Good Morning. The grey area. Not one that a country wants to be in when it comes to the Financial Action Task Force. For Cambodia, the struggle is real, as it has twice already been placed on the international body’s grey list, and a new evaluation this year will prove whether efforts have been sufficient to stay off it. Looking to the Philippines, the owner of Emerald Bay says it has received offers for the stalled project but isn’t ready to sell until they meet its benchmarks. And in Macau, the CNY period is shaping up to be very busy indeed, with flight ticket sales booming for the holiday period.
Cambodia is ramping up its efforts to avoid yet another listing on the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list, as the prevalence of scam compounds in the country works against its attempts to keep its international reputation pristine. Cambodia’s national bank is overseeing the country’s next AML/CTF evaluation by the international authority, with hopes that recent legislation and high-profile arrests – such as that of Prince Group’s Chen Zhi – will help boost its outcome.
Konami Gaming has appointed Deron Hunsberger as vice president of North American game sales, leveraging his 25 years of proven customer partnership and commercial success.
In this role, Deron will be responsible for developing and executing strategic sales initiatives in land-based casino games markets across the United States and Canada. Formerly appointed director of slot sales from 2000 to 2006, Deron Hunsberger returns to Konami Gaming, having served as one of the organization’s earliest employees.
Commenting on the appointment, Tom Jingoli, President & COO at Konami Gaming, shared: “Deron Hunsberger’s demonstrated customer commitment, solutions-driven approach, and passion for continuous improvement align with our organization’s enduring values and key objectives. Hunsberger’s prior experience with Konami further positions him for success in this role, leading an incredibly talented and dedicated team of representatives serving casinos from coast to coast.”
As part of its successful participation in ICE 2026, Zitro has contributed to the ICE Barcelona donor fund, an initiative that channels industry support toward high‑impact social projects aligned with responsible gaming and sustainability.
The donation was formally recognized during the fund handover ceremony in the Sustainable Gaming Zone at ICE 2026.
Commenting on the initiative, Albert Zorrilla, Zitro’s General Director for Spain, stated: “At Zitro, we believe that industry growth must go hand in hand with corporate social responsibility. Supporting initiatives like ICE Barcelona’s charitable fund allows us to actively contribute to projects that create a truly positive impact and promote sustainable practices that benefit society as a whole.”
ICE Barcelona expressed its appreciation for Zitro’s contribution: “The involvement of companies like Zitro is essential to the success of ICE Barcelona’s charitable program. Their support demonstrates the industry’s commitment to social responsibility.”
The Philippine gaming regulator (PAGCOR) has approved amendments to its fee framework, lowering the fee on gross gaming revenue generated by gaming venue operators from live sports betting to 15 percent, from 17.5 percent.
The previous rate was in effect since January of 2025, having previously been set at 22.5 percent.
The shift was announced by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation’s Electronic Gaming Licensing Department and comes after a PAGCOR Board of Directors meeting on January 8th, where the amendments to the regulatory fee framework were approved.
While the new 15 percent rate is retroactive to November 2025, the 30 percent rate charged on GGR from Virtual Sports remains at 30 percent.
The move is not new, however, as a regulatory revision document dated November 6th, 2025 indicated the change in the live sports GGR tax rate would be effective ‘November 15 onwards’. However, the document also proposed a 15 percent tax rate for Virtual Sports.
During the meetup, BetConstruct AI Co-founder Vigen Badalyan took center stage to deliver two industry-shaping announcements: the official launch of the next-gen studio Choice Gaming and the debut of the revolutionary KISS AI Live Casino.
Choice Gaming: The New Model of Game Ownership
The highlight of the evening was the official launch of Choice Gaming, a next-generation development studio built on the principle of operator independence. Unlike traditional models, Choice Gaming offers operators full rights, full control, and lifetime access to its titles, essentially allowing them to “own” the content they host.
The platform has seen unprecedented immediate adoption, currently live on over 1,000 websites. Mr. Badalyan revealed an aggressive roadmap for the first quarter of 2026, with Choice Gaming projected to be integrated into over 5,000 websites by the end of February.
Key Features of the Choice Gaming Ecosystem:
Next-Gen Flexibility: High-quality slots, instant, and crash games built with HTML5 for seamless performance across mobile, tablet, and desktop.
Global Reach: Content is available in 20+ languages with 24/7 technical support.
Promotional Power: Built-in tools including real-time leaderboards, in-game promotions, and automated free spin campaigns.
