Some South Korean casino operators are back banging their heads against the wall after new pandemic restrictions were imposed on their operations.

On Wednesday, South Korean media reported that local authorities had imposed new restrictions on public gatherings in several regions, effective at 12:01am Thursday (19). The affected areas including the capital Seoul, the city of Gyeonggi, Gwangju province and parts of Gangwon-do province. The city of Incheon will reportedly follow suit at midnight on Nov. 23.

The new ‘step 1.5’ restrictions vary according to the type of gathering, with some facilities allowed to operate at between 30-50% of normal capacity. However, casinos and race-betting operations (bicycle, boat or horse) will be limited to just 20% of capacity, dealing yet another body blow to the local gambling industry.

Two of the three Seven Luck-branded casinos operated by Grand Korea Leisure (GKL) are in Seoul, while Paradise Co Ltd operates one casino in Seoul and another in Incheon. The latter is Paradise City, currently South Korea’s only major integrated resort, which has already dealt with not one but two complete shutdowns due to COVID-19.  

The action was paused in the Daniel Negreanu vs. Doug Polk ‘Grudge Match’ under bizarre circumstances over the past 24 hours as Bill Perkins, who has a bet in place on the match’s outcome, accused Doug Polk of gathering data on the hands that have taken place.

After a ‘private discussion’ between Polk and Perkins (surely these two are the single season Netflix good cop bad cop series the world needs right now), there was a difference in opinion about exactly had been done, or if anything had been done wrong.

Ok this is completely ridiculous and we were talking privately but if you are going to fire off tweets lets talk about it.

The rules were, no hand histories and no huds. We both agreed and were clear on that. Neither was used. https://t.co/PYNZFmn9wM

Casino operator Bally’s Corp (formerly Twin River) has reportedly struck a major sports betting partnership with US regional media titans Sinclair Broadcasting.

On Wednesday, the Rhode Island-based Bally’s Corp announced that it had formally completed its acquisition of the Bally’s Atlantic City Hotel & Casino from Caesars Entertainment. The deal, which was announced in April, received the blessing of New Jersey gaming regulators earlier this month.

The company formerly known as Twin River announced last month that it would be rebranding “virtually all” of its properties with the Bally’s name as well as adopting the moniker as its new corporate identity. The company further declared its intentions to launch a proprietary sports betting operation using the Bally’s brand.

Further to that discussion, Wednesday brought a report by the New York Post that Bally’s had reached a $100m deal to buy Bet.Works Corp, a sports betting and iGaming platform provider currently powering the sports betting operations of theScore Bet. Bally’s reportedly plans to have its new betting business fully in action by next June.

Online gambling operators are increasingly being targeted for account takeover fraud, in part due to customers choosing some truly lousy passwords.

A new survey of global fraud and payments professionals by the Ravelin fraud detection firm found gambling second only to taxi companies in terms of the average annual number of account takeover attacks. These attacks involve fraudsters obtaining customer credentials to take control of an online account and then either use the account to spend lavishly on goods or services or sell the compromised data to nefarious third parties.

Gambling firms faced an average of 60 account takeover attacks per year, behind only taxi firms (65 attacks) but ahead of grocers (53). While gambling sites are obvious targets due to the large sums that accounts can contain, the grocers’ profile got a boost this year due to skittish customers filling their carts online during pandemic lockdown. 

Over half (52%) of gambling operators reported a significant rise in ‘serious’ account takeover attempts this year, again, thanks to the surge in online gambling activity as land-based options diminished due to COVID-19.

Last year’s partypoker Caribbean Poker Party Main Event took place at the Baha Mar resort in The Bahamas and was a wall-to-wall celebration of live poker, lit orange and set to a backdrop of bubbles, be they in champagne flutes or floating on the top of infinity pools.  

This year’s partypoker CPP Main Event is, of course, very different, but while it can take place anywhere there’s WiFi, the actual play is at virtual felt rather than the air-conditioned tables in a Bahamian resort. Every hand will be played out online, and while the Day 1a field totalled 490 players, just 70 players made it through to Day 2.  

With a bumper $5 million guarantee, the 490 entries worth $5,000+$300 each mean that $2.45 million of that prizepool is already in the can from entries and Day 1b on Tuesday 24th November is expected to be much busier than Day 1a.  

After the requisite 18 levels, each lasting 25 minutes, it was the Australian high roller Michael Addamo who racked up the biggest chip-stack of 18,658,743 chips. With each player starting with a million chips, Brazilian player Pedro Chaves went into the books in 2nd position with 17,110,419 and Dutch player Manuel Ruivo ended the night with 16,674,394, good for a podium finish.  

