Daily Archives: August 4, 2017

The casino industry's largest lobbying group in the U.S. on Thursday rolled out a new code of conduct with consumer protection measures that it says are meant to promote responsible gambling.

The code of the American Gaming Association calls on casino operators to be more transparent with patrons and provide training to employees. Its announcement in Las Vegas came within months of two high-profile criminal cases that drew attention to the effects of compulsive gambling as authorities believe the perpetrators were problem gamblers.

"(Responsible gaming) is an everyday, year-round responsibility that we have to every player that walks through our doors and onto our casino floors," said Elizabeth Cronan, the association's senior director of gaming policy. "... We appreciate that this is an issue that must be top-of-mind industry-wide for all employees, from those that interact daily with consumers on the gaming floor to the senior executive leadership and the boards of directors."

The new code calls on casino operators to generally explain patrons the odds of winning or losing at various games and to not use advertising that contains claims that gambling activity will guarantee a person's social, financial or personal success. It also includes training requirements for employees on procedures for dealing with underage gambling and other issues.

The industry's longstanding estimate is that between 98 percent and 99 percent of casino patrons gamble responsibly. This year, however, the remaining one to two percent have grabbed attention around the world.

In April, the man who randomly gunned down a Cleveland retiree and posted video of the crime on Facebook in the footage talked about having trouble with his girlfriend and losing everything he had to gambling. Two months later, police in the Philippines said the lone suspect behind a deadly attack on a casino and shopping complex in Manila was a heavily indebted Filipino gambling addict.

View post:

Casino industry in US has new rules for responsible gambling - CNBC

Google has agreed to let Play Store customers court cruel mistress Lady Luck.

A spokesperson confirmed to The Register that, as of August 2, the store formally allows gambling apps.

Folk in the UK, Ireland and France are part of this experiment.

According to Apple's Developer guidelines, the Apple App Store allows gambling apps with several conditions. Geo-restricted apps with "real money gaming" such as poker, for example, must be free and have all necessary licensing and permissions.

Google has sporadically allowed gambling apps in the Play Store. Forbes reported that ahead of the 2015 US NFL season, the store carried some apps for placing wagers on players. However, a spokesperson told The Reg that before August 2, such apps were not permitted.

The Play Store will now support gambling apps subject to strict regulations and requirements.

"We're experimenting with rolling out real money gambling apps in select markets over the next few weeks that ensures user safety," the spokesperson said, "as part of our continued effort to offer new experiences on Google Play."

According to the Google Play Developer Policy Center, the rules for apps in the UK, Ireland and France are as follows:

The Register takes no responsibility for any financial inconveniences or other harm that may result from venturing forth.

Sponsored: The Joy and Pain of Buying IT - Have Your Say

Go here to see the original:

Google drops poker face, allows gambling apps on Play Store - The Register

This is apaid-for submitted press release. CCN does not endorse, nor is responsible for any material included below and isnt responsible for any damages or losses connected with any products or services mentioned in the press release. CCN urges readers to conduct their own research with due diligence into the company, product or service mentioned in the press release.

BitDice is looking to prove the fairness in crypto-gambling as the Blockchain gambling platform differentiates itself from the competition who are being questioned about their own fairness in results.

By diversifying their technology, and even opening themselves up to the use of fiat currencies, BitDice will meld the cryptocurrency betting world, which already makes up roughly five percent of the entire online gambling industry, with fiat gambling by alleviating fears of the Black Box phenomenon.

Beyond a Single Technology

Besides allowing the user to choose if they want to play with fiat currency or digital, BitDice is even offering players the choice in technology. In other crypto-gambling platforms, the single technology is essentially a clone of a simple dice game that is run on the Ethereum network and its smart contracts this comes with its limitations.

The Smart Contracts can be cumbersome, especially in a gambling environment, as the speed and transaction fees can infuriate and frustrate players.

Ethereum networks impose higher latency speed for validating wager results and on top ofthat comes a transaction fee a user must pay with each wager.

