U.S. casino operators plan to resurrect their bid to push for legalized sports betting once U.S President-elect Donald Trump takes over the White House.

Bloomberg reported that members of the American Gaming Association (AGA) is now on the hunt for someone who will sponsor a legislation that will overturn a 1992 ban on sports betting.

Of the fifty states, only Nevada, Delaware, Montana, and Oregon are allowed to offer betting on athletic competitions under a federal law called the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. AGA data showed that some $149 billion in illegal sports bets are placed annually.

AGA senior vice president Sara Rayme is optimistic that the legislation will turn smoothly especially since Trump, a former casino operator, is in the helm of the US government.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on eGame cafés has proved costly for Philippine-based gaming technology provider PhilWeb Corp., latest data showed.

In a regulatory filing, PhilWeb reported a 62.8 percent drop in its net income to P229 million (US$4.59 million) in the third quarter of 2016 as a result of the closure of its e-Game cafes following the non-renewal of its gaming license.

Third-quarter revenues also declined 16.34 percent to P1.02 billion (US$ 20.43 million).

PhilWeb has winded up its Philippine operations in August after the local regulator confirmed that the company’s operating license wouldn’t be renewed. Prior to the expiration of its license, PhilWeb had a services contract to supply gambling terminal software to 286 PAGCOR-licensed eGames cafes, which offer a variety of slots, video poker and other digital casino gaming options.

Hope for the release of the 17 employees of Crown Resorts has faded after Chinese authorities formally arrested them for alleged gambling-related crimes.

Australia Financial Review reported that the 17 of the 18 employees, including three Australians led by Crown Resort’s international VIP program head Jason O’Connor, arrested last October may spend the next six months behind bars after Chinese authorities have formally filed the charges.

Jenny Jiang was the lone arrested Crown employee who was allowed to post bail on November 10 and was released from prison on the same day.

It remains a puzzle though what charges have been lodged against the 17 employees since authorities remain mum on the case. Earlier reports said that they were detained for “gambling related crimes” after a series of overnight raids in at least four cities across China on October 13th and 14th.

William Hill is set to become the first US sportsbook to legally take wagers on an eSports event this weekend.

On Friday, William Hill US announced that the sportsbook at the Downtown Grand Casino in Las Vegas would be taking wagers on this weekend’s IEM Oakland eSports event. Bettors have their choice of wagering on which of the six teams will win the two-day tournament as well as matchup wagers on Saturday’s two League of Legends quarter-finals.

Hills’ eSports debut came courtesy of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, which signed off on the plan following this week’s meeting of the state’s Gaming Policy Committee, which decided that branching out into eSports betting required only some regulatory tweaks rather than new legislation.

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval called the announcement “a major step toward ensuring Nevada becomes the eSports capital of the world.” Sandoval credited Hills and the Downtown Grand for being active partners of the Gaming Policy Committee and for “expanding the potential of one of our oldest industries.”

Australia-licensed online bookmakers are complaining that the country’s new gambling legislation gives an unfair in-play betting advantage to rivals Tabcorp and Tatts Group.

Last week, Australia introduced the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016, which seeks to close loopholes in the original IGA that permitted Aussie bookmakers to offer online in-play sports bets via so-called ‘click to call’ voice activated smartphone apps.

But bookmakers who will suffer from this in-play crackdown believe the government has left one glaring loophole in place intended to benefit domestic operators Tabcorp and Tatts, which recently announced plans to merge into one giant betting behemoth.

The legislation introduced last week contains language that permits wagering services that “involve the use of electronic equipment made available to any customers” in retail outlets. The language is intended to allow the use of electronic betting terminals in pubs, clubs and betting shops run by Tabcorp and Tatts.

In this week’s instalment of Calling the Clock David Baazov ramps up his interest in taking Amaya private; Dan Smith promises to match $175,000 in charitable donations and much more.

It’s been a news week dominated by PokerStars, and we will start our round-up with some financial flittering.

Professional grinders might be shouting from their penthouse suites that PokerStars is Joffrey Baratheon, but they don’t seem to be doing anything about it. Amaya Gaming released official Q3 results this week, and real money active users on PokerStars increased by 3%.

PokerStars poker revenue accounted for 73% of the Amaya pie despite their $196.8m haul being down 1.3% year-on-year. But none of that has spoiled the appetite of David Baazov as he attempts to take the company private.

Brazil’s Senate will vote on the country’s new gambling legislation in the first week of December.

Last week, Brazilian senators approved the final language of the 186/2014 legislation that will legalize multiple forms of gambling, including land-based casinos, bingo parlors, the ‘jogo de bicho’ lottery and sports betting, as well as ill-defined forms of “electronic bets.”

On Thursday, Senate President Renan Calheiros said the upper house will cast its final vote on 186/2014 on December 7, thereby ensuring the bill’s fate will be known before the seasonal parliamentary recess begins on December 22, possibly setting Brazilians up for the best Christmas ever, or giving another country a reason to call December 7 ‘a day that will live in infamy.’

