Japanese-listed gaming conglomerate Universal Entertainment Corporation has uncovered more skeletons inside the closet of casino magnate Kazuo Okada as they dig further into his previous business transactions.

Universal announced before the Japanese Stock Exchange on Monday that they are looking into at least two more business dealings of Okada, which it suspects to be anomalous.

One of the cases involves the February 2014 loan for “land transactions” in South Korea by Okada Holdings Ltd while the other case has something to do with the US$16 million withdrawal from a Tiger Resort Asia bank account in May 2015 based on a bearer check that the Japanese billionaire issued.

“Recently, it came to the attention of the Special Investigation Committee that there is a suspicion that Mr. Okada has been involved in yet other 2 cases of illegal activities separately from the above-mentioned conduct and the Committee decided to subject them to the investigation,” Universal said in its case progress report. “The Special Investigation Committee is determined to investigate into these new suspicions in order to clarify the whole picture and to formulate measures to prevent reoccurrence and the Company will continue to provide full cooperation by the Special Investigation Committee.”

Brexit negotiations began yesterday and where they will lead is hard to know. Regarding UK stocks, it is best to position yourself for a worst case scenario, which would be a hard Brexit and fragmentation of the UK and European markets. In such a case, the UK companies that would be hurt most are the ones most reliant on European revenues. These companies are also the ones that would rise the most on any news of a post Brexit trade deal. In other words, UK stocks with the most European revenues are the highest leveraged to the ultimate Brexit outcome. The ones with mostly UK-based and other revenue are the least dependent on the outcome and will tend to give you a calmer ride through the process.

Before we get into individual stocks, a quick update on the Brexit process. First of all, it must be said that no trade deal is necessary. No trade deals are ever necessary. All trade deals are ultimately crony deals that hurt companies without special privileges in favor of companies with a lot of lobbyists. All that really needs to be said is “The UK hereby agrees to free trade with no tariffs against anybody, regardless of any tariffs placed on us. Period.” That should really be the entire negotiation posture. There is no reason for any other negotiation, and let whatever is left of the EU institute whatever tariff to their own detriment, if they dare.

The belief that tariffs can only be taken down on a mutual basis is a myth based on a false theory of protectionism and tit-for-tat emotions that are not productive. If a tariff is levied against country A by country B, consumers in country A are hurt, and producers in country  B are hurt. Country A adding a retaliatory tariff against country B will only further hurt consumers in country A and producers in country B. Retaliation makes no economic sense. It can only hurt you further in a trade war, and if you’re a government, reduce your tax base overall.

Obviously, free trade is not going to happen. It never does. Both sides will be eying some kind of crony deal, and if compromise isn’t found, a hard Brexit may result and fracture markets. There are some good signs though that at least the UK side is staffed with good people on the free trade side. For one, there is Steve Baker and David Davis, who both lean libertarian. Davis is the head Brexit minister and Steve Baker a junior Brexit minister. Baker has in the past called crony trade deals with the EU an exercise in “polishing poo”. He has also channeled free market Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises and F.A. Hayek in his speeches, something extremely rare. His being part of the UK’s Brexit staff is both good for principled reasons, but also increases the likelihood of a hard Brexit.

Online gambling operators and players in the Indian state of Telangana face tougher penalties as the state government tightens its laws against gambling.

The Telangana Cabinet passed an ordinance over the weekend amending the state’s Gaming Act of 9174 to ban online gambling. The Telangana State Gaming (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017 added new definition of “cyber space” in the gaming legislation, making betting and gambling through the internet illegal. This means that playing online matka, sports betting, poker and rummy in the state will now incur criminal penalties.

According to Deccan Chronicle, those who will be caught gambling online will have to pay a penalty of INR5,000 (US$77.60) and spend one year in jail. The penalty and jail time will be doubled for second-time offenders.

Under the amended gaming act, police officers above the rank of sub-inspector can seize all investments and monies used in gambling activities. Law enforcement officers in the state can also freeze bank accounts that are found to be used for the purpose of gambling.

There is no longer legal impediments that may derail the AUD11 billion (US$8.32 billion) merger of Australian gambling giants Tabcorp and Tatts Group

The Sydney Morning Herald reported Justice John Middleton of the Australian Competition Tribunal has greenlit the multi-billion dollar merger of Tabcorp and Tatts Group, saying that the benefits of the proposal outweighed the fears of the company’s inflated market power in dealings with pubs and clubs.

Middleton, however, ordered Tabcorp to sell its pokies monitoring Odyssey Gaming Services in Queensland before it commences with the merger. Tabcorp had since planned to dispose Odyssey and sell it to Australian Federal Hotels if the merger was approved.

“The tribunal is satisfied that the proposed merger is likely to result in substantial public benefits,” the Judge ruled, according to the news report. “And the public detriments identified by the [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] and the interveners are unlikely to either arise or are not of significance.”

The annual WhichBingo Awards will be back on June 21, bringing with it several new categories as well as exciting changes to format.

Taking place at Café de Paris in London’s West End, the WhichBingo Awards 2017 promises unique experience to those attending. This year, WhichBingo added three new categories—best online slots game, best slots site, and best customer service—as well as a new format, which sees 10 awards decided by player vote, and four awards by judging panel.

The player voted categories include best online bingo site, best online bingo community, best new online bingo site, best online slots game, best slots site, best Cozy Games bingo site, best Dragonfish bingo site, best Jumpman Gaming bingo site, best Microgaming bingo site, and best Playtech bingo site.

Meanwhile, the categories that are decided by a judging panel include most socially responsible operator, best mobile bingo experience, best online bingo software, and best customer service.

After nearly two years of “building, testing and improving,” eSports betting operator Unikrn is now ready to launch a new product—its own digital currency.

In 2015, the operator introduced the Unikoin, a digital currency that players can use on the Unikrn site. Now, the company is taking that product a step further with the launch of UnikoinGold.

Unikrn said UnikoinGold will be the player’s entry to a new version of the Unikrn betting system, and will also become the exclusive token for the operator’s skill-based betting platform. And because it is designed as a decentralized ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, this means that the coin can be bought, sold and traded on digital currency exchanges that deal with Ethereum.

“After exceeding a quarter of a billion Unikoins turned, we knew it was time to introduce our cryptocurrency–#UnikoinGold,” Unikrn CEO Rahul Sood said in a LinkedIn post.

With the PokerStars Championship losing its sheen, and the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS making an important beginning, is it time to give poker’s Triple Crown a makeover?

When Chris Moorman won his World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet this week, I mentioned in my write up that he was one title away from winning the Triple Crown.

But what title is that exactly?

In 2008, Gavin Griffin became the first person to win a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event, and World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event.