When you spot the dampness in one’s eye, you know the doors of vulnerability are ajar. You get a sneak peek. Trust flows for the briefest moment. You move deeper into life. Trivialities boil with the teabag, and the essence of connection emerges in the steam.

Celina Lin on poker in China; women at HS; and more Audio

It’s Day 4 at the Triton Poker Series in Montenegro, and Lee Davy gives you a glimpse from the inside including Phil Ivey’s secret, feeling small next to a Finn, and the emotional charge of an interview.  

The woman who cleans the windows is gone. Perhaps, it’s her day off? Maybe she earned a promotion. Or they fired her. The windows don’t look the same. They make me look old. The rim beneath my eyes, dark, pronounced flies back at me like a zoom shot. Bring her back. Take away the chubby sparrow pecking at the leftover walnuts, and the stray cat that loves the Jungleman, and bring back the window cleaner with the red blood lipstick.

I might not know her fate, but I did discover Phil Ivey’s secret, yesterday. People often wonder how he continues to be so elusive, but I know his game. As the dealers sat impatiently waiting for the superstars of world poker to shake a lamb’s tail, a giant bat flew around the poker room.

Now, I’m no expert on how the world works, but how does a creature that can catch an insect in full flight not figure out where the front door is? And, this is how I discovered his secret. The bat wasn’t trying to escape; it was scoping the joint out.

As they say, good things come to those who wait. The fact that the U.S. Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) is now officially dead, the entire gambling landscape throughout the world might possibly change. It’s known by everyone in the industry that there will be a lot of players getting in on sports gambling across the country now, and the results should also be a huge plus for online poker.

At least 18 states have either already created or are in the process of creating legislation to introduce online gambling. Many more states are bound to follow once they see the lucrative aspects of the industry. Sports gambling has said to draw over $150 billion in illegal betting out of the U.S. alone. That’s a lot of green to be earned by the states who will now be offering sports gambling both in brick-and-mortar casinos and over the Internet. The outcome will be a larger selection of online casinos, and, undoubtedly, more online poker. David Rebuck, director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, stated last year, “If we win sports wagering, online gaming will go to every state that adopts sports betting. As soon as sports wagering is legalized, online gambling will follow right behind it.” New Jersey won and now everyone is waiting for the show to begin.

PASPA was shot down by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 7-2 vote. The chief justices of the land determined that the bill was unconstitutional, paving the way for a completely new era of legalized gambling. Of course, many wonder where the country would be today if PASPA had never been introduced.

The introduction of new online gambling venues will probably give some of the old-time casino owners, like Las Vegas Sands’ owner Sheldon Adelson, an aneurysm. Adelson has fought long and hard to keep online gambling out of the picture due to the threat it has to his casino operations. Sorry, Mr. Adelson, stopping progress has always been an exercise in futility.

This is a guest contribution by Martin Owens. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

What comes after the Murphy decision.

Two hunters, the story goes, once tracked and killed an elephant. One hunter climbed to the top of the great trophy and danced around, waving his arms and shouting “We got i’m! We got ‘im!”

But the other just leaned wearily on his bow, looked up at the huge carcass and replied, “Yeah, we got ‘im. Now what do we DO with ‘im?”

Switzerland’s voters appear ready to support a plan that would restrict online gambling to sites operated by local land-based casinos, while blocking the domains of other operators.

A recent GfS Bern survey of 1,201 Swiss adults found that 52% of respondents plan to vote in favor of the country’s new gambling law when a national referendum is conducted on June 10. Around 39% intend to vote ‘no’ while a mere 9% remain undecided.

Swiss legislators voted last October to approve the new gambling law, which requires would-be online gambling operators to partner with local brick-and-mortar casino operators. Swiss internet service providers would be required to block the domains of internationally licensed online operators that continue to serve Swiss gamblers without local authorization.

However, the youth wing of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) managed to garner enough petition signatures to force a national referendum on the legislation. Local telecom firms and civil libertarians have joined the campaign to strike down the law but it appears that their efforts are coming up short with Swiss voters.

Lee Davy sits down with Wai Kin Yong, the son of the Triton Poker Series founder, Richard Yong, to ask him about his beginnings in poker, his mentors, and how poker makes him feel.

Wai Kin Yong: the young wizard who’s bored of poker Audio

Two interesting live tournament wins including Valentin Vornicu taking down a record 11th World Series of Poker Circuit gold ring, and Adrian Mateos topping another 1k plus field to win a Winamax title in Morocco.

Some like the egg and spoon race. I was a three-legged race man. I would dig my fingers underneath Gary Sutcliffe’s armpits, and we ran like a racehorse, steam shooting out of our noses singing the hairs on our knees.

Valentin Vornicu is sick of the three-legged race.

The first time he reached the summit of the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) All-Time Gold Ring Leaderboard he had to dig his fingers into the armpit of Alex Masek. The second time it was the hairy pits of Maurice Hawkins.

Chinese sports lottery technology firm 500.com has inked its first land-based lottery deal as it waits (in vain) for the authorities in Beijing to approve the resumption of online lottery sales.

Last week, the Nasdaq-listed 500.com released its Q1 earnings report, which showed revenue of RMB38.4m (US$6.1m) and an operating loss of RMB76.7m in the three months ending March 31.

500.com formerly had a lucrative business operating online sports lottery channels but these operations have been dormant since Beijing ordered the ‘temporary’ suspension of online sales in March 2015. Ever since, the company has been struggling to diversify through a variety of acquisitions, including a brief fling with a social poker business that the company sold off (for a $1.6m profit) in February.

Virtually all (85%) of 500.com’s Q1 revenue came from The Multi Group (TMG), the parent company of Malta-based, Nordic-facing online gambling operator Multilotto.com, which 500.com acquired in May 2017. But taking on TMG also led to significant increases in operating, sales and marketing expenses as well as cost of services, which boosted the quarterly net loss.

Italian betting and gaming operator Snaitech Spa enjoyed double-digit online growth that helped offset retail gaming declines in the first quarter of 2018.

Figures released Tuesday show Snai’s overall revenue falling 1.7% year-on-year to €223.5m in the three months ending March 31, while earnings shot up 34% to €38.1m and net income quadrupled to €9.06m.

The revenue decline was blamed on increased taxes on Snai’s core retail gaming machine business, while the earnings gain was credited to favorable sports betting results and a strong performance by Snai’s online operations.

Snai is Italy’s second-largest gaming machine operator with a 14.5% market share, operating nearly 50k amusement with prizes (AWP) machines and nearly 10,100 video lottery terminals (VLT). Overall gaming machine revenue was down 9.7% to €153.5m as the AWP segment saw its turnover decline 2.3% while VLT turnover was down 2.2%.