Across much of Latin America, the general opinion of conventional banking is not favorable. Not only have the multitudes of people living in the region become disenchanted with their countries’ financial stability, businesses are becoming more concerned about the prospects of a future that relies on established financial systems. As a result, citizens and businesses are rapidly turning to the use of cryptocurrency as an alternative to fiat, and its growth, combined with similar activity seen elsewhere around the world, is fueling digital currency adoption that will ultimately force the global financial system to evolve, as well. It is no longer a matter of “if,” but simply of “when” the digital transformation will be complete. 

Chainalysis recently took a look at the Latin American consumerism and banking is changing. Part of the crypto industry analysis firm’s 2020 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report, which is being released this month, the level of crypto transactions in Latin America is going to explode. From July 2019 to June 2020, $25 billion in crypto was sent and $24 billion was received. These figures are considered “small,” just a little ahead of what is seen in Africa and the Middle East. However, a shift is occurring that is being driven by a large segment of unbanked citizens in the region, as well as the ability to send money remittances faster and cheaper with crypto than with any other type of currency, and with much less hassle. 

Explains Luis Pomata, co-founder of the Cripex crypto exchange out of Paraguay, “Lots of goods are imported into Paraguay from China, and then make their way to other countries like Brazil. Lots of the businesses buying these goods use Bitcoin because it’s faster and easier. Banks in Paraguay are worried about money laundering and picky with who they’ll work with, so the banking application process is long and difficult — many businesses are rejected. And even if you have a bank, it is still very hard and costly to make a wire transfer due to the amount of supporting documentation you need to provide. That is the main reason people switch to crypto.”

Many people in Latin America don’t have bank accounts because they can’t meet the requirements established by the financial institutions. Instead of fighting the established system, citizens – especially among the younger generations – can simply download and configure a crypto wallet and, with very little else, suddenly have access to a means with which they can conduct financial transactions. They can now send and receive money to and from anywhere in the world, receiving it in a matter of minutes without having to stand in line at a money remittance desk – an added benefit with the coronavirus still a threat.

In the fast moving world of gambling, sometimes you might miss news that could be important to you. To make sure you’re all caught up on gaming industry news, be it online or brick and mortar, we’re rounding up the some of the announcements and partnerships from the last week that you might have missed.

Don’t miss out on all of the latest announcements. Our Press Release section is updated constantly.

Maxima Compliance growth continues with Romero de Alba hire

Full-service compliance provider Maxima Compliance has made another major hire, with María Romero de Alba joining the fast-growing company as Senior Business Development Manager.

In the fast moving world of gambling, sometimes you might miss news that could be important to you. To make sure you’re all caught up on gaming industry news, be it online or brick and mortar, we’re rounding up the some of the announcements and partnerships from the last week that you might have missed.

Don’t miss out on all of the latest announcements. Our Press Release section is updated constantly.

Maxima Compliance growth continues with Romero de Alba hire

Full-service compliance provider Maxima Compliance has made another major hire, with María Romero de Alba joining the fast-growing company as Senior Business Development Manager.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp is looking to brighter days ahead. A long term project for the Philippine Offshore Gambling Operators (POGOs) is starting to come together, and a majority of operators have returned to work.

At a meeting of the House appropriations committee, PAGCOR Assistant Vice President for Offshore Gaming Licensing Jose Tria announced that two POGO hubs are under construction. These hubs will help the Philippines to consolidate the geographic spread of POGOs, in theory making them easier to regulate. The two locations are located in the old Island Cove in Cavite and in the Clark Economic Zone, and are expected to be completed soon.

“We hope that they can continue with the construction so that we can already start…relocating some of the operators and service providers which have been granted by the BIR [Bureau of Internal Revenue] their clearances,” Tria noted. He also noted that two other locations have been considered, but couldn’t begin construction due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Probinsyano Ako Party-list Representative Bonito Singson was happy with this development. “I suppose this will address our general concerns about POGO operations. We can now concentrate on raising PAGCOR’s capability to raise funds for the government,” he said.

Let’s do a stock chart Rorschach Test, putting current events out of your mind. If that’s even possible. I’ll show you a 52-week chart of a gaming stock and you tell me what happened.

