Sportech appears to have struck a deal to sell its Football Pools business to a group led by Sportingbet founder Mark Blandford.

On Tuesday, Sportech announced that it had entered into an exclusivity deal with venture capital firm Burlywood Capital, which is seeking to acquire The Football Pools business for a total cash consideration of £97.25m. Sportech cautioned that there was no guarantee the deal would go through.

Burlywood, which was founded by Blandford (pictured) and investment banker Andrew Burnett, says it will fund The Football Pools acquisition via a combo of institutional investors’ equity and a new debt facility.

Burlywood plans to form a new company that will apply for a listing on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) index. This company will be chaired by ex-Sportech man Ian Hogg, while current Football Pools managing director Conleth Byrne will serve as CEO. Brian Mattingley, chairman of 888 Holdings, will serve as non-executive director.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before, but Japan is gearing up for another push to legalize casino gambling.

On Tuesday, the Financial Times reported that a committee of Japanese legislators would meet this week to discuss the oft-delayed integrated resort (IR) proposal. The parliamentary affairs committee will decide this Friday on the legislative agenda for the upcoming extraordinary session of Japan’s parliament, the Diet.

There is no guarantee that the so-called IR Promotion bill will make the legislative cut, and even if if does, there may not be enough time in the extraordinary session – which commences later this month and wraps up in late November – to address the always contentious casino question.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party increased its majority in the Diet this summer, theoretically freeing the LDP from requiring the support of its Komeito coalition partner – which has traditionally opposed casino legalization – to make up the votes. And Tokyo’s new governor is keen on a casino’s ability to goose the local economy.

At present, Bitcoin is a good way to transfer money, trade and speculate on the value of money, and store money. It is not itself a money, not yet. If we want it to be a money, here’s what we need to do. First, a bit of background.

Here’s an exercise. Hold a dollar bill in your hand, or $5 or $10 or whatever, or a euro, or a £5 note. Think about what you’re holding, and think about why it has value. Hard money libertarian types often like to say things like “The Dollar has no intrinsic value,” and that’s kind of true. But let’s sharpen that statement and try to figure out where exactly whatever value fiat money has, comes from. Certainly it has some kind of value, but from where does that value stem?

At bottom, a dollar or euro or pound has value because we must pay taxes in those currency units to our respective governments, or we will go to prison. People within a given government jurisdiction use the money that their government accepts in payment of taxes. Flowing from that, the fiat money is able to be used in payment of any debt, which makes it a money. If someone does not wish to accept it and would rather be paid in gold or bitcoin, assuming this is a legal transaction where the authorities can be called upon, he will be forced to accept payment in fiat money or go to prison. The academic way to say this while hiding the violent implications of force is the term “legal tender”. If we take this to its logical conclusion, if any person refuses to pay taxes in the required fiat currency or refuses to accept a payment in fiat currency and decides to actively resist going to prison, he could even be killed, depending on how he decides to fight back the authorities trying to detain him. This is of course a very bad idea.

The value of any fiat currency, therefore, stems from the desire of the average human being not to be imprisoned. So hold that dollar bill in your hand again now, or the euro or the pound. You are holding in your hand the implicit government threat to imprison you or, if you’re crazy enough to fight back, even kill you. The value of a dollar therefore is extrinsic. It is always based on an implicit threat against you outside the body of the paper itself.

Casino-like gambling terminals in bars may become available in bars in the state of Indiana if lobby group succeeds in its legalization campaign.

The Indiana Amusement and Music Operators Association, Indiana Licensed Beverage Association, Indiana Bowling Centers Association, and others have called on legislators to pass a bill to legalize video game terminals.

According to news website Fox59, the terminals are essentially electronic video games where participants gamble on a variety of games including poker, line-up or blackjack. Currently, those kind of games are only allowed in casinos.

These groups are now seeking Congress’ approval allowing these terminals in a variety of other places including bars and truck stops. The coalition has reportedly drafted a bill for legalized gaming terminals in bars, VFW and American Legion posts, bowling alleys, and truck stops.

To know your enemy, you must become your enemy.

The Idaho State Lottery is employing an unconventional strategy to understand illegal gambling games by simply asking potential vendors on how they will offer these prohibited products when they bid on a lucrative decade-long contract.

The Associated Press reported that Idaho State Lottery officials had been requesting vendors for information on games like Keno, which is prohibited under the state constitution.

Idaho State Lottery Director Jeff Anderson explained that they are employing such strategy to get a clear picture of what vendors are providing elsewhere. He pointed out that information they collected from potential vendors will have no bearing in their bid for Idaho’s lucrative decade-long lottery contract.