iGaming North America is coming up quickly and I think its safe to say the only people who know the session details better than I do are the conference organizers themselves.

My role at iGaming North America requires a deep knowledge of the sessions on offer, the topics to be discussed within those sessions and a familiarity with those who will be presenting them.  After spending many hours with the agenda and speaker details, I would like to share my top five sessions to attend for those who can make itnext week and for those who can’t make it, keep your eyes peeled for my daily reports from the event.

Before getting started, I would like to commend team iGaming North America for putting together a fantastic agenda that includes a nice mix of hard-core sessions, juicy panels, Q&A, creativity and fun.  As discussed in my interview with Sue Schneider, after familiarizing yourself with the session content, you can tell the creators of this event are experienced industry professionals.

1)2015Visionaries Panel: Reality Check – The State of the Industry

Macau casinos’ VIP gaming market fell over 45% in March and junket operators say April isn’t looking any better.

Official numbers from Macau gaming regulators aren’t due for another couple weeks, but Deutsche Bank analysts believe the VIP market fell 45.4% year-on-year in March, well above the 39% decline in overall gaming revenue. VIP turnover was reportedly off an even more alarming 54.2%.

Mass market gaming revenue was believed to be down a modest 29.4% and slots were off 24.4% from March 2014. Sands China’s mass market decline was one point worse than the overall mass decline, while Wynn Macau boasted a mass decline of just 4.7%.

Macau earned MOP 21.5b (US $2.7b) in gaming revenue in March, but early projections are that April will come in lower. An informal polling of some casino junket operators by Macao Daily put April’s expected revenue total at no better than MOP 20b. One junket operator suggested the VIP market wouldn’t recover until (a) Beijing slowed the corruption crackdown train and (b) the mainland’s economy picked up.

Macau casinos’ VIP gaming market fell over 45% in March and junket operators say April isn’t looking any better.

Official numbers from Macau gaming regulators aren’t due for another couple weeks, but Deutsche Bank analysts believe the VIP market fell 45.4% year-on-year in March, well above the 39% decline in overall gaming revenue. VIP turnover was reportedly off an even more alarming 54.2%.

Mass market gaming revenue was believed to be down a modest 29.4% and slots were off 24.4% from March 2014. Sands China’s mass market decline was one point worse than the overall mass decline, while Wynn Macau boasted a mass decline of just 4.7%.

Macau earned MOP 21.5b (US $2.7b) in gaming revenue in March, but early projections are that April will come in lower. An informal polling of some casino junket operators by Macao Daily put April’s expected revenue total at no better than MOP 20b. One junket operator suggested the VIP market wouldn’t recover until (a) Beijing slowed the corruption crackdown train and (b) the mainland’s economy picked up.

Florida legislators continue to wrestle with new gambling bills but hopes are fading for approval of resort casinos in 2015.

Both of Florida’s legislative bodies were considering how to remake the state’s gambling landscape on Wednesday. In the House, GOP leader Rep. Dana Young submitted a dramatically revised version of her gambling reform bill that scrubbed any mention of destination resort casinos in either Miami-Dade or Broward counties. Young’s slim-downed HB 1233 now seeks only to end the requirement that the state’s 12 greyhound tracks actually put on live races in order to qualify to host slot machines and poker games.

However, Rep. Rich Workman offered an amendment to HB 1233 that would allow resort casinos, provided such plans receive local approval by year’s end, either via a referendum or a positive vote by the county commission. Workman’s amendment – which he himself referred to as a “jump ball” – will be considered by the House Regulated Industries Committee on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the state Senate Regulated Industries Committee approved amendments to its SPB 7088 on Wednesday. The bill, which seeks a temporary extension of certain aspects of the state’s gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe, was also amended to allow greyhound track operators to continue to offer slots even if they stop offering live racing. This ‘decoupling’ push came about because the state spends $3m more per year regulating dog racing than it collects in tax revenue from the activity.

Don Mattrick is stepping down as CEO of social gamers Zynga, with founder Mark Pincus (pictured) set to resume his former role as CEO.

Mattrick, who replaced Pincus as CEO nearly two years ago, announced on Wednesday that he was leaving. Mattrick told GamaSutra that he believed “the timing is now right for me to leave” and for Pincus to provide his “passion for the founding vision and his ability to couple our mobile progress with Zynga’s unique strengths.”

Pincus issued his own statement thanking Mattrick for “his leadership in better serving our players in a mobile-first world and for delivering world class quality and value to our consumers.” Pincus said he plans to “accelerate innovation in the most popular categories like Action Strategy and strengthen our focus on our core areas like Invest and Express.”

Mattrick joined Zynga at a time when the company’s stock was in freefall and players were ditching Zynga’s franchise Facebook games for mobile-focused products. Mattrick embarked on an aggressive cost-cutting program and boosted mobile bookings from 27% of total revenue to 60% but ultimately failed to reverse the company’s diminishing stature in the social gaming universe.

Delaware’s regulated online gambling market generated $141k in total revenue in February.

