The VGCCC has found evidence, the regulator stated, that ALH had operated EGMs at eight venues outside of the designated trading hours and had not complied with mandatory shutdowns, which take effect every 20 hours of gaming. A venue must be shut down for at least four hours.

VGCCC Steps in to Fine Offending Venues

As a result, the company has been struck with an AU$480,000 fine. According to the regulator, eight of the 76 venues that AHL is responsible for had failed to comply with VGCCC’s permitted hours of operation. The issue only relates to 15 EGM machines, and the period of the offenses varies from February 15, 2023, through May 25, 2023.

The venues operated by the company were named publicly in the regulator’s account of events, naming the First and Last Hotel, Croxton Park Hotel, Albion Charles Hotel, Berwick Inn Taverner, The Millers Inn Hotel, Village Green Hotel, and Elsternwick Hotel as the places where the unauthorized activity took place.

These seven venues mandated an AU$420,000 fine, with an eighth one, Boundary Taverner, adding AU$60,000 to the total penalty payable by ALH. This is not the first time regulators and ALH butted heads over matters of regulation.

In August this year, the company was also fined AU$550,000 for running 220 EGMs without implementing the mandatory YourPlay pre-commitment technology which is part of the state’s broader efforts to continually reduce gambling harm, minimize money laundering, and create a more transparent and accountable industry.

Australia as a whole has considerably upped the ante when it comes to matters of consumer protection with a new nationwide self-exclusion platform designed to protect players, which has already seen more than 13,000 people register.

Ongoing Commitment to Tackling Unregulated Gambling

This means that the total fines payable by ALH this year in Victoria alone are now more than AU$1 million. Commenting on the new fine, VGCCC CEO Annette Kimmitt said that the regulator was expecting all venues to demonstrate a high level of ethics and commitment to the set regulatory standards.

“Ensuring patrons take breaks and are not exposed to extended, continuous periods of play is critical to the responsible service of gambling,” Kimmitt added, arguing that the VGCCC will not flag in its determination to keep close tabs on the industry and issue enforcement action where and if appropriate.

The VGCCC has gone after offenders this year, including the Tower Hotel which was cited to have breached responsible gambling standards. Similarly, another venue was named in a case that had to do with breaching consumer protection standards by allowing – although unintentionally – a 16-year-old patron with considerable gambling debt to play at the venue.

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At the start of last month, the 2020-founded iGaming content company that creates games “with a German accent” that meet the highest German engineering and quality standards, Apparat Gaming, announced it would start offering its games to players in Spain via a newly inked partnership with Paf.

Now, the studio that bagged a prestigious license from the Malta Gaming Authority in 2021 has fresh news for fans of the original Total Eclipse slot released in 2022. 

Apparat Gaming has launched the sequel to the popular game. Total Eclipse XXL promises to introduce fans to the “next dimension of thrill”, and the max win capped at 11,000x and the Eclipse Spins feature certainly pave the way to new heights. 

Total Eclipse XXL Metrics Overview

• Rows: 5
• Reels: 4
• Paylines: 40
• Volatility: High
• Hit frequency: 8.66%
• Max win: 11,000x
• RTP: 96.24%
• Min/Max Bet: 0.10-20
• Release date: November 29, 2023

Get Ready to Be Eclipsed by the Big Wins

Set on a cosmic journey through the adventure-packed reels on the 5×4 grid and try to land a minimum of four Eclipse symbols. This will trigger the mouthwatering Hold & Spin Eclipse Spins feature that will carry the action on a 5×8 layout.

As a rule of thumb, the bigger the reels, the higher your chances to hit a “planetary-sized win”. Take advantage of the feature and try to collect all 40 available Eclipse symbols for a chance to unlock the Grand prize of 11,000x the original bet.

The highly volatile game with a 5/5 score features a return to player rate of 96.24% and it has received the green light for launch in a number of regulated markets with Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands, the Isle of Man, Italy, Romania, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, the UK, Switzerland, and all Malta jurisdictions on the list. 

Apparat Gaming’s co-founder and director, Alina Dandörfer, spoke about the massive success of the original game recorded with operators and their players while expressing her belief that the fresh release would further carry the gameplay and blast the win potential “into the stratosphere.”

In August, the studio with decades of experience in both the land-based and the online gaming industry announced it would extend its presence in Switzerland with the help of Grand Casino Baden.
In mid-November, the trustworthy supplier of online gaming content for operators located in Germany and a large number of other European markets released Caesar’s Legions, a new 5×3 video slot featuring Free Spins, Sticky Wilds, and Multiplier Wilds.

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The leading land-based and online gambling operator with a strong presence in the United States, Boyd Gaming, released its latest financial results, outlining details regarding the company’s performance for the third quarter of 2023. The latest unaudited figures, encompassing the three months ended September 30, 2023, reveal that the company posted total revenue of $903.2 million. This result, when compared to the corresponding period in 2022, when revenues halted at $877.3 million, marks an increase of nearly 3%.

The total adjusted EBITDAR for Q3 this year was $320.8 million when compared to the $337.7 million in total adjusted EBITDAR posted for Q3 in 2022. The latest financial update revealed that adjusted earnings for Q3 this year were $137.3 million or $1.36 per share when compared to the $159.2 million or $1.48 per share posted for the corresponding period last year.

A breakdown of the $903.2 million in total revenue revealed that the lion’s share came from the company’s gaming operations. This comes as no surprise, yet, gaming revenue in Q3 halted at $641.2 million, slightly below the $668 million result from Q3 in 2022.

In contrast to the slight dip in gaming revenue, Boyd’s other operations posted an increase in their revenues. Food and beverage revenue increased slightly to $71 million in Q3 this year, while room revenues increased to $48.7 million.

Boyd’s online revenue in Q3 soared to $90.3 million. This result marked a significant increase of 72.4% when compared to the $52.4 million in online revenue posted for the corresponding quarter in 2022. Last but not least, management fee revenue and revenues derived from other operations increased as well, hitting $17.2 million and $34.8 million respectively.

The Company’s Diversified Business Model Brings Benefits

Keith Smith, Boyd’s president and CEO, explained that the latest results reaffirm the company’s diversified business model. He outlined that Boyd continues to see strong results from core play customers, online gaming, as well as its non-gaming operations. According to Smith, all those factors impacted positively the results for Q3 this year. “However, quarterly results were impacted by declines in play from our retail customers and ongoing cost pressures, both related to the challenging economic environment,” he added.

Smith explained that an ongoing focus for Boyd is the creation of value for its shareholders. He pointed out that the recent refurbishment at Fremont helped push the latest results. “And we remain committed to our capital return program, having returned over $1 billion to shareholders in the last two years through our ongoing share repurchases and dividends,” said Smith in conclusion.

Focusing on the bigger picture, Boyd confirmed that the revenue for the first nine months of 2023 hit $2.78 billion. This marked a significant increase when compared to the same period last year when the total revenue halted at $2.63 billion.

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