The anti-gambling stance that runs deep in the heart of Texas might be softening. There is apparently a push to get the state to approve casino gambling that has been percolating for some time, but which began to boil more quickly late last year. There are also rumors now that legal sports gambling could come to Texas, which, although not confirmed, has already created a flurry of activity. Part of that is coming from the state’s professional sports teams, which are reportedly completely supportive of the idea of legalized gambling in the Lone Star State.

The Dallas Morning News (paywall) explains that the Dallas Cowboys, the Dallas Mavericks and the Texas Rangers – the MLB team, not the law enforcement body – are all showing their support for sports gambling in Texas. They are expected to sign up to join a legislative effort backed by Representative Dan Huberty to introduce sports gambling legislation, which could potentially be approved before the end of the year.

It’s curious how quickly some people are able to change their minds on certain topics. Before the U.S. Supreme Court bashed pro sports leagues and a handful of lawmakers when it dropped the ax on PASPA, many professional sports teams were adamantly against sports gambling, arguing that it would only foster integrity issues in the game. However, with PASPA’s demise and the revelation that states are making millions of dollars from legal sports gambling activity, more leagues and teams are now rallying to see more expansion.

Despite having its name prominently featured in a gambling game (Texas Hold’em poker), Texas is not very friendly when it comes to gambling. It has repeated fought efforts to allow any type of casino or sportsbook, even though it doesn’t have a problem with lotteries. The times are changing, though, and Texas is trying to change with them; however, finding enough support for sports gambling isn’t going to be easy. The chair of the Travis County Republican Party, Matt Mackowiak, told The Dallas Morning News, “My view is that Texas is going to be one of the ten last states to allow [casino] gambling. I do think [sports gambling is] is a lighter lift, and it may be where they end up.”

Social media can be a power tool. However, like the old saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. Some have been willing to exploit social media’s power for nefarious means, but Sportradar is going to use it as a productive tool. It has announced a new Social Media Integrity Education Service (SMIES), designed to give athletes and others in the industry the means by which they can identify and report integrity risks found on social media platforms.

The initiative is already underway, according to SBC News, with the Penny Del ice hockey league in Germany becoming one of the first league’s to take advantage of the new service. SMIES offers a library of webinars and workshops, as well as a number of tutorials, that give athletes, their teams and league personnel the means to receive education on integrity issues. In addition, they can learn how to better protect themselves and their organizations from becoming victims of integrity concerns.

Explains Sportradar’s Head of Education Integrity Services, Andrew Whittingham, “The integrity and reputational risks which can arise when using social media are far-reaching. Not only can failing to act with integrity online put individual users at risk of harm, it can also pose threats to the integrity of teams or clubs, leagues or competitions, or sport as a whole.”

In addition to the aforementioned tools that are now available to sports clubs everywhere, Sportradar is also providing additional resources. Organizations and athletes can become educated on identifying potentially inappropriate or damaging online content and behavior, as well as spotting potential offenses related to insider trading or match-fixing. They can also take advantage of other tools that will provide guidance on betting corruption and leagues’ views of drugs and other prohibited substances.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It was arguably the best action movie ever made. The death scene of the T-1000, never have I breathed such a heavy sigh of relief as when the disfigured T-800 comes riding up that giant gear thing and shoots that final shell into the T1000, and that hunk of liquid metal evil falls backwards, squealing, into that tub of molten glop. What happens then is freaky. The T-1000 writhes and screams, transforming, one by one, into each one of the people it had terminated along the murderous course of its existence. (And by the way, when there are two Sarah Connors on screen, it’s not a trick. Linda Hamilton has an identical twin sister named Leslie.)

When I look at stocks today, I picture that scene. The capital markets are really nothing more than a dying T-1000 killing machine morphing into each sector it has inflated and destroyed over the decades, as the trillions in monetary fuel keeping it all going slide into different sectors completely erratically, jerking around faster and faster in a frightening spin. It started out slow after interest rates peaked in 1980. In the 1980s it was junk bonds. Then in the late 1990s, tech stocks. Then in the 2000s housing. Then BTC, FANG stocks, the short squeeze mania led by GameStop that died off in just days, and now the unpredictable herd has descended on penny stocks generally. See Google trends for “penny stocks”, below:

