The facility has been closed since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, with Cordish saying it would carry out major construction work at the location to replace the existing riverboat casino with a new, land-based casino.
Read the full story on iGB North America.
The technological support includes NeoDraw, the central gaming system for draw games, and NeoSphere, the player account management and marketing system. The integration also features NeoPlay, the eInstants remote gaming server and the games it hosts.
NPi said it hopes that the migration to cloud hosting will significantly improve efficiencies related to the operation and ongoing maintenance of the Virginia Lottery’s ilottery programme, which has been powered by NeoPollard since launching eSubscriptions back in 2016.
“The Virginia Lottery is committed to providing a best-in-class experience to our players,” said Kelly T. Gee, executive director of the Virginia Lottery.
“Enhancing the scalability of our ilottery platform through the use of cloud technology demonstrates to our players that we place a priority on a seamless and reliable ilottery experience, all of which ultimately supports our mission to raise revenue for our public schools.”
According to the provider, the Virginia Lottery can now scale its ilottery programme to accommodate large jackpot runs and associated volumes of promotions and campaigns.
“We recognise the need to continually refine our offerings based on emerging and evolving technology,” said Doug Pollard, NPi’s co-chief executive. “Delivering our ilottery solution through the cloud will enable us to better serve the Virginia Lottery and other ilottery programmes that are powered by NPi. We value the trust the Virginia Lottery placed in us to deliver this innovative solution.”
Co-chief executive Moti Malul added: “Record-breaking jackpots over the last few years have generated significant traffic online, underscoring the need for ilottery programmes to effectively respond to player purchase demand.
“By harnessing the enhanced capabilities that only cloud hosting provides, we can better support the growth of our lottery clients as they strive to meet and exceed player expectations.”
In his new role, Clarke will assume responsibility for multiple areas within the EveryMatrix sports business unit and report directly to new OddsMatrix chief executive Tor Skeie, who also joined in February.
Clarke’s core focus areas will include product strategy and developing and communicating a clear product vision and roadmap. improving existing products, prioritising stakeholder requirements for new features, project management, and quality assurance.
An experienced sports betting product expert, Clarke previously worked for Betfair, where he helped develop offerings such as Cash Out, Fast Markets, Odds Boost and Bet Builder.
Clarke also had a spell at Metric Gaming and was part of a tram that rebuilt its B2B platform and proprietary horse racing, football and US sports products.
“I’m very pleased to join EveryMatrix whose OddsMatrix platform, products and services are turning heads and making a massive difference to some of the biggest global brands,” Clarke said. “I’m really looking forward to working with Tor and the team and supporting them with some exciting plans in 2023 and beyond.”
EveryMatrix chief executive Ebbe Groes added: “I’m thrilled that someone of Martin’s calibre and track-record has joined OddsMatrix. He is a sports product superstar and has worked on some of the most memorable and game-changing betting features of the last decade.”
“Martin’s arrival proves we are on the right path to accelerate our growth and success as we continue to attract major tier-one operators, providing them with industry-leading software and services that take their brands to the next dimension.”
GoAnyware is a popular file transfer service operated by software developers Fortra. On 2 February, well-known cybercrime investigative journalist Brian Kreps posted on Mastadon that the application was suffering from a “zero-day remote code injection exploit” which in response the business temporarily implemented a service outage. Consequently, antagonistic actors downloaded information from a number of businesses, including Crown Resorts.
On 27 March, the Blackstone-owned casino operator said that it had been contacted by a ransomware group who claimed to be in possession of a number of Crown files. The company said it would investigate the validity of this claim “as a matter of “priority.”
“We can confirm no customer data has been compromised and our business operations have not been impacted,” said a Crown Resorts spokesperson. “We are continuing to work with law enforcement and have notified our gaming regulators as part of the ongoing investigation and will provide relevant updates, as necessary.”
Today (5 April), Crown said it could confirm that a small number of files have been released on the dark web, including employee time and attendance records, as well as membership numbers from Crown Sydney. The business again reiterated that no personal information from customers was compromised in the breach.
In addition, the released files did not include bank names, tax IDs, BSB or payslip information. The company emphasised that the membership numbers are numbers only and do not contain any identifying or persona information.
“We are proactively notifying all impacted individuals and are updating membership numbers of those affected out of an abundance of caution,” said the spokesperson. “Crown continues to work with law enforcement and our regulators in relation to this cybercrime.”
Since the body issued the statement at the end of March, a number of regulators have announced that they are backing the call for joint action against illegal gambling operators. GREF – which represents 36 European regulators – said that the regulators commit themselves for more cooperation in order to achieve “effective implementation” of national regulations.
The statement said that European authorities “are committed” to providing high levels of protection to consumers by promulgating safer gaming environments. It continued by asserting that all members of the organisation share common objectives in this endeavour – in particular “consumer protection and developing a fair gambling market.”
“Illegal gambling threatens the achievement of these objectives,” said the joint statement. “First, consumers who access illegal gambling sites are particularly vulnerable, as they are exposed to many risks and have no legal protection.
