Lee Davy sits down with Dominik Nitsche during his foray into 888Live Barcelona to talk about his upcoming appearance at the Super High Roller Bowl, his relationship with 888Poker and much more.

The first time I saw Dominik Nitsche, he was sitting at a poker table wearing a grey short sleeve t-shirt, an old pair of jeans that exposed his underpants, and a scruffy pair of trainers.

His left arm lay perpendicular across his chest, fingers gently caressing his shoulder; eyes fixed on his prey, riffling chips with the outstretched fingertips of his right hand.

It was 2010, he was 20-years old, and I was working my first live gig. He had my attention because I didn’t know a single player and one of the reporters told me he was mustard.

A Singapore resident jailed for offering ‘betting insurance’ to casino gamblers is appealing his sentence based on his read of the city-state’s legal definition of a bookmaker.

In December 2015, Peh Hai Yam was convicted on nine counts of conspiring with others to provide ‘insurance’ to baccarat players at Genting’s Resorts World Sentosa casino. Baccarat insurance allows gamblers to lay off a portion of their main wager as a hedge against losing the lot should they draw unlucky cards.

Mr Peh, his wife and another accomplice began their insurance scheme in 2010 but were arrested the following year. At the time, Peh’s wife claimed she’d personally made $50k from her baccarat insurance activity. Peh was sentenced to five months for each of the nine counts against him and fined $200k.

The Straits Times reported that Peh’s lawyer launched an appeal last month with the High Court, based on the argument that the prohibition on bookmaking in Singapore’s Betting Act applies only to taking wagers on horseraces and sporting events.

The Football Association and UK Gambling Commission are considering a match-fixing investigation after Chelsea and Sunderland conspired in John Terry’s substitution during his last game for the club on Sunday.

The English Football Association (FA) and the John Terry are bored. So bored, they have decided to launch an investigation into the John Terry substitution that took place in his final appearance for the club at the weekend.

Chelsea was already confirmed as champions, and Sunderland was already assigned a place in the Championship when the two teams clashed at Stamford Bridge on Sunday in the final Premier League game of the season.

In the 26th minute, Sunderland’s Jordan Pickford launched the ball into the stands allowing Chelsea to substitute Terry to a thunderous round of applause from both sets of fans and a guard of honour from his teammates.

Pennsylvania’s state senate amended its online gambling proposal on Tuesday, but its tax plans will likely prove a non-starter with operators.

On Tuesday, two Pennsylvania senate committees approved the latest version of HB 271, which seeks to authorize online gambling, daily fantasy sports and fix the state’s unconstitutional host community slots share program. Just for fun, legislators added provisions for the state lottery to launch online operations, because there simply weren’t already enough moving parts to this regulatory centipede.

As telegraphed earlier this month, the main takeaway from the amended bill is the 54% tax on online casino revenue, which mirrors the nation-high rate applied to land-based slots at the state’s 12 casino operators. Online poker operators get off comparatively scot-free with a mere 16% revenue tax rate, the same rate applied to brick-and-mortar casino table games.

In a word, no. While one can sympathize with legislators’ desire to close their nine-figure budget gap, trying to do so on the backs of online casino operators won’t work when no operator applies for a license. (Which will cost $5m upfront for either online casino or poker, $10m if you want to offer both, and these fees aren’t credited against future tax obligations. Renewals cost $250k. )

Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International Holdings (IPI) will have to wait at least another week to learn whether it can finally open its permanent gaming venue.

On Tuesday, the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) deferred a decision on IPI’s request to launch gaming operations at its unfinished permanent venue, the Imperial Pacific Resort, this Friday (26). The CCC said it would readdress the issue at its next scheduled meeting on May 31.

The CCC justified not granting IPI’s request due to lingering concerns that the unfinished Imperial Resort could pose a threat to the safety of anyone who sets foot on the premises without one of those Hurt Locker bomb disposal outfits.

CCC executive director Edward Deleon Guerrero told the Marianas Variety that “there’s not enough evidence, not enough information to grant the approval to open on Friday.” Guerrero said “even if the casino and gaming are ready for operation inside, we want to make sure that the workers, the patrons, the guests and anyone who enters the facility are safe.”

Talks regarding the sale of Pennsylvania’s market-leading Sands Bethlehem casino have reportedly broken off, according to local sources.

On Tuesday, the Morning Call quoted multiple sources saying that negotiations between Sands Bethlehem’s owner Las Vegas Sands and rival MGM Resorts had ended after MGM backed out of the proposed $1.3b deal to acquire the property.

In March, word surfaced that the parties had reached agreement on the broad strokes of a deal to transfer ownership of Sands Bethlehem, the market’s unquestioned leader in table game revenue and a perennial number-two on the slots revenue charts. However, both parties declined to offer public confirmation that a deal was in the works.

In the wake of the deal’s collapse, Sands spokesman Ron Reese played it typically close to his vest, telling the Morning Call that the company “will continue to operate Sands Bethlehem.” MGM’s spokesperson said the company had little to add at this time.