Casino operator Caesars Entertainment has lost a bid to prevent a wide-ranging probe of its controversial asset transfers.

On Thursday, US Bankruptcy Judge A. Benjamin Goldgar approved Caesars’ request for the appointment of an independent examiner to look into transfers of certain assets out of Caesars’ main unit Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. (CEOC) into other Caesars divisions. CEOC, which holds 80% of Caesars’ industry high debt load, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January.

The asset transfers resulted in multiple legal challenges by junior creditors, who claimed Caesars had ‘looted’ CEOC in order to shield its more profitable assets from the bankruptcy proceeding. Caesars has proposed a restructuring plan that would transform CEOC into a real estate investment trust but the plan calls for junior creditors to recoup only about 10% of the $5b they are collectively owed.

Caesars had asked the bankruptcy court to appoint an outside examiner and offered to provide $10m to fund the examination. But Caesars also asked that the court shut down more invasive probes by junior creditors, who’d argued that Caesars was trying to limit the scope of the examiner’s investigation.

The European Commission has approved Poland’s plans to amend its gambling laws, including lifting the requirement for international operators to establish a local subsidiary.

The amendments to the Polish Gambling Act were intended to accomplish two goals. First, they resolve the EC’s criticisms that Poland’s gambling laws ran counter to European Union edicts on the movement of goods and services between EU member states. Second, they lift the requirement for operators to create a “permanent establishment” in Poland, which operators had protested as an unnecessary expense.

Despite having opened up its online sports betting market to international firms in 2011, Poland has so far issued just four licenses to Fortuna Entertainment, Milenium, STS and Totolek.

Not to say that international operators aren’t interested in the Polish market. According to the Supreme Audit Office, the number of international sites targeting Polish punters rose from 86 in 2012 to 156 last year. Association of Polish Bookmakers spokesman Pawel Rabantek told Polish daily Rzeczpospolita that these international sites had “conquered” 91% of the online betting market. Rabantek said these sites’ annual turnover topped PLN 5b (€1.2b) and that Poland was missing out on hundreds of millions of zloty in lost tax revenue each year.

A German biologist has learned the hard way that publicly declared wagers are legally enforceable.

Measles is increasingly in the news these days thanks to a recent resurgence in outbreaks that observers have blamed on the discredited anti-vaccination movement in many western countries. But while anti-vaxxers believe vaccines can be worse than the diseases those vaccines are meant to prevent, they don’t necessarily dispute that the highly contagious measles disease is caused by a virus.

Biologist and vaccination skeptic Stefan Lanka (pictured right) begs to differ, espousing the theory that measles is a psychosomatic condition brought on by “traumatic separations.” Lanka was so enamored with his theory that he made a public offering via his website to pay €100k to anyone who could prove the disease was caused by a virus. Lanka said his intent was “to get people to enlighten themselves.”

Enter German doctor David Barden (pictured left), who saw not only lunacy but also profit in Lanka’s challenge. Barden gathered a suitably weighty collection of scientific evidence of measles’ viral origin and presented them to Lanka with a request for payment of the €100k. Lanka rejected Barden’s evidence so the undeterred Barden took Lanka to court.

Investor Carl Icahn has been granted control of Trump Entertainment Resorts after a bankruptcy judge approved the troubled casino operator’s reorganization plan.

Trump Entertainment, which operates the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, the fourth such filing in the company’s not-so-illustrious history. Icahn, who holds $290m of the company’s debt, will receive 100% of the reorganized company’s equity according to the plan approved on Thursday by Delaware bankruptcy judge Kevin Gross.

To secure the support of a creditors’ committee, Icahn agreed to provide unsecured creditors with $3.5m in cash, $2.5m more than they would have received had the property gone into liquidation. Icahn also agreed to provide up to $82.5m to keep the Taj Mahal going while it gets back on its feet. In exchange, creditors agreed to release Icahn and Trump Entertainment from liability from future litigation.

The plan can yet be undone by the Taj Mahal’s unionized workers, who are appealing an October court ruling that voided their health and pension benefit programs. Trump Entertainment financial adviser William Hardie said the company had enough cash to maintain operations while the appeal is pending but Icahn has the option of walking away from the deal should the appeal succeed.

Lottery services and products provider Pollard Banknote says the Michigan Lottery’s new online site is performing better than expected.

In delivering its Q4 results, the Canada-based Pollard noted that initial results from the November launch of the Michigan Lottery’s iLottery site have been “very encouraging.” Pollard said “all metrics have met or exceeded original targets including revenue, player registrations and net proceeds for the lottery.” Pollard and online lottery provider NeoGames Network Ltd. were selected in December 2013 to power the iLottery site.

KENTUCKY LOTTERY CEO ASKS MITCH MCCONNELL FOR RAWA EXEMPTION

Michigan’s online lottery site and similar sites in other states would be forced offline if federal politicians pass the controversial Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA). The bill, which has a House committee hearing on March 26, would bar all forms of intrastate online gambling except advance deposit wagering on horse races, fantasy sports and charitable gaming.

