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Last week, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced that the league’s regular season was officially over – it was shut down on March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic – and that 24 instead of the usual 16 teams would advance to the Stanley Cup playoffs. The top 12 from each conference by points percentage are in the postseason.

The Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers are the top four seeds in the Eastern Conference and will play each other once in a round-robin format to officially seed the top of the East. Ditto in the West, where the top four are the St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars.

The other eight clubs in each conference will play in best-of-five qualifying round series by seed (5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, etc.) to advance and face one of the top four in the first round of the playoffs. The Eastern Conference playoffs will be held in one “hub city” and the Western in another.

Australian casino operator The Star Entertainment Group is reopening its flagship Sydney property after securing a new tax deal and a casino monopoly on electronic gaming machines (EGM) in the Sydney market.

On Monday, The Star announced that it had received approval from the state of New South Wales for a ‘restricted opening’ of its eponymous Sydney casino as of 4pm local time. The Star shut its Australian venues in mid-March after the government ordered the closure of all ‘non-essential’ retail operations to minimize further COVID-19 spread.

Initially, attendance at the reopened casino will be limited to “up to 500” members of the casino’s loyalty club on an invitation-only basis. The invitations are apparently only going out to VIPs, as the reopening involves only its “private gaming rooms” and up to 12 food & beverage venues, all of which will be operating under new health and safety restrictions.

The reopening comes as something of a surprise, as the original closure order suggested that all bars, restaurants, clubs and casinos would remain shut for “at least six months.” A few days later, The Star laid off 90% of its staff – around 8,100 individuals – to conserve financial liquidity for what was expected to be a potentially fatal period of inactivity.

Macau casino gaming revenue recorded another punishing decline in May as COVID-19 quarantine rules continue to deter mainland Chinese gamblers from traveling.

Figures released Monday by Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) show casino gaming revenue totaling MOP1.76b (US$221m) in May, a 93.2% decline from the same month last year. This makes eight straight months of year-on-year revenue declines, and pushes the 2020 year-to-date revenue total down 73.7% to MOP125.7b ($15.7b).

May’s revenue total was more than twice the MOP754m the market reported in April and May’s rate of decline was also better than analysts had expected. But that’s cold comfort to Macau’s six gaming concessionaires, all of which revealed significant downturns in their recent Q1 earnings reports and are reported to be losing an average of US$1m per day.

The numbers won’t start to recover until Hong Kong and Guangdong province, from which the bulk of Macau’s tourists depart, lift the 14-day quarantine imposed on individuals returning from Macau. Expectations are that these restrictions could be lifted within a week or two, but much will depend on the number of new COVID-19 infections remaining at a level Beijing can accept.

Social gamers Zynga have dug deep into investors’ pockets to add yet another rival developer’s hit titles to its own ‘forever franchises.’

On Monday, Zynga announced that it had paid the staggering sum of $1.8b for Istanbul-based gaming developers Peak, makers of hit match-3 puzzle games Toon Blast and Toy Blast. The deal calls for half that sum to be paid in cash, the rest in Zynga common stock, with the deal expected to close in the third quarter of 2020.

Zynga and Peak were already on familiar terms, as Zynga paid $100m in 2017 for Peak’s mobile card games business, which included such titles as Spades Plus and Gin Rummy Plus, as well as some other titles popular with local Turks.

This time, Zynga is getting the whole Peak shebang, including a 100-person development studio in Istanbul, along with new Peak titles in various stages of development. Zynga claims the add-on will boost its mobile daily active users by over 60% and will prove to be “an additional driver of margin expansion over the coming years.”

After a two-month hiatus, sport has made a successful return to Australian screens, with the NRL the first football code in Australia to successfully resume its season. The return of rugby league to Australia made global headlines, with the NRL attracting a record 4.5 million viewers by the end of round three.

More than 1.3 million people across Australia tuned in to watch the Parramatta Eels destroy the Brisbane Broncos 34-6, at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium. Nearly one million viewers watched the game live on Channel 9, while NRL pay-tv partner Foxtel enjoyed an audience of 355,000 for the opening fixture of the round.

By the end of the weekend, the NRL’s determination to get back on the field had paid dividends. NRL Interim chief executive Andrew Abdo was delighted with the result.

“Last night was our highest-rating regular-season game in six years – that’s an outstanding result for the game and our broadcast partners,” Abdo said.

With the U.S. Open still scheduled to go ahead in August, one of the most interesting questions for tennis fans about the tournament is whether Roger Federer can win the ‘Race to 21’ Grand Slam titles and win his first final at Flushing Meadows since 2008.

