The expected absorption of Playtech’s affiliated online marketing and services companies could see founder and principal minority shareholder Teddy Sagi net up to half a billion dollars, according to new analysis from Evolution.

Inspired Gaming saw its share price suffer a 25 percent fall yesterday on continued investor fears regarding the server-based gaming company’s Icelandic connections.

Larry Klatzkin, analyst at Jefferies & Co and a long-standing bull on the US casino scene, has moved to justify his positive view on the sector following recent share price falls, explaining that his optimism all depends on which view you take regarding future valuations.

Jim Allen, chief executive for gaming operations at the Seminole Tribe of Florida, said his company has been approached by eight separate casino operators angling to see whether the Seminoles were interested in buying properties as the impact of the troubles on Wall Street intensifies in the gaming industry.

The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) has sent a letter to the Seminole tribe asking it to explain its position with regard to class III gaming following the Florida Supreme Court's ruling that Governor Charlie Crist did not have the authority to agree a compact with the tribe to run both Class III slots and tables games at its six casino operations within the state.

The US economic crisis is starting to hit home in Indian Country, with the nation’s two largest tribal casinos unveiling a dramatic and unprecedented round of cutbacks. The moves by Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, which come just a few months after a series of more modest reductions, casts a spotlight on the challenges facing the tribal gaming sector.

Ladbrokes is facing the possibility of its debt being downgraded after Moody’s Investor Services issued a report on the legacy risk that arises from guarantees given when the company was a part of Hilton.

Penn National Gaming has blamed a deteriorating economic background, increased competition in certain markets and the disruption caused by the recent hurricane season for a downgrade to its third-quarter forecasts.

The UK’s betting shop operators came under an unexpected attack on Friday, 3 October, when an advertisement appearing in the Financial Times from a hitherto unheard of organisation called fairandopengambling.net, attacked what it called the “unfair practices of betting shop machine terminals”.

Further visa restrictions have been applied by the Chinese government to mainland visitors to Macau, according to reports in the South China Morning Post. The latest moves mean that visitors to the Special Administrative Region (SAR) will now only be able to visit once every three months, compared to every two months previously.

Russian machine producer and distributor Unicum has emerged as the company behind CryptoLogic’s new licensee Kurastika which intends to begin offering online gaming in Russia and the ‘near abroad’ countries of Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Georgia in 2009.

Sheldon Adelson, chairman and chief executive at Las Vegas Sands, has pumped $475m into the casino giant in an effort to avoid the company running into debt covenant problems. The move comes amid further evidence of slowing consumer demand in the operator’s key markets in Southern China.

Playtech has been among the worst performers in the listed gaming sector on the back of rumours of forced selling from one of its largest shareholders.

AsianLogic has said it is moving its online casino operations away from reliance on junket-type customers and towards a more mass-market audience as the penetration of broadband and online payments achieves a greater foothold among Asian punters.

One year after the Isle of Man overhauled its regulatory regime, GamblingCompliance met up with Garth Kimber, head of e-gaming development at the Isle of Man’s department of trade and industry, during a traditionally busy online industry gathering last week in Barcelona.

Intralot has upped its investment in the Asian lottery market via a 20 percent stake in lottery software company Melco LottVentures (MLV), acquired for €27.4m.

Boyd Gaming has returned a $30m deposit to Morgans Hotel Group (MHG) related to the delayed Echelon project and has eliminated the latter’s funding commitments and its own loan guarantee obligation.

Inspired Gaming will be hoping for an orderly unwinding of the holdings of its majority shareholder Stodir following the news that the Icelandic investment group has filed for administration. The news came bundled with almost unprecedented market turmoil for gaming stocks both in the UK and US.

As quickly as it surfaced, the dispute between Poker Trillion and Boss Media has disappeared. According to a very brief statement from the poker operating minnow, it had “withdrawn all claims made against Boss Media and related parties ending the legal dispute between the companies”.

European jurisdictions must negotiate a difficult compromise between the demands of local, land-based gaming operators and their offshore competition when considering what kind of tax regime to introduce for internet gambling activities, legal experts warn.

Growing concerns over the extent to which a consumer downturn could blight the UK’s high street bookmakers, and fears that they might succumb to the same economic malaise as Irish operators, lay behind a downgrade of Ladbrokes by analysts at Investec Securities.

The task facing Dominic Harrison, the new chief executive at UK leisure group Gala Coral, could hardly be more daunting. But after joining Gala back in 2004 and having served as chief operating officer since October last year, he knows better than most the uncertainties facing the business.

One of online gambling’s pioneers looks to be on the verge of oblivion after Lasseters Corporation asked for its shares to be suspended on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) pending clarification of continued financial supports from parent company Lasseters Hotel Casino in Alice Springs.

Betfair moved to answer its critics this week with an online question and answer session in which its top executives responded to a welter of attacks from customers complaining about changes to its commission structure announced this week.

Penn National Gaming is considering withdrawing from the deal to run a state casino in Cherokee County, Kansas, less than a month after being given contract approval by the Kansas Lottery.

Junket aggregator Amax Entertainment said that despite visa restrictions and the Olympics making August a challenging month, the imminent implementation of a 1.25 percent commission cap would provide “respite” from an increasingly competitive environment.

PartyGaming has moved to clarify the extent of possible job losses at its Gibraltar and UK operations at the same time as news emerges that its poker offering may be losing ground against the opposition as the vital post-summer season begins.

The chief executive of bingo operator Rank has hit out against “heavy-handed regulation” by the UK government in a written attack which blasted their wider approach to the bingo industry since the introduction of the Gambling Act in 2007. Other UK political parties, including the Scottish National Party, have lost no time in capitalising on the discontent.

A hearing will take place this Wednesday, 10 September, which could decide the fate of the Maryland referendum on the licensing of 15,000 slot machines in the state.

Isle of Capri’s three Gulf Coast casinos managed to avoid the worst of Hurricane Gustav, with the company reporting minimal damage at its Biloxi, Mississippi, casino and the temporary closure of two other properties.