Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies
I am an accomplished journalist covering cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, with prior experience covering politics, economics and technology.
I currently write for Forbes.com while providing strategic communications and public affairs consulting services for companies in the blockchain space. In 2017, I wrote for CoinDesk, the leading crypto and blockchain publication. I also periodically write for the Financial Times, where I worked for four years in Washington before moving on in 2015 to finish my Master's degree.
I am a Portuguese speaker and have a keen interest in Brazil, and I am always interested in new professional opportunities at the intersection of international affairs, technology and policy.
I am motivated to comprehend and express, make unique and distinctive contributions, excel and play a key role in a team environment.
I hold an MA in International Commerce and Policy from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA and a BA in Social Sciences from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN
Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies
The back-and-forth tussle between open, public blockchains and closed, permissioned blockchains and distributed ledgers has been raging ever since "blockchain, not bitcoin" became a thing circa 2015. Consortium systems gained momentum in 2015 and 2016 as companies of all sizes began dedicating resources to studying how the technology could complement or overhaul their existing business processes, but the initial coin offering boom of 2017 shifted interest back toward the permissionless realm.
Despite downward pressure on the price of bitcoin for most of 2018, ICO advisory firm Satis Group sees bitcoin's value proposition and market depth as strong vis-a-vis other crypto assets, and is estimating that its price could hit $96,000 by 2023 and $144,000 by 2028.
Regulation is proving to be the most formidable barrier to the development and deployment of blockchain solutions in business contexts, a new PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 600 global business executives across 15 countries has found.
The Securities and Exchange Commission rejecting proposals for bitcoin exchange traded funds is officially the crypto community's 'dog bites man' news story. In the 18 months since the initial strikedown of the Winklevoss bitcoin ETF proposal in March 2017, the agency's approach to the controversial retail investment vehicles has become literally boilerplate.
First launched in May 2017, LabCFTC has become a guiding example of how U.S. financial regulators are thinking outside the box to engage fintech innovators. Forbes sat down with Director Daniel Gorfine to discuss lessons learned over the last year.
Crypto markets have fallen on hard times recently with declining prices and increasing regulatory attention, but a new Winklevoss twin-backed group is looking to lay the groundwork for a self-regulatory body that would clean up the industry. The Virtual Commodities Association, first proposed in March 2018 and officially launched on Monday, is an industry working group comprised of cryptocurrency exchanges and custodians.
After 18 months of anticipation, the Treasury Department released on Tuesday a seminal report examining the barriers to financial technology and innovation in the United States and proposing a sweeping set of recommendations designed to cut red tape and foster continued experimentation.
The Token Alliance, a group of crypto industry practitioners convened by the Chamber of Digital Commerce, is warning that utility tokens in the U.S. could soon go the way of the dinosaurs and the Dodo bird because of regulatory uncertainty
Crypto Twitter went berserk last week when a congressman went off the rails castigating bitcoin at a well-publicized hearing, but the community needs to understand that regulators in the U.S. are far more knowledgeable about this nascent industry than people may realize or give them credit for
The largest business association in the United States has issued a call for more regulatory clarity around cryptocurrencies and activities they can be used for, such as initial coin offerings. As part of its new Fintech Innovation Initiative, the U.S.
Blockchain momentum is building in the world of aerospace and defense supply chains, and it will be on full display this week at the world-famous Farnborough Air Show as Accenture and Thales, the French systems provider, team up to demo a new prototype.
Peer-to-peer electronic cash transfer mechanisms such as cryptocurrencies should be encouraged to help a dire humanitarian situation in Venezuela and undercut President Nicolas Maduro's failing regime, a Washington geopolitical think tank has urged.
Smart contract platforms that solve blockchain's data privacy and performance concerns remain elusive, but Oasis Labs, founded by a UC-Berkeley computer scientist, believes it has the answer - as do a top tier cast of investors such as Andreesen Horowitz, Bitmain, Binance and Polychain.
U.S. regulators should lay out clear rules dictating when a cryptocurrency issued in an initial coin offering is considered a security and when it is a commodity, a new Cato Institute brief urges.
Policymakers in Washington seem to be waking up to concerns that the United States is lagging behind China and other countries when it comes to investing in quantum computing, a technology that threatens to unravel the encryption that currently secures blockchains and cryptocurrencies.
A top U.S. Secret Service official on Wednesday asked Congress for help in preventing cryptocurrencies like Monero and Zcash, which provide users with enhanced privacy and anonymity features, from being used for illicit purposes. "We should ... consider additional legislative or regulatory actions to address potential challenges related to anonymity-enhanced cryptocurrencies," Robert Novy, deputy assistant director in the U.S.
Speaking at the Heritage Foundation, Jonathan Johnson, former chairman of Overstock.com and current president of Medici Ventures, doubled-down on his companies' commitment to blockchain and cryptocurrencies while issuing a call for more regulatory clarity on coin offerings from Congress and the SEC
Robert Opp of the U.N. World Food Programme is arguing that while his agency's well-publicized efforts to distribute food vouchers to Syrian refugees don't actually require use of a blockchain, the pilot is an important stepping toward the technology's use at greater scale in future crises
Six months after the CryptoKitties craze, momentum continues to build behind blockchain-based games and non-fungible crypto collectibles. EON Foundation, the blockchain games company and publisher of the Crypto Alpaca crypto-pet game, announced Thursday that it had secured $5M in seed funding for the development of its distributed blockchain video gaming platform.
Cryptocurrency investors and traders aren't the only ones pleading with the Internal Revenue Service for more clarity on crypto taxation. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the world's largest professional association for accountants, joined the chorus on Wednesday by calling for additional guidance on matters like gain and loss reporting, expenses related to cryptocurrency mining, chain splits, air drops and more.
Blockchain technology has generated enormous buzz in the international development community recently, being touted as an elixir to the thorny issues that economic theorists and World Bank technocrats have trudged away at for decades.
In a globalizing world where cross-border e-commerce is ever-prevalent, logistics practitioners and customs authorities are eyeing new technologies like blockchain to help process transactions, share and secure data and weed out criminal activity and counterfeit products. "Blockchain. Blockchain. Blockchain.
The blockchain-based data sharing platform Streamr announced new partnerships with Nokia and OSIsoft on Wednesday morning at Consensus 2018, further building the connection between blockchain and internet-of-things enabled technologies. These partnerships will be built on top of Streamr's real-time data marketplace, also launched Wednesday, for connecting producers and consumers via a common interface.
