Whenever a friend of yours asks them which poker show they should watch having never seen it, which one do you say? If you’re from Europe, the answer is often ‘Late night Poker’, and we totally get why that’s the case. However, if you’re from America, then the answer is almost exclusively a different three-word show that brought the action of our favourite card game to screen in spectacular style.

The world over, High Stakes Poker is an amazing way of introducing anybody to the game of poker.

Packed with the biggest names, High Stakes Poker was a smash hit from the very first episode, which featured players such as Canadian superstar Daniel Negreanu and WSOP legend Phil Hellmuth.

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It’s the first of two weekends during the midwinter English Premier League break, and if you’re wondering why you still have EPL football to watch, then we can help. The fixtures have been staggered, essentially, so that there are not too many days without live football, but players still get around a fortnight off each. We’ve put together a guide of exactly how it all works for you, but the fixtures we do have to look forward to this weekend are going to be good. Possibly really good. Let’s take a look at them in a bit more detail.

Everton vs. Crystal Palace (Saturday 8th February, 12.30pm GMT kick-off)

The first match to kick off this weekend is the Yannick Bolasie derby. Or the James Vaughan derby. Or the James McCarthy derby. Look, the point is, these two teams love to trade players, gossip, and rumour has it that the Crystal Palace eagle lives on toffees alone. From a failed summer bid for Wilfred Zaha by Everton to a successful loan bid by Crystal Palace for Turkish striker Cenk Tosun, these two sides have plenty of previous and will go into battle on Saturday lunchtime determined to come out on top.

The two sides are closer in the table that it might look at first glance, too. Everton are five places higher than their South London rivals in 9th place to The Eagles’ 14th-place situation. But the gap is actually only three points, and such is the goal difference that an away win would see Palace leapfrog Everton in the table.

Spain’s online gambling operators will only be allowed to advertise on radio or TV in a four-hour window starting at 1am under new regulations proposed by the government.

On Thursday, Minister of Consumer Affairs Alberto Garzón met with representatives of gaming industry associations CeJuego and Jdigital to discuss the government’s plans to restrict gambling advertising. The government plans further meetings with a variety of stakeholders, including local gambling companies, media outlets and responsible gambling charities.

Spanish media had already reported that Garzón’s ‘first round’ proposal would limit online gambling ads on television and radio to a four-hour window starting at 1am. Internet ads will also face restrictions but specifics won’t be revealed until the government releases a draft of its new proposal within two weeks. A consultation period will follow, but Garzón wants the new rules enshrined in law by summer.

The government is reportedly still mulling how to address land-based promotion of gambling as well as sponsorships of sports teams, with the government apparently still studying the potential impact that changes might have on existing sponsorship arrangements.

Casino operator Las Vegas Sands is closing some of its Macau hotels due to the coronavirus-related shutdown of all local casino operations.

On Thursday, Macau authorities announced that they’d granted permission to Las Vegas Sands’ Macau division Sands China to close three of its hotels in the Cotai region on Friday. The affected hotels are the Four Seasons Hotel Macao, the St Regis Macao and Conrad Macao Cotai Strip, which collectively offer 1,459 rooms, around 11% of Sands’ total Macau capacity.

Macau hotels weren’t subject to the government’s recent order to close all gambling venues for two weeks to limit further spread of the coronavirus, but the Las Vegas Review-Journal quoted Sands President Rob Goldstein telling Nevada gaming regulators that Macau hotel traffic was currently running at below 10% capacity, making their continued operations somewhat pointless.

Goldstein added that Sands’ shopping areas in Macau were equally deserted and the company had cancelled all in-house entertainment due to public fears over congregating in any enclosed space with other people.

Casino operator Melco Resorts & Entertainment (MRE) has cancelled plans to purchase additional shares in Australian rival Crown Resorts, claiming its priority is on dealing with coronavirus fallout.

On Thursday, MRE informed investors that it had “taken the decision to reassess all non-core investments to be made in 2020.” The company said its hand was forced by the ongoing spread of the coronavirus, the resulting drop in Asian tourism and the Macau government’s order to close all casinos for at least two weeks.

As a result of this reassessment, MRE said it “will not pursue its planned investment in Australia for the second tranche of shares” in Crown. MRE added that it didn’t currently intend to boost its Crown stake beyond 10% and wouldn’t seek representation on Crown’s board of directors.

MRE agreed to buy a 20% stake in Crown last May but paused this deal last August due to Australian regulators’ discovery that MRE CEO Lawrence Ho held director positions at companies linked to his father Stanley Ho. The terms of Crown’s deal to build a Sydney casino require it to have no dealings with companies associated with Stanley.

