NEWS & NOTES

Pennsylvania’s Salisbury Township approved zoning requests from the Rutter’s convenience store chain that would allow for a convenience store with gambling machines in the town of Gap. The convenience store chain has already submitted a land development plan to the township and is awaiting consideration from the planning commission. Rutter’s is seeking to build a 10,257-square-foot convenience store and gas station at routes 30 and 772 in Gap along with special permissions to house video gaming terminals under the 2017 law that permits qualifying truck stops to house five VGTs each. • Caesars Entertainment announced a new partnership with Japanese arcade gaming company Taito that will see the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas host North America’s first ever Toushinsai e-Arcade sports competition in August. Set to be held in the Rio’s dedicated eSports venue the Wall, which opened in 2018, the event will feature teams of three facing off in single elimination battles on the classic arcade game “Street Fighter V.” It will also be live-streamed around the world and shown in other Caesars eSports venues, with the winning team to receive a trip to Tokyo and automatic entry into the next Toushinsai in Japan in 2020. • Authorities in Thailand are for the first time enforcing a ban on claw machine games, a decade after the Supreme Court ruled they are illegal gambling machines. Visitpat Anantarasuchart, the head of legal affairs at the Department of Provincial Administration, has vowed to heighten investigations into suspected arcade machines because they are “luring the youths.” Authorities seized a claw machine in Udon Thani on June 17 in a raid prompted by a public complaint. • The city of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the Bethlehem Area School District each will get $317,000 in deed transfer taxes from the recent $1.3 billion sale of the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem to Wind Creek Hospitality, documents from the Northampton County Recorder of Deeds show. The official tally confirms early indications that the tax bill fell far short of what city officials had hoped. Early on the city had projected the bill could be as high as $6.5 million, depending on how the tax was calculated. The difference between the city’s initial projections and the final number boils down to how the deal was structured, which calculated the tax only on the value of the underlying land. • The Greek company Intralot, which D.C. officials want to award a $215 million no-bid contract to run the district’s sports betting operation, reportedly has ties to some city officials. According to a report in the Washington Post, most of Intralot’s subcontractors have had connections to D.C. elected officials or previous contacts with the city government. Intralot oversees the D.C. Lottery, which would run sports betting. District officials will vote on the contract July 9. • Del Mar Thoroughbred Club has partnered with Sycuan Casino Resort for an exclusive multi-year arrangement that will commence when the racing season begins July 17. The partnership includes signage and branding at the San Diego County racetrack and access to the casino facilities for Del Mar patrons.   • A division of entertainment giant AEG, co-owner of Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, has been named to manage the $1.8 billion domed Las Vegas Stadium slated to open next year as home of the NFL Raiders. Los Angeles-based AEG Facilities will be responsible for all stadium operations under a comprehensive agreement with the team that covers everything from hiring and training of the 65,000-seat venue’s full-time staff to managing guest services, event operations, booking, security, ticketing and finance. Terms and the length of the agreement were not disclosed.   • Paul Anderson, former director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development in Nevada, has joined Boyd Gaming as senior vice president of industry and government affairs. He replaces Bill Noonan, who announced his retirement earlier this month. • The Oneida Indian Nation has named veteran Las Vegas oddsmaker Justin Arnett as director of its branded Lounge at Caesars sportsbooks, opening soon at the tribe’s three upstate New York casinos, Turning Stone, Point Place and Yellow Brick Road. Arnett mostly recently managed the race and sportsbooks at Las Vegas Sands’ Venetian and Palazzo resorts in Las Vegas and at Lagasse’s Stadium. • Vegas Stats & Information Network has concluded an agreement with MSG Networks to bring VSiN’s daily sports betting content to the New York market. The deal, which includes VSiN’s popular “Follow the Money” talk show, also will bring VSiN content to MSG’s MSG GO live streaming and video-on-demand platform. • Las Vegas-based CAI Investments has broken ground on a 284-room Delta Hotels by Marriott west of the Strip at Flamingo Road and Valley View Boulevard. The non-gaming hotel is scheduled to open in 2021 with attractions that include a rooftop pool and meetings and conference space. • The 2019 Mosconi Cup nine-ball pool tournament will be held November 25-28 at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. The tournament, which pits European teams against their U.S. rivals, has been held in alternating venues on both continents since 1994. Partypoker is sponsoring the Las Vegas competition as part of a three-year deal with Matchroom Sport. • Rivers Casino & Resort in Schenectady, N.Y., has hired veteran bookmaker Hal Wafer to manage its Rivers Sportsbook slated to open this month. Wafer began his career with Coast Resorts in Las Vegas and most recently was sportsbook supervisor at Caesars Entertainment’s Horseshoe Tunica Hotel and Casino in Mississippi. • The government of the Philippines will begin collecting taxes from foreign workers employed by Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, known as POGOs, starting this month. Carlos Dominguez, head of President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic team, scoffed at reports that workers are making as little as $500 a month; he said he’s seen ads in China media advertising POGO jobs paying as much as $10,000 per month. ● Malaysian Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador has barred policemen from entering any entertainment and gaming outlets in an effort to prevent police corruption. Hamid said the Integrity and Standard Compliance Department will monitor officers and take disciplinary action against offenders. ● A fire broke out on July 2 near an escalator at Resorts World Genting in Malaysia. The blaze was extinguished in 10 minutes with no injuries reported, said management. An investigation into the blaze is “ongoing” and the rest of the resort was “not affected,” according to a Facebook post by Resorts World.