On Day 3 of the European Poker Tour’s maiden EPT Online Main Event, 72 players were reduced to just nine as the final table of the inaugural EPT Online Main Event was reached.

With overnight chip leader Toby Joyce not among the final table’s nine remaining hopefuls, who did grab the chip lead and put themselves in pole position to win over a million dollars? Let’s take a look back at the action.

The day took just over seven hours to complete, and those 72 players were reduced from nine tables to one at a rapid pace to begin with. Those to miss out on the top prize of $1,019,082 early included players such as Hungarian pro Laszlo Bujtas and Simon Mattsson, while PokerStars saw their last ambassador crash as Ramon Colillas exited in 53rd place for $22,167.

French poker legend Antoine Saout bit the dust, followed by Rafael Moraes and Will Arruda, while the aforementioned Day 2 chips leader Toby Joyce left when his ace-king couldn’t catch Jon Van Fleet’s pocket threes. Van Fleet’s Tweet on the eve of the final table tells you how his Day 3 went.

The action is underway in the 2020 ATP World Finals, and while outsiders might look at the event and assume that Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal might have the glory to themselves, the reality is far from that assumption.

The betting markets don’t fully reflect it, but the ATP World Finals represent a great chance to bet on the underdog in the Men’s Singles festival, with no-one having won the event by winning every match – and gaining a seven-figure prize as a result – for some years.

This year, the two groups have pitched together, as they always do, the strongest eight players in men’s tennis across the year.

In ‘Tokyo 1970’ Group, Novak Djokovic (23/20) and Daniil Medvedev (4/1) are favourites to make it through to the semi-finals, but Germany’s Alexander Zverev is a tempting 33/1 shot. It’s fair to say that this might not be Diego Schwartzman’s year, with his record in losing to Novak Djokovic in straight sets setting him up for a fall, but the Argentinian has come back from worse, and if he can find a way to beat Zverev, those odds will shrink. It really is a tough ask, however, and ‘Djoko’ would still be a good bet at this point, with the world number one sure to be fired up after a mixed year on and off the court.  

Sports betting operator SportPesa’s return to its native Kenya appears back on track – for the moment, at least – after a court quashed an effort by the local gambling regulator to block the company’s revival.

On Wednesday, Kenyan media reported that High Court Justice Pauline Nyamweya had issued a ruling striking down a Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) decision prohibiting SportPesa from relaunching its Kenyan betting business.  

SportPesa shut its local operations last year following a lengthy dispute with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) over alleged tax arrears. Last month, the company authorized new BCLB licensee Milestone Gaming Ltd to use SportPesa’s brand, mobile paybill numbers and short codes to handle wagers from Kenyan bettors.

That effort was rudely disrupted by the BCLB within hours of the new ke.SportPesa.com domain’s launch, based on the regulator’s view that local ownership of the SportPesa brand was the subject of a legal dispute. But Nyamweya’s Wednesday order instructed the Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) to lift its blocking of the new SportPesa website.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Has any team finished an NFL regular season at 14-2 but had both losses come to the same team? That seems unlikely, but it’s conceivable it could happen to the Super Bowl-favored Kansas City Chiefs in 2020.

Patrick Mahomes and company come out of their bye week at 8-1 and that lone loss was as a 12-point home favorite in Week 5 to the Las Vegas Raiders, 40-32. That was no fluke, either, as the Raiders were the better team that day and Derek Carr was frankly better than Mahomes. The Chiefs look for payback in the Sunday night game of Week 12 as they make their first-ever visit to Las Vegas. If Kansas City wins, the AFC West race is all but over. The Chiefs are -7 and have won nine straight AFC West road games.

Chiefs-Raiders could be an AFC playoff preview as could Tennessee Titans at Baltimore Ravens in the early window Sunday. Tennessee visited Baltimore in the Divisional Round of last season’s playoffs and stunned the top-seeded Ravens 28-12 behind 195 yards rushing from Derrick Henry, who also threw a touchdown pass on a trick play. Baltimore was a 10-point favorite then and is -6.5 this time. Tennessee is 0-4 ATS in its past four on the road.

A sports betting tipster promo has resulted in a spanking by the UK’s advertising watchdog, while the country’s gambling regulatory boss has warned that licensees are still making too many “poor judgments” in their marketing efforts.

On Wednesday, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint against Geordie Shore reality TV ‘star’ Sam Gowland, whose Instagram account had promoted gambling tipster service Thebettingman in June.

The Instagram story featured captions detailing the alleged winnings Gowland had reaped after placing wagers with tips provided by Thebettingman. Gowland called betting the “best second source of income I’ve ever had … hence the new car I’m getting,” while urging his followers to check out the tipster service “if u wanted to make money.”

