Russia’s campaign against unauthorized online gambling operators has extended to social networks both foreign and domestic.

For months now, Russian telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor has been adding hundreds of unauthorized online gambling domains to its burgeoning online blacklist on a weekly basis. Earlier this month, Roskomnadzor began blacklisting social media accounts belonging to online gambling sites.

A hint of this new strategy, which aims to enforce prohibitions on promoting or facilitating online gambling or communicating means of circumventing domain blocks, came this month when three betting sites found their Twitter accounts suspended for at the time unexplained reasons.

Roskomnadzor has now formally copped to warning the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Russian social media network VKontakte to suspend accounts deemed to have flouted the prohibition. VKontake alone blocked some 250 accounts linked to over 40 bookmakers, including Fonbet, Marathon and 1xBet.

PokerStars and Seven Deuce Gaming have unleashed a hybrid poker/casino mobile app called Casino Rush, and former World Cup legend Ronaldo joins Real Madrid in an ambassadorial capacity.

PokerStars has rolled out their eighth mobile app, and it looks like a beauty. The latest app is called Casino Rush and was developed by the team at Seven Deuce Gaming.

Ali Masterman and Paul Conroy founded the online casino game design company in 2014, and they have offices in the UK and Sri Lanka. Casino Rush is their first foray into social casino game waters, and their games are available in HTML5 and Unity3D.

Both Conroy and Masterman have poker experience, and it shows in the games. Masterman was a professional poker player/staker and worked for the company SharkStaking.com. Conroy is a former session musician who fell in love with poker before founding Stake Me to Play.

The prime minister of the Bahamas insists that a deal has been struck to rescue the stalled $3.5b Baha Mar resort casino, but even he may not know who bought the white elephant.

Last week, Prime Minister Perry Christie informed parliament that Baha Mar’s receiver, the Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM), had signed a deal that would see the property’s new owner assume ownership and restart work on the unfinished project by mid-September.

However, Christie declined to reveal the name of the new owner and had the Supreme Court seal all documents relating to the sale. On Monday, Christie appeared on a local radio talk show and suggested that even his government hasn’t been informed of the buyer’s identity.

Christie insisted that there would be “full and frank disclosure” of the deal once all the details have been worked out to everyone’s satisfaction. That includes the Bahamian government, which must still “determine the fitness of the group to be able to own property in the Bahamas and to administer the property.”

Casino operator Caesars Entertainment has been granted yet another temporary reprieve from junior creditor lawsuits.

On Tuesday, US District Judge Robert Gettleman gave Caesars until October 5 to appeal a bankruptcy court ruling that would have allowed junior bondholder lawsuits to proceed against Caesars and its bankrupt main unit, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co (CEOC).

Caesars’ shares closed Monday’s trading down 16% after US Bankruptcy Judge Benjamin Goldgar issued a ruling on Friday that refused to grant Caesars a third stay of the junior bondholder lawsuits.

The bondholders sued Caesars in Delaware and New York courts over what they claim were illegal asset transfers and an illegal withdrawal of guarantees by the parent company on some $11.4b in CEOC debt prior to CEOC filing for Chapter 11 protection in January 2015.

Asian casino operator Donaco International is making it rain for shareholders after posting a better than expected profit in its most recent fiscal year.

Figures released this week by the Australian-listed Donaco show net profit after tax of AUD 77.2m (US $58.2m) in the 12 months ending June 30, a significant turnaround from the AUD 2.9m net loss in fiscal 2015.

FY16 was the first year to include contributions from Star Vegas, Donaco’s new property in Poipet, Cambodia. Star Vegas contributed AUD 120m to Donaco’s overall revenue of AUD 143.4m, while the Aristo Internatonal Hotel in northern Vietnam saw revenue rise more than one-third to AUD 23.2m.

Donaco’s net gains would have been up even higher but for an AUD 20.5m management fee payable to the company’s Thai partner for helping Star Vegas exceed its earnings target of US $60m. A final payment will be owed in FY17 should earnings continue to exceed targets.

The Microgaming Poker Network gets ready to crown The Greatest Poker Player in the Universe when the Universal Championship of Poker kicks off in September.

Who cares about the World Championships of Online Poker (WCOOP)?

Who gives a monkeys about 888Poker’s Super XL Series?

And nobody cares that your POWERFEST is in capitals partypoker.

Sweden’s regulated gambling market grew at one-third the pace of international online operators in the first half of 2016.

According to figures released by Swedish gaming agency Lotteriinspektionen, the market’s overall gambling sales improved 5% to nearly SEK 10.8b (US $1.26b) in the six months ending June 30.

However, state-licensed operators reported H1 sales of SEK 8.2b, up 4% year-on-year, while international online operators grew 12% to SEK 2.3b. That represents a reversal from Q1, in which Swedish operator growth (6%) outpaced their international counterparts (5%), although all Swedish operators reported positive growth for the second straight quarter.

The state-owned (for the moment) Svenska Spel betting business reported H1 sales of just under SEK 4.4b, up a mere 1%, as land-based sales fell 2% to SEK 3.47b while online was up 13% to SEK 922m. Svenska Spel’s share of the overall market was 41% compared to 21% for international operators.

A US government watchdog says Department of Defense (DoD) officials failed to take appropriate action against staffers who misused government-issued credit cards at casinos and strip clubs.

On Tuesday, the DoD’s inspector general released a report into the May 2015 revelations that military staff had billed the government for nearly $1m in charges at casinos and a further $100k at strip clubs.

The report, which focused on a sample of 30 government cardholders, criticizes DoD management for failing to take action against card abuse even after the abuse was brought to light. The report notes that there were no formal protocols for what constituted legitimate card use, nor any specific disciplinary actions for misuse.

The report also warns that the DoD failed to take into account the potential national security ramifications of Pentagon officials’ “questionable judgment, unwillingness to follow rules and guidance, financial concerns, or gambling addictions.”