Last year’s Poker Hall of Fame saw two players inducted as members when Chris Moneymaker and David Oppenheim both saw their cards marked for greatness.

It was announced last week that just one player will be welcomed into the Poker Hall of Fame on December 30th, however, with this winner being announced during the final of the WSOP Hybrid Main Event.

What about the candidates who missed out on the award in 2019 but could make the leap in 2020?

According to a report on PokerNews, the eight candidates who missed out in 2019 all have a credible cause for optimism if they’re hoping to become the player who reaches the promised land, but how do we view the candidates? Let’s break them down into favourites, decent chances and rank outsiders as if they were sitting at the same table.

Colorado’s sports betting market keeps setting new records while the state’s tax take continues to underwhelm, forcing gambling regulators to offer insights into how math works.

On Monday, the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Division of Gaming announced that the state’s licensed sportsbooks handled $210.7m in wagers in the month of October, a new record but only a 1.5% increase from September (which had grown 61% from August), suggesting the Broncos’ ineptitude may be taking its toll on bettors’ interest.

The state’s betting revenue hit a record $17.4m in October, more than four times the $4.2m generated in September. Over $16.7m of October’s sum was generated online, although overly generous bonus offers lowered the online ‘net sports betting proceeds’ to slightly less than $9m.

The state’s share of October’s revenue totaled $824,700, also a new record and a significant improvement over the piddling $70k the state collected in September (when online operators reported negative revenue due to an NFL welcome bonus frenzy).

The latest session in the epic heads-up no limit hold’em clash between Daniel Negreanu and Doug Polk saw the latter move a massive $596,197.89 into the lead. After 12 sessions, that’s a fairly obvious average profit of $50,000 per session for Polk, but while Negreanu is well down at this point after just 5,751 hands of the 25,000-hand challenge, Polk wasn’t gloating, merely stating the numbers on social media in recent days.

Cashless gaming is coming to a California tribal casino, while the state’s cardroom operators are pleading to be allowed to reopen after their latest pandemic lockdown.

This week, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians’ Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa in Cabazon announced plans to introduce cashless markers for its slot and video poker machine customers. The new system, which the casino expects to launch early next year, will mark a first for both a US tribal casino operator and a California gaming venue.

The Marker Trax system developed by Nevada’s Marker Trax LLC will utilize Konami Gaming’s SYNKROS casino management system, and aims to have Morongo gamblers apply, register and start cashless gaming within a five-minute period. The system was field-tested this summer in Las Vegas at the off-Strip Ellis Island Casino.

Marker Trax employs a PIN-protected app that allows customers to digitally fund their account through – in this case – the Morongo venue’s membership rewards program. In exchange for offering their customers a friction-free approach to funding game play, the venue will enjoy access to customers’ data analytics and marker tracking.

There is a busy month ahead for almost all of us. Whether it’s stuffing the turkey, helping the homeless or just buying Christmas presents, it’s all go and there’s a lot to do.  

During the month of December, poker players are very busy, too.  There are a range of poker games going on that you can bet on via Poker Shares, and we’ve taken a look at the games on offer and the current prices.  

Polk vs. Negreanu  

There’s no doubt that this is the biggest game on the markets right now. With Negreanu dropping to a deficit of almost $600,000, Polk is a huge favourite right now at 1.04, with the Canadian available as a massive 13.50. For us, betting on the individual session is your best bet and probably going with Negreanu. It may be in the back of Polk’s head that he doesn’t want to scare off Negreanu by putting him a million down by 12,500 hands and allowing ‘DNegs’ to quit on his stool. It’s much better to give him hope and he does that by losing a few of the next sessions. With almost 6,000 hands in the can, how things stand after 10,000 hands will be crucial to the value on offer.  

Cyprus-licensed sports betting operators posted improved revenue despite declines in wagering handle during the third quarter, with online bookmakers significantly outperforming their retail rivals.

Figures released this week by the Republic of Cyprus’ National Betting Authority (NBA) show locally licensed online and land-based bookmakers handled wagers worth €170.8m in the three months ending September 30, a 10% decline from the same period last year. However, betting revenue jumped 13% year-on-year to €24.9m.

The revenue gain was entirely due to the country’s nine ‘Class B’ online bookmakers, which reported their take rising an impressive 47% to €10.8m, despite online betting handle falling 11% year-on-year to €105.65m.

In stark contrast stood the NBA’s six ‘Class A’ retail bookmakers, which reported Q3 handle falling 10% to €65.14m and revenue down 4% to slightly over €14m. Like most retail operations, the NBA’s land-based betting operators were required to shut down for a time this spring due to COVID-19, but their operations were open for the full Q3.  

