UK-listed online gambling operator GVC Holdings and bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral have revived discussions to create one of the world’s largest betting companies through a £3.9 billion (US$5.2 billion) merger.

The talks between GVC and Ladbrokes comes at a time when the betting industry braces itself for fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) restrictions. FOBTs have been the bread and butter of some bookmakers, including Ladbrokes.

GVC and Ladbrokes confirmed the third merger discussions on Thursday, with the former offering the Lads less than $2 a share in cash and stock, plus a contingent value right.

The news immediately sparked rallies in Ladbrokes and GVC shares during Thursday’s early trading hours, jumping as much as 29 percent and 8.3 percent, respectively.

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A little over a month ago, Swedish online poker star Johannes “Greenstone25” Korsar became the sixth person to surpass $10m in online MTT winnings. At that time, we predicted that either Chris “Gettin Daize” Oliver ($9,678,039) or Shyam “S_dot111” Srinivasan ($9,503,228) would become #7.

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Colombia’s gambling regulator hopes to quadruple its number of online licensees by next summer’s FIFA World Cup in Russia.

Last month, Colombia officially welcomed Spanish gaming operator Codere as its fifth regulated market online gambling licensee. This week, Juan B. Pérez Hidalgo, president of Colombian gaming regulator Coljuegos, told local media outlet Portafolio that he hopes to have 20 licensed online operators taking wagers on next summer’s FIFA action.

Pérez Hidalgo claimed the country’s five online licensees had so far registered a combined total of nearly 50k customers. Direct contributions from online gambling taxes and fees should allow Coljuegos to transfer between COP4b-4.5b (US $1.33m-1.5m) to the nation’s health care system in 2017, a figure Pérez Hidalgo expects to grow significantly next year.

Counting proceeds from all forms of gambling, Coljuegos’ transfers to the medical system from the start of the year through to the end of October totaled COP 465.4b ($154.6m), up 19% from the same period last year.

Colombia’s gambling regulator hopes to quadruple its number of online licensees by next summer’s FIFA World Cup in Russia.

Last month, Colombia officially welcomed Spanish gaming operator Codere as its fifth regulated market online gambling licensee. This week, Juan B. Pérez Hidalgo, president of Colombian gaming regulator Coljuegos, told local media outlet Portafolio that he hopes to have 20 licensed online operators taking wagers on next summer’s FIFA action.

Pérez Hidalgo claimed the country’s five online licensees had so far registered a combined total of nearly 50k customers. Direct contributions from online gambling taxes and fees should allow Coljuegos to transfer between COP4b-4.5b (US $1.33m-1.5m) to the nation’s health care system in 2017, a figure Pérez Hidalgo expects to grow significantly next year.

Counting proceeds from all forms of gambling, Coljuegos’ transfers to the medical system from the start of the year through to the end of October totaled COP 465.4b ($154.6m), up 19% from the same period last year.

Casino operator MGM Resorts’ long-running war with Connecticut’s tribal gaming operators has shifted its focus to the town of Bridgeport.

On Wednesday, the chairmen of the Mohegan Tribe and Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation made public a letter they’d written to Connecticut officials expressing their interest in a joint venture casino project in Bridgeport, a coastal city close to the state’s southern border with New York state.

Bridgeport is where MGM has proposed building a $675m gaming and entertainment complex. While the state has so far shown little issue in advancing this proposal, the tribes now say that “if circumstances have changed and there is now real interest in putting a casino in Bridgeport, we want to be a part of that discussion.”

The two tribes, who individually operate the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos, have teamed up on a joint venture called MMCT to build a third casino on non-tribal land in East Windsor, just south of the Massachusetts border. This casino is intended to siphon off gamblers who might otherwise continue heading north to MGM Springfield, the $960m Massachusetts casino scheduled to open next September.

The UK’s top gambling regulator is looking for a new top cop after its current leader abruptly announced her exit.

On Thursday, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced that chief executive Sarah Harrison would be stepping down at the end of February to take a senior role with the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

The UKGC said the search for Harrison’s replacement was already underway, with chief counsel Neil McArthur agreeing to serve as interim CEO upon Harrison’s departure until a permanent candidate can be identified.

Harrison who became the UK gambling industry’s overseer in June 2015, issued a statement saying she was proud of what the UKGC had accomplished during her tenure, and expressed confidence that the regulator’s new strategy would “continue to make gambling in Britain fairer and safer.”

The European Commission (EC) no longer gives a damn if European Union member states retain or enact protectionist measures regarding online gambling.

Last month, the EC sent letters to online gambling trade associations and other stakeholders, warning them of the EC’s plan to drop all current infringement procedures against protectionist EU online gambling markets, and to shun handling of future complaints on this subject.

On Thursday, the EC publicly confirmed its new disinterest in gambling matters, saying the EC had a “political commitment to be more strategic in enforcing EU law,” and thus it was “not a priority for the Commission to use its infringement powers to promote an EU Single Market in the area of online gambling services.”

The EC noted that it had already issued numerous rulings regarding EU-licensed online gambling operators’ right to access customers in other EU member states. As such, the EC has faith that gambling complaints “can be handled more efficiently by national courts” on the basis of these earlier judgments.

UK-listed online gambling operator GVC Holdings is making another run at acquiring rival Ladbrokes Coral Group.

On Thursday, GVC announced that its board of directors and their counterparts at Lads Coral were engaged in “detailed discussions regarding the possible combination of the two businesses” after GVC submitted its latest proposal to acquire Lads Coral’s entire share capital.

GVC’s offer, the total value of which could top out at £3.9b, offers Lads Coral shareholders 32.7p in cash and 0.141 ordinary GVC shares for each Lads Coral share.

A further value of up to 42.8p would be structured as a contingent value right (CVR) dependent on how severe the UK government plans to restrict the use of fixed-odds betting terminals in Lads Coral betting shops.