Online gambling appears in the cards for the Canadian province of Alberta after the government-run gaming monopoly launched a tender for a technology provider. In January, the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commissiion (AGLC) said the concept of a government-run online gambling site was “actively under review” after determining there were “expectations from consumers that [online gambling] be available to Alberta players.”

On Sunday, Metro News reported that the AGLC had set a “late February” deadline for would-be “turnkey solutions” providers to make Alberta a pitch. CEO Bill Robinson said the AGLC was “going out into the market place to see what types of programs exist and would be best for us.” Assuming they see something they like, provincial finance minister Robin Campbell would make the final call.

Alberta’s opposition parties are already decrying the move, saying the resource-dependent government was trying to close budget gaps caused by the recent plunge in the price of oil. Campbell spokesperson Kevin Zahara rejected this accusation, saying online gambling wasn’t part of the minister’s budget process although the government was interested to see what types of bids the tender attracts.

Alberta and Saskatchewan are the last two major Canadian provinces yet to hop on the online gambling bandwagon, although Saskatchewan has flirted with the idea. Alberta’s interest comes just one month after Canada’s largest province Ontario launched its PlayOLG.ca site.

C-YA C-290 AS ELECTION LOOMS

Meanwhile, the country’s long-stalled single-game sports betting bill is back in the news. C-290 sailed through the House of Commons with all-party support nearly three years ago but has been stalled in the Senate ever since. Senators returned from their holidays last week just as the Super Bowl betting hype was reaching fever pitch, allowing the usual suspects another opportunity to make the usual complaints.

Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa joined the pro-C-290 choir, saying the debt-laden province and communities with casinos like Windsor and Niagara Falls could use the extra jobs and revenue that sports betting could provide. Sousa told the CBC that the Senate “should move on it, and that’s been the wishes of the federal government and all parties at the federal level.”

A major operator in the marketplace is soon to join the MPN thanks to new technology known as ‘Babelfish’ according to an MPN press release.

188Bet, 32Red, Betsson and the likes are soon to have a new roommate according to a press release issued by Microgaming recently.

Microgaming’s Head of Poker, Alex Scott, has indicated that a ‘major operator in the poker marketplace’ will soon be joining the MPN, and it would have been built from scratch courtesy of their new ‘Babelfish’ technology.

Babelfish?

Where have I heard that word before?

Fans of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy will remember that the Babelfish was a leech-like yellow fish, that when inserted into your ear, was instantly able to translate any language known to man, robot or scary alien.

Scott isn’t planning on raiding the fairground’s stock of goldfish quite yet, but he is very excited about the potential of their new Babelfish technology and what it can bring to the MPN party.

Coingaming.io, the leading platform provider which specializes in the provisioning of Bitcoin cryptocurrency solutions for the iGaming sector, today announced that it is the first ever provider to integrate Endorphina casino games for Bitcoin enabled gaming operators.

Under the agreement Coingaming.io are able to supply Endorphina’s full range of 24 HD premium casino games, which include the popular “Safari”, “Geisha” and “Blast! Boom!

Bang” to their international client base of Bitcoin casino operators.

Tauri Tiitsaar, COO of Coingaming, explains: “Coingaming is focused on providing the best gaming experience to our customers. Our partnership with Endorphina ensures our network of online Bitcasino operators and players from over 80 countries has access to the finest and most exhilarating HD revenue generating games possible.”

Jan Urbanec, Sales Manager of Endorphina, comments: “Coingaming is a respected player when it comes to Bitcoin gaming platforms and white label services. They continue to demonstrate their passion for providing their customers’ with the highest levels of responsibility, transparency, and trust in the Bitcoin casino gaming industry. We are confident that Bitcoin casino gaming players shall welcome the introduction of our Endorphina games.”

For further information, please contact:

AskGamblers has just made another revolutionary step in the world of online gambling by creating the prestigious Certificate of Trust – an exclusive club only the best and the most trusted casinos have access to.

