Switzerland’s casinos reported modest a profit increase in 2016, snapping a nearly decade-long losing streak.

New figures released by the Swiss Federation of Casinos (SFC) show the country’s 21 licensed brick-and-mortar gaming venues reported gross profits of CHF 689m (US $711m) in 2016, 1.2% higher than 2015’s total. Twelve Swiss casinos posted year-on-year gains last year, while the other nine suffered slight declines.

While modest, the overall gain marks the first time since 2007 that the annual figure has nudged upward, so the industry – and the government, which saw its share of casino revenue rise 3.2% to CHF 323m – will take it. That said, 2016’s figure was well below the CHF 769m generated in 2004, the first year of legal casino gambling in Switzerland, and nearly one-third off the market’s 2007 peak of CHF 1.02b.

The SFC points fingers at a small army of culprits who are allegedly behind the casinos’ decline, including a smoking ban, a strong Swiss franc deterring cross-border gambling visitation and the growth of illegal gambling dens, which the SFC believe deprive their members of an estimated CHF 150m per year.

Kenyan sports betting operator SportPesa will cancel its sponsorship of local sports bodies after the country approved significant tax hikes on gambling revenue.

On Friday, SportPesa CEO Ronald Karauri used his personal Twitter account to announce that his company would be “giving notice to clubs and unions that from January 1 we will withdraw all sponsorships.” Karauri said he was announcing the move in advance to allow “our sports partners to plan accordingly.”

The January 1 timeline dovetails with the start date of Kenya’s new gambling tax regime. Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the Finance Bill 2017 into law earlier this week, imposing a uniform 35% tax on all gambling revenue.

Betting operators like SportPesa had previously paid only 7.5% tax on revenue derived from Kenyan punters. Kaurauri said the new tax meant that it would be “impossible to continue funding the [sports] sector.”

Russia’s telecom watchdog temporarily blocked access to Google’s search engine this week over links to a banned online gambling domain.

On Thursday, many Russian internet users temporarily lost access to the Google.ru domain due to one of the search engine’s pages containing a redirect to an online gambling domain associated with Russian bookies Fonbet, leading some local internet service providers (ISP) to block access to Google.ru.

In June 2016, Russia’s Federal Tax Service ordered the Roskomnadzor online sentinel to include the offending Google.ru domain on the telecom watchdog’s ever expanding blacklist of prohibited websites. Google was given one year to remedy the redirect but apparently took no action before their window of opportunity expired.

Many Russian ISPs have automated their blocking systems to keep pace with the frightening volume of domains that Roskomnadzor adds to its naughty list – and thereby avoid the hefty new fines for failing to act in a timely manner – which resulted in the “access limited” warnings some Russians discovered when trying to load Google’s search engine on Thursday.

The UK’s competition watchdog has launched enforcement action against a number of online gambling companies over misleading sign-up promotions.

Last October, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced it was investigating UK-licensed online operators for “potential breaches of consumer law, including misleading promotions and unfair terms, being used by firms to block players’ payouts.”

On Friday, the CMA announced that it was taking enforcement action after consultations with around 800 punters had identified “a number of operators engaging in practices likely to be breaking consumer law,” including excessive rollover requirements before winnings can be withdrawn. The CMA says it has “a range of powers at its disposal to bring any illegal activities to an end.”

The CMA didn’t identify the five targeted companies by name and clarified that it had “not reached a final view” on whether the operators had breached consumer law and would “listen to operators’ responses to its concerns.” The ultimate decision on whether the operators violated consumer law would have to be determined by a UK court. The CMA has promised an update on the file in December.

Macau casino operator SJM Holdings Ltd. has granted its newly-installed executive director, Daisy Ho, 3 million share options in the company.

In a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the casino operator said the options entitle Ho to subscribe for a total of 3 million ordinary shares of SJM Holdings. The exercise price of the options granted is HK$8.33 (US$1.07) per share.

The validity period of the options is from December 22, 2017 to December 21, 2026.

The first 1 million options will be vested on six months from the grant date. This will be followed by another 1 million options 18 months after the grant date. The last 3 million options will be vested on two years and six months from the grant date.

London-based bitcoin currency service provider Blockchain has raised $40 million of fresh funding, the largest Series B raised so far in 2017.

The financing round was led by venture capital firm Lakestar and Google’s investment arm GV. Nokota Management, Digital Currency Group and Blockchain’s existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mosaic Venture Partners, Prudence Holdings, Virgin and billionaire Richard Branson also participated in Thursday’s funding round.

The recent funding brings Blockchain’s total capital raised to over $70 million, CEO and co-founder Peter Smith said in a statement. It is also the largest investment that the fintech space has seen since Brexit, although it fell short of the $55 million that blockchain start-up Ripple managed to raise from big banks in 2016.

The freshly raised funds will go towards supporting Blockchain’s global expansion plans, as well as further research and development for its product. Founded in 2011, Blockchain provides digital currency wallets and analytical tools for bitcoin’s underlying system.