A former adviser to the government in Beijing will soon head Sands China Ltd.’s operations.

Wilfred Wong, an ex-member of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China, has been appointed as the company’s new president and chief executive officer effective Nov. 1, the casino operator announced on Tuesday.

He will replace Rob Goldstein, who has been serving as Sands China’s interim president since earlier this year.

Prior to joining the gambling industry, Wong has held roles in the public sector as well as in the property development and construction business sectors. He was the chief executive officer of the Hong Kong-listed Hsin Chong Construction Group and has also held management positions in K. Wah International Holdings Limited, Henderson China Holdings Limited and the Shui On Group.

The wife of a convicted cocaine smuggler is trying to avoid jail time, for her part in the affair, by insisting that the money used to buy the yacht transporting the drugs came from her husband’s poker winnings.

The wife of a jailed drug smuggler has told a UK court how she believed his money came from selling cars and playing poker.

Dawne Powell is on trial at Leeds Crown Court where she is desperately trying to clear her name of the charge of conspiracy to import cocaine. Her husband, Stephen Powell, his father John Powell, and four other associates, have already pleaded guilty to the same charges.

This whole sorry mess came to light after a yacht used to transport cocaine from Venezuela to the UK ran out of fuel 200-miles off the south west coast of Ireland. A joint task force comprising of the Irish Naval Service and National Crime Agency boarded the yacht, named Makayabella, and found 1,025 1kg blocks of cocaine with a street value of £160 million.

PayPal continue their U.S. Online gambling pilot scheme with the launch of services via WSOP.com in New Jersey, and Skrill has been removed as a withdrawal option on the Merge Network.

Two months after the umbilical cord was severed between PayPal and eBay, the online payment giant has tiptoed back into the choppy waters of U.S. online gambling.

A fortnight ago our very own Peter Amsel picked up that PayPal had quietly agreed a deal with WSOP.com to offer their services via their Nevada-based online entities, and their New Jersey based operations have also been added to the deal.

PayPal is still yet to make an official announcement, but they did offer the following statement to CNBC yesterday:

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport has given the UK’s Gambling Commission permission to advise the government on the way forward with a revised policy for UK lotteries, and online scratchcard players issued with an illegal lottery warning. 

The UK lottery system is about to have a make over.

eGaming Review (EGR), and Gaming Intelligence, have both reported that the UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has directed the UK’s Gambling Commission to advise the government on the necessary changes needed to instill boundaries between the wide variety of lottery products that have emerged since the increase in interest of online gambling products.

The news comes after the DCMS issued a March 2015 report based on the findings of a 12-week consultation period where Camelot and the DCMS Committee piqued eyebrows over the blurred lines between UK lottery products. Camelot has operated the UK National Lottery since 1994.

Global Poker Tours Ltd., the live poker operator arm of Amaya Inc., has announced plans to merge the Asian Pacific Poker Tour and the Australia & New Zealand Poker Tour with the latter disappearing in 2016.

Melbourne will be the final resting place of the Australian & New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT) after Global Poker Tours Ltd, an Amaya Inc. brand, and the largest live poker tour operator in the world, announced plans to merge the ANZPT with the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) from 2016.

The ANZPT has been in operation for seven seasons. ANZPT Melbourne Oct 8-20, 2015 will be the final event before the merger takes place. The ANZPT A$2,300 Main Event will operate Oct 16-20. The hosts, Crown Melbourne, are expecting to sign off with the largest ANZPT field ever. That current record was broken in this event last year when Edison Nguyen beat 515 other players to take home the $203,410 first prize.

APPT and ANZPT President Danny McDonagh paid tribute to the ANZPT, and their decision to maintain a Freezeout format in the A$2,000 range for their Main Events, and hoped for a great sign off in Melbourne: “I hope ANZPT Melbourne, at the fabulous Crown Melbourne complex, can set a new prize pool record.”