Rusedski, in an interview with Tennis365, said that while many have joked that the current crisis is a help to Federer’s recovery from injury, the serious question is whether the ‘Fed Express’ will be able to go through the gears once he’s back on court.

“I think it’s going to be pretty difficult for him to challenge for the Grand Slams when we start again,” said Rusedski “He will be 39 by then and winning major titles at that age will be very tough.”

Backing up Rusedski’s remarks about Federer’s physical capabilities, the Swiss former world number one hasn’t won at Flushing Meadow in 12 years, longer than many would credit given his former dominance of the event, with five years of consecutive victories between 2004 and 2008. In those five consecutive wins, he beat five different men in the finals: Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. In fact, since Federer last won it, he has only reached the U.S. Open final twice, losing to Juan Martin Del Potro in 2009 and Djokovic in 2015.

While the global pandemic has ruined the plans for many things, Japan’s integrated resort (IR) process has chugged along, with most parties pretty content that timelines are long enough that they can still hit their goals. Wakayama prefecture might cut it a little close though, as they have confirmed to GGRAsia that they won’t be hitting their mid-November 2020 goal of selecting an IR partner, now having to drag the process out to January 2021.

In the admission, Wakayama admitted that COVID-19 is playing a role in stretching this process out. Everything has had to be pushed back, as the deadline for submission of request-for-proposal (RFP) materials by potential IR partners has been pushed back from its original date of August 31, to October 19.

The prefecture’s IR Promotion Office also admitted that there might be further changes to the schedule, if “national trends” suggest that should happen.

While Japan has ended its official nationwide Covid-19 emergency on May 26, the effects the pandemic has had on this IR process are still hard to decipher. The government’s final IR Basic Policy must be ready by July 26, a date which could now be in jeapordy. More importantly, the cities and prefectures making bids must do so between January 4 2021, and July 30, 2021. If they can’t select their IR partners early enough to prepare their bid to the national government, they could risk missing out

The Philippines online gaming sector is going through a bit of a reset. While some firms are trying to reopen their Philippine Offshore Gambling Operators (POGO) offices, testing their employees and trying to meet the demands of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the real estate sector is expecting plenty will have to fold in the near future.

Property analyst David Leechiu, president and CEO of Leechiu Property Consultants, told Philstar that he sees a perfect storm coming for the Philippines property market. As the government begins to demand new tax payments, many POGOs may simply chose to move elsewhere, resulting in damage to other industries, like real estate, but also construction and tourism.

Internal Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa has recently noted that not a single POGO has met the BIR’s requirements to successfully reopen. To do so, they would need to prove they’ve paid all of their tax debts, but also fulfill the Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation’s (PAGCOR) demand that all employees test negative for COVID-19.

That testing effort has become its own controversy, as talking heads and politicians worry that POGO employees are being prioritized over other sectors of the Filipino workforce.

Mother Nature tried to get in the way, but NASA ultimately prevailed. After being delayed due to bad weather, Crew Dragon, the space shuttle created by SpaceX, lifted off Saturday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and connected with the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday. Astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will now go down in history as the first two astronauts to fly a commercially-built space shuttle to the ISS.

Crew Dragon lifted off at 3:22 Eastern Time Saturday, delayed by three days due to bad weather. It docked yesterday at approximately 11:22 AM, after which Hurley stated, “It’s obviously been our honor to just be a small part of this. We have to give credit to SpaceX, the commercial crew program, and of course NASA. It’s great to get the United States back in the crew launch business and we’re just really glad to be on board this magnificent complex.” Behnken added, “…[The] Dragon is a slick vehicle and we had good airflow, so we had an excellent evening and just excited to be back in lower Earth orbit again.”

The last time US astronauts headed into outer space on US-made spaceships was in 2011. That was when the last NASA Space Shuttle mission was flown with Atlantis on July 21 that year, bringing to an end 30 years of the organization’s Space Shuttle program. SpaceX, also known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., was founded by Elon Musk in 2002 and looks to make outer space travel a commercial activity. 

Because of the launch of the space program some 60 years ago, consumers today have a lot to be thankful for. Most people may not realize that the tiny cameras they use daily to take selfies are a product of NASA. Jet Propulsion Laboratories, a part of NASA, was tasked with creating a camera in the 90s that would be small enough to be used on a spacecraft, but with superior resolution. Today, about 1/3 of all cameras use the technology created by the group. 

