New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has announced stricter guidelines to help his state battle rising Covid-19 infection rates. With restaurants now forced to close at 10:00pm, casinos in Atlantic City are expressing concerns that they will have to pay for someone else’s problem.

Murphy announced the new rules on Monday. “To be clear, the last thing I want to do or any of us want to do is to shut our economy back down, and thankfully, we are not at that point,” Murphy said during a briefing. “No one up here wants to take the type of broad and all-encompassing actions like those we had to take in March. We are acting with more precision-based actions on what we are seeing on the ground.”

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle aren’t happy with the decision. “Businesses in South Jersey are hurting. New blanket restrictions are not what we wanted to hear today,” wrote Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo, a fellow Democrat. “These new restrictions were put in place due to soring North Jersey COVID cases.”

Republican State Senator Michael Testa, saw it similarly, calling Murphy’s so called “surgical approach” more like someone wielding an ax, and “a destructive overreaction.”

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton claimed his seventh F1 World Drivers Championship, equalling the record held by all-time great Michael Schumacher. Hamilton sealed the win with victory in the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix, over the weekend.

Hamilton only needed to finish ahead of his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas to claim the title, and Bottas struggled in the wet conditions finishing 14th after an unspectacular start. Hamilton started from sixth on the grid and went on to record his 94th Formula One victory.

It was a bitter-sweet moment for the British driver, who has led the fight against racial injustice this season. Hamilton was visibly emotional as he crossed the line for the win, with his voice cracking over the radio.

“Dream the impossible. You have got to chase it and never give up,” Hamilton said. “That’s for all the kids out there who dream the impossible. You can do it.”

In the fast-moving world of gambling, sometimes you might miss news that could be important to you. To make sure you’re all caught up on gaming industry news, be it online or brick and mortar, we’re rounding up the some of the announcements and partnerships from the last week that you might have missed.

Don’t miss out on all of the latest announcements. Our Press Release section is updated constantly.

SpaceCasino goes live with Red Tiger

Slot provider’s games launched on growing U.K. brand

2020 and 2021 are the years for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in many industries, including gaming. There have already been several important consolidations seen this year, most notably, the union between Eldorado Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, and the COVID-19 pandemic has forced more movement in the industry. Two of the largest gaming companies, NetEnt and Evolution Gaming, began talking about the possibility of combining forces several months ago, knowing the process would be arduous and challenging. However, the mega-merger picked up a little steam this week after the anti-monopoly authority in the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), signed off on the deal.

NetEnt and Evolution knew in September that the CMA was scrutinizing the possible merger, but held onto the hope that there would be no red flags. The authority apparently didn’t find any, as it has greenlighted the proposal after completing its due diligence. The investigation included everything from an open comment period to marketplace analysis, but nothing stood out as a reason to stand in the way of the merger.

As a result, Evolution proudly released a statement yesterday, explaining, “The CMA has today, on November 16, 2020, announced its approval of Evolution’s acquisition of NetEnt. Consequently, the condition regarding the receipt of all necessary competition approvals has been fulfilled.”

It added, “The acceptance period for the offer expires on November 20, 2020. Assuming that the offer is declared unconditional no later than around November 23, 2020, settlement is expected to commence around December 1, 2020. Evolution reserves the right to extend the acceptance period for the Offer and to postpone the settlement date.”

The American Gaming Association (AGA) continues to show how important the commercial casino industry is to the US economy. Despite continued efforts to bring about the demise of gambling, opponents are fighting a losing battle, and one that, if they were to succeed, would cost irreparable harm to the US economy. According to the latest figures out of the AGA, commercial casinos took in $9 billion in the third quarter of the year, much of which goes to education programs and state and local government initiatives. 

The figure provided by the AGA is substantial, but it is still 18.9% less than what was provided a year earlier. Slot machine activity, as has come to be expected, was responsible for $5.87 billion of the action, while table games took in $1.57 billion. Internet gambling accounted for $435 million, a figure that is going to increase substantially soon. The results include just commercial casinos and gambling facilities, of which there were 442 open during the quarter. It’s worth noting that all of the venues were operating at reduced capacities that ranged anywhere from 15-50%, depending on local policies. 

The good news about the results is that they represent a quarter-over-quarter increase of 294%, with the second quarter of the year suffering greatly because of COVID-19. The bad news, however, is that casino win is still down 36.5% across the first three quarters of the year. As several states have just introduced new anti-coronavirus rules due to a return of the virus, the figure is likely to move slightly down before the end of the year.

In terms of gaming revenue, Nevada is still the reigning champion. Its casinos reported combined gross gaming revenue (GGR) of $576.3 million in the second quarter, which was just 20% of what they saw a year earlier, but this number jumped to $2.3 billion in the third quarter. That represents a loss of 23.5% from a year earlier, but it is indicative of the potential, and value, of the Silver State’s gambling market. 

