This past Sunday, a number of poker players plopped down in their recliners, ready to take on the world in PokerStars Sunday Million tournament, as well as others. Things started off well enough; however, not long into the games the popular poker site began experiencing issues with its servers. The site didn’t seem to notice the problems at first, but the players certainly did. After a little more than an hour, PokerStars halted all of the games, saying that it was experiencing the boilerplate phrase “Sorry, we’re experiencing technical issues.” Some have said that the issues may have been a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack similar to what was recently seen by both partypoker and Americas Cardroom, but that still has not been confirmed. What was confirmed, however, was how PokerStars decided to handle refunds – and players aren’t happy.

When the issues began, players in a few countries – reportedly Belgium, the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria – were not affected. They were able to continue in the tournaments as if nothing had happened. However, other players were forced to watch as their screens showed them as disconnected and their virtually players continued to pay into the big and small blinds for a complete hour.

When PokerStars finally acknowledged the problem, the company posted a note on Twitter, saying, “Apologies to all our players for the recent issues on PokerStars. The players affected by this morning’s issues have already been credited & we aim to refund players affected by yesterday’s problems, with their equity at the time of disconnection, within 72 hours.”

The problem is the equity wasn’t very equitable. One player, “Kamikaze94,” took to the 2+2 poker forums to complain, stating, “Got disconnected from the Sunday Million in my second entry with 1.5 starting stack and then blinded down to 0. No refund. What’s up with that, PokerStars?”

The Philippine Island of Boracay was closed following what were reported to be embarrassing and filthy conditions on the island. In an effort to clean things up, the country halted all activity for six months and plans to welcome tourists back to the sandy beaches on October 26. However, casinos won’t be welcome there when Boracay reopens.

Department of Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat broke the news, but didn’t mention any particular casinos by name. The ban comes from a direct order by the country’s president, Rodrigo Duterte, and will include those casinos that were operating prior to the island’s closure last April.

Romulo-Puyat stated, “[President Duterte] has even instructed the Department of Tourism to close down the existing casinos in the island. So there will be no casinos at all in Boracay.”

Tourism Undersecretary Arturo Boncato told the media, “I have to check the existence of casinos there. There are resorts. If there are resorts doing casino operations, we have to ascertain their permits, if they are really operating with permits.”

Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment, also known as Mohegan Sun, is planning to meet with officials of the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) later this month. The meeting, according to the casino operator’s CFO Drew Kelly, is designed to open dialogue regarding the firm’s Inspire integrated resort, currently under construction near the Incheon International Airport.

Kelly broke the news on a recent conference call with analysts that followed the release of its Q2 financial report. He reportedly said on the call, “The most important next step – as it relates to the Inspire development – is a meeting that we’ll be having with the MCST in late August and into early September.

“We are preparing a set of information… for them, which we believe will be well received and will otherwise speak to the unique aspect of this truly integrated resort and how it will be a dominant property in the market. As a product of that, we’ll be providing an update on the financing structure.”

Kelly, along with other Mohegan Sun executives, will be seen in Asia for the majority of the second half of this year. They want to make sure that they are “successful both with the meeting with the MCST and with [their] financing partner.”

Anatoly Filatov, a 28-year-old Russian poker player, took down the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Main Event at the Sochi Casino & Resort in Sochi, Russia on Tuesday, pocketing $900,000 in the process. Not bad considering the buy-in was only $5,023. It was the biggest win of his career and sees him quickly approaching the $3-million mark in live-action winnings.

It’s only fitting that the partypoker tournament be won by a partypoker ambassador. He has been seen regularly at both live, as well as virtual, tournaments and goes by the moniker NL_Profit on partypoker. His $2.7 million in live action is only slightly better than his online winnings, where he has racked up $2.3 million. He has been performing very well this year, already making it to the final table in three different tournaments.  

916 entries were recorded for the NLHE event. As the players entered the final day of action, Filatov was in eighth place by chip count with only 11 players still in the game. He scored several key hands, including a K-Q win over the A-K of Konstantin Uspenskii, which resulted in Uspenskii being sent to the rail in eighth place with $63,000.

Next up, an A-Q held by Mikhail Galitskiy was no match for the pocket Kings Filatov was hiding and Galitskiy hit the bricks in seventh with $90,000. Filatov, still on a roll, handed Alexey Melnikov a pink slip next, pushing the eventual winner into second place by chip count. Melnikov took home a decent $180,000 for his efforts.

Ladbrokes has been put in timeout – literally. Belgium has reportedly punished the sports betting company for breaking gaming regulations and has ordered it to not offer any gambling activities for a day next month.

Media outlet The Brussel Times reports that Ladbrokes was slapped on the wrist after admitting it had received bets from players in Belgium for the outcome of virtual machine events until March 14. Virtual match betting allows gamblers to place bets on the outcome of fantasy competitions and the practice has been outlawed in the country since June of last year after being “tolerated” for about five years.