Bermuda's transition from crypto-nobody to jurisdiction du jour in the space continued to plow ahead Tuesday with the inking of a deal with Shyft, the Toronto-based digital identity provider.
James Bullard warned in a keynote Consensus address that the explosion of different cryptocurrencies is pushing in the 'wrong direction' away from facilitating market-based exchange by recreating the headaches of the 1800s that led to the development of uniform currency monetary policy
A Department of Homeland Security official issued a series of subtle warnings Tuesday morning at a congressional hearing that excessive hype and an arms race among blockchain vendors is hindering the technology's implementation at a high level. Douglas Maughan, Science and Technology Division Director at the U.S.
Despite a flurry of Reg D security token issuances by blockchain startups seeking to stay on the SEC's good side, critical infrastructure questions remain that render these tokens virtually untradable in secondary markets, argues Wall Street and blockchain veteran Caitlin Long
Share to email Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin Share to google I write about business and regulatory aspects of blockchain and crypto Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
The world's largest business group is taking a heightened interest in blockchain solutions and capital formation methods, particularly as the pace of commerce hastens and the landscape for traditional initial public offerings becomes murkier. The topic was on display at a capital markets summit Thursday morning hosted by the U.S.
Ask anybody in crypto or blockchain circles about the Venezuelan petro and you'll likely get a predictable eyeroll response, but one former counterrorism analyst says the imbroglio needs to be taken more seriously the community.
Brazil's securities regulator is set to give the green light in early May for fund managers to "indirectly" invest in cryptocurrencies, according to local news reports.
The Chief Scientist of Canada's second most populous province says concerns that Bitcoin is being used for illicit activities like money laundering and tax evasion are largely overblown, according to a new post on the agency's website.
The U.S. federal government is as potentially susceptible to blockchain hype as the rest of us, so ACT-IAC - a non-profit focused on advancing technology in government - has released its first-ever Blockchain Playbook to help agencies determine if a distributed ledger solution is right for them
Share to email Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin Share to google I write about business and regulatory aspects of blockchain and crypto Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
In responding to a request from Congress, the Government Accountability Office released a 136 page report last week detailing the fintech regulation logjam in the United States and offered recommendations for how the landscape can be improved to better facilitate this nascent industry's development.
Sooner or later, everything in the world of crypto requires recalibration. That applies to the price of bitcoin, the blockchain hype cycle and the state-of-play for all of the parties getting rich by selling picks and shovels to this new industry.
Arizona has become the first state in the U.S. to adopt a "regulatory sandbox" to shepherd the development of new emerging industries like fintech, blockchain and cryptocurrencies within its borders. The law will grant regulatory relief for innovators in these sectors who desire to bring new products to market within the state.
While Bank of England Governor and Financial Stability Board chair Mark Carney may not see cryptocurrencies as an immediate threat to the global financial system, the head of Brazil's central bank still sees plenty of reason for concern.
Esports has been the fastest-growing sport on the planet in recent years by players and viewership, and blockchain and cryptocurrencies could be the catalyst that drives this hot new industry fully into the mainstream, a new report from Macquarie Research predicts.
An ongoing turf war between the regulatory agencies that oversee cryptocurrencies in the United States is putting the country at risk of falling behind other jurisdictions that are taking a more nimble and less-Byzantine approach to these new technologies, a former top regulator has warned.
The Brazilian state of São Paulo is looking to cryptocurrency to help solve its infrastructure problems. The state, home to 45 million residents and the city of São Paulo - the largest metropolis in the southern hemisphere and the third-largest in the world - plans to use a token called buildcoin to pay engineers across the globe for feasibility studies.
What if blockchain could be used to actually save lives? That's the thinking ongoing at pharmaceutical heavyweights Pfizer, Amgen and Sanofi. The three companies - typically black boxes when it comes to their work - are now eyeing blockchain as a means of streamlining the process of developing and testing new drugs.
Quebec was fishing for tech giants but caught bitcoin miners. At least that's how David Vincent, business development director at electric utility Hydro Quebec, describes the results of a campaign launched in 2016 to lure the likes of Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft to build their data centers in the Canadian province.
A research analyst at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) sees cryptocurrency, blockchain technology and decentralization as a potential $10 trillion ecosystem. In a new report released Wednesday, Mitch Steves, an equities analyst with RBC's Capital Markets subsidiary, laid out his bull case for why the future of transactional services will ultimately be decentralized.
Giga Watt, a startup that held an initial coin offering (ICO) to raise money to build a cryptocurrency mining facility, is being sued for allegedly conducting an unregistered securities offering. The complaint was filed by a group of plaintiffs that contributed more than $20 million in cryptocurrency - with a current estimated valuation of $100 million - during the project's token sale in July and August.
Monkey Capital, a Delaware-based company seeking to create a decentralized hedge fund, has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging a fraudulent issuance of securities. The claim, filed in the U.S.
The U.S. tax code is on the brink of its largest overhaul in three decades. And while neither the House of Representatives or Senate version of the tax bill (both have passed in their respective chambers and are in the process of being reconciled into a final bill) specifically addresses cryptocurrency, several rule changes could potentially catch bitcoin holders who realized eye-popping gains in 2017 by surprise.
A new of wave startups believe blockchain can help microfinance deliver on lofty promises. Billed as a silver bullet that could lift the poor out of poverty since the mid-2000s, microfinance, or the use of small loans to boost the unbanked, has failed to take off for various reasons - namely, a lack of transparency and the existence of middlemen that blockchain is said to eliminate.
The legacy of the W.J. Howey Company lives on, though not in a way the owners of the Florida citrus grove would have likely envisioned. Seven decades after its legal battles with the SEC, the company has been enshrined with near legendary status in the cryptocurrency space, as the investment contract test every initial coin offering token is being judged by.
The initial coin offering (ICO) community needs to embrace self-regulation now to lessen the blows likely to come from enforcement and regulatory actions, according to speakers at CoinDesk's Consensus: Invest yesterday. A crackdown in the U.S. is inevitable, perhaps as soon as six to 12 months from now, warned Charles Hoskinson, CEO at Input Output and former CEO of the ethereum project.
Prices increases in ethereum, monero and other cryptocurrencies could spark a sales boost for makers of graphics cards (GPUs), according to one Wall Street analyst who covers the market.
An obscure provision tucked into a defense spending bill could serve as a springboard for blockchain adoption across U.S. government agencies.
While startups launching initial coin offerings (ICOs) may be all too aware they're working in a legal gray area, that might not be enough to stop lawsuits that could test their legality. At issue is that, although the U.S. agency tasked with enforcing securities law - the U.S.
