UK-based horse racing broadcaster GBI Racing is seeking up to $57m in compensation from Israel after the government banned race betting in the country.

Last year, an Israeli government commission proposed a ban on race betting run by the Israel Sports Betting Board’s Toto brand. The ban was part of a larger anti-gambling push by Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who has also targeted the state lottery’s electronic gambling machines and vowed to prevent Israel from lifting its ban on casino gambling.

Israel’s parliament recently approved the race betting ban, despite the fact that GBI’s contract to supply live racing coverage from 75 UK and Irish racecourses to Toto retail outlets doesn’t expire until August 2018. Israeli media outlet Haaretz reported that GBI officials recently met with Finance Ministry officials to demand compensation for the early termination of its contract.

GBI is reportedly seeking up to 200m shekels ($57m) in compensation based on its belief that the government has no right to unilaterally cancel the contract when the company has lived up to its end of the bargain. The Finance Ministry is reportedly prepared to negotiate a settlement during talks that will commence over the coming weeks.

A short and sweet World Series of Poker round-up congratulating the Germans for winning their first bracelet of the summer courtesy of Jens Lakemeier, the Crazy Eights event drags in crazy numbers, and the Poker Player Championship begins.

I know what you’ve been thinking these past three weeks – why haven’t the Germans been skinning everyone alive?

Typically, this time of year, about ten of them step onto the steaming hot tarmac of McCarron Airport secretly divvying up how many bracelets, and how much money they are going to win, but it hasn’t turned out like that.

Christoph Vogelsang took down the Super High Roller Bowl for $6m, but instead of German poker players swarming all over the Rio like the enchanted broomsticks in Fantasia, they appear like sheet music scattered by the billows of the Rio air con unit.

Turkey is preparing to unleash a major anti-gambling campaign that organizers suggest could last as long as two years.

On Monday, pro-government media outlet the Daily Sabah reported that the Turkish government was plotting a major campaign to combat illegal gambling, both land-based and online. Police are coordinating with the Interior and Justice ministries as well as the Revenue Department on the campaign, the launch date of which wasn’t specified.

The campaign will require the assistance of the country’s banks to restrict local gamblers’ ability to move money on and off prohibited online gambling sites. Showing that it’s up with the times, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) will also attempt to target punters who attempt to fund their online gambling activity via ‘alternative spending methods,’ including the use of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether.

Similarly, the nation’s Information and Communications Technologies Authority (BTK) will monitor the interwebz for anyone promoting illegal gambling via search engines, or other advertising avenues, such as “internet pages that broadcast TV shows and pornographic material as a cover to advertise gambling sites.” So, all of them?

With Chris Ferguson, one of the bookie’s favourites to pick up the 2017 World Series of Poker Player of the Year award, we poke around the innards of the poker industry to figure out how it is allowed to happen.

My ex-wife hates my guts.

She hurts me.

I hurt her.

Lottery betting operator Lottoland has sold its stake in Australian online lottery reseller Jumbo Interactive, barely two months after it acquired the shares.

In late April, the Gibraltar-based Lottoland paid around A$7.6m (US $5.8m) for slightly more than 3.1m shares in Jumbo Interactive, a division of Australian lottery and betting operator Tatts Group. The purchase represented just over 7% of shares in Jumbo, the official online lottery reseller for OzLotteries.com.

At the time, Lottoland CEO Nigel Birrell issued a statement saying the acquisition of the Jumbo stake was “another example of Lottoland’s long-term commitment to the Australian market.” But Jumbo filed papers with the Australian Stock Exchange on Monday indicating that Lottoland had sold its entire stake in Jumbo the previous Friday.

The filing contained a brief fax message from Birrell that included Lottoland’s “notice of ceasing to be a substantial shareholder in relation to Jumbo Interactive Limited.” The attached Form 605 indicated that Lottoland had sold its entire Jumbo stake at A$2.55 per share, a modest premium over what Lottoland paid two months earlier.

Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International Holdings (IPI) says it will launch gaming operations at its permanent resort on Thursday, July 6.

Last week, gaming regulators in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands gave their approval for IPI to launch gaming operations at its unfinished Imperial Pacific Resort Saipan by July 15. On Monday, IPI announced that it aims to launch gaming at the new venue by July 6.

Since July 2015, IPI has been running a ‘temporary training facility’ called Best Sunshine Live out of a high-end shopping mall in Garapan. But as of 5pm on July 6, IPI will officially transfer its gaming operations to the new permanent venue, and gaming activity at Best Sunshine will cease.

IPI CEO Kwong Yiu Ling said the company was “very excited” to be launching “a new era of luxury on Saipan” by transferring its gaming operations to the new venue. The new gaming floor will make its debut with “over 70” gaming tables and “over 190” electronic gaming machines.

Armed with analyst ace-in-the-pack forecasts, representatives of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) are heading to Barcelona to make a pitch on why the Philippines is the next top gaming destination in the Southeast Asian region.

As Macau diversifies its entertainment offerings, its neighboring countries have started to play their cards right for a slight of the gaming pie. The Philippines, in particular, is not shy with its goal of becoming one of Asia’s top gaming destinations

The country has opened its version of Las Vegas Strip-like cluster of casino resorts in its capital city of Manila. Entertainment City is now hosting three of the four planned large-scale integrated resorts: Bloomberry Resort’s Solaire Resort and Casino, Melco’s City of Dreams Manila, and the newly opened Okada Manila. The fourth casino, Genting Group’s West Side City Resorts World, is targeting a 2020 launch.

Analysts see a “decent amount of growth in inbound Chinese volume” in the Philippines, which is currently experiencing improvements in its economic situation.