Looks like speculation reached a peak in February, followed by major disappointment in March that almost bankrupted the company as it traded close to zero. Maybe, like 888 9 years ago, they were kicked out of some promising jurisdiction or other by regulators. But then, maybe management regrouped and pulled it all together, cleaned up their business plan and finances somehow, became leaner and more efficient, grew the clientele and gaming activities and really exploded by the summer.

Yeah, except the kind of process just described takes years to unfold, not months. Compressed all into one year, it looks a lot more like something almost died here and then took a major stimulant and went crazy. And that is what actually happened. Above is a 52-week chart of Penn National Gaming, whose business has been all but destroyed by COVID-19 restrictions. In the initial run to old highs in June, volume climaxed. As the stock has run up to new all time highs since, trading volume has continually dropped off in the opposite direction. See the red lines, both literally and figuratively.

This means much fewer people bought shares at these record higher levels than did at lower levels. When the few who bought at the top start selling, nobody from previous rounds is going to fill their orders. Remember, all you need theoretically speaking for a stock to careen higher out of control are precisely two people buying and selling a single share back and forth between them at higher and higher handles.

If you are a brand today, there’s zero chance that you’ll have no social media presence. Social media can be the difference in creating the right kind of online buzz that can drive traffic from your social media platforms to your website. A killer piece of content and a creative heading can encapsulate the essence of your brands – all within a 280-character limit.

But creating the right kind of online hype can be a massive anchor on office productivity and sometimes cause a few headaches in the office. One wrong tweet or post can cause a social media disaster that could be the death of your brand and online reputation. Standing out in the digital cosmos doesn’t have to take a lot of time or effort, and a few carefully crafted pieces of content can potentially help your brand stand out like its Superbowl Sunday.

Make Your Presence Known

Social media presence is like fishing, you need to go where the fish are. As an iGaming brand, you want to be researching your platforms and connecting with an audience that identifies with your product and could be a potential buyer. As an operator, you’ll want to choose the right social media platform for the market that you are aiming for. Put your site to work and include links to all of your social channels on your gaming page and blog.

COVID-19 is still a major threat, as evidenced by the repeated pockets of new positive cases that continue to pop up around the world. Governments, local and national, are trying to keep the virus from spreading while limiting the impact on their economies, and places like Nevada, New York and California are severely handicapping businesses to achieve that goal. Nonessential businesses, for which there is no established definition, are either forced to remain closed or limit their operations and, in many places, indoor gatherings are still prohibited. This is forcing many businesses to be creative as they try to keep the money flowing and, in California, some casinos are giving gamblers a novel setting for their entertainment. Welcome the new era of outdoor gambling. 

Several counties in the Golden State have approved measures to allow casinos and card rooms to temporarily erect outdoor structures – massive tents – to be able to welcome back their patrons. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has kept the state’s gambling scene on lockdown since March, only giving a brief reprieve that was subsequently pulled in 19 counties across the state in the wake of new coronavirus cases. 

Now, casinos like Artichoke Joe’s Casino in San Mateo and Bay 101 in San Jose can keep their operations going a little longer. Artichoke Joe’s, for example, has a 13,000-square-foot tent that it set up last Friday, under which gamblers will find 32 gaming tables – minus poker – and a dining area. In an interview with KCBS Radio, the venue’s president, Vince DeFriese, said, “We call it our open-air casino. We brought our gaming operations out into this tent. We’re going to bring poker back. We’re still trying to figure out a way to properly social distance. It’s a challenge with that game.”

The return to business is more than just a ploy for casino operators to make money; it’s an important component in allowing local economies to survive. Not only are employees able to return to work, but the local governments are able to start taking in the revenue they had already anticipated would be included in their budget. Without it, a number of programs suffer.

For all of 2018, Singapore’s tourism industry saw considerable activity from MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) events. 22% of the tourists that landed there came for that purpose and left $2.2 billion in tourist dollars behind in the process. That’s a huge economic component by any standard but, like every industry, Singapore’s MICE efforts were thwarted by COVID-19. Instead of being able to allow massive gatherings, it limited the maximum to just 50 people in order to try and keep the virus from taking over. With a better global understanding of how to combat the coronavirus, Singapore is now ready to try to get back to normal and is going to test allowing large events to return. Marina Bay Sands (MBS), which has always been a major component of the local MICE industry, is leading the way with one event already on the calendar. 