British Columbia’s government-run online gambling site PlayNow.com is boosting its weekly deposit limits by a factor of 10 to encourage high-rollers to ditch their internationally licensed online accounts.

On Wednesday, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) announced that it was upping its weekly transfer-in limit for PlayNow customers from C$9,999 to C$100k (US$75,200). The site will also allow players to keep up to C$250k in their online accounts rather than the previous C$9,999 limit.

The Crown corporation said the change was intended to “expand [PlayNow’s] appeal and move high limit players away from unregulated, grey market gambling sites.” BCLC said around 73% of the province’s online gamblers currently patronize internationally licensed online gambling sites that “do not pay taxes, support jobs in BC, nor deliver profits to the province” (but offer far better value for customers’ gambling dollar).

BCLC’s naked grab for high-roller cash flow comes despite the Crown corporation’s highly-publicized failures in policing VIP gambling activity at provincially-owned land-based casinos. This month, an inquiry is set to examine the Crown corporation’s willingness to look the other way while Asian VIPs laundered millions in dodgy cash, which made BCLC a valuable contributor to the provincial government’s budget.

The bean counters at Novomatic Group, one of the largest (and sometimes controversial) gaming equipment manufacturers, have turned in their initial calculations to the head office, and things are looking good. CEO Harald Neumann glanced over the figures and then unveiled the results during a press conference at the ongoing International Casino Exhibition (ICE) 2020 in London, explaining that, provided there are no last-minute surprises or changes, Novomatic will be able to report revenue of $5.6 billion for the year.

The company didn’t start 2019 on a positive note, seeing revenue dip slightly across the first six months compared to the same period a year earlier.  According to previously released data, the company saw around $1.415 million during the first half of 2018, but just $1.391 million a year later. The final results for 2019 corrected that dip slightly and Neumann adds, “This means that that NOVOMATIC was able to maintain and further consolidate its position as market leader in its 40th year of existence, despite an increase in regulatory requirements in core markets such as Germany. In 2019, the number of employees in the Group around the world came to approximately 30,000, reflecting a stable development. The NOVOMATIC Group includes the figures of Novo Invest GmbH and NOVO SWISS AG, which are owned by Prof. Johann F. Graf.”

Novomatic is now involved, in some fashion, with 350 companies, of which around 220 are included in the balance sheet. The company also controls approximately 230,000 gaming machines and video lottery terminals spread out around the world, as well as having its hands in casino operations, lotteries, sports gambling and online gaming.

Coming up next for the international firm is a more dedicated push into the sports gambling sector. Novomatic plans to embrace more strongly its core operations, which include gaming, while working to further entrench itself in sports wagers across the globe. Most notably, it hopes to be able to grab a large chunk of the nascent US sports gambling market, and is embarking on a mission to have its technology adopted by sportsbooks across the US.

Arizona Senate Bill (SB 1158) met its untimely death last year when it couldn’t gain enough support to rally lawmakers. The bill was designed to try to introduce sports gambling to the state, but haphazardly approached the subject, which may have been partially the reason it couldn’t tread water. SB 1158 is back, revived as SB 1525, and is hoping to do what its previous self couldn’t. However, the way things are set out in the bill, the safe money would be on SB 1525 finding the same result as its predecessor.

SB 1525 has been drafted by Senator Sonny Borrelli and Representative Steve Pierce. Given the vast control over the gaming industry that local tribes have, operating 16 of the 24 gaming venues in the state, the bill caters to them and would allow the tribes to set up sportsbooks and kiosks at their casinos. Additionally, it would also allow tribal-owned entertainment facilities, such as bars, nightclubs and any tribal location with a liquor license to set up sportsbooks or install kiosks.

Specifically, the legislation reads, “An Indian tribe that is authorized to operate sports betting pursuant to this section may operate sports betting through kiosks or similar machines that are located at one or more premises that have a bar license, a beer and wine bar license or a private club license that is issued pursuant title 4 and may enter into a lease or rental agreement for the purpose of operating sports betting with a person that holds a bar license, a beer and wine bar license or a private club license.”

The provision to allow sports gambling at non-casino facilities is going to meet significant resistance. According to federal law, which trumps local law and is the go-to authority for tribal gaming operations, tribes are only allowed to offer gambling on their own land that has been placed in federal trust. While some exceptions have been seen, it isn’t likely that one would be made in this case, and not where vast amounts of liquor can be mixed with wagers.