NEWS & NOTES

The New Hampshire Lottery reports that online and mobile sports betting exceeded projections, bringing in $1.2 million in net profits the first month. DraftKings has registered 29,000 users so far, who wagered $17.3 million before Super Bowl bets were tallied. So far, it’s all been mobile wagering; the lottery will start adding brick-and-mortar locations soon. • Scientific Games and Betfred will partner to provide platform and technology for sports betting at the Wind Creek Casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, owned and operated by Alabama’s Poarch Band of Creek Indians. The partnership covers a sportsbook onsite and online wagering. •. Investigators in North Carolina raided three illegal casinos last month, seizing video slot machines, fish machines, computer equipment, screens and $210,000 as well as ATM machines. • Harrah’s Rincon has opened the first Native American craft brewery in Southern California, featuring a signature brew, “Chief,” made from indigenous American hops. The Rincon Reservation Road Brewery was celebrated with a traditional prayer and blessing and a ribbon cutting at the resort and casino in Valley Center. • The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians has shared more than $850,000 in gaming revenues with the community in Michigan. The tribe, which operates three gaming halls in Michigan, shares 2 percent of slot machine revenues with six counties. Since 1994, it has generated more than $41 million for local governments, schools and other organizations. • The Cambodian Department of Immigration reports that more than 200,000 Chinese left the country after online gaming was banned. The number of licensed casinos in the kingdom reportedly dropped from 163 last June to only 118 casinos, with 56 in Sihanoukville. • The Oneida Indian Nation of New York has purchased the former Microtel Inn & Suites in Verona and is renaming it Sandstone Hollow Inn. The hotel will reopen February 12 and offer free shuttle service to Turning Stone Casino. • Four former casino employees and their wives have been convicted of stealing $5.2 million from a South Florida casino run by Miccosukee Gaming. From 2011 to mid-2015, the men tampered with computers in electronic gaming machines, causing those machines to generate fraudulent credit vouchers. Their wives helped to move the cash between multiple bank accounts. All eight await sentencing. • The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians has awarded a $1 million grant to Indian Country Today, LLC, and will be the Founding Partner for a national news broadcast for and about American Indian and Alaska Native issues. The two-year grant will be used to produce a weekly, 30-minute national newscast from ICT bureaus in Washington, D.C., and Anchorage, Alaska. Indian Country Today produces daily digital stories and will soon launch a national newscast in partnership with Arizona PBS and Vision Maker.