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What is Magic Piggy?
Prosecutors alleged that Pietras was stealing the funeral money to fund his gambling addiction. Law enforcement found that Pietras made more than 800 casino trips over a 14-year period.
Casino records for his player’s card suggested he lost over $1.2 million at Mohegan Sun. He’s also reported to have gambled extensively at Foxwoods Resort Casino and MGM Springfield in Massachusetts.
Pietras was charged with dozens of unfair trade practices, larceny, and embezzlement counts. Prosecutors also accused him of violating health and zoning laws by living at his funeral home in Coventry.
How to play Magic Piggy
“When we talk about localisation, we’re not talking about the language or doing a game about Machu Picchu,” he tells iGB. “We’re talking about taking the effort to understand what the history of those players is, what they’re used to.
“I always found it funny when Colombia was starting, operators were saying ‘players here do not like slots’, as if they have a different DNA. Five years later, they would say, ‘well, they do like slots, but simple slots’. And five years later, they were playing all the usual [slots]. It’s not that they didn’t like slots.
“If someone takes the time to understand what they’re used to playing, what they like, what their history is and take that into consideration, then you can bridge that gap. If operators take that time to understand where players are at, it does make a difference.”
How to play Magic Piggy
Analysts remain bullish on the operator’s future following its H1 earnings report. A Goodbody note dated 13 August hailed “another positive update, with H1 adjusted EBITDA landing comfortably ahead of expectations”.
UK&I continues to be a “standout performance” said the note, as Entain sits comfortably ahead of its peers and appears to be seizing market share, amid fallout from the UK’s remote gaming duty tax hike in April.
In a 14 August note from UBS, the investment bank reiterated its buy rating for Entain. “Overall, we believe Entain shares offer the highest theoretical upside potential within the European gaming sector, albeit with a risk profile that remains elevated relative to peers,” the note went on to say.
