The state of Florida and the Seminole tribe are talking again.

The impasse between the two parties appears to be easing following renewed talks about the tribe’s right to offer games, such as blackjack, at its casinos.

News outlet The News Service of Florida reported last Friday that negotiators from the Senate, House and Gov. Rick Scott’s office met with the tribe as recently as last week. The discussion could pave the way for a turnaround from the standoff between the two parties, with the possibility of a new deal before the deadline in October.

In 2010, the state and the tribe signed a gambling compact that gave the Seminoles exclusive rights to provide popular card games at its casinos in Broward County, Tampa, and Immokalee. In return, the tribe guaranteed $1 billion in state revenue.

The Wynn Resorts’ casino drama in Massachusetts continues.

This time, the casino operator received a nod from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation officials to continue with its plan of building the $1.7 billion casino in Everett.

In an Aug. 21 memo obtained by the Boston Globe, J. Lionel Lucien endorsed Wynn’s casino plan, saying, “We believe that no further environmental review need be required based on transportation issues.” Lucien is the manager of the Department of Transportation’s public-private development unit.

The memo puts the MassDOT at odds Attorney General Maura Healey who wants to delay giving Wynn the permit until it provides a “long-term traffic solution to address the projected traffic that will impact the surrounding areas when the integrated casino resort starts operating.

What a day yesterday. The Dow was down over 1,000 points before a buyer the size of the Incredible Hulk came in and bought everything 3 times over. As I write this the Dow is down 270, up about 800 points from its lows. Who knows where it will be by the time I finish. The Market Vectors Gaming ETF is down nearly 4%. Its top four holdings are Las Vegas Sands, Galaxy, Sands China, MGM and Wynn. It is essentially a proxy for owning Macau.

It can be tempting to look for a bottom here, but the – for lack of a better word – insane bounce yesterday morning off of a nearly 1100 point dump looks so unnatural that I doubt it was free market action. It smells like the Plunge Protection Team to me, and whenever they get involved, things get worse quickly. Short term, I see one of two possibilities. Either China crashes again tomorrow, bringing down the rest of the world again but without a big bounce, or China stabilizes and global stocks get a nice bounce for a few days. Then, at some point in the next week or two, China will crash again and what we saw today will repeat itself, but without the 900 point bounce out of the gate.

The reason China is crashing, again, is that its incredible money printing schemes are coming to an end. And when I say incredible, I really mean insane, but I just didn’t want to use that word twice in one article. Since January 1996, the Yuan supply has increased by a factor of 23. The Federal Reserve has “only” increased the money supply about a factor of 1.9 over the same time period, and look at the booms and busts it caused in the US when the printing temporarily slowed in 2008. We ain’t seen nothin’ yet in the People’s Republic. How do we know the money printing is over, at least for now? Because the People’s Bank of China balance sheet has been shrinking since February.

Unfortunately, there are no bona fide defensive stocks in the gaming sector like there are in other sectors. Even the most defensive gaming stock doesn’t get close to the capital preservation objectives of, say, AT&T or McDonald’s. But there are relatively defensive stocks that can be played, so if you are reserving a portion of your portfolio for the gambling sector, the three best that come to mind are 888 Holdings, Paddy Power, and surprisingly Las Vegas Sands, though not for the same reasons as the other two.

Travellers International Hotel Group is setting the bar high for Resorts World Manila.

Executives at Travellers, which operates the integrated casino resort, said they are hoping RWM’s gaming base will reach the 3 million mark by the end of the year.

Media outlet Business World quoted Travellers’ COO Stephen Reilly saying, “We have 2.7 million members for Resorts World, it was very clear that we had to expand through our database.”

Owen Cammayo, RWM corporate communications director, also said the hike is “possible” as long as it’s “driven by the total industry, not just gaming,” according to the news outlet.

Alabama State Sen. Del Marsh’s gambling and lottery bill is off the table as a possible solution for the state’s budget shortfall.

Marsh announced that he would not push a statewide gambling and lottery bill during the legislature’s upcoming second special session, as Gov. Robert Bentley called the bill a distraction for legislators trying to resolve the budget shortfall. Taking gambling out of the picture leaves the Legislature with three choices: cut General Fund departments, raise taxes, or shift revenue from the Education Trust Fund.

“I’m not going to introduce a gaming bill because the governor seems to want to use that as an excuse, and I’m not going to give him one,” said Marsh.

Marsh also said that he will still decide whether he will reintroduce his gambling legislation during the next regular session which will start in February.

Gaming technology firm Scientific Games has inked a deal to bring the classic video game Tetris to the casino floor.

Last month, Sci-Games and The Tetris Company announced a deal to develop Tetris-branded slot machines for future distribution to Sci-Games’ casino partners. It remains to be seen how much of Tetris’ traditional game play will be incorporated into the new slots for Sci-Games’ Nevada partners, given the state’s recent approval of arcade-style slot machines.

Maya Rogers, CEO of Blue Planet Software, which acts as the exclusive agent for The Tetris Company, said the deal was a natural, considering Tetris has been made available for “every platform that has been in demand by gamers across the globe.”

Anyone who has ever played Tetris since its mid-1980s debut knows how addictive its simple interface can prove. Which is why it’s so ironic that a new medical study suggests Tetris could play a role in curbing other addicting behaviors.

PokerStars has been forced to drop Barcelona and Brazilian star Neymar Jr. from their UK-facing Dream Team Collection promotion; Manchester United offer £140m for his signature.

Neymar Jr. has been benched from all UK-facing PokerStars promotions and advertising after the world’s largest online poker room fell foul of an age discrepancy law held within the rulebook of United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) guidelines.

The rule state that when it comes to advertisements and promotions nobody under the age of 25 can be featured gambling or playing a significant role. Neymar Jr. Is only 23.

The news is a huge set back for PokerStars. The Barcelona forward joined the team as brand ambassador in May. The Dream Team Collection, where he stars alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and Ronaldo Nazario, was the first time Stars had leveraged his personal brand for the business. It was the most expensive promotion in Stars history.