Tag Archives: i-gaming

Churchill Downs profit falls as Big Fish acquisition costs mount

Racing, casino and social gaming operator Churchill Downs Inc. saw profit fall 16% in 2014 as acquisition-related interest costs spiked.

CDI enjoyed record revenue of $812.9m in 2014, up 4% over the previous year, while earnings were up 15% to $202.5m. But profit fell to $46.2m as interest payments more than tripled, in part due to CDI’s $885m acquisition of social gaming operator Big Fish Games late in the year.

For the three months ending Dec. 31, revenue from CDI’s casino operations was flat at $78.7m while earnings rose 21% to $22.7m. The gains were partly attributable to a full quarter’s contributions from the Miami Valley Gaming joint venture in Ohio, which launched last December. Business was up 7% at the Oxford Casino in Maine but single-digit declines at CDI’s other casino properties erased these gains.

CDI’s online advance deposit wagering site Twinspires.com reported essentially flat revenue of $40.9m while earnings fell 5% to $10.1m, which CDI blamed on new online pari-mutuel taxes in New York. Twinspires’ betting stakes rose 4%, outperforming the nationwide thoroughbred racing handle, which fell 4%. VSI aka Velocity Wagering Services, the company’s Isle of Man-based high-roller online business, saw revenue nudge up 1% to $8.6m.

CDI’s core racing operations fell 21% to $30.4m thanks to the cessation in July of pari-mutuel operations at Florida’s Calder Race Course. However, that event also cut costs, which helped narrow racing’s earnings loss by 33% to $5.4m.

Big Fish Games contributed $13.9m in revenue and $3.8m in earnings during the brief period following the acquisition. For the fourth quarter as a whole, including the pre-acquisition period, Big Fish bookings were up 33% year-on-year to $95.4m. Of this sum, $46.9m came via Casino, $32.3m via Premium Paid games and $16.2m from Free-to-Play Casual games.

Big Fish’s Casino category was up 94% year-on-year, driven by a 77% increase in average paying users and a 9% gain in average bookings per paying user. The Premium category was down 23% year-on-year as customers shifted from paid PC games to mobile free-play. Free-to-Play was up 200% thanks to the launches of Gummy Drop! on iOS in Q3 and on Android in Q4.

Jose Montes Wins the Heartland Poker Tour Main Event in Black Hawk

Jose Montes takes down the Heartland Poker Tour Main Event at the Golden Gates Casino & Poker Parlor, in Black Hawk, after defeating Joe Serock, in heads-up action, to take home the first prize of $240,523.

Not many people have started 2015 like Jose Montes.

The man from the Bronx has picked up his second major title, in the first two months of the year, after picking up the victory in the Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) Main Event at the Golden Gates Casino & Poker Parlor in Black Hawk.

In January, Montes topped a field of 1,363 players to win the first major title of his career, after beating Benjamin Keeline, in heads-up action, to take the $352,669 first prize in the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Main Event in Choctaw.

That’s a fine year right there.

[Image Credit: PokerNews]

Montes wasn’t done.

Confessions of a Poker Writer: The Four C’s

Lee Davy continues his confessions series with a little ditty about reaching forty, the changes that are happening in his life, and the importance of the four c’s.

I’m changing.

I can feel it.

It started when I quit alcohol. That was five years ago. Drunkenness changed to sobriety-sobriety changed to holistic health. In those five years everything has changed.

I fell out of love, I got divorced, I left my home, I moved back in with my parents, I lost the intimacy of fatherhood, I quit my job, I created a new job out of thin air, I fell in love again, I remarried, I found the intimacy of fatherhood again, I moved out of my parents, I created a new home, I started traveling, I stopped gambling, I got out of debt, I started investing, I became a vegetarian, I became a vegan, I started a daily yoga practice, I started a daily meditation practice, I started a daily running practice, I stopped watching pornography, I started a daily journaling practice, I started a daily gratitude practice, I started reading one book per week, I wrote my first book and I started to donate money to charity.

That’s a lot of change.

But that’s nothing compared to the feelings I have in my mind, body and soul as I turn 40. I’m not sure if it’s wisdom, but I feel this pull towards those less fortunate than me. I feel a pull towards the earth. Like the salmon and the birds. I feel like I am being pulled along by a force that is unknown to me.

Pennsylvania gets new online gambling bill, committee hearing

Pennsylvania has a new online gambling bill courtesy of Rep. John Payne (pictured, on the left), who chairs the House of Representatives Gaming Oversight Committee.

