The Belgian Gaming Commission (BGC) has fined 79 players who gambled on the Betclic Everest’s Betclic.com site, which does not hold a license in the country.

Betclic players will face fines of €200 ($223) for placing the unauthorized bets and balances from their Betclic account will be seized.

The BGC will have bigger plans for major bettors who wagered thousands of Euros on BetClic, with fines of up to €16,000 ($17,850), which is expected to be executed next month.

Director of BGC Peter Naessens said that it’s customary for his commission to target the illegal operators before players, but in this instance, an exception was made.

Indiana Governor Mike Pence allowed two gaming bills to become law without his signature while vetoing a third bill.

Pence allowed HEA 1540, which allows riverboat casinos in the state to move their gaming on-land. In a statement on Friday, Pence said that his position on the matter was consistent with the bill, believing the shift will allow the casinos of Indiana to remain competitive without actually expanding gambling.

He also allowed SEA 252, which “will increase per diem for Horse Racing Commission members, allows the Horse Racing Commission to use breed development funds to promote the horse racing industry, and codifies the current standards regarding days of racing as previously established by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission.”

“Most Hoosiers know that I oppose an expansion of gaming in Indiana, but I recognize that gaming has become an important part of the economy of many communities in our state and is an important part of our state budget,” said Pence. “From early in the legislative process, I made it clear that I would not stand in the way of reforms that would allow these businesses to remain competitive with surrounding states so long as it did not constitute an expansion of gaming in Indiana. HEA 1540 and SEA 252 meet this standard and, as such, I will permit them to become law without signature.”

Australian betting operator Tabcorp has taken a public potshot at rival Tatts Group’s new betting brand UBET.

Tatts launched the UBET brand late last month to amalgamate its Tattsbet, TAB and Tote brands under a single banner. To celebrate the launch of its new website, UBET had its official coming out party at a bash in Sydney.

Sidney is Tabcorp’s backyard, while Tatts is based in Brisbane, so there was always just the teensiest chance that Tabcorp might feel they were being deliberately provoked.

Skip ahead a few weeks and Tabcorp places a half-page ad in a national newspaper to promote its Tab.com.au online betting site. More than half the ad (pictured) was given to type proclaiming: ‘I’ll see you down the UBET’ said no one ever. Message delivered, the ad proceeds to list Tabcorp’s many and varied attributes, including its longevity and an “easy” mobile betting app.

90 Digital CEO Nick Garner says that if you are a website and the users want you and you have a purpose, then Google wants you in this edition of CalvinAyre.com’s SEO Tip of the Week.

A refresher on theme for this series of articles.

Because link acquisition is becoming less and less important these days, there is another factor which is filling the vacuum: engagement rank. Engagement rank is the part of the Google algorithm which affects search results through user engagement. To improve user engagement, there is a process and it’s called trust optimisation. Along with on-site optimisation, link acquisition, there is now trust optimisation which helps you improve your engagement rank. On to the article!

1. What makes a High quality site? A High quality rating requires at least one of the following high quality characteristics:

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) will require online gambling operators to fund a multi-million pound, nationwide self-exclusion scheme.

According to a draft framework published by the regulator last week, the anticipated cost of creating such scheme titled  as Central Hub for Online Operator Self Exclusion (CHOOSE) would be £2m, with an ongoing running costs of approximately £1m annually.

“The costs will need to be funded in full by the industry, being both the costs of the scheme itself plus any additional running costs to administer it,” UKGC said. “A mechanism will need to be created so that all operators who participate contribute towards the costs in an equitable way.”

The commission announced its intention to create a scheme last year where customers could exclude themselves from all British licensed operators through one site, which is expected to be available in 2017.

With the Spring Championships of Online Poker currently underway, PokerStars have good news for those that can’t compete. PlaySCOOP is also underway with over 40 different tournaments, and millions in play money dollars on hand.

The Spring Championships of Online Poker (SCOOP) is amongst us. Poker players from all over the world are having kittens as the prospect of taking their chunk of the $40 million in guarantees suddenly hits home.

PokerStars Team Online member, Mickey ‘mement_mori’ Petersen, is a little more excited than most.

Poker Christmas is finally here! Only thing that could possibly rival it was unpacking this in 1998. GL all! #SCOOP pic.twitter.com/DNFZmDylxm

Martin Jacobson: Life After the WSOP, Philanthropy, and his Love for Animals Video

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Lee Davy closes down his coverage of the European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo with news of side events victories for Rocco Palumbo, Jason Koon and Igor Yaroshevsky.

The European Poker Tour (EPT) Season 11 Grand Final in Monte Carlo has come to a close. Someone, somewhere has spit and polished a record 78 trophies, and millions of euros have passed from player to player.

Barcelona will be the next stop. A certain Mr. Neymar Jr. will be joining the fun. But we still need to draw a line under the festivities in the land of the rich and famous. Three more side events to bring you up to speed on and we will begin with Rocco Palumbo.

World Poker Tour (WPT) Champions Club Member, and World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet holder, Palumbo, has had a decent Grand Final. Only in poker could you take €100,000+ away from the tables, and could still be operating at a loss. So the term ‘decent’ will have to do for now.

A European Union Commission says there’s no direct link between kids’ online games and grownups’ online gambling.

European Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska made the statement in response to a question by a Greek member of the European Parliament. Manolis Kefalogiannis claimed to have read research that showed 7.9% of Greek kids aged 14-17 years “regularly gamble online” and those who play online games were three times as likely to experience “gambling dependency.”

In response, Bieńkowska acknowledged that it was right and proper to take measures to ensure kids are protected from harmful online content but said Safer Internet Programme research had failed to demonstrate “a direct link between children’s online activities and drawing children into gambling and future dependency.”

Perhaps the concerned Greek parliamentarian would be better off advocating against high school sports. New research led by the Tel Aviv University’s Dr. Belle Gavriel-Fried found that male students who participated in competitive sports were more likely to display higher rates of gambling frequency and problem gambling behavior while female athletes were at a higher risk of gambling frequency.