For the second time in less than three weeks, a lawsuit has been filed against the founders of the Tezos project. Pursued in the U.S. District Court in Florida, the suit alleges Tezos founders Arthur and Kathleen Breitman deceptively sold unregistered securities in violation of both federal and state law when they raised $232 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) in July.
Bitcoin holders in the U.S. might be feeling giddy about the "free money" they've received as of late from bitcoin hard forks. But with tax season right around the corner, they might also be feeling a bit uneasy.
Graphics card maker AMD reported a major sales jump in the third quarter of 2017 amid significant demand from the world's cryptocurrency miners. On its Tuesday afternoon earnings call, the company reported $819 million in revenues from its computing and graphics division for the third quarter of 2017, a whopping 74 percent increase over the prior year's quarter.
The Global Blockchain Business Council is ramping up its presence in Europe. Announced today, the technology advocacy group co-founded by blockchain services firm Bitfury Group will host a blockchain-focused summit at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday in conjunction with Eva Kaili, a parliament member from Greece.
"Can I suggest something to you? People who come in suggesting that 'everything is different' [while] marketing investment contracts tend to end up looking rather badly." Issued by Damon Silvers, director of policy at the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, to Adam Ludwin, the CEO of blockchain startup Chain, the pointed comment set off a tense exchange at a meeting of the SEC's Investor Advisory Committee (IAC) last week.
The U.S. agency that oversees foreign affairs is looking seriously at blockchain. That's according to John Sullivan, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, who encouraged the State Department and its private sector partners to embrace the technology as a way to "advance diplomacy and development objectives" at the Blockchain@State forum held Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
Regulated cryptocurrency gambling is about open up across a large swathe of Europe. Announced today, major eSports platform Unikrn has been awarded a gambling license in Malta, a move that will open up its platform to real-money wagering via its UnikoinGold crypto token.
Frustrated by the red tape of the U.S. healthcare system, blockchain startups founded to improve the sharing of patient data are looking abroad to prove their use cases. The moves by Gem, which has partnered with a Scandinavian company, and IncentHealth.io, which is scouting opportunities in Canada, underscore the challenges blockchain technology faces in any heavily regulated market with powerful incumbents and resistance to change.
Database software giant Oracle is officially a player in the world of blockchain. The firm unveiled its enterprise-grade blockchain cloud platform Monday at its OpenWorld 2017 conference in San Francisco.
While cryptocurrencies may be back in the headlines, most public companies are today keeping any interest in the technology on the periphery of their business. For tech giants Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), however, that is no longer an option.
The Trump administration is reaffirming its commitment to blockchain as a technology with the potential to improve U.S. government operations. Speaking at Data Transparency 2017, a conference exploring the role of open data in government this week, two senior White House officials emphasized that distributed ledger technology is increasingly being viewed as essential to U.S.
For public health practitioners, the ability to quickly collect, analyze and take action on data is paramount to containing the spread of a deadly new virus or disease. But despite the advent of big data technologies, collecting this information today remains a highly cumbersome and time-consuming process, explains Jim Nasr, chief software architect at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the arm of the U.S.
Blockchain is in America's "national interest." That's according to J. Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), who issued the bold proclamation in remarks at a gathering of government technology executives in Washington, D.C. Wednesday morning.
What happens when someone breaches a contract? If you've gone through all the rigmarole of developing a paper contract, the legal ramifications are clear. But paper contracts are not only inefficient but also prone to fraud, which is why a group of startups and developers are pushing digital "smart contract" systems tied to immutable blockchains.
This time, though, they aren't just out to warn citizens or regulate the new mechanism. Instead, at least one progressive government is considering whether it can take advantage of the technology. The Baltic nation of Estonia made a splash last month when one of its government agencies proposed launching a token - the "estcoin" - as an extension of its e-Residency program.
President Donald Trump's push to overhaul the U.S. tax code could include a potential payoff for bitcoin users. With the president and the Republican Party's sights set on tax reform as a way to send a strong message to voters ahead of the 2018 term elections, it's potentially a good time for a bill easing the tax reporting requirements for cryptocurrency to be included in a final package.
Uncle Sam wants to make government more transparent and accountable, and blockchain will be part of the solution. At least that's the message the Emerging Citizen Technology (ECT) program, an inter-agency working group within the U.S. government, is now seeking to deliver to blockchain entrepreneurs and businesses.
As China moves to ban initial coin offerings (ICOs), a regulator on the other side of the world is taking the polar opposite approach. Far from imposing penalties and refunds, Quebec's regulator for financial institutions, the Autorite des marches financiers (AMF), is seeking to better understand the blockchain use case - if not altogether encourage it.
Graphics card manufacturers are riding high on renewed interest in cryptocurrencies. While historically the slowest time of the year for these businesses, Q2 proved to be lucrative for Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) as interest in ethereum and other cryptocurrencies has exhausted graphics processing unit (GPU) inventories.
As the blockchain community grapples with the fallout from recent regulatory actions, legal experts are warning more enforcement measures could be on the horizon - and that token exchanges are a probable target. To recap, last week saw the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule that a defunct blockchain-based token called The DAO constituted an unregistered security.
A two-year effort to unify cryptocurrency business regulations across the U.S. has concluded - now, the technology's enthusiasts just have to convince legislators to enact it. Established in 1892, the Uniform Law Commission ( ULC) is a non-profit association made up of 350 commissioners.
The nation of Malta - long a pioneer in internet gambling - is quickly moving ahead with plans to allow for the legal use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at online casinos.
Although Wall Street pundits and big bank proofs-of-concept often steal the bulk of the attention, they're not the only global groups with an interest in blockchain technology. In fact, behind the scenes, the world's largest and most influential non-profits and multilateral organizations are turning to blockchain solutions as a way to improve social and economic outcomes in the developing world.
Representatives from over 70 companies descended on Capitol Hill Tuesday to help get Congress up to speed on blockchain and cryptocurrency. The first-ever Congressional Blockchain Education Day, organized by the non-profit Chamber of Digital Commerce, was designed to give businesses like Gem, Bloq and Overstock the opportunity to meet with their elected representatives to describe their work with the technology and the fast-moving $100bn blockchain economy.
Blockchain solutions provider Symbiont gave a public demonstration of its distributed ledger solutions at a Washington, DC, event on Tuesday. There, founder and CEO Mark Smith gave a preview of how its Symbiont Assembly platform could be used for private equity issuance, highlighting how he believes its products, and their underlying technology, have the potential to transform how private corporations in the US are governed.
