Reuters – Chinese gambling fever has crossed the East China Sea. Shares in Lippo jumped 36 percent after a consortium including the Hong Kong-listed property group won approval to build a large-scale casino in Korea. The prospect of luring punters from northern China explains the excitement. But just as in the gambling hub of Macau, investors may be pushing their luck. The news appears to have caught investors by surprise. The consortium of Lippo, Singapore’s OUE and Las Vegas casino operator Caesars had a previous application to build Korea’s first foreign-run gambling resort rejected last year. When it’s opened in…

SBR Forum – British bookmaker William Hill (SBR rating A) is pulling out of China. As of August 19, all residents of China will have their accounts suspended. After this date, the players will be unable to use their accounts to access the sportsbook or any of the gaming rooms. Players will be able to request payment as normal through the “My Account” cashier. The move comes as no surprise. Under the Communist Party, gambling is illegal in mainland China. While it is technically illegal throughout the country, Macau overlooks such laws. Internet gambling, though, is illegal throughout China. WillHill…

From The Motley Fool – Macau’s hot streak continued in July after a 20% increase in gaming revenue from a year earlier and increasing the full-year jump to 15.9% from a year ago. Clearly, the gaming market isn’t slowing, particularly the mass market that will likely drive the industry’s growth in coming years. Macau really comes down to one game in two segments: VIP baccarat and mass-market baccarat. In the first half of the year, this single game accounted for 91.3% of gaming revenue, and the trend doesn’t appear to be stopping. What is changing is the players gambling. No…

From Huffington Post. – Most people still think of the U.S. gambling industry as anchored in Las Vegas. They might think of vestiges of the mob, or the town’s ill-advised flirtation with family-friendly branding in the 1990s. But they would be wrong. The center of the gambling world has shifted 16 time zones away to a tiny spit of land on the southern tip of East Asia. An hour’s ferry ride from Hong Kong and an afternoon flight from half the world’s population, Macau is the only place in China where casino gambling is legal. Each month, 2.5 million tourists…