NEWS & NOTES

A U.S. affiliate of online bookmaking giant bet365 Group has purchased a 4.9 percent stake in Empire Resorts (Nasdaq: NYNY), the parent company of New York’s Resorts World Catskills casino hotel. UK-based bet365, which spent $34 million for the shares, is contracted to run Resorts World’s sports book when betting becomes legal in the state. • Virgin Group has purchased a minority stake in Brightline, a Miami-based rail operator that has announced plans to acquire Xpress West, the company behind the stalled high-speed rail link between Las Vegas and Southern California. Brightline, which currently operates trains between Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, Florida, will rename itself Virgin Trains USA. Virgin also is an investor in a high-speed passenger service in the UK. • Station Casinos has added to its extensive real estate holdings in the Las Vegas Valley with the purchase of 40 vacant acres in Skye Canyon in the far northwest of the region. Station paid $36 million to a private ownership group for the land. The locals gaming giant has not disclosed plans for the site, which is zoned for casino development. • The new e-Sports venue at the Luxor Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip been named HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas. HyperX is the gaming division of the venue’s development partners, Kingston Technology and Allied Esports. Luxor is owned by MGM Resorts International. • Marnell Gaming is demolishing its shuttered Bourbon Square Casino in Sparks as part of an ongoing revitalization of the Northern Nevada city’s downtown. New projects in the area include apartments, a cinema and other entertainment attractions. The casino closed three years ago and has been vacant since. Marnell has not announced plans for the two-acre site. • The British Gambling Commission announced it is seeking bidders for its National Lottery 2023 concession. That represents a challenge to the country’s current lottery runner Camelot, which has operated the lottery since its launch in 1994. The commission wants to restructure the National Lottery including shortening the license time and allowing for adjustments to secure greater returns for good causes. “We believe there is significant untapped potential for growth whilst still retaining the principles of being responsible, safe and fair,” said Neil McArthur, chief executive of the Gambling Commission in a press release. • The Primorsky Krai Development Corp., which oversees integrated resort development in the Russian Far East, has signed an agreement to provide more electric power to the zone. Primorsky Electric Networks will rebuild the Muraveyka substation to increase its capacity by 16 megawatts. The project will be completed in stages through 2020. ● The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge has been open less than a month, but already unlicensed tour guides are using it to bring visitors from Mainland China to Macau, claims Chu Meng Ha, president of the Macau Tour Guide Promotion Association. Chu said the unlicensed tour guides are sidestepping local regulations that require guides to report their itineraries to the Macau Government Tourism Office. MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes has promised to look into the matter. ● Any integrated resort in Osaka should include an international conference hall with capacity for more than 5,000 people, say officials. Osaka is considered a frontrunner for one of Japan’s first three integrated resort licenses; a 5,000-capacity conference hall would almost double the size of Osaka’s largest existing venue, which can hold 2,700 people. ● Macau’s Judiciary Police have asked web hosting companies outside the territory to block or remove 237 gambling websites that appropriate local casino brands. Macau Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak said the pirate sites have “seriously damaged” Macau’s image as an international tourism and gaming destination. Thus far, 130 of the sites have been disabled. • The original Casino Morongo, refurbished and redecorated, has reopened across the parking lot from its much larger progeny. It offers 300 slots, bingo, bowling and a sports bar with 30 big screen TVs. It already has a 400-seat Bingo Hall and 24-lane bowling. New is the Pit Stop Diner, serving American classics 24-7. CEO John James declared, “At Casino Morongo, we are proving that a classic never goes out of style. Our goal at the original Casino Morongo is to provide our guests with a whole new experience in a gorgeous and modernized setting that is refreshingly familiar and comfortable.” • The Bureau of Indian Affairs will hold a hearing December 11 for the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin’s proposed $405 million off-reservation casino in Beloit, which is 150 miles from its reservation at Black River Falls. It will cover the project’s draft environmental impact statement. The project comes under the two-part determination of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which requires the approval of the state governor. Governor-elect Tony Evers has promised his approval. • Tesuque Casino was scheduled to open on the day after Thanksgiving. About 5,000 were expected to attend. The 72,000 square-foot facility located near Santa Fe, New Mexico, is owned by the Pueblo of Tesuque. The casino, which replaces Camel Rock Casino, is next to the Santa Fe Opera, which hosts summertime events. • Coeur d’Alene Casino resort has begun a $15 million renovation to celebrate the North Idaho property’s 25^th anniversary. Work on 68,000 square feet of gaming and event space is expected to be completed by March. It will include an LED “video chandelier” with moving patterns and imagery of fire, water, sunsets etc. The air filter system will be upgraded to remove smoke and a high limit gaming area and corner bar are being added. • The International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR) conference for 2019 will be held September 30 – October 3 at the Half Moon in Montego Bay Jamaica, a 400-acre resort. Each year the conference visits a different continent. Last year it was Europe. The conference provides “an international forum in which colleagues with regulatory interests in gaming and gambling come together to share issues and best practice,” according to IAGR. • The Canadian gaming firm Gateway Casinos & Entertainment Ltd. has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to list shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol GTWY. Gateway has 26 casinos in British Columbia, Ontario and Edmonton, Alberta with a combined 13,500 slot machines. It recorded a revenue of $367.51 million the first nine months of 2018, a 42.9 percent increase over last year. Morgan Stanley is the underwriter for the IPO. • The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has declined to take up the question of whether federal law allows the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians to conduct gaming on the reservation without state permission. The court said the House of Representatives did not explain why the court should render a decision. Justices said they didn’t consider the issue “of serious and immediate nature.”