The state’s table games (blackjack and roulette) generated the bulk ($85.5k) of the revenue, while slots and video poker fell 38% to $23.1k. Delaware poker sites earned $32.6k, up 25% from their January slump and a six-month high for the poker vertical.

The effects of the new interstate poker liquidity sharing with Nevada on poker revenue won’t be officially known until June, although early indications are the effect has been (surprise!) minimal. Ed Sutor, CEO of the Dover Downs casino, said poker liquidity had “perked up” since the interstate sharing began but other sources say the spike has been extremely short-lived.

It’s been a year and a half since Delaware’s regulated online market launched, and the figures have so far been spectacularly underwhelming, ranging from $111k in its first month to the high water mark of $241k last April. For 2014 as a whole, the online market earned $2.1m. The state’s deal with the three casinos authorized to offer online gambling allows it to keep the first $3.75m of online revenue, meaning the casinos have yet to see a dime.

Investigators probing unusual stock trades ahead of Amaya Gaming’s acquisition of PokerStars have seized computers belonging to three Amaya employees.

On Wednesday, a Quebec judge overturned a publication ban on the search warrant executed in December by the Canadian province’s financial market watchdog, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF).

The documents reveal the AMF was interested in the dealings of 20 individuals employed at Amaya, Manulife Securities Inc. and Canaccord Genuity Corp. The latter two companies played key roles in facilitating Amaya’s $4.9b acquisition of the Rational Group – whose assets included PokerStars and Full Tilt – last June.

The AMF believes some individuals improperly disseminated confidential info ahead of the Rational acquisition. The names of these individuals have been redacted from the warrant, making it unclear how these individuals are related to Amaya. However, Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper reported that the AMF seized computers, memory cards, other storage devices and documents utilized by the three Amaya employees.

Swedish gaming operator Cherry AB has launched its first white label online casino brand in conjunction with its new majority-owned affiliate Game Lounge.

Wednesday brought word of the launch of SveaCasino.com, a Nordic-focused online casino. The launch is the first fruit of Cherry’s hookup with affiliate marketing business Game Lounge, in which Cherry acquired a 51% stake this January. SveaCasino features gaming content from Cherry’s software offshoot Yggdrasil Gaming, as well as third-party content from Net Entertainment, Microgaming and Amaya Gaming.

Cherry CEO Fredrik Burvall, who assumed the chief exec’s role in December, expressed pride at launching the first white-label brand just two months after Cherry acquired Game Lounge. Cherry has promised to roll out additional brands in the near future in yet to be determined markets. Game Lounge CEO Jonas Cederholm said his firm was the “perfect match for launching new casinos like this,” thanks to its affiliate network of over 250 websites.

BETSSON GETS UK LICENSE, PREPS DUTCH SPORTSBOOK

My last article was fun to write.

I am churning ahead here with a few more discussion points and some tips generated from my experience. If something resonates, please leave a comment or tweet.

Simplify Solutions (aka, we are all lazy) 

There is a wiki page about it, this principle of least effort.  Wiki claims this is a building block to life as we know it.

Paddy Power has launched an advert for Grand National, which will be held on on April 9–11 at Aintree Racecourse, featuring Ruby Walsh jumping over a moving vehicle while riding a race horse.

The bookmaker’s 22-second advert shown Irish jockey Walsh riding Ballycasey and started the video by saying, “This is how I’ve been getting ready for this year’s Grand National.”

Paddy Power claimed that Walsh jumped straight over the car, which was said to be travelling at 40mph.

In February 2012, Paddy Power also produced a controversial advert ahead of Cheltenham Festival featuring a hitman firing tranquillizer darts at unsuspecting members of the public, promising to “take care of the chavs – veterinary style” (inspired by loutish race goers fighting at Ascot) and another advert with transgender race goers, inviting viewers to spot the “stallions from the ‘mares.”

bwin.party’s Foxy Bingo launched new UK casino portal FoxyCasino.com across desktop and mobile channels.

Foxy Casino has gone live, offering UK players over 150 popular igaming titles such as Rainbow Riches and Millionaire Genie. The new casino site will offer personalized CRM and VIP rewards for player’s engagement.

Foxy Casino will also use the popular Foxy Bingo character and brand Foxy to promote its services in the UK.

“In bringing a defined casino offer to the market, we wanted to ensure we drew on the popularity of Foxy and leveraged the recognition and trust the UK’s leading bingo brand has in such a crowded marketplace, said Foxy Bingo Head of Marketing Daniel Mahon.

Italian lottery and gaming technology firm GTECH and International Game Technology (IGT) has completed combining its business and started trading its new share on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Monday under the ticket symbol IGT.

The stock closed at $20.08 on Tuesday, up by $2.40 or 13.6% from the opening on about twice the normal volume of shares traded.

“We are pleased to welcome IGT to the NYSE,” said Thomas W. Farley, NYSE Group President. “IGT is a premier global gaming operator shaping the future of entertainment and gaming, and an excellent addition to the NYSE’s community of the world’s leading companies.”

IGT will establish a corporate headquarters in London with key strategic offices in Rome, Italy, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Rhode Island and long-term GTECH CEO Marco Sala will take up the new position of Chief Executive Officer of International Game Technology PLC.

