A Bloomberg article detailed that there was a total of 5 offers exceeding $1 billion. The bids were international, with a variety of plans for the future of the waterfront land – from high-end condos or office spaces to situating an entertainment destination there. The Malaysian gambling giant hasn’t announced a final decision yet; however, it was reported that three candidates would be shortlisted before that comes to fruition.

Genting Ready for a Large Profit

Genting’s Miami property sale could be finalized within weeks. The Malaysian operator started marketing their decision to sell the 16 acres of prime real estate back in November 2022, so attracting five bids over $1 billion is an achievement in and of itself. The parcel was home to the Miami Morning Herald newspaper and sits across Miami Beach on Biscayne Bay.

The decision to sell, however, follows a failed push to legalize non-tribal casinos in Florida. As such, Genting is reportedly going to use the proceeds from the sale to fund its casino expansion into New York and further expand its extensive Las Vegas offerings. The operator at potentially very sizable profit from the sale. The land was originally purchased for $236 million in 2011.

Genting’s international status could also potentially enable the operator to distribute the sale profits across markets other than the US. However, such a decision would be motivated very differently. The Genting Casino Nottingham was closed recently, mainly due to “commercial considerations.” The operator didn’t win a Macau concession, so prospects for that market would also require further investment.

And so, although the company’s intentions to use the proceeds from the sale to further strengthen its positions in New York and Las Vegas date a few months back, this is still the more likely option. Other operators have been pouring money into their Macau businesses such as Wynn or MGM, but both won their concession bids, and Genting doesn’t have one.

Eyeing a New York Casino License

Another reason to look to New York specifically is that after Genting’s Macau push didn’t bear fruit during the concession renewal bids, the state has an ongoing bidding war over three new licenses. The competition is expected to be fierce, though, as two of the three licenses are expected to go to racing casinos, potentially leaving only one city casino license available.

The bidding process is run by the New York Gaming Facility Location Board, which said in January that it would not be imposing artificial deadlines due to the complexity of the process. While the state is looking to cash in more gaming tax revenue, the application fees themselves are at $500 million per applicant. So, that’s already a not-insignificant investment just for the attempt.

Genting operates Resorts World which sits close to the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens. The operator’s plans for expanding the slot-machine facility with a hotel, resort, and casino, could potentially cost more than $1 billion, so the Miami property sale could fill in a big chunk of that investment, or cover all its license application costs and leave some change.

The popular operator of online casinos in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as a provider of content and technology for the gambling industry, Rush Street Interactive (RSI), announced that its collaboration with the Connecticut Lottery Corporation is planned to wind down.

Announced Monday, the company said that the in-person sports betting and online partnership in Connecticut is expected to gradually come to an end. The announcement would also see the Connecticut Lottery start a search for a new company to power its operations. A statement released by RSI acknowledges that the Lottery is expected to start that process soon.

Richard Schwartz, RSI’s CEO, thanked the Lottery for the successful collaboration that has been ongoing for years. He pointed out that the partnership with the Lottery helped RSI reach customers in Connecticut. Schwartz explained that the wind-down of the partnership is in line with RSI’s long-term strategic goals. According to him, gradually ending this partnership would be in the best interest of the company, as well as its stockholders.

“Consistent with our long-term strategic goals, after much deliberation and discussions with the CLC, we believe it is in the best interest of RSI and our stockholders to wind down this partnership.“

Richard Schwartz, CEO of RSI

RSI’s CEO pointed out that the company remains committed to delivering its services for the Lottery until a new operator is selected. Finally, Schwartz pointed out: “Through the transition we plan to continue to support all player wagers and ensure a positive player experience and expect the changeover will have an immaterial impact on our guidance for 2023.”

Transition Unlikely to Impact the Lottery’s Betting Operations

Commenting on the topic, the Connecticut Lottery’s president, Gregory Smith, thanked Rush Street for its collaboration. He explained that the partnership with RSI helped establish the Lottery’s sports betting operations and this applies not only to the online but to the retail vertical as well.