Well, if that’s how the game is played and you want to gamble, then let’s gamble. I can’t call any of this investment. All it is, is people out of jobs, flush with unemployment checks and direct payment cash and mortgage moratoria, or state/municipal workers who haven’t missed a paycheck but still get to benefit from all this anyway besides, looking for something to do because everything else is closed.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say “If you can’t beat’em, join’em,” because this is all going to end badly soon. But it may be worth putting a few 0 bets on the roulette table and seeing if you can win the 35:1 payout. The herd is running around, looking for new targets every day. We saw what they did with GameStop. We’re seeing what they’re still doing with BTC. Let’s see how far they can push the microcap complex before they morph into and ravage the next thing. If you can’t gamble in casinos anymore, why not gamble on them? Just don’t put in what you can’t afford to lose. This is like placing a bet on what you think the writhing T-1000 is going to morph into next in its death thralls. It’s not investing, let me just make that very clear.

The Asian mafia network is not enjoying 2021 so far. A greater focus on illegal gambling operations with ties to triads has been put in motion throughout the region and has already found several big targets. There is likely more to come, as well, as investigations continue. Those investigations just got some additional data sources after police in Hong Kong busted 14 gambling dens reportedly linked to triads, arresting 81 people in the process.

The arrests occurred in Wan Chai and Hong Kong’s Eastern District, according to The South China Morning Post. There were 51 men and 30 women nabbed during the exercises, with all those taken into custody between 21 and 77 years old. The illegal gambling shops were most likely run by the same people, as the media outlet reports that the “mastermind and core members of the group” were arrested. 

It isn’t clear how the locations were uncovered, other than the fact that some police had infiltrated some of the locations, but news reports indicate the raids took place on Wednesday of last week and this past Sunday. There were over 100 police officers involved in the crackdown, which led to charges of “managing a gambling establishment, money laundering, drug trafficking and possession of “offensive weapons.” To sweeten the pot a little, 62 of those arrested were also charged with violating anti-COVID-19 laws that prohibit gatherings of more than two people. 

The patrons were reportedly lured by the offer of cheap illegal drugs and were easy targets after local arcade gaming centers had been shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. The head of the Hong Kong Island regional anti-triad squad, Chief Inspector Tse Tsz-kwan, explained in a press conference, “The gang also provided free low-quality crystal meth and drug paraphernalia to their customers on the premises. They also helped their clients buy high-quality meth and cannabis.”

After closing out 2020 on a high note, Wynn Resorts is helping it can use its positive momentum to attract more interest. The casino operator reported a positive adjusted property EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) for the period of $39.4 million, which made investors happy, and the company is playing on that temporary state of euphoria to offer some more shares to investors. As many as 6.32 million are being made available by Wynn, with the hopes that it can raise up to $5.5 million.

In an announcement from yesterday, Wynn said that it had begun an “underwritten public offering of 5,500,000 shares of its common stock” that will be followed by a 30-day window for an additional 825,000 shares to be purchased. The proceeds will be used for “general corporate purposes,” and Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and BofA Securities, Inc. are overseeing the exercise as its lead book-running managers. 

The timing is good for the stock sale, as Wynn is on the rise. It hit a 2021 low of $99.53 on January 29, but has only improved since then. At the end of last week, the stock was trading at $116.99 and, when the announcement of the sale was made yesterday, it moved up a little more before settling at $117.41. That’s not as high as the $136.82 the stock saw a year ago before COVID-19, but the general consensus from analysts is that Wynn is on track to continue to push upward. Several have already given it support by changing their take to “sell” from “neutral” or by confirming previous “buy” positions. 

The stock improvements and subsequent share follow the latest financial update provided by Wynn last week. In it, CEO Matt Maddox indicated that things are looking up for the company’s global operations, specifically pointing to a rebound in Macau as a driver for improvement. He added, “One of the positives of 2020 was that we’ve been able to spend a lot of time thinking about the future of Macau and really what the growth drivers are going to be going forward. And it’s crystal clear that the growth drivers for Macau are really the sweet spot of our company, and that’s the premium segment – premium mass, in particular.”

The light shining on Crown Resorts just dimmed a little more. The results of the Bergin inquiry, launched to determine whether the casino operator is worthy of a license in New South Wales (NSW), are in and the verdict is official. Crown doesn’t deserve to run a casino at its new resort in Sydney, putting in jeopardy the future of the $1.7-billion property, as well as the company. 