The man behind the ‘Chipgate’ scandal at the 2014 Borgata Winter Poker Open has been sentenced to five years in prison.

In January 2014, New Jersey police arrested Christian Lusardi, a 43-year-old North Carolina native, following an investigation into how counterfeit casino chips made it onto the Borgata’s poker tables during a tournament earlier that month.

Lusardi’s master plan came undone after alert players spotted the bogus chips, forcing the Borgata to cancel Event #1 of their marquee tourney. A panicked Lusardi then rushed back to his Harrah’s hotel room and attempted to flush a couple thousand of the bogus chips down the toilet. In this clueless game of Clue, the solution was Lusardi in the bathroom with the plunger.

Late last month, Lusardi was sentenced to five years in a federal prison, but not for anything to do with his Borgata escapades. Federal prosecutors were infinitely more interested in Lusardi’s thriving business of importing bootleg DVDs from China. In the investigation that followed Lusardi’s New Jersey arrest, the feds found over 35,500 illegal DVDs in his possession, presumably because they were too big to flush.

Maryland casinos broke a three-month downward trend in March, as gaming revenue hit a new peak of $91m.

The figure is up nearly 17% from the same month last year and $800k more than November 2014’s previous high-water mark. But the four casinos that were open in March 2014 saw revenue fall 14.8% year-on-year. In fact, those four casinos have seen revenue fall every month since September, the first full month of operation at the new Horseshoe Casino Baltimore.

The market-leading Maryland Live was down 15.9% to $51.9m, although that total is the first month this year in which revenue topped $50m. Hollywood Casino in Perryville fell 17.7% to $6.5m, Ocean Downs fell 3.3% to $4m and Rocky Gap fell 3.2% to $3.9m. Horseshoe Casino Baltimore reported revenue of $24.7m, up from $23m in February, but still well off the $31m the property was expected to bring in on each month.

In Pennsylvania, slots revenue at the state’s dozen casinos hit $207.7m in March, down 3.9% from the same month last year. Only three casinos – Sands Bethlehem, Valley Forge Casino Resort and Lady Luck Nemacolin – posted year-on-year gains. Market leader Parx Casino was down 2% to $32.6m, while Sands Bethlehem was up 2.4% to $26.2m.

A new report claims Connecticut casinos will lose $570m in gaming revenue per year if they aren’t given the proper tools to combat regional competition.

The report, commissioned by the tribes that run the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino gaming joints, not unsurprisingly backs the tribes’ contention that they need to put ‘buffer’ casinos on the border with Massachusetts to fend off MGM Resorts’ planned $800m casino in Springfield. New casinos planned for New York State are also forecast to drink Connecticut’s milkshake in the coming years.

Mohegan Tribe chairman Kevin Brown says the report is part of “the education process” to convince state legislators to allow the tribes to open jointly run casinos off tribal lands. No concrete proposals have yet been introduced to the legislature but tribal lawyers are reportedly negotiating the broad strokes with the state’s attorney general.

The Pyramid Associates report commissioned by the tribes says Connecticut casinos will lose an additional $133m in non-gaming revenue per year by 2019. The downturn will result in the loss of up to 5,700 jobs by the end of the decade as gamblers in neighboring states choose gaming options closer to home. The report says Connecticut is facing a decline “second only to the transfer from New Jersey’s casinos to Pennsylvania’s casinos that occurred from 2006 to 2014.” During that time span, Atlantic City casinos’ annual gaming revenue shrunk 48%.

Pennsylvania got a new online gambling bill on Monday, the third such bill vying for votes in the current legislative session.

HB 920 (read it here) was filed by Rep. Tina Davis (pictured), who in 2013 authored a similar measure which ultimately failed to make it past the committee stage. Davis has a seat on the House Committee on Gaming Oversight, which is set to hold online gambling hearings on April 16 and May 6.

HB 920 is similar to Davis’ previous effort in that it would allow not just poker but also slots, table games and any other activity deemed appropriate by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, with the exception of lottery games, bingo, keno, pari-mutuel betting and ‘small games of chance.’

HB 920 would reserve online gambling licenses for companies already licensed to operate slot machines and table games in the state. Licensees would have to pay a one-time authorization fee of $5m, with annual renewal fees of $500k.

The Netherlands’ progress toward a regulated online gambling market will not be waylaid by the absence of the chief architect of the country’s Remote Gaming Bill.

Former State Secretary for Security and Justice Fred Teeven resigned last month following a scandal over payments to a convicted drug dealer. But Teeven’s replacement Klaas Dijkhoff (pictured) says it’s full speed ahead for the online gambling legislation and the licensing of “reliable and suitable” operators.

Since assuming his new post last month, Dijkhoff has written a letter to the House of Representatives emphasizing his support for the Remote Gaming Bill, which seeks to modernize the country’s outdated gambling laws.

Last June, the Kansspelautoriteit (Dutch Gaming Authority or KSA) warned online operators to cease their marketing activities ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Some operators complied, while the KSA said others “jumped into the proverbial hole” created by the compliant operators’ absence.