The sixth installment of the Card Player Poker Tour (CPPT) San Diego Classic at the Ocean’s 11 casino in California is right around the corner.

The annual tournament will get underway on April 26 and find a winner on April 29. Six starting flights will be held each day on April 26-28 prior to the final table showdown on April 29. Buy-ins run $250, but for those that want to bypass Day 1, an alternative buy-in through the tour’s Quantum Tournament structure is available for $1,500. That option allows direct entry into Day 2 with 100,000 chips.

The event continues to draw large fields. Last year’s April tournament saw 920 entries took to the felt before Shawn Busse finally took home the title and just under $49,000 in cash. It was the largest turnout since the tournament’s inception. Busse, with several high-profile wins to his name, has accumulated over $1.2 million in live action. Apart from scoring big at the third San Diego Classic in April, he is also the winner of the 41st WSOP tournament from 2010. For that win, he pocketed $485,791 in the $1,000 buy-in NLHE event.

The previous San Diego Classic at Ocean’s 11 was held in January. It attracted 691 players, up by 51 over the tournament held in January of 2017. Fifty players signed up through the Quantum structure, bumping the prize pool up to $188,400. Scott ‘Brian’ Blount took down the event for $37,010—his first and only tournament win to date.

Police in Norway have launched a major action against illegal poker clubs in Oslo, as the country continues to crack down on gambling that doesn’t bear the government’s seal of approval.

On Thursday, Norwegian media outlet Aftenposten broke the story that around 100 police had staged simultaneous raids against five underground live poker venues in the capital Oslo. The action, which took place around 10:30pm local time, is without precedent, at least in terms of scale.

The five clubs raided were identified as Quads, Sentralen, Fish Club, Akerselva Club and Norwegian Poker Team. All five have been closed. Other clubs in the city are reportedly targeted for future raids.

Police spokesperson Philip Matthew Green told local broadcaster NRK that five individuals had been placed under arrest, suggesting that police were more interested in rounding up each club’s owner/operator and less concerned with punishing individual poker players.

A round-up of the World Series of Poker Circuit action at the Rio in Las Vegas including a piece of history for Anthony Spinella, and seats in the Global Casino Championships for Kevin Iacofano and Jeremy Joseph.

The world as stopped on its axis. It’s snowing outside. Everyone has crammed into the coffee shop, screwing with my chi. Plastic sledges outnumber umbrellas. Kids with fingers you could snap clean off run around excited – they think Santa is coming back.

It’s the perfect time to play some online poker.

I don’t know the last time Anthony Spinella’s bony arse met a sledge, but I do know the last time he played online poker. It was a few days ago, in Las Vegas. It wasn’t his most profitable evening, but it was one that will forever remain in the history books.

Australian casino operator Crown Resorts’ flagship Melbourne property was the scene of an aborted terror attack this week, or at least what initially appeared to be one.

On Tuesday, police rushed to Crown Melbourne after receiving calls about a backpack-wearing man who was said to be acting ‘erratically.’ Local media reported that the “agitated, aggressive” man claimed to be a terrorist and that casino security noticed “green plasticine material” in his backpack, sparking fears of an explosive device.

The situation was deemed serious enough that Crown staff received text messages ordering them to clear the building, leading to a mild panic as customers fled towards the exits and out onto the street.

Victorian police, the bomb squad and other emergency responders descended on the casino, taking the man into custody without incident, although he did threaten to come back and kill the casino manager who initially ordered his expulsion.

Malta’s online gambling regulator is pushing back against ‘whistleblower’ claims made by a former employee.

On Wednesday, the Washington-based National Whistleblower Center (NWC) made public a letter it sent to Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and to Gianluca Esposito, exec secretary of the Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO), seeking protection for former Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) staffer Valery Atanasov.

The NWC’s letter claims Atanasov observed “IT irregularities and lack of enforcement” of gambling regulations, which he claimed “could allow for money laundering and other crimes.” The letter claimed Atanasov was disciplined and eventually fired after approaching MGA execs with his concerns, and the NWC requested that GRECO “officially monitor this case.”

On Thursday, the MGA published its response to the NWC’s letter, claiming Atanasov was terminated from his job as an IT Administrator in February 2015 due to “charges of incompetence, poor performance and abuse” dating back to 2011.

Casino and race betting operator Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI) has expanded its land-based operations by acquiring two properties in Pennsylvania and Mississippi.

On Wednesday, CDI announced that it had struck deals to acquire the Presque Isle Downs & Casino in Erie, Pennsylvania and the Lady Luck Casino Vicksburg in Mississippi, both of which are owned by Reno-based Eldorado Resorts. CDI will pay $229.5m in cash to acquire the two properties, with $179m allocated for the Presque Isle deal.

Presque Isle offers both racing and casino options, the latter including 1,600 slots, 32 gaming tables and a poker room. Lady Luck features 620 slots, nine tables and an 89-room hotel. The Presque Isle deal is expected to close in Q2 2018, with the Lady Luck transaction expected to follow sometime in Q4.

CDI CEO Bill Carstanjen noted that establishing a foothold in Pennsylvania will allow CDI the opportunity to participate in the state’s newly authorized intrastate online gambling market. CDI already operates online race betting through its TwinSpires advance deposit wagering site and has long expressed an interest in becoming “a significant player” in the non-racing online sector.

The UK’s competition watchdog has launched a probe into whether online gambling operators are making it too difficult for customers to withdraw their funds.

On Thursday, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it had “launched enforcement action” against an unspecified number of UK-licensed online gambling operators “in respect of practices that may place unfair obstacles in the way of people withdrawing their money (whether as part of a promotion or not).”

The CMA expressed particular concern with “unreasonably low” daily, weekly or monthly limits on withdrawing funds, “potentially arbitrary short deadlines” for customers to verify their identity when withdrawing funds and potential forfeiture of said funds if customers fail to respond quickly enough, as well as dormancy terms that allow operators to confiscate funds or impose “apparently excessive charges” due to account inactivity.

The CMA says it will provide consumers with regular updates on the progress of its investigation.