The ruling wasn’t a surprise to anyone, as even last November there were already indications that Crown might be determined unfit to hold a casino license. Crown has been the subject of regulatory scrutiny that has increased over the past couple of years, but which spans many more. It has been involved in money-laundering activity (either as a willing or an incompetent participant, depending on who you ask), has welcomed warlords into its casinos, has rigged gaming machines and much more. After executives admitted during the Bergin inquiry that Crown had been complacent in providing anti-money-laundering protection, the company’s fate was all but sealed. Crown is not a “suitable person” to be tied to gaming licenses and the subsidiary in charge of the Sydney resort, Crown Sydney Gaming, is not a “suitable person” to hold a license.

The findings were revealed in an extensive report yesterday; however, there is still a chance Crown might be able to redeem itself. The Bergin inquiry is named for Commissioner Patricia Bergin, who previously served as a judge on NSW’s Supreme Court and who led the inquiry. She said in her response, “If Crown is to survive this turmoil and convert itself into a company that can be regarded as a suitable person … there is little doubt that it could achieve a fresh start and emerge a very much stronger and better organization.”

In order to turn things around, Crown will need to clamp down on its internal operations and keep its nose clean, without a single breach or questionable blip on the regulatory radar. In addition, Bergin wants to rewrite the casino laws in NSW to include language that no single shareholder can attain, hold or transfer more than 10% of a casino licensee without prior approval. She wants to create an independent casino regulator and prevent casino operators in NSW from dealing with all junket operators.

North Dakota has had legalized electronic pull tab gambling since 2017. The vertical’s been growing steadily, and tribal leaders see it as a way to chip away at their future.

“It just seems like there’s all these little hits to our gaming compacts and the exclusivity. You know, the reason gaming compacts with put in place,” Turtle Mountain Chairman Jamie Azure explained to local outlet KXNET.

Azure mentioned the several gambling bills that now seem to be going through the legislative pipeline. “It just seems like every two years there are eight or more little bills that come through.”

With the casinos seen as a major job creator for the tribes, having customers no longer required to visit the reservation to play has meant less jobs. “We had 450 jobs,” said MHA Nation Chairman Mark Fox. “Now, we’re going to be down to 150 jobs.”

The Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump begins today, February 9, 2021. Accused of “incitement of insurrection,” the 100 senators will hear arguments from Democratic House Managers and a Republican Congessional defense, with a brand new team of lawyers to defend Trump. How many senators will vote to convict?

The trial itself is interesting in a way, because nearly everyone involved would have been in the Capitol when insurrectionists stormed the building on January 6; the crime that led to this impeachment. So the senators being asked to pass judgement are victims of the crime. But the popular debate has not so much been around whether Trump is guilty, but rather whether America should heal and move on.

To convince Republicans, Democrats are expected to show plenty of video evidence, reminding the senate of what it felt like on that tumultuous day. Trump’s defense is expected to argue that, with Trump already out of office, the impeachment is unconstitutional. However, it’s been rumored that Trump fired his first legal team for refusing to push the 2020 election hoax angle he preferred.

In Trump’s first impeachment trial, Utah Senator Mitt Romney was the sole Republican to vote to convict, and he’s likely to do the same again, making the “50 or fewer” betting option such a long shot. But who will join him?

The growing U.S. sportsbook industry is starting to learn lessons other operators had to learn years ago. Several books had to fight glitches and downtime during Super Bowl LV, unable to handle the peak-day load of volume.

BetMGM, FanDuel, DraftKings, BetRivers and Barstool Sportsbook each had their own flavor of problems on the big Sunday. Many of the problems seem to have originated with Kambi, who suggested the problem was with a high volume on a specific player prop.

“This specific problem was quickly identified and rectified ahead of kick-off, at which point Kambi processed the highest ever bet volumes in its history,” the spokesperson said. “Beyond this specific issue, all systems responded within acceptable performance limits.”

That helps explain some of the issues faced by DraftKings, BetRivers and Barstool, but not the others. Flutter’s FanDuel reported an outage in Michigan and Illinois affecting both logins and wagers, and BetMGM tweeted their own issues:

This is a Guest Contribution by Emily Haruko Leeb. Visit her site at www.emilyleeb.com to know more.

One of the ways we can enhance performance, increase productivity and our company’s bottom line is through coaching in the workplace. Coaching in the workplace allows individuals to optimize their individual performance by becoming empowered, refining their skillsets and communication and staying committed to an engaged and aligned culture. Coaching, when done effectively, brings out the best in people. It aligns their commitments with their actions, and their actions with their words.

Company culture plays such a significant role in a company’s successes and failures. It’s a make or break variable, yet it has little to do with the actual nature of the business and everything to do with the people – how they communicate and how they perform.

