Three online poker tales from PokerStars to catch up on with news of Russian dominance throughout MicroMillions 11, a Canadian winning the Main Event, and Brazilian poker gets a shot in the arm from the presence of Neymar Jr.

MicroMillions 11 is done and dusted. The Russians dominated, a Canadian picked up the biggest score, and a herd of Brazilians were buoyed by their Barcelona home boy.

100 events were squeezed into a 10-day period in the greatest low buy-in online poker series anywhere in the world. The Russians were the biggest contributors: 161,939 players got involved, they cashed 23,843 times, produced 15 winners and took home a combined prize pool of $777,209.32.

The Germans were the second most successful country with 96,763 entrants, 13,968 cashes and $483,864.83 in prize money, and then there were the boys and girls from Brazil. Fuelled by the PokerStars signing of their home boy Neymar Jr. 81,495 players competed and $423,492.94 was dragged into the economy.

India’s largest online poker site Adda52 has moved into the live tournament industry with the unveiling of Adda52 LIVE due to take place this weekend at Rockets Poker Room in Bangalore, and Indian runner Dutee Chand wins landmark gender case.

Adda52 is the largest online poker room in India, and this weekend they will launch their first-ever live tournament series.

The Gaussian Network Pvt Ltd owned company will roll out a small buy-in festival planned to take place over a three day period July 31 – Aug 2 with a view to holding bigger buy-in events throughout the country should the thumbs up be given by happy punters.

The 8 lakh (Approx. $12,500) Adda52 LIVE Guaranteed Tournament Series will take place at Rockets Poker Room in Bangalore. The press release promises that Adda52 will ‘revive the tournament culture in the country and offer bigger guarantees and better tournaments.’ It will be the first time in India that all events will come with a guarantee of 100 entries.

The boss of Macau casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) wants to give Sheldon Adelson a hug.

Last week, the Las Vegas Sands chairman used his Q2 results call to take a shot at GEG’s recent opening of Phase 2 of its flagship Galaxy Macau property. Adelson said Galaxy had made “an enormous mistake” with their new property, and while he declined to specify what that mistake was, he did say that Galaxy management had “little cumulative experience in their executive ranks to back up their strategic judgments.”

On Sunday, GEG chairman Lui Che Woo proved he’d make the worst hip hop MC ever by taking the high road in response to Adelson’s disrespect. Instead of pledging to pop a cap in Adelson’s wrinkled ass, Lui issued a statement saying “holding his head high to other operators in the same industry and offending others by words should not be the acts of a high-status person. Being big-hearted is a blessing for a human being.” Which was nice, we suppose, but ‘fuck off, you loudmouthed yankee blowhard’ would have said much the same in a shorter span.

Perhaps Lui was feeling a little generous given that Galaxy Macau’s Phase 2 has reportedly helped the operator gain some Macau market share. While Phase 2’s May 27 opening might have failed to live up to outsized expectations, UBS Securities analysts believe GEG’s share of the overall Macau casino market rose 200 basis points in Q2 to 22.5%, only 0.5% behind Adelson’s Sands China.

Eastern European casino operator Olympic Entertainment Group (OEG) has acquired the operations of Latvian casino outfit SIA Garkalns and its SIA Post-Nevada subsidiary.

The two target companies operate 20 slots parlors in Latvia – 10 in the capital Riga and 10 regional facilities – comprising a total of 432 slot machines. The move follows the 2013 acquisition of the SIA Altea business, which comprised 17 Latvian slots halls, bringing OEG’s total Latvian presence to 56 gaming halls offering nearly 1,500 slots and 19 gaming tables.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed but SIA Garkalns and SIA Post-Nevada generated revenue of €6m in 2014. The deal still requires the approval of the Latvian Competition Council. Assuming that’s forthcoming, the properties will eventually be rebranded under the Olympic Casino banner.

OEG CEO Madis Jääger said his firm was “in the middle of a year of intense expansion.” In March, OEG subsidiary Olympic Casino Eesti AS acquired two casinos in Estonia from Casino Celopatra, boosting OEG’s Estonian presence to 20 gaming facilities. Jääger said OEG is also working on “a large project to enter the market in Malta” in addition to building OEG’s “flagship casino and the first Hilton in the Baltics.”

A New York State Assemblyman has become the latest to push back against Sheldon Adelson’s efforts to cram the online gambling genie back in the bottle.

Last week, Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow published an op-ed on Rollcall.com, explaining why the Adelson-supported Restoration of America’s Wire Act is a bad idea. Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rep. Jason Chaffetz have each introduced versions of RAWA – which would ban most forms of online gambling in the US – into the Senate and House of Representatives, respectively, this year.

Pretlow’s anti-RAWA stance is somewhat predictable, given that he has previously introduced online poker legislation in his home state. Pretlow, a Democrat who heads the Assembly’s Committee on Racing and Wagering, notes that RAWA would prohibit states like his from deciding what forms of gambling they can authorize within their borders, thereby restricting their capacity to raise badly needed revenue.

Pretlow believes that if states “can find a way to promote economic growth and protect consumers, we should do it.” Pretlow says it “defies logic that Congress would step in now to undercut” the long-held right of states to determine the scope of their own gambling options. Pretlow says Congress “should focus on the things that will help states, not those policies that aim to take away our power to do right by our constituents.”