I first became aware of Quanta at WGES 2017 in July, after watching a presentation featuring their very own Adam Vaziri, Blockchain lawyer and Chief Regulatory Officer. Quanta is the world’s first fully licensed blockchain lottery platform – transparent, autonomous, borderless and manipulation-proof – and now offering white label solutions and affiliate opportunities.

The purpose of spotlighting Quanta today is to illustrate there is a lot more to crypto and blockchain than trading crypto currencies and ICOs. Blockchain technology will disrupt our entire world as we know it and if you look closely, it already has.

As we know from Calvin Ayre, our Founder and Special Economic Envoy to the Government of Antigua, firsts are rarely lasts and they usually signal trends; blockchain firsts such as Quanta’s lottery platform are just beginning to catch on and this a trend we all should be following.

According to Vaziri, blockchain has changed the gambling industry because it has reduced the impact of compliance, for example.

The land that brought Ingmar Bergman and Avicii to the world is about to embark on an adventure. Sweden has been exploring the launch of its iGaming market, but was concerned with running afoul of European Union (EU) laws. It anticipated making the launch as soon as Father Time left the building at the end of 2018, and now, with no objections from the EU, it looks as though things will move forward as planned.

There is a three-month window allocated to legislative proposals submitted by an EU state. If there is no response within that time, the legislation can be considered as approved. Norway’s neighbor to the east had been concerned that its iGaming market might violate EU treaties over the movement of goods and services, a concern that would appear to be unfounded.

Now, the Swedish State Counsel will have to pass down its verdict on the iGaming draft. From there it will go in front of parliament. Swedish officials anticipate parliament to review, and approve, the bill by the end of the week.

The new legislation requires any entity operating in the Swedish gambling market to obtain a license. The market will be divided into three segments—competitive for online gambling and betting, gambling for public interest (such as lotteries or land-based bingo activities) and a final state-controlled segment that will cover land-based casinos and slot machines.

Lee Davy talks about Robert Cialdini’s Law of Reciprocity and how poker companies could use it to forge better relationships with writers and avoid brand calamities.

You wouldn’t believe how many layers I am wearing. It’s February. You would think it was December; I swear it’s global warming. Donald Trump and his cronies don’t have a clue. But I don’t get it. If the world is heating up because of factory farming, car fumes and Port Talbot Steelworks then why am I so cold?

The itch.

I can’t reach it.

3: Barrels of vintage partypoker including a $2.7m guaranteed Monster Series, news of an upcoming documentary featuring Patrick Leonard, and a massage row breaks out between party and Stars.

I’m writing this from the First Class carriage on the Great Western Train from Swansea to London Paddington. I’m not flash. I don’t pay for my ticket. 19-years railway service paid for it.

It’s not as classy as you would imagine.

I get free water, a free croissant, and that’s about it.

After PokerStars announce plans to raise their prices on $20 and below multi-table tournaments, and decrease costs on time tournaments, Lee Davy shares his thoughts on why nobody will care.

The place I rent has a TV. It’s never turned on. We don’t have a license. Not that we care. We don’t watch TV. We use it as a crappy looking mirror, and hide stuff behind it like the Eiffel Tower lamp. Bizarre. I spent decades glued to the idiot box.

I was a big Sky TV guy. I had every channel. But the prices kept increasing, and I wasn’t receiving added value. The final straw came when they lost the Champions League contract to BTSports and then put the prices up.

I’ll give them their due. Sky TV sent me a letter prewarning me of the shafting. I had time to move my arsehole away from the trajectory of the golf swing.

UK schools should incorporate gambling into their curricula much as they educate students on the realities of sex, alcohol and drug use, according to a new study.

Last week, independent educational charity Demos released the results of a two-year pilot education program intended to give students the tools they need to recognize the risks of gambling, as well as teaching them how to resist some of the more persistent come-ons of gambling marketing.

The program, which was sponsored in part by the industry-funded GambleAware charity, involved 650 14-year-old students across four schools in 2016. The program covered a range of ‘risky behaviors,’ including gambling. The intent was to encourage students to “weigh risk, identify manipulative behavior, manage impulses and help others” who experienced problems saying ‘when.’

One year after the program, Demos claimed to have observed a net decline of 7% in the number of pupils who copped to playing cards for money in the previous year versus the comparison group. There was also a net 3% decline in the number of ‘at risk’ students who admitted engaging in four or more types of gambling activities over the same period.