NEWS & NOTES

The Japan Casino School has announced that it will open a new school in Osaka, a front-runner for one of Japan’s first three integrated resort licenses. The school will offer courses in roulette and baccarat as well as English and the prevention of problem gambling. When IRs open in Japan, they are expected to need about 6,000 dealers. ● Renovations to convert Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino to Virgin Hotels Las Vegas will begin early in 2020 instead of the end of this year, as initially planned. Virgin Hotels acquired the 1,500-room off-Strip resort about a year ago and hired Klai Juba Wald Architecture + Interiors, Rockwell Group and Studio Collective to head the redesign. Taylor International Corp. and McCarthy Building Cos. are the lead contractors. • Sales of China’s two state-run lotteries were down a combined 8.8 percent year on year in February to CNY23.41 billion (US$3.49 billion). Welfare lottery sales declined by 13.9 percent to CNY11.30 billion. Sports lottery sales dipped 3.4 percent to CNY12.12 billion, the ministry announced. Combined sales for the two months of the year totaled CNY71.37 billion ($10.62 billion). The Ministry of Finance, which announced the results, did not give a reason for the February fall-off. • Melco Resorts and Entertainment has granted Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho additional shares currently worth around US$10 million. The grant of 409,076 Restricted ADS Shares vesting on April 1, 2021, were awarded in recognition of Ho’s “contribution to the success and development of the Melco Resorts Group,” the company said. • The U.S. Pro Football Hall of Fame is partnering with UK-based betting software provider BetConstruct, Las Vegas-based games and technology provider Atlantis Gaming and the Tribal Gaming Network, a regulatory and educational clearinghouse for Native American gaming, to explore the launch of a fantasy sports platform. Details were sketchy, but the platform will leverage the hall brand, possibly via wagering scenarios based on historical performances of former greats of the National Football League.   • Nevada-based Eureka Casino Resort has opened a renovated tables-only casino at the site of the former Seabrook Greyhound Park in Seabrook, N.H. The new Greyhound Casino and Tavern features six poker tables, 11 house-banked table games, two roulette wheels, simulcast and off-track betting and a pub-style menu. The park closed after dog racing was outlawed in New Hampshire in 2008. Eureka, based in Mesquite, Nevada, purchased the 75-acre property last February. • California’s Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians will open the Harrah’s Northern California casino next month in Amador County 32 miles from Sacramento. The casino will have 950 slots, 20 gaming tables, a restaurant and three eateries. The opening comes after a decade of pursuing the right to a casino that included winning three appeals in federal court, most recently the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. • MGM China Holdings Ltd. announced a green initiative in which the restaurants at its two Macau properties have replaced all plastic disposable items with “environmentally friendly alternatives.” In a press release, MGM officials said, “The milestone marks a significant step towards the reduction of food-and-beverage plastic packaging waste in Macau, which will save 4.5 million pieces of single-use plastic per year from being disposed of into the environment.” Items phased out include plastic drinking straws, cutlery and containers of take-out food. “The company has taken steps to make its takeaway packaging more recyclable, and to ensure all new designs avoid the use of unnecessary plastic,” the statement said. • Prominent among reasons the Alliance of American Football is on the brink of failure is that the league, billed as a professional development league for young players, never caught on with daily fantasy sports players. According to an analysis on the RotoGrinders news site, the problem was a lack of information filtering to bettors. “Where the AAF really dropped the ball is making a connection with sports bettors and fantasy players,” wrote Thomas Casale on the site. “When the league launched, it stated repeatedly that it wanted to appeal to bettors. It’s failed miserably in that area, as bettors have lost interest in the league.”