Hotels in Macau’s casino resorts posted a 91.6 percent occupancy rate despite the surge of hotel room supply in the Asia’s premier gaming hub.

Latest data from the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) show that hotel occupancy in the former Portuguese enclave notched a 6 percent year-on-year increase. The city’s hotel occupancy rate was 3.5 percent higher compared to November’s data.

A local, three-star hotel posted a 96.5 occupancy rate – the highest of all hotels in Macau. According to the data, it is a 6.3 percent increase compared to 90.2 per cent registered in the same month last year.

However, 5-star hotels saw the greatest annual growth, up 7.4 percentage points to 90.1 per cent, compared to 82.7 per cent in November last year.

Former professional mixed martial artist turned fight coach, George Castro, is set to arrive in Manila the first week of January to make good on Brandon Vera’s promise to bring the world-famous Alliance MMA gym to Philippine shores.

Castro, who has worked with Vera for the past four years, previously served as the strength and conditioning coach at Alliance MMA in San Diego, California.

“The plan is to bring a new style — my style of training — to the Philippines. I want to go everywhere and show everybody what I know and spread my knowledge,” said Castro. “Asia has a bunch of tough fighters with a lot of heart, especially in the Philippines.”

Castro is no stranger to working with world-class talent, having had a hand in the careers of fighters like Jeremy Stephens, Ross Pearson and Wilson Hayes.

Tuesday, 20th of December 2016 – The organizers are proud to announce that that Dan Iliovici(Rombet), will give a presentation about the Successful Implementation of Responsible Gambling in the Romanian market.

The Responsible Gambling in Central Europe panels will be held within the Vienna International Gaming Expo 2017 on the first half of Day 2(21.03.2016).

Mr. Dan Iliovici is the Executive Manager at ROMBET, one of the most representative associations of the gambling industry in Romania. He is also dedicated to the study of problem gambling, actively participating at the development of Responsible Gambling projects, and constantly contributing with articles on this important topic.

The seminar will take place in one of the meeting rooms at the Austria Vienna Center on the 21th of March 2017.

United States of America – 1, Tribal online gambling – 0.

The U.S. government has emerged victorious in its long-drawn-out legal battle against the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel in California over the tribal nation’s online gambling operations.

In 2014, the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel hit the headlines when they launched the Desert Bingo site, which offered online bingo. The tribe followed it up with the launch of its own real-money online poker site called Private Table.

This, predictably, resulted in all hell breaking loose, with both state and federal authorities filing separate lawsuits to shut down the tribe’s operations. The two parties alleged that the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel’s various gambling operations failed to protect patrons who were physically located outside of the tribal grounds from accessing the platforms.

United States of America – 1, Tribal online gambling – 0.

The U.S. government has emerged victorious in its long-drawn-out legal battle against the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel in California over the tribal nation’s online gambling operations.

In 2014, the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel hit the headlines when they launched the Desert Bingo site, which offered online bingo. The tribe followed it up with the launch of its own real-money online poker site called Private Table.

This, predictably, resulted in all hell breaking loose, with both state and federal authorities filing separate lawsuits to shut down the tribe’s operations. The two parties alleged that the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel’s various gambling operations failed to protect patrons who were physically located outside of the tribal grounds from accessing the platforms.

Maryland residents are playing the lottery more than ever, as the state generated $1.908 billion in fiscal 2016, $113 million more than the previous sales record of $1.795 billion in fiscal 2012, according to the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency.Maryland, Financials, Retailer, Sales, Record

BetConstruct secures a Class II software provider’s licence from the Romanian National Gambling Office (ONJN).

BetConstruct will now be able to supply its platform to all online gaming operators in Romania’s regulated market.

“BetConstruct views Romania as a significant and forward-looking jurisdiction. With the ONJN license we are bringing our powerful betting technology to local operators enabling them to stand-out in this important market,” says BetConstruct CEO Vahe Baloulian.

This licence adds to BetConstruct’s licences granted by the UK Gambling Commission, Malta Gambling Authority and other jurisdictions which all allow BetConstruct to help its partners meet necessary requirements for operating in different regions.

