As restaurants in New York have struggled to recover from previous closures, the New York State Gaming Association has come up with an interesting proposal. Recently, the association urged the Empire State Legislature to expand its gaming licenses to include restaurants to help the sector make more profits and recover from unprecedented conditions. Baccarat Inside A Bank Rising costs, supply chain disruptions, staff shortages and low profitability are afflicting restaurant operators, according to a survey. Before the unprecedented outbreak of 2020, there was a $50 billion industry in New York, which produced more than $4 billion in annual sales taxes. Now the state of New York is facing the challenge of creating a new environment for the sector to get back on track. Melissa Fleischut, president and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association, commented that New Yorkers are big fans of sports who bet their money through land casinos or mobile devices. She added that Empire State should seize economic opportunities, expand the types of licenses available to restaurants, and meet consumer demand. In addition, she noted that the sector is well positioned to take advantage of the market and grow the state's sports betting environment. Mr Fleischut explained that not all restaurants have to have sports betting terminals and kiosks, and that the expansion of available licenses is not a favorable opportunity for the industry, but it is a choice for additional much-needed revenue.

Grand Korea Leisure Inc. (GKL), a Korean game operator, said Tuesday that its casino sales rose in August from a year earlier. The company reported casino sales of 53.01 billion won ($43.8 million) in the month, up 4.5 percent from a year earlier. 17 On a month-over-month basis, casino sales rose 28.9% in August compared with July. The year-on-year increase in casino sales came as table game sales rose 4.0 percent to 47.85 billion won in the month of August. In a filing with the Korea Exchange, the company said machine game sales rose 9.3 percent year-on-year to about 5.16 billion won. GKL is a subsidiary of the Korea Tourism Organization, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Korea. The casino operator, under the Seven Luck brand, runs three foreigner-only casinos in Korea, two in the capital city of Seoul and one in the southern port city of Busan.

Hong Kong-listed Summit Ascent Holdings said Tigred Crystal Casino Resort (pictured), where the resort holds a major stake, has been granted permission to resume operations from today (July 16). Games at the resort had been temporarily suspended since March 28. 23 Tigre de Cristal is located in the Maritime Integrated Entertainment Zone near Vladivostok, a Russian Pacific port city in the province. Summit Ascent is the principal promoter of Tigre de Cristal, with a 60% stake in the property operator Oriental Regent Ltd. Hong Kong-listed Suncity Group Holdings Ltd is the largest shareholder of Summit Ascent. The company is in the process of increasing its stake in the company. Suncity Group Holdings is controlled by Macau junket boss Alvin Chau Cho Check Wa. "The governor of the Primorye State has agreed to allow Tigred Crystal to resume operations from July 16, 2020," Summit Ascent said in a filing on Wednesday.

Nagasaki prefecture has sent a “questionnaire” to the Japan Tourism Agency, asking for more information on how the national authorities arrived at the December 27 announcement that Nagasaki’s plan for an integrated resort (IR) with casino at Sasebo (pictured) had not been approved. Depending on the answers, the prefecture will decide whether to persist with its aim of getting an IR as a way of boosting its local and regional economy. The news on the request for more information was given on Tuesday, at an all-member meeting of Nagasaki Prefectural Assembly, at which Nagasaki governor Kengo Oisihi was questioned by seven assembly members about the implications of the central authorities’ decision, according to information reviewed by GGRAsia’s Japan correspondent. Four out of the seven members that spoke, asked the prefecture to continue with the IR policy and to request the right to have one, in any future application window announced by the national government. The prefecture said in a Tuesday statement regarding its follow-up on the non-approval of its existing IR District Development Plan: “On January 12, the prefecture sent a questionnaire to the [Japan Tourism] agency regarding how they examined and evaluated the plan.”

The Wenzhou City People's Prosecutor's Office in Zhejiang, mainland China, "approved the recent arrest of a suspect," the city's public security department, Alvin Chow-chuk, said in a warning posted on its Weibo social media account on Friday. 26 It called for "surrender as soon as possible," citing "seriously undermining our country's social order" and concerns about "huge" capital through a "cross-border" gambling business involving Chinese customers. Mr. Chau is the president of the Macau casino junket brand Suncity Group, and is a representative of Hong Kong-listed Suncity Group Holdings Ltd, and has invested in several casino projects in the Asia-Pacific region beyond Macau. Wenzhou authorities have identified Chow and Zhang Ningying as leaders of a "cross-border gambling group" known to have committed "casino establishment" crimes in mainland China.