Secondly, development in the regulated sector is threatened by illegal sites that are not held to the same standards we expect of our licensed operators.”
The group said that the desired result of the call to action would be increased collaboration to combat the illegal market. These would manifest through regular meetings, information exchanges, alerts, expertise, best practices and “joint actions against illegal sites”.
“This joint action will enable us to better identify and minimise illegal gambling activities, while acknowledging that each regulator remains free to define what amounts to illegal gambling and to use the enforcement tools provided by its own national regulatory framework,” read the statement.
The body also said that it expected that the common action would enable a “constructive dialogue” with online platforms, including social media operations. It also aimed to raise consumer awareness concerning the risks that players who use this platform are exposed to.
Under the new agreement, which builds on an existing partnership between the two parties, FanDuel will work with Spotify’s “The Ringer” website, podcast network and video production house to create content for FanDuel TV.
The Ringer will license select video podcasts to FanDuel TV including existing shows adapted for FanDuel TV and a number of new shows covering sports and competitions such as the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Last April, Century acquired an initial 50% membership interests in Smooth Bourbon, which operates the casino and owns the land and building on which the property is located, for $95.0m.
The Nugget and Smooth Bourbon also have in place a lease agreement for the land and building for an annual rent of $15.0m.
Novamedia, which operates the Postcode Lottery in the country, said that the gaming market in the Netherlands is “subsequently and rightfully” becoming more regulated.
However, the operator said that it no longer saw opportunities for development in the market.
“This part of the sector is subject to discussion and is subsequently and rightfully so getting more tightly regulated, which makes it unfit to raise funds,” read a statement on the operator’s website.
“Novamedia has therefore decided to continue exploring opportunities for innovation from within its safe lotteries themselves and, for the time being, to make no further investment in the opportunities that online gaming could offer in the Netherlands.”
Novamedia added that it would look for similar opportunities in other markets.
“The organisation will also continue to focus on opportunities for new lottery licences to raise more funds for good causes in new markets.”
Novamedia obtained an online gaming licence from the Netherlands’ gaming operator Kansspelautoriteit in October 2022, under the name Novamedia Gaming BV.
Novamedia’s decision to withdraw from the market is likely due to a number of specific regulatory measures the Netherlands has implemented recently. The country is set to put a ban on broadcast advertising into effect “no later” than 1 July this year, a move that prohibits all forms of “untargeted” advertising.
Last week, Dutch minister for legal protection Franc Weerwind said that the aim of the ban was to prevent gambling advertising from being viewed by children.
Gross gaming revenue for the month reached $1.2m, which was 62.0% ahead of $740,552 in the same month last year but 20.0% lower than $1.5m in January 2023.
DC’s sports betting handle in February amounted to $12.6m, down 34.0% from $19.1m in February 2022 and also 21.9% behind $18.5m in January of this year.
Gambet, operated by the DC Lottery and powered by Intralot, remained the frontrunner in the market with $626,273 in revenue from $5.7m in total wagers for the month.
However, ANJ also said that “a margin of progress is necessary” for some operators.
Under French law, licensed operators in France are obligated to provide action plan strategies against fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing. For 2022, ANJ said it mostly approved operator’s plans, but concluded that some improvements could be made.
“To a very large extent, the operators have complied with the prescriptions and recommendations that the ANJ sent to them in 2022 and are now on an upward compliance trajectory,” said ANJ in a statement today.
Analysis of these yearly plans is carried out in relation to reference framework for the fight against fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as the country’s national risk analysis.
ANJ said that licensed operators were subject to three action plan assessments. They were assessed in relation to how they implemented anti-money laundering, counter terrorist financing and terrorist financing rules, how they implemented ANJ’s 2022 recommendations and the action plans they had formulated for 2023.
The regulator provided three priority areas for all operators for 2023, which includes implementing operator alert engineering to problems they encounter, ensuring staff compliance with AML, counter terrorist financing and money laundering procedures and making sure procedures are adequate in terms of financial sanctions.
ANJ recommended that operators must also pay attention to rules regarding the freezing of assets, verifying the status of a politically exposed person and also create guidelines for a declaration of emergency procedure.
The regulator said that it rejected one action plan outright, belonging to Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU).
“The ANJ notes first of all that PMU has not implemented, in 2022, all the prescriptions formulated by the college during the action plan of the previous year and that its action plan for the year 2023 seems insufficient,” said the regulator.
“The ANJ has therefore decided to reject PMU’s 2023 action plan in the fight against fraud and against money laundering and terrorist financing.”
Specifically, ANJ said that PMU had exhibited a lack of human resources, which prevented it from providing adequate point-of-sales checks and updated risk analysis.
PMU also allegedly did not process alerts in relation to splitting of stakes, which therefore prevented it from identifying circumvention from operators, and had “incomplete and still hypothetical” measures regarding large international bettors.
ANJ said that PMU must file a new action plan within one month, after the matter is discussed with ANJ.
“PMU must file, at the latest within one month, a new request for approval of its action plan in the fight against fraud and against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, after discussion with ANJ services.”