While gambling at any online casino players might run into some problems and when that happens AskGamblers is there to help. Just a few years ago they started dealing with disputes between players and online casinos as an independent and transparent third party via the unique AskGamblers Casino Complaint Service.

Today AskGamblers introduces Certificate of Trust which will single out the best quality and most secure online casinos in the industry. Moreover, it will prove that these carefully chosen casinos are transparent, customer oriented and willing to solve any issues as quickly as possible.

Igor Salindrija, CEO of AskGamblers, explains: “The main idea of this certificate is creating a new standard in the industry to promote truth, honesty and integrity. We try to break away from the trends of the gaming industry and take it to the next level with each new breakthrough that we make.”

By being accepted in this exclusive club, online casinos will become visible on “Certified Casinos” page on AskGamblers and the Certificate of Trust badge will be added to their review page.

In order to receive a Certificate of Trust, online casinos need to meet the following criteria:

● Have CasinoRank Score above 7.5

Malaysian businessman Richard Yong has won the Aussie Millions $100k Challenge after defeating the German star Ole Schemion, in heads-up action.

How many players can brag that they had Phil Ivey and Sam Trickett in their winner’s photo?

Richard Yong can.

The Malaysian businessman defeated a stellar field of 70-entrants to capture the first prize of AU$1,870,000 in the Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge at the Crown Casino in Melbourne.

[Image Credit: PokerNews & Kenneth Lim]

It was a sweet victory.

Not only was it the first of Yong’s poker playing career, but it ended a nightmare 12-months where he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of ‘accessory after the fact to transmission of wagering information,’ for his role in the Caesars Palace World Cup illegal sports betting ring that has seen fellow high stakes player Paul Phua also make the headlines.

[Image Credit: PokerNews and Kenneth Lim]

Manny Stavropoulos is the new Aussie Millions Main Event champion after beating the young German Lennart Uphoff in heads-up action in Melbourne.

Melbourne was the home of two great competitions today: the Australian Open tennis final, and the 2015 Aussie Millions Main Event. One event saw an established favorite take the top honors, and another saw an underdog do the same.

Whilst Novak Djokovic was racking up his fifth Australian Open title, after victory over the Brit Andy Murray; Manny Stavropoulos was earning the first title of his career with victory over Lennart Uphoff.

It was a stunning victory for Stavropoulos. The mug shot of the final seven players contained a lot of unusual faces. Brian Rast and Richard Lyndaker the two that would seem familiar to most.

Rast was the star of the show. With over $7.6m in live tournament earnings, including close to a million in Dec 2014 alone – after great performances in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Alpha8 and the Aria High Roller. Lyndaker was a former Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) Main Event winner, and multiple World Series of Poker (WSOP) final tablist.

Stars fade out, eventually, and Rast’s light was extinguished in fifth place courtesy of the young German Uphoff. Rast failing to find his flush draw against the might of the over pair. He’ll be happy with his performance though. He banks another decent six-figure sum, and it’s his first Aussie Millions score. Lyndaker also had a disappointing day running aces into Uphoff’s flopped set of sixes to feel the axe in seventh.

Betclic Everest Group has refused to allow their sponsored pros, Benjamin Pollak and Fabrice Soulier, to play in the upcoming Global Poker Masters due to clashes over the use of their logo.

Fabrice Soulier and Benjamin Pollak will not compete at the 2015 Global Poker Masters (GPM).

The first-rate Frenchmen have been told by their sponsor, Betclic Everest Group, that they cannot be involved in the tournament, due to be held March 21/22 as part of the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Malta, due to restrictions placed on the wearing of sponsorship logos.

The news reached the ears of the poker community after Dreyfus spoke about the conflict in a blog post posted on the French poker website ClubPoker.net. In that blog post a clearly frustrated Dreyfus indicates that perhaps Betclic Everest should be given an award for ‘absurdity’ at the next France Poker Awards.

“Once we announced the players that would represent #TeamFrance it appeared that some players may have contract issues. I have spoke to the poker management team of EverestPoker.fr to ask if they were keen for their players to represent France in this event and they declined.” Dreyfus told CalvinAyre.

