Italy‘s online sports betting and casino sites continued their upward trajectory in February, while online poker continues to provide irrefutable proof that gravity works.

According to figures compiled by Italy’s Agimeg.it gaming news agency, online sports betting turnover topped €432m last month, while land-based wagers were well back at €394m. The combined total of €828m was 30% higher than the same month last year and 7% more than January’s €775m.

As ever, Bet365 ruled the betting roost with €143.3m, just under one-third of total online handle. The rest of the top-five were unchanged from January, led by Ladbrokes-Coral’s Eurobet brand (€41m), Sisal (€31.4m), Snai (€30.7m) and William Hill (€25.5m).

The online casino vertical also enjoyed stellar growth in February, with revenue rising nearly 25% to €41.1m. Here too, the operator rankings were unchanged from January, with Lottomatica out front with a 10.7% share of the total, followed by Sisal (8.6%), Amaya Gaming’s PokerStars (8.3%), Bwin (6.4%) and Snai (6.1%).

3: Barrels of a PokerStars flavour including new guarantees for PokerStars Championship events in Macau and Monte Carlo; PokerStars Festival Rozvadov update; and there is a million buck Sunday Storm coming your way.

A trio of PokerStars related stories, and we begin with their flagship live product: PokerStars Championship and news of some hefty guarantees in Macau and Monte Carlo.

PokerStars Championship Macau

PokerStars take the Championship model to Macau for the first time March 30 – April 9. The City of Dreams will play host, and the biggest guns in poker are letting rip with some jabs and hooks.

Amaya Gaming’s former CEO David Baazov has some new walking around money after selling nearly one-third of his stake in the online gambling company.

On Tuesday, Baazov (pictured) announced that he’d sold 7m Amaya common shares at C$19 apiece for a total consideration of C$133m (US $99m). The sale represents about 4.8% of the company’s outstanding common shares and about 30% of Baazov’s holdings in Amaya, the parent company of online poker giant PokerStars. Baazov still controls roughly 17.6m Amaya shares, equal to 12.1% of the company.

The market applauded the move, pushing Amaya’s stock price up 5.8% to C$20.06, the highest point the shares have traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange this year.

The sale came just days after Amaya announced that it had refinanced its long-term debt, a deal that included a requirement that the debt would become payable ahead of schedule if “a certain current shareholder” made further attempts to acquire the company. The poison pill was inserted “at the request of certain lenders.”

Pennsylvania’s regulated online gambling hopes and fears were front and center in the state legislature on Tuesday.

Tuesday saw a joint hearing of the Pennsylvania House Gaming Oversight Committee and the Senate Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee, as legislators met to discuss potential gambling expansion in the state, including online gambling and daily fantasy sports.

The contentious issue of allowing video gaming terminals (VGT) in bars and clubs, which has derailed the state’s gambling expansion bills in the past, was explicitly off the table during Tuesday’s hearing. A separate hearing will be conducted later this month at which the VGT issue will rear its ugly head.

Shortly before the hearing, the state Senate dropped a new gambling expansion bill. SB 477 is a duplicate of the omnibus gaming bill introduced in the state House last month.

The Game Show Network threatens Doug Polk with legal action over his use of their High Stakes Poker material and Lee Davy explains why that decision is backwards.

My internet connection is crap.

When I want to upload a video to Dropbox, for example, I have to hijack next door’s fibre optic broadband connection. The connection only works in the kitchen, so I contacted my provider today to ask for an upgrade.

“18-months contract,” came the reply.

Professional poker player Scott O’Reilly talks to Lee Davy about his new business venture, Profit Squad, a matched betting service designed to take the gambling out of gambling.

How would you like to make between £500-£1,000 per month, sitting at home, in your underwear?

Scott O’Reilly talking about the Matched Betting service Profit Squad Audio

Two Singaporean investors have learned the hard lesson that, when it comes to investing in Macau casino VIP gaming rooms, the rule is ‘trust, but verify.’

On Monday, Macau’s Judiciary Police announced that a 52-year-old man had been arrested on March 2 while attempting to flee the special administrative region. The man stands accused of defrauding two Singaporean women out of US$100k based on bogus claims of affiliation with a Macau casino VIP room.

Sometime last year, the two women met with the suspect in Singapore, during which he pitched them on the benefits of investing in Macau’s VIP gambling sector. On December 18, the women traveled to Macau, where they visited an unidentified Macau casino’s VIP room, which the suspect claimed was run by a company he controlled.

Convinced, each woman ponied up $50k, which was deposited in an account set up with the VIP room. Sadly, the women accepted the suspect’s guarantee that there was no immediate need for contracts to be signed, insisting that such formalities could be handled at a later date.

UK-listed online gambling giant Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) reported healthy revenue gains in 2016 but merger costs took a big bite out of profits.

Figures released Tuesday show PPB’s group revenue hitting £1.55b in 2016, 18% higher than the combined sum the two former rivals generated as separate entities in 2015.

Earnings were up more than one-third to £400m and operating profit was up 44% to £330m on a pro forma basis, although statutory profit tumbled from £125m to just £15m due in part to £66m in costs associated with the major restructuring triggered by the 2015 merger of Paddy Power and Betfair.

Sticking with the pro forma numbers, online sportsbook handle rose 16% in constant currency, while sports revenue gained 10% to £609m and online gaming rose 12% to £245m. Online earnings were up 28% to £289m as operating costs grew at a slower rate than revenue.