Lotte Tour Development Co., promoters of the upcoming Jeju Dream Tower Casino Resort on Jeju Island (pictured above) in South Korea, have raised 40 billion Wons (US $35.4 million) towards the project by issuing convertible bonds through a third party placement, Asian casino industry newsletter GGRAsia reports. According to the promoters, the money will be used to buy a “foreigners-only casino license” but also as operating capital.

The bonds issued were non-guaranteed convertible bonds that carry a 1% yield to maturity, 3-year duration, a 0% coupon and a conversion price that equals 8,300 KRW, without discount. The five backers that helped Lotte Tour raise the capital were: IBK Asset Management (1.5 billion KRW); KB Securities (3 billion KRW); Shinhan Investment (5 billion KRW); Pine Asia Asset Management (8.5 billion KRW); and Timefolio Asset Management (22 billion KRW).

“The successful issuance of convertible bonds with an exceptional condition – despite the financial market uncertainty due to North Korea’s nuclear crisis – is a result of high growth potential of Jeju Dream Tower Integrated Resort, which will become a key tourist attraction in Jeju,” a prepared statement from the scheme’s promoters reads.

The Jeju Dream Tower project will be located within close proximity of 1.9 miles to the International Airport on Jeju Island.  The main partners in the project are Lotte Tour Co and Greenland Group – a Chinese real estate firm that owns 41% of the gross floor area, which they plan to sell as a hotel tower. Lotte Tour owns the remaining 59%, an area that includes the casino’s 750-key hotel, gaming area, shopping mall and observation deck. The contractor, China State Construction Engineering Corp, has supplied an unconditional guarantee of completion to the partners with a line of credit of 18 months.

The casino is expected to attract Chinese tourists, being located 0.4 miles (600 meters) from a shopping area that was reportedly visited by over 4 million Chinese tourists in the previous year. Construction is expected to be finished by September in 2019.

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As a Station Casinos resort property, Fiesta Henderson Casino is located just thirteen minutes from the south end of the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. The casino offers quality amenities and entertainment, including twelve restaurants and a 70,000 square foot gaming floor. Just recently, it was announced that the gaming venue saw a slot player earn a $10 million prize from the Megabucks progressive slot game.

This past Saturday, a man from Henderson known as Roger, was able to win the major jackpot prize by enjoying the progressive game at the casino. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Roger had moved to the area from Palm Beach, Florida just a few months ago. Roger told the Review-Journal that he visited the same slot game he always does when visiting and won $20 on the first spin. He then played four more spins and the big win was earned.

Roger knew on that fourth spin he had won something but not exactly what. Someone had to come over and tell him just how much he had won. With the win, five Megabucks eagles had lined up on the reels. The machine began to flash and alert that an attendant needed to be called and confirmation was needed.

The exact amount of the jackpot came to $10,192,523.88, an amazing amount of money to win just after a few spins of the slot machine. Roger must still be in disbelief as he stated in the report that he would not really feel like a winner until the money was in the bank! The lucky winner did tell his son about the jackpot but plans on keeping this win private, and out of the eyes of the public.

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In the Philippines, billionaire businessman Enrique Razon has reportedly earned approximately $74.58 million after selling off 3.18% of his stake in local casino operator Bloomberry Resorts Corporation.

According to a report from The Philippine Star newspaper, 57-year-old Razon completed his sale of some 350 million shares via an overnight placement yesterday although his Prime Metroline Holdings Incorporated investment vehicle remains as the largest shareholder in the firm behind Manila’s Solaire Resort and Casino with a stake of about 65.58%.

The newspaper reported that Prime Metroline Holdings Incorporated had tapped the Singapore branch of investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Incorporated as the sole placement agent for the transaction. It moreover detailed that the move is expected to widen public ownership in Manila-listed Bloomberry Resorts Corporation, which additionally holds a majority stake in the firm behind South Korea’s Jeju Sun Hotel and Casino, and increase the value of its shares.

“I am very confident of the prospects for Bloomberry [Resorts Corporation],” Razon reportedly told The Philippine Star. “I believe that the increased liquidity in the stock will be beneficial for investors and the company.”

The newspaper reported that Bloomberry Resorts Corporation recently saw its first-half profit rise by 24% year-on-year to $80.4 million thanks to the Solaire Resort and Casino recording all-time high VIP, mass-market and electronic gaming machine gross gaming revenues.

For the second quarter alone, the firm’s net income reportedly increased by 47% year-on-year to $38.26 million courtesy of a 34% swell in profitability from operations in the Philippines and lower losses in South Korea. The three-month period also purportedly saw Bloomberry Resorts Corporation’s consolidated gross gaming revenues improve by 14% quarter-on-quarter to $239.78 million, which represented its highest since the Solaire Resort and Casino opened in March of 2013.

