This is a guest contribution by Michael Craig, an author, journalist, and lawyer. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

Food, Drinks, Geniuses, Fake Names, Gossip, Introductions, Reunions, a Hall of Fame Induction, an Undisclosed Location, Competition, and – of Course – Gambling

One night a year, the best blackjack players in the world convene for the Secret Blackjack Ball. Gambler, author, and consultant Max Rubin has been organizing the invitation-only gathering since 1997. Like millions of lovers of blackjack, casinos, and secret meetings, I regretfully missed out on the 2014 Blackjack Ball. It took place at an undisclosed location in late January, leaving the rest of us to piece together what happened from tidbits leaking online, my brief correspondence with Mr. Rubin, and discrete comments from some past and current attendees.

Invitation to the Ball

Nineteen years ago, Max Rubin started the Blackjack Ball in his home. “It was a way,” he explained, “for players from different blackjack teams and solo players to get together and a place to hang out.” Part of the Ball’s unique charm from the beginning was that many of its members had never met.

By 2004, the Blackjack Ball became too big for Max’s home. Attendance at the Blackjack Ball is by invitation only, and the current secret location seats only 112 (including guests). There are literally hundreds of bona fide professional gamblers vying as plus-ones or campaigning Max to get on the list. “It’s fun being a very popular guy one night a year but I still haven’t figured out how to say ‘No’ to a lot of really nice folks without sounding like an arrogant a-hole.”

Max has a special place in the Blackjack world: legendarily generous host, organizer and secret-keeper, and supposedly the only attendee of the Ball who has “crossed over” to work for the casino industry. (I’ve been told that other attendees have consulted for casinos in some capacity.) Mr. Rubin consults with Barona Casino in San Diego, which, in addition to offering some excellent blackjack rules, has a wall commemorating members of the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

Online sports betting operator Pinnacle Sports’ new owners have unveiled their plans for world domination.

One of the oldest and most celebrated of online bookmakers, Pinnacle announced last month that unidentified parties had taken a “controlling interest” in the Curacao-licensed outfit. On Tuesday, Pinnacle revealed that the deal had been consummated in August 2014, although the exact identities of the new ownership remain a mystery. For what it’s worth, the legal firms that advised the new owners on the sale were based in Ireland and the UK.

In a statement, Pinnacle CEO Paris Smith claimed to be “extremely excited” to be working with the new owner(s) on a “shared vision” that includes “significant product enhancement and expansion into regulated territories.” Smith promised “cutting-edge” new products were being readied for the “concerted drive into new global markets.”

Customers will hope the new owners have extra deep pockets, as governments in European regulated markets tend to view online gambling operators as piggy banks. So costs will go up and margins will go down. But Smith assured customers that “the fundamental principles that make the brand so unique will not be compromised.”

Pinnacle appeared to be taking a shift away from regulated markets last year, withdrawing from the UK market before the Sept. 15 deadline for new licensing imposed by the UK Gambling Commission. The year before that, Pinnacle returned the online gambling license it had been issued by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC).

Both of those moves followed Pinnacle being named in a late-2012 indictment by US authorities that linked the site to an illegal messenger betting ring connected with former Cantor Gaming VP Michael Colbert. Pinnacle withdrew from the US market in 2007 but introduced new IP-blocking of US accounts following the indictment. Members of Pinnacle’s previous ownership named in the indictment have since seen their charges either dropped or drastically reduced.

Pinnacle’s new strategy may see it eventually welcomed back into markets that had previously blacklisted the site, including Bulgaria, which tagged a scarlet letter on Pinnacle in July 2013. Russia, which blacklisted Pinnacle in March 2014, is reportedly planning to institute a legal online sports betting regime this June, although who gets to participate remains murky. In case it needs saying, American bettors aren’t advised to hold their breath for a return of Pinnacle to US shores.

Authorities in China have broken up an international online gambling operation based in Hunan province.

China’s official press agency Xinhua quoted Chinese police saying they’d detained 19 individuals following a two-month investigation. A further eight individuals have been targeted for arrest over their roles in the operation of the Shenbo Sun City website, whose servers were based outside the country.

Police said the operation earned a profit of RMB 1.4b (US $$223m) between May 2013 and Oct 2014. Police have frozen approximately 1,000 bank accounts across China containing around RMB 200m. This marks China’s second major bust of 2015, having taken down a similarly large operation in Shandong province in January.

Over in South Korea, authorities have arrested two ‘cyber security experts’ accused of targeting an online gambling site with distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. Intriguingly, the hackers were hired by another illegal online gambling operator intent on eliminating his competition.

The Korea Times quoted the National Police Agency saying a man named Yang, the owner of an online security company, was paid a hefty KRW 1b (US $911k) since May 2014 to target the online gambling operator’s competitor on multiple occasions. Neither site operator was publicly identified by police.

On Sept. 25, Yang reportedly hacked into 12k computers and commanded them to spam the targeted site with messages in order to crash its servers. Yang told police he’d agreed to don the black hat because his legal sources of income were “unstable.” Police are continuing to investigate to determine what other DDOS attacks Yang and his henchman might have launched.