BetConstruct, the award-winning developer and provider of online and land-based betting and gaming solutions and services, has announced today the launch of a new ground-breaking service called Game Store.

Game Store allows game developers the opportunity to turn their creativity and technical expertise into hard cash and earn royalties from any and all of their games that get deployed on the BetConstruct platform.

BetConstruct has established a transparent process and concise API to make it simple for third parties to integrate casino and skill games into their platform.

Vahe Baloulian, BetConstruct’s CEO said “This type of opportunity offers the potential for any independent developer or game expert to have unfettered access to a revenue stream that has, until now, been mostly beyond their reach. It is part of the innovative Spring Platform, which we launched at the ICE 2015. There are so many incredible developers who don’t have the opportunity to complete “the last mile” – i.e. to get their games in front of the real money gambling public. Game Store changes everything in this regard. It is a win-win situation for all as BetConstruct gets to offer their partners totally new and unique games.”

Now that we’ve gotten a chance to take a few breaths and settle down from the whirlwind coverage of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. – Manny Pacquiao fight, it’s time go finally go back to what we do best: taking a look at the betting market surrounding the fight.

It’s already been established that Mayweather is the favorite leading up to the fight, even though the action so far has been heavy on the Filipino southpaw. The one-sided bets favoring Pacquiao have even forced some sportsbooks to drop his odds and raise Mayweather’s own odds. This time, though, we’re going to dive into the first round – no pun intended – of prop bets that have been released.

Usually, the more kooky prop bets are released closer to the fight, but for now, round betting and fight outcome are what’s already being offered.

The first prop is a pretty straight-forward, asking the question on whether the fight will go the distance or not. A bet on the fight going all 12 rounds is the favorite at 1/3 odds while a bet on a stoppage is a short underdog at 23/10. There’s not a lot of surprise here because most pundits believe that the fight will go to decision, hence the heavy favorite odds on that happening.

The Sun City Group, the largest junket operator in Macau, has plans to invest in a hotel and casino project in Phu Quoc, an island in the southwest portion the Kien Giang in Vietnam.

According to Vietnamnet, the  company CEO Alvin Chau Cheok Wa said, during a meeting with local authorities, that Sun City was willing to put up a resort and casino in Rach Tram hamlet in Bai Thom or Bai Truong in Duong To commune, should current investors who have dibs on the area decide to withdraw their projects.

Kien Giang province Vice Chair Nguyen Thanh Nghi, who recommended that the company submit official documents for the government to consider, welcomed Sun City in Vietnam. Nghi pointed out that any proposal submitted to the government should come with a full understanding of certain provisions on foreign investment laid out by the state, particularly those targeting Vietnam’s gaming and casino industries.

The announcement is a positive shot in the arm for Vietnamese officials who welcome foreign gaming and casino operators, who are beginning to see Vietnam as an attractive tourist destination in Southeast Asia.

Casino operator Sands China has unveiled its new movie-style TV spot starring retired footballer and former England captain David Beckham under the marketing campaign “Never Settle.”

Remember when Sands China scrubbed the debut of a marketing push it had created starring Beckham last month? Turns out, the casino operator merely shelved it temporarily, delaying the launch for one month for reasons that are still unclear.

Beckham is at the heart of the ad, walking around Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, dressed up all suave-looking and inviting everyone to enjoy all the spoils the integrated resort and casino have to offer.

The Anthony Mandler-directed TV spot is just one aspect of the “Never Settle” campaign, which will also consist of newspaper and magazine ads, as well as billboards spread all over Asia, particularly in Singapore, Indonesia, China and Malaysia.

My Poker Pal are putting the ‘banter’ into poker, quite literally, after announcing plans to host Strip Poker, Crazy Shots, and Masked Events at their inaugural Grand Party Festival in Montenegro.

At the tail end of January I sat down with My Poker Pal founder Paul Rimmer to talk about his dreams.

It was a simple.

He wanted to put the banter back into poker.

The sports world has been embroiled in one episode of outright lunacy after another in recent weeks. From Russell Westbrook morphing into the Highlander to the ongoing mess that is NFL free agency, there’s so much going on in the world of sports that keeping up has become a workout in it of itself. I haven’t even made a peep about the excitement surrounding the Mayweather-Pacquiao mega fight, the circus of nuttiness that is the Champions League, and the ongoing Cricket World Cup (shout out to the fellas over there in Oz!). You could say that my sports calendar looks like a grocery list by now, and yet, I know that I still need to keep enough space for the biggest sports spectacle of the month.

March freakin’ Madness.

See, there’s a reason why March is dominated by college basketball and it boils down to two things: rooting interest and gambling. I didn’t go to any of the schools that are likely going to the tournament so that first part is of little interest to me. The second part, though, is where I’ll be taking a lot of action, boss.

Gambling is such in an ingrained part of March Madness that a lot of people from all walks of life gamble on the tournament without even knowing that they’re doing it. Yes, those office pools and bracket wagers generally involve monetary transactions, making them a form of gambling. But that’s beside the point. What’s important is that March Madness is arguably the most important sporting event for any sports book in a calendar year…and that includes the Super Bowl.