The weekend saw another charitable tournament played by celebrity poker players raise money for those affected most by the recent COVID-19 crisis.

The King’s Celebrity Poker Challenge was put on by the World Poker Tour on their ClubWPT Twitch channel and when the dealing was done, it was Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander who won the top prize of $50,000. With all the $125,000 raised at the final table going to World Central Kitchen courtesy of Budweiser, it was a final table that benefitted vulnerable families, senior citizens and healthcare workers on the frontline of the fight against Coronavirus.

With six players assembling online to play the event, there were superstars in every seat. As well as World Central Kitchen founder and chef José Andrés, Spanish NBA All-Star Pau Gasol, champion surfer Kelly Slater and Mad Men actor Jon Hamm also featured in the line-up, as well as actor and comedian Kevin Pollak, who would eventually lose out heads-up to his friend Alexander.

With a 25,000 starting stack and blinds starting at just 25/50, there was plenty of wiggle-room in the opening levels and as such, the action took a while to become pivotal to the number of players at the table. That was a great thing, giving fans a chance to watch some of their favourite celebrities interacting and playing poker at the same time.

Generally speaking, people are fickle creatures. Their tastes and attention can change on a whim and, when they can’t find something to satisfy their hunger, they’ll look elsewhere. As the coronavirus pandemic turned the sports world upside down, sports gambling was no longer as interesting to many, who began looking for alternatives. This is what has been demonstrated by analysis conducted by Bojoko, a website that maintains a comparative database of all online casino operators, that shows how interests have changed over the past couple of months. 

Bojoko took a look at Google Trends to see how Internet traffic was changing amid the global health saga. Almost all sports activity was forced to come to a halt in March because of COVID-19, making it difficult for sportsbooks to earn a living. With no ability to put up lines on competitions out of the NBA, MLB, Premier League and more, Netizens no longer had the need to visit online sports gambling sites and began looking for alternatives. Not surprisingly, online casinos quickly filled the void. 

Searches for things like “Best Betting Sites” and “Sports Betting UK” dropped by 41% and 33%, respectively, from February to April, according to Bojoko. At the same time, searches on online casino-based keywords and phrases have seen a significant increase. “Best Casino Sites,” for example, jumped 78% during the period. “New Online Casino” increased by 31% from February to April, but by 50% month-over-month from March to April. 

The results are consistent with what online casinos have been stating. They have seen upticks in their traffic and revenue during the coronavirus lockdown, which has been good news for those operators, as well as those jurisdictions that had the foresight to legalize mobile gaming.  As the recovery process begins, more legalization of online gaming is expected virtually everywhere. 

For the past couple of months, Nevada casinos could only count the days, waiting for the go-ahead from Governor Steve Sisolak to reopen their doors. The coronavirus has hit the Silver State harder than others, with total casino revenue for April reaching just $3.6 million – pennies compared to the $936.4 million reported a year ago. When the announcement was made recently that June 4 would be the rebirth of the gambling industry in the state, casino operators become cautiously optimistic as they saw the possibility of beginning to recover lost ground. However, it looks like that first step might have to wait a little longer. The presence of National Guard soldiers with rifles and flak jackets might be a deterrent for almost anyone that had been considering a visit to a local gambling venue. 

The U.S. is embroiled in a not-so-friendly protest that follows the death of an unarmed man at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The coronavirus-caused lockdown served as a pressure cooker for emotions, and the drama that unraveled with George Floyd caused that pressure cooker to explode. Across the country, massive riots have been held for days, with police precincts, stores and banks, among other things, being burned. In Nevada, Reno and Las Vegas, the state’s two biggest gaming hubs, have not been immune to the violence, and the National Guard has been called in to help try to bring order back to Reno. 

Reno’s City Hall and its police headquarters became targets of the protestors’ fury, leading to the call for help from the Guard. Curfews have been put in place across Reno, and the Guard could stick around this week if things don’t calm down. If that’s the case, the city’s casinos may not look as attractive to those who would have otherwise been eagerly waiting for June 4 to roll around. 

In Las Vegas, police continue to patrol the streets in an effort to keep things from getting out of hand. For the most part, and compared to Reno, things have been relatively tame – minor skirmishes with the local police have led to some arrests, but things have not been anywhere as violent as what has been seen elsewhere. Still, as in Reno, adding coronavirus fears with rioting fears equals more reluctance on the part of gamblers to venture out into public. 