Exclusive Incentive: To reward early partners, BetConstruct AI announced that every 51st integrator will receive the entire Choice Gaming slot portfolio free of charge for one year.
Where Football Culture Meets the Crash: Evra Crash
Expanding on the Choice Gaming portfolio, the event featured the debut of Evra Crash, an exclusive collaboration with football legend Patrice Evra. This title bridges the gap between sports culture and casino gaming, featuring Evra as a central character to bring authority and familiarity to the experience.
Designed for the modern, social player, Evra Crash features multiplayer-by-design mechanics where all players enter the same round simultaneously, creating a shared, networked environment. The title is fully optimized for both mobile users and land-based solutions, ensuring continuity of experience regardless of where the player connects.
Revolutionizing the Dealer Experience: KISS AI Live Casino
The event also marked the world debut of KISS AI Live Casino, the industry’s first AI-first live casino software. Moving away from static studios, KISS AI allows operators to adapt the table, the dealer, and the visual environment in real time.
What Makes KISS AI Different:
Intelligent Adaptation: The system allows operators to define and adjust dealer appearance, ethnicity, clothing, and background environments instantly to suit specific brand identities or regional markets.
AI-Governed Dealers: Advanced AI governs dealer interaction, ensuring a consistent and personalized live presence without the logistical constraints of traditional physical studios.
Initial Lineup: The suite launches with six distinct AI-powered experiences: KISS Roulette AI Alisa, Charlie, Defne, Maria, Rose, and Seo-Yan.
To accelerate global adoption, any partner that integrates the platform by February 25 will receive the KISS AI Live Casino free for one year.
Seamless Integration via Open API
Ensuring that partners can scale at the speed of the market, Open API integration became available on Choice Gaming as of January 19. The new system features streamlined online contract sign-offs, allowing for instant deployment and minimal technical friction.
“At Choice Gaming, we aren’t just building games; we are building a foundation of transparency and shared success,” said Vigen Badalyan. “By merging human creativity with advanced AI, we are giving operators the tools to own their future truly.”
QTech Games has unveiled a new strategic alliance with Orbital Gaming, an innovative casino game studio committed to blending creativity, fairness, and technical excellence.
Integrating content from a forward-thinking studio, whose portfolio already boasts over 20 games, adds yet more creative muscle to QTech Games’ burgeoning platform, which is taking the widest range of online games to emerging territories with established names, such as Evolution and Blueprint Gaming, sitting alongside the industry’s most exciting up-and-coming providers.
The games made available to QTech partners via the deal are comprised of Orbital’s trademark Original PF (Provably Fair) content, with all games designed in-house from the ground up. Every game features custom-built math models, modern mechanics, and striking visual styles that keep players engaged and entertained across crash games, slots, and fast-paced instant-win formats. All titles are lightweight, and optimized for seamless performance across emerging markets, guarding against technological barriers to engagement, such as handset-quality limitations, restricted access to fast networks, or high data costs.
Philip Doftvik, QTech Games’ CEO, said: “Orbital Gaming instantly took our eye, thanks to their flair for crafting simplicity out of complexity, alongside elevating top-class game design. These are values we share. We look forward to seeing how these games perform across a spread of new markets for Orbital – showcasing their fresh, engaging content to a growing network of players, and generating more revenues for our partners.”
Valerian Chanchibadze, CEO at Orbital Gaming, added: “Teaming up with QTech represents a fantastic opportunity to strengthen our product distribution across emerging territories and deliver our great games to a range of top-tier partners. This deal immediately improves our reach across emerging territories, and we can’t wait to watch how our titles capture the imaginations of a swathe of new players across emerging markets.”
Cambodia’s National Bank is ramping up efforts to combat cross-border crime and money laundering operations as the country seeks to avoid being placed on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list for a third time, amid ongoing crackdowns on the nation’s notorious scam hub operations.
National Bank of Cambodia Governor Chea Serey
According to Cambodia’s local Chinese-language media outlet The Cambodia China Times, National Bank of Cambodia Governor Chea Serey disclosed at the bank’s annual work summary meeting that the institution is strengthening cooperation with relevant agencies and countries to combat systemic telecom fraud, money laundering, and terrorism financing.
Serey said that Cambodia must avoid being re-listed on the FATF’s grey list to prevent damage to public confidence and both domestic and foreign investor trust. She warned that negative reports about Cambodia’s telecom fraud operations have already affected the country’s reputation and, to some extent, impacted tourism, investor confidence, and cross-border financial operations.
“If the situation cannot be improved, Cambodia will face the risk of being re-listed on the grey list, or even more serious consequences,” Serey stated.
