UK gambling operators’ worst nightmare has come true.

On Thursday, the British government announced the approval of the reduction of fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) stakes limit from £100 ($135.08) to £2 ($2.69) to cap its long-running gambling review that started in October 2016.

Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Matt Hancock approved the decision of the Ministry for Sport and Civil Society to “stick up for the vulnerable” when it decided in favor of the FOBT stake reduction.

Stocks of British bookmaker William Hill, which analysts saw as the operator most exposed to the measure, plunged more than 6.5 percent in early trading, while shares of GVC holdings, which recently acquired Ladbrokes Coral Group, dropped more than 4 percent following the announcement.

They say the bride’s dress is the most anticipated fashion highlight in every high-profile wedding. Most ladies patiently wait for celebrity brides to walk down the aisle to get a glimpse of their gown and make notes for future reference.

However, this will not be the case in the upcoming royal wedding of Prince Harry and his fiancé Meghan Markle on Saturday. While there will be brides-to-be who will surely keep a close watch on Markle’s wedding gown, most people will probably talk about the hats that most of their guests will wear for the royal wedding.

The royal hats created lots of buzz when Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, got hitched in 2011, which apparently were said to be part of a very strict dress code for female guests at that time. Princess Beatrice of York put Lady Gaga to shame with her taupe O tacked to her forehead. Will’s cousin and her taupe O became so popular that she was able to raise $130,000 for charity when she sold the hat on eBay.

With Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding just two days away, bookmakers are now trying to predict the color of the hats that Queen Elizabeth and the Duchess of Cambridge will wear during the occasion.

Imperial Pacific International (IPI), developers of the Imperial Palace integrated resort (IR) in Saipan, isn’t meeting its obligations. IPI, through its casino license agreement, is required to maintain a workforce comprised of 65% U.S. employees. As of April, the development only contains 44%.

The employment report was submitted to the Commonwealth Casino Commission by Bertha Leon Guerrero, the VP of Human Resources for IPI. The U.S. employee pool can include citizens, permanent residents or citizens of the Freely Associated States (FAS). U.S. FAS citizens are those that come from the Marshall Islands, Micronesia or Palau. Of the 44%, 531 employees are U.S. citizens, 91 are permanent U.S. residents and 29 are FAS citizens.

Companies in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNWI) have had a great amount of difficulty attracting skilled labor, and the problem will more than likely get worse. The U.S. has indicated that it is scaling back the number of CW-1 visas issued and the program could be abolished completely by the end of 2019. A CW-1 visa allows travel to the U.S. for temporary workers who are to be employed in the CNWI.

IPI has already faced a fair amount of employment headaches. In March, four construction companies out of China were forced to pay just under $14 million in back wages and damages to over 2,400 workers who were working on the Imperial Palace resort. The U.S. Department of Labor determined that the employees had been brought in on tourist visas and were being paid under the legal wage rate.

The WSOP season is almost ready to wrap up. The final games of the year are currently underway at Harrah’s New Orleans, and only a few opportunities remain for players to pick up spots at the Global Casino Championship (GCC). The season wraps up this month and the GCC is scheduled for August 7-9 at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina.

The GCC is an exclusive event, open only to those WSOP players who have won seats during the regular tournament season or who meet certain other criteria. Players automatically earn a spot by winning a domestic main event or an international event. A seat is also awarded to players who pick up enough Casino Champion points at a given stop. The top 50 winners across the entire domestic circuit who don’t win a place at the GCC tables are awarded a seat, which has a value of about $8,000.

There are around 128 automatic qualifiers who will join other players who pony up the $10,000 rake-free buy-in. Those players that have won a qualifying ring event or who stand in the top 100 of the WSOP Player of the Year race are also eligible for the buy-in. This year, the GCC will offer a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million.

The competition is bound to be tough in August. Last year’s GCC winner, Sean Yu, has performed well enough to make a return trip this year and will probably be joined by several of this year’s top players. Robert Hankins, Kevin Eyster, Josh Reichard and Val Vornicu have all performed exceptionally well and will more than likely be at the event. Vornicu is coming off an exceptional performance, setting the record for the most WSOP circuit rings at 12 after winning back-to-back events at WSOP Harrah’s events.

The Solaire Resort and Casino in Manila, owned by Bloomberry Resorts Corp., wants its own cruise port. According to a filing submitted to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) yesterday, Sureste Properties Inc, a Bloomberry subsidiary, has submitted an application with the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) to construct the port, located at Entertainmnet City in Paranaque City, Manila.

Reports first surfaced last week of the port, with media outlets stating that a Bloomberry subsidiary was planning on building a $5.9-million cruise port in Paranaque City. Bloomberry has now clarified the purpose of the port in submitting the filing with the PSE.

The port would offer marine and terminal facilities, port-of-call and homeport operations and an expanded harbor area with dining, entertainment, shopping and maritime recreational facilities. The project is anticipated to have a first phase complete within two years and the entire project would be operational within 10 years.