Florida Representative and House Majority Leader Dana Young filed a 332-page legislative, calling for an overhaul of the state’s gambling laws.

Young, considered as the leader of the House Republican caucus, filed the package a day before the state Legislature begins its annual session, proposing two destination resort casinos in the state, slot machines at two pari-mutuels outside South Florida, the introduction of new kinds of games, and the creation of a statewide gambling commission.

Young explained her decision to file all these bills, saying that the time is right to have this kind of conversation because “at some point, our members are going to possibly be required to make a decision on renewal or expiration of the Seminole gaming compact.”

However, at no point in Young’s legislation did she mention of the tribe, which is nearing the end of its own five-year deal with the state that gives it exclusive rights to offer card games like blackjack at its nine casinos throughout the state. If the tribe and Governor Rick Scott can’t come to an agreement on the issue, the state will lose out on its revenue-sharing deal with the Indian tribe as required by the compact.

When asked why she didn’t include them in this bill, Young said that since the tribe hasn’t come to an agreement with the state on their issues, there was no point include them, although she did say that the state is “certainly open to continuing dialogue with the Tribe as to how they fit in the larger picture.”

According to Young, the absence of this revenue sharing with the Seminole tribe is a big reason why it’s time for the state to reignite talks of allowing destination casinos in Florida. As part of her proposal, the state would open bidding for two destination resorts in the state, which would require a $2 billion investment per resort, excluding the cost of buying land, as well as approval from any host county where these resorts will rise. In return, these proposed resorts would have to pay state coffers a guaranteed amount of $175 million for each resort while also making them liable to pay state and local taxes from all operations of the resort.

Another item in Young’s proposal involves cutting slots tax for pari-mutuels from 35% to 25% should the government green light the opening of destination resorts anywhere in the state.

Casino operator Wynn Resorts Ltd. announced in a proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday that the company is reducing its Class I board members from three to two, removing Elaine Wynn as director.

The board decided not to re-nominate Elaine Wynn—the former wife of company Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn, major shareholder, and director of Wynn Resorts for more than 12 years—after her term expires at the company’s next annual meeting on April 24.

The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee cited several reasons including a 2012 lawsuit she filed against her ex-husband to change a longstanding stockholders agreement, “actual or potential conflicts,” and her “lack of independence under Nasdaq listing standards and resulting inability to serve on key board committees.”

“This news is extraordinarily disappointing, not just because I, as the co-founder of Wynn Resorts, have devoted my life to making this company a success, but because the decision excludes the last woman director from the board,” Elaine Wynn said in statement emailed from Southern California attorney and political strategist Mark Fabiani on Monday. “I am reviewing all of my options.”

Elaine Wynn also told the company, in a letter dated Feb. 13, that if the board failed to nominate her to serve another three years as a director, she would nominate herself and deliver a proxy statement to stockholders.

Wynn Resorts Spokesman Michael Weaver said on Sunday that the company wouldn’t comment about the details of the proxy statement. “Steve Wynn supported the candidacy of Elaine Wynn; but the board, as a whole, accepted the recommendation of the nominating and corporate governance committee in electing to reduce the number of inside directors and not re-nominate her.”

Aside from reducing the number of its Class I Board members, Wynn also announced during its filing that Wynn Palace’s estimated figure has changed from $4b to $4.1b, a 2.5% increase and the opening of the casino would be delayed in the first half of 2016, instead of the initial plan to open before the 2016 Chinese New Year, which will fall on Feb 8.

In 2007 James Findlay and his partner Carolyn Hammond conceived the NU card and gaming system.  Several years later the pair formed Lucky Games Australia to focus on the development of NU and Findlay took up a position as the Co-Founding Director. Since then, according to Findlay, Lucky Games has built a collection of new game content and an IP portfolio, all with granted patents, registered trademarks, domains and branded merchandise.

Findlay has a passion for math and design and his professional background is in the building industry and property development.  He’s an inventor and an entrepreneur at heart and his experience in several different fields eventually led him to developing an entirely new system of games for the gambling industry.

I had the pleasure of meeting Findlay at ICE Totally Gaming 2015 and he gave me my own pack of NU cards so I could test out the system myself.  More recently I had the opportunity to follow up with Findlay on his proprietary games and learn why iGaming operators would be interested in licensing his product.

Becky Liggero: James, its lovely to have you for our innovator series.  Can you describe the complex process of developing NU Entertainment? I know you have a number of patents as well.

James Findlay: Patent applications are extensive and at times exhaustive, that said, by receiving granted patents is evidence that your invention is truly novel and innovative.  NU is a gaming apparatus with granted patents in the U.S, Australia, Singapore, South Africa, Japan and pending in 42 other jurisdictions including UK/Europe, China and Macau.  The most innovative and disruptive card deck in 800 years; It’s akin to patenting the modern, metric expandable version of the 52.

We are now positioned to offer our proprietary exclusive NU Game content to leading social and cash game developers and operators. Licensing allows expert gaming companies, to exclusively exploit the NU IP while having a legal monopoly.

BL: That certainly is a lot of patents.  How is NU Poker different than traditional poker and why would a player choose NU over traditional?