UK-listed online gambling operator 888 Holdings expects its 2020 financial performance to be better than originally anticipated, while announcing its imminent entry into three additional US sports betting states.

On Wednesday, 888 issued a brief update on its “strong” operational performance in the second half of 2020 to date. The company now expects its FY20 revenue to be 45% ahead of 2019’s total, during which revenue hit US$560.3m. The company’s FY earnings margin is expected to be unchanged from the first half of the year at around 18.5%.

Expectations for 888’s performance in 2021 remain unchanged, given Germany’s transition to a severely restricted online gambling market and expectations that 888’s rapidly expanding US operations will continue to require significant investment outlay. Regardless, investors liked what they heard, as the stock is currently up over 4% from Tuesday.

Speaking of the US, 888 also announced that it had secured ‘multi-year’ market access deals with three additional US states – Colorado, Indiana and Iowa – with sports betting launches expected in each state next year. None of these states have yet authorized online casino play, so the launches will be done via the 888Sport brand.

Penn National Gaming (PNG) has made the right moves and are seeing the fruits of their investments in 2020. Jon Kaplowitz, Head of Penn Interactive, joined our Becky Liggero Fontana to explain why buying Barstool Sports was the right move.

PNG was first rumored to buy Barstool in January, 2020, and Kaplowitz explained why they were so interested in buying a media platform. “When we started the process of looking for a partner we realized that we needed two things,” he said. “One, we needed an established brand that people knew that resonated with sports and sports betting. And the second is we needed an audience, an audience that was young that had a propensity to watch sports and actually make a bet on sports. We didn’t have that at Penn National and when we looked at every single media company under the sun, and finally when we met Barstool, we knew that they were the company for us.”

That makes the $450 million purchase of Barstool a natural choice, considering their audience. “Barstool Sports have been around for 17 years, they have built a loyal core audience of Stoolies, they have a hundred million people every month across all their social media channels, and these are people who love sports, many of them bet on sports, and engage with the Barstool talent in a way that engenders a lot of loyalty.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOl1lAL4JBY]

The intersection between the gambling industry and media was a huge topic at Betting On Sports America – Digital, day 1. It merited serious conversation, not only in the opening discussion, but in another panel dedicated entirely to recent deals made between cable networks and large operations.

In the opening interview between William Hill U.S. CEO Joe Asher and Howard Stutz, Executive Editor of CDC Gaming Reports, Asher emphasized that media attention doesn’t amount to a hill of beans if the product can’t hold the customer’s attention. “Fundamentally we’re investing a lot of money around technology and the product. In my view, over time, product is going to win in this market. And it’s going to be about who has got the most compelling product.

He expanded on that thought, explaining how media affects can wear off, but also how they help tremendously:

“Promotional activity wanes over time – product is going to be so critically important. And so we’ve been investing a tremendous amount in product. But then you need a way to get that product into the hands of customers. And what do the media companies have? They have customers. They have folks who watch their platforms, go on their sites and so forth and that’s why you’re seeing these media sports betting deals. “

Online casino sights need to stay on top of the hottest slot offerings to keep up with the competition. We’ve got the newest slots released in the past week, so you can check them out and decide if you want them on your site.

Salsa’s creative studio releases Cuca inspired Video Bingo title

Salsa Technology’s in-house creative studio has released its legendary reptilian witch inspired Video Bingo title – Cuca’s Swamp Bingo. 

Cuca’s Swamp Bingo pits players against the devious witch who has a crocodile face and flowing blonde locks. Cuca casts spells to entice adventurers into her swamp to steal treasures for her hoard of riches and players are tasked with the mission of retrieving them.

Tom Reeg wasn’t impressed with the Belle of Baton Rouge when he was leading Eldorado Resorts and had the Louisiana-based riverboat casino in his portfolio. It’s no surprise, then, that Reeg, who took over as the CEO of the new Caesars Entertainment company after Eldorado and the original Caesars merged earlier this year, is happy to see it go. The 10-story floating casino has been sold to a holding company for an undisclosed amount of money. 

Caesars reached an agreement to unload its operating rights to the Belle of Baton Rouge to CQ Holding Company, which is behind the Casino Queen brand. Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. (GLPI), which has owned the real estate assets, will continue to hang on to its portion of the casino, and Casino Queen will continue making the rent payments that had been part of Caesars’ annual expenses. As long as regulators don’t find any reason to delay the sale, the final paperwork will be signed sometime around the middle of next year. 

