Like a proverbial teenager, it appears that bitcoin has finally emerged from a “sin”-filled puberty.

A new study has found that the popular digital currency has already matured to a point that its market no longer relies on illegal activities to drum up business. The study was authored by researchers from the central bank of Germany, University College London and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

According to a CoinDesk report, which quoted the yet-to-be-released study, bitcoin has already passed through “three distinct phases of growth as a distributed payment system.”

Bitcoin’s most recent stage, according to the researchers, allows the cryptocurrency to be driven by “legitimate payments, commerce and services,” a far cry from its days spent on the dark side of the internet.

Pennsylvania gamblers will have to wait until the fall to learn if their state will become the fourth to pass online gambling legislation.

Late last month, Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives approved a legislative package that included both online gambling and daily fantasy sports, as well as slots at off-track betting parlors and at six state airports, which will also be allowed to offer mobile gambling services to bored travelers.

Gov. Tom Wolf signed the spending portion of the state’s budget over the weekend, and legislators hoped to pass the revenue portion – including the gambling options – on Tuesday. Alas, legislators proved incapable of herding enough cats to pass the revenue plan, although they vowed to return and give it the old college try on Wednesday.

However, the Associated Press quoted Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Browne saying the gambling legislation would not be included in any revenue plan passed this week. Browne said gambling would have to wait until the fall, but he claimed the estimated $100m the gambling options are projected to raise in year one would be required to help close the budget gap.

In today’s World Series of Poker Review, we bring you news of two bracelet wins in the $10,000 Ladies Championship and the $1,000 WSOP.com online event, as well as a big swell of players in the $10,000 Main Event.

A casino dealer from Detroit is the latest winner of the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Ladies Championship.

Courtney Kennedy defeated a field of 819 entrants to earn her first gold bracelet during the first event she had ever cashed in at the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

The event created a prize pool of $745,200, and Kennedy picked up $149,108 for her win, after seeing off a late charge from Amanda Musumeci, Amanda Baker, and Ebony Kenney. Both Baker and Musumeci are World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) winners. Kenney is a former World Poker Tour (WPT) Ones to Watch.

Lee Davy and the former UK cash game grinder Lil Dave Nicholson take a trip down memory lane, discuss his retirement from poker, and look ahead to his future in the restaurant business.

Lil Dave Nicholson on Retirement; Restaurants and More Video

Brazil’s interim president plans to form a state-run online sports betting company that will eventually be privatized along with the country’s instant lottery business.

For years now, Brazil has been attempting to pass legislation that would authorize brick-and-mortar casinos, video bingo terminals, the jogo de bicho numbers game and online sports betting and casino sites. However, legislators have so far failed to turn these attempts into actual laws.

An already overdue gambling vote was scheduled for last Wednesday but was delayed at the last minute because pro-gaming legislators weren’t sure that they had the necessary votes. Another vote was scheduled for Tuesday, but some reports have the vote now being delayed until August in order to craft a bill that a majority can support. (One legislative draft making the rounds would ban online gambling altogether, so perhaps a delay is a good thing.)

On Tuesday, local media outlet Folha de S. Paulo reported that interim president Michel Temer (pictured) wants to create a state-run online sports betting company that will look to partner with an experienced international operator. The government would hold a minority stake in the company.

British Columbia’s provincial gambling monopoly has approved a new brick-and-mortar casino but let’s hope this one is a little less uptight about sharing badly needed medical gear in an emergency.

Last week, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) announced that it had selected the city of Victoria on Vancouver Island as the site of the province’s latest casino. The provincial capital beat out four other jurisdictions that had expressed interest in hosting a casino.

Victoria is already home to the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation‘s View Royal Casino, which BCLC insists will remain the region’s “primary” facility while the scope of the new venue will have to “suit the market.” BCLC has yet to select which company will get to run the new boutique casino.

Meanwhile, across the Strait of Georgia in Vancouver, Paragon Gaming’s Edgewater Casino has been called out in the press for not coming to the aid of an unconscious man, allegedly because the man wasn’t a customer.

Irish betting operator Boylesports has acquired some betting shops from bankrupt rival Hacketts.

On Tuesday, Boylesports announced it had taken on four Hacketts shops in Tipperary, Kilkenny, Laois and Limerick counties. The shops, which will be rebranded under the Boylesports banner, bring the company’s total complement of Irish shops to 212.

Hacketts was placed in liquidation last month following a lengthy struggle to keep the business afloat. The company sold 15 shops to Paddy Power in 2013 and closed an additional 26 shops to cut costs but it wasn’t enough. Managing director John Hackett is said to be the company’s largest creditor due to his having loaned his own money to the company in a failed bid to keep the lights on.

Paddy Power agreed to honor all outstanding wagers that punters had placed with Hacketts, based in part on the two companies having maintained a good relationship. The outstanding sum is understood to be relatively small, so Paddy can presumably buy a lot of good will and acquire some of Hacketts’ former clientele at a reasonable price.