Ethereum startup ConsenSys is actively exploring a partnership with the African nation of Mauritius that could create a so-called "Ethereum Island," a hub for blockchain technology innovators that would seek to branch out into Africa, Asia and beyond.
The world's largest multilateral development bank is launching a blockchain lab as part of a bid to pilot projects that can improve governance and social outcomes in the developing world.
Australia's top securities regulator believes central bank-issued cryptocurrencies could one day throttle illicit bitcoin use, and that initial coin offerings (ICOs) will remain largely outside the scope of global regulators. In interview with CoinDesk, Greg Medcraft, chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), spoke openly about the state of blockchain technology and its impact on international regulators.
Complicating matters, though, is even the most ridiculous have shown a propensity to work. If two years ago, you were told a blockchain would exist that would be so powerful as to enable startups to forego VC investing, you might have laughed. Today, the creators and developers of ethereum would be the ones laughing.
"We want them here, we value them and they should give us a hard look." That's the message Nevada Senator Ben Kieckhefer wants to convey to blockchain and cryptocurrency startups the world over.
Amid a flurry of negative publicity for bitcoin, technology advocates are trying to distance themselves from the digital currency as part of a bid to protect the perception of more enterprise-facing blockchain initiatives.
Bitcoin and blockchain experts are urging US lawmakers to ramp up pressure on unlicensed offshore exchanges. Coming yesterday during a hearing held by a subcommittee within the US House of Representatives, the calls followed a notable string of ransomware attacks that have seen consumer data held hostage in exchange for bitcoin payments.
While the cryptocurrency industry may see Apple and PayPal as competitors, those two tech companies are among a group pushing for regulatory reforms in the US that could provide a boost to the nascent industry.
Known as the home of lush tropical beaches, the world's second-oldest horse racetrack and the now-extinct Dodo bird, the East African island nation of Mauritius is seeking to brand itself as a regional haven for blockchain innovation.
As pressure mounts on Republicans to overhaul the Affordable Care Act (ACA), blockchain advocates are hoping bullish modifications to the law could provide a springboard for the adoption of distributed ledger tech.
Bitcoin intelligence provider Elliptic is rolling out a program with California-based Silvergate Bank to analyze and screen possible nefarious activity on the bitcoin blockchain. The effort is focused on helping banks assess future bitcoin-based business clients.
Top US business schools are working to incorporate blockchain and cryptography into curriculums to meet evolving employer and student demands. As commerce and finance become more digitized, schools say they are experiencing pressure from all angles to graduate students skilled in data science areas such as blockchain, while demand for the traditional MBA skill set subsides.
Moody's is predicting that blockchain tech will spark a transformation on the post-trade side of the securities business, but it argues that more developed markets may not play a prominent role in the near term.
IBM advanced its status as a blockchain leader Tuesday with the launch of a supply chain platform designed to streamline flows among buyers, sellers and financiers in the pharmaceuticals space. The Yijian Blockchain Technology Application System - built in a partnership between IBM and Hejia, a Chinese supply chain management company - seeks to eliminate some of the financing problems faced by the country's pharmaceutical retailers.
While Deloitte has long been an advisor on blockchain and cryptocurrencies, it took a step toward to practicing what it preaches earlier this month. After installing a bitcoin ATM in its Toronto office last fall, the consulting giant is now accepting bitcoin payments at a restaurant in its office complex - providing a hands-on opportunity for patrons to experience bitcoin.
An international consortium of asset managers is working to bring 401k plans, mutual funds and pension funds to the blockchain. After rolling out a smart transfer agent proof of concept (PoC) in December, Fundchain, a group led by Luxembourg-based startup Scorechain, aims to have a distributed ledger-based product ready to bring to market next year.
Imagine that you have $100,000 at your disposal. You must spend all of it on either bitcoin or gold - no mixing and matching - and the assets will then be stored in a trust that cannot be accessed again for 50 years. Which option would you choose?
High-level US regulators and officials spoke out in favor of expanding the adoption of blockchain technology across government and the private sector at the DC Blockchain Summit, held this week in the nation's capital. There, representatives from the Trump administration, Congress and executive branch agencies acknowledged the potential of blockchain, and called for further development at the technology's intersection with public policy.
Days after the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) was roundly rejected by regulators, this much is certain: digital currency investors remain in waiting for the asset's proper Wall Street debut. But, how long exactly might this be? And will bitcoin ever see mainstream market acceptance?
Industry VC fund Blockchain Capital plans to raise a new fund by creating a blockchain-based token and selling it to the general public. Blockchain Capital will offer its so-called "BCAP" token through an ethereum-based smart contract, and tokens sold will represent shares in a new fund called Blockchain Capital III Digital Liquid Venture Fund, LP, the firm said today.
As evidenced by a Google search for 'bitcoin casino', bitcoins and gambling go together like two pedals on the same bike. Bitcoin's appeal as a cheap, efficient and low-key means of transmitting money has made it a hit among both online bettors and operators seeking reduced fees, lower chargeback risk and a way around legacy payment systems. But as of now, these benefits mainly apply to online casinos operating in jurisdictions with little or no regulatory oversight.
Financial Times
Few people would admit to, much less boast about, keeping a copy of the 906-page US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on their Kindle. But after uncovering a provision on diabetes prevention on page 879 during a medical school internship,
GamblingCompliance
If a random first-time visitor had made the trek to Hamilton Downs, 90 miles east of Tallahassee, in the summer of 2014 to see one of its "flag drop" races, he would have been in for a bizarre experience: an open field track, no grandstand, a small shed for placing bets and a race consisting of a group of horses sleepily trotting from Point A to Point B.
In the 20 years following the 1988 passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the interplay between the tribal and commercial gaming verticals was largely a one-way street. Commercial operators and suppliers saw tribal gaming as an expansionary opportunity, and were quick to lend their know-how, products and services to tribes.
Corruption Scandals Stymie Brazil's Gambling Progress
A new era began on June 24 when the Isle Casino in Bettendorf, Iowa - the nation's first fully-functioning riverboat casino - celebrated its 25th anniversary by relocating from the Mississippi River to a new $60m facility just 223 feet away on dry land.
Although there is ample room for foreign operators of all stripes to participate in a potential gambling market in Brazil, major gaming companies are taking a cautiously-optimistic stance towards entering the South American giant of more than 200m people.
After enduring the most expensive political campaign ever witnessed in Maryland and two years of construction, the $1.4bn MGM National Harbor is set to open Thursday inviting gamblers to the newest casino located on a hillside overlooking the Potomac River.
