Scientific Games appoints new digital chief as Matt Davey exits

Scientific Games appoints new digital chief as Matt Davey exits

US gambling technology provider Scientific Games Corporation (SGC) NagaPoKer continues to shuffle its senior management, as SG Digital boss Matt Davey will leave the company at the end of the year.

On Monday, SGC announced a series of executive appointments, including promoting current Exec VP Lottery Jim Kennedy as its new Chairman, Lottery. Pat McHugh, currently SVP Global Lottery Systems, is now the Lottery division’s Executive Vice President and Group Chief Executive.

SGC also named Jordan Levin as its new Executive Vice President and Group Chief Executive, Digital. Levin (pictured), who currently serves as SVP for Corporate Development, will take over from current SG Digital boss Davey, who will leave the SGC fold at the end of 2018.

Davey, who was appointed SG Digital boss in February, joined SGC following the company’s acquisition of NYX Gaming and its valuable OpenBet sports betting platform. SGC said Davey was leaving “with the integration of NYX now fully complete.”

Levin’s new role makes him responsible for “defining [SG Digital]’s overall strategic direction and overseeing all functions of the business.” Levin, an SGC vet since 2006, is said to have been “a driving force” behind the company’s digital and interactive strategies, and will utilize his “in-depth knowledge of digital gaming and sports betting” to further the divison’s prospects.

SGC president/CEO Barry Cottle said the new appointments “are the best people to continue our growth trajectory, deliver operational excellence and inspire our employees.”

Just last week, SGC bid adieu to vice-chairman Gavin Isaacs after two years in that role. Isaacs was named SGC’s CEO in 2014 following SGC’s acquisition of gaming technology supplier SHFL Entertainment, where Isaacs was also CEO.

William Hill appealing €300k fine for serving Dutch punters

William Hill appealing €300k fine for serving Dutch punters

UK-listed bookmaker William Hill will appeal a €300k fine imposed last week by Netherlands gambling regulators.

On Friday, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) gaming authority announced that it had imposed a €300k penalty on WHG (International) Ltd for offering online casino games and sports betting products to Dutch customers via Hills’ dot-com site and two mobile apps without the KSA’s approval.

The KSA’s case against Hills mirrors dewapoker88 that of similar six-figure penalties issued in recent months, including Hills’ use of the iDeal online payment processing service popular with many Dutch-facing businesses. Hills’ website also featured a ‘Netherlands’ language option in its drop-down menus and permitted Dutch residents to access its customer service department.

KSA chairman René Jansen issued a statement saying the regulator would continue to target unauthorized online operators in this fashion, based on the regulator’s goal of “protecting the consumer” from, er, having online entertainment options. Jansen called these consumer protections “an important objective of the KSA, in addition to preventing gambling addiction and combating illegality.”

The Netherlands is still (allegedly) in the process of approving its new online gambling legislation and senior Dutch officials have suggested that any operator tagged with the KSA’s scarlet letter may have to serve a ‘time out’ of unspecified duration before being allowed to apply for a new local online license.

A Hills spokesperson told iGaming Business that the company would “definitely be appealing against the fine,” having apparently been informed that the KSA’s blow was coming weeks ago. The company noted that it wasn’t the first operator to have been penalized in this fashion to appeal the punishment, although these appeals haven’t enjoyed much success in Dutch courts.

Atlantic Lottery Corp loses bid to quash VLT class action lawsuit

Atlantic Lottery Corp loses bid to quash VLT class action lawsuit

Video lottery terminals (VLT) are headed to court in Canada’s Atlantic provinces Poker88, and the case could spell trouble for VLT operations across the country.

On Monday, the CBC reported that the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal had rejected efforts by the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC) to block a class action lawsuit brought by opponents of the ALC’s VLT operations in Canada’s four maritime provinces.

The lawsuit, which was launched in 2012 and certified as a class action last year, alleges that VLTs are “inherently deceptive, inherently addictive and inherently dangerous when used as intended.” The lawsuit further claims that VLTs violate Canada’s Criminal Code because they don’t fit within its criteria for slot machines, lotteries or other ‘fair games of chance.’

The lawsuit claims VLTs employ “deceptive” algorithms that are intended to produce “cognitive distortions” regarding a customer’s chance of winning a prize. The lawsuit says these algorithms are simply a technologically updated version of the ruses employed by street hustlers offering ‘three-card monte’ games.

The lawsuit further alleges that VLTs employ “subliminal priming” to create “a dangerous dissociative mental state, wherein players cannot make rational decisions to continue to play or not.”

The two plaintiffs at the heart of the lawsuit, retirees Douglas Babstock and Fred Small, could be joined by as many as 30k other VLT gamblers in the class action. If successful in proving that VLTs violate the Criminal Code, similar lawsuits could be launched against other provincial gambling monopolies across the country.

The ALC has the option of appealing the ruling to Canada’s Supreme Court but has yet to indicate whether it will exercise this option. The ALC launched its first VLTs in 2006 and now operates nearly 6,300 of the machines in local bars and restaurants. The machines provided revenue of C$439m (US$327m) in the Crown Corporation’s most recent fiscal year, representing more than half of total revenue in the period.

In neighboring Quebec, the Loto Quebec gambling monopoly began reducing its complement of VLTs last year, with a plan to reduce the total number of installed machines from 12k to less than 10k.