After just under 2 years in the position, Sandra Douglass Morgan has revealed she will be leaving her role as chairwoman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB). She will step down on November 6.

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak, who appointed her to the role, made the announcement on October 29. He noted she will be “greatly missed, but her leadership and ability to put together a talented team has left the state in a great position to fill the role with another accomplished individual.”

Morgan issued her own statement, noting that the past 22 months as NGCB chair was “honor of a lifetime.” A talented and accomplished attorney, Morgan noted that she was moving on to a new “professional opportunity.”

Before stepping up to be Sisolak’s first appointed NGCB chair in January 2019, Morgan was the first black city attorney in the state. She was worked previously for AT&T Services and MGM Resorts International. She took over for former NGCB chair Becky Harris, who’s tenure was notable for having to handle all of Steve Wynn’s sexual harassment problems.

The 13 has been a headache for South Shore Holdings almost since it began. The Macau hotel project was meant to ultimately include a casino, but a number of obstacles have popped up over the years that have kept those plans at bay. With financial losses increasing, South Shore has been looking to sell the asset, and found someone willing to take possession of half of the property last November. However, that deal ultimately fell through, and it still has been unable to crawl out from underneath the load. The company is ready to do whatever it takes to remove the thorn from its side and says that it’s determined to find a buyer by the end of next March.

The agreement to sell 50% of The 13 came crashing down last month after the two sides were unable to reach an agreement to extend certain purchase requirements. As if South Shore weren’t already dealing with enough issues, it had to refund the deposit that had been placed, and was also having to deal with mounting pressure from creditors. The company was forced to report net losses of $131.6 million for the month of September, with outstanding net liabilities of $567.5 million as of the end of March of this year, which coincides with South Shore’s fiscal year. 

As a result, the company is going to concentrate harder on getting rid of the property before the end of the current fiscal year. If it succeeds, it will be able to avoid an “audit modification” that could be necessary following statement’s by South Shore’s official auditor regarding the company’s financial health. Those statements include concerns over “certain uncertainties” arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as The 13’s repeated lack of performance. 

The audit modification could be possible because the company’s auditor’s conclusion differs from that provided by an independent auditor South Shore had used to assess its financial health. That auditor determined that The 13 was valued at $528.8 million, which is substantially different from later valuations and far from reflective of the sales price that had been negotiated for the 50% stake. That agreement would have seen investors buying half of the property for only around $96.7 million.

Playtech PLC can give itself a pat on the back after securing a new agreement with BoyleSports, the second-largest gambling company in Ireland. The two have had a long-running partnership that was renewed in 2017 for four years, and BoyleSports is sufficiently satisfied with Playtech’s operations that it has decided to keep them around. Playtech announced yesterday that it has signed a five-year extension on its existing agreement to continue offering iGaming technology and systems to the company in Ireland and the UK.

Playtech indicated that BoyleSports will use its “full iGaming suite” of options to lead the operator’s online casino, poker, bingo and slot machine activity. It will also be behind BoyleSports’ live casino gaming operations, providing an exclusive platform to the company’s users. The renewal follows Playtech’s complete overhaul of BoyleSports’ Irish retail network to include new terminals and technology facilitated by Playtech BGT Sports.

BoyleSports CEO Conor Gray is confident that the renewal is worthwhile, asserting, “Having had a strong and successful partnership with Playtech for many years now, the extension of our agreement for another five years represents an exciting opportunity to continue growing our business. We’re passionate about creating the best possible player experience across all verticals, and we’re confident that the continued partnership with Playtech will allow us to do exactly that.”

Playtech took a hit this year because of COVID-19, resulting in the company seeing its profits drop 85% in the first half. This was mostly due to coronavirus-forced shutdowns and drops in gaming activity in Asia, with mixed performance seen across its B2B and B2C segments. However, the new agreement should help give it a boost, especially with shareholders. Over the past month, the stock price has seen substantial volatility, starting at $455.22 on October 1 before climbing to $489.96 on October 9. Since then, it has continued to see declines and, as of yesterday, was sitting at $426.42.

Betsson’s Acquisition Director Eitan Gorodetsky is a fan of the innovations that affiliates are developing in the digital marketing arena. He believes that the 2020 working environment has presented some opportunities for operators to revolutionize digital marketing streams. The Betsson Director took some time out to describe how affiliates are coping with the added focus on regulation and describe some of the new trends he is seeing with our very own Becky Liggero Fontana.

Gorodetsky believes that affiliate operators are starting to develop better communication strategies when it comes to dealing with compliance. “We need to educate especially our big partners to tell them how to do things, tell them how to communicate with the audiences and keep compliance,” Gorodetsky said. “At the same time, we expect our partners to also take the extra steps to double-check the commercials and everything they load up. Otherwise, we will not be able to work with them properly.”

Gorodetsky conceded that regulations surrounding affiliates can also become complicated. “Sometimes regulation and compliance can become very complex and you need a lawyer’s view. we are happy to give that support, we’re willing to help them grow to consult with us, it’s a two-way stream.”

