Online casino brand Vera&John has exited the Australian market, the first of many online casino operators that will be bidding g’bye to their Down Under punters in the coming weeks and months.

Australian customers of Malta-licensed online casino operator Vera&John, which was acquired by Canada’s Intertain Group in 2014, found messages in their in-boxes this week welcoming them to Dumpsville, population: you.

The emails said the company was “always sorry to say goodbye, but the time has come.” The company said players were no longer able to make deposits to their accounts, and all Australian accounts would be officially closed “in one week.” All remaining funds in Vera&John accounts should be transferred to players’ preferred payment provider “within the next week.”

Vera&John was cagey as to the reason behind the abrupt divorce, saying only that it was “a business decision.” But it appears obvious that Vera&John’s hand was forced by the Australian government’s recent changes to its online gambling laws, which specifically prohibit online casino and poker sites from offering services to Aussie gamblers.

Russian bookmakers appear determined to close out 2016 by launching official online betting sites.

Earlier this week, Russia’s second largest retail bookie BaltBet announced that it hopes to end the closed beta testing of its new Baltbet.ru website on December 26 and begin accepting online wagers by either December 28 or 29, although the official launch could be pushed to the first or second week of January if unforeseen problems arise.

Similarly, Bingo Boom president Sergei Makarov told Bookmaker-Ratings.ru that his company’s website would make its official debut in January. Makarov said Bingo Boom’s website would operate under a license granted to Star Beth.

Makarov said Bingo Boom was currently testing its connection to the TSUPIS centralized payment hub operated by the Bookmakers Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO), of which both Bingo Boom and Baltbet are members.

Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International Holdings had a thoroughly positive 2016 but is closing out the year on a decidedly pessimistic note.

On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Imperial Pacific had frozen a planned bond offering intended to help finance the construction of its permanent Saipan resort casino. Up till now, the company has been making do with Best Sunshine Live, a temporary yet wildly successful ‘training’ casino in a local shopping mall.

Investors reportedly sought a higher yield than the 10-11% Imperial Pacific had been offering, based on investors’ concerns that the property’s future was vulnerable to Saipan regulators changing local gaming laws.

Imperial Pacific planned to open the first phase of its permanent facility in time for the 2017 Chinese New Year celebrations, with subsequent phases to follow in the coming years. The total outlay for the project, which at its completion would boast 11 casinos and 20 six-star hotels, was tipped at over $7b. The scrapped bond offering was designed to raise up to $400m of this total.

PokerStars players can now join in the fun as popular mini game previously only on Full Tilt is now available to play on desktop client and mobile app.

ONCHAN, Isle of Man, December 2016 – A popular new mini game that offers poker players fun chances to win big for a small price is now being launched on PokerStars, an Amaya Inc. (Nasdaq: AYA, TSX: AYA) brand.

The Deal, which was pioneered on sister site Full Tilt, is a quick-fire poker mini game where spending as little as 7 StarsCoin gives players the chance to instantly win cash prizes and get a shot at spinning the wheel for the progressive jackpot, which ranges from $25,000 upwards. Players can also buy-in for 70 StarsCoin for a chance to win larger prizes and a better chance of hitting the jackpot.

The Deal players are dealt seven cards face down and are given the option to discard two, leaving a five-card poker hand which is then revealed to the player. StarsCoin and cash prizes are paid out based on the strength of the hand; the higher the hand ranking the better the prize. The progressive Jackpot is activated when a player makes either a Straight Flush in the 70 StarsCoin mode or a Royal Flush in the 7 StarsCoin mode, the highest ranked hands in a game of poker. These hands give them the chance to spin the wheel for a shot at the progressive jackpot. When the jackpot is struck anyone who has played The Deal in the last 12 hours wins a share of half of the jackpot!

Asia-Pacific’s richest and most prestigious poker series to be live via poker professional Jason Somerville’s Twitch.tv account from Friday 27 January to Sunday 29 January 2017

MELBOURNE, Australia. December 2016. Crown Melbourne has today announced that Jason Somerville’s Twitch.tv account will again be the exclusive broadcast partner for the 2017 Aussie Millions Poker Championship.

With a reputation that ranks it alongside the highly-acclaimed World Series of Poker, the Aussie Millions is the marquee event on the Asian-Pacific poker calendar. Since its inception in 1998, the tournament has grown into a major stop on the international poker circuit for the world’s greatest poker players.

Twitch.tv, the world’s fasting-growing social video platform with more than 100 million members, will offer a unique and interactive Aussie Millions viewing experience for poker enthusiasts everywhere. Somerville will be streaming the 2017 Aussie Millions exclusively through his channel on Twitch.tv from Friday 27 January to Sunday 29 January 2017.

Templer to take operational reins of world’s largest online poker business as it expands in Casino and Sportsbook.

ONCHAN, Isle of Man – December 2016 – Guy Templer has been appointed Chief Operating Officer of Rational Group, the operator of the world’s largest poker business, PokerStars, an Amaya Inc. (NASDAQ: AYA; TSX: AYA) brand.

Templer, who is currently Chief Strategy Officer, will assume the role January 1 and will continue to report to Rafi Ashkenazi, CEO of Amaya and Rational Group, and will be responsible for the day-to-day management of significant parts of the organization, including, but not limited to, Customer Support, Security & Integrity, Information Security, and Payments, and will continue to be responsible for the teams launching core products into new markets and adding new verticals within existing markets.

Templer joined PokerStars in 2011 as Group Director of Business Development and Strategy and has directed key initiatives including PokerStars’ re-entry into the U.S. market; the launches of Casino, Sportsbook and Social Gaming; and the local licensing of the company’s brands across Europe, which have established the company as the leading advocate for online poker regulation and the most-licensed online poker operator in the world.

Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada celebrated the ‘public preview’ of his new Okada Manila resort by predicting the Philippines’ casino revenue would one day overtake Singapore.

Wednesday saw the doors flung open at Okada Manila, the third and largest (to date) of four planned integrated resorts in Manila’s Entertainment City gaming zone. The $2.4b project has suffered numerous delays over the years, and the official launch won’t happen until sometime in Q1 2017, but the ‘public preview’ went ahead as planned.

Okada, who chairs Japanese gaming conglomerate Universal Entertainment Corp, told ABS-CBN News that Okada Manila’s first phase would create between 8k and 10k jobs, rising to 20k jobs within two years as new phases are completed.

Okada also suggested that he would list his “casino business” on the Philippine stock exchange in a year’s time. Duterte believes the casino will turn a profit in its first year of operation and recoup his total investment within three to five years.

UK-licensed online gambling operators face a new fee structure in 2017, with most operators seeing a discount, although a select few will see their fees rise.

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) posted a notice on its website this week detailing the findings of its consultation with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) regarding its proposed license fee structure, which is set to take effect on April 6, 2017.

The consultation was launched following the changes brought about by the Gambling (Licensing & Advertising) Act 2014, which included the new 15% online point-of-consumption tax on all online revenue generated from UK punters.

According to the UKGC, the net effect of the new regime will “reduce the overall fee burden across the industry by over 10%.” The UKGC says around 1,900 licensees will see their fees reduced by anywhere from 2% to 75%, while a further 1,000 licensees will continue to pay their current rates.

More details have emerged on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s latest vow to target the local online gambling industry.

Following Duterte’s public pronouncement on Thursday that he’d ordered the “closure of all online gaming,” Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II told reporters that he’d been given “a marching order to investigate the PEZA (Philippine Economic Zone Authority) and online gambling.”

While Aguirre added that the scope of his authority was still being drafted by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Special Assistant to the President Bong Go, Aguirre’s reference to PEZA suggests Duterte doesn’t intend to scrap the new Philippine Offshore Gambling Operator (POGO) regime.

Until recently, most Asian-facing online gambling sites based in the Philippines held licenses issued by the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA). But this year saw the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) launch the POGO program, which handed out its first licenses this month.

Somebody won a $100,000 lottery ticket and instead of cashing it in themselves, they handed it over to a church for a higher use.Winner Stories, Massachusetts, Scratch Games, Charity, Religion

Over the course of 2016, I have personally conducted over 140 stand-alone interviews and this number does not include the interviews conducted by my Asia-based counterpart, Stephanie Raquel.  Assuming our number combined is over 200, that’s a lot of interviews to dish out in one year and before we hit 2017, I’d like to highlight the top ten most viewed interviews out of our 2016 200.

10: Jonas Odman on Recreational Poker Model

In this interview released right at the start of 2016, I spoke with Jonas Odman, the godfather of the recreational poker model.  Odman described his journey from debuting the recreational model in 2009, touching on its developments from then until the present.  He went on to explain what markets are still ripe for online poker growth and emphasized his desire to hire new talent into his online poker universe.

9: Per Eriksson on NetEnt’s continued growth

Lee Davy takes a look through the 2016 archives to capture what he believes to be the highlights of the live poker scene in 2016.

There will always be a place in my heart for the World Poker Tour (WPT). It’s right up there with my Commodore 64, Kindle and Mac. It was the first poker show that was so good I used to tape every episode. And when I started working for them I curtseyed when I first met Mike Sexton.

So the highlight of the 2016 live tournament scene has to be Sexton’s victory in the C$3,500 buy-in WPT Montreal Main Event. I am sure this meant more to him than a barrow load of World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets. It was a sublime moment for a man who has done as much as anyone to attract fresh fish into poker than anyone else alive or dead.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smFY9nW9gWw]

Cambodia’s government is vowing to impose tighter restrictions on the country’s casinos in preparation for passage of new gaming laws next year.

On Saturday, Cambodia Daily reported that Prime Minister Hun Sen had signed a sub-decree on November 27 that created two new Interior Ministry departments under the National Police’s central security department. One of these departments will be tasked with combating money laundering and other crimes at the nation’s gambling venues.

Casinos will be subject to this new “anti-commercial gambling department,” whose responsibilities will include the “research, investigation and suppression of money laundering offenses related to gambling in casinos and entertainment clubs.” The new body will also seek to prevent the undefined category of “targeted people forbidden from gambling” from entering gambling venues.

Cambodia is reportedly putting the finishing touches on new gaming legislation, which promises higher taxes, greater financial oversight and vague suggestions of centralizing online gambling payment processing through government-managed servers.

Cambodia’s government is vowing to impose tighter restrictions on the country’s casinos in preparation for passage of new gaming laws next year.

On Saturday, Cambodia Daily reported that Prime Minister Hun Sen had signed a sub-decree on November 27 that created two new Interior Ministry departments under the National Police’s central security department. One of these departments will be tasked with combating money laundering and other crimes at the nation’s gambling venues.

Casinos will be subject to this new “anti-commercial gambling department,” whose responsibilities will include the “research, investigation and suppression of money laundering offenses related to gambling in casinos and entertainment clubs.” The new body will also seek to prevent the undefined category of “targeted people forbidden from gambling” from entering gambling venues.

Cambodia is reportedly putting the finishing touches on new gaming legislation, which promises higher taxes, greater financial oversight and vague suggestions of centralizing online gambling payment processing through government-managed servers.