Darren Phua is headed home to Malaysia after pleading guilty to participating in an illegal online sports betting operation, but his father will continue to fight his own charges.

Darren Phua is the 23-year-old son of noted high-stakes poker player Wei Seng ‘Paul’ Phua, and both father and son were among the eight individuals arrested last July at three luxury villas at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Five other defendants have already reached plea deals, while charges against a sixth defendant were dropped.

On Friday, Darren Phua pled guilty to a single charge of transmitting wagering information, for which he was fined $100k and ordered to forfeit $125k. As with the other plea deals, Phua was put on five years probation, during which time he has to give the US of A a wide berth.

News of Darren’s plea deal first surfaced on Thursday when his attorneys told US District Judge Andrew Gordon that their Malaysian-born client had grown homesick after spending the past seven months under house arrest in Las Vegas. On Friday, Phua’s attorney Richard Schonfeld said his client felt he was trapped in “a nightmare that he has been unable to wake up from.”

The Phuas were arrested after the FBI shut off the villas’ internet connection, then sent in agents disguised as tech support equipped with hidden body cameras to obtain proof of the suspected bookmaking operation. Phua’s attorneys have argued that these tactics violated their clients’ constitutional protection from unreasonable search and seizure.

In February, US Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen recommended tossing the evidence obtained during the FBI raid. Prosecutors are attempting to have Leen’s recommendation overturned, as they aren’t confident of securing a conviction without this evidence.

On Friday, Schonfeld said that “as a result of the legal successes in this case, Darren was presented with an opportunity to accept a lesser charge. While we are all confident in the strength of our case and believe we would have ultimately prevailed, this is the best outcome for Darren.”

Casino operator Las Vegas Sands has been ordered to pay a $250k penalty for redacting documents related to an ongoing court case.

District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez levied the penalty after determining that Sands had willfully violated her order to turn over documents relating to the wrongful termination suit brought by Steve Jacobs (pictured on the right), the former CEO of Sands China. Jacobs was unceremoniously dismissed in 2010 and the two parties have been locked in a bitter legal tussle ever since.

Sands had previously claimed it couldn’t produce the documents because Macau privacy laws prohibited the exportation of data from the special administrative region. This excuse rang hollow after the court learned that Sands itself had exported the same data to the US so its Nevada-based attorneys could check it over (a process that cost Sands $2.4m in legal fees). When Sands did turn over the data, about 7,900 of the 100k emails and other files had been redacted.

In her ruling on Friday, Gonzalez ordered Sands to turn over the documents free of redactions. Sands must also pay Jacobs’ significant court costs relating to the “needless” document squabble. Not that this will satisfy Jacobs or his attorney Todd Bice, who had previously warned Gonzalez that the filthy rich Sands’ plan was to “spend us all into the grave.”

Still to be decided is the question of whether the Nevada courts have jurisdiction to decide a matter relating to Sands China. Jacobs has alleged that Sands China’s decision making was ultimately subject to approval by its parent company in Nevada.

Jacobs says he was sacked for objecting to Sands’ alleged efforts to dig up dirt on Macau public officials for use as leverage in future negotiations. Jacobs also claims that he objected to a “prostitution strategy” personally endorsed by Sands boss Sheldon Adelson, a claim that Adelson and Sands have vehemently denied.

SANDS CHINA TO CURTAIL NON-ASIAN ENTERTAINMENT?

Macau junket investor Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd has reached a written agreement with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, amending its casino license to establish and operate a temporary casino in Garapan, Saipan.

The agreement was mentioned in a filing submitted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, as well as the company’s plan to seek legal advice to make sure that the temporary casino complies with all the applicable laws that fall under the jurisdiction of the stock exchange.

The temporary casino will be operational while the company build its $7.1 billion integrated resort and casino project in Saipan. The first phase of the massive project is set to be completed sometime in 2016.

Once the project is completed, the massive resort and casino project will feature a town hotel plus integrated resort with gaming facilities.

The temporary casino is expected to be launched sometime this year.

Over in Bangkok, Tao Pun casino—long considered as a hotbed for illegal gambling among the residents, will be permanently shuttered and will be turned into, of all things, a police station.

Pol Col and Secretary-General of the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) Seehanat Prayoonrat told The Bangkok Post that the property will finally be put to use for another purpose after gamblers continued to use it for illegal gambling activities even after the place had been seized by the AMLO.

Wei Seng ‘Paul’ Phua’s son Darren has reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors over illegal online betting charges filed last year.

On Thursday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that US District Judge Andrew Gordon has set a hearing for 10am on Friday at which 23-year-old Darren Phua will plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of transmission of wagering information.

In exchange for his plea, Phua will be allowed to leave the country. The Malaysian-born Phua has been under house arrest in Las Vegas since last summer when he, his father and six other individuals were accused of running an illegal online sports betting operation out of three luxury villas at Caesars Palace.

