The Philippines’ proposed threshold for casinos to report suspicious transactions is too high to satisfy international financial watchdogs, according to the head of the country’s stock exchange.

Last month, both chambers of the Philippine legislature unanimously approved plans to add the nation’s gambling operators – land-based, shipboard and online – to the definition of ‘covered persons’ under the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA).

But the legislation only requires gaming operators to report individual transactions above P5m (US $100k) while non-gaming ‘covered persons’ had their threshold set at just P500k. This discrepancy could fail to impress international AML watchdogs, or so suggests Teresita Herbosa, chairperson of the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission.

Herbosa, who also sits on the Philippines’ Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), told the Philippine Star that the P5m figure “should be lowered if we really want stricter monitoring.” Not surprisingly, her view isn’t shared by the nation’s gaming operators, who have voiced their support for the new legislation’s moderate threshold.

The World Series of Poker has opened the 2017 Poker Hall of Fame nomination process, and Lee Davy selects five European dark horses.

It’s that time of year again.

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has pressed the trigger on the starting pistol for the Poker Hall of Fame (PHOF) nomination process. All over Europe, poker players are preparing to take the heads off American voters with the precision of a guy from Thailand beheading coconuts with a machete.

And when you consider that 64% of Americans have never taken their Polaroid camera outside of the country and that the greatest players in the world do seem to emanate from the land of Stars and Stripes, I can see how these things happen.

After Chris Moorman wins his first-ever World Series of Poker bracelet in the $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event, Lee Davy, can’t wait for the final installment of the Moorman Book Series Trilogy.

A few days ago, Chris Moorman, won his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet nine years after he cashed in a live tournament for the very first time.

It was a long wait.

I felt compelled to send him a private message on Twitter. I hardly ever do this. Maybe it was our shared Britishness? Maybe it was his standing in the game as the world’s greatest online MTT player, ever? Maybe I was in a good mood.

Macau authorities have warned local casino and junket operators to step up their enforcement of the ban on phone use at gaming tables.

On Friday, Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) issued a statement noting the recent arrest of some 17 individuals suspected of running an illegal online proxy betting operation from a VIP room at an unidentified Cotai casino. It was the second such bust in the last three months.

The DICJ said it was “very attentive” to the case, due to the gang having allegedly used smartphones to livestream table game action to up to 50 mainland Chinese bettors at a time via the WeChat social media platform. The DICJ banned “phone usage at gaming tables” in May 2016 in a bid to curtail the spread of so-called proxy betting operations.

The DICJ further warned concessionaires and junket operators to maintain “strict compliance” with the phone ban, to strengthen monitoring of VIP rooms to ensure the prohibition wasn’t being flouted, and to “immediately” report any transgressions. The DICJ noted that it was cooperating closely with Macau’s Judiciary Police to ensure its rules were being observed.

Casino operator Diamond Fortune Holdings has broken ground on its new project in Russia’s far east Primorye gaming zone.

It’s been over a year since Diamond Fortune unveiled its plans to build Selena, a $900m resort casino complex in the Primorye gaming zone outside of Vladivostok. On Monday, the Corporation for the Development of Primorsky Territory announced (with some relief) that earth was finally being moved on the site where the Selena resort will stand.

The Primorsky authority’s website quoted Diamond Fortune CEO Yevgenia Varakina saying the company had “received the necessary permits and started the active phase of operations.” Varakina noted that the company’s development agreement calls for Selena’s first phase to open in 2020 but Varakina vowed to “make every effort” to ensure that Selena’s first phase opens in 2019. The project’s second phase will follow in 2022.

Selena’s first phase is expected to feature a 295-room hotel, as well as a casino floor boasting at least 100 gaming tables and 500 electronic gaming machines. Once all its phases are completed, the Selena project will occupy 174k-square-meters of space, with two hotels, a spa and the usual assortment of restaurants and retail shopping options.

The proposed merger of daily fantasy sports operators DraftKings and FanDuel appears dead in the water after the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed suit to block the union.

As rumored last week, the FTC filed a complaint on Monday to block the proposed merger of DraftKings and FanDuel based on the FTC’s view that the combined entity would control over 90% of America’s DFS market. The FTC has authorized staff to seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to forestall the merger ahead of an administrative trial scheduled for November 21.

Tad Lipsky, acting director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a statement that the merger “would deprive customers of the substantial benefits of direct competition” between the two DFS giants. Lipsky said the FTC’s filing demonstrated the regulator’s commitment to “the preservation of competitive markets.”

The DFS operators had argued that their dominance of the DFS market had to be seen in context with the overall fantasy market, which includes season-long contests. But the FTC believes DFS players “are unlikely to view season-long contests as a meaningful substitute” for real-money DFS.

Quebec’s provincial gaming monopoly reported flat profits in its most recent fiscal year despite a nearly 30% boost in its online gambling revenue.

Loto Quebec issued its latest annual report on Friday, detailing the Canadian province’s government-run gambling performance over the 12 months ending March 31, 2017. Total revenue over that span rose 2.1% year-on-year to C$3.64b (US $2.75b), while net income was up a more modest 0.3% to C$1.23b.

The Espace-Jeux online gambling site reported total revenue of C$85.9m, up 29.7% over the previous year and well above Loto Quebec’s target of C$75.4m. Loto-Quebec said the online gains were strong across the casino, lottery and sports betting verticals, with “particularly significant” improvements in mobile gaming activity. Espace-jeux’s registered customer base rose 26% year-on-year.

Loto Quebec says it is proceeding with plans to consolidate its online operations into “a single virtual store” by October 2017, grouping together its online casino, poker, lotteries and the Mise-o-jeu sports betting operations under a single umbrella.