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In Wisconsin, gambling revenues at the Potawatomi Hotel and Casino for the twelve months to the end of July reportedly inched up by only about 1.5% year-on-year to hit approximately $400 million.

According to a report from the local Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper, the Milwaukee casino owned by the Forest County Potawatomi Community raked in net win of about $395 million for the previous twelve-month period while 2015’s figure topped out at around $390 million.

“The growth is slow by historical standards but at least it’s growing again; at least it’s not declining,” Mark Nichols, an economics professor at the University of Nevada, Reno reportedly told the newspaper.

The federally-recognized Forest County Potawatomi Community also runs the smaller Potawatomi Carter Casino Hotel some 200 miles to the north near the town of Wabeno and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that this venue saw its gambling revenues drop by about 3% year-on-year for the twelve months to the end of July of 2014.

Unlike commercial casino operators, the newspaper reported that each of the eleven casino-operating tribes in Wisconsin is permitted to keep the exact amounts won at their slot machines and gaming tables confidential. The latest figure comes from a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel estimate that was calculated based upon payments the tribe made to state and local governments as part of its compact.

As such, the newspaper reported that the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County each received payments of $5.66 million last month, which compared with $5.57 million last year and $5.41 million in 2015. But, the annual net win figure was purportedly calculated only after the tribe’s disbursement of about $25 million to the state had been deducted.

“[The] 1.5% increase in our annual city and county payments indicate a flat-to-modest increase in year-on-year revenues,” Ryan Amundson, a spokesperson for the Potawatomi Hotel and Casino, reportedly told the newspaper. “Those numbers are in line with gaming revenue trends in the Midwest and further reflect a mature regional market.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel moreover reported that the Forest County Potawatomi Community is hoping that the planned addition of a new hotel tower with some 119 extra rooms will help its Potawatomi Hotel and Casino increase gambling revenues moving forward. The current venue already offers 381 rooms but the tribe is planning to spend around $80 million to open the 19-story addition by 2019 complete with a spa and additional conference spaces.

“The additional rooms and suites will allow us to accommodate more gaming guests within the regional market,” Amundson reportedly told the newspaper.

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French casino operator Groupe Partouche has released its financial results for the three months to the end of July showing that its overall revenues had increased by 0.8% year-on-year to stand at approximately $115.8 million.

Paris-based Groupe Partouche operates over 40 casinos across France and stated that its most recent financial results had been helped by the “dynamics of the table games” along with the early-June opening of its “outdoor” Casino de La Ciotat just east of Marseilles.

Groupe Partouche declared that its gross gaming revenues for the three-month period had reached $184.5 million, which represented a rise of 0.8% year-on-year, although its hotels division saw turnover drop by almost $1.9 million when compared with the corresponding period in 2016 due to the temporary closure of the hotel inside its 3.14 Cannes property.

“Gross gaming revenues in our casinos were up by 0.8% thanks to the dynamics of the table games generally witnessed within the group and to the new outdoor casino at La Ciotat, which was inaugurated at the beginning of June,” read a statement from Groupe Partouche. “The success was such that the establishment has been able to double its quarterly gross gaming revenues and turnover within two months.”

Groupe Partouche stated that its net gaming revenues for the three-month period had grown by 1.2% year-on-year to stand at just over $86.7 million while its levies had fallen by 1.5% to $264.1 million.

“Activity in July was particularly buoyant and this continued for the month of August, which keeps us confident that the business activity growth will continue during the current year,” read the statement from Groupe Partouche. “The start of activity at the new casino 3.14 Cannes, [which was] transferred on June 30, is promising thanks mainly to the open air terraces, slots on the ground floor and table games on the rooftop. This is particularly satisfactory to clientele.”

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Live online gaming solutions provider Evolution Gaming Group (STO: EVO) has taken home Digital Product of the Year at the 2017 Global Gaming Awards (G2E) for its Dream Catcher Lucky Wheel.

Nine other companies that were shortlisted along with Evolution were beaten by the Latvia-based company to walk away with the prestigious award. Digital Product of the Year is awarded to the feature or innovation deemed to have improved its sector the most over the past year.

The award was received by Evolution as part of G2E Las Vegas at the 2017 Global Gaming Awards at the Sands Expo convention center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Launched by Evolution in London at ICE in February, Dream Catcher is a visually stunning super-sized vertical wheel, which is presented like a 24/7 game show. It offers an ‘immersive’ online live gaming experience and the opportunity for huge wins. The multi HD camera studio set-up is similar to the company’s award-winning Immersive Roulette, in that it enables players to follow along with every phase of the wheel spin on their tablet, desktop or smartphone. Dream Catcher is the very first title in Evolution’s new game category, Live Lucky Wheel.

