NEWS & NOTES

The Hellenic Gaming Commission of Greece has shut down the Rio and Alexandroupoli casinos for 60 days because of past-due Social Security obligations of €25 million and €12.5 million, respectively. The casinos on were also fined €75,000 and €5,000. • The New South Wales Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority has fined Ladbrokes Australia and Neds a record $207,500 for presenting wagering inducements to NSW residents. Ladbrokes, which owns Neds, was fined for airing a six TV and Facebook ads offering, bonus bets for a smaller deposit to new betting accounts, such as a deal to ‘Deposit $50, get $250 in bonus bets’. According to the NSW Betting and Racing Act, it states that it is an offence to publish a gambling advertisement that includes any inducement to participate or participate frequently, in any gambling activity. • Bulgaria’s Justice Ministry has asked the United Arab Emirates to extradite gambling tycoon Vasil Bozhkov, charged in absentia with extortion, influence peddling and money laundering. The billionaire known as “the Skull” has interests in casinos, hotels, lotteries and media outlets, and owns over 30 companies. These include Levski Sofia, the country’s most successful soccer team. Bulgaria does not have an extradition agreement with the UAE. • New York-based Dream Hotel Group plans to open a 450-room hotel on more than five acres on Las Vegas Boulevard. The project is a collaboration between Dream and California real estate development and investment companies Contour and Shopoff Realty. The hotel, with about 12,000 square feet of private event and meeting space, will include a casino and offer “a stylized, hip, intimate kind of experience,” said Dream CEO Jay Stein. • Sahara Las Vegas is bringing poker back as part of its $150 million renovation project. The Strip property’s poker room has been operating since a soft opening on February 14. The room includes seven nine-seated custom tables, a 16-by-9 LED screen and William Hill sports betting odds. The room’s regular hours are 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. • Universal Entertainment has won its lawsuit against former chairman Kazuo Okada, who been ordered to pay almost US$200,000 in damages. The suit was filed in 2017 after Okada “breached both his duty of care of a good manager and his fiduciary duty of loyalty as a director,” Universal said. Okada was suspected of transferring company funds to his own accounts. • The Asian Poker Tour (APT) has confirmed that its next event planned for March 4-15 in Taipei, Taiwan, will take place as scheduled. APT Chief Executive Jeff Mann said a “lot of thought” went into the decision to go ahead with the event, given travel restrictions to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus Covid-19. “The final decision was made by our customers—our poker players both local and international. They have voted overwhelmingly that APT Taiwan should proceed.”