Beleaguered online lottery betting operator Lottoland is waiting for the tides to turn after a group of Australian newsagents agreed to consider its proposal for a profit-sharing agreement.

Lottoland found an unlikely ally in the form of The Newsagents Association of NSW and ACT (NANA) in the remaining weeks before it’s evicted from the land down under. In a statement, NANA said it will continue to negotiate with Lottoland and other organizations for the benefit of its members. If a compromise can’t be reached, NANA will walk away from the negotiating table.

“NANA is committed to continuing to work in the best interests of its Members.  Dismissing any genuine offer from any organization to work with Newsagents closes the gate and will potentially cost newsagents income,” the group said in a statement.

Earlier this month, Lottoland published a full-page newspaper advertisement seeking a discussion with newsagents for a win-win solution for both parties in the wake of the Australian government’s decision to ban online betting on lotteries and keno.

Las Vegas-based casino operator Wynn Resorts is giving more opportunity for women to be heard in the company in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal involving its founder and former CEO Steve Wynn.

The Nasdaq-listed firm announced that that it has expanded the composition of its board members to 11 in order to give way to the appointments of three “highly-qualified” women as independent directors.

Wynn Resorts said the appointments of Betsy Atkins, Dee Dee Myers and Wendy Webb as independent directors “signify a turning point” for the casino operator that is still reeling from a scandal tied to the former executive. The announcement comes a day after Elaine Wynn, currently the largest single shareholder of the casino company, request an overhaul of the entire board to “fully restore” Wynn Resorts’ reputation.

The appointments of Atkins, Myers, and Webb to Wynn Resorts bring the composition of women in the company to 36 percent, catapulting the casino operator to the top 40 S&P 500 companies in terms of female board representation.

A Chinese crypto firm has caught the ire of many junket operators after announcing that its digital coin may be used for transactions in Macau casinos.

Tech firm Lantai Digital Application Technology Co Ltd recently launched its supposed cryptocurrency before the local media, stating that the digital currency is supported by several Macau VIP gambling promoters. Turns out, Lantai’s claim was nothing but fake news.

Several Macau-based junket operators—Suncity Group, Tak Chun Group, Meg-Star Group, Guangdong Group, and David Group—immediately issued a rebuttal after Lantai’s announcement, saying that they aren’t happy with how their brands have been dragged in the launch of the Chinese company’s token, according to a GGRAsia report.

There are some promoters that are planning to drag Lantai to court for unauthorized use of their trade names and corporate logos for the purposes of marketing or promotion, according to the news outlet.

Three poker stories with a hint of PokerStars seasoning including a former employee having a baby, a current employee taking the TED stage, and two brothers making another weight loss prop bet.

Three news stories with a very loose PokerStars thread connecting them like those mittens that used to hang off your cardy at school, and we will begin with Vanessa Selbst.

The former PokerStars Team Pro (and former poker player), is having a baby.

Despite the poker lull recently, I feel like I’m gonna crush this one. #WSOAF pic.twitter.com/d7kYw3oLx6

Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings is adding a Mumbai-based daily fantasy sports platform to its list of investments as it window-shops for businesses across Asia.

The Economic Times reported that Tencent is mulling on investing an estimated Rs 656.63 crore ($100 million) in online fantasy sports platform Dream11, with talks now in the advanced stages.

The news of Tencent’s investment in Dream 11 came on the heels of Punjab and Haryana High Court’s ruling that fantasy sports are games of skill and not of chance. Unlike gambling, Justice Amit Rawal pointed out that playing fantasy games required considerable skill, judgement and discretion.

Sources told the news outlet that Tencent, considered to be the world’s fifth-largest internet company, offered a term sheet for a transaction to the daily fantasy sports (DFS) platform. If the deal pushes through, Dream11’s pre-money valuation will climb at around $400 to $450 million.

It might be a little hard to fathom that an imaginary character could result in a $50-billion a year industry, but that appears to be exactly what is happening. Research company Juniper Research has released its report showing that in-game gambling in video games is proving to be a real moneymaker, currently producing around $30 billion a year. Juniper anticipates that this amount could rise to as much as $50 billion by 2020.

The in-game revenue comes by way of loot boxes and “skin” gambling. Both offer the ability to enhance a video game character or to win game upgrades or prizes by purchasing options with real cash. Loot boxes have been deemed by many to be gambling since the reward for their purchase isn’t revealed until after the purchase. This has resulted in a great deal of negative publicity, with some legislation, including those in Australia, Belgium and the United States, to consider banning them completely. It has been such a controversial topic that EA Games went so far as to completely remove its Star Wars Battlefront 2 game from shelves. Despite the setback, loot boxes are still offered, and are, in fact, rising in popularity. Now, however, video game manufacturers are taking steps to ensure that the practice adheres to regulations.