The LVRJ’s sources said the homesick Phua has also agreed to forfeit $125k in cash plus electronic equipment seized during the July raid on the villas. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents that led the raid claim to have found incriminating text messages on Darren Phua’s phone indicating that Paul Phua had bribed Macau police to obtain his release following a major sports betting bust in Macau several weeks prior to the Vegas raid.

Darren’s plea leaves just his father still fighting the charges. Five of the other six defendants have already made their own deals with prosecutors while charges against another defendant were dropped. Darren is expected to receive the same five-year probationary sentence the other five plea-dealers received.

Paul Phua’s court date is set for April 13. The feds’ case against him was dealt a major blow last month when US Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen recommended tossing the bulk of the evidence the FBI had used to obtain their “fatally flawed” search warrants, which she said relied on “false and misleading statements.” Prosecutors, who previously stated that their case would be seriously jeopardized by their inability to use this evidence, are appealing Leen’s ruling.

The case has attracted mainstream media attention due to the tactics used by the FBI, who switched off internet service to the villas, then sent in agents disguised as tech support equipped with hidden body cameras. Civil liberty watchdogs have criticized these tactics as a violation of Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

New Jersey’s quest for legal sports betting appears to be souring state residents on the concept, according to a new survey.

A Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll of 901 New Jersey adults found 50% were in favor of repealing the federal PASPA sports betting prohibition. That’s down from 55% in a similar poll conducted in October 2013. Over the same period, the number that opposes such a plan has risen from 28% to 41%.

It should be noted that the most recent poll question addressed the notion of a federal repeal while the 2013 poll merely asked whether residents were in favor of the state pursuing its own legal wagering regime. Fairleigh Dickinson suggested the mention of the federal government may have “tempered” support.

Support for overturning PASPA was strongest among office pool bettors, who were almost 70% in favor. Support was also much stronger with men (59%) than with women (42%).

For those who believe PASPA should be overturned, the extra revenue the state would generate was the prime motivator at 51%, while libertarian impulses were cited by 30%. As for those opposed, 47% believe legal sports betting will increase gambling addiction while 25% said professional sport would be corrupted.

The advocates appealing the most recent injunction against New Jersey’s sports betting legislation will deliver oral arguments to a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on March 17. New Jersey’s hired legal gun Ted Olson has been granted 13 of the 15 minutes the state’s advocates have been allotted. Attorneys for state legislators and the thoroughbred horsemen’s association will get just one minute apiece. (About long enough to say “What he said, your honors.”)

The same PublicMind survey found less support for expanding casino gambling beyond Atlantic City’s borders. Last year saw increasing talk of allowing casinos to be built in other areas of the state, including the Meadowlands racetrack in East Rutherford. A July 2014 PublicMind survey found 42% of respondents were in favor of allowing gambling outside AC but that support fell to 36% in the most recent survey.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) lawsuit against online gambling operator Bet365 is set to begin this month.

Last August, the ACCC accused Bet365’s Aussie operations of making “misleading representations” in their bonus offers to punters. Specifically, the ACCC cited a free bet and deposit bonus of $200 that came with rollover requirements.

The ACCC says these requirements weren’t made sufficiently clear and thus the promotion violated consumer law. The ACCC is asking the Federal Court of Australia to award it declarations, injunctions, pecuniary penalties, corrective advertising, a compliance program and costs. (Partridge in a pear tree to be delivered next Christmas.)

The Australian Broadcasting Company quoted Bet365 senior counsel Cameron Moore saying the company wanted to nail down the specific nature of the allegations before trial commenced. The ACCC has previously acknowledged that the Northern Territory-licensed Bet365 amended its promotions after being contacted by the ACCC.

YOUNGER AUSSIES GIVING UP THE GAMBLE

Studies of the global gaming market usually place Australia at the top in per capita spending on gambling but new data suggests younger generations are choosing a different path than their elders.

Roy Morgan Research decided to study the gambling habits of Generation Z, which is defined as Aussies born between 1991 and 2005 (although the study only concerned itself with the 18+ members). The average Australian spent $13 per week on gambling, 9% of his or her weekly entertainment budget. But Generation Z spent just $4 on gambling, representing 3% of their budget.

Sweden’s gaming regulator has succeeded in convincing Apple to remove several online gambling apps from the Swedish-facing App Store.

Apps linked to 888, Betfair, Bet365, Betsson, PokerStars, William Hill, Unibet and others were unceremoniously yanked from view late last month following a complaint filed by the Lotteriinspektionen (Swedish Gaming Board).

A Lotteriinspektionen spokesperson told eGaming Review the complaint wasn’t actually a complaint, but merely an “informative letter” that sought to “verify the terms and conditions” of Apple’s gambling policy. You know, like how Anna Sage didn’t really rat out John Dillinger, she just thought FBI agent Melvin Purvis would like the movie playing at the Biograph Theater that night.

