The Saipan operation of casino operator Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd. has achieved a rolling chip volume of about $1.7 billion in November, the company said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

November’s results indicate a 4.6 percent growth year-on-year in Imperial Pacific’s rolling chip values—this is the first mean that year-on-year comparisons are available, since the temporary casino facility in Saipan started its VIP operations only on November 1, 2015. Still, the numbers are a far cry from Imperial Pacific’s highest tally of $3.95 billion in September.

Based on the group’s rolling chip results this year, Imperial Pacific’s operations were most active during April and May, when the numbers reached $3.18 billion and U$2.52 billion, respectively. This is followed by a slight slowdown during June, July and August, when values reached U$1.65 billion, $1.74 billion and $1.55 billion, respectively.

Imperial Pacific’s Saipan subsidiary, Best Sunshine International, opened its ‘training facility’ in an upscale mall in October 2015 while awaiting completion of its permanent Saipan venue, which is scheduled to commence its phased opening in February 2017.

Gamevy – the award-winning start-up known for its innovative approach to instant wins – has launched four exclusive scratch cards for Betsson. Incorporating Betsson imagery, themes and built around the Betsson idea of “Anytime’s playtime” and “Anything can happen”, these bespoke cards are built specifically to appeal to Betsson customers.

“It’s been great to work with a customer who is so open to innovation and seeing what we can create together,” commented Paul Dolman-Darrall, Gamevy’s CEO. “We know that instant win games and scratch have hardly been considered in the past by many operators, but a few are starting to realise the opportunity they represent for appealing to a broader demographic.”

With playful animations and several chances to win on each card, the games are built for mobile, encouraging interaction and swiping, rather than players relying on the Reveal All button. Launching with a top prize of £100,000, the plan is to increase the jackpot to £1million soon.

Gamevy is partnering with several leading operators to deliver bespoke content that offers a real point of difference to players and increases brand loyalty. Over the next few months, Gamevy will launch further games with some of the world’s leading brands.

December 2016 – SINGAPORE: The largest sports media property in Asian history, ONE Championship™ (ONE), has just announced its blockbuster 2017 schedule.

This past year, ONE Championship delivered world-class mixed martial arts (MMA) action to iconic Asian cities across the region, breaking into new Chinese markets while continuing to delight fans in key Asian destinations. The promotion also successfully held a live event at the Cotai Arena in glitzy Macau, and became the first-ever major MMA promotion to hold a live event in Bangkok, Thailand.

Victor Cui, CEO of ONE Championship, stated: “2016 has been a phenomenal year for ONE Championship. It was absolutely historic for the promotion and 2017 promises to be even better.

“With the addition of key senior leaders to aid ONE with our growth plans, the promotion is in an unbelievable position to make some major waves in the global MMA industry. Together we aim to deliver fans a continuously unique experience that they will never forget.

Supplier to provide award-winning content to Scandinavian operator

 December, 2016 – Yggdrasil Gaming has reached an agreement with Gaming Innovation Group to provide the operator with its full suite of video slots.

Yggdrasil’s portfolio of industry-leading games will be rolled-out across the operator’s B2C sites, including its flagship online casino and sportsbook, Guts.com and Rizk.com.

The operator will also gain access to Yggdrasil’s collection of in-game promotional tools, BOOST™, including the recently-launched Missions feature, as well as the social sharing tool BRAG.

In its official press-release, CASEXE announced the major marketing and branding trends that would become a hit in 2017. Review addresses the key areas for the acquisition and retention of online casino target audience, as well as the user database related to gambling mobile apps.

The article features the subject of relevant content and provides vital tips for the improvement. Efficient online casino customer profile, together with statistical data indicates the direction for the online gambling business. Mobile apps market is reviewed separately, with the major trends and prospects outlined for the following year.

Considerable part of the article is devoted to productive branding. Analysts studied the key directions for the advertising products. Advertising would become less aggressive, gently pushing the user to purchase of products and services instead. Quality and creativity of ad videos is going to improve. The promoted products will be more completely accurate, with no promises of marvelous outcomes to everyone. The survey highlights key prospects for the global ad products market in the nearest future.

For your trial review of the key marketing and betting trends of online casino in 2017, check out CASEXE website where the provider of unique gambling software solutions offers to take a look at all the insights.

Paddy Power founder, Stewart Kenny, is alleged to have secretly lobbied the Irish government into banning the legalisation of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals in Ireland back in 2009.

I would love to be a ladybird on the windowsill of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) session scheduled for January 11, 2017, after The Times claimed Paddy Power founder, Stewart Kenny, secretly lobbied against the legalisation of the machines in Ireland.

The session – called Testimony From The Bookmakers – is the final one scheduled before the APPG passes their findings to the person in charge of the Government’s Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures which includes casting a beady eye over the impact that FOBTs have on society. Paddy Power representatives will join BetFred, William Hill and Ladbrokes Coral in a session one assumes the bookies will argue for the right to keep the machines that collectively earned them £1.75 billion in the last year.