Link2Win’s innovative bet software available on virtual game provider’s Betman Online RGS

London, December 2016— Virtual games specialist Kiron Interactive has agreed a deal with Isle of Man-based Link2Win, to integrate the Supervivo product into their Betman Online Remote Gaming System.

Supervivo is an innovative, patented product which offers a unique draw mechanism that gives players the opportunity to win large fixed or progressive jackpots alongside their regular bets.

As a betting system, Supervivo uniquely ranks each player from first to last and it can guarantee a sole winner if and when required, giving exciting flexibility when structuring game types over both instant or scheduled based games.

Lee Davy reaches out to a swathe of poker players and online poker operators to see if they care if David Baazov was to take PokerStars private and he doesn’t think they will.

I feel guilt.

I wake up with thoughts of my ‘to do list’. My 12-week old girl is cooing in the other room. My wife soothes her. Should I go in and say good morning? How long will I be there? I may end up being a Dad for the next few hours. What about that list?

I ignore the cooing and soothing.

TopSport the latest Aussie operator to sign up to fast growing supplier

Monday December, 2016 – The Australian distributor for Digital Sports Tech, a B2B provider of next generation sports betting solutions, has signed a deal with TopSport to provide the Australian operator with its unique player proposition betting offering (“Player Props”).

TopSport will be launching Digital Sport Tech’s Player Props, where customers will be able to customise and create their very own bets based on player performance across a range of statistics and sports.

TopSport will become the third operator in Australia to integrate the one-of-a-kind player proposition betting product following the success of MadBookie and the upcoming launch with Ladbrokes Australia.

The World Series of Poker has released their dates for the 48th annual event. The Colossus III will once again premiere as the first open bracelet event guaranteeing $1m to the winner with all the old favourites expected to return.

For professional poker players, Christmas Day is every day for 49 days starting on Tuesday, May 30, 2017. I am, of course, talking about the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the organisers of the most prestigious and longest running festival of poker in history have released a few critical dates ahead of the annual turkey hunt.

As is bog standard these days the opening event will be on Wednesday, May 31, 2017, when the casino employees will attempt to win a bracelet in the $565 (single re-entry) No-Limit Hold’em event. That date marks the beginning of a 49-day odyssey where the poker never ends, with tournament buy-ins as low as $75.

As was the case in 2016, the 48th Annual WSOP will start off with a bang. The first open bracelet event will be Colossus III. The world record event that gives punters the opportunity to parlay a $565 investment into a $1m dream come true. The game begins over the weekend of 2, 3 & 4 June, with the opportunity to re-enter into two starting flights per day over the three days.

Re-vamped affiliate programme for pioneering Nigerian sportsbook to be powered by Income Access affiliate software

Montreal, QC. December 2016 – NairaBet, the Lagos, Nigeria-based sportsbook operator, has re-launched its affiliate programme in partnership with Income Access, the iGaming-focused marketing technology company and part of Paysafe Group. The re-launched affiliate programme has integrated Income Access’ affiliate software, including the company’s Ad Serving tool.

Nigeria’s first online sports-betting company, NairaBet allows players to wager on Premier League, European and international football matches as well as basketball, tennis, rugby league, baseball and other global sporting events. Powered by an Optima platform, the brand also features in-play functionality and boasts an online casino with a cutting-edge suite of slots such as Jurassic Park™ and Game of Thrones™.

The re-launch of the NairaBet affiliate programme, which will now be powered by the Income Access platform, will allow a wider range of affiliates to promote this leading Nigerian online sportsbook. The re-launched programme features a revenue share commission structure of between 30% and 50%, depending on the gross gaming revenue (GGR) of the players that affiliates refer each month.

Berlin, December 2016 – Casual Games Association, an international trade organization for the games industry just announced the schedule for Casual Connect Europe 2017 . The conference will take place February 7 – 9, 2017, at Station Berlin in Berlin, Germany.

Topics at Casual Connect Europe 2017 will be Industry Insights, Market Navigation, Growth, Funding, Data & Analytics, Design & Development, Esports & Casino and Next-Gen: AR & VR. The Indie Prize Awards for independent developers will also take place during the conference.

