Three bites on the arm from partypoker including a new elite VIP program tier, SPIN & GO JACKPOTS get a lick of paint, and the KO Series gets underway with $15m in guaranteed prize money.

Adam Smith had this to say in The Theory of Moral Sentiments:

“The rich man glories in his riches because he feels that they naturally draw upon him the attention of the world. The poor man, on the contrary, is ashamed of his poverty. He feels that it places him out of the sight of mankind. To feel that we are taken no notice of necessarily disappoints the most ardent desires of human nature. The poor man goes out and comes in unheeded, and when in the midst of a crowd is in the same obscurity as if shut up in his own hovel. The man of rank and distinction, on the contrary, is observed by all the world. Everybody is eager to look at him. His actions are the objects of the public care. Scarce a word, scarce a gesture that fall from him will be neglected.”

partypoker has taken note.

PokerStars is set to make significant changes to their bread and butter with a seating script revamp, and online cash game players receiving less time to make a decision.

If you ever take ‘The Colour Code Personality’ test and find out you’re a ‘Red’, you learn that you’re the type of person who likes to get from A to B as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

If you’re a ‘Red’ who plays cash games at PokerStars and uses a seating script, then, after you’ve read this, you’re going to want to put your head through a wall as quickly and efficiently as possible.

PokerStars has confirmed plans to amend their seating script regulations, making it nigh on impossible for someone to use a third-party service provider to use player data to find the most profitable games on the site.

We get the opportunity to speak to Phil Galfond ahead of the much-anticipated launch of Run It Once Poker to ask him who it’s for, who it’s not for, and much more.

The poker community has called Phil Galfond many things.

The world’s greatest poker player.

The perfect poker spokesperson for our generation.

The Netherlands’ online gambling legislation may not make its February 12 vote date, if Tuesday’s Senate debate was any barometer.

Tuesday saw the Dutch Senate commence debate on the Remote Gaming Bill, which aims to launch an online licensing regime that would be open to international operators. The bill was approved by the legislature’s lower chamber way back in July 2016 but the Senate has always found a way to avoid discussing the measure.

Tuesday’s debate, which was hotly followed by Dutch affiliate Gaming In Holland, was split into two sessions (play-by-play coverage of which can be read here and here). In addition to the online legislation, the Senate was also debating the Casino Reform Bill, which aims to complete the (surprise) long-delayed privatization of Dutch land-based gaming monopoly Holland Casino.

Skipping ahead to the crux of the matter, while there initially appeared to be sufficient support to ensure the bill’s passage, the debate took an unexpected turn when senators demanded that Justice Minister Sander Dekker provide detailed, written responses to three questions.

The US Department of Justice’s online gambling views are under simultaneous attack by at least two state attorneys-general and the association representing all US lottery operators.

On Tuesday, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro wrote a joint letter to the DOJ detailing their “strong opposition” to its recent opinion that the 1961 Wire Act applies to other forms of gambling beyond sports betting.

The new opinion could spell trouble for some aspects (definitely interstate poker, possibly payment processing) of New Jersey’s thriving online gambling market, while Pennsylvania doesn’t want any curbs on its own online gambling market, which was supposed to launch this year.

The attorneys-general urged the DOJ to “withdraw its opinion altogether or assure us that DOJ will not bring any enforcement actions against companies and individuals engaged in online gaming in our states – where it is appropriate under state law.”

Ladbrokes and Coral betting shop staff are competing with each other to sign the most online customers in order to avoid getting the sack, according to a new report.

On Tuesday, the Guardian reported having seen an internal memo recently issued to staff at betting shops operated by GVC Holdings’ Ladbroke and Coral brands. The memo warns that GVC plans to close up to 1,000 of its 3,500 UK shops over the next 18-24 months, which will result in the loss of around 5,000 jobs.

Ladbrokes said its ultimate aim was to keep as many shops as possible open and job loses to a minimum, but some staff will face redundancies while others will have their schedule rolled back to 36 hours per week. No redundancies will happen before May 1, following a 45-day “collective consultation” period.

The memo details that these redundancies will be chosen via a ranking system, in which staff will be grouped by area and then whittled down to the appropriate level of staffing for the shops that will remain open.

Casino operator Landing International Development has warned investors that it expects to book a net loss for 2018.

On Monday, Landing issued a profit warning to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that previewed an expected net loss for 2018. The company didn’t offer a range of values for this expected loss, meaning investors will have to wait until the official results are issued in late March. Investors mostly took the news in stride, keeping the share price relatively unchanged ahead of the Lunar New Year market close.

Landing did say that the loss is attributable to the “absence” of around HK$657m (US$83.7m) in profit from discontinued operations of its lighting business in China and its gaming business in the United Kingdom. Another ‘absence’ of HK$209m stemmed from the reversal of impairment of trade receivables the company booked in 2017.

The company also booked higher expenses from its ongoing efforts to open its Jeju Shinhwa World resort casino in South Korea. Last November, the company announced that its scheduled 2018 opening had been pushed back to 2019 due to the Korean government slow-rolling the project’s occupation permits.

Taiwan’s sports lottery enjoyed record sales in 2018, in part because local authorities keep disrupting unauthorized online gambling competitors.

Last month, the Taiwan Sports Lottery Co released its official statistics for 2018, during which sales topped NT$43.6b (US$1.41b). That’s not only a 32% rise from 2017’s result but marks the first time annual sports lottery sales topped the NT$40b mark.

The 2018 figures got a boost from last summer’s FIFA World Cup, which lottery president Lin Po-tai estimated contributed an extra NT$7.05b in sales. August’s Asian Games in Indonesia added another NT$950m.

Thanks to the World Cup, football accounted for over 30% of 2018’s lottery sales, while baseball and basketball contributed 25% apiece and tennis claimed a 10% share.