TIEZA has presented the project to President Duterte’s office for its review. In a statement provided by TIEZA, “President Duterte expressed no objection to the proposal subject to the compliance of all government required permits and environmental clearances.” Apart from the president’s approval, Bloomberry has indicated that the project still requires “several other regulatory approvals and compliance including an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC).”

The fifth day of action at the Triton Poker Series sees nine people make it to the final table of the HKD 1,000,000 buy-in Main Event led by Steffen Sontheimer, and including the defending champion Manig Loeser.

In the beginning, about nine of us made the annual trip to Blackpool. November. The Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour (GUKPT). We always stayed in this shack of a hotel. But it was ours. We played poker in the back seat of the car, on the pool table at the hotel. On our beds, while we took turns in the shower.

At the venue, the nine of us wanted to play together. We might as well have not left Ogmore Vale. But we loved it. We didn’t want to play with anyone else. There was no talk of finding weaker players that we could rob. We would chance our arm in the tournaments, but when it came to the cash games, we shared the same table.

Here at the Maestral Casino in Montenegro I see a similar pattern. I’m here to interview poker players, only the poker players don’t want to be interviewed. It’s partly fear, a little bit of privacy, but most of all, they don’t have the time. It seems it doesn’t matter what stakes you play poker handcuffs you to its britches.

Africa and its potential for the online gambling industry and Blockchain technology has been a popular topic of discussion for months amongst professionals in these two spaces. I couldn’t believe it when I found out I was going to Rwanda to cover Blockchain elements of the Transform Africa Summit, so many thoughts were going through my head.

Is it safe? How many vaccines do I need? Can I eat the produce? Drink the water? What’s the time difference? Where in Africa is Rwanda? Is there a danger of getting kidnapped? Do the civilians have guns? What are the hotels like? Are the roads paved? Honestly, so many thoughts circulated my head on that day.

Part of the reason why my mind went wild is because when the possibility of an iGaming focused event taking place in Africa- Nigeria, for example- was floated, the reaction from my peers was “no way, I’m not going there, its not safe”.  Undoubtedly, this type of instant fear is partially the fault of the media because they glorify bad news.

Regardless of the above, I’m not one to shy away from traveling to third world countries and thanks to my father, I’ve been to plenty of them for vacations throughout my life. The difference being we were on organized tours leaving from the States with American and local guides holding our hands the entire way. Traveling to Africa for a conference however, that’s a whole other ballgame.

Adzooma, a Premier Google Partner, has just been backed by Fred Done (founder of Betfred) and Warren Jacobs (MD of ActiveWin Media). Adzooma is a market leading technology that simplifies online advertising for SME’s.

Adzooma’s technology provides a user-friendly way to advertise for everyone from micro-budget SME’s through to enterprise businesses. It offers an innovative automated marketing solution that simplifies online advertising for using Google’s pay per click.

Adzooma Director and co-founder Robert Wass, says: ‘We built the Adzooma platform from the ground up with SME businesses at the forefront of our minds. It’s a tool that’s easy to use and accessible to every small and medium sized business. Our Google AdWords certified professionals are qualified to help businesses grow, and we have access to Google training and support. To enhance the product further, we approached Warren Jacobs and the ActiveWin team, who are widely regarded as the best multi-channel experts in digital marketing.’

Warren Jacobs, MD of the ActiveWin Media Group, added: ‘The opportunity to work with Google and Adzooma on developing a service for SME’s was a natural progression for us. This partnership allows us to leverage our extensive digital knowledge gained over the years within some of the most competitive online industries in the world. Through Adzooma, we can share best practices with SME’s to help them flourish. It’s an honour and a pleasure to work with Google on this project.’

Highlights of the early PokerStars Spring Championship of Poker news including two more titles for Calvin Anderson, a place in the $10m club for lena900, and more.

A sit in the corner, hidden like the Cigarette Smoking man, a boardroom table as long as the world, with turquoise chairs full of ghosts squeezed underneath on both sides. I can hear the sea, outside, or is it the air conditioning?

I don’t know.

I’m British.

Australian online bookmaker Neds has been fined for being too aggressive in giving New South Wales’ punters the ‘come hither’ stare.

On Wednesday, Liquor and Gaming NSW deputy secretary Paul Newson announced that the regulator in Australia’s most populous state had slapped an A$18k (US$13,500) fine on Queensland-based bookie Neds for promotional material that broke NSW rules on ‘inducing’ its residents to gamble or open betting accounts.

Neds was dinged for five separate offences involving online advertising between October and December 2017. It’s worth noting that Neds only launched last September but has already had two of its television promos banned by the Australian Standards Bureau for promoting excessive gambling.

The NSW found fault with Neds’ offer to match first account deposits up to A$505 and for promoting ‘bet boosts’ that randomly raised a betting stake at no extra cost to the punter. Accepting the inevitable, Ned duly copped to having broken the rules and cut NSW a check.