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is going to allow venues to request permission to host events of up to 250 starting on October 1. It’s part of a pilot program being organized by several government entities, including the STB and the Ministry of Trade and Industry, to try to put things back the way they were. According to STB CEO Keith Tan, “The MICE sector is a strategic one for the Singapore economy, and its safe and gradual resumption will safeguard jobs and core capabilities. It will also help those in related sectors such as hospitality and aviation. Public health and safety remain our utmost priority, and we have worked closely with the industry to create strict protocols and develop new ways of organizing events. These pilot events and solutions will help Singapore lead the way as a safe, trusted and innovative destination for MICE events.”

Las Vegas Sands-owned MBS is home to the Sands Expo & Convention Centre, a facility designed specifically for MICE events. Even before the STB announcement was made, the property was taking steps to ensure that it could meet the requirements set forth in Singapore’s Safe Management Measures. This includes changing how onsite registration processes, event setups and layouts, cleaning schedules, social distancing policies and more. 

With a lot of policy changes occurring, it seemed like a good time for MBS to add a few more and to continue the green efforts it has been working on for the past couple of years. Sands Expo is going to be the first carbon neutral MICE property in Singapore, launching an initiative to receive Renewable Energy Certificates and introduce measures that will completely offset all carbon emissions created by the property. 

Spain’s anti-gambling point man says online betting operators continue to mount “an absurd challenge” of the government’s bid to halt betting sponsorships of local sports.

Last Friday, Spanish online sports betting licensee Betway announced that it was the new main sponsor of second division footballers RCD Espanyol de Barcelona. The deal will see Betway’s logo splashed across the front of the team’s shirts.

This is the second Spanish football shirt deal Betway has inked in recent weeks, following the team’s deal with La Liga club Real Betis Balompié. That deal, along with Dafabet’s recent two-year deal with Cádiz CF, resulted in Spain’s Consumer Affairs minister Alberto Garzón accusing the betting operators of “huge recklessness.”

Garzón (pictured) said the bookmakers were making these deals despite knowing the government’s stated intention to abolish online gambling sponsorships and restrict other forms of advertising starting this October. Garzón expressed frustration at why the operators and the footballers were choosing to openly defy the government’s stated aims.

Online sportsbook 5Dimes is cutting off its US customers for as yet unexplained reasons while hinting at vague plans to resume US-facing activity at some undisclosed future date.

On Monday, 5Dimes’ US-based customers reported receiving “immediate action  required” emails from the Costa Rica-based bookmaker alerting them that the company needed to “temporarily suspend our service of the U.S. market so that we can launch our operations with a fresh start.”

The company said it was “embarking on a new business venture” due to the “evolving legal landscape” in the US. 5Dimes says it wants to “take advantage of the opportunity to offer an improved online sports betting experience to our many U.S. customers” but this will allegedly require the aforementioned suspension of activity.

The 5Dimes website contains additional information stating that it “will be back, better than ever and hopefully very soon” for its US customers. 5Dimes claims to be “relaunching the company into a better one for our customers, and to do it properly, we need to suspend service to U.S. customers, but it is only temporary.”

Winning any World Series of Poker bracelet is something special, but to win the biggest single online poker prize of all-time in the WSOP Main Event is a truly amazing feat to achieve.

That honour rests with Bulgarian player Stoyan Madanzhiev after he won the $5,00-entry WSOP Main Event on GGPoker this weekend for a massive top prize of $3,904,686 in total.

The path to his glory did not start with a dozen players left, with 5,802 entries the total number for a groundbreaking WSOP Main Event. That was the stage when Madanzhiev enjoyed his now-famous one-outer that propelled him on his way to victory. All-in, Madanzhiev hit a three on the turn having gone to the flop well behind his opponent with ace-three against ace-nine. With two players at the table having folded a three, it was the last one in the deck that came to save him.