Reeg apparently never liked the property and viewed it as an eyesore among Eldorado’s products. When he appeared before the Louisiana Gaming Control Board (LGCB), as CEO of Eldorado, this past January to receive the regulator’s approval for the merger with Caesars, he explained that the property was in such bad shape that he wasn’t even willing to spend the night in one of its hotel rooms. He told the LGCB during the hearing, “The fact that I stayed at [Penn National Gaming’s] L’Auberge last night is a comment on our view of the state of the Belle as it sits today.”

Eldorado had already gotten rid of its Eldorado Resort & Casino in Shreveport ahead of the Caesars acquisition, leaving it with five properties in Louisiana. Besides the Belle of Baton Rouge, these include Isle of Capri, Harrah’s Louisiana Downs, Harrah’s New Orleans and Horseshoe Bossier City. The Louisiana Downs property is already on the chopping block, as well. That property is set to go to Rubico Acquisition Corp. for around $22 million.

One of the best ways to increase exposure, which equates to more sales, for a business is to introduce a podcast. There are a number of reasons why this is now a good idea, and getting started isn’t that complicated. Following a few simple steps will ensure that an international audience is reached quickly and effectively, and the costs associated with the new venture are within reach of every business owner and entrepreneur.

The first step to launching the new podcast is to determine its name, format, target audience and goals – essentially the components that go into a business plan. You will also have to decide on a range of topics that should be covered, but these will change as the podcast evolves and gains more attention. In the initial phase, just choose a couple of topics that will serve to introduce the business operations to the viewer or listener and use these to build out future episodes. 

When getting started, it’s likely that you will have no audience, but don’t let this stop you from breaking into the world of podcasting. A recent survey shows that not having an audience doesn’t deter participation from new consumers, as long as the substance is appealing. In addition, as a business operator, you have already created a database of customers that you have collected over the years, so send them an email when the first podcast is ready and you will quickly build up a following. 

The podcast only needs to be about 20-40 minutes in length, depending on the topic. Don’t try to rush through it; make sure you allocate enough time to make the message clear and effective. Once you get everything up and running, don’t be shy about sending out an occasional survey – perhaps once every six or 12 months, asking for feedback from the audience to determine what works and what doesn’t. If you launch a gambling podcast, for example, you will want to find out if the audience likes your picks and the reasons behind your picks. 

NetEnt is seeing the human price of a buyout, as hundreds of jobs are rumored to be cut following their acquisition by Evolution Gaming.

The Times of Malta has reported NetEnt’s Qormi studio has been shut down, and employees were told to wait at home and expect an email about what their future holds. Now, Jake Evans of EGR Intel reports that as many as 500 of NetEnt’s 1000 staff have been laid off.

Multiple reports coming in of Evolution making 300-500 NetEnt employees redundant within 10 minutes of their first meeting as parent company yesterday. Evo immediately switched off NetEnt Live services, despite the games still being live with several operator clients.

— Jake Evans (@JakeACEvans) December 2, 2020https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Crown Australia, once the crown jewel of gambling in Australia, has lost a lot of its luster this year after a number of damning reports about its operations continued to surface. A whistleblower revealed about two years ago that at least one of Crown’s properties had monkeyed with machines in order to cheat gamblers and that was just the tip of the iceberg. Since then, everything from illegal partnerships to massive money laundering to gambling war criminals has continued to shake Crown’s foundation to the point that it has been called “unsuitable” to hold a gambling license. Better late than never, Crown is finally addressing the issue and has created a new compliance division that should have been in place years ago. 

To head the new division, Crown turned to the National Australia Bank. It recruited the financial institution’s Chief Financial Crime Risk Officer and Group Money Laundering Reporting Officer, Steven Blackburn, to be the casino operator’s Chief Compliance and Financial Crimes Officer in hopes that it can avoid any additional negative fallout from the litany of ongoing scandals. Crown is being investigated by the New South Wales (NSW) Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) over “failures in Crown’s culture, its risk management and compliance processes” that threaten its ability to retain a gaming license. 

The ILGA is expected to make a determination on Crown’s suitability by February 1, and Blackburn is scheduled to start his new assignment a month later. He will report directly to the company’s CEO, Ken Barton, as well as to the Crown Board of Directors, which is likely to see several changes between now and then. Crown has already been denied the opportunity to launch the Crown Sydney, which had been scheduled to open this month, and will have to put its efforts into overdrive if it wants to show regulators it can properly toe the line. 

Barton says of Blackburn’s appointment, “I am very pleased Steven has agreed to join Crown. This appointment is a further significant step forward in strengthening our compliance and anti-money laundering functions. Steven is an experienced compliance executive and his substantial technical expertise and global perspectives will position him well to take a leadership role in driving further improvements through the business.”