By diversifying its technology, BitDice can run its games free of charge on the server withpublicly observable and provably fair algorithms that include different types of cryptocurrencies and are capable of processing up to 20 wagers a client per second.

Providing Absolute Fairness

Of course, when gambling online, the biggest fear is that the games are rigged, and there is no fairness involved. This is especially an issue with crypto-gambling as the Random Number Generation (RNG) algorithm cannot be invoked within the Blockchain.

It leads to outsourcing to other parties, which in themselves, are also outsourcing, which clearly leaves plenty of gaps for tinkering with results. Each layer of data transmission can be intruded upon an affected to the benefit of the casino.

This is where BitDice has stepped up the game by successfully implemented the provably fairness concept that serves its purpose and eliminates risks of cheating without outreaching any third-party provider.

A client-seed, generated and known by the user, is linked with the server-seed to create an unhackable random outcome which can be verified immediately after the bet is made, but cannot be known in advance by any party.

Standing out from the Crowd

Traditional casinos, of course, have their limitations, as do Smart Contract casinos, but BitDice has addressed many of these shortcomings in order to put themselves head and shoulders above the competition.

Yes1 One should apply a top-skill technical expertise to understand and interpret the codeof the smart-contract. Smart-contracts can be easily twisted without being noticed by anaverage user.

No2 To accommodate high-roller players the funds shall be readily available and kept inhot wallets (online), which is a very insecure way of holding crypto assets. Last examples Edgeless and Dao.Casino wallets were drained because of mistakes in the code.

Website: https://ico.bitdice.me

Email: [emailprotected]

Original post:

BitDice: Not Gambling on Fairness - CryptoCoinsNews

Subscribe to AM 1240 WJON on

ST. CLOUD The mayor of Richmond has agreed to a plea agreement that convicts him of illegally directing meat raffle profits intended for the Little League Fund into the adult amateur baseball account.

James Jim Hemmesch was originally charged with a felony count of Gambling-Unlawful Expenditures of more than $2,500, but the agreement will reduce the charge to a misdemeanor and allow Hemmesch to avoid any jail or prison time.

An investigation into the theft of funds from the Richmond amateur baseball team by former manager Scott Kron led to the charges against Hemmesch.

Court records show Hemmesch directed meat raffle profits from the Richmond Firemans Relief Association to be deposited into the Richmond Little League Fund. Thats a lawful donation of gambling profits. However, the complaint indicated he conspired with the gambling manager and then-team manager Kron to have some of the funds deposited from the Little League account into the adult baseball team account. That is not allowed by law.

Records show Hemmesch called a state compliance agent who was looking into the thefts by Kron and asked about funds given to the adult baseball club via the Little League account. Hemmesch went on to state he was aware the Firemans Relief Fund could not give money to the adult team.

The total receipts to the Richmond Royals in a one-year period between 2013 and 2014 totaled more than $9,500 to the adult team.

A Stearns County judge stayed a 90-day sentence and placed Hemmesch on probation for a year. He must perform 80 hours of community service and pay $200 of a $1,000 fine.

Subscribe to AM 1240 WJON on

More here:

Richmond Mayor Agrees to Plea Deal in Illegal Gambling Profit Donation Case [VIDEO] - WJON News

Amaya Inc. (AYA) is a good long-term investment since it currently generates free cash flow of $335MM, has many competitive advantages such as its scale and market share, and is best positioned to benefit from the increase in demand for online gaming with its Stars brands. Once the U.S. legalizes online gambling, Amaya will be able to quickly capture the pent-up demand in the U.S.

