A round-up of live tournament news including new festival stops for PokerStars, and news of the Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour Main Event in London, and World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open.

PokerStars have added to their live tournament roster.

The largest online poker room in the galaxy has announced plans to host five more 2017 PokerStars Festivals in South America, Europe and Asia.

We will begin South America.

Poker Central and The Aria held a live lottery draw to determine the first 35 entrants for the Super High Roller Bowl after 54 players registered to compete in the $300,000 buy-in event.

Poker Central and representatives of the Aria Las Vegas had to pay an impromptu visit to the ping pong ball shop after 54 players paid the $30,000 registration fee for the 50-player cap, $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl.

Matt Berkey, who finished fifth last year for $1.1m, was the first to deposit money at the Aria cage followed by Daniel Negreanu and Scott Seiver, but there were no rewards for punctuality after the organisers held a lottery to choose the first 35 participants after the event sold out.

Daniel Negreanu played the part of lottery host, but the Hendon Mob All Time Live Tournament Money Earner was too busy fiddling with everybody else’s balls to find his own. Negreanu missed the cut. It turned out he would have been Player #36.

Poker Central and The Aria held a live lottery draw to determine the first 35 entrants for the Super High Roller Bowl after 54 players registered to compete in the $300,000 buy-in event.

Poker Central and representatives of the Aria Las Vegas had to pay an impromptu visit to the ping pong ball shop after 54 players paid the $30,000 registration fee for the 50-player cap, $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl.

Matt Berkey, who finished fifth last year for $1.1m, was the first to deposit money at the Aria cage followed by Daniel Negreanu and Scott Seiver, but there were no rewards for punctuality after the organisers held a lottery to choose the first 35 participants after the event sold out.

Daniel Negreanu played the part of lottery host, but the Hendon Mob All Time Live Tournament Money Earner was too busy fiddling with everybody else’s balls to find his own. Negreanu missed the cut. It turned out he would have been Player #36.

The Charity Series of Poker raised over $12,000 for Support the Kid, a foundation created to help children fight cancer, and poker charity founder Matt Stout wins the first prize.

Adam Robinson said something very important to Tim Ferris during his recent podcast appearance. I am paraphrasing, but he essentially said that our suffering is caused when we focus on ourselves.

What I take from that golden nugget is to end personal suffering, focus your attention on serving others. But how do you do that? You can call your mother and tell her you love her. You can listen to your shopkeeper talking about her onions instead of talking about your bunions. Or you could start a charity and raise money for good causes.

On January 29th Matt Stout and his Charity Series of Poker (CSOP), set up shop at the Borgata Casino Hotel & Spa to raise money for the Support the Kid Foundation. It was the ninth such event that Stout has organised to help reduce suffering in the world.

Nevada could lower its legal gambling age to the simple age of majority if a state legislator has his way.

This week witnessed the start of the Nevada state legislature’s current session, and with it the introduction of AB 86. The bill was sponsored by Assemblyman Jim Wheeler (pictured), who believes that a person old enough to vote – let alone fight and die for one’s country – ought to have the legal right to gamble, too.

The current age requirement for legal gambling in Nevada is 21 years old, similar to what your ID has to say if you want a drop of legal alcohol. Wheeler knows this, despite his asking Nevada Gaming Control Board chairman A.G. Burnett for confirmation on this point on Tuesday during Burnett’s presentation to an Assembly committee on which Wheeler sits.

Wheeler’s bill aims to lower the minimum age at which individuals are allowed to gamble and engage in “certain other related activities.” Sadly, despite the holy troika of gambling, drinking and carrying on, Wheeler’s bill makes no effort to reduce the legal drinking age, and maintains that anyone 18 years or over but under 21 years who attempts to use their access to a casino floor to obtain alcoholic beverages will be guilty of a misdemeanor.

A New Jersey state politician has introduced legislation that would make it easier for the new owner of Atlantic City’s shuttered Revel to reopen the property as a casino.

On Monday, New Jersey State Sen. Ray Lesniak (pictured) introduced S3001, which would allow owners of Atlantic City hotels “to lease portion to casino operator under certain circumstances.”

The bill offers a lifeline to developer Glenn Straub, who learned last week that he needs a New Jersey gaming license if he wants to reopen Revel – under its new moniker TEN – with a casino component. Straub contends that he’s only a landlord, and that an outside firm will manage TEN’s gaming operations, so why does he need a gaming license?

Lesniak, a longtime proponent of gambling in the Garden State, told the Press of Atlantic City that it “makes no sense to have a landlord go through the same lengthy review as a casino operator and stands in the way of [TEN’s] opening and creating business activity and employment.”

New York got its second online poker bill in as many weeks, although it remains to be seen if the will exists to push the measures over the top in 2017.

On Tuesday, Assemblyman Gary Pretlow (pictured) filed A5250, which would “allow certain interactive poker games to be considered games of skill rather than games of luck,” thereby sidestepping the state constitution’s restrictions on gambling expansion.