After Evolution’s Chief Product Officer Todd Haushalter accepted the award, he said: “Creating a 24/7 live game show is something completely new, and we believe fresh concepts like this are a must if we want to expand Live Casino to a wider audience. Attention spans are growing shorter, and the desire to be entertained is greater so we wanted to do something that would be relevant to a YouTube watching audience because in many ways that is our competition for player’s time,” according to the press release.

He said that they knew that they wanted to reach many bingo, slot and other players with Dream Catcher and they have achieved that. Haushalter said that the money wheel has proven to be “incredibly popular with players,” with record-setting player counts for a new product.

The company’s CPO added: “Dream Catcher is a fun, easy to play game and, of course, it’s live — players can just pick up their smartphone or tablet and get involved in the live action any time they like. And with the potential for the 2x and 7x multiplier segments on the wheel to keep hitting sequentially, there’s the chance for players to win thousands of times their initial bet, just like in slots.”

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In California, hundreds of successful video poker and slot players at the Graton Resort and Casino were reportedly required to wait for up to four hours on Friday night to claim their prizes after a network error caused the venue’s machines to cease automatically printing out payout slips.

According to a Saturday report from The Press Democrat newspaper, players inside the Sonoma County casino began experiencing difficulties in collecting their winnings from 9pm on September 15 while the glitch subsequently saw staff required to hand-deliver payouts.

Owned by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and operated by Las Vegas-based Station Casinos, the Graton Resort and Casino is located just north of the city of Rohnert Park and offers some 3,000 video poker and slot machines. Although the problem was subsequently remedied overnight, the newspaper reported that some players had left their winnings after growing tired of waiting.

“I gave up [and] I left my money to someone else,” player Mike Ireton reportedly told The Press Democrat.

The 49-year-old Santa Rosa resident owns a local high-speed Internet service company and reportedly called it a day on his winnings of just over $101 after waiting nearly three hours with no success.

“It was practically everybody,” Ireton reportedly told the newspaper before estimating that the incident had impacted up to 1,000 other players. “There were people sitting there waiting for $5. It wasn’t very systematic. They should have had a better response.”

Lori Nelson, a spokesperson for Station Casinos, reportedly told The Press Democrat that she did not know what had caused the incident or how many people had been required to wait for an employee to pay them out.

“Although it may have taken more time than usual for the payout, we were pleased that we were able to institute a manual payout,” Nelson reportedly told the newspaper. “We do apologize for the inconvenience to our guests.”

Nelson purportedly explained that guests had been able to continue playing games throughout the incident while patrons that abandoned their machines may still be able to claim their winnings simply by contacting the Graton Resort and Casino via its website.

“While we have not been contacted by any guests who chose not to wait for one of our team members to manually pay them out, we certainly encourage any guest who did to contact us via our website submission option as we’ll be able verify through their player’s card and assist them,” Nelson reportedly told The Press Democrat.

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The Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM) has released its latest monthly report into the stock performance of major listed casino equipment suppliers reportedly showing that those involved achieved a 50.7% year-on-year improvement for August to 145.26 points.

According to a report from GGRAsia, the most recent results contained in the AGEM Index report, which was prepared in partnership with research firm Applied Analysis LLC, represented a 23rd consecutive month of overall advances as the composite index at the close of August had risen by 1.82% when compared with July to 431.66 points.

AGEM is a non-profit international trade association that represents some of the world’s most prominent electronic gaming machine manufacturers and suppliers. It reportedly bases its AGEM Index study on a 100-point value recorded in January of 2005 and subsequently calculates current performance utilizing the month-end stock prices of firms weighted on an approximation of market capitalization after making adjustments for individual dividends and splits.

The AGEM Index investigation reportedly detailed that eight of the 13 global gaming machine suppliers covered had declared month-on-month upturns in the price of their stocks for August with three of these rising by in excess of 10%. The research purportedly moreover found that five firms had recorded single-digit decreases in their share values.

GGRAsia reported that Sydney-listed Aristocrat Leisure Limited was one of the biggest players in the sector after contributing 4.87 points to the AGEM Index for August thanks to a 4.65% boost month-on-month in the value of its stock to $16.97. Fellow Australian firm Ainsworth Game Technology Limited purportedly contributed 0.85 points for the 31-day month due to a 2.66% rise to $2.13.

In the United States, International Game Technology (IGT) was also a winner after reportedly accounting for 3.9 points of the August index increase due to a 6.99% swell month-on-month in the price of its shares to $20.37.

However, GGRAsia reported that Scientific Games Corporation subtracted 2.13 points from the AGEM Index for August after its share price fell by almost 5% month-on-month to $35.20. Similarly, Crane Co took 1.01 points off of the overall tally due to recording a 1.68% decrease in stock price to $74.23.

