CNBC – No one is a bigger player in Las Vegas than MGM Resorts. But as the Strip makes a slow recovery, results there continue to be dwarfed by MGM’s success in Macau. The casino giant is now looking for the next big market. As 2014 began, Chairman and CEO Jim Murren sat down with CNBC. While the company is in its quiet period before announcing earnings, he discussed a broad range of opportunities and challenges for the gaming industry. Japanese legislators are pushing to finally legalize casino gambling in that country. This is the next big bet in Asia,…

Poker News – The U.S. federal government is once again intervening in online poker. According to The Oklahoman, last month the U.S. Department of the Interior stopped the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, owners of the Lucky Star Casino in Concho, Okla., from offering online poker to international players through its website pokertribes.com, something the state agreed to in a gaming compact. As a result the tribe filed a lawsuit against Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn in Oklahoma City last week. The tribe hopes a federal judge will prevent interference and allow…

iGaming Business – UK opposition party Labour is set to force a vote in Parliament on its plans to give councils the power to ban fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) from bookmakers in their constituencies. According to the BBC, Labour is to use an opposition day debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday to press the government into taking action on the issue. There are currently 33,000 FOBTs in place in the UK, making around £1.5 billion (€1.8 billion/£2.5 billion) each year for the larger bookmakers, an amount estimated to be half of their annual profits. The machines, which…

Gambling Kingz – The UK based Rank Group, one of the country’s largest gambling entities, has confirmed that it is examining the Northern Ireland market for the possible construction of a casino. Rank said that it has been involved in talks with political groups and lawmakers over Northern Ireland’s first casino, planned to be built in Belfast. Rank believes that up to 200 new jobs could be created in the new multimillion pound complex. A model of the complex, which will also feature hotels and restaurants, will be presented sometime this month. Rank, which manages 55 casinos across Britain, has…

iGaming Business – PMU’s move away from offline pari mutuel and focus on online betting, poker and international business enabled it to make up for a 3% drop in the French group’s historic vertical as tough economic conditions continue to impact its traditional customer base across France in 2013. The group, which describes itself as France’s number one site overall for betting and gaming, recorded a 22,4% rise in online betting stakes to €199m thanks to strong interest in the country’s Ligue 1 football championship and a 10% rise in online poker stakes to €570m during 2013. Gross gaming revenues…

Gambling regulator data on Macau gaming stocks released Thursday showed that three dozen casinos raked in 33.5 billion patacas ($4.2 billion) in December. That brought revenue for 2013 to 360.8 billion patacas ($45 billion), up 18.6 percent from the year before. Macau’s results smashed even the most optimistic expectations, according to an article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. One analyst told the Review-Journal that 2014 is expected to be an even bigger year for casino operators in Macau. Analyst Grant Govertsen of Union Gaming Research estimated that Macau’s take would be more than seven times the amount earned on the…