Inside Asian Gaming

July 2016 inside asian gaming 45 regularly skimmed and sent to the Chicago outfit that owned it. At least one manager employed to run the property during those early years met a grizzly end after his bosses learned he was skimming some extra cash of his own. Legendary performer Dean Martin held a 10 percent stake in the property for three years in the early 1970s and for years it welcomed the world’s biggest names with the likes of Liberace, Frank Sinatra and Barbara Streisand performing regularly. More recently The Riviera has featured in a number of Hollywood films including The Hangover, 1995 mobster flick Casino and the original Ocean’s 11. Its demolition leaves the Flamingo and Tropicana as the last of the Strip’s old mob casinos. While the Monaco Tower is no more, the smaller Monte Carlo Tower will be demolished in August due to the presence of asbestos. The complicated process will require workers to wrap the entire building in plastic, chisel away the walls and then carefully take the debris away to prevent asbestos particles becoming airborne. Brexit vote breaks UK betting record UK bookmakers took a mammoth £120 million in bets on the outcome of Britain’s Brexit referendum last month, smashing the record for most money wagered on a non-sporting event. In what proved to be a historical week in the UK in more ways than one, the impressive sum was triple the previous record of £40 million placed during the 2012 US Presidential race. But the nation’s shock decision to exit the European Union (EU) meant there were mixed results for the bookies themselves. Some, like Ladbrokes and Betfred, enjoyed sizeable wins while the news wasn’t so good for the likes of William Hill and Sporting Index who both reported six-figure losses. Nationwide, around two-thirds of all money wagered went to Remain although the disparity was a result of more individual bets being placed on Leave which left some bookmakers hurting more than others. Ladbrokes put their success down to the fact that those who successfully tipped Leave bet an average of £70 while those who picked Remain averaged £400. Even a late flurry on Leave didn’t hurt with most of those bets being for just £5 or £10. But win or lose, one question that has been asked of all bookmakers since Brexit is how they got it so wrong with Remain as short as $1.10 and Leave at $6.50 by the day of the vote. Head of political betting at Ladbrokes, Matthew Shaddick, said betting markets were never meant to be accurate tipsters. INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS “Those of us who do this for a living have to face up to some tough questions,” he said. “The truth is that bookies do not offer markets on political events to help people forecast the results. We do it to turn a profit or at least not lose too much. In that respect, this vote worked out very well for us. “Nobody at Ladbrokes’ HQ will be criticizing the predictive powers of our odds, they’ll be looking at the money we made.” Glimmer of hope for DFS and poker as California bills progress America’s online poker and Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) industries have walked a regulatory minefield in recent times, but they could soon be celebrating a significant victory with the state of California close to giving both the green light. On 22 June, Assemblyman Adam Gray announced that online poker bill AB 2863 had finally been passed by the Assembly Appropriations Committee to the Assembly Floor for a vote after more than 12 months of negotiations and amendments. Although it could still be sent back for further tweaking, AB 2863 already represents progress given it is the first online poker bill to make it this far since “Black Friday” – the now infamous day in April 2011 in which the Department of Justice brought a swift and dramatic end to online poker in the US. It also comes just a few months after Gray’s fantasy sports bill, AB 1437, went one better by gaining Assembly approval with a unanimous 62-1 vote. Assuming the Senate votes along similar lines, AB 1437 needs only Governor Jerry Brown’s signature to become law – allowing the state to license operators of internet fantasy sports games. As the USA’s most populous state with 39 million people, California would represent amajor breakthrough given the otherwise modest regulatory success the two industries have enjoyed so far. Online poker has found acceptance particularly difficult since Black Friday and five years on only three of the country’s 50 states – Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware – have passed legislation. The DFS train has travelled much faster but remains very much in limbo following an incredibly eventful nine months. It was only last October that industry giants DraftKings and FanDuel celebrated a record month with player numbers up 300% year-on-year, but such explosive growth also piqued the interest of lawmakers and within weeks the party had been well and truly shut down. Seven states have since passed legislation allowing operations to resume, but with so many others still unsure which way to go, the approval of California could well prove a game changer.