NEWS & NOTES

Universal Entertainment Corp. has lost an appeal in its defamation suit against Reuters. The Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling that the news agency did not imply that Kazuo Okada’s company committed bribery in its dealings with Philippine authorities.Universal sued in December 2012, demanding 200 million yen ($1.8 million) over stories relating to $40 million in payments Universal made to a consultant on a casino project in the Philippines.  ?  The Tak Chun Group officially launched its Studio City Tak Chun VIP Club on Tuesday, marking the first of two junket operators to open VIP rooms in the casino resort owned and operated by Melco Crown Entertainment. The 1,000-square-meter (10,760-square-foot) VIP gaming facility has four VIP rooms and nine gaming tables. With this new VIP operation, Tak Chun now operates 15 VIP clubs—13 in Macau and two overseas—with over 200 gaming tables.  ?  More than 100 million Mainland Chinese traveled outside the country in the first nine months of 2016, according to travel data from the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute. The total of 101.5 million border-crossings set a record number of crossings in any three quarters. About 51.7 million trips were made outside Greater China. Among the major destinations were South Korea, where tourism went up 85 percent year-on-year, and Vietnam, where incoming travel rose 75 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2016.  ?  San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino will hold a grand opening December 6 for its Rock & Brews Restaurant and the Rockin’ Casino, which will be next door. The celebration will include a private KISSmas reception for over 100 veterans and active military and a nighttime Rock Stars for Vets gala to benefit Volunteers for Vets. General Manager Loren Gill commented, “Rock & Brews provides an energized, first-of-its-kind, TechnoMedia-enhanced dining and entertainment experience that cannot be found elsewhere.”  •  The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has fined the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem more than $22,000 for violating the prohibition on mixing cards from different decks. The casino was fined after twice mixing cards from blue and red decks in continuous shuffling machines. It was the second time Sands was fined for the infraction, having been tagged for $2,500 in February for allowing a single blue card to be mixed with a shoe of red cards. “The game is supposed to use a specific number of cards,” said Richard McGarvey, Gaming Control Board spokesman, to the Allentown Morning Call. “When you add cards it throws off the integrity of the whole game.”  •  Pennsylvania casino poker rooms collected $4.75 million in rake during October, according to figures released by state gaming regulators. The state’s brick-and-mortar poker rooms won $4.5 million in September. October 2016’s performance was slightly worse than the $4.78 million raked in October 2015, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, though the decrease was less than 1 percent. There were 225 tables statewide during October. Parx Casino and its 45 poker tables led the way with $1.4 million in revenue.  •  Nasdaq Stockholm’s Listing Committee has approved technology platform supplier Mr. Green & Co AB’s shares for listing on Nasdaq Stockholm. The approval is subject to various customary terms and conditions, including the approval and registration of a prospectus by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. “Today, we have broader product offering, a new scalable business model and we focus on providing our customers with a unique personalized user experience,” said Per Norman, CEO of Mr. Green & Co.  •  Police in Nitro, West Virginia, say a man stood up from a blackjack table at the Mardi Gras Casino, drove to rob a bank and then returned to continue gambling. According to the Associated Press, a grand jury indicted 52-year-old Kerry Johnson of Charleston on a bank robbery charge. Police say Johnson put down a $25 chip to hold his spot at the blackjack table, drove 13 miles to a Charleston bank, and gave tellers a note saying he had a bomb and a weapon. After tellers handed over the cash, Johnson returned to the blackjack table.  •  PokerStars has launched Casino Rush, a fast-play mobile social casino app offering free-to-play poker, casino and slots across both iOS and Android platforms. Casino Rush, developed in partnership with Seven Deuces Games, provides players offline play options; free chips as new games are unlocked—such as Swap the Flop Poker, All In Split and Lucky Hands—and challenge-based public and private leader boards. Lloyd Melnick, director of social gaming at PokerStars, said, “It is the best of poker, casino and slots all fused into one great game—just what gamers in 2016 are looking for.”  •  Australian slot manufacturer Ainsworth Game Technology Limited has warned investors that its pre-tax annual profit could fall to around $11 million from the $25.76 million it recorded for its previous fiscal year due to “challenging industry conditions” in its home market. Despite recording a 38 percent increase year-on-year in international revenues, and optimism surrounding its new Pacman game, Ainsworth revealed that first-half unit volumes for Australia have declined by approximately 30 percent, although it expects these figures to improve in the second half of its fiscal year.