Turning the conversation towards innovation in the sector, as a fellow gamer himself, Gorodetsky was delighted that affiliates are pivoting towards streaming services.

Casino operator MGM Resorts lost over half a billion dollars in the third quarter of 2020 but claims to see “signs of stability and recovery” amidst all the doom and gloom.

On Thursday, MGM reported revenue of $1.12b in the three months ending September 30, a two-thirds decline from the same period last year. The company booked an operating loss of $495m and a net loss of $535m versus a $37m net loss in Q3 2019.

MGM’s Q3 2019 red ink was blamed on a non-cash impairment related to the sale of real estate under some of its Vegas casinos. This year, it’s COVID-19 getting the blame and the impairment is all too real.

In Las Vegas, MGM’s revenue was down 68% year-on-year to $481m and earnings – before paying rent to its REIT landlord – plunged 97% to just $15m as the casinos struggled under their new COVID-19 capacity limits. Table game drop and slots handle were both down 41%, while hotel occupancy slumped 48 points to just 44%.

Casino operator Penn National Gaming (PNG) saw its profit more than triple in the third quarter, while hailing its new Barstool Sports betting product as a customer acquisition machine.

Figures released Thursday show PNG generated revenue of $1.13b in the three months ending September 30, down 16.6% from the same period last year. However, in what’s becoming a pattern with US regional casino operators, PNG’s adjusted earnings gained 10.2% to $343.6m while net income more than tripled to $141.2m.

All of PNG’s geographic casino segments posted negative revenue growth in Q3, led by the Northeast ($545m, -13.3%), South ($255.6m, -7.2%), Midwest ($229m, -17%) and West ($78.7m, -51.2%). But only the West segment posted negative earnings growth, while the Northeast and South segments were up 8.3% and 35%, respectively.

The lone revenue gainer was PNG’s ‘other’ grouping, which includes its nascent sports betting, online gambling and social gaming operations. ‘Other’ revenue nearly doubled year-on-year to $23.7m while the segment cut its net earnings loss to $14.6m from a $25m loss in Q3 2019.

The Premier League’s last set of games before an International break are always full-on affairs. With 100% effort, energy and application, the three points on offer for each of the 20 sides will be fiercely fought for.

Last season some terrific matches go right to the death, such as Spurs’ vital 1-0 win at Burnley, which could yet have huge title-winning ramifications come the end of the season.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB7WwYlwGBU]

Who’ll prevail? Let’s take a look at three games in detail and then give you our tips for all 10 fixtures. Last week, four of our tips came in, providing sportsbetting readers with a better than 2:1 return on their investment. No pressure, then.

Problem gambling treatment programs in the UK have enabled 60% of gamblers to shed their ‘problem’ designation by the end of treatment.

A new report by the UK’s industry-funded GambleAware charity showed the effects on over 9k individuals who made use of the new National Gambling Treatment Service (NGTS), a network of organizations set up last year to offer confidential treatment and support for individuals suffering from gambling harm.

Of the clients who completed treatment between April 2019 and March 2020, 90% showed improvement on the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) scale. Even better, of the individuals who qualified as problem gamblers under the PGSI, 60% no longer qualified for that designation by the end of treatment, which averaged around eight weeks in duration.

The vast majority (86%) of individuals who finished their treatment also reduced their CORE-10 score (which measures psychological distress). Even those who ended their treatment early posted better CORE-10 scores, with nearly three-quarters ranking below the threshold of ‘moderate’ distress.  

MrGambol Wins Super MILLION$ as Astedt is Bridesmaid Again 

Another Super MILLION$ title is in the bag and while it was Artur Martirosyan and Michael Addamo who went into play as the top two in chips, neither would make the heads-up as Niklas Astedt lost out to ‘MrGambol’ at the business end of the GGPoker tournament.  

Astedt still hasn’t won a Super MILLION$ event, the weekly $10,300-entry poker tournament that takes place exclusively on GGPoker. This time, he was outlasted by just one player as Austria-based poker player ‘MrGambol’ took the title and $324,053 top prize.  

With the final table starting with the last surviving nine players from a total of 154 entries, the first player to leave the event was Mexico’s ‘Nator’, who was all-in for just less than three big blinds with ace-eight and fell to Astedt’s big blind call with nine-six, which flopped a straight.  

The last few days of hype are upon us, and while Daniel Negreanu and Doug Polk have been at the practice tables a fair bit this week, they’ve not been doing so very quietly, updating fans on the plans to bring the first 200 hands of action to viewers on PokerGO.  

Yes, far from all the action being online, the first 200 hands – admittedly of 25,000 in total – will take place in the PokerGO studio with viewers able to see hole cards throughout.  

Negreanu was understandably excited to announce this on Twitter.  

It’s soon, so I figured I would get everyone straight on the start date for the match.

This week’s interview with The Secret Coach comes in a week that has affected all football coaches deeply. Former Manchester City academy player Jeremy Wisten took his own life at the age of 17 in what is a shocking story that has rocked the football world.  