Kenny resigned from the Paddy Power board in August, but The Times article will go down like the Titanic in the inner sanctum of the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) who incidentally boycotted the last APPG meeting saying it was nothing more than a ‘kangaroo court.’

Operator expands offering with Kiron betting platform

December 2016, London –  Three months after the launch of its Live Casino, UK gaming site PKR.com has added Virtual Sports to its expanding portfolio. Sports offered include horse racing, greyhound racing, football and four others, with more on the way. The addition of Virtual Sports takes the brand one step closer to its strategic vision of becoming both a multi-product gaming portal and poker technology provider.

CEO Chris Welch sees Virtual Sports as an ideal fit for the brand. “We believe in quality products that offer great entertainment. With realistic graphics and nonstop action, Virtual Sports sits well alongside our 3D Poker software. Many of our poker players like a bet, so we hope they’ll enjoy these new games in between hands. We look forward to PKR Virtual Sports adding to already record casino revenues this year.”

It’s a busy time for the London-based brand, who also launched Microgaming’s eagerly-awaited Tarzan slot and its own ’36 Days of Christmas’ casino promotion on Thursday 1 December.

Olivia Culpo is pleased to announce the launch of CasinoBonusMaster.com, a new online casino portal featuring valuable casino information ranging from casino bonuses to casino related news. Whether readers are looking for a new casino to join or other useful information, this website is the place to be! CasinoBonusMaster.com offers players expert reviews about various online casinos and their welcome offers for new customers, including detailed terms and conditions applicable to all type of promotions. On the other hand, casino operators can register their online casino through a ‘Register Your Casino’ form for advertisement purposes.

With an easy-to-use platform, visitors can simply navigate throughout the whole website and access several reviews with detailed information about welcome bonuses, applicable terms and conditions, company information, software providers and banking related information. In addition, the casino review page provides customers the option to search for different online casinos by filtering on games providers, languages and deposit options allowing visitors to effectively search for different casino operators offering their favourite choice of games and/or payment options.

To celebrate their launch, CasinoBonusMaster is running a joint raffle promotion with various casino partners with some amazing prizes for its members, including 4000 free spins each month and a cash prize! There will be one raffle each month until the 1st of July, 2017. At the end of each month all 10 winners will be drawn. Visitors can simply participate by registering an account on CasinoBonusMaster.com. More information can be found on the Big Bang Raffle page.

CasinoBonusMaster will be adding lots of other useful features to the website in 2017, including casino game reviews, software listings, comments section and more, so stay tuned!

Poker fan and Italian, Mr Salvador Jorge, celebrates scooping a massive £33,661 win whilst playing the Bad Beat Poker Jackpot at London’s Empire Casino this month. The Bad Beat Jackpot was launched at the Empire Casino in February 2010 and can be won by anyone playing in a dealer dealt Texas Hold’em cash game.  The jackpot is won if your losing hand is four twos or better at showdown.

The jackpot was shared between eight players around the table.  Mr Jorge, the jackpot winner, scooped his £33,661 win and second prize was taken by Mr Peter Invasco who took home £16,830.  The remaining six players at the table claimed equal share of £2,806. Meaning a grand total of over £67,000 in winnings.

The Hand:

Button seat 6.

Betsson.com, the flagship brand of the Betsson Group, now boasts over 800 games in its mobile casino, making it the largest in the world.

Developed as a direct response to customer demand, the new mobile casino offers consumers a brand new user interface, incorporating the new style from Betsson’s recent brand refresh, Anytime’s Playtime. Incorporating a lighter, fresher style, game titles and jackpot amounts are clearer, thumbnails are larger and the architecture of the Casino has been completely updated to offer improved search, filtering and favouriting as well as personalisation and recommendation. With more than 800 games, it also offers more games than any other mobile casino in the world.

“We’re very excited to be able to offer such a diverse range of games on Betsson.com’s mobile casino,” said Fredrik Axelsson, Managing Director for Betsson.com. “Betsson Group is well known for leading the field in terms of technology, and this further innovation brings Betsson.com to the absolute forefront of the industry”.

Betsson.com’s mobile casino is the first of the Betsson brands to be built on the Group’s new front-end technology platform, OBG – One Betsson Group. In its simplest form, OBG is a component layer that sits between Betsson Group’s technology platform, Techsson, and its 21 different brand front-ends. OBG offers a base layer of components that supports all brands, meaning features and functionality only need to be built once and can be re-used across all Betsson Group brands.

Former Teen Wolf star, Tyler Posey, earned $40,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society after beating both celebrities and pros in the Poker Central Charity Shootout event in Las Vegas.

A wolf has eaten the fish at the Poker Central Charity Shootout event held at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel.

The event – which completely flew under the radar of this writer – took place on Saturday. The action was streamed live on Poker Central’s Twitch channel.

The format featured five celebrities and a Zynga qualifier. The top three split $45,000 in prize money before advancing to the second phase where they competed in heads-up action against Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and Maria Ho.