If we do not consciously create a company culture, the company culture develops organically.

This article is a guest contribution from Nick Hill, Executive Director of PremierConsultingGambling and a member of the Bitcoin Association. This article originally appeared on CoinGeek. 

Since the dawn of mobile gambling, gaming has gone from strength to strength. Player numbers around the world have soared in recent years, fueled by the convenience and flexibility of online options. Compared to the pre-mobile days of exclusively physical, in-person gaming, the industry has already benefited hugely from advancing technologies.

Yet even still, technological barriers exist within the gaming sector that holds back progress. Trust and transparency remain a significant issue for some players, and for operators. Compliance with the licensing standards set by regulators and lawmakers pose their own problems for operators to solve. The gaming experience is reliant on often centralised systems, in themselves vulnerable to manipulation and hacking.

This is where blockchain comes in. Blockchain is already shaping the future of gaming, and is set to be the next big technology to ring sweeping changes through the sector—for the better. But why does gaming need blockchain, and what are the advantages of the technology for both operators and players?

With both Manchester clubs in action, the fifth round of the F.A. Cup features some of the strongest teams in the country. It will also see some of this season’s minnows attempt to cause a ‘Cupset’ and progress to the quarter-finals of a competition that can be a lifeline to smaller teams.

Who will win and who will crash out at the last 16 stage? Let’s take a look in our crystal ball and pick some winners.

Manchester United vs. West Ham United (Tuesday, 7.30pm GMT kick-off)

This could be a cup classic. United host West Ham in what many will tell you is a home banker but in actual fact is anything but.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Just about every team sport on the planet concludes its season with its biggest event. The 2020 NFL season, for example, just concluded Sunday with Super Bowl 55. NASCAR handles things differently as it stages its biggest event to kick off the new season and that’s the Daytona 500. The 63rd running of the Great American Race is Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET from Daytona International Speedway on the east coast of Florida. There will be limited fans (around 30,000) allowed. It’s 200 laps around the 2.5-mile track.

One big storyline at this year’s race is who isn’t in it: Seven-time points champion Jimmie Johnson, who retired as a full-time competitor after last season. He won this race twice, in 2006 and 2013.

The clear-cut favorite (if there is such a thing in a NASCAR race), is two-time defending champion Denny Hamlin at +700. The 2019 race won by Hamlin was the last at the track with restrictor plates, and last year’s race was postponed by a day due to rain. Hamlin edged out Ryan Blaney by 0.014 seconds to become the first repeat winner since Sterling Marlin in 1995.

Online gambling operator Kindred Group has gone public with the share of revenue it derives from ‘harmful gambling’ by its high-risk players, while explaining its efforts to eventually reduce this share to zero. 

Last Friday, Kindred announced that while around 98% of customers of its various online brands were deemed to gamble responsibly, the company still derived 4.31% of its Q4 2020 revenue from so-called ‘high-risk’ players. Kindred said it would continue to release such statistics in future as it strives to reduce the percentage to zero by 2023.

Kindred released stats showing that Q4’s ‘high-risk’ revenue rate was a modest improvement from 4.39% in Q3 and the 4.72% in Q2, but represented a significant gain from the 3.88% in Q1. The company said Q4 showed a 75.7% improvement in the share of detected ‘high-risk’ customers who changed their behavior after the company intervened in response to signs of excessive play. 

The stats show more significant decreases in ‘low-risk’ and ‘medium-risk’ revenue share, with a corresponding rise in the ‘social’ category, suggesting Kindred’s responsible gambling tools have a far greater impact on individuals who already possess the personal tools needed to keep their gambling in check.

It’s often a risk commissioning a new show for any platform. That’s why you often see the same sorts of series pop up. A disgruntled detective with a drink problem? It’s worked before. A dysfunctional family who snip cynical put-downs at each other? Why change the habit of a TV production lifetime? But in terms of poker on screen, it can often be exactly the same.

Gangsters chucking cards at each other, East End bad boys risking the roof over their head on four of a kind? We’ve all seen these poker tropes before.

So why does Hank’s Home Game on PokerStars feel like a fresh take on the celebrity cash game format that has been around since the 1980’s?

For one, the stars of the show are pretty impressive. There’s Hank Azaria, star of The Simpsons, of course, but he’s by no means the only big name. He’s joined in Episode 1 by Josh Charles, Jon Hamm, Michael Cera, Michael Ian Black and Don Cheadle – a stellar line-up of superstars.