Its interesting to see a scenario like Amaya, the online casino, sports book, and poker room provider based out of Canada. U.S. companies that have reached peak market share/opportunity domestically are often pressured by investors to expand overseas internationally in order to fuel growth and add to the top line. Once there are plans proposed by the company to do so (and those plans are executed successfully), shareholders are rewarded with higher earnings and therefore a higher stock price. Amaya is kind of like the opposite scenario. The company is currently the dominant player in the online gambling space globally, generating revenue from big European markets such as Italy, UK, Spain, and France. But the big question mark surrounding Amayas true potential for global domination of the gambling space is the United States. It seems almost inevitable that within the next 10 years, online gambling will eventually be legalized on a federal level within the U.S. given that there are multiple states that are going through the legislative process to legalize online gaming. What better exposure can an investor get than Amaya?

Amaya has been able to grow its revenue over the past five years, increasing its revenue from $77MM in 2012 to $1.2 billion in 2016. The growth has certainly been appealing and should have investors interested. Amayas decision to build out its online casino and sportsbook is a step in the right direction given it already has the infrastructure and scale in place. I dont believe the company will have any trouble holding onto its market share. The business, by nature, has high barriers to entry given the requirement of licenses. Additionally, Amaya has the benefit of a recognized brand, scale, and infrastructure. Once gambling is legalized on a national scale within the United States, Amaya should be able to dominate the space domestically, just as Poker Stars and Full Tilt had done before 2011.

Source: GuruFocus

Amaya has had success in growing its EBITA and EBITDA margins over the past five years. This earnings power can be attributed to Amayas position as a leader in the industry and the operating leverage associated with its business model. The majority of Amayas costs being fixed allows its incremental revenue dollars to flow straight to the bottom line, which can be attractive for an investor and goes well with the companys ability to maintain its huge market share. The competitive advantages speak to the quality if this cash flow as well.

Source: GuruFocus

I dont believe the company is overly levered at this point in time, as debt to EBITDA has come down a bit and is hovering around 5.5-6.0x. The chart above illustrates the companys recent deleveraging, as a result of amortization of term loans issued in 2014.

Source: Author/GuruFocus

The interest coverage (as measured by EBITDA/Interest Expense) for FY 2016 is the highest it has been in five years. This is driven by higher EBITDA and lower leverage for 2016. A high coverage at close to 3.0x gives an investor comfort in knowing there hasnt been overextension by management. Additionally, the company has clearly proven that it can successfully de-lever after having taken on close to $3 billion in long-term debt.

Source: Google Trends

Poker is once again on the rise in the U.S. The 2017 WSOP Main Event was the 3rd largest event in the history of the WSOP. Poker in the form of entertainment is also growing, with the new streaming service PokerGO that allows subscribers access to poker broadcasts, whether live or pre-recorded. The chart above shows the term Poker in Googles search trends increased to a level not seen since 2012. This data is cyclical in nature given the timing of the WSOP main event. However, the peak is whats important. This data supports the potential shift in popularity surrounding poker, which should lead to pressure to allow gaming in the U.S. as popularity continues to rise back up to pre-2011 levels.

Assumptions when doing a valuation for AYA were taken from historical data. Free cash flow for FY 2016 was $335MM, which was a 6.72% increase from the year prior. I believe this growth rate is sustainable long term especially with the prospect that this company may be able to enter the U.S. market over the next 10 years. Running a DCF using conservative assumptions yielded the following results:

Growth

0.00%

WACC

12%

2016 FCF

$335,460,000

PV of 10 years

$1,895,423,817

Terminal Value

$2,795,500,000

PV of Term Value

$900,076,183

Intrinsic Value of FFCF

$2,795,500,000

Source: Author/GuruFocus

I assumed no growth over the next 10 years (which is highly unlikely) and a discount rate of 12% (given WACC of 11.29%). For terminal value, I assumed the same discount rate at year 10 and discounted it to arrive at its present value. The result is an intrinsic value of the cash flows of the business of $2.8 billion. Todays market cap of the company is around $2.6 billion. Theres a small margin of safety given extremely pessimistic assumptions about the future cash flows of the company. This analysis should provide comfort for a long-term investor.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Link:

Amaya Is Best Positioned For Online Gambling - Seeking Alpha