Greek Financial Crisis May Impact IGT

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras states that Greece remains willing to negotiate with European leaders on the nation’s debts.
Greece’s ongoing financial crisis and standoff with European leaders might have repercussions that impact the worldwide economy.
That impact extends also to your gaming industry, as Greece’s attempts to avoid defaulting further on its debts may show high priced to companies like Global Game Technology (IGT) and Scientific Games.
Those manufacturers were hoping to provide movie lottery terminals throughout Greece, with the games simply days far from a launch that is planned. Nonetheless, the Hellenic Gaming Commission announced brand new lottery regulations in the wake of the country’s economic crisis, making much uncertainty as to the short-term future of this industry.
New Regulations Limit Play, Jackpot Size
Each day under the new regulations, daily loss limits were to be added to the machines, and gamblers would be limited as to how much time they would be allowed to play on a machine. Jackpot amounts would also be lower underneath the new regulations.
That didn’t sit well with OPAP, the Greek company that operates the video lottery terminal network. In a statement, the company said that the newest regulation would make operating the terminals ‘no longer viable,’ and immediately stopped the deployment of 16,500 machines throughout the country.
Considering the specific situation realistically, the timing of this new laws and OPAP’s choice may just be coincidental, and it is difficult to see how it is directly associated with the battle over Greek debt. But that does not signify the ongoing crisis won’t be described as a factor in the way the lottery terminal battle is resolved.
‘The wait doesn’t have anything to do with the present debt crises other than possibly OPAP playing hardball with the regulators hoping because they need the new tax revenue,’ said Todd Eilers of Eilers Research that they will cave.
IGT, Scientific Games Could Lose Income
If this really is simply a tactic that is negotiating the element of OPAP, it could be a costly one for slot machine manufacturers like IGT and Scientific Games. Both of those companies were terminals that are producing the Geek market, plus the delays may potentially price those two organizations millions in revenue.
IGT was awarded a vendor contract to offer 5,500 lottery machines, while Scientific Games was slated to produce 5,000 machines for the market. Two European manufacturers, Inspired Gaming and Synot, were also awarded first-phase vendor contracts.
IGT had been likely to make up to $30 million in annual revenues through the machines provided to Greece, while Scientific Games could make around $27 million.
The delays and also the economic crisis have certainly brought some uncertainty towards the Greek movie lottery terminal market, but Eilers says that in the long term, Greece should nevertheless be a lucrative marketplace for manufacturers.
‘We nevertheless think the VLT market will go forward and represents a sizable development opportunity for vendors,’ he said.
The negotiations over the continuing future of Greece’s lottery terminals comes at time whenever bigger battles are increasingly being waged over the nation’s economic future.
Greeks voted ‘no’ on the lending that is strict offered by international creditors on Sunday, with more than 61 percent of voters developing contrary to the terms.
But that vote doesn’t mean that Greece isn’t ready to negotiate. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras states that the Greek government remains prepared to make some alterations in order to receive assistance from Europe, and requested a loan that is three-year the eurozone’s bailout investment on Wednesday.
Bwin.party Confirms GVC Bid
Bwin.party board says it can ‘see the potential benefits’ regarding the GVC /Amaya deal, as it files another disappointing report that is financial. (Image: pokergruond.com)
GVC’s Amaya-backed bid for bwin.party was confirmed by the board today.
Yesterday, The Financial Times broke the tale that GVC had made a $1.4 billion offer to get the whole share capital of the web gambling firm; today, the bwin.party board said it had been considering the offer and could see the ‘potential benefits’ to bwin.party investors.
It absolutely was presently committed to resolving a true number of ‘transaction-related issues,’ it added.
It really is unclear whether 888 Holdings, which made an offer for bwin.party in March, is still at the settlement table.
‘Any offer made by GVC for bwin.party would include part of the consideration in new GVC shares,’ said Kenneth Alexander, Chief Executive of GVC Holdings, today. ‘Based on the successful Sportingbet acquisition to our experience and restructuring, we believe the potential mix of GVC and bwin.party would result in substantial monetary and operating synergies and represent an opportunity that is excellent both GVC and bwin.party shareholders.’
Amaya Providing ‘ a number of the Capital’
Alexander was also able to confirm that Amaya Inc is supplying ‘some of the capital’ in the offer, and would therefore just take ‘some of the assets’ should it go ahead.
