A Cambodian-licensed online gambling operator may be testing the patience of local authorities with his claim that the nation is a cesspool of corruption.

On Tuesday, the Phnom Penh Post published an article gauging the local gaming industry’s reaction to China’s ongoing crackdown on foreign casino operators luring mainland residents abroad for the purposes of gambling.

The consensus opinion is that Cambodia’s good relationship with Beijing and local casinos’ low reliance on junket operators (at least, compared to some other jurisdictions) will provide some immunity to China’s tightening grip.

Ros Phirun, deputy director of the Finance Industry Department at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, told the Post that the government has yet to see any negative feedback from China “and don’t expect to see much.”

Fed up with being called a ‘Ginger Busker,’ Ed Sheeran leaves Twitter, and it’s not a bad idea for some professional poker players to adopt the same approach.

The ritual is the same. I wake up, stumble into the toilet like a drunk ghost, sleep mask still covering my eyes, preventing me from seeing aliens, and then by the time I have finished my business, I wake up and check my mobile phone.

This morning, there was a class tweet from Donald Trump. The guy is a nightmare for office, but he does have an addictive Twitter stream. Never before in the history of our tiny blue planet have we had a filterless President, like Trump.

Here was this morning’s gem.

The estate of legendary fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien has settled its lawsuit with film studio Warner Bros. over what the estate claims was the unauthorized licensing of its intellectual property for gambling purposes.

In 2012, the Tolkien estate, along with publisher Harper Collins, sued Warner Bros. for the unauthorized use of characters, imagery and other intellectual property associated with Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) and The Hobbit novels. Warner had licensed the products to casino software developer Microgaming, which created a slots title based on The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of the LOTR trilogy.

While Warner had worked out a deal with the Tolkien estate, the Tolkien camp argued that the deal covered only the sale of “tangible” merchandise, and not the “morally-questionable (and decidedly non-literary) world of online and casino gambling.”

Amusingly, the Tolkien estate didn’t cotton on to the fact that people were gambling on Gollum until a couple years after Microgaming signed its digital licensing deal with Warner. As legend has it, a Tolkien estate attorney felt the eye of Sauron upon him after receiving an email promo pitching the LOTR slot.

Floating casinos in the Indian state of Goa have been given more time to find a new place to ply their trade, just as their current home is about to grow a little more crowded.

On Tuesday, Goa’s state government issued a notice admitting that it has yet to find a new permanent home for the operators of the five casinos currently in operation on the Mandovi river. As a result, the deadline for the casinos to wrap up their operations on the Mandovi has been extended by three months to September 30.

The new deadline matches an earlier promise the government made to the casino operators – Delta Corp, Goa Coastal Resorts and Recreation, Highstreet Cruises and Entertainment, Golden Peace Infrastructure and Delta Pleasure Cruise Company – immediately following this spring’s elections.

The search for an alternate waterway has been going on for years now, with sites at Auguada Bay and on the Zuari, Chapora and Sal rivers all put forward as possible home berths. But these plans were complicated when local residents expressed resistance, in some cases due to the potential impact on sensitive fishing areas.

Casino operator Caesars Entertainment is holding talks to partner with a Chinese developer regarding a long-stalled gaming project on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Last week, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported that Caesars’ international development exec Steven Tight had been skulking around the Gold Coast region in the state of Queensland, studying the feasibility of a resort casino project in the area.

On Tuesday, the Bulletin quoted Louis Chien, director of ASF Consortium, saying Caesars was one of the companies with which ASF was holding with regarding running gaming operations at ASF’s proposed A$3b integrated resort on the Gold Coast’s Southport Spit.

ASF, which is led by the Chinese government’s state-run China State Construction Engineering development firm, is the Queensland government’s preferred developer for the long-proposed Gold Coast resort project. The state government’s consultation finished in April and ASF is reportedly waiting to learn the results before submitting further design plans regarding its proposed five-tower development.

Philippines-based gambling operators have been formally warned that offering kickbacks to public officials is a guaranteed one-way trip to jail and/or Palookaville.

On Tuesday, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) posted a notice to its website alerting all gambling licensees – be they land-based casinos, eGaming venues or online gambling operators – clarifying the regulator’s ironclad ‘No Gift Policy.’

PAGCOR drew attention to a specific section of the Republic Act No. 3019, aka the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits public officials from directly or indirectly requesting or receiving gifts, presents or other material benefits from any person or entity over which an official holds the power to intervene on their behalf.

PAGCOR notes that its own ‘No Gift Policy’ prohibits officials from soliciting or accepting “any gift, gratuity, favor, entertainment, loan or anything of monetary value” from any local or foreign party seeking to influence the decision-making process of PAGCOR’s Governing Board, officers, employees and consultants.