The complainant noted that Gowland’s posts didn’t contain the required #ad hashtag indicating that it was a paid promotion. The ASA took exception with the fact that Gowland was (a) suggesting betting as a path to achieving financial security, and (b) only 24 years old at the time, which broke ad rules requiring gambling pitchmen (and women) to be at least 25.

Gathering employee feedback can be tricky. Everyone’s got their own hang-ups and fears and biases, and getting to the truth isn’t always easy. To do it, you’ll likely need a mix of face to face conversations and anonymous inputs, and the reward for listening to feedback is well worth it.

Not every organization has a well-structured employee feedback gathering system, and maybe you need some help getting started. Let’s look through some of the more popular techniques can how you can apply them.

One on Ones

The classic coaching session. Talking to your team member one on one isn’t just about getting them to improve their work, it’s just as much about learning what’s going on in their head.

It emerged today that the 2021 Australian Poker Millions have been postponed indefinitely. Australia’s most prestigious poker event has been scrapped due to the ongoing fight against COVID-19.

pic.twitter.com/bPbw3XqP3Z

— Crown Poker (@CrownPoker) November 13, 2020https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

In a statement via their website, Crown Casino Melbourne confirmed that the safety concerns for staff and players meant the tournament could not proceed as scheduled. In a recent announcement to the media, Crown CEO Ken Barton pledged to work with authorities to ensure the safety of staff and players:

Back in early September, Bulgarian player Stoyan Madanzhiev became the WSOP Main Event champion. To him, and the poker world at the time, that meant he was the 51st world champion of the game following in the footsteps of players such as Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan, as well as, of course, the 2019 WSOP Main Event winner, Hossain Ensan.

That was until this week, however. The World Series of Poker announced a brand-new ‘Hybrid’ Main Event, costing $10,000 to enter and having no rebuy function, they referred to it as the WSOP Main Event, as in the 51st WSOP Main Event, eradicating Madanzhiev’s win as the crowning of the World Champion.

Upset, Madanzhiev this week discussed his feelings with a fellow WSOP bracelet winner in Daniel Negreanu, who quite literally signed off on Madanzhiev’s bracelet win back in September.

I totally understand why you are upset man. I do.

Casinos in the US are having a difficult time crawling out from under the COVID-19 rock. States began to relax shutdown measures this past summer when they believed they had figured out how to keep the coronavirus from spreading, but spikes started appearing everywhere that forced a lot of commercial activity once again to be halted. Casinos in several states reduced their hours of operations in an effort to avoid a complete shutdown, but the recent decision by Michigan to force its Detroit gambling properties to take a complete break may have been a prelude of what’s to come. Illinois has now followed suit, and casinos in the state will have to halt operations beginning this Friday.

According to the latest figures, Illinois has seen 12,601 new daily confirmed and probably COVID-19 cases, a trend that has been seen for the past 12 days. The state has reported a total of just under 600,000 since the coronavirus pandemic began, and the recent return of the virus is forcing Governor J.B. Pritzker to take action. Casinos, gaming centers and indoor sports centers will close for two weeks starting this Friday, with evaluations taken at the end of the period to determine whether or not to keep the measures in place. Gatherings at locations such as meeting rooms, party rooms, country clubs, etc., are also forbidden – just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday on November 26.

Following the 14-day period, changes could be seen only if a region sees a seven-day average COVID—19 positivity rate of under 12% for three consecutive days. COVID-19-related hospitalizations for seven out of the previous ten days will also need to be on the downturn, and hospitals will also need to have at least 20% availability in their intensive care units and hospital beds for three consecutive days. If any of the three requirements isn’t met, the new policies will remain intact.

If Pritzker’s prediction is correct, the chances of seeing the shutdown reversed are pretty slim. During his daily coronavirus briefing yesterday, he said, “We will continue to see a rise in both hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 for weeks ahead because of the infections that have already happened. But we can change our longer-term outcome. We can save potentially thousands of lives in the next few months if we make changes right now to stop this in its tracks.”

Without even wanting to get into all the standard cynical and sarcastic comments that surround Capitol Hill and how things are perceived by the people, a decision by Washington, DC leaders to give Intralot almost complete control of the district’s sports gambling activity is continuously proven to have been flawed. The gaming company has had its share of controversies, both in DC and around the world, but the DC Council felt it was the best choice when Intralot was approved as the sole provider for DC’s online sports gambling app. However, that decision could come back to haunt the district, as well as Intralot. 

DC gave Intralot control, knowing that the company may have fudged certain details about its activity to win over the Council. All attempts at trying to convince council members to see the errors of their decision fell on deaf ears and not even a lawsuit could change their minds. Perhaps the fact that the sports gambling app, GambetDC, is failing miserably will finally get them to open their eyes. 