From there on in, Madanzhiev must have felt like it was destiny for him to improve his cashes on GGPoker from just over the amount of the buy-in ($5,000) to just under $4 million in a dream-come-true play-out.

Playing for millions at the World Series of Poker is nothing new, but in the 2020 Online Series version, it started off as something unique. After the biggest single prize ever was won in the WSOP Main Event, however, the final nine players in the $10,000-entry WSOP Super MILLION$ will be looking to book their own seven-figure score, with the top prize of $1.4 million and runner-up cash of $1m still on the line.

That final will take place a week tomorrow on Tuesday September 15th at 6pm, but the final nine who made it will need all the time available to recover as they prepare for what is sure to be a highly competitive showdown for the bracelet.

With 899 entries reduced to just nine players, the guaranteed prizepool of $5 million eventually stopped with over $8.7 million to be won, a sign of the huge popularity of big buy-in WSOP events this year online at GG Poker and the WSOP.com official site back in July.

Just 134 places would be paid, however, and those wouldn’t include luminaries such as Daniel Dvoress, recent High Roller winner Fedor Holz, High Roller regular Dan Shak, in-form Mikita and the world’s most successful online tournament player, Chris Moorman.

German superstar Fedor Holz crowned yet another day as champion in his incredible career as the young pro and entrepreneur booked yet another win at the tables. This time it was the World Series of Poker that fell under Holz’ spell as the man behind Pokercode, an elite GTO-training site, took down the $25,000-entry Heads-Up WSOP Event for a massive $1,077,025 payday.

With just four players remaining from the initial 127 entries in the event, seven heads-up wins against the toughest opposition were required to earn the much-coveted golden WSOP bracelet.

At the end of the final day, Holz had earned that bracelet beating some superb adversaries along the way to even make it to the final stage. In the first five rounds, Holz had eliminated Luc Greenwood, Anton Morgenstern, Robert Flink, George Wolff, and Justin Bonomo, second place on the all-time money list and the man who prevented Holz winning the million-dollar-entry Big One for One Drop event two years ago in 2018.

The final four players contained stellar names too, however, with Holz having to beat two fantastic poker players in their own right to claim the ultimate victory.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Technically, this will be Week 2 of a very unusual college football season during a coronavirus pandemic and with the Big Ten and Pac-12 sitting out the fall. However, in reality it’s Week 1 because it’s the first time teams from one of the three Power 5 leagues – ACC, Big 12 and SEC (no schools from that league yet) – will take the field.

The first such school overall to play will be Miami of the ACC on Thursday night when the Hurricanes host UAB of Conference U.S.A. Miami will allow a limited number of fans at Hard Rock Stadium. Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz enters 2020 on a hot seat after UM hugely disappointed last year. Diaz does welcome two talented transfers, though, in quarterback D’Eriq King – a Heisman candidate – and defensive end Quincy Roche, a projected 2021 first-round NFL draft pick.

However, Diaz lost arguably the program’s most talented player, defensive end Gregory Rousseau, to an opt out. He was the ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year and a Freshman All-America in 2019 with 15.5 sacks. UAB at least got a warm-up game, beating FCS school Central Arkansas 45-35 last Thursday. Miami is a 14-point favorite and on an 18-game home winning streak in September.

South Korea’s casino operators are extending their prolonged COVID-19 closures as the country struggles to bring its infection rate under control.

Last Friday, Kangwon Land, the only South Korean casino that allows local residents onto its gaming floor, announced that its plan to reopen to the public on Monday (7) wasn’t going to happen. Instead, the casino extended its closure until 6am on Monday, September 21.  

Kangwon Land (pictured) originally shut in late-February but reopened some VIP gambling facilities in May. However, plans to reopen its mass market gaming floor came to naught and the company was forced to shut all operations in mid-August for the second time.

In early May, Kangwon Land said the shutdown had already resulted in lost revenue equal to nearly one-fifth of its 2019 total. The company’s Q2 earnings report showed revenue falling 91.4% year-on-year, while the H1 bottom line showed a net loss of KRW201.6b (US$169.9m) versus a KRW153.4b profit in H1 2019. On Friday, the company said the latest shutdown would deprive it of a further KRW36.4b in lost revenue.