NEWS & NOTES

The Rhode Island Lottery now offers online games. Players can register at a website or download a mobile app and play Keno and other instant games anywhere in the state. Lottery Director Gerald Aubin commented, “This will be a great convenience for players and will generate additional revenue for our state.” The same Keno game can also be played at retail locations. Some instant games will also be available online. Players will be able to link their lottery accounts to their bank accounts. • Suncity Group’s Philippines subsidiary, SunTrust Home Developers Inc., together with the Resorts World Philippines Cultural Heritage Foundation and gaming regulator PAGCOR, have distributed PHP50 million in Personal Protective Equipment to 40 public hospitals in Luzon. The four other Entertainment City licensees, Resorts World Manila, Solaire Resort and Casino, City of Dreams Manila and Okada Manila, have also donated food packs and medical supplies to hospitals in Luzon. • SkyCity Entertainment Group of New Zealand is planning to slash another 700 jobs amid a slowdown in business due to Covid-19. Two hundred salaried staff were dismissed in early April. The government was expected to the move from Covid Level 3 to Level 2 last week, but borders would still be closed. • Frontier Airlines will begin temperature screenings of all passengers and employees starting June 1, the first carrier serving Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport to do so amid the coronavirus pandemic. Passengers who record a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher will not be allowed to board their flight. • Shafiqullah Shafaq, Afghanistan cricket player, has been handed a six-year ban from the country’s Cricket Board after acknowledging four charges of breaching the anti-corruption code. By cooperating with the ACB’s anti-corruption unit, Shafaq avoided a longer ban from the sport. • The Singapore Turf Club is temporarily converting selected areas of its Kranji racecourse into facilities for foreign workers recovering from Covid-19. Many foreign workers contracted the virus while living in dormitories. Meanwhile, racing has been temporarily suspended due to the crisis. • Taxi trips in Las Vegas fell by 97 percent from February to April, according to data from the city’s Taxicab Authority. In February, Southern Nevada saw 1.1 million trips by 16 taxicab companies in the area. That dropped to fewer than 29,000 in April when all major resorts on Las Vegas Boulevard and nonessential businesses across the valley closed for the month. • The National Sports Collectors Convention, scheduled to begin July 29 at Atlantic City Convention Center, has been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The event, which calls itself the world’s largest sports and entertainment collectibles show, has been tentatively rescheduled for December 12-16. • The shuttle bus linking Macau and Hong Kong via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge has resuming service. The “Golden Bus” was suspended last month as part of efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19. • There won’t be a Miss America crowned this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Miss America Organization said the competition, scheduled for December at the Mohegan Sun Arena, is being postponed until next year. • Billy Walters, perhaps the most successful professional sports gambler in the U.S., has been released from a federal prison in Florida, and will finish the rest of his sentence under home confinement in California. Walters got five years in prison and was ordered to pay a $10 million fine after being convicted of insider trading in 2017. • Sin City landmarks like the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign took on a red tint for National Travel and Tourism Week, May 3-9. The “red takeover” was the brainchild of the U.S. Travel Association and supported by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Other landmarks that went red were the Fremont Street Experience, Paris Las Vegas, the Strat and the High Roller observation wheel. • Casinos have reopened in New Caledonia, the French territory comprising dozens of islands in the South Pacific. New Caledonia has been little affected by the coronavirus, with no new cases since April 4. • Vietnam’s unfortunately named Corona Resort & Casino, the country’s only casino available to locals, has reopened. The US$2.1 billion resort, which opened in January 2019, resumed operations on April 21. • Also in Vietnam, the mass-focused Royal Casino Ha Long Bay reopened May 12, with a range of social distancing measures in place including staggering the formation of gaming tables, reducing the seating at each table and limiting slot machines to every second machine. Hand sanitizer will also be provided at all tables, temperature scanners installed at entrances and one surgical face mask provided to any patron not wearing one. • The organized crime unit of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police uncovered an illegal underground poker game in Chiyoda Ward. Four organizer and 13 customers were arrested; the number of customers frequenting the venue had increased since the shutdown began in April. A player said he was “tired of self-isolating and came to gamble.” • Galaxy Entertainment Group has organized dozens of health and safety courses for employees in the face of Covid-19. More than 100,000 people are expected to take the training, which is specifically targeted at departments like table games, food and beverage, surveillance, hotel operations and security. • The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority clearly believes people will return to the city, as it continues work on a new underground people-mover known as the Convention Center Loop. The project could be the first step in developing an underground transit system throughout the city, particularly in the resort corridor and at McCarran International Airport. • New Jersey’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority recently approved a $300,000 grant to the Community FoodBank to provide emergency distribution services to residents and casino workers put out of work by the coronavirus pandemic. Hard Rock Atlantic City co-partner Joseph Jingoli donated $50,000, while Hard Rock International Chairman and Seminole Gaming CEO Jim Allen and Resorts Casino Hotel owner Morris Bailey both contributed $25,000. UNITE HERE Local 54, the casino workers’ labor union, contributed $20,000 as well. • Melco Resorts & Entertainment has mobilized its Macau workforce for its “Simple Acts of Kindness” initiative. Thousands of volunteers will take part in various community events, during work hours, supporting local charities.