The difference of opinion has come about because Dreyfus is keen to keep the stream free of gaming sponsorships in a bid to lure non-gaming sponsors into the business. It’s all part of the master plan to ‘Sportify’ poker – a plan that Betclic Everest doesn’t seem to be on board with.

The entrepreneur said he was ‘shocked’ at the attitude of Everest, and all further communication with the online gambling outfit had failed to produce a different outcome.

The London Affiliate Conference 2015 went off with a bang today at the Olympia London, a new venue for the ever-growing LAC.

This is the biggest event of the year for the iGaming Affiliate industry, with almost three thousand people expected to attend over the two days its open.  Running alongside the LAC is the Financial Partners Expo, the largest event dedicated to the retail finance sector, an industry with significant crossover to iGaming.

The LAC expo hall has been divided into two floors this year, the first floor featuring iGaming affiliate program booths and the second floor featuring binary and forex.  Without a doubt, the first floor was the busier and more garish of the two, but there was a decent amount of activity upstairs as well.

As per usual, a good percentage of the iGaming Affiliate program booths featured free alcohol, Paddy Power with their pure Irish Guinness on tap, Caliente.mx with their lively open bar and music, 666Bet with their custom brewed 6.66% “Bullet” beer named after their new brand ambassador Roberto Carlos…you get the idea.

One of the more unique booths this year was Coral’s, where they featured a burger stand (sans burgers, unfortunately) manned by Coral TV personalities Carly and Farley.  The duo appear on Coral’s TV commercials with Carly representing the type of girl all men wish they had on their arm and Farley carrying out impersonations of famous football celebs such as Harry Redknapp and “Stevie G”.

In addition to the expo, there were three session tracks taking place simultaneously during day one of LAC- “New Markets and Opportunities”, “Financial Partners Expo” and “Acquisition Zone”.

Over at the “New Markets and Opportunities” track there was a Bitcoin session during which the panelists discussed opportunities in this sector for affiliates.

Aaron Mermelstein has become the latest member of the World Poker Tour Champions Club after defeating Eugene Todd, in heads-up action, to take the crown at the Borgata Winter Poker Open in Atlantic City.

Aaron Mermelstein has prevented Shawn Cunix from becoming the 21st player to win two World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event titles, with a life altering tournament performance in Atlantic City.

[Image Credit: WPT]

The 27-year old from Philadelphia was playing in only his third-ever WPT event, when he walked away from the Borgata Winter Poker Open as the only remaining contestant from 989 entries, and $712,350 the richer.

It was a tough final table.

Season X WPT Jacksonville winner Cunix was joined by the likes of Season 6 WPT Borgata final tablist Eugene Todd, former Deepstacks Tour winner Randy Pfeifer, and World Series of Poker (WSOP) final tablist Justin Liberto.

Mermelstein came into the final table second in chips. Cunix had the chip lead. The next nine hours of play would see 181 hands splayed across the table; 17 different lead changes, and four different chip leaders. It was like a game of pass the parcel with the WPT trophy playing the role of parcel. When the music stopped it remained in Mermelstein’s hands.

THE AMERICAS

Intertain Group said it was finalizing a potential $1b acquisition; Nevada casino gaming revenue fell in 2014 despite record sports betting; Sen. John McCain said he’d like to hold congressional hearings on legal sports betting; a judge approved Illinois as the proper venue to consider Caesars Entertainment’s bankruptcy; social gaming was the lone bright spot of IGT’s fiscal Q1; Minnesota pols aimed their guns at the state lottery’s online operations; Sheldon Adelson said jump and Lindsey Graham said how high; federal authorities busted an illegal online betting and marijuana operation in Oregon; Delaware’s regulated online poker revenue fell 77% in 2014; Scientific Games picked Las Vegas for its new corporate HQ; the World Series of Poker kicked PokerNews off its live reporting team; a SWAT team broke up a poker game in Virginia; Cloudbet’s Dennis Laudrup explained why Bitcoin is the best SuperBowl betting option and the online marketing chief for Atlantic City’s Tropicana casino explained why no piece of customer data goes uncollected.