The full text of Payne’s HB 649 has yet to be published, but a memorandum posted to the House website said the bill would restrict internet gaming to the state’s current gaming licensees. License fees would go for $5m apiece while online gaming revenue would be taxed at a rate of 14%. The bill’s use of the phrase “internet gaming” rather than “internet poker” suggests the bill would adopt a New Jersey-style menu of gaming options.

In a statement announcing HB 649, Payne said he hoped internet gaming revenue would help at least partially close the state’s projected $2b budget shortfall. Payne referenced a 2014 study that identified online gambling as the largest potential new revenue source for the state’s gaming industry. Payne believes the market could generate $120m in revenue in its first year, about $3m shy of what New Jersey’s market earned in its first year.

Payne told Philly.com that Pennsylvania didn’t want to be “the last ones coming to the game.” Payne said it would be a mistake “to sit here and wait until Ohio has it, Maryland has it, New York has it … We’ve got to be up and running and be able to compete with the surrounding states.”

Payne’s committee has scheduled an April 16 hearing on the issue of online gambling. Previous hearings have featured staunch opposition from Las Vegas Sands, which operates Sands Bethlehem, one of the state’s top brick-and-mortar casino operations. One can only hope that Sands ‘VP of No’ Andy Abboud (pictured right), whose stock tactic is to pull out his cell phone and call it a casino, varies his routine slightly this time around by showing up dressed as an iPhone 6. (Would make a hell of an entrance.)

Even assuming Payne’s bill doesn’t go down to defeat like previous attempts, there’s the question of whether new Gov. Tom Wolf would sign it. Wolf, who was sworn in as governor in January, stated on the campaign trail that he was against any expansion of the state’s casino industry, whether online or off. On the plus side, he’s a Democrat, so he’s not beholden to Sheldon Adelson, who was caught improperly funneling money to Wolf’s opponent Tom Corbett.

News of Payne’s bill was warmly received by Harrah’s Philadelphia GM Ron Baumann, who believes online gambling “could certainly enhance overall revenues.” Bob Green, chairman of the state’s market-leading Parx Casino, was similarly receptive, although he cautioned that “the first priority must be to protect the bricks-and-mortar casino industry.”

Deutsche Telekom’s online betting plans under fire from German betting operators

Germany’s lottery and betting association has asked the federal government to put the kibosh on Deutsche Telekom’s new online betting site.

On Monday, telecom giant Deutsche Telekom (DT) announced it had acquired a 64% stake in Deutsche Sportwetten (DSW), which operates Austrian-licensed online sports betting operator Tipp3. While DSW was one of the 20 lucky recipients of Germany’s federal sports betting licenses, those licenses haven’t been formally issued due to ongoing legal challenges. In the meantime, DT says it will begin targeting German punters using Tipp3’s Austrian license by the end of the current quarter.

Not so fast, say Deutsche Lotto and Totoblock (DLTB), an association of Germany’s lottery and pool betting operators, who say DT is attempting a “vile trick” to circumvent German regulations. The aggrieved operators say DT’s plan is “on par with providers of tax havens” in terms of illegality and DT’s Austrian license justification is “absurd and cannot be accepted.”

What really gets under DLTB’s skin is the fact that the German government owns a 14.3% stake in DT while the state development bank holds a 17.4% stake. DLTB believes this should be sufficient leverage for the government to compel DT to back off its plan and wait in the queue with everybody else.

DLTB says DT is far from the only company that “longs” for a resolution of the lengthy and convoluted German licensing process. But if DLTB has to “adhere to law and order,” it believes DT ought to be subject to the same restrictions.

DLTB also said it has written to the country’s Bundesliga football league to protest the “massive expansion of sponsorship activities of private gambling providers.” DLTB says the Bundesliga is providing “a platform for clearly illegal offers” from internationally licensed operators, including live betting and casino games, neither of which are permitted under the German federal state treaty on gambling.

Committee proposes New Mexico-tribe gambling compact

The new gambling compact proposed by Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration and five New Mexico tribes—pueblos of Jemez and Acoma, the Navajos, Jicarilla Apache and the Mescalero—is presented to state’s legislators on Tuesday.

The revamped state-tribal agreement, if approved, would allow up to four new Indian casinos in the next 23 years and casinos can offer credit as well as free lodging and food to some high rollers and operate 24/7.