Brazil’s lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, was supposed to vote on its rival gambling bill 442/1991 on Wednesday. However, in the kind of luck that has typified Brazil’s gambling liberalization for years now, the session was suspended before any votes were taken when between 50 and 60 demonstrators invaded the chamber.

Multilateral lender International Monetary Fund (IMF) has backed the move of Macau government to diversify its local economy.

Geoff Gottlieb, head of the IMF team that visited the former Portuguese colony last week, agrees with the government’s decision to prioritize more mass-market gaming and to focus more on non-gaming tourism products in the city.

Macau’s overall medium term outlook remains strong despite seeing a contraction in its economy this year, according to the IMF. He added that the city is well positioned for stable and sustainable growth in the low to mid-single digits.

“With respect to growth, the authorities’ five-year plan correctly identifies the importance of diversifying from VIP to mass-market gaming; from gaming to non-gaming tourism; and from tourism to financial services exports,” Gottlieb said in a statement. “Although the economy will contract for a third consecutive year in 2016, external demand has begun to recover with three consecutive months of positive gaming revenue growth.”

Viral, the white label multi-channel casino and betting solutions provider, today announced that the company had been awarded a Class 1 on 4 license with the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA).

Daniel Eriksson CEO of Viral said: “Malta is a renowned licensing jurisdiction, of which we are delighted with the award, of our Class 1 on 4 license. This is part of our business strategy to become one of the leading providers of regulated digital casino games content. Our partner sites will be rolling out one by one on the MGA license starting with our own B2C label www.luckycasino.com The MGA license award suits our growth plans perfectly, and as we are also attending SiGMA Summit of IGaming Malta, of which we expect many new white label partners signing up.”

About Viral:

Viral is a white label multi-channel casino and betting solutions provider. The platform includes a huge range of casino games (1000+) from major gaming studios as well as numerous global and localized payment integrations for operators. Viral is the trading name for Viral Interactive Ltd

The tandem of Melco International Development and Hard Rock International plan to open their temporary casino in the Republic of Cyprus next year.

Earlier this month, Cyprus awarded its one and only casino license to the Melco-Hard Rock combo after the other two short-listed firms bowed out. On Monday, Energy and Tourism Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis let slip some details on the tandem’s plans to spend up to €500m on their Cypriot gaming adventure.

The Cyprus Mail quoted Lakkotrypis saying Melco-Hard Rock have decided to build their main integrated resort on land close to Limassol harbor and Lady’s Mile beach. The resort, which will feature a 500-room hotel and a casino with at least 100 gaming tables and 1k slots, is expected to open by late-2019 or early-2020.

But according to the legislation Cypriot legislators approved in July 2015, Melco-Hard Rock are entitled to build a temporary casino, as well as a smaller satellite casino and three slots parlors. Lakkotrypis said the temporary casino will open in late-2017 in Limassol on the current premises of the Monte Caputo nightspot on Amathus Avenue.

Bitcoin is steadily gaining popularity in many parts of the globe, particularly in India. And the government’s recent decision to demonetize two currency notes is helping speed up the popular digital currency’s traction in the country.

To crack down on corruption, fake currency notes and tax evaders, the Indian government made a historic move last week and banned currency notes of 500 and 1,000 denomination. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the move in a “shock and wave” manner so black market savers didn’t have enough time to do something about it, local media outlets reported.

The announcement has, of course, resulted in people standing in line at banks to exchange or deposit the scrapped rupee bills—a staple in ATMs in the country. And as the ATMs start running out of money, it could pave the way for an increase in demand for bitcoin in India.

In an interview with the EconoTimes, Sathvik Vishwanath, CEO of bitcoin company Unocoin, said he believes the ban could boost bitcoin adoption in the country.

Casino operator Affinity Gaming reported a slight uptick in operating income in the third quarter of 2016 as a result of refocused promotional campaigns and marketing programs.

In a regulatory filing on Monday, the Las Vegas-based casino operator reported its strongest quarter of the year for property level adjusted cash flow, with its operating income for the July to September period up by 0.7 percent to $9.1 million, compared to the $9.04 million of the same period.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of Affinity, on the other hand, rose by 6.4 percent to $17.71 million in the third quarter, ahead of 2015’s third quarter EBITDA of $16.64 million.

Michael Silberling, Chief Executive Officer of Affinity, pointed out that the continued growth in adjusted EBITDA allows them to generate gains in free cash.

Despite Macau’s promising recovery, Chief Executive Fernando Chui is keeping his expectations low for the city state’s gambling revenue next year.

In October, the world’s biggest casino hub posted an 8.8 percent year-on-year increase to MOP21.82 billion (USD2.73 billion)—its best month since January 2015, when GGR totaled MOP23.84 billion. It also marked that third consecutive month of year-on-year growth for Macau, which recorded its first growth in August after 26 straight months of decline.

The government, however, is not budging from its conservative forecast for 2017, despite the casino industry’s steady recovery. Chui, in particular, is sticking with his expectations that the economy will “grow by low single-digits in 2017.”

At a briefing in Macau, the chief executive said his revenue target of MOP200 billion (USD25 billion) for 2017 remains unchanged.