Social clubs in Singapore will have to go through the proverbial eye of a needle before they can operate slot machines in their premises.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced that it will roll out “stringent” measures about the availability and use of slot machines over the next two years.

Under the new measures, clubs will need to prove that they offer a “suitably wide range of substantive recreational and social facilities” aside from the slot machines, whose quota will be reduced. The clubs will also have to pass a new test regarding the scope of their non-gaming amenities, and those who don’t pass will have to stop operating the machines by April 30, 2018.

Access to the machines will also be stricter starting November, with the minimum age raised from 18 to 21. Entry will also be limited to club members who have signed up for at least a year, and they are not allowed bring guests into the rooms where the machines are. The rooms can only operate from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., the ministry said.

A federal court has upbraided the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for seeking to get ahold of an unprecedented number of bitcoin customer records.

Last year, a California district court allowed the tax agency to require San Francisco-based digital currency exchange Coinbase to submit records of all transactions that took place from 2013 to 2015 as part of an investigation into possible tax fraud in the country. The bitcoin company, however, fought back in court, where it was joined by several anonymous customers.

Now, one of those customers has been allowed by the court to challenge the IRS summon.

In a 12-page ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Corley agreed to let the customer, identified as John Doe 4 in the documents, to intervene in the court proceeding on grounds that the customer “made a sufficient showing of an abuse of process to support intervention as of right.”

California has joined the ‘me too’ parade of states looking to piggyback on New Jersey’s push to overturn the federal ban on sports betting.

On Thursday, Assemblyman Adam Gray (pictured) announced his intention to propose amending California’s constitution to permit sports betting in the state, provided the US Supreme Court rules in favor of New Jersey’s multi-year quest to overturn the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) sports betting prohibition.

Gray issued a statement saying his ACA 18 amendment reflected the reality that Californians were already betting on sports via any number of internationally licensed online gambling sites, and ACA 18 was merely his effort to “bring this multibillion dollar industry out of the shadows.”

California is but the latest in a growing chorus of states that have expressed interest in offering legal sports betting to their residents, now that New Jersey’s tireless efforts appear close to bearing fruit. Frankly, with the exception of Utah and Hawaii, it’s hard to think of a state that wouldn’t at least consider legal betting if there was no federal nanny standing in its way.

In this week’s Calling The Clock we bring you the penultimate round-up from the World Series of Poker, advise you of a brand new High Stakes poker show on PokerGO, and much more. 

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event reached the final table, and I admit, it felt a little lacklustre without the pomp & circumstance of the November Nine fanfare.

You can choose the participants in chronological order, the order of worst to best-dressed person, or the least experienced to the experienced, it doesn’t matter, John Hesp will always be the name hanging from your chapped lip.

The 64-year-old grandfather from Yorkshire, England, was competing in the Main Event to tick an item off his bucket list. His experience of poker, though vast in terms of years played, consists of a monthly trip to the local casino to compete in a £10 rebuy. When his wife agreed to his ridiculous request to travel to Las Vegas, and pay $10,000 to play poker, he increased his visits to the local casino to three £10 rebuys per month so he could get the practice. And now he sits second in chips, with $1m in the bank, and the possibility of winning another $7m+ in a few days time.

The online sportsbook Loot.Bet adds the cryptocurrency SkinCoin to their broad offerings of currencies despite the digital currency currently going through an Initial Coin Offering.

I am 42.

I don’t feel old in the physical or mental sense, other than having to pee every few minutes, but I am caveman like when it comes to the shifting sands of the technological advancements whizzing past my eyes with the pace of spawning salmon heading down a bottle-green river.

Take currency, as an example.

We continue our dig into the habits and routines of professional poker players with a look into the faculty and foibles of the Grosvenor Casinos sponsored pro, Jeff Kimber. 

I first played with Jeff Kimber during a Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour (GUKPT) side-event in Cardiff Bay. He was seated to my direct left. The game was Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO). I couldn’t hold four cards in my hand without showing the whole table. I was so nervous my face started to swell like I had Diphtheria.  He knocked me out. The Bastard.

I have never spoken to him, verbally, but he reacts to Facebook Messenger quicker than Keith Floyd used to respond to a glass of French Champagne thrust under his nose while he waited for his souffle to rise, and for that, I will forever be in his debt.

Hendon Mob shows that Kimber has won $1.7m in live tournaments, with most of his regular beans coming on the GUKPT. In 2006, he finished ninth in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Bay 101 Shooting Stars event for $100,000. A year later, he won the €2,500 buy-in World Heads-Up Championship in Barcelona for €125,000, and in 2009, he finished runner-up to JC Tran in a $2,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) event at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $145,656.

The German star, Manig Loeser, has earned his largest score to date after topping a field of 52 entrants in the HK$1m buy-in Triton Super High Roller Main Event in Montenegro. 

It’s been evident for some time now that Manig Loeser had taken his game to the next level. The German star had been slopping around the mid-stakes of the poker community like gin in a glass, but now he can dine on the very best champagne.

Loeser has defeated 52-entrants to win the top prize of HK$16,877,600 ($2.1m) at the HK$1m buy-in Triton Super High Roller Series Main Event in Montenegro. The three-day event attracted a host of stars including partypoker Ambassador Sam Trickett, the Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year (POY), David Peters, and the inimitable Fedor Holz.

The Day 1 attendance register counted 47 entrants, including nine re-entries. 31 players made Day 2, with Wang Qiang from China leading the way, with Loeser sitting in 11th spot.

Florida has approved a Miami-area dog track’s ‘decoupling’ plan that will see it scrap racing activity while continuing to offer slots and card games.

In 2011, the Magic City Casino applied for a so-called ‘summer jai alai’ permit, under a state law that allowed the two pari-mutuel operators in Miami-Dade and Broward counties with the lowest betting handle for two consecutive years to ditch the dogs in favor of jai alai operations (on which state residents are also allowed to legally wager).

State gaming regulators originally rejected the Magic City application, but an appeals court ordered them to rethink their decision. On Wednesday, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation approved Magic City’s request, provided the new jai alai fronton is built on the same property.

The decision marks the first time the state has permitted a track to ‘decouple’ from racing while maintaining its real bread-and-butter: slots and card games. Decoupling proposals have been a regular element of Florida’s annual failed efforts to rejig its gambling market, in part because the state pays millions more to regulate dog racing than the activity provides in tax revenue.