EUROPE & MIDDLE EAST

Rank chose Bede Gaming as its new core online platform provider; France’s regulated online gambling market was saved by sports betting; Dutch regulators fined ComeOn Europe €180k for targeting Dutch punters; Russia announced it was scrapping one of its designated gambling zones; Cherry AB took a 51% stake in affiliate Game Lounge; Bwin.party warned it would take a €15m hit this year from new EU VAT rules; a Turkish political party was accused of being a front for gambling operations; a new study determined spot-betting was no great threat to match integrity; Beirut’s Casino du Liban was the target of an aborted car-bombing plot; Wink Bingo’s Eltan Gorodetsky discussed the art of rebranding; Betsson’s Simon Lidzen discussed the personalization of mobile apps; Inspired Publishing’s Tiz Corta offered insights into effective affiliate marketing; t2Marketing International’s Stephen Padveen listed 20 criteria for building a social media player archetype and Rebecca Liggero offered her picks for the top six sessions to attend at the London Affiliate Conference.

ASIA

Macau casinos lost 34 junket operators in 2014 and Macau officials proposed a full smoking ban in casinos; Las Vegas Sands’ mass market strength helped it ride out Macau’s downturn; Donaco International acquired the Star Vegas casino in Poipet; Sri Lanka’s new gov’t officially scrapped plans for new resort casinos; Bloomberry Resorts acquired land in South Korea with an eye toward international expansion; a call center working for Ole777.com was raided by the Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration; Singapore’s Remote Gambling Act readied its starter’s gun and a China Welfare Lottery cockup sparked allegations that the fix was in.

Online bitcoin‐only sportsbook and casino site Cloudbet.com are taking big bets of up to

1000 BTC on Super Bowl XLIX – the largest of any online sportsbook in the world.

Curacao, January 29, 2015 – It’s the biggest event on the year’s sports‐betting calendar –Super Bowl XLIX – and in line with the occasion, bitcoin sportsbook Cloudbet has announced that high rollers will be able to place bets of up to 1000 BTC on the game. With a current USD‐BTC exchange rate, this represents an equivalent stake of around USD 230,000, more than online bettors have been able to bet on any previous Super Bowl.

Cloudbet is currently taking bets of up to 400 BTC (USD 92,000), considerably more than mainstream sportsbooks online. Cloudbet will be increasing the maximum stake size to 1000 BTC on Super Bowl Sunday. Players will be able to place bets directly through the Cloudbet website, with no special approval necessary.

Bets of 1000 BTC ‐ unprecedented in the online gambling industry ‐ are possible due to bitcoin’s unique properties. Because Cloudbet operates only in bitcoin, both the operator and its customers can move large amounts of funds at very low cost in a short period of time, something that is beyond the ability of traditional sportsbooks.

“This is groundbreaking for high rollers who want a lot of action but haven’t been able to bet as much as they would want due to the cost of transferring large amounts of currency to online betting sites. Online sportsbooks can’t take very large credit card deposits as the risk of fraud is too high. These risks don’t exist with bitcoin. It’s a very elegant solution.” said Dennis Laudrup, Head of Marketing at Cloudbet. Cloudbet is also expecting its new limits will encourage a number of high stakes bettors who are unfamiliar with bitcoin to consider its potential.

“Customers will appreciate how easy and convenient it is to move large amounts of funds from anywhere to anywhere, which makes bitcoin perfect for big sports bets,” continues Laudrup. “In particular, they will especially love the improvement in how long how long they wait to receive their winnings ‐ which will be minutes or hours ‐ which is a significant improvement on the industry standard of days or weeks.”

London, United Kingdom (Friday, January 30, 2015) – Digital Fuel Marketing Ltd is excited to confirm their attendance at this year’s London Affiliate Conference (LAC), at the new Olympia, London venue, on January 31st – February 3rd, 2015.

