The Las Vegas leg of the World Series of Poker Main Event has been won and it was the final table chip leader Joseph Hebert who led from the start and sealed a memorable victory to turn $300 into $1.5 million at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Sin City.

The conclusion of the nine-man final table was affected considerably in the approach to the action as just a day before the climax of an event that has not been a stranger to controversy, former WSOP bracelet winner Upeshka De Silva disqualified due to a positive COVID-19 test. De Silva, who would have gone into play in 8th place of the nine remaining players, busted in 9th instead, leaving the way clear for the eight remaining men to push for glory inside the Rio.

First to lose that opportunity was Gershon Distenfeld, who saw short-stack Harrison Dobin double-up before he himself busted, king-ten suited no good against Ron Jenkins’ pocket queens. Distenfeld, who famously said that he would donate all of his winnings to charity will be making out a cheque for a mammoth $125,885 thanks to De Silva’s disqualification.

Out in 7th place for $163,786 was Shawn Stroke, which would have disappointed any supporters he had at home, as he’d entered play second in chips. He left a long time before the heads-up, however, as his pocket threes couldn’t survive and were beaten by Jenkins, who had pocket queens for the second time, winning with the ladies both times.

South Korea’s casinos are struggling as the country struggles to flatten its pandemic infection curve, while the global gaming slowdown has pushed back the opening of an in-development integrated resort. 

On Monday, Grand Korea Leisure (GKL) informed investors that its three Seven Luck-branded foreigner-only casinos wouldn’t reopen as scheduled on Tuesday (29). Instead, the casinos will now reopen at 9am on Monday, January 4, provided the country’s third wave of COVID-19 doesn’t turn into a tsunami. 

South Korea reported a record 40 pandemic deaths on Tuesday and new infections topped 1,000, leading the Yonhap news agency to warn of a “looming medical system crisis.” GKL shut its two Seoul casinos one month ago, and its Busan property followed suit shortly thereafter.

GKL’s main foreigner-only casino rival, Paradise Co Ltd, shut its Walkerhill casino in Seoul on December 15, promising to reopen on Tuesday. But Paradise announced this week that Walkerhill would now stay shut until January 4 at 7am. All Seoul casinos were operating at only 20% of normal capacity on the order of local authorities. 

Nevada casino gaming revenue took a major hit in November, despite a record performance by the state’s licensed sports betting operators. 

Figures released Tuesday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board show statewide casino gaming revenue of just under $771.2m in November, a nearly 17.8% decline from the same month last year and around $50m below October 2020’s result.

The decline was largely expected, following Gov. Steve Sisolak’s late-November decision to halve casinos’ already limited capacity to 25% of normal. With the state’s COVID-19 infection rate showing no sign of slowing, Sisolak announced earlier this month that he was extending this restriction at least through January 15.  

The impact was felt most directly on the Las Vegas Strip, which saw its November gaming revenue slide nearly one-third year-on-year to $349.8m. Most other regions also reported negative growth, although Downtown Las Vegas – which is far less reliant on out-of-state customers and also benefited from the first full month of the new Circa property – gained 1.7% to $53m. 

COVID-19 has been the biggest disruptor of global commerce in recent years, even bigger than the recession-not-recession of 2008. As the year wraps up and 2021 is set to arrive, it’s a perfect time for businesses to take stock in how they manage their expenses in order to fuel better growth, and one of the major targets is the marketing budget. More than ever, it’s important to maximize the return on the marketing investment to ensure the dollar goes as far as possible, and there are several key areas where marketers can concentrate their expenditures to ensure greater returns.

Inarguably, social media is going to continue to be one of the primary sources of customers for years to come. Whether running an online gambling operation, a cryptocurrency exchange or any of a myriad of possibilities, marketers have to go where the consumers can be found and they are now found more on social media than any other platform. Over the past two years, there has already been a notable increase in social media marketing spend, increasing to almost 30% by the end of the third quarter of this year, and this isn’t expected to stop anytime soon.

Voice search deserves attention in 2021. It has yet to become an inherent part of Google’s search algorithms; however, as more consumers search from mobile devices, they are using voice searches instead of typing in their desired terms. The problem is that voice and text searches often result in unique results, which means marketers need to ensure that they are on top of voice search components and how they can be used to drive traffic to targeted results.

Interactive content, once viewed as a nice add-on, is now a necessity. A website or social media account that offers interactive content is guaranteed to receive greater engagement, as the content is seen as added value for consumers. The content is entertaining and visual, proving to be a greater attraction than stale and static content that never changes.