Some members expressed support for the agreement but others raised some questions especially about the state being saturated with casinos, given that New Mexico already has 23 casinos, and possibly hurting the horse-racing industry.

“At what point do we reach market saturation?” asked Rep. Larry Larrañaga, R-Albuquerque, after probing on Hernandez on the number of new tribal casinos that might be built as a result of the proposed compact.

Martinez’s Deputy Chief of Staff and lead negotiator Jessica Hernandez also highlighted that the compact would provide stability to gambling market in New Mexico and revenue to the state would increase in exchange to exclusivity rights for the tribe.

“It’s a very carefully negotiated agreement that balances a lot of different interests,” Hernandez said.

New Mexico received nearly $16 million gambling revenue in Q4 2014 from American-Indian tribes that operates in the state.

SJM Holdings 2014 profit falls 13% as mass market gains fail to offset VIP decline

Macau casino operator SJM Holdings saw profit fall nearly 13% in 2014 as mass market gains failed to offset serious VIP gaming declines.

SJM, Macau’s largest casino operator, reported full-year gaming revenue down 8.8% to HKD 79.3b (US $10.2b). SJM’s annual earnings fell 10.5% to HKD 7.76b while profit slipped 12.7% to HKD 6.73b. SJM blamed the declines on Macau’s ongoing struggles, and while the company says it has no idea how long the “conditions which inhibited gaming revenue growth” in 2014 will continue, it remains bullish about SJM’s future.

SJM’s mass market revenue rose 8.9% but the VIP sector fell 17.3%. The VIP segment’s share of SJM’s overall gaming revenue fell to 60.9% from 67% in 2013, while the mass market rose from 31.3% to 37.4%. SJM’s share of Macau’s overall VIP revenue fell from 25.2% in 2013 to 23.4% last year. SJM’s average number of VIP gaming tables fell 7.9% in 2014 while mass market tables rose 3.4%.

Revenue from slots and other electronic gaming machines fell 4% to HKD 1.34b. The average daily net win per machine rose 11.2% but the average number of slots in operation fell 13.7%. SJM features slots at 11 of the 20 casinos that operate under its license.

Non-gaming revenue fell 22.4% to HKD 971m despite a 4% rise in average room rates. Occupancy at SJM’s flagship property Casino Grand Lisboa fell 3.2 points to 93.2%.

The Casino Grand Lisboa’s individual revenue numbers mirrored the whole, with overall revenue down 8.3% to HKD 29.6b. VIP revenue fell 14.2% as turnover fell 5.7%, while mass table revenue gained 16% and slots rose 7.5%. The average number of VIP tables fell 8.7% while mass tables increased by 12.4%. The property saw visitors fall 6.1% to 13.6m.

Despite the tumble, SJM says it managed to maintain its position as Macau’s market leader, controlling 23.2% of the special administrative region’s casino business. However, that’s down from 24.8% in 2013 and from 26.7% in 2012.

Paddy Power accused of encouraging ethnic minorities to masturbate

Irish bookmakers Paddy Power have been accused of encouraging ethnic minorities to use the fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT) in the company’s betting shops.

The Campaign For Fairer Gambling (CFG) – aka the bureau of suspect statistics – says its research shows 61% of Paddy’s UK betting shops are located in areas with “above average levels” of residents born outside the UK. CFG consultant Adrian Parkinson says the figures make it “blatantly clear” that Paddy’s strategy is to target areas with “a high number of ethnic minorities, particularly Asian and Chinese.”

A Paddy Power spokesman told the Independent that the company didn’t “target areas based on ethnicity.” Paddy has comparatively few shops compared to retail giants like Coral, Ladbrokes and William Hill and thus the company has opted to place its shops in “urban areas with dense populations.” Paddy insists that “like every other retailer, our shops are located where there is high demand for our services.”

Or just some seriously horny people. In a debate in the UK’s House of Lords on Tuesday, Labour’s Lord Lipsey offered a “rather racy analogy” comparing FOBT use to masturbation. Lipsey claimed betting on a horse race represented “the full sexual intercourse of betting and gambling, with foreplay when you select your horse and mounting excitement as the race goes on – we know what happens after that, when the result comes.” (Emphasis added.)

By comparison, Lipsey said betting shops were full of “sad-eyed blokes – it is always blokes – in front of porn-like machines … shoving in pounds for momentary pleasure.” However, while Lipsey admitted that he was “not very fond” of FOBTs, he has no desire to ban their use, saying if people want to whip their skippy in this fashion, “that is their affair.”

