A few words on the importance of ‘location’ within a brand story as PokerStars prepare to roll out the changes at the upcoming European Poker Tour pit stop in Monte Carlo.

Bill Perkins. Now, there’s a man who has his shit together. Tall, handsome, immaculate bone structure, a mass of finely tuned muscles, ideas flying out of his ears sprinkling feelgood juice on anyone within spitting range. Evidence that money can buy you an excellent looking birthday suit.

I’m in his apartment, asking him questions, one of which surrounds his hobby of making movies. I can’t remember the context, but I remember his response. For Perkins, making movies isn’t about making money, it’s about the love of the artform.

The more I think about it, PokerStars Live has the same feel.

A live tournament round-up from around the world including wins at the World Series of Poker Circuit in Tulsa for Jonathan Poche and Blair Hinkle, a World Poker Tour win for Jason Eisele, and victories for Michael O’Neill and Uri Kadosh.

Images from left to right: Blair Hinkle, Jason Eisele, Michael O’Neill and Uri Kadosh

The feeling you get when you run deep in a poker tournament is difficult to describe.

Hope.

Casino operators in the Indian state of Goa have been hit with serious fee hikes that will take effect next week.

On Tuesday, the Nahvind Times reported that Goa’s state government had approved a revised casino fee structure for the financial year 2018-19, which gets underway on April 1. The new fees apply to both land-based gaming venues and the floating casinos on the Mandovi River.

The fee increases are significantly greater than the increases the casinos faced last year at this time, when the casinos magnanimously refused to pass on the extra costs to their customers. But this time around, customers may not be so fortunate.

First off, any current casino operator wishing to renew his or her operating license will have to pay Rs10m (US$154k), up from Rs3m last year. The security deposit for renewing licenses has been increased from Rs1m to Rs2.5m.

New Zealand and Australian casino operator SkyCity Entertainment Group is looking to sell its Darwin casino as part of its new ‘asset-lighter’ strategy.

On Tuesday, SkyCity made its annual investor day presentation from its Auckland headquarters, during which it doubled down on its commitment to keep raining down dividends on shareholders, despite having committed over NZ$1b (US$725m) to development projects.

These costs include A$330m to breathe some life in its struggling Adelaide casino, plus another NZ$700m for a hotel/convention center expansion of its flagship Auckland property. The company has also pledged to boost the pay of roughly half its 4k New Zealand staffers to NZ$20 per hour by 2020.

In order to free up cash to keep its commitment to return 80% of net profit after tax to shareholders, SkyCity has enlisted investment bankers Goldman Sachs to drum up interest among “selected parties” in its Darwin casino, on which the company recognized an A$95m non-cash impairment last summer due to “increased competitive pressures in the gaming machine business.”

Online gambling technology supplier Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) is looking to make inroads into the German market via the acquisition of sports betting operator Nordbet.

On Monday, the Malta-based GiG announced that it had agreed to pay €500k to acquire Nordbet, which holds an online sports betting license issued in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

While Nordbet received its German license in 2013, the company is currently dormant and holds no other assets, so GiG’s sole interest in the company is the acquisition of the license, which is valid until February 2019.

In addition to allowing GiG clients the opportunity to offer sports betting to German punters, GiG believes the S-H license will allow it to integrate with some of the larger German payment processors, which should make GiG’s product offering even more accessible.

Slovenia’s plans to liberalize its online sports betting market hit a roadblock on Tuesday as the legislature’s upper chamber vetoed the measure.

Last week, Slovenia’s National Assembly surprised analysts by voting 35-26 in favor of a plan that would end the state-owned Športna Loterija’s sports betting monopoly and allow European Economic Community-licensed operators to apply for online sports betting licenses.

But despite the favorable vote, the measure had never found favor with the ruling government coalition, and Tuesday saw the National Council vote 18-12 in favor of a suspensory veto of the sports betting bill. For the measure to be approved now will require a second vote in the National Assembly that will need to pass by a two-thirds majority.

The betting liberalization plan was spearheaded by MP Branko Zorman, who claims that 85% of the nation’s gambling turnover is currently being handled by international online gambling sites. Zorman believes bringing some of these international sites into the regulated sector will dramatically boost betting revenue and increase funding for Slovenian sports and charitable organizations.