In today’s, gambling marketing musings column Lee Davy shares the sordid details of his first date with SolveForWhy and why he wants to get much, much, dirtier.

‘Printing money’ was a hackneyed phrase when I joined the poker industry. I tried printing some myself. I must have had a duff press. The first person I heard chucking the words out of his gob was Martin “Dr. Giggy” Fournier Giguère. Dr. Giggy was a lead coach at BlueFirePoker. I met him once at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and was a tad starstruck.

But here’s the thing with online poker training sites back in the day.

You could remove the logo from all of them, jumble them up, replaster them randomly, and nobody would have known the difference. While online training sites had the odd gem of a Giggy, a distinctive brand voice was as rare as mustard on a baby’s sandwich.

The World Poker Tour is set to become the guinea pig for live action at the Esports Arena Las Vegas at the Luxor Hotel & Casino, with the final table of the $25k Bellagio High Roller taking place at the venue. Tom Marchese leads an all-star cast.

I logged onto the World Poker Tour (WPT) website to see who had won the $25,000 Bellagio High Roller and learned that the action ceased at the final table.

I knew this, of course. The WPT broadcast this decision some months ago. However, I forgot, because the World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Nine apart, you don’t stop a poker tournament mid-pomp and ask the players to come back two weeks later.

But that’s what’s happening.

Scotland’s number one poker export joins 888Poker’s 8-Team World Series of Poker promotion and bags himself a Spring Championship of Online Poker title in the first weekend of action.

I’ve figured out the secret to life.

Get a job in Carphone Warehouse.

Paul Potts was selling phones when he made everyone cry singing Nessum Dorma on his way to winning Britain’s Got Talent. My sister works there, and at 39, she still lives with my parents, so that’s a financial result, right there.

Most casinos in the Indian state of Goa have bit the bullet and paid their increased license fees after the state government and local courts rejected their requests for relief.

In March, Goa’s government announced steep hikes in license fees for the state’s land-based and floating casino operators. The casinos cried foul, and the land-based operators lobbied the government to allow them to add live gaming (which is only allowed on the shipboard casinos) in exchange for paying the fee hikes.

However, a senior department official told the Times of India last week that there was “no question of rolling back the fees” and the operators could either make the payments or surrender their licenses.

Last Friday, the Nahvind Times quoted government sources saying 11 casinos – five of the six floating casinos and six of the land-based venues – had paid the revised fees by the government’s stipulated deadline. One other casino is reportedly in the process of paying its dues while two others – the Crown and Carnival – decided to shut down operations rather than ante up.

Mexican casino and online gambling operator PlayCity is reportedly on the block, with the Blackstone private equity group believed to be among the suitors.

Last week, Mexican media outlet Milenio reported that local multimedia conglomerate Televisa was contemplating a restructuring of its business to focus on its core interests. Those core concerns reportedly don’t include the PlayCity Casinos division, which Televisa launched in 2005.

Milenio reported that Televisa had enlisted the help of Credit Suisse to drum up interest in PlayCity, which operates 24 land-based gaming venues in Mexico – but has licenses for up to 50 venues – as well as a Kambi-powered online sports betting site.

Televisa didn’t break out PlayCity’s revenue performance in the group’s most recent quarterly earnings statement, but Milenio reported that PlayCity’s land-based operations reported 4m visitors in 2017, a 42% rise over 2106’s visitation figure.

Online lottery betting operator Lottoland has established its footprint in Italy’s regulated online gambling market by acquiring a majority stake in local operator Giochi24.

On Tuesday, Lottoland formally announced its takeover of Giochi24 and the launch of the new Lottoland.it website, which offers not only betting on Italian lotteries like SuperEnalotto, 10e Lotto and Scratch & Win, but also online slots, roulette and bingo products.

Lottoland CEO Nigel Birrell claimed to be “delighted” to have entered Italy’s “vibrant and growing” market via its hookup with Giochi24, and expressed confidence that its product offering would be “attractive to players.”

Giochi24 CEO Paul Di Feo logrolled right back, expressing his pleasure at the new relationship and “the opportunities that will open both companies and Italian players with our two sites, Giochi24.it and Lottoland.it,” which he claimed would provide “the most complete offer possible of games and chance and lotteries authorized in Italy.”