Justice officials have recommended the cancellation of Hong Kong-based Landing International’s lease contract with the Philippine government, backing President Rodrigo Duterte’s claim that the deal was “flawed.”

According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque announced last Friday that the Justice department, in its report submitted to the Philippine president, had “characterized the contract as being void ab initio [from the beginning].”

Citing Secretary of Justice Menardo Guevarra, Roque said, “The contract of Landing with Nayong Pilipino is a Build-Operate-Transfer [BOT] contract disguised as a lease contract. Because it is a BOT project, it should have complied with the BOT law including public bidding.”

Roque said the Justice department’s position “rebuts the public advertisement paid for by former officials of the Nayong Pilipino,” whose open letter defending the legality of the lease was printed in several newspapers last week.

The online poker giant partypoker plans to send 300+ online qualifiers to new World Poker Tour events held across Europe and Canada in a new four-year deal.

Bruno Fitoussi may look like a sophisticated Sideshow Bob, but don’t let all of that hair fool you. Cut him open, and chips will spill from his guts. The man is poker.

As the 1990s vanished like Buck Rogers, Fitoussi was instrumental in bringing the World Poker Tour (WPT) to Europe. The Frenchman was the man in charge of the Aviation Club de France (ACF), situated on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées; the perfect place for professional poker players to act like James Bond for a week.

So it’s sweet, that in the month that partypoker announced that Fitoussi would represent the brand as an ambassador, that the online poker room got reacquainted with their old flame.

Three poker tales that don’t carry enough oomph to merit a 300+ word article, like Phil Ivey losing another Baccarat legal case; Jackie Glazier busting from Survivor, and a former Cardplayer magazine employee in the dock.

I used to have a training course that helps people that don’t want to drink alcohol. I changed it to a ‘Life-Changing Experience,’ when people started telling me that it changed their life.

Well, earlier today, someone asked me for their money back.

It didn’t change their life.

A recap of the weekend’s action at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona, including high roller victories from Andras Nemeth, Alexander Petersen and Tuomo Niskanen.

The PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona is a day away from ending. It’s been a phenomenal success and a reminder to partypoker that they’re not shadow boxing.

Poker players from across the globe flew into Barcelona like jawbreakers into the mouths of kids in the late 80s, creating memories booby-trapped with nostalgia.

Including these three guys.

Poker pro Michael Mizrachi, who has three WPT titles and already owned three WSOP bracelets, continued to show off his skills in June when he won the Poker Player Championships (PPC) for his fourth bracelet. He became the only person to win three PPCs and has more final table appearances at the event than any other player. Now, he’s decided to hop on over to London in November for the upcoming 888poker LIVE poker tour at Aspers Casino.

The series of ten tournaments will be held at Aspers Casino from November 22 through December 3. There have already been a number of confirmations by other high-stakes players, including Joe Cada, who has also won four WSOP bracelets, 2017 WSOP Main Event winner Scott Blumstein and Tony Miles, who took second at this year’s WSOP Main Event.

All of the tournaments will use an action clock, which will definitely help keep the action moving. Mizrachi is a fan of the timer and posted on Twitter last Tuesday, “Excited to go to 888poker LIVE London in November, all tournaments has action clocks! #nostallingfornothing#888poker @888poker see you all there!!”

The first event will be the £220 Opening Event, which runs for four days and offers a guarantee of £100,000 ($129,258). The highlight of the series will certainly be the £1,100 Main Event with its guaranteed prize pool of £400,000 ($516,980). The Main Event will have five opening flights and the survivors will have to hang tough for two more days if they want to make it to the final showdown.

Somewhere at some point in the future, an unknown casino is going to be built in Europe. The details are obviously extremely vague, but what is certain is that a Canadian pharmaceutical company plans on being a part of it. According to a press release by Easton Pharmaceuticals, the pharma giant has signed a Letter of Intent to be involved in the project that will see a hotel and casino resort be erected.

The announcement indicated that more details regarding the project will be released within the next several weeks after negotiations have been completed. Easton added that it is partnering with a US-based gaming arm of a holding and investment company out of Canada, which is leading the development of the resort.

The project is expected to have a casino with around 50 gaming tables and approximately 1,000 slot machines. It will also feature a 538-room hotel with additional VIP suites, a showroom, retail space and a spa and wellness center. It is supposedly being built in a highly attractive area and is expected to generate over €77 million (US$89 million) in revenue annually.

Evan Karras, Easton Pharmaceuticals’ CEO, said, “This casino and hotel resort project will be a high-end development in an idyllic river location and will be the second Casino Hotel Resort Easton intends to participate in as part of our global expansion plan. It is expected to be one of the most prominent properties when it opens. I am excited for the prospects of having Easton participate in such an incredible opportunity.”

After a hiatus that lasted over a year, Jason Somerville has made a return to the world of poker streaming. He was once a regular and popular fixture in the poker community, a regular online player going by the name of “JCarver” and talking strategy, but had taken some time off, except for an occasional appearance as a commentator at a live event. Now that he’s back, he’s ready to get things running, but admits that he’s more than a little rusty.

Somerville made his return without any fanfare, choosing instead to surprise his audience. The decision not to announce could have also been driven by his clumsiness, not wanting to draw more attention to himself than was necessary. When he launched the stream, he showed the wrong table for about the first five minutes while still commenting on the action that was invisible to viewers.

He corrected his mistake and the action continued. Unfortunately for him, he did the exact same thing a few hours later. Not one to take himself too seriously, he commented on his slips, posting several attacks at himself – “Why are we watching this withered old rusty streamer?” “I’m enjoying this more than actually seeing the table.” “This is what Twitch poker has been missing.”

As he was getting back into the swing of things, he was able to turn an embarrassing start into a successful week. Last week, he reached the final table of a $215 tournament and busted in fifth for $1,500. He followed that up the next day with a second-place finish at another $215 event to pick up $8,537.

Macau casinos outperformed analysts’ expectations in August as gaming revenue rose over one-sixth year-on-year.

Figures released Saturday by Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) show local casino operators generated gaming revenue of MOP26.5b (US$3.3b) in August, a 17.1% improvement over the same month last year. For the year-to-date, total revenue is up 17.5% to MOP202.1 ($25b).

Analysts had offered forecasts for August’s annual growth in the range of 15-17%, but China’s gamblers were either freer with their spending or unluckier at the tables, allowing the result to come in slightly ahead of the top end of that range.

August’s strong performance – the largest year-on-year gain in the past four months and the highest monthly revenue total this year – marks 25 straight months in which gaming revenue has risen on a year-to-year basis.