As for the prevalence of betting shops in certain areas, Lipsey said that’s because “no one else wants the premises.” Lipsey said people were “deluding themselves” if they thought a crackdown on betting shops would mean the return of the vanished high street brands. Lipsey said he preferred “well maintained betting shops than ill maintained, ramshackle, empty shops that are falling down.”

Sun International eyes Asia expansion; Best Sunshine training center gets approval in Saipan

South Africa gaming operator Sun International is setting its sights on an Asian expansion as soon as it completes its business in Latin America, specifically the merger of the company’s casino operations in the region with local casino operator Dreams.

As soon as that deal is settled, Sun International will turn its attention in the East with the hopes of gaining a foothold of the growing casino market in Asia. Sun CEO Graeme Stephens told South Africa’s BusinessDay Live that the merged entity in South America would create a platform for the company to embark on its plan to enter the Asian gaming market. He also noted that there are plenty of opportunities in that region that Sun International, although he also admitted that saying it is the easy part. Doing it is a little bit trickier.

“We are up against the gaming giants, so we might look at a casino operation as part of a large mixed-use development or take a small piece of a larger casino entity,” he said, as quoted by the South African Daily.

If Sun International is serious about venturing into Asia, the Northern Marianas could be a suitable destination. Speaking of the Pacific island, the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Lottery has given the green light to Imperial Pacific International Holdings’ plan to create a live training center concept in Saipan that will be used to train casino workers as it waits for its integrated resort and casino to be constructed.

The training center will cost Imperial Pacific local subsidiary Best Sunshine $25 million to construct the facility and fill it up with equipment and employees. Once the facility is up and running, employees will use it for their six-month training on all the casino games Imperial Pacific plans to put inside its casino. In addition, newly hired employees will also be able to use the center to undergo non-live training and subsequently, live training of working inside a casino.

All these employees are likely to need as much training as it can get to efficiently run Imperial Pacific’s $7 billion resort and casino project. Once completed, the integrated resort and casino would become the first large-scale integrated resort on Saipan, the largest island in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

I See Your “Entrepreneur” and Raise You an “Intrepreneur” – Getting Stuff Done

I am going to spice it up in my column today and discuss something a bit out there. Love it or hate it, it has some validity.

Specifically now how this nifty term “The Intrepreneur” may be a key to unlocking some innovation in online poker marketing and business development in North American and Western European markets.

What a mouthful but hear me out.

But First, My Change Anecdote from Massive Tech Company

I like to drop ‘I worked at massive tech pioneer company’ anecdotes sometimes. I started doing this way back in the 2000s. Since those days I have been both driven and fortunate enough to become part of some of the big ships sailing out to sea during their explosive growth periods.

So what?

So these blue chip tech companies made changes every day to try new things. Complete reversals from the day before, even.

NHL doubles down on stance against passage of Bill C-290

If there was ever any optimism that the current ticket drive in Las Vegas to bring an NHL expansion team to Sin City would have an effect on the league’s stance regarding legalized sports betting, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly squashed those hopes rather emphatically.

According to Yahoo! Canada, Commissioner Gary Bettman’s right-hand man wrote a letter to Windsor, Ont. Minister of Parliament Brian Masse, expressing the league’s stance on Bill C-290 and how a passage of the bill is something that “we do not favor.”

Daly’s letter to Masse was actually a response to an earlier letter (haven’t these guys heard about an e-mail?) Masse sent to the league in an effort to persuade Bettman and company to get behind the move to allow single-sports betting for Canadians.

“Single event sports betting already exists in a major way,” Masse wrote back in January. “My preference would be to see those revenues supporting important social programming like health-care, education and gaming addiction programs.”

Masse is one of a handful of lawmakers that have championed for the passage of Bill C-290, which has already been approved in the House of Commons but has remained idle in the Canadian Senate. Should the bill pass, it would amend the existing Criminal Code that only allows parlay betting on a minimum of two games.

The support of the NHL would’ve been an invaluable asset for supporters of the bill, largely because the league is the biggest professional sports league in Canada for painfully obvious reasons.

Unfortunately for Masse and the rest of the supporters of Bill C-290, the NHL won’t be riding from the West in skates as the cavalry it needs to push its argument over the top. Bill Daly made that clear, doubling down on the league’s stance against single-game sports betting, which it believes would “compromise the reputation and integrity of the NHL’s product, and could seriously undermine our fans’ trust and confidence in honest competition.”