In an interview with the Manchester Evening News, Wisten’s mother Manila said: “We are very saddened and shocked by our son’s death. We love him and always will love him. He was a very happy boy who was taken away too soon. He was very friendly and always smiling. He loved football and was aiming for a career in the game. He was very popular at Manchester City, at school and with his friends, not just here but also in his homeland in Malawi. It is still so difficult to understand how we came to be in this situation.”  

So why did Jeremy Wisten take his own life?  

Each week we speak to The Secret Coach, who you’ll know by now is a working professional football coach at one of England’s league clubs. Their identity is a secret, but this week above all, their honesty is always stark. We began by asking TSC their reaction to the awful news that we all read at the start of this week.  

Dutch gambling regulators are claiming victory in their fight against online ‘loot boxes’ offered by video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA).

On Thursday, the District Court of The Hague issued a ruling upholding an administrative order issued last year by the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) gambling regulator that imposed penalties of up to €10m on EA for offering so-called ‘Packs’ in the company’s FIFA football video game.

The KSA’s 2019 order came after it concluded that EA’s loot boxes were an illegal game of chance under Dutch gambling regulations due to the random value of the contents, as well as the fact that the virtual items could be traded or sold for real-world currency on third party sites.

The KSA ordered video game companies to amend their products to ensure compliance with Dutch law, but neither EA nor its Electronic Arts Swiss Sàrl subsidiary complied. As a result, the KSA issued a ‘cease & desist’ order against the two EA firms, making them liable for penalties of up to €5m each.

Macau casino operator SJM Holdings lost $133m in the third quarter as the gaming market struggled to shake off its pandemic hangover.

Preliminary figures released Thursday show the Hong Kong-listed SJM generated revenue of just HK$879m ($113.4m) in the three months ending September 30, down 89.3% from the same period last year. The company booked negative earnings of HK$782m (-182.3%) and a net loss of over HK$1b (-239.7%).

The company didn’t mince words, saying it had been “severely impacted” by the COVID-19 pandemic, and its year-to-date losses have grown to HK$2.44b as revenue slumped by nearly 80% over the first nine months of 2020.

VIP gambling turnover was down 95.5% to just HK$4.1b but an outsized 4.9% win rate (+1.8 points) limited the VIP gambling revenue decline to a slightly less onerous 93%. But the HK$200m in VIP revenue was dwarfed by the mass market table contribution of HK$690m (-89%) while slot machines suffered the smallest decline, falling 80.8% to HK$57m.

Nordic online gambling operator Kindred Group is taking its first steps into the land-based casino business after a deal for Rank Group’s last Belgian venue.

On Thursday, the Stockholm-listed Kindred announced that it had reached a deal with UK-based Rank to pay £25m for Blankenberge Casino-Kursaal (Blancas) NV, which operates Casino Blankenberge in the West Flanders city. Kindred expects the deal to close before the year’s end, pending regulatory approval.

Kindred already has ties to the Blankenberge casino, having partnered with the venue since 2012 on a locally licensed online casino and poker operation under Kindred’s flagship Unibet brand.

Kindred said the acquisition demonstrates the company’s “long-term commitment” to its Belgian online gambling customers, who are now ensured of a “broad offering” at the company’s Belgian-licensed site.  Kindred plans to maintain the casino’s current management team, which is led by Dominique De Wilde.

The U.S. casino industry faces a nervous wait as industry leaders call on the Federal government to provide financial support to stimulate an industry recovery.

Casino industry leaders are seeking tax breaks as they look to break into recovery mode from the pandemic. In March, casinos were forced into a mandatory closure, costing billions in lost tax revenue for states across the U.S.

A sense of optimism is creeping across the casino industry in the U.S. with several casinos re-opening, albeit under heavy social distancing guidelines to slow the spread of COVID-19 across tourism areas.

The casino industry is calling on the government to provide financial aid, with several casinos forced to lay off a significant portion of their staff as tourism and player restrictions continue to slow a recovery. This week the MGM Grand, Park MGM and Tropicana all announced that they would be reducing the size of their staff.

With Philippine Offshore Gambling Operator (POGO) money quickly leaving the country, the government is looking more seriously at cockfighting as a new source of revenue. But with the activity not being legal in all parts of the country, one policeman learned just how dangerous a cock can be, the hard way.

A new bill in the House of Representatives seeks to tax offsite betting on cockfights, or sabong as its known locally. House Bill 7991 would set up an electronic gambling tax with the aim to fund coronavirus efforts, while also regulating the legal gray areas of the activity.

“The operations are already legal, by virtue of local ordinances, but the electronic aspect of it is a legal gray area. Because of the ambiguity, we are unable to levy national taxes on these activities, or look into their operations. My bill addresses that concern,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jose Maria Clemente S. Salceda, who filed the bill.

“The tax shall be 5% of gross revenues derived from offsite betting activities, and shall not be in lieu of taxes required by the local government units, and regulatory fees and charges imposed by government agencies,” Salceda said.  “This is consistent with the bill’s intention not to overstep the authority of the local government units (LGUs).”