NEWS & NOTES

Nagasaki, Japan’s IR aspirations will be represented by the new Kyushu IR Promotion Council, a coalition of Kyushu’s major economic organizations and local governments. Nagasaki will select an IR operator among three candidates: Oshidori Consortium, Casinos Austria International Japan and the Niki Chyau Fwu (Parkview) Group. Yokohama, Osaka and Wakayama will also bid for an IR license. ● New Zealand-based Kiwibank is offering a voluntary block on gaming transactions for customers who want to self-exclude from online gambling. It’s the first bank in the country to offer the service. Julia Jackson, New Zealand head of sustainability, commented, “What we’ve done is introduced the ability for customers, at their own request, to put a voluntary block on their visa debit or credit cards, which essentially stops them spending anything online gambling.” • Costa Rica’s Social Protection Board is vetting five proposals to operate online gaming sites. That would include an e-Lottery and online sports betting. The board put out an RFP March 16 and just closed the window for proposals. Operators would pay a deposit of up to $450,000. There will be three different platforms, with two operators per platform. The government will keep 70 percent of the profits. ● Electric Daisy Carnival is officially on for 2021, after being postponed twice and then canceled in 2020. The three-day music festival will take place May 21-23 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “We will be working closely with local and state officials to make the show as safe as possible,” EDC founder Pasquale Rotella wrote in an Instagram post. “You can expect the full EDC experience with no details spared.” Event organizers are expecting 180,000 attendees nightly, or 90 percent of their approved capacity of 200,000 a day. ●   O.J. Simpson and Nevada Property 1 LLC, owner of the Las Vegas Cosmopolitan, have settled a lawsuit that began when Cosmo employees allegedly defamed Simpson, calling him drunk and disruptive. Attorneys for the company had argued the former football star could not be defamed because his reputation was already tarnished. Simpson was acquitted of two murder charges, but held liable in a civil trial. He later served nine years in prison in Nevada for armed robbery, kidnapping and assault.