Donald Browne may live to regret giving up his position as Senior VP of Security at Imperial Pacific International (IPI) to take on the role of CEO. Browne moved into the hot seat this past July, but has had to deal with nothing but headaches since then. IPI, the casino operator behind the unstable Imperial Palace casino in Saipan, has continuously been called out for not paying its bills and possibly breaking federal law, and has even, on several occasions, been unable to pay its workers. This latter embarrassment is the target of a local lawyer, who is now pushing for Browne to be locked up for contempt of court. 

Aaron Halegua, an attorney working for seven construction employees who launched a lawsuit against IPI for lack of pay, believes jail time is warranted for Browne. The executive is said to have testified before the Gaming Committee of the House of Representatives in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), that he “oversees the entire operation” of the company and is “very familiar with the financial position of IPI and the availability of funds.” Because of this, Browne would have been completely aware of the company’s financial health and whether or not it would have been able to cover its bills at all times, but agreed to a court order to pay the workers, anyway. 

Halegua asserts, “In the present case, there is no dispute that Browne was aware of the fee award [to workers] because he submitted the sole declaration in support of IPI’s motion for an extension of time to pay the sanction. Browne also exercises control over IPI and has the authority to direct that IPI pay. Or to direct the sale of certain assets to make payment… Because Browne knew about the order and deadline for payment, [and as] he has been the top executive of IPI since July 2020, and he did not act to ensure the compliance with the order, the court should hold him in contempt.”

IPI was ordered in December of last year to pay $30,000 in legal fees and related costs tied to the ongoing dispute over wages; however, the company still hasn’t fulfilled its obligations. This past April, a court judge ruled that IPI was in contempt and tacked on a $2,000-per-day fee until the payment was made. However, the company seems more willing to continue to rack up a larger bill than try to make good on the order, and no one – not the courts, the CNMI government or the Commonwealth Casino Commission – seems willing to take more drastic, and deserved, measures against IPI.

Now that an appropriate time of mourning has past, rampant speculation has begun over who will replace long time Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, who passed away earlier this month after handing out answers and asking for questions for 37 seasons. There’s plenty of opinions flying online, and we have odds from Bodog to help figure it out.

Alex Trebek’s picks

Trebek himself only ever named two people as potential successors, but there’s a third man who was clearly dear to him.

Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time Champion Ken Jennings leads the odds. Jennings still holds the records for longest Jeopardy! winning streak at 74 games, as well as the most money won on U.S. TV game shows ever. He was also hired as a backstage consultant for Trebek’s final season, giving him a leg up on the competition.

As more and more countries are back under some sort of lockdown to battle a second wave of COVID, we are all craving in-person interaction and must depend on digital platforms to fulfill this basic need. Entertainment has taken on a whole new meaning during this time, moving away from travel, public venues, house parties and other in-person activities and towards digital options such as social video games.

In an effort to combine human interaction and entertainment in a safe (digital) environment available to anyone, Derrek Morton and his team at FlowPlay have been working on some exciting innovations.

Morton himself has been working in the video games industry since the early 90s, “catching the bug” after going to film school and then working on a video game about making movies.

“Working in games is amazing, it uses both sides of my brain, my creative side and my technical side, it’s the perfect combination”, he said.

Some South Korean casino operators are back banging their heads against the wall after new pandemic restrictions were imposed on their operations.

On Wednesday, South Korean media reported that local authorities had imposed new restrictions on public gatherings in several regions, effective at 12:01am Thursday (19). The affected areas including the capital Seoul, the city of Gyeonggi, Gwangju province and parts of Gangwon-do province. The city of Incheon will reportedly follow suit at midnight on Nov. 23.

The new ‘step 1.5’ restrictions vary according to the type of gathering, with some facilities allowed to operate at between 30-50% of normal capacity. However, casinos and race-betting operations (bicycle, boat or horse) will be limited to just 20% of capacity, dealing yet another body blow to the local gambling industry.

Two of the three Seven Luck-branded casinos operated by Grand Korea Leisure (GKL) are in Seoul, while Paradise Co Ltd operates one casino in Seoul and another in Incheon. The latter is Paradise City, currently South Korea’s only major integrated resort, which has already dealt with not one but two complete shutdowns due to COVID-19.  

The action was paused in the Daniel Negreanu vs. Doug Polk ‘Grudge Match’ under bizarre circumstances over the past 24 hours as Bill Perkins, who has a bet in place on the match’s outcome, accused Doug Polk of gathering data on the hands that have taken place.

After a ‘private discussion’ between Polk and Perkins (surely these two are the single season Netflix good cop bad cop series the world needs right now), there was a difference in opinion about exactly had been done, or if anything had been done wrong.

Ok this is completely ridiculous and we were talking privately but if you are going to fire off tweets lets talk about it.

The rules were, no hand histories and no huds. We both agreed and were clear on that. Neither was used. https://t.co/PYNZFmn9wM

Casino operator Bally’s Corp (formerly Twin River) has reportedly struck a major sports betting partnership with US regional media titans Sinclair Broadcasting.

On Wednesday, the Rhode Island-based Bally’s Corp announced that it had formally completed its acquisition of the Bally’s Atlantic City Hotel & Casino from Caesars Entertainment. The deal, which was announced in April, received the blessing of New Jersey gaming regulators earlier this month.

The company formerly known as Twin River announced last month that it would be rebranding “virtually all” of its properties with the Bally’s name as well as adopting the moniker as its new corporate identity. The company further declared its intentions to launch a proprietary sports betting operation using the Bally’s brand.

Further to that discussion, Wednesday brought a report by the New York Post that Bally’s had reached a $100m deal to buy Bet.Works Corp, a sports betting and iGaming platform provider currently powering the sports betting operations of theScore Bet. Bally’s reportedly plans to have its new betting business fully in action by next June.