America’s professional sports athletes want “a seat at the table” if the leagues for which they play continue to embrace legal sports betting.

On Thursday, the associations representing athletes from Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Football League and the National Hockey League issued a joint statement revealing that they’ve been actively preparing for the legalization of sports betting in the U.S.

The full statement reads as follows (note the misspelling of the acronym for the Protection of Amateur and Professional Sports Act):

“Given the pending Supreme Court decision regarding the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PAPSA), representatives of the MLBPA, NBPA, NFLPA and NHLPA have been working together on the legal, commercial, practical, and human consequences of allowing sports betting to become mainstream. The time has come to address not just who profits from sports gambling, but also the costs. Our unions have been discussing the potential impact of legalized gambling on players’ privacy and publicity rights, the integrity of our games and the volatility on our businesses. Betting on sports may become widely legal, but we cannot allow those who have lobbied the hardest for sports gambling to be the only ones controlling how it would be ushered into our businesses. The athletes must also have a seat at the table to ensure that players’ rights and the integrity of our games are protected.”

Macau casino icon Stanley Ho is at long last stepping down as chairman of the company he founded, SJM Holdings.

On Thursday, SJM informed investors that the 96-year-old Ho intends to resign as chairman, executive director and a member of the executive committee at the conclusion of the company’s annual general meeting in Hong Kong on June 12. Ho will subsequently be appointed chairman emeritus.

Stanley’s daughter Daisy Ho, a current SJM board member, will succeed her father as chair. Stanley’s ‘fourth wife’ Angela Leong and Timothy Fok Tsun Ting will be appointed co-chair and executive directors, while SJM CEO Ambrose So will be named vice-chair, executive director and CEO.

Stanley, whom SJM says “has justifiably been acknowledged as the founding father of Macau’s gaming industry,” has been relinquishing his business duties and divesting his stock holdings in recent years as his health began to fail. In June 2017, he turned over control of his Shun Tak Holdings conglomerate to his daughter Pansy Ho.

Australian bookmakers will soon be reduced to advertising by semaphore flags if current trends continue.

On March 30, the Australian government imposed a ban on gambling companies advertising during live sports broadcasts between 5am and 8:30pm on commercial free-to-air television, radio and pay-TV. The restrictions commence five minutes before a sports event kicks off and extend to five minutes after the event’s conclusion.

The new restrictions were prompted by concerns that Aussie youths were being over-exposed to gambling ads. But it’s since dawned on the nation’s nanny-staters that ‘kids’ increasingly don’t watch TV or listen to the radio. They now consume much of their sports entertainment on their phones via online streaming services.

As a result, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) announced Thursday that it is consulting on new rules to extend the new restrictions on gambling promos to also apply to live-streamed sports events. The ACMA has invited stakeholders to submit their views on the streaming proposal no later than May 10.

When the gambling bug bit Ohio last month, it made sure that it would leave a big mark on the state.

Ohio’s four casinos reported gross gaming revenue growing 8.3 percent in March, according to the Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC).

Data from the state regulator showed that statewide March casino revenue grew to $81.7 million in March from $75.4 million during the same period last year. Ohio’s March 2018 revenue was also higher than the $67.6 million revenue it posted in February 2018.

For the first quarter of the year, the OCCC reported that casino revenues climbed 5.9 percent to $212.4 million compared to $206.5 million during Q1 2017.

Macau-based casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) will lean on the expertise of a former Melco Crown executive in the execution of its expansion ambitions in Japan.

In a statement, GEG announced on Thursday the appointment of Ted Chan Ying Tat as its Chief Operating Officer – Japan Development. Chan will be responsible for overseeing the company’s bid for a Japanese integrated resort license.

Chan was tapped for the position because of his extensive gaming resort, hospitality and business development experience that he gained “through many years of involvement at one of Macau’s integrated resorts,” according to GEG.

In a statement, GEG Vice Chairman Francis Lui said he’s confident Chang will “successfully drive the execution” of the casino operator’s “Japan international expansion ambitions.”

UK’s top gambling regulator has found its new top cop.

On Thursday, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced that Neil McArthur has been appointed as its news chief executive, effective immediately. McArthur’s appointment was made after “a thorough search and highly competitive process to recruit the role,” according to UKGC.

