International credit-debt watcher Fitch Ratings sounded the alarm bells over dark clouds looming over the horizon of British bookmakers Ladbrokes Coral and William Hill.

Fitch warned that the United Kingdom may likely to impose tougher-than-expected betting restrictions on in-store gaming machines in the next few months, following the completion of its triennial review.

 “The UK government is likely to propose changes to the regulation of gaming machines in the next few months, following the completion of its triennial review,” Fitch analysts Paula Murphy and Patrick Duncan said in a note issued on Wednesday. “Our base case is for an incremental tightening of regulations that would mainly affect smaller, independent companies with less diversified revenue streams. But we have also considered an adverse scenario where gaming machine revenues are significantly affected.”

When this happens, Fitch pointed out that Ladbrokes and Hill are the most likely to get affected by the changes made by the UK government.

The Philippine Court of Appeals (CA) threw out a petition seeking to stop the conversion of the historic Army and Navy Club (ANC) in Manila into a boutique hotel and a casino gaming facility.

Business Mirror reported that the petition of Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption was instantly dismissed by the appellate court’s 15th division on the grounds that they group violated the principle on the hierarchy of courts.

Associate Justice Ramon Garcia of the CA’s 15th division pointed out in his six-page resolution that the Manila City Government’s execution of the lease contract with Oceanville Hotel cannot be considered a judicial, quasi-judicial or ministerial action that can be a subject of a petition for certiorari.

The same can be said to the approval of the development by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, according to Justice Garcia.

Authorities on one side of the island of New Guinea have broken up an online gambling ring while telecom providers on the island’s other side have been warned to knock off their text message gambling services.

On Tuesday, the Papua Police cybercrime unit announced the arrest of three individuals accused of running an illegal online gambling business since January. The trio were arrested at their base of operations in a retail shop in Timika, which is located in the Indonesian-controlled western half of the island.

Police said the trio utilized a website based in Munich, Germany to process their wagers, while collecting bets and paying out winnings in person. The operation reportedly enjoyed daily betting turnover of between Rp 600m to Rp 700m (US $45k to $52,500), although Chief Inspector General Paulus Waterpauw said his team’s initial examination of the seized technology suggested daily handle “possibly got up to Rp 2b ($150k) per day.”

News of the arrest was followed one day later by authorities in Papua New Guinea (PNG) – the independent eastern half of the island – warning local mobile communications service providers that offering gambling services via text messages would no longer be tolerated.

The young German wizard, Rainer Kempe, has won the World Poker Tour California Swing contest after good showings at the LA Poker Classic and Bay 101 Shooting Stars event.

Hidden in the middle of Season XV of the World Poker Tour (WPT) like the creamy goodness inside a Creme Egg is the WPT California Swing contest.

Players who competed in the triumvirate of California events held back-to-back between Feb 25 – March 15 qualified for the contest. The events in question were as follows:

The $10,000 buy-in WPT LA Poker Classic Main Event

Three stories from the Winning Poker Network including a phishing email scare, schedule news from the Online Super Series Cubed, and a new book from Collin Moshman and Katie Dozier.

Donald Trump has taken a breather this week. Gmail and Yahoo replace him after news sources revealed 25 million+ Gmail and Yahoo email accounts are being sold online on the deep dark web.

I sure hope mine isn’t one of them.

Email hacking is a particular problem if you have a bag full of cash sitting in an online poker room, and hand claps to the support team working at the Winning Poker Network (WPN) after reacting quickly to a phishing scam directed at players using skins on the site this week.

The Swedish online gaming starlets, Unibet, has added the two-time Formula 1 World Champion, Mika Häkkinen, to their stable, and Dara O’Kearney and Dave Lappin prepare for Season 2 of the Chip Race.

Unibet has signed a new ambassador.

Check it out.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhBlWb_OgDs?ecver=2]

The Seneca Nation of Indians has decided to stop sharing its casino revenue with the state of New York, effectively picking the scab off an old tribal-state wound that had only just begun to heal.

On Wednesday, the Senecas announced that their three upstate casinos in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Salamanca would cease providing the state with a 25% share of their slot machine revenue as of April 1. The tribe has anted up nearly $1.5b to the state over the life of its tribal-state compact, which was signed back in 2002.

The Senecas insist that they’re acting within the terms of their compact, which called for an initial term of 14 years, with an option to extend the compact for a further seven years. The compact is now in its 15th year, and the tribe says there’s nothing in the extension language that requires them to continue making the payments.

State officials were reportedly caught off guard by the Senecas’ decision, but the Buffalo News quoted an unidentified Seneca representative saying the tribe’s stance was “nothing new. It’s what the compact says in black and white language.”

The UK-based eSports platform FACEIT and troubled online video broadcast giant YouTube sign a multi-year deal to showcase the eSports Championship Series

It’s not been a good week for YouTube.

People have stopped putting coins into the greatest Golden Oldie Jukebox in the world for allowing videos of white supremacists, Islamist preachers, and Hobbit haters to populate the site. YouTube governors reacted by tightening up their controls and then received abused for blocking videos posted by the LGBT community.

Like I said, it hasn’t been a good week.