Dragon Corp. had a great idea – build a floating casino off of Macau that would be operated by the blockchain. However, the company hired to build the project, Norway’s Brova Idea, backed out last November over changes in contracts and payment delays. Now, DC has begun playing the blame game, accusing Brova as the reason why the project failed.

Lawyers for Dragon Corp. provided a statement to the Macau News Agency saying that Brova didn’t live up to expectations and failed to secure necessary funding for the project. Dragon further asserts that Brova’s CEO, Milo Andric, began to falter at the end of last year. According to Dragon, Andric began to demand upfront payments even though he could not provide evidence that 80% of the project’s financing was in place, a stipulation found in the contract.

Chakrit Ahmad, CEO for Dragon Corp., told the MNA, “He demanded cash upfront. We pushed for Escrow or Bank Guarantee and the escrow or Bank Guarantee would have been released once the financing 80 percent was secured according to his promise.” He also denied claims put forth by Andric that Dragon Corp. never fully intended to launch a floating casino saying that he had sent an investigative group to Norway to conduct due diligence, and had invited Andric to Hong Kong on an all-expense paid trip.

Dragon Corp. had reportedly proposed a $300-million casino called the Dragon Pearl, which would be constructed in the waters off of Macau. It said that the casino would operate using its own cryptocurrency, the Dragon Coin, to compete against junket operators. Dragon Corp. held a crowdsale last year to raise funds for the project, reportedly receiving over $500 million in investment money.

A partnership between the Asian Poker Tour (APT) and Baadshah Gaming could help drive more Indian participation in poker tournaments. Baadshah Gaming is an online gaming site and part of the Casino Pride Group and will now be hosting a selection of APT satellite events.

Poker has experienced a significant amount of growth in India, and the country’s online poker operators are working hard to create new partnerships with companies in other countries. The partnership Baadshah formed with the APT will give the site’s players a chance to participate in low-stakes qualifiers for entry into an array of APT events starting this year and moving forward.

The APT hosts over 80 major tourneys in the Asia-Pacific region. It launched in 2008 and is now found in the Philippines, Macau and South Korea, among others areas. Given the uncertain climate of online poker in India, the APT can now provide a new venue for players in India to sit down at the virtual felt beyond the country’s borders.

India is divided on whether or not poker should be legal.  In Nagaland, for example, online operators have been issued licenses for poker. At the same time, Gujarat’s high court refuses to recognize poker as a game of skill and has said that it cannot be offered under India’s gambling laws. The lack of clarity has caused some issues, but poker has still managed to attract more and more enthusiasts.

On October 1 last year, Stephen Paddock began a crazed attack on a music concert near the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas. Paddock began firing on the crowd from a hotel room he had reserved at the casino, ultimately killing 58 concertgoers and wounding another 851 before he turned the gun on himself, taking his own life. In the wake of the massacre – the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in US history – investigations revealed that Mandalay Bay security could have done more to prevent the attack. The surviving victims, and the families of the deceased, have launched lawsuits against the casino, but now the casino has switched things up a bit and is suing the victims.

In an article by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, MGM Resorts International, which owns the Mandalay Bay, has filed suits in two federal courts in Nevada and California against the victims. The company argues that it has no fault in the attack and cannot be found liable for Paddock’s actions. MGM is taking on over 1,000 victims with its lawsuit and argues that all of the claims “must be dismissed,” further stating that “plaintiffs have no liability of any kind to defendants.”

A lawyer out of Las Vegas, Robert Eglet, who is representing several of the victims, told the Review-Journal that the odd action is an attempt to have the cases moved to a federal court. Eglet opined that MGM believes it has better chances of victory at the federal level than if the cases were heard by a state court. He added that the MGM lawsuits are nothing more than a “blatant display of judge shopping” that “quite frankly verges on unethical.”

Eglet further asserted, “I’ve never seen a more outrageous thing, where they sue the victims in an effort to find a judge they like. It’s just really sad that they would stoop to this level.”

Russia is promising to compensate casino operators if the government closes any of its designated gaming zones, but the new rules won’t apply to operators in the already doomed Azov-City zone.

Last week, Russia submitted draft legislation to the Duma that would require the government to compensate casino owners if any of the country’s designated gaming zones were closed by the government within 10 years of their creation. The government also pledges to give operators at least three years notice of its intention to pull the plug.

Russia created four new gaming zones in 2009, then banned most forms of gambling outside these geographically isolated regions. The government has since added a new gaming zone in the Crimea, then expanded the Krasnodar Krai region in Russia’s southwest to include the city of Sochi, the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

In 2015, the government announced that Azov-City, the Krasnodar region’s original gaming zone and home to three casino operators, would be closed in order to prioritize the Sochi zone. In 2016, Russia extended the Azov-City closure date to January 1, 2019 but continued to ignore pleas from the zone’s operators not to swing the axe.

The penultimate round-up of what’s been a quite marvellous summer at the World Series of Poker focusing on Joe Cada’s incredible victory in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Closer.

I don’t think I can remember a World Series of Poker (WSOP) where so many people have enjoyed such incredible runs.

Shaun Deeb.

Ben Yu.

Lee Davy brings us up to speed with all the exits and excitement of Day 2 of the $1m buy-in Big One for One Drop as we reach the final six players with $10m up for grabs.  

The Little One for One Drop raised over half a million dollars for the One Drop Foundation.

The Big One for One Drop has raised $2.1m.

So why does it feel like a failure?

Australia’s media watchdog is putting the heat on unauthorized online gambling sites trying to pass themselves off as being based in the country.

On Tuesday, Aussie media outlet ABC reported that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) was trying to determine whether multiple gambling sites using .cc web domains were in fact authorized to offer sports betting services to Australian gamblers.

The .cc domain refers to the Cocos [Keeling] Islands, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean with only around 600 residents, which has tried to carve out a niche in the internet economy by promoting its web-identity as “the next .com.”

Independent MP and noted gambling scold Andrew Wilkie (pictured) has demanded the federal government “take immediate action to shut down these sites and stop them offering illegal services to Australian customers.”

Nine Pennsylvania casino operators applied for online gambling licenses ahead of Monday’s deadline, according to the state gaming regulator.

On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) confirmed that nine of its 13 brick-and-mortar casino licensees had applied for the multi-vertical (slots, table games, poker) online gambling licenses by the close of business on Monday.

The operators behind the Parx Casino, Mount Airy and the unbuilt Live! Hotel & Casino in Philadelphia filed their applications last week, while six laggards – the operators of Sands Bethlehem, Hollywood Casino, Valley Forge, Harrah’s Philadelphia, Rivers Casino and the SugarHouse in Philadelphia – got their applications in just under the wire on Monday.

That leaves the operators of the Meadows Racetrack & Casino, Mohegan Sun Pocono, Presque Isle Downs and Lady Luck Nemacolin on the sidelines. Presque Isle was recently acquired by noted online gambling fans Churchill Downs Inc, although the deal has yet to formally conclude.