Ladbrokes’ subsidiaries in the country, Tierce Ladbroke SA and Derby SA, will not be able to receive any bets for 24 hours on September 3 due to the infraction. Ladbrokes has 300 agencies and around 100 sportsbooks, and a number of digital operations, linked to it in Belgium. The country’s gaming regulator indicated that Ladbrokes had “not contested the materiality of the facts” and continued to offer the betting activity “until it was legally banned from doing so.”

In a response provided to 5 Star iGaming Media, Ladbrokes said that it had not been notified officially of the sanction. It explained that it had only learned of the punishment after it was informed by an unidentified third party on August 7.

Atlantic City casinos had a solid month in July, driven by new venues, new products and a record online performance.

According to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, AC’s nine gaming venues generated brick-and-mortar gaming win of $272.3m in July, a 10.1% improvement over July 2017’s result.

The year-on-year growth figure improves to 11.9% once you factor in the record $25.9m earned by the state’s online gambling operators last month along with the $1.6m in sports betting revenue generated by the three casino sportsbooks that were open for business in July. Throw in the $3.8m earned by sportsbooks at two state racetracks and the total gaming win jumps 12.8% to $302m.

Focusing on the brick-and-mortar aspect, July’s slots revenue was up 8.8% to $194.3m, while table games improved 13.7% to nearly $78m. For the year-to-date, brick-and-mortar win is down 1.9% to $1.39b, with slots flat at $1b and table games down 6.4% to $389.7m.

Macau’s government plans to create an online database of individuals barred from setting foot on a casino gaming floor, potentially opening the door to junket operators’ long-sought list of bad credit risks.

On Tuesday, Macau Business reported that the Legislative Assembly committee tasked with amending casino entry regulations had been told by the government that “an online platform with password access” will replace the current system of issuing confidential letters to gaming operators detailing who is to be denied entry to casino floors.

The government clarified that the database will only contain names of individuals who have been barred from casino access through judicial decisions or who have requested self-exclusion. The database won’t include information on casino staff, who will be automatically excluded once the legislation is approved.

Macau’s Office for Personal Data Protection is said to have okayed the new database, provided the listed individuals are notified of their inclusion. It’s unclear precisely what identifying data will be included on the list., but work on the bill will resume in October when the legislature reconvenes after its fall break.

New Jersey’s licensed sports betting operators generated ‘revenue’ of just under $4m in July, the first full month since legal wagering commenced in mid-June.

According to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE), the state’s five licensed betting operators generated combined revenue of $3.83m in July. The total is surprisingly low, given that the state reported revenue of $3.46m in roughly two weeks of legal operation in June.

There were three licensed bookies in June’s report: the Monmouth Park racetrack, the Borgata casino in Atlantic City, plus the new Ocean Resort Casino, although the latter property was only open for three days in June.

The state has since welcomed two additional operators: the Meadowlands racetrack and Bally’s Atlantic City casino, although the latter property didn’t open until July 30. This month saw DraftKings launch the state’s first mobile betting app, but its returns won’t be quantified until the DGE’s August report is filed next month.

German online gambling operator Mybet has announced its intention to file for insolvency after failing to come to terms with a would-be financial savior.

On Tuesday, Mybet issued a statement indicating that its board of directors was preparing an application to open insolvency proceedings after talks with a strategic investor failed to produce an agreement. The company expects to file its application on Friday.

In July, Mybet announced that it planned to sell its customer-facing online gambling operations to an unidentified strategic investor so that the company could focus on its B2B business. Mybet said Tuesday that these talks had “closed” due to “conditions set by the investors which could not be fulfilled.”

Added pressure came after the Frankfurt am Main II Tax Office rejected Mybet’s application for provisional suspension or stay of enforcement filed by the group’s Malta-based offshoot Personal Exchange International. The rejection of this application left Mybet with €4m in sports betting taxes in arrears, an obligation that left the company facing “imminent illiquidity.”

New Jersey’s regulated online gambling market shook off the summer doldrums to set a new revenue record in July, while the Golden Nugget established a new individual operator benchmark.

Figures released Tuesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) show the state’s licensed online gambling operators generated revenue of $25.9m in July, a $5.3m improvement over the same month last year and $300k higher than the market’s previous high-water mark set this March.

To absolutely no one’s surprise, the online casino vertical did all the heavy lifting, with revenue shooting up nearly 30% to just over $24m. By contrast, the poker vertical slumped nearly 8% to $1.85m.

For the year-to-date, total online revenue is up 16.5% to $165.4m, with the casino vertical up 19.7% to $152.4m and poker down 11% to $13m (less than 8% of the total pie).