It doesn't take much market analysis to determine that the Chinese high roller is the most sought-after customer in East Asia, and the rest of the casino gaming universe more broadly.
Expansion Or Saturation? Pennsylvania's Gambling Quandary
Resort-casinos, bingo machines and online gaming may be the big ticket items of proposed gambling legalization in Brazil, but a wildly popular form of illegal wagering known as jogo do bicho - or "animal game" - is also slated to achieve formalized status after operating in the shadows for 75 years.
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Few people understand the entangled world of Washington politics more than former Republican "super-lobbyist" and tribal gaming advocate Jack Abramoff. After making a name for himself as arguably the most effective, respected and feared lobbyists ever to stroll the halls of Congress and state capitols, he was sentenced to prison in 2006 on charges of mail fraud, bribery and tax evasion.
The New Jersey sports betting push at the U.S. Supreme Court lives on to fight another day. Rather than outright refusing or agreeing to hear the case New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen Association v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, the high court effectively punted Tuesday morning by inviting the U.S.
It's time to win or go home for New Jersey's latest attempt to challenge the federal ban on sports betting by repealing state laws that prohibit the activity. The U.S. Supreme Court will hold a conference on Friday, January 13, to consider upwards of 100 cases to potentially add to its 2017 docket.
The American Gaming Association is bullish that having a former casino owner in the White House the next four years will serve to advance the group's policy agenda and its clout in the broader economy over the coming years.
The American Gaming Association's signature campaign in the coming years will be a major initiative to push a congressional repeal of the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. Through a coalition of gaming, sports, media and states' rights entities, the group has begun mounting an all-out assault on the 25-year-old law that largely prohibits sports betting outside of Nevada.
I have opined in the past in this space that the casino industry erred by not recognizing the emergence of daily fantasy sports games early enough and by not quashing DFS operators before their revenues became significant.
Sports betting, the prospects of a Donald Trump presidency and pro sports in Las Vegas drove the conversation at the American Gaming Association's 2nd annual Gaming Experts Forum in Washington, DC on Thursday. The public diplomacy event convened roughly 80 industry leaders, academics and congressional staff to hash out the zeitgeist issues facing the gaming world.
The prohibition on sports betting in the U.S. has long been backed by the major sports leagues, most notably the National Football League. But the leagues are likely going to have to rethink their positions much sooner than they would prefer.
While the gaming industry wrestles with creative ways to attract a younger and trendier clientele, the Doritos-munching, Surge-chugging millennials, who came of age in this century, have emerged from their parents' basements to fill Street Fighter V and Super Smash Brothers tournaments around the country.
If there are lingering questions about the legality of daily fantasy sports, you wouldn't know it given the meteoric rise in popularity of FanDuel and Draft Kings with game players, major sports leagues, and television networks.
"Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice." This Biblical proverb has characterized the casino industry's response so far to the stunning run of scandals and negative publicity that has surrounded the largest daily fantasy sports operators in the past month.
Great Place to Meet/Let's Launch In
The meteoric rise of daily fantasy sports games has been the story of the gaming world in 2015, and figuring out how to accommodate this new product has caused no shortage of headaches. But with yesterday's revelations of a data leak and what amounts to insider trading by DFS employees, the gravy train may be derailing in front of our eyes.
It is quite fitting that FanDuel, the leading daily fantasy sports (DFS) provider, took the audacious risk of being the lone sponsor on Floyd Mayweather's boxing trunks at Saturdays' fight at the MGM Grand. Sure, the company took some heat publicly last week for its decision to lend its name to a boxer with a documented history of beating women.
One has to admire the Winston Churchill-esque determination exhibited by State Senator Ray Lesniak, Governor Chris Christie, and others looking to bring legal sports betting to New Jersey's casinos and racetracks. Although they were just handed yet another defeat by a federal court, the saga of New Jersey's half-decade long push to carve out its own customized loophole in the federal ban on sports wagering lives on.
The emergent daily fantasy sports industry, embroiled in legal and regulatory battles on numerous fronts, emerged Wednesday morning from its first - though certainly not its last - congressional examination largely unscathed.
After decades of steadfast and unified opposition, cracks are emerging in the coalition of U.S. sports leagues that has for years impeded the expansion of sports betting outside of Nevada. In a New York Times op-ed last Friday, National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver broke ranks to advocate that the U.S.
The American Gaming Association and its allies in the law enforcement community took to Capitol Hill Wednesday morning to shine light on the estimated $100 billion market for illegal sports betting in the U.S. and the existential threats such activities pose to the integrity of amateur and professional sports.
One could argue that last week's news of PGA golfer Phil Mickelson's involvement in an illegal gambling ring was timed perfectly to help bolster the American Gaming Association's new partnership with law enforcement, a partnership aimed at quashing these types of schemes.
In its never-ending quest to legalize sports betting, New Jersey may have failed again on Tuesday. But that day's court decision should be viewed as a win for proponents of legalized sports betting, because it further illuminates that this issue will never be resolved through the judicial system.
Where exactly is the line between sports gambling and fantasy sports contests? While it must exist, no one seems to be able to pin it down. Last week, Intrade, a popular but controversial website that formerly offered wagering on everything from presidential elections to weather, re-emerged in a new, beta version.
Quickly: list the first three things that spring to mind when the country of Brazil is mentioned. If you're a typical person, you likely came up with something along the lines of football, Carnival, and possibly corruption or an impeached president.
The headline stories in the run up to this year's NFL season are sensational if not familiar by this point: Tom Brady and the Deflategate scandal, the New York Jets' starting quarterback's jaw being punched out by a third stringer and a barrage of eye-popping injuries suffered by key players in the irrelevant preseason.
Last week, ESPN Outside the Lines published an 11,000 word manifesto on the wild rise and crash-landing of the daily fantasy sports roller coaster. It was a valuable contribution to the body of work documenting that industry's explosive growth in recent years, and its subsequent troubles.
At first glance, the homepage of FanDuel looks like an online sports casino. But the company, which paid out $50 million in winnings in 2012, is not a traditional online sports bookie.
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A much-hyped push to introduce destination casino resorts in Georgia fell flat on its face last week. A key sponsor of the enabling legislation announced that his bill did not have the votes to pass the committee level, much less be considered for a Senate floor vote, and would be shelved for the remainder of 2017.
Scientific Games reported a net loss of $12.3 million for the fourth quarter and $127.5 million for the full year 2016 Thursday evening, but its revenue and EBITDA growth coupled with debt reduction and new operating efficiencies suggest clearer skies lie ahead.
