Author: Olivia Cole

The British sports betting and gambling company Entain plc, which owns the popular bookmaker brand Ladbrokes Coral, has reached an agreement to purchase Swedish online gambling and sports betting firm Enlabs at the price of £250 million. The deal comes at a time when there has been an increased movement towards further consolidation across the gambling sector. On January 7th, the group, which owns a range of brands operating in the sector, including Bwin and Partypoker, revealed that it had made an all-cash bid for Enlabs’ assets. The SKr40 per…

The British investment banking specialist Peel Hunt has unveiled its selection of companies that, according to the firm, have growth potential in 2021, and the online gambling company 888 Holdings has been one of them. After the hard financial year, which 2020 turned out to be because of the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, the analysts working at Peel Hunt have selected 41 companies, which operate in 13 sectors, and which are considered to have considerable growth potential for 2021. The average market capitalization of the 13 sectors has been estimated at…

The latest bid of MGM Resorts to purchase Ladbrokes’ owner Entain Plc, which was revealed at the beginning of the week, has come as just another confirmation of the fact that US firms are increasingly circling UK bookmakers. As it became clear yesterday, Entain has become the latest British gambling operator to be targetted by a US gambling giant. On January 4th, MGM Resorts revealed that it made a second takeover offer to Ladbrokes’ parent company. Entain, which is already present in the US, confirmed that it received an $11-billion…

The Masked Singer singing competition has triggered massive criticism after announcing a deal with the UK online gambling site and application PlayOJO. As the Daily Star reported, Bandicoot, which is the production company of the show, revealed that it has inked an agreement under which it will launch some new digital games featuring themes associated with the Masked Singer show. Customers will be able to choose from slot games, bingo and scratchcards in return for the chance to get a maximum prize worth £200,000. Probably one of the major reasons…

Several years ago, in September 2014, the shocking news that the joint venture of Crown Resorts in Macau – Melco Crown – was bringing in Chinese high-roller players by using the services of junket operators associated with organised crime, came to light. According to reports at the time, the junket operators were linked to criminal gangs that have been known for money laundering, people trafficking, debt collection, etc. One of them was Suncity – a company long known by law enforcement authorities on a global scale for its Triad ties.…

A financial crimes watchdog in Australia exposed that almost 300 criminal transactions that were related to junket tours were made at Crown Melbourne. Casino operators have reported around 500 criminal junket tours transactions to the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac). That means that more than half of them were completed at Victoria’s Crown Casino, according to the information revealed by the watchdog. Earlier this month, junket tour operators were warned by Austrac that they were used by overseas criminal organisations for money-laundering schemes. Although tourists from China are…

Pubs in Sydney are looking for loopholes that will allow gaming rooms to be transformed into smoking lounges. It was reported that the Bellevue and Woollahra hotels have already applied for a permit by the Woollahra Municipal Council to turn their gaming rooms into unenclosed venues that will allow their customers to smoke. Thanks to a loophole in the law, the Woollahra Hotel is planning to renovate the roof over its gaming room by creating voids. This way, the gaming space will technically not be considered enclosed and patrons will…

The gambling regulatory body in the UK has once again published some data revealing how the renewed stricter lockdown measures against the coronavirus infection have affected local players’ gambling behaviour. As the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) explained at the time it published the report, the data reflects the period between March and October 2020 and covers both land-based and online gambling. While compiling the report, the gambling watchdog used data provided by UK high-street Licensed Betting Operators (LBOs). According to the UKGC report, which was published yesterday by the regulatory…

Despite all investigation and regulatory hurdles, Crown Resorts will be able to open its non-gaming operations at its Barangaroo casino in Sydney in less than two weeks. This has become possible after the Australian gambling giant received an interim liquor licence from the authorities of New South Wales (NSW). On December 16th, the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) revealed that it had given an interim liquor licence to the hotel, bars and some restaurants which are part of Crown Sydney. The move comes only a few weeks after the…

Casinos in London are ceasing operation once again, as the city is forced into lockdown because of the increase in the number of coronavirus cases, which Mayor Siddique Khan has described as quite concerning. The closure comes after the casino venues had been only recently allowed to resume operation after a four-week lockdown that ended on December 2nd. Previously, London casinos were forced to work under an 11 PM curfew after the initial lockdown left them closed until August. And while the country’s gambling sector has been trying to deal…