Wynn Resorts plans to spend about $850m for its Everett casino in mitigation payments, transportation improvements, and city’s taxes.

Wynn Resorts, on a Thursday meeting with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, said that a total of $210m will be spent on community mitigation and a significant amount will also go to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) while $206m will be allotted on transportation enhancements that include an Orange Line subsidy, water transport and a shuttle with an additional $56 to $76m on improvements of road infrastructure.

“The payments from Wynn to the MBTA will have a far-reaching effect beyond the Wynn Resort in Everett. Shoppers and diners from Assembly Row and Malden will benefit from the increased service we’re funding, as will riders going to and from downtown Boston and the Back Bay,” said President of Wynn Everett Robert DeSalvio. “Every stop on the Orange Line—including Chinatown, TD Garden and Faneuil Hall—will realize reduced wait times day and night from the capacity Wynn is subsidizing. The more trains we add the more people will use public transportation for work and play, all while lowering the number of cars on the street.”

The city of Everett will also receive a daily tax of 25% on its gross gaming revenue, around $358 million from the Wynn casino.

The two brothers at the heart of the defunct Macho Sports online sports betting operation received federal prison sentences on Friday.

Erik and Jan Harald Portocarrerro were arrested along with 16 other individuals in June 2013 on charges of racketeering conspiracy and running an illegal gambling business. Jan was detained in California while Erik was arrested in Norway and subsequently extradited to the US.

Macho Sports was a classic online credit betting operation, processing wagers over the phone and online via a call center and website based in Peru while settling up with bettors in cash in person. The brothers chose to base their ops in Peru after being investigated for gambling activity in the Los Angeles area in the mid 1990s.

Macho Sports reportedly catered to a high-rolling clientele up and down the California coast. Checks made out to fake names were cashed at check-cashing businesses by local runners, then forwarded to the brothers in Norway and Peru in amounts that stayed below federal reporting requirements. Sub-bookies were instructed to route all phone calls through toll-free numbers and to use scrambling devices, tactics that apparently gave federal authorities fits.

The CEO of casino operator Melco Crown Entertainment has admitted that no one comes to Macau for non-gaming amenities.

Fresh off Q2 results that showed an 83% fall in profit and waiting anxiously for word on how many gaming tables Macau authorities will allocate to Melco Crown’s new $2.3b Studio City resort, CEO Lawrence Ho confessed to feeling helpless in a surprisingly frank interview with Macau Daily Times.

Ho said Melco Crown was “literally praying” that Studio City’s table allotment comes in closer to its originally planned 400 rather than the 150 that most analysts suspect Macau will dole out, in keeping with what Galaxy Entertainment Group recently received for Phase 2 of its Galaxy Macau property. Ho acknowledged that he’d essentially been reduced to hoping his “lottery ticket” would prove a winner.

Ho believes Melco Crown’s commitment to boosting non-gaming amenities at its properties – like its award-winning House of Dancing Waters show – is in keeping with the diversification request/order that Macau authorities gave its casino licensees. Given Melco Crown’s commitment — and an implied suggestion that this commitment was larger than Galaxy’s – Ho said it wouldn’t be fair if every Macau operator were “treated the same way.”

Online betting operator Unibet has made its second major acquisition in as many months after agreeing to buy Malta-licensed iGame Holding Plc.

On Friday, Unibet announced it had agreed to pay €59m in cash upon completion of the deal, which expects to conclude later this quarter. A further earn-out of up to €20m will follow based on iGame’s earnings up to June 30, 2016 with “an element for over-performance.” iGame reported earnings of €4.7m on revenue of €13.7m in the first half of 2015 and has around 75k quarterly active customers.

iGame’s current management, including CEO Tommi Maijala, will remain at the helm and are subject to retention deals for the next three years. iGame has a total staff of around 130, based mostly in Malta. The combined group expects to realize synergies from the union, including economies of scale with third-party procurement of products and media.

iGame says it will act as “an independent arm within the Unibet Group, responsible for the hyper local casino operations through our multiple brands.” Said brands include Leijona Kasino, Hertat, the Scandinavian-facing 24hCasino, the Czech Republic’s Bohemia Casino and the Finnish-facing sites Casinohuone, Pokerihuone, Veikkaushuone and Kolikkopelit,

Conflicting reports have emerged as to whether or not Russia has chosen to regulate online poker.

On Thursday, Russian media outlet Interfax.ru reported that a study commissioned last year by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov had concluded that poker was not gambling and thus state authorities needed to make amendments to the appropriate regulations in preparation for a regulated market launch.

Shuvalov has yet to comment, but another Interfax source claimed no decision had been made. The source went on to say that the only conclusion that had been reached was that, should the government decide to go all-in, all servers containing Russian poker player data would need to be stored within Russia, in keeping with strict new regulations passed last year and which take effect this September.

Another Russian news agency, Itar-Tass, also reported that Shuvalov has yet to make a decision on poker regulation one way or the other. Itar-Tass claimed Shuvalov had discussed the issue with the relevant government departments, but had given no instructions beyond ordering them to submit legal assessments of what is and isn’t gambling.

Bookmaker William Hill saw profits slide 30% in the first half of 2015 thanks to the “disruption” caused by the UK’s new gambling taxes.

Hills’ revenue was flat at £808m in the 28 weeks ending June 30, but earnings were down 12% and profit tumbled from £98.6m to £69.5m. The company blamed most of the downturn on £44m in additional taxes in the UK, namely, the new 15% online point-of-consumption tax (POCT) and the increased Machine Games Duty (MGD) in its retail shops.

Total online revenue rose 7% to £280m, representing 35% of group revenue, but the cost of sales – including £35m in POCT – rose 154%, resulting in a 20% decline in online profits.

Online sportsbook revenue improved by 11% to £134.3m despite comparison with H1 2014, which got a boost from the FIFA World Cup. Mobile wagering accounted for 54% of sports betting stakes and in-play betting improved four points to 46% of stakes.