Government implements aggressive enforcement measures
The Cambodian government has already taken severe measures through crackdowns on illegal casinos and online fraud operation centers, while imposing strict penalties on criminals to curb the spread of these activities. Cambodia’s Financial Intelligence Unit has been working with international authorities, revoking licenses of relevant institutions, and freezing assets of related individuals according to judicial authority.
The National Bank is set to continue coordinating the second national money laundering and terrorism financing risk assessment this year, while supervising reporting entities’ compliance with AML/CTF obligations as required by law.
Enforcement authorities are continuously improving monitoring and analysis tools for high-risk sectors including real estate, casinos, and legal professions, while expanding cooperation with domestic and international partners on AML/CTF efforts.
High-profile arrest of Chen Zhi
In a significant development, Cambodian authorities recently arrested Chen Zhi, the chairman of Prince Group, and extradited him to China. The scam kingpin Chen Zhi had been previously accused by the US Department of Justice of operating a large cross-border online fraud syndicate, resulting in the confiscation of massive assets (including crypto) and sanctions against hundreds of affiliated companies. Chen’s primary enterprises in Cambodia, including Prince Bank and real estate development companies, have been forced into liquidation by the National Bank and other regulatory agencies.
Cambodia’s grey list history
The Paris-based FATF announced in February 2023 that Cambodia would be removed from the money laundering grey list, based on progress made in addressing technical deficiencies and improving anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) systems.
Cambodia was first placed on the FATF’s money laundering grey list in 2011. After improvement efforts, the country was removed from the grey list on February 26th, 2015. However, on February 22nd, 2019, Cambodia was re-listed.
According to reports from the National Bank of Cambodia, the Cambodia Financial Intelligence Unit (CAFIU) intensified enforcement actions in the first half of last year to ensure all relevant parties fulfill their anti-money laundering and terrorism financing obligations.
Cases investigated for large cash transactions without proper declaration increased 13.1 percent compared to the same period the previous year, while cases investigated for reporting entities failing to submit suspicious transaction reports rose 21.8 percent.
The new Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) Law, passed in 2020, mandates that reporting entities—including banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, real estate agencies, and casinos—conduct customer due diligence (CDD) to identify and verify customers and beneficial owners. When reporting entities have reasonable grounds to suspect a transaction is related to money laundering or terrorism financing, they must submit suspicious transaction reports. Cash transactions exceeding KHR40 million ($10,000) also require cash transaction reports.
The law prohibits reporting entities from opening or maintaining anonymous accounts or similar products that could be used for illegal activities, while requiring them to maintain customer identity and transaction records for at least five years after account closure or termination of business relationships.
Travel demand to Macau has surged ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, with flight bookings since January 1st rising nearly 40 percent year-on-year, according to figures provided to AGB from Alibaba-owned travel platform Fliggy.
According to the data provided, Macau has emerged as a popular outbound destination for the Spring Festival, with hotel reservations up 57 percent as of January 22nd.
The 2026 Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) holiday in China runs for nine consecutive days, from February 15th (Sunday) to February 23rd (Monday), ushering in the Year of the Horse.
Ticket sales have jumped more than threefold, while tour package bookings have more than doubled compared with the same period last year. Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Wuxi ranked among the top domestic source cities for travelers heading to Macau.
The surge comes against the backdrop of a wider Chinese travel boom. Consumers stretched the three-day New Year holiday into an eight-day break, driving domestic hotel bookings up 280 percent year-on-year on January 1st and pushing leisure product reservations more than 270 percent higher.
Fliggy data also show that spending per person rose over 30 percent, underscoring strong appetite for travel.
Families with children led the surge, with trips rising more than 80 percent and hotel bookings shifting toward high-star properties and all-inclusive resorts. Gen Z travelers also drove growth, with bookings up over 60 percent, favoring experiential activities such as aurora viewing, city performances and theme parks.
Outbound travel showed strong recovery, with international car rentals up 210 percent and chartered tours growing more than tenfold on New Year’s Day.
Short-haul destinations within four hours’ flight — including Hong Kong, Macau, East Asia and Southeast Asia — ranked among the most popular, while Australia and the United States entered the top 10 long-haul destinations.
Emerging markets such as Argentina, Oman, Poland, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan recorded the fastest growth in bookings.
Digitain showcased the synergy of sport, technology, and innovation at ICE Barcelona with football icons Luís Figo and Alessandro Del Piero joining its cutting-edge exhibition stand.