As far as Macau leaders are concerned, there is no reason to delay the casino tender process that is expected to take place in 2022. Plans were put in motion a couple of years ago to bring all six operators in line so their statuses could be reviewed simultaneously in two years, but nothing can happen until the city’s new gaming framework is in place. Macau has to prepare new gaming laws ahead of discussing concessions with its casinos, and COVID-19 has made it difficult for lawmakers to allocate enough time to the subject. However, city leaders are still determined to keep on schedule and have reiterated their goal of having the new gaming laws in place next year. However, they most likely won’t be ready until the fourth quarter, according to Macau Business, which is going to put pressure on the tender process in 2022. 

Previously, the goal was to have the gambling laws in place by next summer, at the latest. The requisite groundwork to develop the framework, such as initial studies, has already begun, but has been slowed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Setting that groundwork has to take place before providing a window for public consultation, which has to happen before the Legislative Assembly can be given the final draft of the laws for approval.

Macau’s current Legislative Assembly will be swapped for new members next September, which is going to put more pressure on the entire concession timeframe. There have already been rumblings that adhering to the schedule could be very difficult, and legislators are hoping the air will be cleared so they can start making the necessary preparations. 

However, Macau’s chief executive, Ho Iat Seng, and the Legislative Assembly got together yesterday, and the city’s official policies for next year include provisions for ensuring the concession and re-tender process goes smoothly and as planned. Leading up to that, Macau’s gaming industry can expect to be put under the microscope, as legislators and gaming regulators appear to be ready to pick through all operations. 

Esports Entertainment Group (EEG) CTO John Brackens has made a name for esports industry. Brackens has built a reputation as a passionate advocate of the benefits of esports for the gambling industry. He took some time out to sit down with our very own Becky Liggero Fontana to talk about how the esports is leading the revival for the gambling industry.

The last 12 months have been a watershed moment for the esports industry with professional sports leagues going into hiatus because of the pandemic. While some gaming operators saw a crisis, Brackens saw this as an opportunity for the esports industry to step into the spotlight. “With COVID pretty much shutting down a huge percentage of the world and most traditional sports, esports was the only game in town from a betting perspective.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z0R_EdWkisVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: EEG CTO John Brackens on the future of esports (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z0R_EdWkis)

There’s been a surge in interest in the esports industry. “We’ve seen a huge uptick in traffic and people visiting our site learning more about the different games that we offer in different markets,” Brackens said.

Does anyone remember Michael Fay? He was that American kid who got caned 4 times in the butt in 1994 for vandalizing cars in Singapore. He says he only stole road signs though. At the time, there was this whole uproar in the United States because everyone thought that being caned for stealing road signs was harsh. It was on 60 Minutes, and I remember as a kid wondering why President Clinton himself had to take time out of his busy day to ask that some kid not be spanked. After the ordeal, to the dismay of Americans who like to sit, Fay had said it was hard to sit for a few days after the corporal punishment. Everyone oohed and ahhed and owwed. I remember thinking that Singapore must be a safe country if they’re going to punish theft like that. “That’s Singapore,” was my impression as a kid. Harsh, but takes things seriously.

The last we heard of Fay, he was a slots manager in Cincinnati, and so we’ve come full circle.

Turns out Singapore still takes things quite seriously, in ways that Westerners still find harsh and distasteful. They’ve been draconian in their management of the pandemic within their borders. You wouldn’t know it from the dry case chart though, which looks like this:

Here’s the same chart though, disaggregated by the BBC between “community” and “dorms”, which basically means Singaporeans and foreign workers.

Online gambling technology suppliers GAN have made a bold step to bolster their US market opportunities with the acquisition of customer-facing online operator Coolbet.

On Monday, the Nasdaq-listed GAN announced that it had struck a €149.1m deal for Vincent Group plc, the parent company of Malta-based online gambling operator Coolbet. Assuming regulatory approval, the deal is expected to close in Q1 2021.

GAN said the deal involves €80m (US$95m) in cash and the balance in an exchange of GAN ordinary shares. GAN had US$57.5m (€48.5m) in cash and equivalents as of September 30 but the company said it will “seek new capital in the coming weeks” to shore up its balance sheet.

Coolbet generated revenue of €26m last year, with revenue of €18.6m – split roughly 50/50 between sports betting and casino – and earnings of €500k over the first three quarters of 2020. Coolbet, which boasts gaming licenses in Estonia, Sweden and Malta, currently has around 175 staff, mostly based in Tallinn, Estonia.

Australian casino operator Crown Resorts is swearing off all junket operators in an apparent Hail Mary bid to save its Sydney gaming license.

On Tuesday, Crown announced an update to its late-September decision to suspend all activity with junket operators – the middlemen who help steer (predominantly) Asian VIP gamblers to casinos – until June 30, 2021 in order for Crown to conduct “a comprehensive review of its processes related to junket operators.”  

Crown said Tuesday that it will “permanently cease dealing with all junket operators, subject to consultation with gaming regulators in Victoria, Western Australia and New South Wales.” This consultation “has commenced” and Crown will only resume business with junkets if they were “licensed or otherwise approved or sanctioned by all gaming regulators in the states in which Crown operates.”

Crown’s newfound deference to regulatory authorities comes after a truly embarrassing month or so at the NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) inquiry into Crown’s suitability to hold a gaming license for its Crown Sydney property, which is scheduled to soft-launch in December.