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The dog days are over
Greyhound racing is to be banned in New Zealand by 2026, an announcement by New Zealand’s Racing Minister, Winston Peters, said. A 20-month cooling period has been put in place to begin winding down the practice, which was a decision not “taken lightly,” according to the minister. He explained: “Despite significant progress made by the greyhound racing industry in recent years, the percentage of dogs being injured remains persistently high and the time has come to make a call in the best interest of the animals.”
Among others, one task in the winding down process will be rehoming New Zealand’s estimated 2,900 racing greyhounds.
Take me to Christchurch
Also in New Zealand, Christchurch Casino is facing legal proceedings for anti-money laundering (AML) and counter financing of terrorism (CFT) failings. The non-compliance issues are said to have taken place between December 2018 – December 2023, with the casino failing to develop and uphold an effective AML/CTF system, monitor accounts or retain accurate records. It also lacked customer due diligence procedures.
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) initiated the proceedings. DIA Director of AML/CFT Group Serge Sablyak said: “Casinos and other reporting entities that don’t uphold these standards will be held to account by DIA and other supervisors of the AML/CFT system.”
PAGCOR pulls a pretty penny
The Philipine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) suspects that it will experience a record annual gross gaming revenue (GGR) for 2024, according to Chairman Alejandro Tengco. He believes GGR will surpass PHP350bn (US$6.04bn), over PHP10bn more than its initial target of PHP334bn for the year. This would both outperform pre-Covid levels (2019 reported revenue of PHP256.49bn) and 2023’s revenue of PHP285.27bn.
This is bolstered by earnings so far this year. In Q3, GGR totalled PHP94.61bn, up 37.52% year-on-year.
On his prediction, Tengco said: “This impressive performance is a strong indication that the use of modern technology and mobile gadgets in gaming and amusement will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of gaming.”
DraftKings and FanDuel on the hook
Two US senators, Mike Lee and Peter Welch, have called for an investigation into DraftKings and FanDuel by the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department, as they believe the operators “are coordinating against competitors.”
The two suggested in a letter to the departments, sent 5 December, that after a merger to monopoly for the operators was blocked, the two “have arguably acted as one company, violating our antitrust laws.” This follows a separate report alleging that the two sportsbooks are “acting together to pressure businesses not to engage with competitors.”
The full letter was published to Welch’s social media.
A wyn’s a win
Allwyn has released its financial results for the third quarter of 2024. In total, revenue came to €2.14bn ($2.26bn), up 7% year-on-year, with adjusted EBITDA reaching €410.8m, up 12% and net revenue reaching €981.8m, up 11%.
Greece, Cyprus and Austria were pointed to as driving factors for this growth. Indeed, when excluding North America and the UK, adjusted EBITDA was up 21%. This is in spite of Allwyn beginning its operation of the UK National Lottery in February – something achieved after its acquisition of Camelot UK in March last year – and its acquisition of online instant lottery game supplier Instant Win Gaming (IWG) during the quarter.