Bahamas’ Prime Minister Perry Christie says the unfinished $3.5b Baha Mar resort casino will begin opening to the public in the second quarter of 2017.

On Friday, Christie spoke at a Bahamas Hotel Association event, at which he revealed that Baha Mar’s prospective buyer, Hong Kong-based conglomerate Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE), would begin “a phased opening” of Baha Mar in April, with at least 700 of the property’s 1,800 hotel rooms ready to go.

Perry said CTFE would invest $200m in “pre-opening festivities” and final revisions to the unfinished property, construction of which was reportedly 97% complete before things ground to a halt in June 2015 after original developers Baha Mar Ltd. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Christie said CTFE planned to hire 1,500 employees “imminently” in the new year, while 4,300 workers would be on the payroll by the time all of the property’s amenities are open to the public by December 2017.

Casinos on South Korea’s Jeju Island will face tougher scrutiny as the local government tries to reduce casino-related crime.

On Sunday, the Korea Times reported that Jeju’s provincial government plans to introduce new legislation seeking greater transparency from the foreigners-only casinos operating on the island. The new legislation, which will take effect in January, revises the government’s previous casino operating guidelines released last June.

South Korea has 16 foreigners-only casinos, fully half of which are small facilities located on Jeju. The island is a popular tourist destination, with a particular attraction for Chinese travelers, but a raft of casino-related crimes involving Chinese visitors has forced the government to impose tighter controls.

Among the new requirements are mandatory increases in the number of security cameras to reduce blind spots in which chicanery might thrive. Permits will be required for anyone wishing to enter restricted areas, including rooms where gaming devices and computers are stored.

New revelations regarding a historical online gambling payment processing seizure further illustrate the hypocrisy behind US authorities’ claims to be looking out for the nation’s online gamblers.

On Sunday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that a Seattle-based Secret Service taskforce had seized $3.4m from Thames Point Management, an intermediary between payment processors working with internationally licensed online gambling sites and their customers. The seizure resulted from a 2011 investigation into gambling sites serving Washington state punters.

The investigation involved Seattle Police Department detectives opening accounts with a number of sports betting sites, including Bodog.com and BetUs.com. The investigation, which also involved the US Attorney’s Office for Western Washington, tracked the movement of money within the nexus of gambling sites, payment processors and bettors.

Investigators confronted seven Seattle-area gamblers who’d received winnings from Bodog and BetUS. The gamblers confirmed having received their winnings via Thames Point. Investigators are now seeking court permission to keep another major cache of cash seized from a separate but related processing firm, Axia FX. Neither Thames Point nor Axia is facing criminal charges.

New revelations regarding a historical online gambling payment processing seizure further illustrate the hypocrisy behind US authorities’ claims to be looking out for the nation’s online gamblers.

On Sunday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that a Seattle-based Secret Service taskforce had seized $3.4m from Thames Point Management, an intermediary between payment processors working with internationally licensed online gambling sites and their customers. The seizure resulted from a 2011 investigation into gambling sites serving Washington state punters.

The investigation involved Seattle Police Department detectives opening accounts with a number of sports betting sites, including Bodog.com and BetUs.com. The investigation, which also involved the US Attorney’s Office for Western Washington, tracked the movement of money within the nexus of gambling sites, payment processors and bettors.

Investigators confronted seven Seattle-area gamblers who’d received winnings from Bodog and BetUS. The gamblers confirmed having received their winnings via Thames Point. Investigators are now seeking court permission to keep another major cache of cash seized from a separate but related processing firm, Axia FX. Neither Thames Point nor Axia is facing criminal charges.

South African authorities have shut down a number of sites offering illegal gambling services.

On Friday, officers of South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (aka the Hawks), operating alongside local branches of the South Africa Police Service, raided 27 premises in the Northern Cape and North West provinces that were suspected of offering illegal online gambling services.

The raids, which followed months of police surveillance, resulted in the closure of 19 venues at which punters could access computers that connected to unauthorized gambling sites. Police seized numerous computers, other IT gear, some on-site gambling machines in addition to an undisclosed amount of cash.

Three individuals believed to be behind the venues’ operation have been arrested, with police vowing more arrests are imminent. The suspects, who were due in Kimberly Magistrates Court on Monday, will likely face charges including corruption, money laundering and racketeering, as well as violations of national and provincial gambling laws.

South African authorities have shut down a number of sites offering illegal gambling services.

On Friday, officers of South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (aka the Hawks), operating alongside local branches of the South Africa Police Service, raided 27 premises in the Northern Cape and North West provinces that were suspected of offering illegal online gambling services.

The raids, which followed months of police surveillance, resulted in the closure of 19 venues at which punters could access computers that connected to unauthorized gambling sites. Police seized numerous computers, other IT gear, some on-site gambling machines in addition to an undisclosed amount of cash.

Three individuals believed to be behind the venues’ operation have been arrested, with police vowing more arrests are imminent. The suspects, who were due in Kimberly Magistrates Court on Monday, will likely face charges including corruption, money laundering and racketeering, as well as violations of national and provincial gambling laws.