Groups of religious sector in Baguio and Benguet have expressed its opposition, again, on gambling, encouraging people to restrain in any form of gambling.

“In our concern for the common good, we exhort our people in Baguio and Benguet to abstain from all forms of gambling, be they legal or illegal, like jueteng, e-bingo, online gambling or casino,” the statement said.

The group includes the Baguio-Benguet Ecumenical Group, the Diocese of Baguio, the United Methodist Group, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, the Commission on Ecumenism of the Roman Catholic Church, the St. Stephen Lutheran Church, the Philippine Military Evangelical Church and the Assembly of God.

Last year, Baguio City Bishop Carlito Cenzon asked the local government to prevent the entrance of a casino or any gambling or gaming enterprise into the city and the province, saying that gambling “usually leads to an unhealthy lifestyle, later on financial problems, and social problems such as criminalities.”

Meanwhile in Manila, the government promotes casinos to boost tourism and the economy. Solaire, the first integrated resorts built in Manila, intensifies efforts to attract more high rollers; while the newly-opened Melco’s City of Dreams has welcomed 600,000 visitors and high occupancy rates since its December 15, 2014 soft opening. There are two more integrated resorts coming: Japan’s Universal Entertainment Corp’s $2 billion project expected to open in 2016 and Travellers International partners with Genting Hong Kong, which is expected to start operation in 2018.

On Monday, State-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR) announced a 5.05% year-on-year increase to PHP3.25 billion (US$73.7 million) in net income for 2014.

PAGCOR saw its revenue fell by 1.32% year-on-year to PHP39.99 billion, reporting a loss of PHP12.17 million on foreign exchange. The company’s gaming revenue, however, increased by 8.51% to PHP29.93 compared to 2013, still below 2014′s annual target of PHP31.02 billion.

The Primorye gambling zone in Russia is on the cusp of becoming a world-class gambling destination as its first hotel and casino prepares for its May 2015 opening.

Initial plans called for the Lawrence Ho-led First Gambling Company of the Far East‘s casino project to launch in March but Governor Vladimir Miklushevsky announced in December that the opening would be postponed two months.

The launch is widely seen as a catalyst for more investors to consider joining the new gambling zone, which has already secured investments from a number of world-class casino operators, including Cambodia’s NagaCorp.

Primorye has so far attracted significantly more investment than Russia’s other designated gambling zones. In January, Primorye officials said the region had received investment pledges amounting to $2.2 billion, including $1.4 billion from Ho’s Melco International Development and NagaCorp.

According to a member of the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, the Altay region has generated close to 7 billion rubles in investments, roughly $114.2 million based on current exchange rates.

Meanwhile, just south of Russia is the “partially recognized” state of South Ossetia, whose parliament passed a law banning all types of gambling activities within its borders, largely due to a seeming lack of interest from residents. The revenue numbers for 2014 appear to back up this move as the state generated only 106,000 rubles from gambling for the entire year. That’s around $1,730 based on current rates.

South Ossetia’s ban includes all slot machines and sports betting shops. Failure to comply with the new law could result in an administrative penalty and fines starting at 500,000 rubles ($8,000).

New Jersey’s sports betting advocates have filed their last legal briefs ahead of oral arguments before the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals take place on March 17.

The state’s second attempt at passing sports betting legislation would allow wagering at Atlantic City casinos and state racetracks. The state’s opponents – the US Department of Justice (DOJ), four pro sports leagues and the NCAA – have argued that New Jersey can’t selectively repeal the federal PASPA sports betting prohibition, but must adopt an all-or-nothing approach.

In Friday’s filing, New Jersey’s advocates point out that it was the federal courts who originally suggested that states had the authority to define the “exact contours” of their PASPA adherence. The DOJ had previously argued that PASPA was constitutional because it allowed states to repeal its prohibitions “in whole or in part” while the leagues had allowed at least the theoretical possibility that states could prohibit “some but not all forms of sports gambling” without contradicting PASPA’s edicts.

New Jersey also poked holes in their opponents’ arguments that the new legislation “confines sports gambling to state-licensed gambling venues” and thus amounts to the state taking an active oversight role, something PASPA forbids. New Jersey points out that the law would also allow betting to take place on the premises of two closed racetracks – Garden State Park and Atlantic City Race Course – neither of which are currently licensed by any agency of the state.

A separate brief filed by the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (NJTHA) attempts a divide-and-conquer strategy by asking whether any of the leagues could individually choose to allow bets to be taken on their games. The NJTHA argues that should (for example) NBA Commissioner Adam Silver strike a deal to allow basketball wagers at New Jersey tracks, the other leagues would “have no basis to seek or obtain an injunction covering other people’s games.”

The NJTHA also argue that the leagues have “unclean hands” via their embrace of daily fantasy sports. Having sworn in court that the integrity of their games would suffer irreparable harm from New Jersey betting, the leagues “invoked federal equitable jurisdiction to prevent others from engaging in conduct that they, themselves, were, and are, actively engaged and from which they make millions.” Such an “unconscionable double standard” reduces the “time-honored doctrine of unclean hands to a dead letter.”