Macau’s gambling regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ, for its Portuguese acronym), might be considering a revolutionary step forward for the city’s gaming industry. Bloomberg has gotten word from several casino operators in Macau that have been contacted by the DICJ to pursue the possibility of introducing China’s upcoming cryptocurrency, the digital yuan, to the gaming space and making it the city’s base currency. So far, the idea is being met with mixed results.

China officially made its digital yuan legal tender when it updated the country’s financial laws at the end of October. It has already begun testing the feasibility of real-world use of the central bank digital currency (CBDC), and has been running pilot programs in areas like Shenzhen and Suzhou. Shenzhen is located in the Guangdong province, which is an important access point for travelers to Macau and Hong Kong. Suzhou is close to Shanghai and is a major economic hub in the country.

It isn’t clear how any digital yuan program would work in Macau. There are reports that the DICJ doesn’t want to allow certain digital wallets to be accepted for use on casino gaming floors, but there would have to be some type of wallet permitted. More than likely, only a state-issued, registered wallet would be allowed. 

Macau runs off Hong Kong dollars, for the most part, and introducing the digital yuan would give Chinese high rollers the ability to avoid having to convert their Chinese currency to the alternative. This could potentially reduce the number of currency conversion scams in the city and make it safer for gamblers, who could avoid carrying large amounts of cash they intend to swap for HK dollars. However, not everyone believes it’s a good idea. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on gaming companies and ancillary providers for the entirety of 2020, and the recovery is going to be a slow and long process. Many entities operating in the space have been forced to make difficult cuts in operations in order to avoid financial ruin, including letting significant portions of their workforce go. Tak Chun Group, the established Macau junket operator, hasn’t been immune to the downturn, either, and has had to make more than a few cuts. One recent scheme, though, made a few enemies. Tak Chun Group initiated a program that essentially paid employees to quit voluntarily.

The company reportedly launched its “ex gratia payments” program this past Monday through which it would provide payments to employees who voluntarily resigned from the company. The alternative, firing them, would lead to more required legal compensation, which Tak Chun Group was apparently trying to avoid. However, almost as quickly as it began, the program was ended, with the company saying, “The scheme has now ceased. As usual, Tak Chun Group fully supports the governing directives of the Macau Special Administrative Region in fulfilling its corporate social responsibility.”

Not long after the coronavirus debacle began, Macau’s government made polite suggestions to gaming operators and others that they should avoid layoffs wherever possible. It’s been a tough year for everyone, and the gaming-related entities have been struggling just to keep their heads above water. Many have worked with employees to take paid or unpaid leave until the storm passes, and Tak Chun’s plan seems to have been out of step with how the local gaming scene has tried to keep things together. 

For August and October, unemployment in Macau was around 2.9%, and the majority of those included in that figure have worked in the gaming and retail. Tak Chun called its scheme a “viable option for planning ahead under the current market condition,” but pulling it almost immediately after it was introduced, perhaps because it made it to the news, would seem to put the scheme in a different light. 

With President Donald Trump’s term coming to an end, attention has swung to who he’ll provide a pardon, freeing them from the responsibility of any crimes they may have committed. With rumors swirling of alleged bribes and quiet discussions, we’ve got the odds from Bodog on who will receive a federal pardon.

NBC News Revealed on December 1 that the Department of Justice is investigating a bribery scandal tied to presidential pardons. All the important names from the court documents are redacted, but it reveals an “offer a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence.”

Trump quickly jumped on the news, using his platform of choice.

Pardon investigation is Fake News!

Online gambling could be coming to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) as a financial lifeline to Saipan’s only casino operator Imperial Pacific International (IPI).

On Tuesday, the CNMI Senate approved the final reading of House Bill 21-31, which authorizes the CNMI’s three ‘senatorial districts’ – Saipan & the Northern Islands, Rota, Tinian & Aguuijan – to decide whether to authorize online gambling operations in their respective regions. The bill will now return to the House of Representatives for adoption.  

HB 21-31 has been kicking around the legislature since early 2019, about the time it became clear that IPI lacked the capacity to turn a profit running its existing land-based casino operations (or even complete construction of its half-finished facility). Unsurprisingly, IPI expressed early support for HB 21-31, provided it had the exclusive right to offer online gambling.

The Senate approved HB 21-31 by a vote of 6-1 with one abstention. The lone ‘nay’ vote came from Sen. Paul Manglona, who the Saipan Tribune quoted asking his colleagues how they could support handing IPI more responsibilities when they knew that the hapless company was likely to “fall down a cliff.”