Florida’s state government has reached a new gaming deal with the Seminole Tribe, but a special legislative session on gaming issues appears to still be in the works.

On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced that the state had extended its casino revenue sharing agreement with the Seminoles through May 2019. The agreement, which was signed in 2017, calls for the tribe to provide the state with around $300m per year in exchange for exclusive rights to certain gaming products.

Scott said the agreement “ensures the Tribe’s current commitment remains intact” but Scott stressed that Wednesday’s deal “does not make any changes to state gaming law or expand current gaming operations in Florida in any way.”

The 2017 agreement was itself a stopgap deal due to the inability of state legislators to approve a new gaming compact with the tribe, which operates the Hard Rock International family of casinos. Gov. Scott and the tribe agreed on a new gaming compact in 2015 but it was never ratified by the legislature, where competing factions have prevented forward progress on pretty much any subject related to gaming.

Chino Rheem comes close to becoming the first World Poker Tour Champions Club member to win a WPTDeepStacks Main Event with a fourth-place finish in Amsterdam, and Brandon Adams takes down the $25,000 Super High Roller at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in Florida.

Here is a little-known fact for you.

A World Poker Tour (WPT) Champions Club member has never won a WPTDeepStacks Main Event title.

One recently came mightily close.

Gambling technology provider Scientific Games Corporation has launched a new sports betting product for Hungary’s state-owned lottery and betting operator.

On Tuesday, Sci-Games announced that it had successfully launched an online sports betting product for Hungary’s Szerencsejáték Zrt, the government-owned monopoly sports betting and lottery operator. Sci-Games has been working with Szerencsejáték since 1997 (through a legacy company) but is now the sole provider of Szerencsejáték’s gaming technology.

The omni-channel sports platform offers Hungarian punters the opportunity to wager via both desktop and mobile digital products, in addition to powering the monopoly’s nearly 5k retail lottery terminals. The monopoly’s CIO David Csillag said the launch “creates a seamless gaming experience for our players.”

Of course, Hungarian punters have to take Csillag’s word that Szerencsejáték’s offering is the bee’s knees, given that the government has routinely fought efforts by internationally licensed online gambling operators to acquire local licenses, despite this stance having been declared unlawful by the European Union’s top court.

Another infamous name has been linked to Dragon Coin, and it’s a company you might’ve heard of recently.

Cambridge Analytica, the digital data harvesting firm that has been in the news recently for all the negative reasons you can imagine, has found itself in the limelight again. A New York Times report linked the embattled data firm to Dragon Coin’s initial coin offering (ICO) in late 2017.

A quick recap: In October, Hong Kong-based gaming company Dragon Corporation initiated a token crowdsale to raise $500 million and bring blockchain to Macau. Proceeds from the ICO would go towards the development of the 1,600-square meter floating Dragon Pearl Casino Hotel.

While the Dragon Corp. executives were glad-handing and posing for publicity photos with figures like former 14K Triad leader Wan ‘Broken Tooth’ Kuok Koi at the Dragon Coin event, Cambridge Analytica had been busy behind the scenes, emailing potential partners and investors as well as making arrangements for all-expenses-paid trips to the glitzy Macau shindig, according to the report.

Atlantic City’s new Hard Rock-branded casino will open at the end of June with a star-studded lineup of musical entertainment.

On Wednesday, Hard Rock International (HRI) chairman/CEO Jim Allen announced that the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City will open to the public on June 28. The announcement was made simultaneously at events in AC, New York and Philadelphia.

HRI acquired the former Trump Taj Mahal casino from owner Carl Icahn in March 2017 and promptly embarked upon a $500m refurbishment to (a) incorporate the company’s music-themed sensibilities and (b) strip the property of the tacky ‘minarets and purple’ identity so beloved by the current occupant of the White House.

HRI’s Allen claimed the remodeled property’s grand opening “will set the tone for a new era of entertainment in Atlantic City.” Allen claimed the company “had a different view point” when it chose to enter the AC market, saying “it’s not about gaming, it’s about entertainment.”

Pennsylvania casinos set a new monthly revenue record in March but the latest auction for a satellite casino license still came up empty.

On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) proudly announced that the state’s 12 casinos generated revenue of $300.5m in March, a 3.8% improvement over the same month last year and a new monthly revenue record, surpassing the previous record of $296.7m in March 2013.

March’s gains came entirely due to slot machines, which gained 5.4% year-on-year to $221.3m. Table game revenue slipped half a percentage point to $79.2m, thanks largely to an 11.4% fall at Sands Bethlehem, which nonetheless still managed to top the table chart with $18.9m, although runner-up Parx Casino made a valiant charge, rising 11.9% to just under $17.2m.

Despite March’s record bounty, the PGCB was chagrined to announce Wednesday that its latest auction for a Category 4 ‘satellite’ casino license attracted exactly zero bidders, calling into question the point of holding future auctions.