Author Archives: The Daily Payoff

Los Angeles Poker Rooms Reopening this Week with Restrictions

Governor Gavin Newsom finally gave Los Angeles poker rooms the green light to reopen this week for the first time since November. But the card rooms will be forced to operate under strict guidelines that may not be appealing to some poker players.

When will Los Angeles poker rooms be granted permission to return to normalcy? (Image: discoverlosangeles.com)

The California governor lifted a county-wide ban on in-person dining, live poker, and other activities. Los Angeles County has the most coronavirus cases (1,085,044) and COVID-19 deaths (15,592) of any county in the country, by a wide margin. As a result, Newsom has taken extreme measures, which clearly hasn’t been working, to limit the spread of the virus.

The Democratic politician, however, is hopeful the county can turn it around. As such, he is now permitting restaurants and card rooms to begin accepting customers outdoors. That means if you’re looking for a legal card game in Southern California, you’ll have to play outside.

Lakers, Sixers highlight Wednesday NBA odds slate

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

A potential NBA Finals preview featuring four All-Stars (if they all play) highlights an extremely busy Wednesday schedule around the NBA this week as the Los Angeles Lakers visit the Philadelphia 76ers with a 7:30 p.m. ET tip and nationally televised by ESPN.

This might be a particularly emotional game for the Lakers because the last time they visited Philadelphia was on January 25, 2020. Los Angeles lost the game 108-91, but LeBron James passed Philly-born and former Lakers legend Kobe Bryant for third place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list in the game. The next morning in Los Angeles, Bryant, his daughter and a handful of others were killed in a helicopter accident.

Basketball-wise, it’s a terrific matchup between LeBron, Anthony Davis and the Sixers’ Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. While the Lakers are +110 favorites to come out of the West again on the NBA betting futures, the 76ers are +550 third favorites in the East behind the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks. Expect the Lakers to be set as short favorites on the road for the game on the NBA odds. Philly is 6-4 ATS in its past 10 as a home regular-season dog.

How Will the Polk vs. Negreanu Match Play Out Down the Stretch?

With less than 6,000 hands remaining in the high-stakes grudge match, Doug Polk holds a $565,000 lead, but Daniel Negreanu is closing fast. Will the GGPoker ambassador continue to cut into that deficit, and possibly even win?

Daniel Negreanu is catching up to Doug Polk. (Image: YouTube)

Over the past two sessions — Days 31 and 32 — Negreanu eliminated $437,000 off the Upswing Poker founder’s lead. That equates to just under 11 buy-ins at $200/$400 stakes, a sizable amount.

On Day 32, they played for barely for two hours, about half of a normal session. The reason the session was cut so short is because Negreanu realized Polk had completely changed up his strategy. So, to adjust to his opponent’s new style of play, he called it quits for the day so he could begin devising a game plan to combat it.

Who will be relegated from the English Premier League?

Winning the Premier League is a genuine dream for at least seven teams this season, but for the other 13 sides in contention every week, staying up to play in next season’s EPL is the biggest target at the start of the season.  

Facing the Drop  

On the face of it, for any of the current bottom three to survive would be a surprise and this is reflected in the betting odds, with Sheffield United (1/16), West Bromwich Albion (2/9) and Fulham (10/11) the three favourites for the drop. That’s without looking at the form table, however, which should change your approach instantly.  

As resolute as Chris Wilder has been in his defence of Sheffield United, The Blades have looked out of their depth this season and going into the second half of the campaign are yet to reach double figures in terms of league points. That bodes terribly for their survival hopes, not least because the second half of last season for the Yorkshire club was poor compared to their early season form, which essentially kept them up. Having just one victory in their last 22 Premier League fixtures, a lack of serious firepower up front and no money to buy themselves out of trouble, Sheffield United will be playing Championship football next season. 

Videoslots spanked for dodging Sweden online casino limits; 2020 ad spending falls

Sweden’s gambling regulator has slapped down a licensee’s attempts to circumvent the market’s online casino deposit limits, while the market’s top advertisers reported significant spending declines in 2020. 

On Tuesday, the Spelinspektionen regulatory body announced that online casino licensee Videoslots Ltd had engaged in a scheme in which customers were okayed to reverse months-old withdrawals, which allowed these customers to deposit more than the SEK5k (US$603) weekly limit that has been in place since last July. 

Spelinspektionen discovered Videoslots’ gambit during a check of how the operator was complying with the new limits, which were imposed as a means of ensuring locked-down Swedes didn’t gamble away the mortgage due to pandemic boredom. 

While Videoslots appeared to be enforcing the deposit limit for first-time customers, existing customers were allowed to reverse withdrawals that had been processed as far back as two months ago. Reversing these withdrawals allowed customers to top up their accounts far beyond the mandatory weekly limit.