It’s understood that in case of a takeover, GVC would own almost all of bwin.party, while Amaya would get the organization’s poker operations, thus giving it a foothold in the New Jersey that is regulated market.
It’s believed Amaya would be given the also option to choose the sportsbook from GVC as time goes by.
The deal would be a takeover that is reverse of a combination of new GVC shares and cash, although all events have stressed that there can be no certainty that the deal will be accepted.
Poor Sportsbook Results
The news coincided with another disappointing monetary report from bwin.party, which stated that unfavorable sports results had led to a decrease in gross win margins for 1st half of the year.
The business’s mobile operations have grown, however, with mobile accounting for 31 percent of total gross gaming revenue in June, up from 23 % in the previous year.
‘Despite challenging comparatives along with the impact of EU VAT and POC taxation, we are pleased with your company performance in the half that is first’ bwin,party CEO Norbert Teufelberger said. ‘ We now have completed our new organisational set-up and streamlined our decision-making procedures, somewhat improving our functional performance.’
Regardless of the sports that are poor outcomes Alexander remained upbeat about the potential of the bwin.party acquisition. ‘It’s been a tremendously difficult marketplace for bwin but it is also been a tremendously difficult market for everyone,’ he said. ‘ From the GVC perspective, one that excites me the most is bwin’s sports betting brand and that’s the brand with enormous potential.’
New Jersey Lawmaker Proposes Student Loan Lottery
Rising education loan debt has become a contentious issue across the usa. (Image: Getty Pictures)
Student loan debt is now a major issue in the usa, as Americans now owe about $1.2 trillion in college debts.
Those debts have proven crippling for all former pupils whom are just starting their careers, leading to many calls to discover a way to help reduce or forgive at least a few of the debt.
One particularly unusual proposal has arrived this week from New Jersey State Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester), whom claims that those with student loans should have the opportunity to gamble their debts away.
He is proposing that nj become the first state to begin a lottery that might be exclusively created to eliminate student debt.
‘We have actually people graduating from universities with only a lot of on their shoulders,’ Burzichelli stated. ‘ That hampers them from doing other things when the workforce is reached by them.’
New Jersey Students Deeply In Debt
New Jersey has a particularly higher rate of student financial obligation.
70 % of 2013 graduates in nj-new jersey had at least some student loan debt, as well as the normal borrower in 2014 had $28,109 in loans.
The student loan lottery would seek to remedy this by awarding prizes that are designed to be simply enough to pay off each student’s loan debt.
The lottery will be operated by way of a company that is private conducted by the New Jersey Lottery Commission.
Before signing up for the lottery, a current or former student would need to register information about their debt.
Should they had been selected since the winner, they would get only enough to protect their pupil loans; any extra money would roll over and additional winners would be selected until the pool was exhausted.
Tickets would be necessary to cost three dollars or less, and students would be restricted to spending an optimum of 15 percent of their student loan debt on tickets. Others could also buy tickets on behalf of a student.
Meanwhile, the company operating the lottery would take 25 percent of the money collected. Other details are nevertheless being resolved, Burzichelli states.
The main appeal, however, will be the limited focus of the lottery.
Whilst the prize swimming pools for these lottery games would likely be smaller than a game like Powerball ( or even a state that is typical), the likelihood of winning would additionally be higher.
Student Loan Experts Question Lottery Effectiveness
But whilst the prospect of unexpectedly one that is having student loan debts disappear thanks to a winning ticket may seem appealing, many activists who are working on the nationwide issue think that a lottery is simply the wrong way to go.
‘Gamble to cover down your student loan? It’s all kinds of wrong,’ said Natalia Abrams of Student Debt Crisis, a Los advocacy group that is angeles-based.
The difficulties with the lottery could be many. There’s the fact for most players, losing into play indian dreaming slot machine free the lottery will rather add more debt than assist solve their dilemmas.
Plus, the taxes a success would face on their winnings could result in a hefty tax debt to replace the loans being now paid off.
And then there was the 25 percent which is kept by the ongoing business running the lottery.
Because this cash is coming out of the prize pool, it ensures that far more education loan debt would be paid down if players simply utilized the money for tickets to pay those loans rather than risk it regarding the lottery.
‘The actual only real winner would be the company running the lottery whom gets 25 cents on every dollar,’ said Lauren Asher, president associated with the Institute for College Access and triumph.