Author: Daniel Williams

Over the weekend, the UK Labour Party made a solemn promise to support the Government in its policy against fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs). Tom Watson, the Labour’s deputy leader and shadow culture secretary, explained that the party backs the efforts of the local government to reduce maximum stakes allowed on FOBTs across the country. The Government has been considering to make certain reforms in the rules under which fixed-odds betting machines are run on the territory of the UK. Currently, such machines offer various casino-style games, as well as bingo,…

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has given the green light to the proposed second casino and hotel in South Philadelphia – a project that has been on hold for about four years now. With a unanimous vote of 7 to 0, the state’s gaming regulatory body ruled in favour of Live! Hotel and Casino Philadelphia. The permission brings an end of the lawsuit filed by other interested parties against the owners of the Live! Hotel and Casino Philadelphia, challenging their ownership rules. The lawsuit was filed by SugarHouse Casino and Market…

The middle of the week saw the Malta Gaming Authority’s (MGA) decision to extend the consultation period of its White Paper to September 4th 2017. As previously reported by Casino Guardian, the consultation paper proposing some major reforms to the gaming legal and regulatory framework of the country was first published in mid-July and was due to close on August 23rd. Now, all interested parties will be given the chance to contact the Malta Gaming Authority until September 4th in order to share their opinions on the proposed reforms. The…

The Australian Senate literally swept all hopes that local players would be given the chance to play online poker legally in the country, as it gave the the green light to a piece of legislation constituting online poker as illegal. The Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016, which was officially approved by the House of Representatives in June, makes online poker illegal on the territory of Australia. A public note from the Department of Human Resources has confirmed that the new piece of legislation was passed by the Senate on August…

Slovakia has tightened the measures against online gambling companies that operate on its territory. The country has made six new additions to its online gambling domains blacklist after the competent authorities said the operators had been offering their services to local players without getting Government’s permission first. As Casino Guardian has reported earlier, the middle of July saw the country’s Government publish the first-ever blacklist of online gambling operators. The list included ten online gambling domains which were considered as untrustworthy and unacceptable as they have been providing Slovakian punters…

Lately, the situation in Atlantic City has been pretty heated, with the New Jersey’s gambling resort facing some financial difficulties. Still, a number of casino openings are expected to be carried out, which provoked rumours that the ailing resort’s gaming industry is slowly recovering after several years of serious setbacks. It came to Casino Guardian’s knowledge that the president and Chief Executive Officer of the American Gaming Association, Geoff Freeman, has commented that the casino and gambling resort has headed in the right direction, with companies that are aimed at…

The state of Pennsylvania has officially put its long-discussed online gaming expansion on hold until the autumn of 2017. Currently, local lawmakers are on their summer break, so they are expected to return in September to resume their discussions on the state’s gambling legislation in terms of online poker and casino games. Earlier this year both the House and the Senate passed versions of the proposed gambling expansion bill. That is exactly why there were hopes that the bill would after all be included in the state’s budget consideration and…

Over the weekend, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, was reported to had been trying to stop the Government’s FOBTs review over some concerns that a change implemented in country’s staking rules could have a negative impact to the UK Treasury. It came to Casino Guardian’s knowledge that in Chancellor Hammond’s opinion the massive reduction of the maximum stakes offered by FOBTs from £100 to £2 only would be a serious blow to the Treasury. Fixed-odds betting terminals have become a controversial issue across the UK due to…

The hunt for the British player who had won the EuroMillions jackpot in the July 28th draw has been brought to an end. Finally, a player has staked a claim for the jackpot prize amounting to £51,702,049.60 that was won by a UK-based EuroMillions ticket-holder. This has been the fourth time when an EuroMillions jackpot has been won on the territory of the UK so far in 2017. Back in June 2017 a massive EuroMillions jackpot of £87 million was won. Two UK players won two large EuroMillions prizes in…

It came to Casino Guardian team’s knowledge that Ireland could impose new taxes on gambling activities and e-cigarettes in its budget. The possible increase has been proposed by the government’s Department of Finance officials, who also suggested a possible increase to the VAT rate for the tourism industry. The proposed measures were outline by the officials in a special briefing document which has been prepared for Paschal Donohoe at the time when the latter took over the Ministry of Finance from Michael Noonan. According to specialists, the next budget of…