LeoVegas launches new UK marketing campaigns and a new video slot game

Mobile and online casino LeoVegas has launched its first major television ad campaign in the UK, on Friday, as it celebrates its first year in UK market.

In partnership with London-based ad agency, LeoVegas created a 30-second advert titled “King of Mobile,” which will be seen on both satellite and terrestrial television across UK.

The advert (below) introduces consumers to LeoVegas mascot Leo the lion, who was shown attracting attention as he passed by to visit a barber.

“LeoVegas.com brings the thrills of the Vegas Strip direct to your mobile and we wanted to extend that even further by giving everyone the chance of finding some extra cash to celebrate our launch,” said LeoVegas UK Head Shenaly Amin.

“We released our very first television advert in December but it was fairly low key so this new and more professional ad represents our first major TV campaign,” Amin told eGaming Review. “The UK is an exceptionally tough market but I feel that, when you look at our competitors, we are offering something a little bit different, which is not only reflected in this advert but also the progress we have made over the past 12 months.”

LeoVegas supported the launch of its UK TV advert with a special marketing promotion of releasing 999 balloons, which were released in an unknown location, 200 of which are carrying £5 and one golden balloon containing £250.

The drop zone could be anywhere in Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. And for the lucky winner who finds the balloon will have to tweet a selfie with the prize to @LeoVegas with the hashtag #FlyingHigh.

New York Attorney General opens investigation on casino bidding process; Straub (finally) buys Revel at lower price

New York governor Andrew Cuomo is being investigated over his administration’s handling of the casino selection process that awarded to licenses to bidders planning to develop casinos in the Catskills, Schenectady and the Finger Lakes region.

According to the New York Daily News, State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is spearheading the investigation, which was initiated to “make sure that the process was fair and nothing illegal had occurred.” Granted, Schneiderman is within his rights to launch such a proceeding if he figured that it needed attention. But it’s also worth pointing out that when interviewed by investigators from Schneiderman’s office, even the losing bidders believed that the whole casino selection process was on the up-and-up.

Tioga Downs racetrack owner Jeff Gural, who unsuccessfully made a bid for one of the casino licenses told the Daily News that he met with investigators “at their request.”

“They said they were going to meet with all the bidders to make sure that the process was fair and that nothing illegal had occurred,” Gural added. “I told them I thought nothing illegal had occurred.

The state Gaming Commission, which managed the casino selections, responded to Schneiderman’s move to launch an investigation by defending the casino bidding process the state went through throughout the whole process. “The casino-siting process strictly followed the provisions of the Upstate New York Gaming Economic Development Act, which called for unprecedented transparency,” Gaming Commission spokesman Lee Park said, who also added that the commission has yet to be contacted by anybody from Schneiderman’s office.

Over in Atlantic City, it appears that the drawn-out saga involving the sale of Revel Casino Hotel appears to be coming to a long overdue conclusion after Florida developer Glenn Straub has agreed to and signed a deal to purchase the closed-down casino for $82 million, lower than the $95.4 million price tag that forced Straub to back out of the deal last week.

But bankruptcy Court Judge Gloria Burns never entered a final order terminating the sale, allowing representatives from both sides to continue with a final attempt at negotiating a deal, and against seemingly all odds, a deal was eventually struck in the 11th hour, paving the way for the transaction to finally happen.

Sri Lanka PM supports decision to withdraw Crown’s casino license

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is vouching for his government’s decision to withdraw its license approval and tax breaks for James Packer’s proposed $450 million project in Colombo, essentially saying that the country really wasn’t going to make anything out of the deal with the Australian casino titan.

Wickremesinghe also hinted that the only reason Packer received a casino license was because the previous administration, led by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, gave it to him as a political favor. But Packer’s hopes of putting up the resort in the South Asian country was derailed when his proverbial horse (Rajapaksa) lost the election. With the new administration promising to withdraw the casino licenses during its election campaign, it became clear when Wickremesinghe won his third term as prime minister that Crown’s presence in Sri Lanka were numbered.

“We were the only country in the world where casino revenue wasn’t taxed. It became an issue for us also because all religious leaders opposed it,” Wickremesinghe told The Australian. “[Packer] decided to go ahead despite wide opposition because he felt his friendship with the Rajapaksa regime was sufficient and the Rajapaksa regime would be there forever. So you played politics, that’s all. There’s nothing to complain about.”