Red Rock Resorts, the parent company of Station Casinos, reported mixed fourth quarter earnings as it absorbed the cost a new acquisition, but executives and analysts reckon that all systems are go for a strong performance in the expanding southern Nevada economy over the coming years.
Distributed gaming operator Golden Entertainment reported record net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2016 on Monday, capping a strong year which saw the company expand its presence in Las Vegas while becoming the second-largest player in Montana.
Full House Resorts incurred a $2.5 million loss but posted strong revenue and EBITDA gains for the fourth quarter of 2016, the company reported Monday afternoon. The regional gaming company, which owns and operates casino properties in Mississippi, Colorado, Indiana and Nevada, grew net revenues by 25 percent to $38.2 million and adjusted EBITDA 36 percent to $3.6 million over the prior year quarter.
Rush Street Interactive may be the latecomer to the New Jersey online gaming market, but with its game offerings, mobile apps and an enhanced new partnership with Konami Gaming, it is quickly finding its niche just months after officially launching late last year.
In 1995, when Frank Fahrenkopf became the first president of the American Gaming Association, he had a brutal assignment: to transform the casino gaming industry's reputation among policymakers, which at that time was of a buccaneering business of sin. Fahrenkopf successfully recast the industry as a mainstream corporate citizen, like other entertainment industries.
Las Vegas Sands reported earnings and net revenue below consensus expectations for the fourth quarter of 2016 Wednesday afternoon, resulting in a dip in after-hours trading. But there remains ambiguity as to whether the performance was due to fundamentals or simply bad luck.
Casino gaming industry growth in 2017 will be driven by the Las Vegas Strip and the peripheral Las Vegas market, a team of analysts at Well Fargo Securities predicted in a new report.
Senator Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump's Attorney General nominee, did not mince words when questioned by online gambling opponent Lindsey Graham during his confirmation hearing Tuesday morning. While Sessions spent the entire day dodging bullets from Democratic senators, and even a few from his anti-Trump Republican colleagues, he didn't try to hide his lack of enthusiasm for a 2011 re-interpretation of the Wire Act by the Justice Department.
Alabama Senator and Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions said during his confirmation hearing Tuesday morning that he was "shocked" by a 2011 Justice Department decision to reinterpret the Wire Act and signaled that he would revisit the matter upon being confirmed.
With 2017 upon us, the changes that impacted the gaming industry in the past several years will intensify. The effects of consolidation, the search for millennials, skill games, eSports, non-gaming revenue, political winds and possible gaming expansion are just a few of the topics that will be at the front of the minds of gaming executives around the world.
As casino gaming interests converge on Georgia as the next major market in the U.S. to embrace the activity, local and national skeptics and opponents are urging lawmakers to take a long hard look at whether or not legalizing casinos is the right decision for the Peach State.
It's safe to say that descriptions of the launch of MGM National Harbor last month have been remarkable. Washingtonians flocked to the property on December 8th, all but breaking down the doors to get in. The property reported $42 million in slot and table game revenues for just the final three weeks of December.
Brazil's Senate held a much-anticipated vote Wednesday night on a measure to legalize casinos and gambling in the country. But instead of approving the bill, as was widely expected, the body opted to send the legislation to a separate Senate committee for a constitutional review.
Thursday's passage of an integrated resort measure in Japan's parliament was more than just a needle-mover. As the country opens its doors to casinos and gaming, analysts and executives are salivating like Pavlovian dogs over the prospects of a potential $30 billion market -- that would be topped in East Asia only by Macau.
MGM's brand new National Harbor property is more than just a casino. It's more than a resort. It's also more than an "integrated resort." The lavish new $1.4 billion property is a template and a stepping-stone for MGM to achieve a dominant position in the resort casino and hospitality business in the United States and around the world.
There are plenty of reasons to be excited and bullish toward the opening of MGM's National Harbor property later this week outside Washington, DC, but the impact of the property on the region's already acute transit problems is not among them.
Assuming you haven't been living on another planet during the past six months, you know the 2016 presidential election cycle is underway earlier than ever. The presidential race is getting more entertaining by the day, as candidates and interest groups rush to jump in, lest they miss the party altogether.
With Thanksgiving and Black Friday behind us, it is lame duck season once again in Washington. It's a splendid biennial affair where the politicians in Congress who have been given the boot by their constituents are granted an extra month of life to tie up loose ends and dole out favors to their preferred campaign donors.
Montreal-based Amaya Gaming confirmed that it had received a CAD$3.5 billion buyout offer (USD$2.58 billion) from former CEO David Baazov during its third quarter earnings conference call Monday morning. "We acknowledge receipt of an all-cash offer from David Baazov," said Rafi Ashkenazi, Amaya's current chief executive.
Gaming equipment manufacturer International Game Technology reported a 5 percent jump year-over-year in net revenue to $1.27 billion and a 4 percent increase in adjusted EBITDA to $430 million for the third quarter. The boost in revenue was $20 million above the consensus estimate, while earnings per share of $0.45 checked in $0.01 higher than forecasts.
Despite severe flooding affecting its Baton Rouge property, Pinnacle Entertainment reported strong third quarter results Thursday morning, beating Wall Street expectations with $595 million in net revenues and a $0.01 net loss per share. Revenues were up 2.9 percent year-over-year for the quarter, with the increase coming almost entirely from the newly-acquired Meadows Racetrack and Casino outside Pittsburgh.
Gaming manufacturer Everi Holdings topped Wall Street estimates for the third quarter with $222.2 million in net revenues, a net loss of $8.3 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $51.6 million. Net revenues were up 6.0 percent year-over-year and $6 million above the $216 million consensus estimate.
Red Rock Resorts, the parent company of Station Casinos, recorded its highest third quarter EBITDA since 2008 and its highest year-over-year growth for its Las Vegas business in 16 quarters, the company announced Monday afternoon.
Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc., reported strong third quarter earnings Tuesday morning, with net revenue, net income, Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted funds from operations checking at levels in-line with company guidance. "Our diverse, national portfolio of triple-net gaming assets continues to provide steady, predictable cash flows, as evidenced by our third quarter results," said Peter Carlino, GLPI's chief executive officer.
MGM Growth Properties posted revenue of $154.8 million and funds from operations at $0.48 per unit, the company reported Monday morning for the third quarter - its first full quarter as an independent company after going public with a $1 billion initial public offering in April.
Full House Resorts posted a 21.9 percent increase in net revenues to $41.8 million year-over-year, but net income was just $0.1 million - resulting in a $0.00 earnings per share, the company announced Friday morning.