While online sportsbooks everywhere are running circles around retail alternatives, DC is the exception. Intralot provides GambetDC, while William Hill U.S. is behind the physical sportsbook located at Capital One Arena. In September, William Hill saw around $12 million in action, compared to the roughly $3.1 million wagered through the app. GambetDC may have been able to see some improvements in the months leading up to September, but they weren’t enough to keep the Council from lowering its budget expectations from the app from $28 million to $12 million. 

September was just the beginning, too. In October, William Hill’s total handle from its Capital One sportsbook ops came in at right around $14.35 million, up 17.8% from the previous month. For the same period, Gambet reported a total handle of $4.17 million. The difference is staggering and reflects trouble seen since this past summer. Colorado and DC launched their sports gambling markets at around the same time, yet Colorado saw a total handle of $63 million from May and June – over $60 million more than what had been reported in DC for the same period. 

The Philippines have taken a major step towards legalized, online wagering for cockfighting, and making sure they get their taxes for it as well. The House Committee on Ways and Means have approved, at least in principle, a measure imposing taxes on what’s locally called sabong.

The measure specifically seeks to create transparency around cockfighting broadcast online, so that the government can figure out how much tax its owed. “The operations of online betting on sabong are authorized by local ordinances,” said chairman Joey Salceda. “Because of the digital shift, there are now electronic betting operations on such games. But the electronic aspect of it is a gray area, even though the airwaves is national property.”

“Because of this ambiguity, we are unable to levy national taxes on these activities. By clarifying this gray area in my proposal, we hope to raise multiples more in revenues than the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) collection from cockpits of P13.7 million ($280,000) in 2019,” he added.

The measure seeks to impose a tax regime on “Offsite Betting Activities on Locally Licensed Games,” but will not aply to “games and activities specifically authorized by law to be performed by the government gaming authorities, such as the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and the Philippine Charity and Sweepstakes office (PCSO).” A new 5% tax would be imposed on gross revenue, in addition to local taxes and regulatory fees.

Aristocrat Leisure, the live and digital gaming equipment supplier out of Australia, released its end-of-year report for fiscal year 2020 today, and the results are mixed. The company states that it has delivered “strong full year performance and cash flows” but, at the same time, was forced to report a decline in profits. When all the numbers were crunched and the final total revealed, Aristocrat’s normalized profit for the year had dropped by 46.7% over the prior year’s results.

Aristocrat recorded post-tax profit of around US$347.1 million; however, its reported profit was entered as a little more than $1 billion, thanks, in part, to $804.98 million in a deferred tax asset. That represents a 97.2% year-on-year increase, which was shored up by improvements in its Class III premium and Class II electronic machine segments. These gained 5.9% and 0.3%, respectively, in the year, and Aristocrat adds that it saw “continued penetration” in existing markets as it continues to deliver “leading hardware configurations and high-performing game titles” to its clients.

Group revenue, on the other hand, saw a slight drop from FY 2019 to FY 2020. Aristocrat lost 5.9% over the period, showing total group operating revenue of just over $3.02 billion. Pre-EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) group earnings stumbled, as well, with the company taking a 31.8% hit. That figure came in at $797.6 million, producing an EBITDA margin of 26.3%, down from the 36.3% it saw a year earlier.

Shareholders received a little bit of good news with the filing, though. Aristocrat plans on giving them a little holiday bonus and confirmed that it will pay an end-of-year dividend. The company didn’t pay an interim dividend this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but is ready to hand out some rewards now. Investors shouldn’t expect anywhere close to the $0.41-per-share they received in 2019, though, as Aristocrat only plans on paying $0.073 this time around. Overall, that’s a hefty sum that amounts to an expense of $46.78 million, made possible through the company’s “effective COVID-19 response,” as well as its continuing improved performance.

Financial regulators getting comfortable with digital currencies will likely go a long way toward gambling regulators adopting them too. That means, Hong Kong’s securities regulator putting out new blanket regulations for the medium of exchange is an important step towards a digital currency future.

The Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission have announced that all digital currencies, regardless of whether they are considered securities are not, will have to meet certain regulations. This changes a previous opt-in policy for currencies that were not designated as securities, and is regarded as a fix to a loophole.

By choosing not to opt-in to regulations, some digital currency purveyors could argue that their token was not a security and work outside the rules. That opened up a huge grey area where some coins could be used for potentially nefarious purposes but claim they had nothing holding them back, and prevented legitimate businesses from seriously investing in the digital currency revolution.

SFC chief executive Ashley Alder explained it at a recent conference, “This is a significant limitation, as under the current legislative framework, if a platform operator is really determined to operate completely off the regulatory radar, it can do so simply by ensuring that its traded crypto assets are not within the legal definition of a security.”