Japan has taken a step closer towards opening its first casinos after the lower chamber of the Japanese Diet approved the Integrated Resorts Implementation Bill (IR Bill).

Kyodo News reported that the IR Bill is now on its way to the House of Councillors after securing the much needed vote from the members of the lower chamber, despite the strong public opposition on the proposed legislation.

Under the lower chamber’s version of the bill, Japan residents will be charged a ¥6,000 ($54) entrance fee, while foreign visitors can enter free of charge. The bill also restricts Japanese residents from entering the brick-and-mortar facilities to three times per week and 10 times per month. Members of the lower chamber also agreed that casinos may be constructed in up to three locations in Japan.

Gaming analysts expect the House of Councillors to vote in favor of the IR Bill since it is controlled by the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner Komeito.

It took all of two months, and the first sports bets have been placed outside of Nevada to the delight of fans and consternation of sports leagues all over the United States. Sports fans in New Jersey have crowded the MGM Borgata betting on their favorite bad teams just for the hell of it. It’s the sportsbook honeymoon for fans, and the leagues feel like the unwilling chaperone at the school dance. Major League Baseball has already announced it will take no cut from sports betting ads.

League attitude aside, it’s exciting, it’s good, and it’ll increase revenues generally for US gaming companies as well as foreign operators serving the US market, but there’s a right and wrong way to play this. The wrong way is to simply start buying US gaming stocks that could benefit on the assumption that a rising tide will lift all ships. There are too many negative crosswinds to successfully execute such a blanket strategy right now. Inflation has already crossed 3% annual in the US by the Producer Price Index, the trade war between the US and China keeps escalating by the day which will further increase prices, futures are sharply down this morning and price action like this could be par for the course for most of the summer. The S&P is down 1.5% in the premarket after Trump has threatened another $200 billion in tariffs against China, and a guy maniacal enough to actively pursue the disgusting policy of ripping apart illegal immigrant families as a deterrent is liable to do some crazy stuff that could swing the markets unpredictably any day. Not to mention, anger China more and they could start dumping US Treasuries.

Now is not the time to front-run sportsbook in an attempt to capitalize on the new industry. It’s more appropriate here to contain our excitement, be sober, track the numbers, and not chase the news with our capital full throttle just yet. A perfect example of this is 888, which got a bit of an overreaction back in May when the Supreme Court overturned PASPA and has since trended down 14% from highs, losing almost its entire 16% overnight pop when the decision went public. Traders realized it’ll take time for sportsbook revenue to actually be realized, and things don’t happen overnight.

If you want to slowly get in on a US stock though, MGM would be the safest. Not that I’d recommend it now, but slowly scaling into MGM on the dips would be a decent way to play the sports betting trade. In the 10+ states that could have legalized sports betting in less than 5 years, MGM has a presence in 6 of them, according to its latest investor presentation. The other option is to scale into to UK stocks like William Hill and 888 on down days that have decent dividends and are familiar with American markets. My basic point is there is going to be no quick pop every time a state legalizes sportsbook, and if there is, the rally will likely be sold as happened with 888. Keep playing the long game and don’t get distracted by the news too much. Over time, 888 will probably reach its May highs sooner or later.

James Moore, who first gained recognition in 2010 when he finished second during a NLHE game at The Grand Poker Series in Las Vegas, has gone on to have a fairly successful career. He is best known as the man who won back-to-back tournaments at the WSOP Super Seniors tournament in 2016 and 2017. He returned this year, intent on making it three in a row, but Lady Luck didn’t join him at the table.

From the start of the game last Sunday, Moore couldn’t find his footing. When players returned after the dinner break, he was the short stack at the table, and was sent home during the last level of the day.

Going into the action, Moore remained humble about his previous wins, adding that recognition he has received in his hometown of New Hope, Pennsylvania, has kept him motivated. “I think more than anything, it’s made me want to work on my game more,” he told Poker News, referring to the recognition.

To date, Moore has won a total of $536,000 in live-tournament play. It remains a hobby more than a profession, but Moore admits that when he’s not working in his job as a radiology physician, he’s studying and playing poker.

Success Dragon, the Hong Kong-listed gaming services firm, has announced that it took a loss in its fiscal year ending this past March 31. The loss, an impairment loss that is greater than the company had previously anticipated, came from a revised valuation of the firm’s investment in California’s Primus Power Corporation. In total, the company said the impairment loss could be around $15 million.

