You couldn’t take a leak without the World Poker Tour (WPT) waving a flag out of your pee-pee hole this week.

They announced plans to host their first Main Event in Beijing China as part of the Ourgame Chess and Card festival. The event will have a 400 player cap and will take place in April.

Linda Johnson became the first person to be handed the WPT Honours Award. The First Lady of Poker, who did a spot of commentary for the tour back in the day, was treated to a slap-up meal in Beverly Hills.

On the tournament front, Darren Elias won a record-tying third WPT Main Event when he took the top prize of $335,436 in the WPT Fallsview event. Sergio Castelluccio won the WPT National Main Event in Brussels, Belgium for €105,000. And James Poper took down the WPTDeepstacks Event in Parx Casino for $201,991.

The legality of Connecticut’s proposed third casino has been further called into question after the state’s governor asked his attorney general for a formal opinion on the matter.

Earlier this week, the MMCT joint venture of the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes selected East Windsor as the site of their new $300m casino project. But lingering questions over the project’s legal standing may render that selection moot.

On Thursday, Gov. Dannel Malloy asked Attorney General George Jepsen (pictured) for a formal opinion on whether the new tribal casino would survive a legal challenge by casino operator MGM Resorts as well as a review by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The tribes operate the state’s two casinos – Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun – while MGM is constructing its $950m MGM Springfield resort in Massachusetts just across the border from East Windsor. The tribes made no secret of the fact that their joint venture was intended to divert gamblers in northern Connecticut who might otherwise patronize the MGM property.

Michigan legislators are lining up for another run at authorizing online gambling within state borders in 2017, but their path is anything but clear.

Wednesday saw state Sen. Mike Kowall and five of his colleagues introduce SB 203, a followup to the online gambling bill Kowall (pictured) introduced last April that ultimately died on the vine. SB 203 seeks to authorize internet games that “must include, but need not be limited to, poker,” while prohibiting sports betting.

Kowall’s latest effort is largely similar to last year’s effort. Only the state’s commercial casino operators and federally recognized tribes already conducting gaming operations in the state are eligible to apply for online gambling licenses.

Online gambling revenue will be taxed at 10% but this year’s version has scrapped the upfront $5m deposit to be credited against future tax obligations. The bill allows for the possibility of interstate compacts with other gambling-friendly jurisdictions, provided “the gaming under the agreement is conducted only in the United States.”

Gaëlle Garcia Diaz replaces Maria Ho as the host of Europe’s hottest low buy-in tournament, the Battle of Malta.

The Battle of Malta (BOM) is the business.

Not only is it Europe’s best low buy-in tournament (as recognised by the European Poker Awards), but it also has the very best sideline reporters in the business.

In 2012 & 2013, PokerListings and BOM hired none other than ESPN’s Kara Scott to take control of the event, and when Scott moved on, the magnificent Maria Ho took her place. Now, after three years of pristine performances, Ho steps down to let someone else have a shot.

West Virginia has joined the queue of US states looking to add sports betting to their list of legal gaming options.

On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of 11 state Delegates filed HB 2751, which would authorize the State Lottery Commission to draft rules for legal “sports pool betting” in West Virginia. The state is the sixth to file a sports betting bill in 2017, joining Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

HB 2751 takes dead aim at the federal PASPA sports betting prohibition, which Congress “unlawfully enacted” in 1992. The bill accuses PASPA of violating the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution and says West Virginia’s attorney general is “challenging the usurpation of the federal government of state authority to regulate sports pool betting.”

West Virginia may be late to the legislative party but the state has filed legal briefs supporting New Jersey’s quest to overturn PASPA. New Jersey is currently awaiting word on whether the US Supreme Court will hear its appeal of lower court rulings preventing the state from implementing its latest sports betting plan, and until New Jersey prevails or PASPA is repealed, none of these state bills are going anywhere.

West Virginia has joined the queue of US states looking to add sports betting to their list of legal gaming options.

On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of 11 state Delegates filed HB 2751, which would authorize the State Lottery Commission to draft rules for legal “sports pool betting” in West Virginia. The state is the sixth to file a sports betting bill in 2017, joining Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

HB 2751 takes dead aim at the federal PASPA sports betting prohibition, which Congress “unlawfully enacted” in 1992. The bill accuses PASPA of violating the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution and says West Virginia’s attorney general is “challenging the usurpation of the federal government of state authority to regulate sports pool betting.”

West Virginia may be late to the legislative party but the state has filed legal briefs supporting New Jersey’s quest to overturn PASPA. New Jersey is currently awaiting word on whether the US Supreme Court will hear its appeal of lower court rulings preventing the state from implementing its latest sports betting plan, and until New Jersey prevails or PASPA is repealed, none of these state bills are going anywhere.