Curacao-licensed online casinos could soon find themselves on a much shorter leash after the Netherlands applied financial pressure on the local government.

Last week, the Dutch government announced that it had reached an agreement with its Curacao counterparts regarding “measures and structural reforms” intended to make the constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands “financially, economically and administratively resilient.”

The Netherlands has been providing Curacao with “liquidity support” since April to mitigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the island nation, which is heavily dependent on tourism. But Curacao also has an online gambling licensing regime that irks the Dutch government due to operators targeting Dutch punters.

In July, the Netherlands declared that its pandemic bailout was “no longer without obligation,” and Curacao’s failure to agree to certain conditions meant the third tranche of the bailout cash was withheld. In October, Curacao agreed to “comply with all requests” made by the Netherlands, including those “aimed at strengthening the rule of law of Curacao.”

Irish betting operator Boylesports has learned the hard way that its UK market expansion comes with some pretty serious compliance strings attached.

On Wednesday, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced that it had imposed a £2.8m fine and additional license conditions on Boylesports Enterprises after an investigation revealed “a series of money laundering failures” at the operator’s UK-facing online sports betting and casino sites.

Specifically, Boylesports was determined to have “failed to have an appropriate money laundering risk assessment in place” and its anti-money laundering (AML) policies, procedures and controls “were unsuitable and therefore could not be implemented effectively.” Boylesports also “failed to comply with elements of the Money Laundering Regulations.”

In addition to the financial penalty, the UKGC has instructed Boylesports to ‘maintain the appointment’ of an “appropriately qualified” Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO), who will be required to hold a Personal Management License (PML).

With the 2020 U.S. Presidential election now behind us, it appears that Joe Biden has become the President-elect and will take office in January. Of course, that isn’t entirely certain as President Donald Trump continues to raise legal concerns around the counting of votes, and makes personnel changes in the military that worry some over a potential coup.

Regardless, assuming the U.S. sticks to a democracy, there will be another U.S. Presidential election in 2024. And thanks to BetOnline.AG, we already have odds for who is favored to win it all. America is nothing without a perpetual speculation around who the next Commander in Chief will be, so let’s dig through the odds, shall we?

The Favorites

I’m grouping the first four candidates here because they make the most conventional sense for the next Chief Executive of the country. Despite Biden having won, the favorite to win in 2024 is now….

The whole focus of iGaming NEXT ONLINE: Adventure of Change Day 2 was marketing, and there are few companies that know how to market like Apple. Our very own Becky Liggero Fontana conducted a Fireside Chat with Rahul Sood, Co-Founder of Unikrn, and looked at how Apple’s success could be recreated for the gambling world.

Sood noted that Apple created a new phenomenon in marketing by building relationships with customers. “What people didn’t realize was that Apple had fans, not just customers,” he said. Those fans then told their friends to buy Apple products, evangelizing for the brand and reinforcing their marketing efforts.

When you compare that with an Apple competitor, like what once was a decently powerful personal computer company in HP, there’s no comparison really. The latter is soulless, with no community, no fans, and no one to push their products.

But how does one build relationship marketing. It starts internally. Sood said the company needs to have employees who are also a fan of what they working on. The ideal employee “lives, eats and breathes the product.” That creates an internal culture that rapidly becomes apparent to the customer.

Universal Entertainment can finally put one of its headaches behind it. The casino operator went after a former lawyer in 2018, accusing it of unethical business practices after attorney Yuki Arai tried to overcharge the company by more than $100 million. The company contacted Japan’s Dai-Ichi Tokyo Bar Association at the time to call attention to the egregious action, and this didn’t sit well with Arai. He sued the company, claiming it had permanently damaged his reputation, and sought $285,000, in spite of the fact that he had already gotten away with a paycheck he didn’t earn. However, his attempt has fallen short and the courts have decided that he doesn’t deserve any more money.