Some of the affected operators are reportedly discussing the matter with Apple in the hope of persuading the tech giant that Sweden’s suspect gaming laws don’t justify the apps’ removal. Apple recently reinstated a number of gambling apps that had been pulled from the UK App Store following what was dubbed an “admin error.”

Sweden’s offending apps vanished just weeks after the government announced that the long awaited revamp of its online betting regime had been postponed until some unspecified future date. The European Union’s top court has ordered Sweden to justify the online betting monopoly of state-owned operator Svenska Spel but Sweden appears to be thinking the problem will go away if it just thinks happy thoughts and pours another shot of Absolut Denial.

FINLAND WON’T PROSECUTE PLAYERS WHO VISIT INTERNATIONAL SITES

Similar concerns of online gambling firms poaching from local monopolies are being voiced across the border in Finland. Finland’s four authorized operators – RAY (slots), Veikkaus (lotteries), Fintoto (horseracing) and PAF’s monopoly in the autonomous Aland islands – generate annual revenue of €1.7b. That dwarfs the estimated €130m spent with international online firms, but concerns are that this gap is shrinking.

A US federal judge is considering imposing sanctions on casino operator Las Vegas Sands for redacting data from documents related to the wrongful termination suit of former Sands China president Steve Jacobs.

The Jacobs v. Sands legal fight has been going on since 2010 and has expanded to include numerous defamation suits related to the two parties’ public sniping. On Tuesday, US District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez heard arguments from both sides as to what punishment Sands should receive for redacting personal information from around 7,900 documents related to the case.

Sands had originally claimed the documents sought by Jacobs couldn’t be removed from Macau due to the special administrative region’s Personal Data Protection Act. Sands was later found to have already exported the same data to its attorneys in Las Vegas, a revelation that prompted Gonzalez to fine Sands $25k. Sands was also ordered to turn over the documents to Jacobs’ attorneys, which is when the redactions came to light.

On Tuesday, Sands attorneys argued that they had no choice but to redact the personal info lest they upset Macau authorities. Jacobs’ attorney Todd Bice noted that the redaction process had cost Sands China around $2.4m, which he claimed demonstrated the futility of assessing purely monetary sanctions. Given Las Vegas Sands’ resources, Bice said the company’s intention was to “spend us all into the grave.” Gonzalez said she would issue a ruling early next week.

MORE ASIAN INFRINGERS TOLD TO PAY UP

Meanwhile, Sands has won another intellectual property infringement judgment against Asian online gambling sites, although collecting on that judgment will be a more difficult endeavor.

In March 2014, Sands sued First Cagayan Leisure & Resort Corporation, Wann Yichen, Qing Wan Leng and the unknown registrants of 54 online gambling websites, most of which boasted generic numbered domains linked by a directory site. Sands accused the sites of making liberal and unauthorized use of the Sands name, logo and other intellectual property.

Wynn Resorts casino magnate Steve Wynn’s defamation lawsuit against hedge fund manager Jim Chanos has been dismissed with prejudice.

Wynn filed suit in September following comments Chanos made at a panel discussion at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism last April. Chanos, who manages the Kynikos Associates fund, told attendees that he’d reduced his holdings in Macau-based casino firms – including Wynn Macau – over fears that Macau’s junket industry left such companies open to potential violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

In December, US District Judge William Orrick dismissed Wynn’s suit, saying Chanos’ comments couldn’t be construed as suggesting Wynn had violated the FCPA. Wynn subsequently revised his lawsuit but Orrick wasn’t swayed, issuing a judgment on Tuesday saying anyone “need look no further than the transcript” of the event” to conclude that Chanos’ comments “do not amount to a statement of fact, but rather an opinion that is not actionable.” Adding insult to injury, Orrick ordered Wynn to pay Chanos’ court costs.

In a more positive development, Wynn will see a little more scratch from his pursuit of gambling debts owed by Joe Francis, the former ‘brains’ behind the Girls Gone Wild (GGW) soft-core porn company.

GGW filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2013 to protect its assets from court judgments giving Wynn permission to take the assets as partial repayment of Francis’ unpaid casino markers. Wynn was also awarded hefty judgments after winning defamation suits against Francis.

Last April, the GGW brand was sold for $1.8m to a Liquidity Capital-led investment group. On Monday, a bankruptcy court ruled that the proceeds of this sale will be divvied up between GGW creditors, including Steve.

Meanwhile, Francis and his girlfriend Abbey Wilson have an April 2 hearing in a federal court to determine if they should go to jail for failing to turn over two luxury cars belonging to the GGW estate. Francis has claimed that a Mexican strip club owner took the vehicles as compensation for several GGW promotions that never materialized.