Category Archives: Gambling

Entain Rejects MGM Resorts’ Takeover Bid but Won’t Rule Out Future Deal

MGM Resorts has made a play to become one of the largest online gaming operators in the world with an $11 billion bid for Entain (formerly GVC Holdings).

MGM Resorts has made a bid for Entain in an effort to keep pace with the industry’s leading betting and gaming operators. (Image: KXNT Radio/Getty Images)

The Wall Street Journal broke the story and, on January 4, Entain issued a statement via the London Stock Exchange.

The press release confirmed that MGM Resorts had made an informal offer of 1,383p per share plus a 22% premium. That equates to a total bid of £8.1 billion/$11 billion, but that won’t be enough to get a deal done.

France’s gambling regulator to target protection laws as 2021 unfolds

France’s gambling regulator, the L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) took over for the former L’Autorité Nationale de Régulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL) last summer, bringing together all of the country’s various gambling regulations under the auspices of a single entity. Now that it has had time to get settled in, the ANJ is ready to get down to business. One of its main focuses in this new year is going to be the overhaul of most public gaming policies and the regulator has confirmed that it plans on placing a lot of emphasis on consumer protections as 2021 unfolds. 

The ANJ plans on developing policies that will minimize “excessive gambling” while “improving the protection of minors” this year. This is part of the agency’s new framework to provide a safer gambling industry, combatting what it believes to be an increase in problem gambling. It explains that, even though the number of gamblers has stayed relatively even over the years, there has been an increase in the number of high-risk gamblers, with the figure climbing from 200,000 to 370,000 from 2014 to the present. 

As a result of that increase, the ANJ expects to dedicate a lot of its energy to public health concerns, which it will use as a foundation for creating new regulations for the country’s gambling market. It explains that it has already begun working with the Ministry of Solidarity and Health (MSH) in order to create “a framework to reaffirm public policy objectives as well as to promote an innovative regulatory approach to unite the actors concerned around the protection of players,” and adds that it also expects to develop unified controls to guide the “supply and consumption of games” that are offered to French consumers. The ANJ, however, didn’t clarify what types of controls it plans on implementing.

In addition to working with the MSH and others, the ANJ is actively coordinating its efforts with France’s National Union of Family Associations (UNAF, for its French acronym). It has reportedly launched an effort with UNAF that will lead to the creation of safer gambling environments, a move that stems from a growing concern that the regulator’s belief that adults may not fully comprehend the impact caused by participating in gambling activity with their minor children. UNAF wields a lot of power in France, driving regulations behind consumer protection and business practices in order to foster a better and safer environment for the family unit.

Daniel Negreanu Books Small Win in Mixed Results Session

Daniel Negreanu won a small profit on Day 23 against Doug Polk. But it could have been much more if not for yet another unlucky river card.

Daniel Negreanu is slowly but surely getting back in the match. (Image: YouTube)

He also could have walked away with a larger victory if not for a huge failed bluff attempt. In one hand, Negreanu fired out a $55,000 bet on the river with eight-high (7-8). His opponent thought for a brief moment before making the call with K-J on a king-high board.

That hand took Polk from a sizable deficit to a tiny lead. Ironically, shortly after, he gave back a bunch to Negreanu with his own failed bluff attempt with 6-7. Negreanu made the call with trip kings. Tough to bluff into a monster hand.

Winning Strategy: Avoiding the Poker Death Spiral

I love old movies. And one classic scene, repeated hundreds of times over the years, is the death spiral.

It generally goes like this: A military airplane is dramatically shot down in combat. It then goes into a spiraling dive, trailed by smoke, accompanied by the doppler sound of a failed engine falling away, before bursting into flames as it smashes into the ground.

Crashing and burning at the poker table is an avoidable disaster if you can keep your wits about you when it starts to happen. (Image: Ashley Adams)

This happens at the poker table too. It is not quite as dramatic, lacking the trailing smoke and fiery crash. But the effect on the bankroll is the same: complete destruction!