Arai served as an auditor for Universal from 2014 to 2015, and perhaps didn’t think his shenanigans would be noticed when he slipped in the bill later, well after he had been relieved of his duties. As soon as Universal realized what had happened, it filed a complaint with the bar and also sought relief in court. It argued that Arai had altered a contract with the company for services he hadn’t legally provided and, while Universal never turned over the full amount, still wanted to get back the $80,000 in wages it had provided.

After all the public attention given the drama, Arai went after Universal in July of 2018, asking the courts to make Universal pay $142,000 for “pain, suffering and damage” to his reputation. A Tokyo District Court judge turned him down earlier this year, so he decided to appeal, doubling the amount he sought through his original claim.

Universal published an update (pdf) on the case yesterday, which should hopefully put this chapter to rest. It explained that the Tokyo High Court shot down Arai’s appeal and that he is not entitled to any money. However, this only brings to an end that particular chapter, not the whole story. Universal is still trying to get back the $80,000 it has asked Arai to return, and which the errant lawyer still feels he is entitled to keep.

Breaking into the sports betting industry can be expensive, but Low6 may have found a new, cost effective way in. Co-Founder Jamie Mitchell joined our Becky Liggero Fontana recently to discuss their new cost-effective approach to sports betting marketing, and teased exciting new things they have coming to the American market.

Mitchell began by describing what sets Low6 apart. “Low6 is an influencer-led, B2B white label platform,” he began. “The idea really behind Low6 was to offer franchises, clubs, the opportunity to have a betting platform that was risk-free, so they didn’t have to have a traditional sports book where if somebody gets the correct number on a roulette machine or whatever it might be, that they have to put that prize money up, and also to move away from the sort of harder, stigmatized form of gambling that we’re sort of so used to seeing chastised in the in the media every single day.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LIhtDbpayo&w=904&h=509]

This new approach to sports betting circumvents the traditionally high marketing costs that come with building a brand. “It’s no secret that the sports books have to pay a tremendous amount to acquire new customers to their platforms, and marketing budgets, as a new betting company coming into the market, unless we had tens and tens of millions, we won’t make any impression at all on that traditional space,” he said. “So we looked and said, you know, what can we do to be disruptive? And I know everybody claims to be disruptive but we genuinely think we are. We said look, we’ll give our product to franchises and clubs.”

Things are starting to look pretty dire for the Philippine Offshore Gambling Operators (POGOs). New information revealed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) reveals just how much the industry has shrunk, and suggests the trend won’t change unless major developments occur.

Of the previously operating 63 licensed POGOs, the BIR notes that only 15 are currently operating. Workforces have also been cut by as much as 70% to comply with Covid-19 protocols.

The primary reason so few POGOs are back to operations are due to low revenues, but Covid-19 precautions played a major role too. The bureau noted that after many Chinese workers visited their homeland for the Chinese New Year, many could not return due to restricted travel.

But other factors are definitely in play. Taxes have been raised on the industry, decreasing its total profitability even if they do resume operations. A POGO lawyer told the Manila Bulletin the new tax rates are “unreasonable.”

Bloomberry Resorts finally saw some life in their portfolio in Q3 2020, thanks to the reopening of Solaire Resort & Casino, but that hasn’t stopped the bleeding. The casino operator reported a P2.5 billion ($52 million) loss for the period.

That’s still a lot better than the P4.7 billion ($96.2 million) loss they had in Q2, but far down from their profit of P3.9 billion ($80.9 million) the previous year. But Solaire being allowed to partially reopen cut those losses in half quarter over quarter, as the casino increased its revenue from P686.6 million ($14.1 million) to P4.4 billion ($91.3 million).

VIPs, who would have been the first invited back with restricted crowd sizes, made up almost half of that Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) at P2 billion. Mass table and EGM brought in P1.1 billion and P1.3 billion respectively. Year over year, all three segments saw a decline of more than 70%.

Bloomberry’s South Korean casino, Jeju Sun, is still not open and recorded no revenue.