Wickremesinghe didn’t outrightly call Packer’s business dealings with the previous government as corrupt, but he did lament the lack of transparency that came with the casino bidding process and the perceived crony capitalism that was allegedly running amok in the previous administration. “There will be inquiries into some of these business companies associated with corruption. In a truly capitalist system there can’t be corruption. There has to be genuine competition,” he said.

And despite basically shuttling Packer out the door, Wickremesinghe maintained that foreign companies, including Australian investors, are more than welcome to go do business in Sri Lanka, highlighting that his administration would make sure that it would have an “open and transparent investment climate.”

“We are putting a new investment regime in place. We want to encourage direct foreign investment in the real economy, in manufacturing, agriculture and the services sectors,” Wickremesinghe added.

What’s new at iGaming Asia Congress 2015?

The iGaming Asia Congress 2015, a 3-day conference and expo for interactive gaming and sports betting in Asia, will take place from 17-19 March at the Grand Hyatt at City of Dreams Macau.

Over 250+ of Asia’s leading sports betting, online casino, lottery, social and mobile gaming executives are expected to attend. iGA 2015 is a great place whether you’re looking to form new partnerships, learn about the Asia’s latest innovations, opportunities, strategies, and developments for interactive gaming and to network to discover new opportunities.

iGA gives you more networking opportunities by bringing back the “iGA Official Speed Networking” in addition to iGA 2015 After Party, Cocktail functions, Breakfast Briefings, and more.

iGA 2015 will be co-located with Mobile Gaming & Social Casino Asia—a conference that discusses the latest innovations and developments in Asia’s growing mobile and social gaming sector in depth.

This year, the conference will also give you expanded exhibition with more leading providers of iGaming solutions, services, and technology and latest developments and information on new forms of gambling and gaming on upcoming iGaming jurisdiction in.

Beacon’s gaming events are attended by the who’s who of gaming executives in Asia and internationally, with over 70% coming from the Asia Pacific region. Expect to meet CEOs, VPs, MDs and senior directors from different sectors including gaming regulators, software provider, online marketing consultants, legal advisors, and more.

For inquiries, please contact Beacon Events Hong Kong Office

Genting Singapore profits plunge as high rollers grow scarcer, luckier

Casino operator Genting Singapore got badly beaten up in Q4 by its VIP gamblers, who helped push company profits down by nearly a third.

Revenue in the three months ending Dec. 31 slipped just 8% to S$637.9m, but earnings fell 17% to $166m and net profit after tax fell 30% to $118.9m. Things were a little brighter on the full year front, with revenue up 1% to $2.86b, earnings down 3% to $836m and profit down 10% to $635m.

The company, which operates Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) in Singapore and recently broke ground on its Resorts World Jeju project in South Korea, blamed its Q4 slide on high rollers with hot hands. The company said RWS’ mass and premium mass segments displayed “respectable growth” but the VIP business experienced “significant below average win percentage and rolling volume.”

Taking a page from Crown Resorts’ book, Genting argues that if you applied theoretical normalized hold percentages to its VIP business, earnings would have risen by close to a third. Sadly, we don’t live on Theoretical Normalized Earth, where Brad Pitt is a lot less handsome and the rest of us are a lot less fugly.

Speaking of fugly, Genting’s bad debt provisions were up, up and away as more high-rollers proved unable or unwilling to honor their casino markers. For Q4, bad debts were up nearly 43% to $82m while the full year figure was up nearly 42% to $185m.

Genting’s results are all the more fugly given the stellar Q4 numbers posted by their crosstown rival, Marina Bay Sands (MBS). The Las Vegas Sands property posted revenue gains of over 27% in Q4. MBS also enjoyed a 98.3% occupancy rate while RWS could manage only 93%.

Genting acknowledged that “the business environment around us has changed rapidly and we face stiff competition,” both in Singapore and from other regional players all chasing the same dwindling supply of high-rollers. Genting says the “macro-economic ecosystem has been altered to an extent that the gaming industry has to adjust to a new norm.” These adjustments include RWS “reorganizing its gaming programmes to focus marketing initiatives towards the foreign premium mass and mass market segments.”

Social Media Tip of the Week: Images on twitter

The Media Image Head of SEO and Social Darren Sheffield shares the most effective way of using Images within Twitter in our episode of Social Media Tip of the Week.

