NEWS & NOTES

The South Dakota Gaming Commission reports that gaming overall rose 13.3 percent in November over the same month the year before. Slot machine revenues leaped 15.1 percent and table game revenues declined 11.8 percent. Deadwood Gaming Association Executive Director Mike Rodman stated, “These numbers continue to show that our visitors feel safe playing in Deadwood. Despite the Covid shutdown earlier this year, gaming revenue is now currently down only 4.10% year to date for 2020.” • Rush Street Interactive (RSI) began trading December 30 on the New York Stock Exchange. The board of directors and some employees rang the NYSE bell to start the day’s trading. RSI is the parent company of Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh and Rivers Philadelphia and launched on the exchange after a merger with the special purpose acquisition company dMY Technology Group Inc. The company launched its first online casino in New Jersey in 2016. • The UK Gambling Commission has extended the deadline for making submissions for its remote customer interaction consultation, which launched in December. The call is for input from consumers, industry stakeholders to identify those who may be at risk from online gaming. The goal is to protect such vulnerable consumers. The “call for evidence” deadline has been extended to February 9. • Redding Rancheria in Northern California plans to build a “health village” medical campus on property it owns near the Win-River Resort and Casino. The 90,000 SF facility will have swimming pools and an indoor running track. Six demonstration kitchens will host healthy cooking classes. The tribe currently operates four other health centers in the county. The rancheria has about 400 members. ● Leong Man Ion has stepped down as deputy director of Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau and will go on unpaid leave beginning March 25. The bureau said the move was made at Leong’s request but gave no reason for his decision. ● Elys Game Technology, an iGaming and sports betting provider, has joined the National Council on Problem Gambling. Its membership will involve Elys in supporting Washington, D.C.-based NCPG’s prevention, treatment, education, research and responsible gambling programs and policies. ● Spain’s Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling aims to establish a “new technical body” to coordinate the country’s federal gambling laws, standards and market controls. The regulatory agency and the UNE, a “standardization body” formed by the Ministry of the Economy, will form a new agency to execute standardized actions in the field of online gambling to improve how Spain’s regulated marketplace functions and how its licensed incumbents are governed. ● The Wyndham Garden hotel in Carson City, Nevada, connected to the Max Casino and the, is now the Federal Hotel, part of the Choice Hotels brand. Ninety rooms and suites will undergo renovations after the Covid-19 pandemic subsides. ● French gaming regulator L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux has says it will overhaul public policies and consumer protections to minimize “excessive gambling and improve the protection of minors.” ANJ stated that, since 2014, the number of high-risk gamblers in the country has nearly doubled from 200,000 to 370,000. ● Genting Hong Kong Ltd., an operator of casino cruise ships and investor in Asian land-based casinos, says a deal to sell and lease back an under-construction vessel intended for its Crystal Cruises business has been terminated. The liner, to be named Crystal Endeavor, is currently being built in one of Genting Hong Kong’s shipyards in Germany; Genting said the parties agreed to terminate the deal because of the “substantial delay in construction and delivery of the vessel due to the impact of Covid-19 as well as the worldwide freeze of cruise operations.” ● Morimoto, the Japanese restaurant from Masaharu Morimoto at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, returned on January 8 with dinner service only on Fridays and Saturdays. Morimoto closed in March when the state ordered nonessential businesses including casinos and restaurants to close to slow the spread of Covif-19. ● Las Vegas developer Lorenzo Doumani has announced that he will break ground in July on Majestic Las Vegas, a 720-room luxury hotel off the north Strip, across from the newly expanded Las Vegas Convention Center. Doumani says the $850 million resort will cater to business travelers and open in 2024. ● Southern Nevada will lose hundreds of millions of dollars due to the loss of the in-person Consumer Electronic Show, which went virtual due to the coronavirus. Last year’s CES convention brought in 180,000 attendees and had an estimated total economic impact of $291.4 million, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. ● The Malta Gaming Authority recently issued a reminder to licensed sports betting operators that starting this year, they must submit suspicious betting reports directly to the MGA and inform it of any circumstances in which “one or more bets” were voided due to suspicious activities. The MGA’s integrity unit will review submissions and supporting evidence on a case-by-case basis, sharing data with relevant criminal authorities and sports bodies. ●   The Philippine Supreme Court has issued a temporary restraining order against the collection of a 5 percent franchise tax on Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) that was earmarked for the fight against Covid-19. Justices believed the tax was part of a legislative “rider,” which violates the constitutional provision that a bill cannot address more than one subject. ● Hong Kong-listed Suncity Group plans to develop two non-gaming luxury resorts in Japan starting this year, in Miyako Island, Okinawa and Niseko, Hokkaido. The company is also pursuing a license to develop an integrated resort in Wakayama. “The completion of these new integrated resorts will serve as a testament to Suncity Group’s determination to become Asia’s leading integrated resort operator and an enterprise rooted in Macau that is actively responding to the national policy of ‘going global,’” Suncity said. ● North American slot sales are expected to decline 53 percent to 40,600 units this year but should rebound 37 percent to 55,800 games next year, Todd Eilers of Eilers & Krejcik Gaming said. That is down from prior estimates of a 46 percent decline this year but up from the 32.5 percent growth for next year. He estimates 420 table games will be added this year, 460 next year and 430 in 2022. • Finnish gambling monopoly Veikkaus announced that a temporary reduction to the maximum amount its players can lose in a day will remain capped at €500 throughout the first quarter of 2021. The monthly loss limit, however, will be restored to €2,000, the rate in place prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.