Pretlow’s bill is identical to the S03898 bill filed in the state senate last week by Sen. John Bonacic, who chairs the Senate’s Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee. Each bill would allow for 11 online poker licensees, with upfront license fees of $10m apiece that would be credited against future tax obligations of 15% of gross gaming revenue.

Both Bonacic and Pretlow filed online poker bills in the previous legislative session, and Bonacic’s measure cleared a floor vote with ease, garnering 53 votes in favor versus just five votes opposed. But the bill ultimately died of neglect, primarily due to Pretlow’s belief that there wasn’t enough support in the Assembly to bother bringing his own online poker bill up for debate.

New York got its second online poker bill in as many weeks, although it remains to be seen if the will exists to push the measures over the top in 2017.

On Tuesday, Assemblyman Gary Pretlow (pictured) filed A5250, which would “allow certain interactive poker games to be considered games of skill rather than games of luck,” thereby sidestepping the state constitution’s restrictions on gambling expansion.

Pretlow’s bill is identical to the S03898 bill filed in the state senate last week by Sen. John Bonacic, who chairs the Senate’s Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee. Each bill would allow for 11 online poker licensees, with upfront license fees of $10m apiece that would be credited against future tax obligations of 15% of gross gaming revenue.

Both Bonacic and Pretlow filed online poker bills in the previous legislative session, and Bonacic’s measure cleared a floor vote with ease, garnering 53 votes in favor versus just five votes opposed. But the bill ultimately died of neglect, primarily due to Pretlow’s belief that there wasn’t enough support in the Assembly to bother bringing his own online poker bill up for debate.

Russia’s 2009 crackdown on casino gambling was apparently the spark that lit a global slots scam that continues to this day.

Last summer, Singapore authorities reported disrupting an international gang of casino cheats that was using smartphone technology to predict big slots payouts in advance. Little else was known about the scam until a lengthy exposé was reported in Wired this week.

Wired traced the origin of the scam to Russia’s 2009 decision to restrict casinos to a handful of geographically isolated regions. Russian gaming halls were left with little option but to sell off their stock of slot machines for whatever price they could get.

Some of these slots ended up in the hands of a gang of St. Petersburg programmers, who reverse engineered the machines’ software to identify their pseudorandom number generators (PRNG) and the internal clock data that identifies the current stage of a PRNG’s output.

Russia’s 2009 crackdown on casino gambling was apparently the spark that lit a global slots scam that continues to this day.

Last summer, Singapore authorities reported disrupting an international gang of casino cheats that was using smartphone technology to predict big slots payouts in advance. Little else was known about the scam until a lengthy exposé was reported in Wired this week.

Wired traced the origin of the scam to Russia’s 2009 decision to restrict casinos to a handful of geographically isolated regions. Russian gaming halls were left with little option but to sell off their stock of slot machines for whatever price they could get.

Some of these slots ended up in the hands of a gang of St. Petersburg programmers, who reverse engineered the machines’ software to identify their pseudorandom number generators (PRNG) and the internal clock data that identifies the current stage of a PRNG’s output.

A new study has determined that financial problems are the most commonly reported negative impact of gambling, a finding roughly on par with determining that the sun tends to rise in the east each morning.

Last week, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) received Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts, a report based on an online panel survey of 5,046 state residents conducted by the University of Massachusetts Amhert School of Public Health and Health Sciences.

The online survey ran concurrently with the previously released general population survey of Massachusetts’ residents gambling activity. The MGC commissioned the surveys in order to obtain a snapshot of gambling activity in the state prior to the arrival of several major brick-and-mortar casinos over the next few years.

The online survey found that 3.8% of gamblers reported financial problems as a result of their gambling activity, about the same number that reported physical health and stress-related issues, while mental health problems were reported by 3.2% of gamblers.

A new study has determined that financial problems are the most commonly reported negative impact of gambling, a finding roughly on par with determining that the sun tends to rise in the east each morning.

Last week, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) received Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts, a report based on an online panel survey of 5,046 state residents conducted by the University of Massachusetts Amhert School of Public Health and Health Sciences.

The online survey ran concurrently with the previously released general population survey of Massachusetts’ residents gambling activity. The MGC commissioned the surveys in order to obtain a snapshot of gambling activity in the state prior to the arrival of several major brick-and-mortar casinos over the next few years.

The online survey found that 3.8% of gamblers reported financial problems as a result of their gambling activity, about the same number that reported physical health and stress-related issues, while mental health problems were reported by 3.2% of gamblers.

A new study has determined that financial problems are the most commonly reported negative impact of gambling, a finding roughly on par with determining that the sun tends to rise in the east each morning.

Last week, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) received Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts, a report based on an online panel survey of 5,046 state residents conducted by the University of Massachusetts Amhert School of Public Health and Health Sciences.

The online survey ran concurrently with the previously released general population survey of Massachusetts’ residents gambling activity. The MGC commissioned the surveys in order to obtain a snapshot of gambling activity in the state prior to the arrival of several major brick-and-mortar casinos over the next few years.

The online survey found that 3.8% of gamblers reported financial problems as a result of their gambling activity, about the same number that reported physical health and stress-related issues, while mental health problems were reported by 3.2% of gamblers.