Generally speaking getting images to display properly relies on uploading them direct from Twitter (however there are management platforms that also work correctly)

The collage effect works in the following setups & dimensions. It’s key to keep the dimensions in line with the setup you’d like. However if you use larger dimension your image will be shrunk to fit. The number of the image also reflects the order you should select them for uploading.

2 images side by side

Image 1 (left side) – Approximately 277 px x 277 px

Image 2 (right side) – Approximately 277 px x 277 px

3 images – 1 large left, 2 on top of each other right

How Poker is Helping the Animals Through REG

Raising for Effective Giving has released their Q4 numbers and it seems the poker community is determined to provide relief for all sentient beings on the planet, not just humans.

125-years ago whale blubber was used to light up our homes. It was the main source of fuel. We wanted to see what we were doing. Extermination of the species was merely an after thought.

A lot has changed since then.

I can now buy a light bulb for a few bucks.

No need to kill the whales.

But we keep killing them anyway.

We keep getting between the sheets. Women are like Pez dispensers. There are babies everywhere. More mouths mean more food. Global livestock production is big business. But it’s also a terrible business. And it’s not just the animals that are suffering. So is our planet.

Google loosens restrictions on social casino advertising; Plumbee scraps bingo

Social casino advertising will be allowed on Google as part of a new beta test by the world’s number one online search engine.

Google has long enforced a policy that restricts the promotion of gambling-related content, including both off- and online gambling. But Google now says that it will “begin supporting ads for social casino games as part of a limited beta program.” Full details of the beta are available here.

For the moment, only existing AdWords advertisers with good compliance histories have been invited to participate in the beta test, which is set to commence “around March” and will run for “a number of months.” Advertisers who don’t meet these requirements have the option of registering their interest in promoting social casino games in the post-beta world.

Ads, sites and apps participating in the beta must be in English. The ads cannot contain links to any real-money gambling sites, nor can there be any gambling related advertising on your social casino site or app. The ads must also “clearly and prominently” inform users that the games in question are “intended for an adult audience” and that “practice or success” at social casinos “does not imply future success” at a real-money gambling site.

PLUMBEE FLUSHES BINGO

The news comes too late for UK-based social gaming developer Plumbee, which has announced the closure of its Mirrorball Bingo app. The product, which launched less than a year ago, will shut down its in-game shop on March 3, meaning players will lose the ability to purchase additional coins. The game will be completely ‘under the G’ gone from Facebook as of March 31.

Gaming Intelligence quoted Plumbee CEO Raf Keustermans saying the bingo product “never really had the traction we were hoping for.” Rather than throw more money at the project, Keustermans said the company decided to chalk it up to experience and go back to focusing on its core Mirrorball Slots product. With 20/20 hindsight, Keustermans said Plumbee “probably underestimated the competitiveness and complexity of the bingo category.”

British Poker Awards: Victoria Coren Mitchell and Dusk till Dawn Steal the Show

Victoria Coren Mitchell and the team from Dusk till Dawn were the stars of the British Poker Awards taking home six awards at the Hippodrome in London.

Victoria Coren Mitchell, and the team at Dusk till Dawn (DTD), are the undisputed masters of British Poker after winning six awards in London’s Hippodrome last night.

Coren Mitchell was one of three players nominated for three awards. She won the lot: Best Social Media User, Poker Personality of the Year and Performance of the Year. Her achievement means she now ties with Sam Trickett as the most successful recipient of BPA’s with six each. Trickett didn’t receive a single nomination this year.

On the poker front it’s been a big year for Coren Mitchell. She became the first two-time European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event champion after winning the Season 10 San Remo Main Event, and then she shocked everyone by walking away from her PokerStars contract over a values clash.

“Three times as many awards as Eddie Redmayne (if anyone asks I am wearing TK Maxx).” Tweeted Victorious Coren Mitchell.

Dusk till Dawn (DTD) also got the opportunity to smudge fingerprints over three awards. They maintained their 100% consistency by picking up the Best Live Cardroom Award; they had a hand in the Best Tournament Award for the partypoker sponsored WPT500 event, and Rob Yong was honored for his outstanding contribution to the growth of poker.

DTD has been the breeding ground for a vast number of top British pros. One of their best grassroots to professional circuit success stories belongs to Simon Deadman. This is where he learned his trade – a trade that saw him pick up two awards for Breakout Player of the Year and Live Tournament Player of the Year.