As part of Digitain’s long-standing ICE tradition, the company once again invited iconic football figures to join its brand ambassador, Luís Figo at the exhibition. This year, Figo was joined by fellow legend Alessandro Del Piero. The football legends explored the Digitain Group stands before heading to the company’s stand, where they met and engaged with partners, visitors, and attendees.
A key moment of the visit was a media Q&A session, where both legends talked about highlights from their careers, the role of technology in modern football, and why events like ICE are important for innovation and collaboration. Luís Figo also shared his experience hosting the Digitain podcast, highlighting the ongoing partnership between the football icon and the brand. The event concluded with a raffle, where six lucky participants each received a signed shirt.
Aregnaz Hakobyan, Digitain Group CMO, commented: “Our relationship with Luís Figo is built on trust, shared values, and a long-term vision. Having him as our brand ambassador for over four years has created a natural connection with our audience — his presence at events like ICE is something visitors really look forward to. Welcoming both Luís Figo and Alessandro Del Piero to our stand this year created an amazing atmosphere, full of fan energy and excitement around the raffle. It was also important for us to give media partners a space to ask questions and have meaningful conversations. Moments like these go beyond visibility and create memorable experiences that people continue to associate with Digitain long after the event ends.”
Digitain’s stand drew strong attention throughout the exhibition with its innovative design, interactive demo zones, and hands-on presentations of the latest developments in the company’s expanding portfolio. The company’s presence at ICE Barcelona once again highlighted its commitment to innovation, strong partnerships, and creating memorable experiences at one of the industry’s leading global events.
China Banking Corp. has received several offers for the site of the long-stalled Emerald Bay Hotel and Casino project in Cebu, but the lender is under no pressure to proceed with a sale as bids have yet to meet its valuation expectations, according to a senior executive quoted by local media outlet GMA News.
The comments come as the project’s casino ambitions were formally brought to an end following the revocation of its provisional gaming license by the Philippine gaming regulator.
Chinabank chairman Hans Sy said the bank, a key creditor to PH Resorts Group, believes the property’s value will improve over time and is prepared to wait for the right offer. “There are offers. We’ll negotiate. When we get a price that we find is good, then we sell,” Sy said in a recent interview, adding that the bank sees no need to rush given its view that the asset’s value will rise.
China Banking Corp. is a major lender to PH Resorts Group, having provided substantial loan facilities starting in 2018 to support the development of the Emerald Bay integrated resort project on Mactan Island in Cebu.
The property was transferred to Chinabank in 2023 as part of a debt restructuring agreement after PH Resorts, through its subsidiary Lapulapu Leisure Inc., moved to settle a PHP3.1 billion loan. Under that agreement, PH Resorts leased back the land and retained an option to repurchase the property, but that option expired in March 2025 and was not renewed by the bank.
Chinabank said in May last year that it would put up the property for sale after giving PH Resorts more than a year to exercise its buyback option. Despite interest from multiple parties, the lender has indicated it will only proceed with a transaction if pricing expectations are met.
The future of the Emerald Bay project was further clouded in December 2025, when the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) approved the revocation of the provisional casino license held by PHR subsidiaries Lapulapu Leisure Inc. and Lapulapu Land Corp.
In a stock filing, PH Resorts disclosed it received formal notice on December 17th, 2025, that the PAGCOR board had cancelled the provisional license for the Emerald Bay integrated resort and casino project in Lapu-Lapu City, effectively ending the group’s bid to operate a casino in Cebu. The company subsequently scrapped related partnership talks.
PH Resorts said the license cancellation was ‘not expected to have a material impact’ on its current financial position, as the project never commenced commercial operations. However, the group remains under financial strain.
In its latest quarterly filing, PH Resorts reported a net loss of PHP107.74 million ($1.89 million) in the third quarter of 2025, reversing net income of PHP101.34 million ($1.78 million) registered a year earlier.
During the period, the company’s revenues fell 47.6 percent year-on-year to PHP4.73 million ($83,000), while sales declined to PHP2.71 million ($47,500), driven mainly by weaker room and food-and-beverage income at its Donatela Resort in Bohol, its only operating property.
The Emerald Bay project was originally planned to include a five-star hotel with about 838 rooms and 7,585 square meters of gaming space, with a targeted soft opening in March 2022.
Construction stalled during the COVID-19 pandemic amid labor shortages and supply chain disruptions, and several prospective investors – including AppleOne Properties Inc., Bloomberry Resorts Inc., and Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment Inc. – have since exited discussions.
