Online gambling choice may be coming to Canada’s largest province while the push for national single-event sports betting gets new life.

Thursday saw Ontario’s Conservative government deliver its 2020-21 budget, which revealed the drastic toll the pandemic has taken on the Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corp (OLG) monopoly. After delivering C$2.3b (US$1.76b) to provincial coffers in fiscal 2019-20, OLG’s 2020-21 forecast is a mere C$200m.

Ontario’s land-based casinos, which are owned by OLG while private operators handle day-to-day management, were shut down this spring due to COVID-19 and only recently began to resume operations under severe health & safety restrictions. OLG’s finances were sufficiently dire to require a C$500m lifeline from the province to keep its lights on.  

OLG is overdue in releasing its 2019-20 annual report, so we don’t yet know what kind of boost its PlayOLG online gambling site received from the land-based shutdown. The 2018-19 annual report showed the site generated revenue of C$92m, which was around one-quarter better than the year before, but still well behind rivals in British Columbia and Quebec.  

Six floating casinos in the Indian state of Goa may have caught a break regarding their business licenses, but none have so far received clearance to restart operations after their long pandemic lockdown.

On Thursday, the Herald reported that the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) had given in-principle approval for the renewal of the trade licenses of the six ‘offshore’ casinos that dock in the city when not entertaining gamblers on the Mandovi river. Final approval could come at the next Council meeting on November 11.

Panjim mayor Uday Madkaikar said casino operators would need to reapply for their licenses, which will be good for the current fiscal year that ends March 31, 2021. The CCP says the fees will contribute Rs52 (US$70,300) to the city’s operating budget.

The decision marks a reversal of the administration’s view of the casino industry one year ago, when the CCP unanimously voted against renewing the trade licenses. That decision followed locals’ frustration with the disruption caused by the casinos’ presence while docked in the city as well as the state government’s inertia on finding the casinos another waterway to call their permanent home.

Casino operator Melco Resorts & Entertainment (MRE) lost over $331m in the third quarter of 2020, with only its Manila and Cyprus operations reporting positive earnings.

Figures released Thursday show MRE generated revenue of $213m in the three months ending September 30, an 85% decline from the same period last year. The company reported negative earnings of $76.7m versus earnings of $418.2m last year, while booking a net loss of $331.6m versus an $83.2m profit in Q3 2019.

The net loss was only slightly better than the $368m MRE tossed on the bonfire in Q2 2020, but MRE boss Lawrence Ho nonetheless hailed the “moderate recovery” enabled by the resumption of MRE’s Cyprus and Manila casino operations, while holding out hope that Macau will start to show benefits from China’s relaxed travel rules.

MRE’s flagship Macau property City of Dreams reported revenue down 88.3% to $91.4m with negative earnings of $49.2m. VIP gambling turnover fell 89%, mass market table drop slid 93.6% and slots handle slumped 91%. In addition to seeing fewer VIPs, City of Dreams also reported “a higher provision for credit losses” as VIPs failed to honor their markers.

Online gambling operator Aspire Global has lost its fight with Sweden’s consumer watchdog over online casino bonus offers to customers.  

On Wednesday, Sweden’s Patent & Market Court issued a ruling that bonus offers made by Aspire Global’s Karamba online casino brand failed to honor the ‘moderation’ requirement in Sweden’s gambling advertising regulations.

About one year ago, Sweden’s Consumer Ombudsman (KO) launched a lawsuit against Aspire Global subsidiary AG Communications, which holds a license issued by Sweden’s Spelinspektionen regulatory body for, among other domains, Karamba.com.

The KO took exception to a Karamba bonus offer that, in the watchdog’s opinion, contained excessive rollover requirements that weren’t adequately detailed in the marketing pitch. Sweden’s gambling regulations require operators to observe ‘moderation’ in their promotional material, although licensees have complained about the vagueness of this requirement.

It was always going to be entertaining, but last night’s premiere of the PokerGO programme Negreanu vs. Polk: Heads-Up Feud got real.  

With 25,000 hands to play in their epic heads-up battle, the fact that Daniel Negreanu ended the night six figures up will not overly worry Doug Polk, who will pay the other 99.2% of the match online where he is something of an overwhelming 4/1 favourite.  

The manner of the victory for Negreanu will annoy Polk. That’s no shock; virtually everything Negreanu does annoys Polk and it’s clear to see that from the intro and outro to the entertaining 3 hours and 43 minutes that PokerGO put out for free to their fans last night. A couple of Kid Poker’s calls on Polk’s bluffs will have given the latter pause for thought, however.  

Before we talk about the show, let’s get down to watching it if you haven’t already. It’s great stuff.  

Online gambling operator LeoVegas says Sweden must take “quick and strong measures” to eliminate unauthorized sites or face a surge in problem gambling activity.

Figures released Thursday show the Stockholm-listed LeoVegas generated revenue of €88.9m in the three months ending September 30, up only 1% from the same period last year. Earnings fell 6.3% to €11.9m and after-tax profit slid nearly one-fifth to €4.1m.

The modest revenue rise came despite the number of new depositing customers rising 24% year-on-year and returning depositing customers up 28%. The gains were credited to the company’s launch of its GoGoCasino and Livecasino brands in Finland, as well as the pandemic restrictions imposed on land-based gambling options.

However, total deposits rose only 6% year-on-year and average deposit per depositing customer shrank 16%, in part due to the online casino deposit restrictions Sweden imposed in July. LeoVegas said these changes have caused “unhindered” growth among international online operators not holding a Swedish license, which aren’t subject to the same restrictions.  

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Soccer is by far the No. 1 sport that Brazilians care about, but mixed martial arts might be No. 2 with so many legendary fighters coming from that country. It’s an all-Brazil bout that will headline this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card from the organization’s Apex facility in Las Vegas as Thiago Santos battles Glover Teixeira at light heavyweight. The main card begins at 10 p.m. and is available in the United States on ESPN2 and ESPN+.

These two were supposed to fight a couple of times earlier this year but both were called off because each tested positive for COVID-19. Brazil is getting hammered by that virus.

The light heavyweight champion is currently Jan Blachowicz with Santos as the No. 1 contender and Teixeira at No. 3, so Saturday is clearly a huge fight.

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.

NetGame Entertainment Releases Blockbuster Book of Nile: Revenge Slot 

NetGame Entertainment, one of iGaming’s foremost casino software providers, is proud to announce its freshest slots release, Book of Nile: Revenge.