London Affiliate Conference (LAC)

With close to 4,000 people expected to attend, the London Affiliate Conference is biggest online gambling affiliate event on the calendar.  The Financial Partners expo will be taking place alongside the LAC and new this year an “acquisition zone,” a portion of the expo floor dedicated to service providers, will be featured.

Over the course of the event, delegates can expect two days of strategic conference sessions and expo floor, four days of parties and networking opportunities.  As always, all affiliates and introducing brokers go for free.

What: London Affiliate Conference

When: January 31-February 3, 2015

Where: Olympia London

Register: Online

Online gambling operator Bwin.party digital entertainment has warned investors that new European Union rules on value added tax (VAT) could cost the company an extra €15m in 2015. On Jan. 1, the EU imposed new rules regarding the application of VAT to electronically supplied services. Gambling had traditionally been exempt from VAT but that decision has now been left to individual markets.

The UK-listed Bwin.party is based in Gibraltar, where it wasn’t subject to VAT. The new point-of-consumption rules will take a 19% bite out of casino and poker revenues from countries like Germany, which is responsible for over a quarter of Bwin.party’s overall revenue.

Bwin.party and GVC Holdings were believed to be among a group of operators preparing to mount a legal challenge of Germany’s imposition of the VAT. There has been some suggestion that operators might decline to pay up until their legal options run out but Bwin.party’s statement on Friday says the company “expects to file for and pay VAT in certain EU Member States.” Any company withholding the VAT would be liable for stiff financial penalties should their challenge fail.

Bwin.party might be forgiven for feeling like 2015 is ganging up on the company. In addition to the new European VAT, Bwin.party’s UK-facing business is also dealing with the new 15% point-of-consumption tax. In America, where Bwin.party’s New Jersey-facing site is the market leader but continues to operate at a loss, the company will likely bleed even more red ink if/when PokerStars finally receives the regulatory nod to open its online doors in the Garden State.

Meanwhile, another Gibraltar-licensed online gambling operator has taken a very different approach to addressing the German VAT introduction. The Playtech-powered Mansion Group announced it was yanking five of its German-facing sites – Casino.com, MansionCasino.com, LesACasino.com, Club777.com and SlotsHeaven.com – from the country effective Feb. 1. Players will still have access to free-play sites, but real-money gambling will be verboten.

Earlier this month, an unidentified Gibraltar-based online gambling site played a central role in the first conviction of a German gambler for playing blackjack with a site not authorized by German authorities. Germany officially allows only online sports betting.

Swedish gaming operator Cherry AB has inked a deal to take a controlling interest in Nordic-facing affiliate Game Lounge Ltd. The deal will see Cherry pay €1.43m upfront and a conditional top-up of a maximum €2m in exchange for a 51% stake in Game Lounge. The deal allows Cherry the option of acquiring 100% of Game Lounge after three years.

The new relationship will see Game Lounge act as a partner for the new white label SveaCasino.com, with additional Cherry brands to be added in due course. Cherry’s acting CEO Fredrik Burvall, who assumed the reins in December from outgoing CEO Emil Sunvisson, said the deal would “increase volumes at a much lower cost” for Cherry’s current brands and white labels by bringing in as many as 40k new depositing customers.

As Cherry opens one door, it closes another. On Friday, Cherry announced it would begin phasing out its investment in Klubblo, the online lottery platform of Sweden’s Sports Alliance, because “the conditions for conducting the business have changed.” Cherry said Swedish gaming regulator Lotterinspektionen had changed the application of the regulatory framework, making it impossible for some major sports federations to join the Sports Alliance due to their exclusivity agreements with state-owned betting operator Svenska Spel.

Klubblo had only launched last year and Burvall said the goal had been to “take a strong position as a partner for Swedish sports within the area of gaming and lotteries. Under the prevailing conditions, Klubblo does not fit into Cherry’s strategy.” Cherry says liquidity would be negatively affected by around SEK 1.5m (US $181k) in Q4 and the remainder of 2015. The change will likely have a negative SEK 7.7m ($929k) impact on Cherry’s Q4 income.

