrastructure and ensuring that all workers tied to the state’s sports gambling operations receive the necessary training on Montana’s Sports Bet Montana gambling kiosks. Any qualified property in the state that wants to offer sports wagers has to be trained on the kiosks before the license is issued.

As opposed to most states, Montana took a different, and more than a little controversial, approach when it decided to legalize sports gambling. Any business with a liquor license can install a Sports Bet Montana kiosk, which means that more than 1,400 businesses across the state are eligible to operate as a sportsbook if approved for a license.

In addition to the kiosks, sports gambling fans can also place their wagers online, and this could become the preferred method, as has been seen in other states. The online sports gambling app only works at one of the Sports Bet Montana locations, meaning no wagers while sitting on the sofa munching on chips and salsa, but the mobile app allows bets of up to $1,000. The in-store kiosks have a limit of $250 per wager.

Montana businesses are ready to pull the trigger on sports gambling. 142 entities have received their licenses from the Montana Lottery Commission (MLC), the state’s chosen sports gambling manager, and are now waiting for the green light to begin accepting bets. However, the MLC isn’t quite ready to flip the switch. It is still putting the final touches on the necessary infrastructure, but hopes to have everything ready to go by next Monday.

Local media outlet KULR8 reports that the MLC is “still installing” the infrastructure and ensuring that all workers tied to the state’s sports gambling operations receive the necessary training on Montana’s Sports Bet Montana gambling kiosks. Any qualified property in the state that wants to offer sports wagers has to be trained on the kiosks before the license is issued.

As opposed to most states, Montana took a different, and more than a little controversial, approach when it decided to legalize sports gambling. Any business with a liquor license can install a Sports Bet Montana kiosk, which means that more than 1,400 businesses across the state are eligible to operate as a sportsbook if approved for a license.

In addition to the kiosks, sports gambling fans can also place their wagers online, and this could become the preferred method, as has been seen in other states. The online sports gambling app only works at one of the Sports Bet Montana locations, meaning no wagers while sitting on the sofa munching on chips and salsa, but the mobile app allows bets of up to $1,000. The in-store kiosks have a limit of $250 per wager.