Last Thursday, lawmakers in Ohio’s House of Representatives got together to discuss whether or not the state should see legalized sports gambling. Illegal sports gambling can already be found there, just like in many other states, so legalizing it should be a commonsense response. With the coronavirus pandemic having hit everyone hard in the wallet, legalized sports gambling is increasingly being seen as a means to recover the massive amounts of revenue that have been lost. The legislative chamber apparently agrees, because House Bill 194 (HB 194) easily made it through a vote that will now allow it to be sent over to the Senate for that chamber’s input.

The House Finance Committee showed overwhelming support for HB 194 on Wednesday when it sailed through on a 29-1 vote. The bill then went before the full Senate for a vote the next day, where it once again found considerable backing. It passed a floor vote 83-10 with relative ease, especially after Representative Brigid Kelly, who co-sponsored the bill with Representative Dave Greenspan, gave a motivational speech ahead of the vote. The ten lawmakers who voted against the measure were either sleeping, playing Animal Crossing or simply don’t understand the economics of legalized sports gambling.

Kelly explained, “Right now, sports gaming happens off the books. We know it’s happening. But we aren’t collecting tax revenue and there is no way to monitor the bets to try and protect from any unscrupulous or suspicious activity. As part of our bill, we have a monitoring system that will be one of the strongest, if not the strongest, in the nation. Statewide data will be available to the sports governing bodies through a centralized monitoring system. This is a mechanism that we can use to ensure the integrity of the wagers, and because it’s a centralized system, the data will be available to the commission across organizations and books. So, it will be better able to recognize fraudulent activity.”

HB 194 would place a tax on sportsbook receipts of 10%, a figure that, according to Greenspan, means that the state would see about $15 million in revenue with the first year of activity. It seeks to put the Ohio Lottery Commission in charge of establishing regulations and the Ohio Casino Control Commission in charge of enforcing the regulations. Any of the state’s existing gambling facilities would be allowed to receive a sports gambling license, and the bill would also enable online sportsbooks.

After 17 events in the online series, Swedish poker sensation Viktor Blom leads the field in Poker Central’s Super High Roller Bowl.

The former online phenom went through a phase where he was more well known for some amazing live results, with one example of that his German MILLIONS Main Event win back in 2018 where he made one of poker history’s greatest-ever hero calls to sniff out a bluff and take the title by making the right choice. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugOh8o81raUVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Viktor “Isildur1” Blom Wins MILLIONS Germany Main Event (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugOh8o81raU)

Back in the present day, Blom is back online to take part in the Super High Roller Bowl Online Series, with his most recent victory in Event #14, the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em event seeing Blom beat Mike ‘SirWatts’ Watson heads-up to boost his winnings in the event to $407,500 and take a big lead in the overall championship.

Online gambling operator Mansion’s predominantly Asian-facing M88 brand is reportedly under investigation by UK gambling regulators, resulting in the brand losing its English Premier League sponsorship.

On Friday, EPL club AFC Bournemouth announced that it wouldn’t be renewing its shirt sponsorship deal with M88 aka Mansion88 when it expired Sunday. The club thanked M88 for its support over the past three years but said it would finish the remainder of the EPL’s current season – which resumes play on June 17 – using a different kit.  The sleeve sponsorship with parent company Mansion is reportedly unaffected. 

On Saturday, The Athletic reported that Bournemouth’s decision came after being informed that the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) was “currently looking at various aspects of M88 and Mansion Europe model and operations.”

It’s unclear specifically what aspects of that model are under the UKGC microscope but in April, UK media reported that the UKGC was looking at the VIP scheme of Mansion’s MansionBet brand. The report quoted a Mansion rep telling a customer that the site didn’t like requiring customers to reveal the source of their gambling funds “but we have to do it because the UK gambling regulators make us do it.”

California has yet another sports betting bill to consider, although gaming tribes aren’t on board and the state’s cardrooms have suffered yet another regulatory black eye.

Last week, two California legislators fleshed out their earlier proposal to legalize sports betting in the Golden State. The proposed constitutional amendment by state Sen. Bill Dodd and Assemblyman Adam Gray needs to secure the approval of two-thirds of legislators in both of their respective chambers by June 25 to appear on this November’s election ballot.

The bill, which has a date with Dodd’s senate committee on Tuesday, would tax land-based wagering revenue at 10% and mobile revenue at 15%, with betting licensees also required to contribute 1% of revenue for responsible gambling programs. Licenses would cost $5m with an additional $1m for a mobile wagering option. Licensees would be required to use official league data for in-play betting.

Crucially, the proposal would allow wagering only through tribal casino operators and state racetracks, leaving the state’s cardrooms out of the mix.