It looks like the long legal battle between Chinese businessman Richard Suen and Las Vegas Sands (LVS) has finally come to an end. The two parties have reached an agreement for an undisclosed sum of money, reports GGRAsia.

Suen started a 15-year legal battle with LVS in 2004, arguing that he and his firm, Round Square Co Ltd, helped the operator win its Macau casino rights and were not properly compensated. When this recent round of court hearings started, Suen’s lawyers argued he should get as much as $347 million for his role all those years ago. LVS’s lawyers countered that he deserved no more than $3.76 million.

Now that the two groups have reached a compromise, Suen is satisfied. He told the press outside the court room that the battle was “worth it,” and he had achieved “the sense of justice.”

In a 15-year legal battle, lots can happen. In 2008, the courts awarded Suen $43.8 million, but that amount was later overruled due to errors by the presiding judge. Then in 2013, the courts decided on $70 million for him with interest, which by 2016 had amounted to $101.6 million. That was then also thrown out on an appeal by LVS, setting up this most recent battle.

A separation of local versus national powers is heating up in the Philippines. The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has now made it clear that they will file a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Quezon City to prevent a local ordinance restricting gambling from pushing through, in a press statement provided to CalvinAyre.com.

Recently, Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte pushed a new ordinance for her city that would force residents to pay a fee to enter any local casinos. This was done in preparation of the proposed Bloomberry casino, which will be built in the Vertis North project of Quezon City.

Now making their intent to file a TRO crystal clear, PAGCOR says they would be failing at their job to let the ordinance come into effect. They wrote, “PAGCOR maintains that not taking this next important step is tantamount to the dereliction of its duties as gaming regulator.”

They cite plenty of precedent for their authority, and Quezon City’s lack thereof. Presidential Decree 1869 and Republic Act 9487 established PAGCOR as the only regulatory body for gambling. Presidential Decree 771 specifically revoked that authority from local government units (LGUs), a local term for municipal government. Then a memo from the office of the President in 1996 made it clear that only the national government has the power to regulate gambling.

Sean Yu dominates the World Series of Poker Circuit at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, cashing four times, and winning two gold rings including the Main Event, and media representatives that hope to descend on the 50th Anniversary special in Las Vegas can now apply for a permit.

There are men with calves that look like fire hydrants, Montenegrin passport controllers with hands like scooped out melons, and poker players who seem to climb the scaffolding of tournament after tournament navigating the wind and waves of chance with the skill and determination of Christopher Columbus.

I’ve never seen Sean Yu’s calves, nor the inside of his mitts – I have never seen him play poker, but results don’t lie. The man is a flame, and yesterday, once again, it burned so brightly, that everyone within his vicinity ran to the rail to hide from him.

Yu capped off an outstanding World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) campaign at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, CA, by winning the 678-entrant $1,700 Main Event adding a $210,585 to an already impressive roll-call of honour, and a seat into the Global Casino Championship he won two-years past.

Three tales from the world of online poker including 888Poker giving you a freeroll into the World Series of Poker Main Event during XL Blizzard, partypoker promising $30m in guarantees during POWERFEST, and PokerStars pledging $11m and $1m to the winner of the 13th anniversary Sunday Million.

Some people believe that the purpose of the world is to provide its inhabitants with the beauty that it requires to feed its soul. If you’re an online poker lover, then I assume you feast on the beauty of the online tournament series.

Here are three different versions of online poker porn.

Don’t tell your other half.

A trio of tales from the World Poker Tour including contrasting fortunes at the recent WPT500 in Barcelona and a new content distribution deal with Unreel.

Back in August when the colour green hung from the limbs of trees, the morning sunshine quenched its thirst on the dewy grass, and an army of shorebirds followed the blueprint of life, partypoker Live cut a deal to partner with the World Poker Tour (WPT) for the next four years.

Part of that deal was a joint event in Europe’s most successful live tournament venue: The Casino Barcelona – a place that must lie at the end of all of poker’s rainbows.

But it seems with vast numbers comes a lack of attention to detail.

ESPN’s new deal with the UFC that kicked in this year has been a boon for bettors because it seems there’s now an interesting card nearly every weekend. There’s another UFC Fight Night event this Saturday headlined by a welterweight bout between Darren Till and Jorge Masvidal from the O2 Arena in London. It can be seen in the USA on ESPN+.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Till (17-1-1) is the -260 favorite and will have home Octagon advantage, so to speak, as “the Gorilla” is from Liverpool in England. Till fought for the welterweight title at UFC 228 last September against champion Tyron Woodley and suffered his first loss. Woodley knocked Till down with a big hit and then pounced, with Till tapping out in the second round via a Woodley choke.