“We thank RSI for working closely with CLC to establish the foundation for CLC’s sports betting operation, both online and in retail.“

Gregory Smith, president of the Connecticut Lottery Corporation

RSI explained that despite the plans to wind down the partnership, it will continue to support the online and retail betting operations of the Lottery while ensuring that bettors benefit from valid wins and wagers during the transition period. At the same time, the company vowed to collaborate with the Lottery to limit the disruptions that may be caused by the transition. The transition process to a new operator is expected to be finalized by the second half of this year.

Cat Zingano is the No.1 fighter in the Bellator MMA Women’s Featherweight Rankings, sitting three spots above Leah McCourt. That said, the chances are that the winner of the Bellator 293 co-main event will get a shot at the title, which is currently held by Cris Cyborg.

Cat Zingano vs. Leah McCourt Odds

*Odds taken from BetOnline on Tuesday, March 28, 2023.

When, Where, and How to Watch?

• Place: Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California
• Date: Friday, March 31, 2023
• Time: ~10:00 PM ET
• How to Watch: Showtime

Cat Zingano Going for Her Fourth Bellator MMA Win

Cat Zingano is 13-4 in her professional career, with all four losses happening during her UFC days. Plus, all of those defeats happened to true legends of the sport.

Her first-ever loss happened to Ronda Rousey in the UFC championship fight. Rowdey beat her by submission after only 14 seconds, which does seem bad. However, keep in mind that at the time Zingano was going through a bad period of her life, with her husband committing suicide only a year earlier. Speaking of which, she did destroy Amanda Nunes by TKO just five months after her husband’s death. 

Zingano suffered one more loss inside the distance – Megan Anderson beat her by TKO in round 1 in 2018, but it came after Zingano injured her eye. The remaining two losses happened by a decision – to Juliana Pena (unanimous) and Katlen Vieira (split).

The loss to Anderson was her final UFC fight. Almost two years later, she made her Bellator MMA debut. It was an easy matchup (Gabby Holloway), but she then went on to beat two tougher opponents (Olivia Parker and Pam Sorenson). Still, her toughest challenge since coming to Bellator MMA is on the program this Friday.

Leah McCourt Could be the Next Big Think in Featherweight Division

Leah McCourt is only 30 but she already has a pretty impressive MMA portfolio. She’s 7-2 since the start of her professional career back in 2017. Before that, she competed in judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, winning gold medals on the international level.

Knowing this, it should come as no surprise that she’s an expert wrestler and grappler. On top of that, she also moves very fast, not letting her opponents land too many strikes. However, the fact is that she still hasn’t fought such a good striker as Zingano. That said, there’s a big question mark on whether she can handle Zingano’s power.

Cat Zingano vs. Leah McCourt Prediction

Cat Zingano is turning 41 this summer, meaning that there’s not much time left for her to win a title (and the money that comes along with it). But if she beats Leah McCourt on Friday, she will almost certainly get a chance to take the championship belt away from Cris Cyborg in a few months’ time.

That sure seems like good enough of motivation for Zingano to go all-in at Bellator 293. We think she’s gonna fight her best fight in years this weekend, possibly even beating her opponent with ground-and-pound in round 1.

Pick: Cat Zingano to win by KO/TKO in round 1

The UK Gambling Commission has finally pronounced its verdict on William Hill, slapping the operator with a gargantuan fine of £19.2 million ($23.67 million). This is notably the largest fine ever handed by the commission, exceeding the previous record of £17 million.

The commission explained that the William Hill Group will have to pay £12.5 million for its failings, while the William Hill Organization will have to pay £3 million. Mr Green, a brand in the William Hill family, will be handed a fine of £3.7 million, resulting in the aforementioned total fine of £19.2 million.

These fines come in the wake of a lengthy investigation that probed into William Hill’s business. As a result, multiple failings were uncovered and the UKGC even considered suspending the operator’s license. In the end, the regulator decided against that idea.

Andrew Rhodes, chief executive of the Gambling Commission, acknowledged that William Hill recognized its failings and worked with the commission to make improvements. It is thanks to this that the operator was able to hold to its license, Rhodes noted.

The money from the fine will be directed toward socially responsible purposes, the UKGC said. In the meantime, William Hill’s license will be subject to additional conditions that will ensure a business board member oversees an improvement plan. The operator will also be required to hire a third-party auditor to see if its safer gambling and AML procedures are up to standards.

