Flaming Bars

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Macau generated MOP293.3 billion ($36.3 billion) in gross gaming revenue in 2019, equivalent to 65.8% of its GDP. In 2025, GGR stood at approximately $30.9 billion, still accounting for around 59% of GDP.

Yet Macau’s IR proposition extends well beyond the casino floor. Luxury accommodation, restaurants, shopping, concerts, conventions, art and other forms of entertainment have become part of a wider, equally indulgent experience surrounding gaming.

For Japan, the question is whether this broader proposition could make casino resorts more socially and culturally palatable by giving visitors reasons to come, other than gambling.

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Anthony Lee’s senior campaigning role gave him access to confidential discussions about the election timing. Rather than keeping that information confidential, he placed bets and passed it to his wife. She then used the information to place her own bets.

UK operators already carry out enhanced checks on politically exposed persons (PEPs), but this case shows the limits of those safeguards, Bethan Lloyd, partner at law firm Wiggin, recently told iGB.

“PEP status does not prevent someone from gambling,” Lloyd explained. She said PEPs are entitled to bet, but not on events where inside information gives them an unfair advantage.

What is Flaming Bars?

Holland Casino CEO Petra de Ruiter last week told iGB that she was proud of the player protection efforts in place across Holland Casino’s products.

Holland Casino has a responsible gambling board, which includes scientists, experts with lived experience and their own RG executives. They meet with the board every few months to talk over current processes, and the board challenges the operator’s ideas and implementations, 

Much of the debate focused on stricter supervision and the protection of players. Ultimately, the secretary of state said that work to increase black market enforcement would take precedent in the Netherlands, while increasing the gambling age would be revisited once the illegal market is under control.