Finally, Cherry’s EuroLotto operation is going mobile. EuroLotto chief Helen Taylor says players have been “clamroring” for the opportunity to play on the go, which is now possible via EuroLotto’s launch of bespoke mobile and tablet options.

Online gambling in the Philippines is back in the news following a raid on a call center in Manila. Acting on a tip, Bureau of Immigration (BI) officials descended on a three-story office building in Makati on Wednesday, arresting 73 foreigners from over eight countries for lacking valid work visas.

The GMA Network quoted BI Intel Division Chief Jose Carlitos Licas saying the operation in question belonged to a company called Super 7 Ventures. The BI’s anonymous informant – who was compensated for his tip through the BI’s incentive program – accused the company of operating a real-money online gambling site disguised as a call center on behalf of a “syndicate.” It should be noted that the BI has yet to indicate that the raided site was anything more than a call center.

None of the foreigners had a valid work permit; most were in the country on tourist visas. The foreigners hailed primarily from regional nations, including China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea and Australia, but also an unidentified number from America. All of them will be deported following verification of their identities.

The only English-language reference to Super 7 Ventures on the internet involves a logo design competition that concluded ironically enough on Tuesday. Super 7’s brief to designers described itself as a “new” company but the LinkedIn profile of a web developer says he started working at Super 7 in May 2013.

Super 7 is believed to have been providing services for Ole777.com, whose parent company OLÉ Group International Ltd. holds a license issued by the First Cagayan Leisure and Resort Corporation. The Ole777 website currently features a “Website Maintenance” notice, saying it would be offline from Jan. 28 to Jan. 30 at 6pm local time.

The Philippines has a thriving business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, but Ole777 and any other companies to whom Super 7 was supplying services are clearly pan-Asian and thus required a multitude of language options. Super 7 may have thought they were saving money in the short-term by not hiring multilingual Filipino workers but their decision will have long-term consequences from the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA).

Clearly, if the evidence submitted by the BI is accurate, then Super 7 broke the law and the authorities had a duty to act. Previous raids on online gambling call centers in Manila have not always been so justifiable. It’s probably telling that GMA camera crews were along for the Super 7 raid; in this case, the authorities felt comfortable submitting their actions to increased public scrutiny.

The iGB Affiliate Awards 2015 will again be held during LAC on the 1st of February at Stamford Bridge on the 1st February 2015.

Operating since 2006 the IGB Affiliate Awards recognizes the best online gaming acquisition programs and industry affiliate marketers for their service, player marketing, management and operations.

Every year over 500 people from the iGaming affiliate community gather to honour the ongoing success within the industry at the iGB Affiliate Awards. Now in its 8th year, the iGB Affiliate Awards is the only industry awards ceremony that celebrates the growth, innovation and achievements within this sector of the gaming industry.

iGB Affiliate announced that they will be adding four brand new awards to the iGB Affiliate Awards. In partnership with casinomeister.com, OLBG.co.uk, bingoport.co.uk and Bluff Europe there new categories will reward the best online casino, sports book, bingo and poker room but uniquely from the player perspective.

“I felt it was really important to introduce player focused categories into the iGB Affiliate Awards as they are after all the lifeblood of the sector and their opinion is probably the most important to bear in mind when considering who to work with. I am really looking forward to the awards night now as I am particularly interested to see if these winners will differ from the affiliate category winners” said Alex Pratt, Head of iGaming Business. “I would also like to thank the portals that have come on board to help us create these awards and their player communities that will make the decision on who will win,” Pratt continued.

Click here to see the shortlists 2015 iGB Affiliate Awards

Tickets are still available to purchase from the LAC registration page and include a cocktail reception, sumptuous three course meal, an after party with some special late-night entertainment and of course the awards themselves.