Eldorado reported $241 million in net revenue, $49.7 million in EBITDA and a net income of $9.7 million - breaking out to $0.20 per diluted share - for the third quarter of 2016, the company announced Thursday afternoon.
Golden Entertainment reported a 21 percent jump in net revenue and a 26.5 percent increase in Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2016, its first partial quarter as a fully merged company, it reported Thursday afternoon.
Melco Crown Entertainment posted net revenues of $1.15 billion in a strong third quarter earnings report released Thursday morning, a 21.6 percent year-over-year increase that beat Wall Street estimates by 5.5 percent. The company also reported earnings per share of $0.13 - topping a $0.07 consensus estimate, adjusted EBITDA of $244 million - 10 percent above Wall Street projections.
The plight of Macau's gaming industry, the result of developments in mainland China, is well documented, but the saga is far from reaching a happy ending. While the primary scapegoat for the downfall has been a Chinese corruption crackdown, which has deterred VIPs and other big ticket baccarat players from visiting Macau, the increasingly shaky Chinese economy is the black swan that could completely sink the gaming hub's prospects of a recovery.
A decade following their catastrophic swing-and-miss on the Las Vegas CityCenter deal, MGM and the government of Dubai are back and ready for another bite at the apple.
Red Rock Resorts reported a 6.8 percent increase in EBITDA and a 4.0 percent increase in net revenues for the second quarter of 2016, its first as an official publicly traded company since going private a decade ago, though its shares were down slightly after its earnings per share came in below expectations.
MGM is taking its luxury hospitality business to the Persian Gulf. The casino giant has won the rights to develop and operate a beachfront destination resort in Dubai under MGM and Bellagio branding, the company announced Monday morning. The 26-acre development will consist of an MGM Hotel, MGM Residence and a Bellagio Hotel.
While the Supreme Court's decision to strike down limits on individual political donors captured the headlines last Wednesday, a new law signed by President Obama on the next day will also increase the political system's reliance on wealthy donors. Known as the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act, the new law will provide increased funding for childhood disease research.
Harry Reid's nearly 30 years of arm-twisting and dealmaking in the U.S. Senate is winding down. His last major hurrah may be a low-visibility maneuver to bail out Caesars, the zombie casino corporation in search of an alternative to bankruptcy.
Isle of Capri, the St. Louis-based casino company, reported underwhelming top-line earnings numbers for the first quarter of its 2017 fiscal year, including a consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $50 million that missed consensus estimates by $2 million. The regional casino owner-operator also posted a 6.0 percent decline in operating income and roughly 2.5 percent year-over-year decrease in net revenues.
Legalized gambling in the casino industry's last great frontier took a crucial step forward Tuesday morning when a special gaming committee in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies approved a plan to authorize full-scale resort casinos as well as video lottery and jogos do bicho games.
Affinity Gaming reported a 17.3 percent increase in operating income and a 10.1 percent jump in EBITDA for the second quarter of 2016 on Monday, marking the company's sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit EBITDA growth.
Macau, the former Portuguese colony turned casino hub, snapped a 26 month losing streak in August when it reported a 1.1 percent year-over-year increase in gaming revenue. Now the Chinese territory is forging ahead with its plan to transition into a destination that is less reliant on high-rollers and more welcoming for families and non-gamblers.
Penn National shares surged 9 percent Thursday morning after the company revised its first quarter revenue and EBITDA guidance. The regional gaming operator is now expecting $770-$771 million in EBITDA, a 1 percent jump from its initial $761 million estimate, and EBITDA of $222-$223 million - up 6 percent from initial guidance of $209 million.
The name Genting may not ring a bell for most Americans, but that's all changing with the success of the Malaysian firm's gaming projects in New York and Las Vegas. Since opening in October 2011, Resorts World Casino New York City at Aqueduct Race Track has become the most successful slot hall in the United States, with 5,550 video gaming machines that draw 10 million visitors a year.
Golden Entertainment reported a 16.5 percent increase in net revenues in its second-quarter earnings statement Wednesday evening. The Las Vegas-based company posted second-quarter revenues of $102.6 million, a noteworthy year-over-year jump from the $88 million in combined revenues earned in the same period in 2015 by Sartini Gaming and Lakes Entertainment - which merged to form Golden Entertainment last July.
Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc., the country's only publicly-traded REIT focusing solely on the casino gaming industry, fell short of its revenue target in its modest second quarter earnings report Tuesday morning, though it insists it's taking a long-road, conservative growth strategy.
Global Market Advisors is calling on Japan to create a tourism destination - ala the Las Vegas Strip or Cotai Strip - to maximize the economic benefits from its forthcoming integrated casino resorts.
Boyd Gaming's second-quarter earnings report failed to live up to expectations, but chief executive Keith Smith sought to ensure investors that the rocky performance was an anomaly and that the company remains well-positioned for executing its growth strategy moving ahead.
The Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM) began in 2000 when International Game Technology, WMS Gaming, Bally Technologies, and Aristocrat banded together to address a potential tax issue in Nevada.
MGM Resorts International posted its strongest U.S. financial performance since the Great Recession for the second quarter, it announced Thursday morning, though these figures were in part hampered by the company's ongoing struggles in Macau.
Pinnacle Entertainment reported a strong performance in its first quarter as a brand new, strictly operational entity after officially shedding its real estate holdings earlier this year in a $4.75 billion deal with GLPI.
The newly-rebranded Pinnacle Entertainment secured its entrance into the nation's second-largest gaming market Wednesday when its proposal to assume operations at the Meadows Racetrack and Casino, just outside of Pittsburgh, was approved by Pennsylvania regulators.
It may be no coincidence that the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists will be hosting its annual conference in Las Vegas this month during the same week as G2E, just down the strip. Whether the overlap in dates is random or not, it's true that anti-money laundering compliance is the new zeitgeist issue for the gaming industry.
Some things in life just go together nicely, even if we don't know exactly why. Some examples: peanut butter and jelly, green eggs and ham, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (well, maybe). Gambling and smoking seem to be another example. Consider the "trance" state that comes with chain smoking while playing a slot machine.
Atlantic City
It's difficult to find much optimism in the temporary ceasefire between Carl Icahn and the union representing the employees of Trump Taj Mahal. The troubled Atlantic City casino will remain open for the time being, perhaps up to a year, but there will be no winners in this struggle, regardless of who loses.
Predictably, as soon as New York State announced (last week) that it was awarding Vegas-style casino licenses to three upstate locations, the chatter about the feasibility of a casino in north Jersey was back in full force. A casino in Jersey City, or in the Meadowlands, or both, certainly seems to offer rosy possibilities.