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Detroit-based gaming, hospitality, and entertainment corporation, JACK Entertainment LLC, recently announced that the rebranding of their Greektown Casino-Hotel to JACK Detroit Casino-Hotel has begun and is slated to be completed on May 1, 2018. The opening of casino’s new entertainment and dining experiences will correspond with the transition to the JACK brand.

High atop the building in Downtown Detroit, the large Greektown sign that has been there for years, was dismantled earlier this summer to make way for a massive new sign that reportedly spans the width of the hotel’s rooftop. The sign, which is part of JACK Entertainment’s 1,500-unit state-of-the-art exterior and interior signage package, will be hoisted by helicopter to the top of the 30-story building on Saturday, Sept. 30.

Chief Executive Officer for JACK Entertainment, Matt Cullen, said “Detroit is JACK’s hometown and we want to make a big splash with our new brand and the casino’s dramatically expanded new dining and entertainment offerings,” according to the news release. Cullen added that the entire JACK team is eager to introduce all of the new offerings to their guests and the city of Detroit.

All new dining and entertainment experiences will also be debuting in spring 2018 and will coincide with the new brand launch. Major changes include the complete transformation of the former Market District into the Monroe Market, a multimillion-dollar endeavor.

The new contemporary dining destination will reportedly feature six fast-casual eateries. Another restaurant, a ramen noodle bar, will join the casino’s diverse array of food offerings. Traditional Japanese ramen “with a Detroit twist” will be served at the restaurant which is currently under construction. It will also feature a pop-culture décor and along with noodles, will serve sushi rolls, classic nigiri and sashimi.

Also part of the extensive renovation, the casino will be getting a new bar, which will feature Michigan wines, craft cocktails and a selection of Detroit-brewed and imported beers.

The rebranding was announced by Rock Gaming LLC in February last year, which was followed by the company announcing later in August that it would be relocating their headquarters, including all 140 employees, from One Woodward Avenue to St. Mary’s School in Greektown. Connected to the Greektown Casino and Hotel by a pedestrian skywalk, the 150-year-old, five-story, 29,000 sq ft former school building, which has been empty for a decade, is located on St. Antoine Street and began a $7 million renovation last year.

Owned by Dan Gilbert’s Rock Ventures LLC, JACK Entertainment, formally originally Rock Gaming LLC, acquired the Greektown Casino-Hotel in 2013. As of 2016, the 55-year-old Detroit-born Gilbert’s massive downtown real estate investment has reportedly had an estimated impact of $19 billion on the city.

In addition to what is now, Jack Detroit Casino-Hotel Greektown, JACK Entertainment’s portfolio of properties includes JACK Cleveland Casino, JACK Cincinnati Casino and Cleveland-area thoroughbred racetrack and racino, JACK Thistledown Racino. The company also owns a stake of properties in Kentucky and Maryland by way of Turfway Park in Boone County and Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, respectively.

Look for more information from the company regarding the transition and new amenities in the spring.

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Data recently released by the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) indicates that August revenues from Detroit’s trio of operating casinos dropped by nearly 4 percent from the same time last year. The report shows the three casinos earned $111.5 in revenues for the month of August this year, marking a 3.8 percent decline year-on-year.

The only Detroit casino to record an upswing for the month of August was MotorCity Casino Hotel, owned by IH Gaming (Detroit Entertainment, LLC). The casino’s revenue for the month, according to the MGCB, totaled $38.4 million, a modest 1.5 percent increase from a year ago in August.

Revenue at MGM Grand Detroit, however, came in at $47.9 million for August, a significant 6.7 percent drop compared to last year’s figures from the same period. While August revenue at Greektown Casino Hotel, owned and managed by JACK Entertainment LLC, decreased by 5.7 percent to $25.2 million, according to the report.

The MGCB report also showed July 2017 revenues for MGM and Greektown were down 6.3 percent.

Despite the obvious lull in summer revenue, Detroit’s three casinos reported a modest 1.1 percent increase in year-to-date aggregate revenue from Jan. to Aug. 2017 compared with the same period last year. During August operations, state coffers received $9 million in taxes from the three casinos, an approximate 4 percent decrease from what it received for the same time period last year.

During August this year, according to the MGCB, Detroit’s three casinos reported submitting $13.3 million in development agreement payments and wagering taxes to the City of Detroit.

The state casino wagering tax revenues are deposited in the state school aid fund to provide additional funding for education. The Board also ensures that the city’s casinos deposit the gaming excise tax revenues into Detroit’s general fund.

The state of Michigan does not regulate Indian casino gaming.

The unremarkable figures released by the MGCB on Tuesday come as state legislators continue to debate HB 4926. The bill, which would legalize iGaming including online poker, was introduced by Rep. Brandt Iden before the state House Regulatory Reform Committee and a hearing on the measure took place on Wednesday.

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