Woodley has since lost the belt to Kamaru Usman, meaning Till probably has a longer wait for another title shot even should he win here. The 26-year-old is ranked No. 3 in the division behind Woodley and Colby Covington. A total of 10 of Till’s 17 wins have come via KO or TKO. He was a very slight underdog against Woodley.

The final World Poker Tour Main Event of March’s triumvirate of HyperX Esports finale’s has ended with Vinicius Lima beating Dave Farah, heads-up, to take the title.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that the eye was the greatest of all artists. I would love to see the world through Adam Pliska’s eyes.

As the third and final World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event Final Table scheduled to run back-to-back at the HyperX Esports Arena at the Luxor in Las Vegas joins the back catalogue we have witnessed some of the rawest and most raucous final tables in the tour’s history.

Pliska saw a vision.

Japan has always been a leading country. It embraces new technologies quicker than most others and this has even included cryptocurrencies. A recent discussion on the future of integrated resorts (IR) and crypto in the country reveals that, if it chooses, Japan could become one of the first countries to fully embrace digital currencies as a form of payments at its casinos.

The discussion took place during a panel session at the iGaming Asia Congress, which was held this week at Studio City in Macau. The event wraps up today and saw participants involved in the “Spotlight on blockchain and crypto regulation in Asia” talk on Wednesday. During that talk, Japan was singled out for its experience and adoption of crypto, and how these could give it a serious competitive edge in the casino industry if it decides to allow crypto in the country’s casinos and IRs.

One of the panelists in the discussion, Bitwork Asia co-founder Bryan Wu, asserted, “Japan is heading in a very, very good direction right now.” He added that the country has shown a “big population acceptance” of digital currencies—despite several scandals tied to crypto exchanges and this could lead to the IRs being willing to embrace crypto as a payment method.

Jose Alvares, founding partner of Macau law firm CA Lawyers, adds that Japan’s experience “shows something very interesting—that Japan is willing to learn from their mistakes. When you invest in new ventures, when you are developing new ventures, you’re bound to make mistakes, you’re bound to suffer losses but they’re willing to go beyond to really promote this new idea.”

Lawmakers in Tennessee are attempting to bring sports gambling to the state. They have been discussing a bill that would allow local jurisdictions to hold votes on the matter in order to decide their own gambling destiny, but there has been some resistance from the top. Governor Bill Lee, who had no prior political experience before being elected to run the state, has been an outspoken opponent on the subject, hesitant to rock the boat too much. This could be changing, though, as reports are circulating that Lee is now in favor of sports gambling legalization, provided he has input on how the industry is conceived.

A report by the Volunteer State’s WKRN news outlet indicates that the sports gambling bill is currently being redesigned and will include certain additions provided by the governor’s office. Lee has previously stated that he was opposed to gambling bills, which have included casino expansion in the state, but is now warming up to sportsbooks.

WKRN reports that it was told, “Governor Lee continues to believe that gambling expansion is not in the best interest of our state. The Lee administration will often work with lawmakers to improve a bill that impacts the state’s economic and social health, even if it’s not something we plan to support.”

Last October, Lee said of sports gambling, “I would work with the legislature to make sure they didn’t approve it.” This position is completely the opposite of what is now being shown coming from the governor’s office and should give the gambling industry cause to get excited.

Quezon City candidate for mayor and current Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte has made her stance on a casino in her city a bit confusing. First she was for it, and now she doesn’t want her citizens to go to casinos. Now, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has announced that Belmonte should stay in her lane, and let them set regulations for gambling in the Philippines.

In a press statement release on March 12, PAGCOR has declared it “maintains its position that local government units (LGU) do not have the authority to regulate games of chance even in their localities. Instead, this function is a mandate of PAGCOR by virtue of its charter, Presidential Decree 1869.”

They go on to quote Presidential Decree Number 771, issued in 1975, which states in part that it “revokes the authority of LGUs to issue license permit or any form of franchise to operate, maintain and establish forms of gambling.”

They also quote a legal opinion from 1998 that restricts the authority to maintain gambling activities to the national government agencies, and specifically PAGCOR.