A trio of stories connected to the World Poker Tour as the Bay 101 Shooting Stars are announced, Vince Van Patten’s worst nightmares come true on an episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and Royal Flush Girl Ivy Tevez stars as one of the Girls of FHM January 2015 in the Philippines.

The World Poker Tour (WPT) Bay 101 Shooting Stars event may not take place until March, but we already know the 52-players who will be carrying a bounty on their heads when the fun begins.

Live satellites for the event will start operating on Feb, 16 with a series of buy-ins ranging from $275, $550, and $1,100 planned throughout both Feb and March. There will be a two-day $2,100 event on Mar 8-9, a $25,000 High Roller event Mar 11-12, with the $7,500 televised Main Event scheduled to take place Mar 9 -13.

The Main Event will take place over five days, and players can re-enter, if eliminated, up to the beginning of Day 2. The chip leaders on Day 1A and Day 1B will both receive a $10,000 bonus and each Shooting Star will carry a $2,500 bounty on this mug.

The list is subject to change, but here it is as it stands today.

Daniel Negreanu

Antonio Esfandiari

Lee Davy reviews the remake of the 1974 movie The Gambler, and gives you his verdict on the movie that believes the only way out is all-in.

It hasn’t been a very good week for me on the movie front. The Birdman didn’t really take off, and The Wild only taught me that if I ever wanted to hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) then I would likely have my anus examined by a couple of crossbow holding rednecks.

So I was hoping The Gambler would restore my faith in cinema.

It didn’t.

I’m a gambling addict and so this movie should have been a match made in heaven, but I didn’t really get it? It didn’t connect with me, so how would it connect with the millions of people who are capable of playing roulette without placing a night with their wife on red?

The protagonist is Jim Bennett, a Literature Teacher played by Mark Wahlberg, who has a compulsion to bet everything that he has either playing blackjack or roulette (yes poker peeps you will be sorely disappointed). He isn’t playing to win. If that were the case he wouldn’t be drawing a card when he has 18 face up in a game of blackjack. He did. He hit.

By the time the movie starts he is already $250k deep in debt to a Korean gangster. Then, for no apparent reason (it becomes apparent as the movie progresses), a man approaches him and offers to stake him $50k – he takes it. I say no apparent reason because we never see the guy winning anything, which confuses the reasoning why people would give him money in the first place.

Canada’s Amaya Gaming has made a couple executive appointments, including the successful poaching of the former head of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp’s (OLG) online gambling division just weeks after OLG’s long-delayed online gambling site PlayOLG.ca had its official launch.

On Wednesday, Amaya announced it had appointed George Sweny (pictured on the left) as its new VP of strategic ventures. Sweny’s resume includes stints with OLG’s predecessor, the Ontario Lottery Corporation, as well as the Interprovincial Lotteries Corporation, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario and the bingo unit of the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC). Most recently, Sweny served as senior VP of OLG’s charitable and iGaming divisions.

Amaya also appointed Chris Lewis (pictured, in uniform), former Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, as an advisor to Amaya’s board of directors. Amaya CEO David Baazov said Lewis’ experience would enable the company to “continue to lead the way in security processes and procedures as well as integrity.” Baazov said Sweny’s “extensive gaming experience in both the public and private sector” would help Amaya maintain “the highest standards in responsible gaming.”

Meanwhile, BCLC has appointed Dr. Kahlil Philander as its new Director of Social Responsibility. Philander is the former director of research at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada (UNLV) International Gaming Institute. Philander also serves as Senior Policy Researcher at the Responsible Gambling Council of Canada (where Amaya’s new hire Sweny has a seat on the board).

Moving east, Loto-Quebec has revamped its responsible gaming initiative, based around the theme of “a game should remain a game.” The campaign, which will run between January 18 and March 15, strives to educate players of the role of chance in various types of gaming and to dispel commonly held myths. The campaign stresses that there are “no tricks or strategies that can improve your chances of winning” at various types of gambling but “there are strategies and tools to limit the risk of losing control.”

Liverpool-based betting operator Stanleybet has lost its court challenge of Italy’s right to issue betting licenses of shorter durations than those previously issued. The brouhaha began in mid-2012 after Italy decided to issue licenses for 2k new betting shops but stipulated that these licenses would be valid for a 40-month period, not the 12-year period previous licensees had enjoyed.

Stanleybet’s Malta-based subsidiary operates a number of data transmission centers (DTC) in Italy that remotely connect betting shop patrons to Stanleybet sites. These DTC had been operating in Italy for 15 years without a license, mainly because Italy had deemed international companies like Stanleybet ineligible for licenses.

When the European Union ordered Italy to play by the rules, Stanleybet argued that the 2012 tender process unfairly favored previous licensees, who enjoyed longer license periods and were allowed the freedom to transfer these licenses. Italy retorted that the new license duration was intended to align license expiry dates.

In a decision released on Thursday, the Court of Justice for the European Union (CJEU) dismissed Stanleybet’s argument, saying Italy had the right to align its betting license expiry dates, which “may contribute to a coherent pursuit of the legitimate objectives of reducing gambling opportunities or of combating criminality linked to betting.” The CJEU also rubbished Stanleybet’s claim to being ‘new entrants’ given their previous unlicensed activities in the Italian market.

ITALY’S NEW VLT/AWP TAX KICKS IN

Meanwhile, Italy’s new tax on video lottery terminals (VLT) has taken effect. In December, Italian politicians approved a new tax on VLTs and amusement with prizes (AWP) machines. The tax is applied based on the number of machines each operator has, regardless of the revenue each machine generates. The law prompted many operators to reduce their number of machines in the hope of lessening their tax burden.

Italy expects to raise an additional €500m in annual revenue via the tax. Around €96m of this is expected to come from Lottomatica/Gtech, while B Plus will be dinged for around €85m. Other major contributors include Gamenet, (€46m), Sisal (€45m) and SNAI (€37m). DLA Piper gaming attorney Giulio Coraggio suspects the new tax could lead to a court challenge as well as a round of consolidation as smaller operators find the new tax makes business unsustainable.