The fine signifies trouble for 888, which acquired William Hill a few months ago. The parent company has been struggling with a lot of trouble already and is likely to be further impacted by the measure.

William Hill Violated Many Rules

The UKGC listed William Hill’s multiple failings, which saw the company breach various social responsibility and player safety rules. The company lacked sufficient controls to protect new customers, who could, as a result, spend thousands of pounds in minutes without any checks. This happened on several occasions with customers losing tens of thousands of pounds in hours or even minutes.

In addition to that, the operator was unable to identify high-risk customers and prevent gambling harm. The company failed to intervene on time and protect its customers from addiction. The lack of checks and controls made it harder for the company to spot harm.

Speaking of failing to stop harm, William Hill had allowed hundreds of self-excluded Mr Green customers to play with WHG.

William Hill also did not apply the required 24-hour delay between receiving a request for an increase in a credit limit and granting it.

In addition to its social responsibility failings, William Hill also violated AML protocols, allowing customers to deposit suspiciously-high amounts of money without conducting appropriate checks and asking players to cite their source of income.

Records show that some customers fueled their accounts with ludicrous amounts of money and placed high wagers without being monitored or scrutinized by William Hill. The operator’s policies, procedures and controls “lacked guidance on what was the appropriate action to take following the results of customer profiling and how its findings should be used to establish the appropriate outcome.”

Anti-money laundering controls were insufficient are could not put hard stops to mitigate and prevent money laundering before customer risk profiling was complete. In addition, the company’s AML staff did not have sufficient training to be familiar with risks and risk management.

The UKGC Will Continue Enforcing Its Standards

The UKGC is working hard to prevent regulatory breaches in the United Kingdom. Since the beginning of 2022, the authority has concluded 26 enforcement cases, forcing incompliant operators to pay more than £76 million ($93.57 million).

In the last 15 months, we have taken unprecedented action against gambling operators, but we are now starting to see signs of improvement. There are indications that the industry is doing more to make gambling safer and reducing the possibility of criminal funds entering their businesses.

Andrew Rhodes, CEO, UKGC

Rhodes praised his team’s active approach and said that he can already see signs of improvement. He noted that more and more operators are leveraging high-tech solutions to mitigate AML risks and identify harm.

The amount won by the woman is $3237,000, and she went almost a month without checking the ticket. According to the winner, whose name has not been disclosed, she was in the habit of playing Fantasy 5 every day.

Forgetting about Winning the Jackpot

While she admitted to usually checking the numbers every morning, this one time – when it mattered – she seemed to have forgotten. But while visiting a convenience store, she saw that the Fantasy 5 jackpot was reset.

She was “bummed” because the jackpot was just starting to get big, and she was keen to keep trying to win it. Then, she remembered that she hadn’t actually checked her last ticket and went to a lottery machine to scam it.

It was then that the 64-year-old Montmorency County woman realized she had won the March 13 drawing of the game with 19-21-31-32-35. The winner was ecstatic with the news, calling friends and letting them know about what had happened. She went to the Michigan Lottery headquarters to pick the sum but has not revealed her identity.

“Winning the lottery is still sinking in, but now that I am here claiming my prize, it’s starting to feel a lot more real,” the winner admitted.

Unclaimed Jackpots More Often Than You Think

Lottery winnings are unclaimed with an impressive frequency, and while some states have their own rules about how to proceed in such cases, whether they rollback the jackpot into the pool, or collect it for the state, the question remains – why do people miss out on life-changing sums?

The simple question is – do they forget or misplace the tickets? Many people buy tickets in jest and never take them any more seriously than they do the possibility of winning. While the exact number of unclaimed prizes is difficult to pinpoint, there have been some massive prizes that were never sought by a winner.

A person in Georgia failed to turn up and claim $77 million in winnings in 2011. A Florida ticket would have won $50 million in 2013, but it was never collected.  Even before that, a Mega Millions jackpot in New York in 2002 was never claimed.

For a while there, it was thought that a $1.37 billion jackpot in Illinois would never be claimed, but it finally was. Two people won on this occasion and they both turned up to collect.