The long, sorry saga of defunct online sportsbook BetOnSports continues to wind its way through the courts, as US tax authorities continue to pursue the nest egg of the site’s founder Gary Kaplan.

Law360 reported on a new brief filed this week in Eastern Pennsylvania federal court by Kaplan, the former boss of the Costa Rica-based BetOnSports, which went belly-up in 2006 after being targeted by US authorities for taking online sports wagers from American bettors.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has long claimed that Kaplan owes the US government millions of dollars due to his failure to file tax returns for the years 2004 and 2005, during which time he sold $97m worth of shares in BetOnSports ahead of the company’s listing on the London exchange.

Kaplan sold his shares via two trusts based in the Isle of Jersey. In 2010, Kaplan settled the Kaplan Family Trust (KFT) and its underlying investment firm Nineveh Investments, under Bahamian law as a successor to the Jersey trusts. The Bahamas-based Equity Bank & Trust acts as the KFT’s trustee.

The second Asia Gaming Summit will be held on November 6-8 at W Taipei in Taiwan. It promises to be packed with insights from market leaders on major industry developments and what different players involved should do to make the most of what the future holds.

The differing regulatory environments in Asian countries will be discussed in depth. This includes an assessment of Taiwan’s significance as gaming hub in Asia. In spite of the Kinmen referendum in 2017, which saw citizens rejecting the opening of the outlying islands to casinos, there are numerous developments yet to be explored. Also, with Japan’s passage of an integrated resorts law, opportunities are plenty, and the discussion will look at the regulatory framework in which casinos, both physical and online, are to operate.

Attendees to the summit will also be privy to a session on “innovation and diversification in online gaming offerings and sports betting.” This includes panels on the directions in which the Asian sports betting industry will be taking, innovation strategies in lotteries to remain competitive, and the potential of eSports betting as an alternative revenue stream.

Among prominent personalities in these panels are Adrien Lefevre, chief of risk and compliance office of The Multi Group/500.com, who will be part of the Asian lottery panel; and Lars Lien, CEO of eSports betting platform Luckbox, for the eSports betting panel.

Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment Inc. (TRLEI), operator of the Okada Manila casino, has set up a Tokyo branch in anticipation of the opening of the gambling market in Japan, according to a statement from the operator’s parent company, Universal Entertainment Corp. (UEC).

“TRLEI Japan Branch will be established for research and analysis of the Integrated Resort [IR] Implementation Bill of Japan and study of the potential of a casino resort business in Japan in the wake of the enactment of said Bill in July 2018 with a view to becoming a future business contact (such as customer solicitation and marketing activities),” the statement read.

UEC added that its tentative date to register was this Thursday, September 20.

The newly-enacted IR legislation provides for the setting up of three large-scale casinos in yet-unspecified locations. About 40 municipal governments have reportedly signified their interest in hosting a casino, though citizens’ opinions may differ, as is the case in Yokohama, where about 94% of survey respondents expressed a “negative” view of the idea of having a casino in the city. However, businesses still have several years to convince constituents, considering the first casinos may take until 2025 or so to open.

After spending time as a poker player, a poker podcaster, a cryptocurrency podcaster and a mainstream news podcaster, Doug Polk has determined what he wants to be – retired. The three-time WSOP champ revealed during a recent YouTube podcast that he believes it’s time to hang up his hat and put poker in his rear-view mirror.

The news doesn’t come as a complete surprise to anyone in the poker community. He recently – and finally – completed his $100-to-$10,000 poker challenge after it began two years ago and said that “poker is boring to me now.” This, coupled with the fact that he hasn’t been active at the felt lately made it almost certain that he was ready to step away.

As the poker world has seen with other players, such as Vanessa Selbst and Fedor Holz, retirement doesn’t always mean retirement. Selbst announced her retirement on New Year’s Eve last year, but has been back at the felt on a number of occasions. Holz reportedly retired in 2016, but has gone on to win serious cash in a number of high-stakes games since then.

Polk gave himself an out, as well. He confirmed on the 2+2 poker forum that he doesn’t enjoy playing anymore, but that he wasn’t quite ready to call it a retirement. He added that “poker is pretty easy to get back into if I ever change my mind.”

Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands (LVS) may not have a clearly defined future, but they’re still holding value as companies. This is the determination of Union Gaming (UG), which pointed out that the two casino operators are still showing strong stock valuations, despite concerns over where the companies will be going forward.

This past Monday, UG said that the lack of clarity on the companies’ futures stems from the possibility of a trade war between the US and China, as well as how such a trade war could impact the Chinese economy. Also causing doubt are the after effects of Typhoon Mangkhut, which just passed through the region and has already taken a bite out of gross gaming revenue for September.

UG stated, “It’s tough to recommend Macau today amid all of the uncertainty, particularly with more posturing from China that it could decline trade talks.” Its announcement came prior to news on Tuesday that indicated a slew of new tariffs that will be assessed by the US on Chinese imports.

In its Monday note, UG put Wynn Resorts and LVS – both of which operate casinos in Macau – at the top of the list for stock purchases. It asserted, “Las Vegas Sands is uniquely positioned to sustain any significant or prolonged deceleration or downturn in Macau…If Macau recovers, we expect shares of Wynn Resorts will see significantly more upside, given its greater gearing to Macau and VIP overall.”

This past Sunday, Delhi police broke up an online gambling ring that was being led from a residential building in New Ashok Nagar in east Delhi. The bust resulted in the arrest of 14 individuals, including the alleged owner and manager of the casino, as well as 12 individuals who were identified as gamblers. The main figure behind the operation, who was only identified as “Deepak,” remains at large.

Police indicate that the gaming endeavor could be tied to a money-laundering scheme. They seized a diary containing numerous transactions and customers’ names, ten computer systems and a small amount of cash.

Pankaj Singh, the police department’s deputy commissioner, indicated that the department had received several tips over the course of a few days prior to the raid. When a tip on Sunday indicated that the games were in progress in the first floor of the three-story building, cops moved in and made their arrests.

Singh stated, “Our team raided the flat and found 12 people gambling online. The entire flat had been turned into a makeshift casino parlour and 10 computers with Internet connections had been installed in the house solely for gambling.”

The UK’s advertising watchdog has spanked two more gambling operators for crossing its increasingly hard boundaries on marketing gambling products to underage audiences.

On Wednesday, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld complaints against ads promoting bookmaker William Hill’s online casino William Hill Vegas and Greentube Alderney’s Bell Fruit Casino. The ads appeared within game apps, leading the ASA to conclude the ads were inappropriately targeted and breached the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) code.

Both operators had used Google’s Universal App Campaign product, which served their campaigns across Search, Google Display Network, YouTube and the Google Play Store. Google limits service of gambling ads to individuals over 18.

In Hills’ case, the operator suggested the ads appeared in the Mario Kart game app due to the devices either having previously been used for gambling or adult-themed content, or by a person with a desktop account who logged in via their mobile device.

Online gambling technology supplier GAN says 2019 will be a record-setter in terms of revenue and earnings, but the rest of this year is somewhat beyond the company’s control.

In a trading update issued late Tuesday, GAN said the company had performed “in line with market expectations” in the six months ending June 30. GAN is set to release its official H1 report card on September 28.

Looking ahead to H2, GAN says its performance is contingent on several factors, including (a) the growth of online sports betting in New Jersey, (b) how soon Pennsylvania regulators fire the starting gun on their intrastate online gambling market, and (c) how fast GAN can roll out marketing in European regulated markets for the Overseas Internet Casino (Winstar.com) of its Chickasaw Nation client.

As for New Jersey, the start of this month saw GAN integrate a leading B2B online sports betting system into its platform, enabling the launch of online wagering for the FanDuel-branded product of Paddy Power Betfair (for which GAN powers the online casino of Betfair NJ).

Online poker giants partypoker continue to strengthen their brand with the addition of another superstar as Russia’s Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsov joins the ever-expanding Team Pro lineup.

It’s not easy for an online poker room to snag a top talent from the high stakes cash game realm. The ones worth tapping up have so much money they’re like Rapunzel locked in a tower that nobody can ever reach.

And yet the hair just came down for partypoker.

Tom Waters climbed up.