Former Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov wants a Quebec court to dismiss his insider trading charges due to the delays in bringing his case to trial.

On Friday, the Globe and Mail reported that Baazov’s attorneys had filed a motion with the Court of Quebec on October 17 asking for the charges against Baazov to be stayed because the prosecution has been too slow in bringing the case to trial. The Quebec court will hear the defense motion on December 11, the date Baazov’s trial is set to commence.

In March 2016, Quebec securities regulator Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) hit Baazov and two other defendants with 23 criminal charges of insider trading. The charges are centered around suspicious gains in the Toronto-listed Amaya’s share price in the months leading up to Amaya’s $4.9b acquisition of the parent company of online poker giant PokerStars in June 2014.

Baazov’s trial was originally scheduled to take place on November 20, but prosecutors reportedly waited until September 21 to turn over a hard drive containing 16 million documents to the defense.

Online virtual betting is the latest product to debut in New Jersey’s regulated online gambling market, although what kind of reception the product will receive remains to be seen.

On Wednesday, Rush Street Interactive launched online and mobile virtual sports and racing via its New Jersey online gambling site, PlaySugarHouse.com. The product was designed by Inspired Gaming, which has carved out a lucrative niche supplying virtual sports to both land-based and online bookmakers across Europe.

Late last year, Inspired received approval to operate virtual sports terminals in Nevada but the New Jersey launch represents the first time the product has been made available online in the United States. Two other New Jersey online operators, Resorts Digital Gaming and the Golden Nugget, have plans to launch similar products in the near future.

Even in European markets where actual sports betting is permitted, virtual sports betting has proven popular, particularly in the UK and Italy. The latter market’s retail betting shops reported virtual sports betting turnover of nearly €1.2b through the first 10 months of 2017, compared to slightly more than €3.5b in ‘real’ sports wagers.

US gaming technology provider Scientific Games Corporation has increased its stake in rival NYX Gaming Group, in part via a transaction with the parent company of online poker giant PokerStars.

On Friday, Sci-Games announced that it had boosted its stake in the Toronto-listed NYX to just over 36% of that company’s issued and outstanding ordinary shares. Sci-Games, which as of last week held no stake whatsoever in NYX, announced earlier this week that it had acquired a 10.7% stake in NYX.

Sci-Games’ latest share purchase cost the company C$87.7m (US$69m), bringing Sci-Games’ total outlay this week to nearly C$115m. The deals also include share purchase warrants and exchangeable preferred shares, which, if fully exercised, would bring Sci-Games’ total NYX stake to 42.7%.

A hefty chunk of Sci-Games’ most recent NYX share purchase came via The Stars Group, the Toronto-listed parent company of PokerStars. Amaya Gaming, the Stars Group’s previous corporate identity, took a significant slice of NYX when Amaya sold its Chartwell and Cryptologic gaming software divisions to NYX in 2015.

Chinese authorities have disrupted two major underground banking networks that helped transfer money from the mainland to casinos in Macau.

On Friday, Chinese state media reported that police had broken up two major underground banks in Shaoguan in northern Guangdong province in a series of raids on November 9.

The banks reportedly handled over RMB 20b (US $3.1b) worth of transactions, helping over 10k clients across 20 provinces to transfer money on or off the mainland or to exchange yuan for foreign currency.

Police detained seven individuals following an investigation that began in July. Police were acting on a tip regarding a long dormant account that suddenly flared back to life last year, resulting in a flurry of 121 transactions with a total value of nearly RMB 99m ($15m).

Woolworths chairman Gordon Cairns has thumbed down proposals for the company to introduce AU$1 bet limits on poker machines.

Cairns found himself on the hot seat during the company’s annual general meeting on Thursday as he fended off anti-gambling shareholders’ attacks against the Australian-listed firm’s poker machine operations.

The Guardian reported that Cairns raised his eyebrows over anti-gambling advocates’ claims that problem gambling is caused by the company’s imposition of higher bets on its pokie machines.

When asked whether Woolsworth would follow the footstep of its rival grocery giant and hotels operator Coles in placing AU$1 bet limits on poker machines, Cairns told shareholders that “there is no empirical evidence that will improve the incidences of problem gambling.”

Net profit of Malaysian conglomerate Genting Malaysia BHD shrank to MYR191.1 million (US$46.5 million) in the third quarter of 2017, dragged by hefty impairment plus higher expenses and finance cost.

In a disclosure to Bursa Malaysia on Thursday, the casino-to-plantation conglomerate reported that its net profit plunged 67 percent from MYR 574 million (US$139.37 million) in the same period last year.

Revenue, on the other hand, rose 7.7% to MYR5.04 billion ($1.23 billion) during the period from MYR4.68 billion (US$1.14 billion) a year ago, it said.

“The Malaysian leisure and hospitality business reported lower revenue in third-quarter 2017 despite higher volume of business aided by the opening of new attractions and facilities under the Genting Integrated Tourism Plan (GITP). This was primarily due to lower hold percentage in the mid to premium players business segment,” the company said.

Australian casino operator Crown Resorts Ltd. has reportedly put its 62 percent CrownBet stake in play this week.

The Australian Financial Review reported that CrownBet executives and the Philip-Bowcock-led British bookmaker William Hill held in-depth talks on a potential deal. The idea of the possible merger between the two companies, however, was not on the table.

In a statement, Crown Resorts confirmed that it has been thinking about Crown Resorts and CrownBets’ future but made no mention of a possible merger between CrownBet and William Hill.

“Crown evaluates opportunities regarding its investments from time to time,” the company said. “Crown confirms that it is in discussions concerning its interest in CrownBet. There is no certainty as to whether any transaction will eventuate.”