West Virginia’s sports betting market will go live on September 1, bringing the number of legal wagering US states to five.

On Friday, Penn National Gaming (PNG) announced that its Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races expects to launch sports betting on September 1. The new sportsbook will be powered by the US division of UK bookmaker William Hill.

The sports betting regulations that West Virginia approved earlier this year also allow for online and mobile wagering, but PNG’s announcement made no mention of any online or mobile plans, focusing instead on the number of big-screen televisions that it’s installing in the new sportsbook, which will be situated near the Hollywood venue’s Skybox Sports Bar.

Last month, PNG CEO Timothy Wilmott said his company wouldn’t be making any “huge investments” in sports betting, touting the product as more of another way to coax customers to visit its gaming venues rather than as a significant standalone revenue stream.

Long-awaited The 13 Hotel looks set to open within the month, after the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) issued the licenses needed for the hotel’s operations.

The Macau News Agency reported that the hotel’s developer, Hong Kong-based South Shore Holdings (SSH), has yet to secure a license for their casino. The company has stated that casino operations are to commence on March 31, 2019 at the earliest. It is still unknown, however, how it will be obtaining a casino license for the property. SSH had previously hinted that it is arriving at a deal with one of Macau’s licensed casino operators, but details of its application are to be submitted only after hotel operations begin.

In July, the developer said they were targeting an August 31 opening, pending the re-inspection of the facilities by the MGTO. When an earlier inspection was conducted last June, it was found that some of the hotel’s facilities, such as the elevators and rooms, were still being completed.

The 13 Hotel’s opening has been delayed multiple times, as SSH has sought additional funding to keep the project going. The company has also felt pressure from Chinese President Xi Jinping, who, since 2014, has sought to control outflows to Macau casinos as part of an anti-corruption campaign.

The fate of one of Australia’s most notorious swindlers has been revealed. Bill Jordanou, a former professional poker player who made a better living as a scam artist, will spend at least nine years behind bars for his role in a scheme that defrauded individuals of just over $53 million.

Jordanou had been involved in a scheme with cohort Robert Zaia that allowed them to take the money through an intricate setup using the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). Some reports have also said that the fraud could only have been perpetrated with help from someone inside CBA and that the bank knew of the activity in 2007 but didn’t do anything to stop it.

This past February, Jordanou pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy to commit fraud. He admitted in court that he had used forged documents to receive loans. Some of the money from the loans were used to develop property, while $20 million reportedly ended up in a private account maintained by Zaia. In addition to the fake loan documents, additional money was withdrawn from clients’ accounts without their knowledge or consent.

The shyster was also able to con another $13 million out of several other companies, including the Bank of Queensland, Rhino Money, Westpac and Mercedes-Benz Financial Services. In addition to property development, it was determined that the money was also used to finance gambling trips to Las Vegas and Macau, luxury cars, jewelry and motorcycles.

Red tape seems to be a fundamental part of any government process. It’s also a fundamental part of headaches individuals and businesses receive from government processes. Vietnam is apparently looking to reduce both the red tape and the headaches. The country’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) has proposed a number of cuts to bureaucracy across a wide swathe of industries. If the proposals are approved, it could mean huge improvements in establishing a number of operations, including those in the betting, casino and lottery industries.

According to local media, the MoF is said to be considering stripping out around 51.4% of the business investment commissions under its control. It would also amend or supplement 16 decrees that could ultimately benefit insurance, gaming, accounting, customs and securities spaces.

The outlets didn’t specify exactly what could be stripped out or amended. However, the mere fact that the MoF wants to make monumental changes is a step in the right direction. It has the potential to reinvigorate the gambling industry and comes after regulators have made several changes to gambling-related legislation.

Vietnam approved a measure last December that would allow locals to gamble in two casinos during a three-year trial program. Currently, casinos are only open to foreign gamblers. While the casinos have yet to be designated, it is believed that the Phu Quoc resort as well as a project in the Quang Ninh province could be included in the pilot program.

Congratulations are in order for Phil Siddell, winner of the Sydney Championship AU$550 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) tournament held at the Star Poker Room. While he’s no stranger to the tables and has had some success, it was his first major tournament win and gave him a nice payday of $14,484.

140 players descended on the Star Poker Room for the event and the tournament was full of some pretty amazing bets. A number of players decided to play the bingo variation, going all-in early and hoping to score a win by the time the river card was flipped over.

Sydney poker pro Michael Mayer would burst the bubble, eliminated in tenth place – just out of reach of the money. With him out of the way, it was truly anyone’s game and his absence meant that the title would most likely not be awarded to a Sydney player, as have most during this year’s Sydney Championship series.

Daniel Noja would be the first to pick up a little money at the final table. He was sent out in ninth place with $1,308, followed by Yu Chen, who took down the Sydney Championship mixed game event.  She picked up $1,638 for her eighth-place finish.

The winner of the just-completed Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) Championship event shows that poker is still anyone’s game, and doesn’t always have to be won by a poker superstar. Brandon Eisen, who has had limited success at the tables over the past five years, outlasted a WSOP bracelet winner, a poker pro with $5 million in live-action earnings and a former SHRP champ to taste victory and pick up $771,444 – almost exactly the amount he had won combined over his five-year grind at the felt.

The event had a buy-in of $5,250 and attracted a number of well-known players, including Jason Mercier, Mike Leah and Matt Berkey. There would ultimately be 914 entries into the event, helping the prize pool swell to $4.4 million. None of these three would make it to the final table, however, with Berkey going home in 105th place with $8,733, Leah out in 63rd with $13,919 and Mercier making to 37th being sent to the rail with $17,333.

The final table saw some tough competition and action moved quickly with Marcos Exterkotter being the first to go. Joseph Cheong, who finished third at the 2010 WSOP Main Event, met an untimely demise at the hands of Jeremy Ausmus and was eliminated in eighth place for $102,843. Cheong’s A-10 off-suit proved unlucky against the K-J off-suit of Ausmus, and he hit the bricks. It was his first six-figure win of the year. In total, only 61 hands were played to eliminate seven players, leaving Eisen to face off against Ausmus.

84 hands into the heads-up battle and the two were still going at it. However, Eisen had a significant edge over Ausmus and pulled off an easy win. Ausmus shoved all-in preflop with his remaining 19-big-blind chip stack and Eisen called. His K-5 didn’t hold up, as Eisen scored two pair on the board and the win. Ausmus took home $540,459 for his second-place finish.

Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ, for its acronym in Portuguese) has received an investment plan from the Macau Horse Race Co. Ltd. (MHR), operators of the Macau Jockey Club. Paulo Martins Chan, who heads up the bureau, said that the new concession contract with MHR includes a schedule for the company to fulfill the investment.

The news came only hours after a Macau lawmaker asserted during a meeting of the Legislative Assembly that legislators had not yet received any investment proposal by the company. Chan later stated that the DICJ would submit the plan to the appropriate Legislative Assembly committee once the bureau had completed due diligence of the proposal.

This past February, the Macau Jockey Club was granted a 24-year extension of its horse racing monopoly. One of the conditions of the extension was that it would present an investment plan stipulating that the company would spend $186 million of its own money to improve club facilities and increase non-gaming venues.

The extension has caused a bit of a rift among lawmakers. In March, it was revealed that the company owed a minimum of $18.9 million to the government in back dues, and that the government knew about the outstanding debt, which stemmed from missed payments between 1997 and 2005. The debt was discovered in 2015, but nothing was done to force the company to pay up.