Two esports gambling tales including Unikrn having to react to the death of their licensing partner Luxbet and the Japanese esports community gets a boost after the gambling authority releases a plan to circumvent restrictive gambling laws.

Unikrn, the coolest sounding esports betting platform in the multiverse, has suffered a pinprick of a problem after Tabcorp announced its decision to sever the head of their Luxbet business.

Tabcorp decided on the cull in the wake of their $11 billion merger with former rival Tatts Group, telling the press that the company that made a tax loss of $13 million last year is no longer aligned with the long-term strategic interests of the bigger picture. 

Luxbet pre-warned punters by announcing a strategic review of the business in August. The decision was passed on to account holders before the weekend emerged from beneath the midweek dark clouds. The final day of action is Dec 22. Punters have until Jan 19 to withdraw funds.

Two tales with a partypoker connection as the partypoker sponsored Eurasian Poker Tour comes to a close in Prague, and party’s partner, Fedor Holz, invests in esports giant Team Envy.

Prague and poker at Christmas go together like spume and sputum after a night playing with Absinthe. It’s only a matter of time before partypoker’s MILLIONS brand lays down a peg or two, but until then, we have the partypoker Eurasian Poker Tour (EAPT) Prague.

The Grandior Hotel Prague sounds like the sort of gaff that has a stiff upper lip type of guy playing the works of Chopin on the ivories, but last week it was the home to some of poker’s pot-bellied pigs.

The €1,100 buy-in EAPT Prague Main Event hit the €500k Guarantee after 825 entrants created a €783,750 prize pool. The talented Belgian Jerome Sgorrano hit all the right notes to bank the first prize of €126,500.

PokerStars plans to shake up the live tournament order by creating the $25,000 buy-in PokerStars Players NL Hold’em Championship – the most prominent $25k buy-in event in history.

A woman dressed in black Lululemon gear shifts from left to right, music pumping out of Bose speakers, six women mirroring her every move. The children play tag in the pool. A man, who looks like Santa, sups a Stella in the jacuzzi. In the background, the sun is settling in for the night, too bright for the eyes. Soon to be lost in the mountains. But the eight don’t care.

The eight hide away from the madness and mayhem of the holiday resort where I currently tap away at my keyboard. They’ve cornered a table, commandeered a dealer. The game is Texas No-Limit Hold’em.

“The game you see on TV,” says one of the players.

This is a guest contribution by Martin Owens. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

Surely this is the season to pause and reflect, and to be grateful for blessings conferred.

I would like to extend sincere thanks all  my clients, here and abroad,  for choosing me to counsel and represent their interests; to Professor Nelson Rose, the renowned gambling law authority; to Gaming Law Review, Calvin Ayre and the other blogs and periodicals who print my little ruminations; and many others near and far, for their help, counsel and companionship Some of these it would be indelicate to mention just now, but gratitude is none the less.

And especially I would like to extend thanks and good wishes to the online gaming community, operators, odds-makers, payment processors, software companies, vendors of associated services, and even the other wise-guy mouthpiece lawyers who service this racket. But most of all I send my sincere gratitude and appreciation to  the online players, without whom none of us would be here.

This is a guest contribution by Martin Owens. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

Surely this is the season to pause and reflect, and to be grateful for blessings conferred.

I would like to extend sincere thanks all  my clients, here and abroad,  for choosing me to counsel and represent their interests; to Professor Nelson Rose, the renowned gambling law authority; to Gaming Law Review, Calvin Ayre and the other blogs and periodicals who print my little ruminations; and many others near and far, for their help, counsel and companionship Some of these it would be indelicate to mention just now, but gratitude is none the less.

And especially I would like to extend thanks and good wishes to the online gaming community, operators, odds-makers, payment processors, software companies, vendors of associated services, and even the other wise-guy mouthpiece lawyers who service this racket. But most of all I send my sincere gratitude and appreciation to  the online players, without whom none of us would be here.

PokerStars has become the first online poker operator to receive a license for the forthcoming European shared liquidity scheme after ARJEL handed a slip of paper to REEL Malta Limited, a subsidiary of the Rational Group.

PokerStars – flame on!

The largest online poker operator this side of the completed Rubik Cube that sits proudly on this desk I’m pinching is the first to successfully secure a license to operate in Europe’s proposed online poker liquidity scheme.

The chief of the French gaming regulator Autorité de Régulation des Jeux En Ligne (ARJEL), Charles Coppolani, whizzed the license through his 1945 Lillian Rose, dabbed some ink, and voila.

PokerStars has become the first online poker operator to receive a license for the forthcoming European shared liquidity scheme after ARJEL handed a slip of paper to REEL Malta Limited, a subsidiary of the Rational Group.

PokerStars – flame on!

The largest online poker operator this side of the completed Rubik Cube that sits proudly on this desk I’m pinching is the first to successfully secure a license to operate in Europe’s proposed online poker liquidity scheme.

The chief of the French gaming regulator Autorité de Régulation des Jeux En Ligne (ARJEL), Charles Coppolani, whizzed the license through his 1945 Lillian Rose, dabbed some ink, and voila.