Las Vegas Review Journal – Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s interactive subsidiary has acquired an Israel-based social gaming business, the company’s fourth deal in the past few years to expand its presence in the growing free-to-play gaming market. Caesars did not disclose financial terms to acquire Pacific Interactive, which owns the slot machine-style, free-play application House of Fun. Social gaming has become a growing business for several gaming companies, including Caesars, which owns the World Series of Poker and Playtika, and International Game Technology, operators of DoubleDown Casino. The activity is free to play on Internet platforms, including Facebook, but customers often…

Reuters – Japanese online gaming firm Nexon Co Ltd will begin to aggressively explore U.S. acquisitions to further a long-standing plan to expand in Western markets, its CEO-elect Owen Mahoney said. “We continue to believe that North America is a big, big opportunity for us,” Mahoney said in an interview with Reuters late on Wednesday ahead of the company’s announcement that he would succeed current Chief Executive Officer Seungwoo Choi in March. Mahoney, currently Nexon’s chief financial officer, led mergers and acquisitions and business development at Electronic Arts Inc for about a decade before joining Nexon, which is known for…

ECNS – While gambling remains illegal on the Chinese mainland, Europe’s largest horse-race betting operator PMU is keeping a close eye on China’s emerging equestrian industry, hoping to gain first-mover advantage once there is any sign of the ban being lifted. The recent growing interest in equestrian sports in China has prompted Philippe Germond, chief executive of the Paris-based betting operator, to frequently travel to various Chinese cities to promote the French business model of horse-race betting in a market he believes could be worth 100 billion euros annually ($136 billion) if legalized. “If at some point in the future…

Poker News – The 2014 Winter Olympics are underway in Sochi, Russia, but the action might heat up even more in the Eurasia nation come 2018. NagaCorp Ltd. has invested roughly $350 million in Russia, and the casino operator plans to start building a gaming resort in the western part of the country as early as 2015. The company plans to cater to their most popular customers from South Korea, Japan, and Northeast China. The resort property is scheduled to open in 2018, and will resemble the bird-nest national stadium built for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, while the…

QUARTZ – SJM Holdings, the casino company founded by billionaire Stanley Ho, broke ground this week in Macau on a three hotel, 2,500 room casino complex that is modeled after Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles. The Lisboa Palace will have 700 gambling tables, a wedding complex and three hotels, including one designed with Italy’s Gianni Versace fashion house. SJM Holdings managing director Angela Leong, one of Ho’s four wives, was inspired to include a Versace hotel in the complex after staying at a Palazzo Versace in Australia in 2003 (she was there to escape the SARS outbreak). Subtle, it’s not….

Reuters  – Nguyen Van Tuon seems unconcerned that his business driving Vietnamese gamblers across the border to Cambodian casinos is under threat. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Tuon, waiting in the rain in the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City for his first fare of the day, when asked about the prospect that Vietnam could soon allow its citizens to gamble at home. “It’ll make everyone even more in debt and create more social problems, so I can’t see it happening.” His confidence may be misplaced. Despite its rigid stance on social order, the communist government and…