McArthur took over the CEO position on an interim basis following the abrupt resignation of Sarah Harrison in February. Harrison, who oversaw UKGC’s new willingness to back up its words with tough enforcement policies, stepped down to take a senior role with the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

McArthur is a qualified solicitor who has served as a general counsel for the UK gambling regulator since 2006 before he was promoted to executive director in August 2016. Before his UKGC gig, McArthur served as in-house lawyer for public groups including the Learning and Skills Council and the General Teaching Council for England.

Philippine-listed casino operator Bloomberry Resorts Corp. has secured PHP73.5 billion ($1.4 billion) in syndicated loans to finance its future projects.

In a regulatory filing, Bloomberry announced that it inked a syndicated loan agreement with at least seven Philippine-based financial institutions through its subsidiaries Bloomberry Resorts & Hotels Inc. (BRHI) and Sureste Properties Inc. (SPI).

The banks include BDO Unibank Inc., BDO Private Bank, Inc., China Banking Corporation, Philippine National Bank, PNB Savings Bank, Robinsons Bank Corporation and United Coconut Planters Bank. BDO Capital and Investment Corp. was tapped as the lead arranger and sole bookrunner for the transaction while China Bank Capital will serve as the co-arranger.

BRHI will serve as the borrower and mortgagor, while SPI will act as the mortgagor, pledger, and surety based on the agreement, according to Bloomberry.

Online gambling technology provider Playtech has agreed to buy a 70.6% stake in Italian gambling firm Snaitech, a move that the UK company expects will enhance its “revenue mix towards regulated markets.”

The “initial acquisition” of Snaitech carries a price tag of €846 million ($1.05 billion), Playtech announced in a Thursday filing. The British gambling company is required to make a mandatory takeover offer for the remaining stake in Snaitech after the initial acquisition is completed sometime in the third quarter of 2018. The mandatory takeover offer is aimed at delisting Snaitech from the Milan Stock Exchange, according to Playtech. It expects the entire transaction will be completed before the year ends.

The deal will be funded by Playtech’s existing cash resources, plus new debt, and is expected to deliver cost material annual cost synergies of €10 million.

If the deal manages to clear regulatory and shareholder approvals, it would mean that Playtech will be seeing 78 percent of its revenue from regulated markets. The Snaitech acquisition will allow Playtech to establish “strong presence in Italy, Europe’s largest and growing gaming market, a fragmented market which is relatively underdeveloped online.”

Regardless of how successful someone becomes at poker, there still has to be an incredible sensation when collecting a high-dollar pot. Sam Greenwood could address the subject, as he now has two million-plus prizes in about three months. He won $1.3 million at the Caribbean Poker Party festival, and now picked up another $1.2 million at the LIVE MILLIONS Grand Final in Barcelona. While participating in the Super High Roller (SHR) tournament, not only did he win, but he came back from having a chip stack equal to only one big blind to pull off the feat.

Fifty-seven players descended on the city that brings us tapas and the Picasso Museum to participate in the SHR. The action attracted several great high-stakes players, including Patrik Antonius, Keith Tilston and Joao Simao. Tilston would make it all the way to fourth place, where he was sent to the rail with $351,000. Antonius followed next, bowing out in third with a little more than $494,000. Simao hadn’t been as fortunate, and the Brazilian player was eliminated in sixth place for $197,654.

Holding only 600,000 chips to his name when the blinds reached 250,000/500,000, Greenwood certainly looked to be on the edge of defeat. However, he played what was probably the tightest game of his life, slowly climbing out of the hole to grab a decent stack as the number of players at the final table dwindled. Several key double-ups gave the Canadian player an edge, and he found himself in a showdown against Spain’s Sergio Aido.

The heads-up action was methodical, with neither player willing to take a huge chance. However, Greenwood was able to pick away at Aido’s stack to take a commanding chip lead, and never looked back. The final hand saw the pair square off with Aido barely hanging on. Greenwood would be rewarded with a flop that gave him two pair—A-9—and he played it coolly through the river to capture Aido’s remaining chips. The Spanish poker pro would settle for second place, and $741,198, and was the second Spanish player to finish as a runner-up in a SHR tournament in the festival.