I went to Atlantic City last month to learn more about how the city's leaders were planning to revive the city's economy and, more importantly, its image. What I discovered something larger: the city's trials and tribulations offer a harbinger of the future challenges that will hit the casino industry nationwide sooner rather than later.
Despite the flurry of recent media reports proclaiming the downfall of the East Coast's sin city, Atlantic City is taking the right steps to reinvent itself as a diversified resort destination. The problem is that the process to build a new economy not wholly dependent on casino gaming should have started 30 years ago.
If Hillary Clinton's email problems are old news, then Donald Trump's management of the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City is ancient history. Someone forgot to tell that to the talking heads and Twitterati who jumped on Friday morning's casino worker's strike as another knock on Trump.
Last week, in a widely anticipated decision, Maryland authorities awarded MGM Resorts the state's sixth and final casino license. MGM will use that to build a massive Vegas-style facility at National Harbor, just south of Washington, DC.
Macau
The fireworks that commemorated the grand opening of Las Vegas Sands' $2.7 billion Parisian on Tuesday was the latest in a stretch of much-needed good news for the former Portuguese colony.
After years of speculation and a fierce grassroots push by Bill Foley and the Maloof brothers, Las Vegas is closer than ever to being awarded a National Hockey League expansion franchise. Better yet, because of a woeful lack of competition in the bidding process, the team franchise - if granted - will surely come on more favorable terms than might otherwise be expected.
Producing a world-class industry trade show like the Global Gaming Expo each year is no walk in the park. The amount of work that goes on behind the scenes, whether it be venue logistics, deciding on seminar topics, lining up vendors and speakers, marketing efforts or budgeting and general financial bean-counting, is virtually unfathomable to the casual participant.
The NHL's decision this week to award an expansion team to Las Vegas has been met with near-universal acclaim, with parties stumbling over themselves to praise the move as a momentous achievement for the state of Nevada and for professional hockey.
With American Pharaoh's spectacular claim of the Triple Crown last weekend, thoroughbred racing diehards breathed a sigh of relief. But will the win be enough to save the "Sport of Kings" and its legacy, which has been on the down and out for years?
The crushing defeat of Proposition 48 in California is negative way to end the year for proponents of off-reservation casino expansion, but we've yet to see the last of battles over tribes seeking to take land into trust for the purpose of building casinos.
It's hard to think of any project that has overcome more controversy and fire-breathing political opposition than the Tohono O'odham nation's Desert Diamond West Valley Casino in Glendale, Arizona. The short list of those who have opposed the $400 million casino since its construction was announced, in 2009, includes U.S.
Patent reform is not a subject matter typically associated with casino gaming, but industry heavyweights are throwing their weight behind bipartisan congressional proposals to crack down on abusive litigation by patent "trolls". The American Gaming Association, in conjunction with are other business groups, is seeking to highlight the negative economic impacts of frivolous litigation on small and large businesses alike.
Former gaming industry reporter Howard Stutz and his ex-colleagues at the Las Vegas Review-Journal were named recipients of the 2015 Ethics in Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists on Wednesday for their role in uncovering the mysterious sale of their newspaper last December.
PokerStars' decision, this week, to sell itself to Amaya Gaming, a nondescript Canadian company, for $4.9 billion, shows that the firm accepted the reality that it was widely viewed by U.S. regulators as damaged goods, and that it faced an extreme uphill battle to re-enter the US market.
If Nevada moves ahead with issuing $750 million in stadium bonds to lure the Oakland Raiders to town, it won't be just hotel guests footing the bill. Whether they visit Las Vegas or not, U.S.
It was deja vu all over again last week when Representatives Jason Chaffetz and Tulsi Gabbard re-introduced legislation in the U.S. House to restore the Wire Act to its pre-2011 status, with the intent of reinstating the ban on all online gambling.
Holders of music, film and television copyrights are on the verge of becoming victims of US prohibitions on online play. After a decade-long trade dispute over remote online gaming, the small Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda is now planning the lawful taking of $21 million of US entertainment industry intellectual property per year.
If the American Gaming Association 1.0 was built around the rolodex of longtime chairman and political operative Frank Fahrenkopf, the AGA 2.0 is built around the savvy pragmatism and consensus-building approach crafted by Geoff Freeman, who in 2013 brought a wealth of knowledge to the AGA as a former public relations man and trade association executive.
By any measure, 2014 has been a humbling year for the online gaming business in the U.S. After starting with a bang in late 2013, all sorts of problems have completely halted its momentum.
One of the hottest trends in 2013 was the soaring popularity of digital currencies such as Bitcoin. These decentralized tenders, backed by no government fiat or central bank, are starting to become viable means of exchange. Last week, two Las Vegas casinos announced they would begin accepting Bitcoins at their restaurants and shops.
Global Gaming Expo
The American Gaming Association will host a first-ever G2E preview webinar Wednesday, September 14 designed to help both first-time and veteran attendees maximize their experience at the industry gathering and use the event to propel their companies and their careers.
The issue of off-reservation tribal casinos is one of those dry and frustrating topics I've generally tried to avoid when reporting and writing commentaries on the casino industry. I'm someone who looks for big picture trend lines, so analyzing the unique details and intricacies of these particular situations always gives me headaches.
The success of the Indian gaming industry hinges on the dedication of the people who operate, regulate and advise the Indian casinos. Here are profiles of 10 of the very best professionals who make tribal government gaming happen.
Amaya Gaming, the parent company of PokerStars, reported record 2016 revenues Wednesday on the heels of continued diversification into online casino and sportsbook offerings. The Montreal-based company posted $1.2 billion in revenues for the full year, up 8 percent from the prior year on a standard basis and 12 percent adjusting for the decline in foreign currencies against the U.S.
Though Major League Soccer rejected Las Vegas's bid for an expansion team in February, the city's push for a professional soccer team and a taxpayer-subsidized stadium to match continues to move ahead, against all evidence that taxpayer funding is a mistake.
Anthony Curtis had the advantage of being an early mover when he entered the Las Vegas marketing and promotions universe three decades ago. He was still an early mover when he built his website, Las Vegas Advisor, in the 1990s.
What tools do you need in your belt to conquer G2E later this month? How about comfy shoes, your phone charger, business cards and some Advil. These were just some tips of the trade offered by Corey Nyman, Director of Operations at the Nyman Group, and Dana Takrudtong, Vice President of Sales & Marketing at GAN, in a G2E preview webinar Wednesday produced jointly by the Innovation Group and the American Gaming Association.