Russia’s fractured casino industry has become even more confusing now that the government plans to ‘liquidate’ one of its designated gambling zones — the only one that has yet to officially launch casino operations. On Friday, the TASS news agency reported that the casinos operating in the Azov-City gambling zone in the Krasnodar Krai region would have their gaming licenses abrogated by April 1.

The government plans to shift the Azov-City gambling zone to the Sochi region, which joined the four original gambling zones this July after Russia extended the boundaries of the Krasnodar zone. The Ministry of Finance said it would offer compensation totaling “at least” RUB 10b (US $145m) to help cushion the blow.

Last June, the Krasnodar government said its three casinos – Oracul, Shambala and Nirvana – had attracted over 254k visitors in 2013, nearly six times the 45k that traipsed through the turnstiles in 2010, their first year of operation. Over the first five months of 2014, 128k gamblers had made the trek to the gambling zone.

The Royal Time Group is among the casino operators affected/blindsided by the change. On November 1, Royal Time opened the newest phase of its Oracul facility, featuring a new hotel costing RUB 1.5m, and was in the process of building a “concert and entertainment complex” with a completion date of Q3 2015. Other expansion plans stretched out as far as November 2018.

Royal Time may have had some inkling of the axe hanging over their heads but was clearly hoping for a reprieve. In response to the July decree authorizing the Sochi gambling zone, Royal Time issued an official position saying it “does not regard the new law as a direct indication to the elimination of the existing Azov-City gambling zone.”

Hopefully, Royal Time will find a more permanent home in the Primorye gambling zone on Russia’s coast near Vladivostok, where the company has reportedly inked a deal to build a casino. Primorye has so far attracted the most interest of international investors, including Lawrence Ho’s First Gambling Company of the Far East, which is set to open its casino in May. Cambodian casino operator NagaCorp’s Primorsky Entertainment Resort City expects to break ground this year with a 2018 opening target. That is, assuming Russia doesn’t decide to move all these operations to Murmansk or something.

Online gambling in France overcame a sluggish Q4 to post modest annual revenue growth in 2014. Figures released Friday by French gambling regulator ARJEL show Q4 revenue falling 2% to €183.2m but the full year figure rose 6% to €725m, largely due to the 2014 FIFA World Cup’s effect on sports betting.

Sports betting turnover rose 22% to €322m in Q4 but revenue was flat at €54m. Horseracing turnover fell 2% to €272m but revenue nudged up 1% to €68m. Online poker continued its inexorable slide, with total revenue falling 6% to €61.2m. Tournament stakes rose 8% to €424m but it wasn’t enough to overcome a 12% decline in cash games stakes, which fell to €1.06b.

For the year as a whole, total stakes fell 5% to €8.4b. Sports betting was the star performer, with stakes up 31% to €1.1b and revenue up 36% to €227m. Betting on the horses wasn’t as fortunate, with stakes and revenue falling to €1.03b (-7%) and €257m (-3%) respectively. Cash poker stakes fell 14% to €4.35b and tournament stakes rose 6% to €1.55b, resulting in a 7% decline in poker revenue to €241m.

World Cup betting generated €109m in turnover, nearly 10% of the annual betting total. Football wagers of all stripes rose 36% in 2014, while basketball gained 49% and tennis rose 18%.

At the close of 2014, the regulated French market had 17 operators holding 31 separate licenses: 12 online poker, 11 sports betting and eight for horseracing. The total number of online sports betting accounts rose 36% to 1.14m, while active accounts rose 32% to 170k. Total horseracing accounts fell 2% to 488k and actives fell 3% to 139k. Poker accounts fell 7% to 1.16m and actives fell 10% to 246k.

DOMESTIC OPERATORS UP AND DOWN

French betting operator France Pari’s Q4 report card showed revenue up 43% to €17.9m. Sports betting revenue rose nearly 50% to €15.8m while racing revenue fell 9% to €1.05m and Sportnco B2B revenue doubled to €1.05m. France Pari said its mobile channels accounted for 25% of all wagers in 2014 and 40% of Q4’s total, suggesting the nine mobile apps launched last year are gathering momentum.