Finally, the cat is out of the bag.

Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump saved a whopping US$25 million in casino tax payment thanks in part to New Jersey governor Chris Christie.

It would be recalled that the State of New Jersey sued Trump for his $30 million unpaid casino taxes from 2002 to 2006 and accused the businessman of filing false reports with state casino regulators on the amount of taxes that his company had paid.

The legal battle between the New Jersey State and Trump rages for six years until Republican Governor Christie happened.

3-Barrels of a PokerStars flavour including a last minute amendment to the California Online Poker Bill that will see the giants sitting on the sidelines for five years; Daniel Negreanu starts a new podcast; and the PokerStars sponsored Bobby Moore Golf Day raises £38,000 for the Cancer Trust UK.

Legislation to regulate online poker in California could move forward by the end of the month after a last-minute amendment was submitted in a bid to gain some much-needed traction.

Assemblyman Adam Gray’s AB2863 bill moves along in snail-like fashion because of a conflict of interest between 10 powerful Indian Tribes who want to see PokerStars pay their pound of flesh after remaining in the US market post the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA), and a coalition led by PokerStars who do not.

The amendment to the bill takes a page out of the Nevada rule book, opting to penalise PokerStars or any other company that operated or facilitated in an operation of an online poker business in the States post-Dec, 31 2006, with a five-year ban.

Online gambling operators Bwin.party and Betway received an earful from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over the “misleading” advertisements that the two companies produced early this year.

Back in March, Bwin ran a page that offered a £30 welcome bonus for players who would register and add at least £10 into their accounts. The ASA, however, ruled that the promotion was misleading because it had failed to make it clear the customers will only get the full bonus when they wagered six times their original deposit.

According to ASA, the complainant deposited £17 but was told that they needed to wager £102 to get the bonus of £17.

Under the promotion, Bwin players must wager the sum of the bonus amount and the first deposit amount three times before receiving the bonus, which is released in two installments. First is after the bonus and the first deposit amount has been wagered 1.5 times, to be followed by the second installment after the bonus and first deposit amount has been wagered a further 1.5 times.

Japan’s digital money market is thriving, thanks to improved public trust in virtual currencies like bitcoin.

A total of JPY430 billion (USD4.29 billion) worth of bitcoins were traded in the first half of 2016—about 50 times more than the trading volume in the same period last year, according to figures obtained by Nikkei Asian Review.

“Since this spring, the trading volume has been growing at a pace that we have never seen before,” Yuzo Kano, chief executive of bitFlyer, told the news outlet.

bitFlyer, which handles about 40 percent of bitcoin trading in Japan, has seen its customer base rise tenfold from a year ago. The bitcoin exchange said it has already surpassed 200,000 customers for August alone.

It’s the season of political endorsements in the United States, and several bosses in Las Vegas are already announcing who they will back in the November election—except for Steve Wynn, who has decided to stay on the sidelines this time around.

The outspoken CEO and chairman of Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts announced that he will not vote for his friend and longtime business rival Donald Trump in his presidential run. But neither is the self-identified Democratic Party supporter endorsing his party’s presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton.

“I’m a friend of Donald Trump but I have not supported either candidate in the presidency as yet—I’m friendly with Bill Clinton, I know Hillary,” Wynn told Bloomberg.

The casino boss is tired of the political mudslinging between the two candidates, telling the news outlet that he yearns “for a more adult discussion.”

In yet another last-ditch attempt to save PhilWeb from the wrath of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Roberto Ongpin has decided to donate the bulk of his stake to the government.

Last week, the embattled former chairman of the gaming technology provider announced that he would auction off his 771.75 million PhilWeb shares, which represent a 53.76 percent stake in the company, after the government refused to renew PhilWeb’s license. By noon of Aug. 17, Ongpin has received five bids for the company.

But the businessman has decided reject the bids. Instead, Ongpin said he will donate or sell for PHP1 (USD0.022) 49 percent of his shares to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).

“Why 49 percent? This is simply to avoid PhilWeb being classified as a government owned and controlled corporation (GOCC), which would make the various restrictions applicable to GOCC’s result in making PhilWeb’s operations untenable,” Ongpin said in a letter addressed to PAGCOR Chairman Andrea Domingo.

3-barrels of pure value including a poker player suing a card room after a cash box fell on his foot; PokerNews poll shows that poker players don’t want to see four colour decks at Barcelona, and America’s Cardroom prepares for another million dollar guarantee.

A poker player from Salem, Massachusetts is suing Rockingham Gaming LLC after an employee dropped the cash box on his foot during a poker game.

Justyn Tyndaal filed the lawsuit with Rockingham County Superior Court after the incident took place at the Rockingham Park Poker Room in April 2015.

The lawsuit states that Tyndaal’s foot ended up battered and bruised when an employee came to collect the cash box and during the motion of releasing it from the poker table dropped it on his left foot.