Lee Davy pores through the weekly news stories including Mukul Pahuja and Mike Sexton stirring up a little C&C, and the Godfather of Poker having surgery to remove a melanoma and then back to the tables within a week.

Sometimes writing this column is like eating soup with chopsticks, but this week I got a big spoon.

We start with the reigning World Poker Tour (WPT) Player of the Year, Mukul Pahuja. Talk about a man on a tear. The Florida native had made the trek to Maryland to play in the state’s first World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC), when he took to twitter to share a four page iPhone notes account of all the things pissing him off.

It seems the spark that ignited the Pahuja petrol bomb came from the organizers of the WSOPC Baltimore Main Event. They took the rather crass approach of advertising a $1m guarantee, after the prize pool had topped $960,000.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has proposed using unclaimed casino winnings to help cover the costs of medical examinations of rape victims.

On Thursday, Jindal revealed that he is working with state Rep. Helena Moreno to end the practice of charging sexual assault victims for the cost of their post-attack medical exams. The Times-Picayne recently reported that rape victims can expect to pay up to $4,200 to cover the costs of these exams, creating a further deterrent to victims coming forward to report their attacks.

Jindal’s office claims the state’s casinos keep around $2.3m per year from unclaimed winning horseracing tickets and expired slot machine tickets. Jindal and Moreno want to divert those funds to the Crime Victims Reparations Fund. The plan would enable the state to receive an additional $1.2m in federal money for the Fund.

Moreno says she expects “there will be some opposition” from the casinos, who have been booking the unclaimed funds as earnings, “but I couldn’t think of a better cause.” Jindal’s assistant chief of staff Stafford Palmieri said the governor had “reached out to the gaming community and they agree this is a good cause.” Palmieri said the state would reimburse casino operators for any taxes they might owe on the unclaimed winnings.

Amanda Leatherman made a surprise return to poker as a special guest sideline reporter for the Heartland Poker Tour Main Event at the Indigo Casino; an event Reginald Roberts stuffed into his back pocket.

[Image Credit: PokerNews]

Former PokerStars Big Game host, Amanda Leatherman, has made a surprise return to poker. The Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) decided to bring her into the Indigo Sky Casino production as a ‘special guest’ sideline reporter.

Leatherman has been spending her time working on Star 1043 radio as part of the Josh and Amanda In the Morning show alongside her co-host Josh Michael. It’s unknown whether Leatherman will return to a full time position at the HPT.

The New Jersey Championship of Online Poker II will offer a guarantee of $1m in prizes, after a tentative schedule was released on 2+2, and the World Series of Poker have approached Nevada gaming regulators for a rule change that will allow them to end their first WSOP online tournament with a six-handed live final table at the Rio.

How times change.

There was a time when American online poker players rocked. When PokerStars were a burgeoning beast, but partypoker ruled the world. This week, the release of various online poker tournament schedules show how far things have drifted.

PokerStars are now the Daddy of most of the world. This week they released their tentative schedule for the Spring Championships of Online Poker (SCOOP) series. A 15-day marathon hosting 135 different events, with guarantees bound to exceed the $40m they delivered in 2014.

Atlantic City casinos took a step back in February, as the eight remaining operators saw gaming revenue decline 2% to $168m.

While the decline can be chalked up to a prolonged spate of frigid temperatures across the US northeast, it comes as a disappointment following January’s nearly 18% year-on-year gain. The decline would have been nearly 15% if contributions from the four casinos that closed last year were included. The $168m figure doesn’t include the $10.4m the state’s regulated online gambling market earned in February.

As ever, the Borgata was top banana with $44.9m, although that was down 2.1% year-on-year. Runner-up Harrah’s rose 3.9% to $27.4m while Caesars fell 3.7% to $24.7m and the Tropicana slipped 1.5% to $19.4m.

The Golden Nugget enjoyed the month’s biggest gain, rising 15.4% to $14.5m, allowing it to eclipse Bally’s, which fell 13.6% to $14.4m. Resorts gained 10.6% to $10.7m while the Trump Taj Mahal continued to struggle, falling 22.7% to $12.1m.

New Jersey’s regulated online gambling market earned revenue of $10.4m in February, up $100k over January‘s take despite another seven-figure online casino jackpot.

Notwithstanding that $1.5m jackpot at Betfair’s online casino last month, the casino vertical rose 16.1% year-on-year to $8.35m. The online poker vertical persisted in its tilting ways, falling 34.2% year-on-year to $2.05m, down nearly 11% from January’s take.

The Borgata/Bwin.party/Pala Interactive combo continued its market domination, capturing $3.7m of the overall revenue pie. The casino vertical accounted for $2.6m (+100k), while poker added $1.1m (-$180k).

Caesars Interactive Entertainment sites, including 888.com, earned $2.5m, with nearly $1.6m from casino and $942k from poker. CIE’s overall revenue was down $150k from January, with casino down $100k and poker off by $50k.