Primus Power, located in Silicon Valley, develops power and storage systems.  Success Dragon bought over 73 million Series E Preferred Shares – 20.8% of the company’s share capital – in March of last year for approximately $20 million.

In June of last year, shortly after the purchase, the company’s CEO, Jiang Dan, and chairman, Li Cuehua, resigned. A non-executive director, Jia Limin also resigned at the same time. Jiang and Li had only been with the company since March and, according to Success Dragon, resigned in order to “focus their time and effort on other business.”

With the latest investor filing, the company explained, “[Based] on the preliminary draft of a valuation report on Primus prepared by an independent valuer, it is expected that the Group may record an impairment loss ranging from approximately US$10 million to approximately US$15 million. As a result of the impairment loss, it is expected that the total comprehensive loss attributable to equity holders of the Company for the year ended 31 March 2018 will be impacted accordingly.”

Macau’s government introduced an array of new regulations last Friday designed to improve the gambling image in the city. The Legislative Assembly still has to sign off on the measures, but no one anticipates any opposition. One of the new guidelines applies directly to casino workers, and says that no Macau-based gaming employees are allowed to be on the casino floor outside of regular duty hours. This effectively means that no casino gaming employee will be able to gamble anywhere in the city.

Additionally, the measure broadly covers other casino employees. Food and beverage employees, cleaners, cage staff and surveillance staff won’t be able to gamble, either. The move isn’t a considerable blow, as a number of gaming operators already had contractual bans on employee gaming on their own property.

However, the bill now expands those limitations to prevent employees from gambling at any facility, regardless of affiliation. If an employee is found at a gaming operation outside working hours, he or she would face a fine of anywhere from $125 to $1,236. The only exception would be given to employees for the first three days of each Chinese New Year period.

The bill has been percolating since May of 2016, when representatives of the gaming regulator and local authorities discussed a similar ban. During those discussions, two local gaming labor groups said that they were not opposed to the measures.

Another review from the World Series of Poker, this time focusing on record producer, Steve Albini, besting a final table housing 15 bracelets to capture his own in the baby Stud.

Outside the window, beyond the rosy red painted toenails of the foot that peeks at me from between a blue and brown bow, is the trademark lips and tongue of the Rolling Stones.

Jagger, Richards and co were in town, proving to Cardiffians that you don’t have to lie down and wait to die when you reach your 70s.

The town was packed.

Thailand police are showing they’re serious about combatting illegal World Cup betting, having made over 3,000 arrests in the 2018 tournament’s first four days.

On Monday, deputy national police chief Chalermkiat Srivorakhan announced that about 250 of the 3k gamblers and illegal bookmakers nabbed so far were caught in the Bangkok region and its adjacent provinces.

The deputy chief noted that gambling activity was higher than recorded during the 2014 tournament “because people have easy access to football gambling websites via mobile phones.” The top cop said police had identified thousands of online football betting sites promoting their wares to Thai bettors, but only around 100 of these sites were hosted in Thailand.

Metropolitan Police Bureau deputy commissioner Phanurat Lakboon told the Bangkok Post that the police had limited options when trying to eradicate online betting, much of which was conducted via licensed sites in Cambodia. “We can’t tell Cambodia to close down its online gambling websites because gambling is legal there.”

Felix Rappaport, president and CEO of Connecticut’s Foxwoods Resort Casino, was found dead at his residence in the resort on Monday.

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation (MPTN), which operates Foxwoods, said the cause of Rappaport’s death has yet to be determined, although foul play is not suspected. MPTN chairman Rodney Butler called Rappaport’s surprise death “a major loss” and extended sympathies to Rappaport’s family.

Rappaport (pictured) had been Foxwoods’ chief exec for over four years, while his gaming industry career spanned four decades. Rappaport previously served with MGM Resorts International for over two decades, overseeing many of the company’s properties in Las Vegas, and also did stints with Station Casinos and the Hershey Entertainment and Resort Company.

Rappaport’s death comes just as MPTN is finally proceeding with its plans to build a joint venture casino with Connecticut’s Mohegan tribe in East Windsor. The federal government’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) dropped its longstanding obstructionism of the Mohegans’ participation in the project at the start of June.