Iran’s efforts to combat unauthorized online gambling are proving enormously successful, at least, according to the guy who has to answer to the mullahs if the campaign fails.

Iranian media quoted the nation’s top cybercop General Vahid Majid saying that the authorities had observed “an increase in cybercrime every year” since the formation of the FATA cyber police unit in 2011. Majid made the comments at a recent press conference aimed at debunking COVID-19 misinformation that was circulating online.

Majid (pictured) also warned the public that attempts to gamble online or promote such activity via social media or other digital channels during the country’s pandemic lockdown would be “dealt with severely.” Majic claimed that FATA had to date targeted “6,157 sites and 730 websites” engaged in such activities, resulting in 2,884 judicial actions against those responsible.

Last October, Majid was celebrating the disruption of nine groups responsible for 61 online gambling sites. Gambling in any form is strictly illegal in the Islamic Republic of Iran, with the authorities even targeting state television’s version of the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire game show.

Spain’s online gambling operators are up in arms after the government unveiled strict new promotional limits, including an end to football shirt sponsorship and welcome bonuses.

On Thursday, Spain’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs sent the latest draft of its Royal Decree on gambling advertising to the European Commission for approval. The Ministry had previously signaled its intention to impose new ad limits that were more strict than the temporary pandemic limits that were lifted last month.

Among the more significant elements of the latest draft is the brief statement that gambling operators’ sponsorship of sports jerseys or kits “will not be admissible.” The draft also seeks a ban on betting operators inking naming rights deals for sports venues, leagues and competitions, while decisions on whether to prohibit pitch-side gambling advertising will be left up to individual Spanish states.

The proposed limits would have a significant impact on La Liga, Spain’s top-flight football organization, which has a betting partnership with Cirsa’s Sportium brand. Numerous clubs currently feature gambling brands as their main kit sponsor and many others have some form of betting partnership.

Two more major WSOP bracelets were won as the World Series, taking place online for the first time this summer, continues to outreach its guarantees and provide players of all levels with the opportunity to put their names down in poker history.

Event #7

Tuesday’s WSOP event saw Joon Kim bring home the title, winning $103,127 in the process, the top prize of a mammoth $731,660 prizepool. With 989 players, the $800-entry No Limit Hold’em Knockout Deepstack event also saw Kim amass $3,000 in bounty winnings as he won his first-ever WSOP bracelet.

Plenty of big names turned out for the event, and some of the players who got close to the final table without reaching that hallowed felt included Brian Altman (86th for $1,121), Matt Stout (80th for $1,228), Jared Jaffee (56th for $1,495) and Ryan Riess ‘The Beast’ with the former WSOP Main Event winner cashing in 33rd place for $2,403.

If wagers had been placed on Japan’s integrated resort (IR) rollout a couple of years ago, a lot of money would have been lost by now. It was thought that there would be a lot more progress on bringing casinos to the country and the overall framework would have been in place sometime this year. That would have facilitated the launch of the first IRs by 2023-2024, which seemed, at the time, like an attainable goal. However, as often happens, the real world got in the way and completely skewed the forward momentum. Progress is still being made, though, and, eventually, Japan will have its massive casino and entertainment centers. In the meantime, Bay City Ventures is keeping tabs on what’s going on in Japan and the firm’s managing director, Joji Kokuryo, has put together an update on where things stand – and where they’re going, concentrating on two of the main rival targets – Yokohama and Nagasaki.

There is a small handful of locations that have remained at the top of the list of candidates to receive one of the first three IR licenses that will be issued – Osaka, Wakayama, Nagasaki and Yokohama. Out of those four, all but Nagasaki have extended or delayed various steps in the creation of their local processes, with Osaka seemingly needing more time than the rest. Nagasaki is determined to push forward and adhere to its original plan as much as possible, which means that it plans on having an IR partner in place before the end of the year. 

Part of the reason most areas haven’t felt the need to rush is because of the lack of a national policy to guide them. Explains Kokuryo, “As of today, there are no changes to the current national timeline and the local governments must act accordingly with their own schedules. It is clear that candidate sites all have the July 2021 submission deadline in their minds in recent statements about their own timelines. It is important to note that every candidate site is in very different stages of their IR partner selection process, and the effect of a national timeline change also differs for each local government.”

There are additional reasons each location is dragging its feet, as well. For Yokohama, it’s because an effort is underway to recall Mayor Fumiko Hayashi, as well as the concern that there is already too much commercial tourism development underway. The recall might be difficult to achieve, but Yokohama has a number of facilities either complete or near completion that could call into question its ability to support another venue. It already has the Pacifico Yokohama North MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) facility, which just underwent an expansion, the Yokohama Budokan cultural sports facility, the United Arena and the K-Arena. Another venue may be too much.

Penn National Gaming probably won’t be too thrilled with this news. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) is ready to hand out a license to a gaming operator interested in putting up a satellite casino in the state after its most recent attempt fell through. The gaming regulator has scheduled an auction for this September, at which time a Category 4 casino license will be put up for grabs. This will be the latest satellite project authorized out of the ten that were approved when Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed off on an expanded gambling act almost three years ago.

The auction is set for September 2 and will pick up where the company behind Mount Airy Casino left off. The Mount Pocono-based gaming venue had won the state’s third satellite casino license in 2018 and had expected to be able to put something together in Big Beaver Borough about 30 miles from Pittsburgh. However, the deal fell apart after the gaming operator couldn’t find the money to develop the project. 

According to the PGCB, “Entities eligible to participate in the auction are any Pennsylvania slot machine licensee as well as a person with an ownership interest in a slot machine license. At the auction, the bidders must submit a Category 4 reserved location, which will be a fixed coordinate (center point) surrounded by a 15-mile radius, resulting in a 30-mile circle. The geographic center point must be part of the bid submitted at the auction. Additionally, the reserve location circle may not be located within 40 linear miles any existing or planned Category 1, 2, 3 or 4 licensed facility or a previously established Category 4 reserve location.”

The initial idea behind the expansion was to also expand the number of operators in the state; however, this proved to be more problematic than had been envisioned. Pennsylvania was able to auction four licenses – with Mount Airy’s subsequently recalled – and, after that, the fifth auction initiallly didn’t receive a single bid. That made the state decide to revisit its policies, and it altered course to allow existing license holders to participate in the auctions.