Casual Connect is a professional conference created to support the mass-market games community by gathering the top developers, publishers, distributors and others involved in related industries or networking opportunities and useful lectures created by a board of industry members. More than 125 speakers will cover a variety of topics covering emerging trends in game development, distribution and marketing.

To participate please register here. More details on travel and accommodations are available here.

This is a guest contribution by Martin Owens. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

Surely this is the season to pause and reflect, and to be grateful for blessings conferred.

I would like to extend sincere thanks all  my clients, here and abroad,  for choosing me to counsel and represent their interests; to Professor Nelson Rose, the renowned gambling law authority; to Gaming Law Review, Calvin Ayre and the other blogs and periodicals who print my little ruminations; and many others near and far, for their help, counsel and companionship Some of these it would be indelicate to mention just now, but gratitude is none the less.

And especially I would like to extend thanks and good wishes to  the online gaming community-, operators, odds-makers, payment processors, software companies, vendors of associated services, and even the other wise-guy mouthpiece lawyers who service this racket.  But most of all I send my sincere gratitude and appreciation to  the online players, without whom none of us would be here.

888Poker follows in the footsteps of PokerStars by offering a million bucks to lucky winners of their hyper turbo lottery game, BLAST Poker, starting on Boxing Day.

Like most teenage boys in the modern world, mine loves EA Sports FIFA franchise. Only he doesn’t enjoy playing as much as he enjoys purchasing ‘packs’.

‘Packs’ exist in FIFA’s Ultimate Team mode.

Players begin with a crap side containing Joey Barton, Barry Horne and Damien Duff. They buy better players through the accumulation of virtual coins, or if you are as soft as me, your kid will get you to buy ‘packs’ containing a random selection of players.

888Poker follows in the footsteps of PokerStars by offering a million bucks to lucky winners of their hyper turbo lottery game, BLAST Poker, starting on Boxing Day.

Like most teenage boys in the modern world, mine loves EA Sports FIFA franchise. Only he doesn’t enjoy playing as much as he enjoys purchasing ‘packs’.

‘Packs’ exist in FIFA’s Ultimate Team mode.

Players begin with a crap side containing Joey Barton, Barry Horne and Damien Duff. They buy better players through the accumulation of virtual coins, or if you are as soft as me, your kid will get you to buy ‘packs’ containing a random selection of players.

The Gaffg Awards 2016 winners are announced with a few first time award winners along with some repeat winners. This is the 6th year of the Gaffg Awards where affiliates can vote for the affiliate programs and affiliate managers they trust the most where 5 are awarded in each category. The Gaffg Trusted Affiliates are eligible to vote where they must have a quality website. There is also the Charity Recognition Award given out to companies that contribute and participate in charities of their choice.

Trusted Affiliate Program 2016 Winners

● Affiliate Edge

● Bet365 Affiliates

The Gaffg Awards 2016 winners are announced with a few first time award winners along with some repeat winners. This is the 6th year of the Gaffg Awards where affiliates can vote for the affiliate programs and affiliate managers they trust the most where 5 are awarded in each category. The Gaffg Trusted Affiliates are eligible to vote where they must have a quality website. There is also the Charity Recognition Award given out to companies that contribute and participate in charities of their choice.

Trusted Affiliate Program 2016 Winners

● Affiliate Edge

● Bet365 Affiliates

The state cabinet’s move to redefine the term “off-shore casino” in the Goa Gambling Act will pave the way to casino vessels operating in all rivers across Goa.

That was the claims made by opposition party Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM), which alleged that the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government wants to make the state “the gambling, drugs and prostitution capital of the country.”

“The Cabinet decision has to be converted into an amendment to the Goa Gambling Act. But since the elections are [around] the corner, and there may be no more session of the assembly and this is the main reason why the government took the decision hurriedly,” GSM President Anand Shirodkar was quoted by Herald Goa.

In the amendment, an “off-shore casino” may be allowed to operate not just on the Mandovi River, but also on Terekhol, Chapora, Mapusa, Cumbharjua channel, Zuari and Sal. Currently, there are five floating casinos operating on the Mandovie river. The fleet of berth casinos, however, only have until March 31, 2017, to find a new location to call home. There had been offers of relocating to the Zuari river near Chicalim, located about 3km from the Dabolim international airport, but the casino owners have yet to sign on.