PokerStars have inked a contract extension with broadband and telecommunications experts Manx, and Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov proposes to his girlfriend Anna on top of a volcano with a very long name.

PokerStars and Isle of Man broadband and telecommunications lords and masters Manx Telecommunications have shook hands on a deal that will see them take care of the world’s largest online poker room’s wires and stuff for another three years. The pair have been in business together since 2005.

As part of the deal, a total of 48 data hosting racks and associated equipment will be relocated from offices in Dublin to Manx’s state of the art Tier 3 Greenhill Data Center. The new facility opened at the beginning of the year as part of a £10 million three phase project designed to make the fortress the biggest on the island.

Manx Telecoms CEO Gary Lamb said the new PokerStars contract was ‘excellent news’ and ‘enhances our reputation as a world class hosting provider.’ With the contract extension out of the way the HgCapital owned telecoms company can now start work on phase two of the project. It’s scheduled to last three months.

Josh Marvin wins the first-ever Heartland Poker Tour silver bracelet after beating his good buddy Chris Moon, in heads-up action, to take the title at Soaring Eagle.

Josh Marvin has defeated his good friend Chris Moon, in heads-up action, to capture the first prize of $166,565 in the $1,650 Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) Main Event at the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mount Pleasant.

[Image Credit: PokerNews]

505 entrants created a $724,200 prize pool, and Marvin not only picked up the biggest bag of money, but he also walked away with the first-ever HPT winners bracelet – a sterling silver strap encrusted with diamonds and a heart shaped ruby.

Winning Poker Network has announced plans to host five more $1m guaranteed events during the months of Sep & Oct after another successful Sunday mammoth pulled in the punters.

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MGM Resorts has kept its promise to block Mashantucket Pequots and the Mohegan Sun’s proposed “box of slots” in Connecticut.

MGM Resorts International filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New Haven with Gov. Dannel Malloy as a defendant, saying a law he signed that could lead to a third tribal casino in the state is unconstitutional because it gives two tribes “preferential treatment,” barring out-of-state competitors from trying to develop a casino in Connecticut.

Malloy has approved a legislation in June authorizing the tribes to build a jointly run $300m casino along Interstate 91, to compete with MGM Resorts’ $800m casino just across the border in Springfield, Massachusetts. The casino is expected to open in 2018.

MGM Resorts International President Bill Hornbuckle claimed that it has applied for a casino license in the state after the passage of the act but was rejected last week.

Casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp (CEC) reported its “best quarterly earnings margins since 2007” in Q1, which may well be true, provided you have a Turing-level capacity to decode seemingly random strings of numbers.

CEC’s earnings reports have been comparing apples to oranges ever since January’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by its main unit, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co (CEOC), into which CEC had bundled most of its industry-high $23b debt. Nowadays, CEC takes a Sgt. Schultz know-nothing approach to what goes on behind CEOC’s doors, choosing to focus on ‘continuing’ operations at its (for the moment) non-bankrupt units.

Freed from worrying about those pesky half-billion quarterly interest payments, CEC reported a $15m profit in the three months ending June 30. Revenue was up 17.4% to $1.14b thanks to contributions from the new Horseshoe Baltimore and The Cromwell in Las Vegas, plus “exceptional” growth at its burgeoning digital operations.

Newly installed CEO Mark Frissora said the company had delivered a “strong” performance on a “system-wide” basis. However, that system doesn’t include CEOC, where revenue fell 2% during the quarter, underscoring the extent to which CEC loaded all its profitable properties into lifeboats before abandoning the leaky CEOC to its fate.

The company that controls online gambling and social gaming operator Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE) reported record revenue in Q2.

Caesars Acquisition Company (CACQ) reported revenue up 31.3% to $576.2m in the three months ending June 30. Profit soared to $37m compared to just $10.5m in the same period last year.

Just so we’re clear, CACQ was created to hold a controlling interest in Caesars Growth Partners (CGP), which was itself spun off from casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp (CEC) in 2013 during CEC’s legally sketchy asset transfers. Now, if everyone’s up to speed on the acronyms, we can continue.

CIE’s revenue for the quarter rose 28.8% to $188.2m, leading to a $39.2m profit compared to a $1.8m loss in Q2 2014. The gains came primarily from CIE’s social and mobile games business, which rose 30.5% to $175.4m thanks to what CIE called a new focus on monetization and conversion.