It’s all systems go for U.S. tribal casino operator Mohegan Sun’s planned casino project in Incheon, South Korea.

Mitchell Etess, president and chief executive of Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment, announced on Thursday that the company is eyeing to start constructing its new casino resort before the year ends.

“The company is well into the planning stage of its [South] Korean joint venture, Project Inspire, where we anticipate breaking ground before the end of calendar 2017,” Etess said in a statement.

In May, Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment—formerly known as Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority—signed a deal with the Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC) in connection with the construction of the Inspire Integrated Resort. The casino project is a consortium involving Mohegan Sun, IIAC and South Korean chemicals manufacturer KCC Corp.

As the debate over bitcoin’s scaling rages on, one of the potential forks—Bitcoin Cash—is being lauded for its attempt to fulfil Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of true decentralized, peer-to-peer electronic cash with more efficient transaction capacity.

If you’re just joining us, the bitcoin community is currently divided on how to resolve bitcoin’s underlying scaling issue, with several parties proposing to scale the network in different ways. One of these proposals is SegWit2X, which combines Bitcoin Core’s Segregated Witness—whose goal is to send transactions off-chain—and a block size increase.

However, some of SegWit2X’s original backers have started to lose confidence that the proposal will implement the “2X” part, and decided to take the matters into their own hands. This is why on August 1, the group said they will split off from bitcoin and create a new digital currency called Bitcoin Cash.

New coin on the block

The shopping spree is not yet over for Amaya Gaming’s little-known Asian investor.

For the month of July, Hong Kong-based investor Tang Hao picked up an additional 4.2 million shares of Pokerstar’s parent company, Amaya Gaming. Last Tuesday, the investor bought 279,200 shares at an average cost of C$22.36 per share, for a total price of C$6.24 million. This was followed by another 500,000 shares that the investor bought last Monday at an average cost of C$22.25 per share, for a total of C$11.12 million.

This is in addition to the 413,000 shares that Hao Tang bought on July 21 for a total of C$9.17 million; the 495,700 shares bought on July 20 for C$11.13 million; the 189,400 shares bought on July 19 for C$4.16 million; the 400,000 shares bought on July 18 for C$8.72 million; and the 400,000 shares bought on July 17 for C$8.78 million.

The investor also purchased 400,000 shares for C$8.83 million on July 14; another 400,000 shares for C$8.87 million on July 13; 420,000 shares for C$9.35 million on July 12; and 380,000 shares for C$8.45 million on July 11.

The axe has finally fallen on the longstanding head of Adelaide’s gambling watchdog after a ten-month paid hiatus, according to The Advertiser report. 

Robert Chappell’s removal from the independent Gambling Authority on May 5 puzzled many observers especially after the State Government decided to keep its mouth shut on the issue. And there’s the question on how much money Chappell pocketed since day one of his 10-month paid leave. 

The report added that the government did not leave any clue on whether Chappell received a termination package on top on the money he got for the ten months that he was not inside the office. 

His termination also coincided with SkyCity’s decision to proceed with the $330 million redevelopment of the Adelaide Casino. It would be recalled that independent Gambling Authority and the State Government locked horns over gaming concessions in connection with the SkyCity expansion issue. 

Philippine-listed gaming company Premium Leisure Corp. (PLC) doubles its earnings in the second quarter, thanks to the strong performance of City of Dreams Manila.

In a filing before the Philippine Stock Exchange, PLC reported a net income of PHP 470.25 million (US$9.29 million) during the April to June 2017 period, 104 percent higher than the PHP230.93 million (US$4.56 million) it posted in the previous year.

Gross revenues likewise surged by 55% to P1.25 billion (US$24.71 million) during the second quarter, from P809.29 million a year ago.

The second quarter figures also lifted PLC’s attributable net income for the first six months of 2017 to P895.21 million (US$17.69 million) – that’s  153% higher than the P353.06 million (US$6.98 million) a year ago. Revenues also jumped 58% to P2.52 billion, from P1.59 billion during the same period last year.

After two somewhat disappointing campaigns, the Ohio State Buckeyes are hoping to bounce back in 2017 and put themselves in position for their second national championship in four years.

The Buckeyes have failed to make it to the Big Ten Championship Game the past two years yet find themselves as strong -120 favorites to take home the title this year, according to oddsmakers.

Last year, Ohio State lost a tiebreaker with the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Big Ten East, with each of them finishing at 8-1 in conference play. The Buckeyes still made their way into the College Football Playoff semifinals though, getting blanked by the eventual national champion Clemson Tigers 31-0 to end up 11-2 overall.

This year, defending Big Ten champ Penn State returns quarterback Trace McSorley and running back Saquon Barkley, who has already set school records for most rushing yards by a freshman and sophomore. Barkley looks to be one of the early favorites to win the Heisman Trophy along with Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett, with both players sitting at +800.

3: Barrels of a PokerStars vintage as Power Up undergoes a successful trial; the hammer comes down on tankers in ring games and PokerStars Team pros behind World Series of Poker bracelet sale.

Someone within the online poker world needed to show some balls and change the fundamentals of poker to save it from extinction. Interest in our game would have spiralled inwards like a snail shell until hitting the point of oblivion.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is no longer a behavioural symptom of the few. It’s the genetic makeup of the many. PokerStars is aware of this. PokerStars has balls. PokerStars is now waving them in everyone’s face in the shape of a brand new game: PokerStars Power Up. 

Writing on the Corporate Blog, Severin Rasset, Director of Poker Innovation and Operations for PokerStars, announced the end of the Power Up Alpha Testing, and its good news.

Casino operator MGM Resorts posted higher revenue in Q2 but analysts are fretting that the gains were largely due to new venues, not ‘same store’ growth.

MGM says revenue rose 16.3% year-on-year to $2.64b in the three months ending June 30, but operating income fell more than one-third to $501m and net income fell by more than half to $210m, the latter two figures having been artificially boosted by one-off items in Q2 2016.

The revenue gain was in part due to last December’s opening of the MGM National Harbor in Maryland, which the company says contributed nearly $178m to Q2’s total. The results were also skewed by a full contribution from the 50% of Atlantic City’s market-leading Borgata casino that MGM didn’t own at the start of Q2 2016.

As a result, while MGM’s domestic resorts reported revenue rising 22% to $2.1b, like-for-like revenue was down 1% due to a nearly five-point drop in gaming table win percentage. MGM CEO Jim Murren warned that Q3 faced a similarly “challenging comparison” due to favorable table win at MGM’s Las Vegas Strip properties in the same period last year.