Macau casino operators won a partial victory last week after legislators announced they were abandoning plans to push for a total indoor smoking ban.

Last Thursday, Macau’s Health Bureau announced that the government had decided not to force casino operators to dismantle the designated smoking lounges they’d constructed after the government banned smoking on the casinos’ main gaming floors in October 2014.

Casino operators had previously submitted their own proposals for ways to improve the technical standards of these lounges, including negative pressure mechanisms to ensure smoke doesn’t leak out into the main gaming floor and separate ventilation systems to vent the smoke outside the building.

The Heath Bureau said its preliminary analysis of these proposals indicated that they were “feasible” but that the government would soon issue “higher and stricter” technical standards than those proposed by the operators.

California legislators are gearing up for yet another Sisyphean effort at passing online poker legislation, because it’s not like the state has any other serious issues worth tackling, like collapsing dams, wildfires or Trumpian forces targeting its sanctuary cities.

Friday saw the debut of AB 1677, the Internet Poker Consumer Protection Act, courtesy of longtime intrastate online poker proponent Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer (pictured). Full text can be read here but suffice it to say that the bill is something of a ‘greatest hits’ of previous online poker bills that the state has failed to pass in recent years.

As with those earlier California bills, AB 1677’s list of eligible online poker licensees is limited to the state’s cardrooms and tribal gaming operators. They’ll pay a $12.5m upfront license fee good for seven years and which will be credited against future tax obligations.

The tax rate will escalate according to cumulative annual online poker revenue by all the state’s licensees. Should revenue total less than $150m, operators will pay 8.847% tax to the state. This rises to 10% if annual revenue goes above $150m but less than $250m, then rises again to 12.5% if revenue is under $350m, while a sum above $350m means operators will pay 15%.

Gibraltar-based bookmaker BetVictor has withdrawn its services from Russia’s online gambling market as that country continues to rewrite its gambling laws.

Last week, BetVictor’s Russian customers reported receiving emails from the company informing them that their long association was coming to an end. Customers have been instructed to cash out the funds in their accounts, which are to be closed without any indication that they will be reopened anytime soon.

News of BetVictor’s imminent exit came the same week that Russian legislators confirmed plans to make life more difficult for internationally licensed online operators serving Russian customers. The plans involve creating a blacklist of unauthorized operators for whom Russian banks and payment processors will be forbidden to process online gambling payments.

The payments ban is but one of a number of legislative efforts intended to dramatically revamp Russia’s online gambling landscape, which involves allowing Russian bookmakers to offer online sports betting while maintaining the prohibition on online poker and casino products.

A New Mexico judge has dealt a major blow to Pojoaque Pueblo‘s gambling operations.

U.S. District Judge James Browning sided with Gov. Susana Martinez and the state gaming board, allowing Martinez’s administration to go after vendors who do business with the tribe’s casinos on grounds that Pojoaque Pueblo and the state don’t have a current gambling compact, state news outlets reported.

In a 200-page opinion and order, Browning denied the tribe’s request to block the state from taking action against vendors, including banks, credit card companies, gaming machine vendors, advertisers and bond holders, doing business with its gaming interests.

Browning said Pojoaque Pueblo “failed to demonstrate it would be irreparably injured if a stay preventing state action against vendors was not imposed,” noting that the tribe’s argument is “speculative.”

Digital currency bitcoin continues to get shunned in India.

After warning residents against the use of the popular cryptocurrency, reports now surfaced that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has no plans of including bitcoin in the list of legal forms of digital payments in the country.

A report published by India’s The Telegraph suggested that “attempts by bitcoin players to come under the ambit of the new body are unlikely to succeed as the government and the RBI are not in favour of legitimizing bitcoins as legal tender.” The Indian central bank has been awarded the power—under the Payments and Settlement Systems Act of 2007—to regulate the digital payments industry of India.

Several weeks ago, the central bank told traders that “dealing with virtual currencies will be doing so at their own risk” since RBI “has not given any license or authorization to any company to operate such schemes or deal with bitcoin or any virtual currency.” This prompted the small but growing local bitcoin industry to form the “Virtual Currency Association,” which has since set out to lobby the government to recognize and license bitcoin trading in the country.

A full round-up of all the action from the Fourth Round of the FA Cup including giant killing acts from Lincoln and Millwall, and professional performances from Chelsea and Man Utd.

Leicester City made sure that 2016 was the year of the underdog when they won the Premier League. Lincoln City has extended that saga by becoming the first non-league club to make the quarter-finals of the FA Cup by beating Burnley at Turfmoor.

It’s the first time the Imps has made the last eight of the world’s grandest tournament in the club’s 133-year history, and they beat a side with one of the best home records in the country.

Burnley had only lost three times at home in 18 games this season. Not even Chelsea could find a way past them recently, but Lincoln did. The team 81 places behind their Premier League rivals snatched a last-gasp winner after Sean Raggett rose higher than anyone to head home in the last minute of the match. It was Lincoln’s first shot on target.

This is a guest contribution by Valéry Bollier is the co-founder and CEO of Oulala. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

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Kodak was an impressive market leader. The first digital camera produced from their lab emerged in 1975 but they claimed that the digital aspect would only remain a niche market. In reality, they were simply not ready for the radical change that was necessary: structure, team, technology; everything needed in order to be reinvented!