After outlasting 319 players, Iva Lazarova finally took down the Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) Poker Tour Sunny Beach €550 Main Event. The tournament was held at the Platinum Casino in Bulgaria from July 5-8 and put up for grabs a total of €150,000 ($176,000). The Bulgarian player has now become the first female to ever win the MPN Poker Tour’s Main Event.

The win wasn’t easy for Lazarova. She was short-stacked down to one big blind on Day 2 with only 36 players remaining. She saw her stack grow to four times its amount on the bubble when her A-9 bested an A-Q after scoring a 9 on the turn. Lazarova began a run that saw her eventually rise to be the second highest stack on the table before taking a couple of hits to end up in eighth place on the last day of play with only 13 players remaining.

Robert Bostock out of the UK led the final day action with a substantial lead—over twice the amount of his closest rival, Borislav Yosifov from Bulgaria. He used his stack well, eliminating four players in a row. Now down to nine players, the final race was on to see who would emerge victorious. Things were looking good for Bostock at this point, as he held more chips than his closest three competitors combined.

Lazarova produced the first casualty at the final table when his pocket tens held up against fellow countryman Tihomir Ochkov’s A-8 suited. Bulgarian Galin Panayotov was the next to fall, not able to find a connector for his A-7 suited against Yosifov’s pocket Queens. The all-in eliminations continued as Bostock scored against Martin Nikolov with pocket Kings over an A-10.

In a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange from last Friday, International Entertainment Corp (IEC) announced that it has appointed Zhang Yan Min to be the casino operator’s CEO. The move wasn’t a total surprise, as Zhang has been IEC’s executive director since May of last year, and has spent the past 28 years in various roles, including commercial development and investment and business management. Zhang will also serve as a member of both the executive and the nomination committees for IEC.

With the ascension, the vacant position left by Zhang would need to be filled. In the same filing, IEC indicated that it had chosen Chan Chun Yiu Thomas, the company’s general counsel, to fulfill the role.

There were a couple of other shakeups mentioned in the filing. Lam Yat Ming, who joined the company in May of last year, has now resigned as executive director. Ren Yunan, an independent non-executive director, has also resigned.

IEC has been trying to recover losses stemming from a slow year. In its filing for the year ending March 31, the firm saw gross gaming revenue (GGR) increase to $37.7 million; however, it showed a net loss of $8.6 million during the same period. The loss follows a $5.3 million slide for the previous reporting period.

The countdown timer continues toward the end of the extended session for Japan’s Parliament. The legislators will break on July 22, and several lawmakers, in conjunction with the country’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, are hoping to find resolution for the controversial Integrated Resort Implementation Bill (IRIB) before everyone goes home and the lights are turned off. Several measures have already been approved that could help the major bill get the green light, but there is still some work to be done.

The country’s Upper House has now enacted a law governing gambling addiction. The Basic Bill on Gambling Addiction Countermeasures was accepted by lawmakers, and paves the way for the final arguments over the IRIB. The bill passed by a vote of 183-46 last Friday with strong support from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as well as its coalition party, Komeito. Members of the opposition parties, the Democratic Party for the People and the Japan Innovation Party, also approved the bill.

The gambling addiction bill was touted to be the last major hurdle before voting could take place on the IRIB. However, there was some last-minute concern that the bill wouldn’t be approved. 11 new resolutions were added to it by the Upper House, all of which needed to be confirmed prior to the bill’s passage. The riders include requirements for additional research into problem gambling, the implementation of measures by gambling operators and local governments to battle problem gambling and the creation of awareness campaigns to educate citizens on the potential pitfalls of gambling.

If everything goes well from this point forward and the bill can be approved, Japan will authorize casino licenses for possibly three operations at first. Several major operators, including MGM, Caesars and Las Vegas Sands, are among the many companies that have indicated they will compete for one of the scarce licenses.

A quick look at the movers and the shakers in the $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event, as Barry Hutter leads the final 310 players, chased by the likes of Brian Altman and Kelly Minkin.

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event.

$8.8m.

Man, you can buy a lot of crap with that kind of money.

Another round-up from the World Series of Poker focusing on a courageous defence of his title by Chris Vitch, another astounding run by Scott Bohlman and a man from Arizona picking up his first bracelet.

What does a pilot do when the propeller stops turning?

What does the candle do without any flame?

What does the disco do when you fill the floor with the deaf?

Lee Davy confronts racism in the wake of the recent attack on Maurice Hawkins by Sorin Lovin, and questions the potential for the World Series of Poker to partner with organisations that fight to stamp this behaviour out of the world.

I’m not a natural empath.

Like a T-bone steak, I have to work on it.

I’m vegan, but I couldn’t think of a non-animal product association. The closest I came to was an aubergine, or an eggplant if you live in the great US of A, a country that Maurice Hawkins was proud to call home on Friday.

Gaming operator Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) has backed out of a deal to purchase a Mississippi casino after federal regulators expressed competition concerns.

In late February, CDI announced a deal to buy two gaming venues – the Presque Isle Downs & Casino in Pennsylvania and the Lady Luck Casino Vicksburg in Mississippi – from Reno-based Eldorado Resorts Inc (ERI). However, the $50m Vicksburg portion of the deal is now off the table after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) expressed interest in the exchange.

On Monday, CDI announced that it had “terminated” the Vicksburg acquisition and will pay ERI a $5m termination fee, as stipulated in the parties’ acquisition agreement. The termination came after the FTC requested more info from both parties to ensure the deal didn’t violate the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.

CDI says it and ERI mutually decided to terminate the Vicksburg deal based on “consideration of the time and expense needed to reply to” the FTC’s request. CDI already operates two Mississippi casino properties, including the Riverwalk Casino Hotel in Vicksburg, which CDI acquired in 2012.

Another Cambodian casino has been shut down for staging cockfights, and some local residents are pissed that the operators have apparently received only a slap on the beak.

Last Thursday, authorities in Memot District, located in Tboung Khmum province on Cambodia’s southeastern border with Vietnam, shut down an unlicensed gambling operation known as Global 69 Casino for operating an illegal cockfighting ring.

The Khmer Times reported that the raid involved both provincial police and military police and was led by the Tboung Khmum Provincial Court prosecutor. The casino was closed on the order of the court, but the Phnom Penh Post reported without further explanation that the closure was only temporary.

The Times reported that around 100 individuals were detained, including the casino’s owner and managers, although the Post later reported that the owners weren’t among those detained. Local residents who have been complaining about the casino for some time found new reason to complain when they learned that the owners didn’t appear to be facing anything more severe than a brief period of inactivity.