Skins haven’t been as controversial, but it will probably only be a matter of time. A skin is a cosmetic upgrade to a character in a video game that is purchased with cash. As such, they are considered to have real-world value and are becoming popular as a way to place wagers or gamble in casino-style games. They are also traded, with highly sought-after skins being sold for cash. The PC gaming platform Steam provides a marketplace for its games where users can bid on skins. Steam keeps 5% of the transaction amount, making it a lucrative endeavor. Valve, a third-party site similar to Steam’s marketplace, runs the same type of operation, and earns a small transaction fee from each trade.

Despite the regulatory blowback, it would seem that the industry isn’t going away anytime soon. The Juniper report, “In-Game Gambling – The Next Cash Cow For Publishers,” noted that “loot boxes are becoming an increasingly popular means of monetizing consumers and creating longer term engagement with titles.”

Australia’s Crown casinos have had to deal with a lot of issues lately. It’s bad enough that it has faced fraud charges from the outside and that its CEO resigned over mental health issues. Now, the casino operator also has to deal with fraud from the inside, as one of its dealers is appearing before a judge over charges he was running a scam that resulted in the loss of over US$311,000.

A former baccarat croupier, Michael Huo, is facing accusations of collusion over a scheme that he ran with three individuals at the tables. One of the four could possibly get off easy, while the other three have been charged with “engaging in conduct that corrupted a betting outcome, obtaining property by deception, and dealing with the proceeds of crime.”

The 35-year-old had been working as a croupier for Crown Melbourne for more than five years in the casino’s Mahogany VIP room. In 2017, between March 26 and May 1, Huo allegedly conspired with Yixuan Cui, Fiona Shum and Ke Wang to rig the games. While the floor bosses didn’t notice the activity, surveillance cameras witnessed as Huo would look at the top cards before telling his accomplices how to wager. The trio of ladies was able to win $335,000 in just 58 hours.

All four were arrested by casino security officers on May 1 after security cameras captured over 20 instances of Huo peaking at the cards. The youngest of the group, 25-year-old Wang, faces the least severe punishment. In exchange for clemency as a first-time offender, she won’t face jail time, but will be ordered to participate in a diversion program. The others could face up to 10 years in prison for their actions, but there’s a slight chance that the case could be thrown out.

The European Poker Tour (EPT) is making a return to Monte Carlo, and the poker community couldn’t be happier. This year’s series of tournaments, entitled the 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo Casino EPT, will get underway on April 24, bringing the action back to the French gambling enclave after taking a break last year. Among the traditional NLHE and Omaha games, several High Roller and Super High Roller events promise to provide some incredible action.

After 2016, PokerStars decided to mix things up a bit and ditched the EPT in favor of its Championship and Festivals. It was a surprise, given the popularity of the Monte Carlo stop, and PokerStars obviously saw the error of its ways in deciding to return to the French Riviera.

There are five PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) packages up for grabs during the series. Each package is worth $30,000 and provides the winner with the $25,000 entry fee for the PSPC event, accommodations for six nights at the Atlantis Resort in Nassau, Bahamas, as well as $2,000 in spending money.

Monte Carlo was the last stop on the EPT from season 1 through season 12. It has been the location of all EPT Grand Finals, except in season 7 when it was held in Madrid. Two EPT events held previously in Monte Carlo have produced millionaires. In season 4, Glen Chorny won almost $3.2 million at the EPT Grand Final after he took down Denes Kalo. The following year, Pieter de Korver won the same event, pocketing a little more than $3 million.

Colombia has reportedly flip-flopped on plans to allow its online poker licensees to share player liquidity with internationally licensed poker sites.

Last November, Colombia’s Coljuegos regulatory agency announced that it would allow its licensed online poker operators to share player liquidity with poker sites in other regulated markets. Last week, iGaming Business quoted the head of Colombia’s gaming trade group Fecoljuegos saying the liquidity sharing plans were toast.

There’s been no official word from Coljuegos on the matter, but according to Fecoljuegos president Evert Montero Cardenas, the regulator’s liquidity plan is no more “because there were many issues regarding the potential risks on the control of cash and the players abroad.”

However, Cardenas may have gotten to the true heart of the matter when he noted that shared liquidity “did not offer any benefits to the national operators,” given that no domestic operators currently operate poker sites in any international jurisdiction with which they could pool liquidity.