Gambling marketing rights outfit Skyrocket Entertainment has burnished its portfolio of Hollywood films via a new deal with Millennium Media.

On Wednesday, the Hollywood Reporter broke the story that Skyrocket had reached a deal with Millennium to market film-branded content to international online gambling operators (in regulated markets) for use in slots, bingo and instant win lottery products.

Millennium’s film vault includes such blockbusters as The Expendables and the Fallen franchise, Rambo 4, several Jason Statham vehicles (including The Mechanic), as well as the Hellboy reboot currently in cinemas around the world. The company has also produced more arty fare, including The Paperboy, Loving Pablo and the porn biopic Lovelace. Frankly, we’re really keen to see what types of game fare might emerge from that last one.

Skyrocket will oversee game-building, certification and distribution of products based on these titles. Production is expected to begin next month and the finished products will begin appearing on your friendly neighborhood gambling site sometime next year.

Gambling marketing rights outfit Skyrocket Entertainment has burnished its portfolio of Hollywood films via a new deal with Millennium Media.

On Wednesday, the Hollywood Reporter broke the story that Skyrocket had reached a deal with Millennium to market film-branded content to international online gambling operators (in regulated markets) for use in slots, bingo and instant win lottery products.

Millennium’s film vault includes such blockbusters as The Expendables and the Fallen franchise, Rambo 4, several Jason Statham vehicles (including The Mechanic), as well as the Hellboy reboot currently in cinemas around the world. The company has also produced more arty fare, including The Paperboy, Loving Pablo and the porn biopic Lovelace. Frankly, we’re really keen to see what types of game fare might emerge from that last one.

Skyrocket will oversee game-building, certification and distribution of products based on these titles. Production is expected to begin next month and the finished products will begin appearing on your friendly neighborhood gambling site sometime next year.

Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International (IPI) is caught up in yet another potential scandal, this one involving US President Donald Trump’s inaugural celebrations.

Last week, the Palm Beach Post reported on an event held in Washington, DC the night before Trump was sworn in as president in January 2017. The Asian Pacific American Presidential Inaugural Gala drew over 900 guests, each of who paid at least $75 to enter, while sponsors – including IPI – reportedly shelled out up to $15k apiece.

However, none of the money raised was reported to the Federal Election Commission by the event’s host, the National Committee of Asian American Republicans, as is required by law. And no one appears all that interested in revealing where the money went.

The event’s organizing committee included Jason Osborne, a former Trump campaign aide and a registered lobbyist for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a US territory that includes Saipan, which is home to IPI’s casino operations.

Russia wants to prohibit online sales of instant-win lottery games, while the government has approved legislation to establish a Chinese-style ‘great firewall’ around its domestic internet.

On Wednesday, Russian media outlet Ria Novosti reported that the Ministry of Finance was preparing legislation to prohibit online sales of instant-win lottery products, based on the government’s view that such products are too close to online casino games, which are forbidden under current laws.

Russia’s few state-approved lotteries, like the company behind the Stoloto brand, are allowed to sell tickets from websites and mobile apps, and while other products are technically legal, these state-approved operators offer only traditional numeric draw products. Instant-win games are only accessible via designated retail points of sale and specialized kiosks.

Meanwhile, this week saw Russia’s Duma approve the third and final reading of the so-called ‘Runet’ bill, which aims to wall off the country’s internet from the outside world. The bill’s backers claim the idea is to ensure continued operation of online services in the event of malicious foreign meddling, but everyone else sees it for the blatant censorship tool that it is. The bill is set to take effect this November.

The Seneca Nation of Indians is challenging an arbitration court ruling that says the tribe owes the state of New York nearly $25gm.

In January, the Senecas came out on the losing end of a dispute with New York State over the tribe’s refusal to share 25% of its three casinos’ slots revenue with the state, as stipulated under their tribal-state gaming compact. At the time, the three-person arbitration panel – in a split 2-1 decision – estimated the tribe owed the state around $200m.

Last week, the panel delivered its mathematics homework, which said the Senecas were on the hook for exactly $255,877,747.44. The panel further instructed the Senecas to resume the quarterly payments to the state that it had halted in April 2017. That first quarterly payment of 2019 is about to come due.

The funds that the Senecas would have been paying the state have been put into escrow, so the tribe won’t have to break the bank to honor its obligations. But the Senecas have now formally asked the federal Department of the Interior (DOI), which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), to review an amendment the tribe claims the arbitration panel made to the gaming compact.

Brighton manager, Chris Hughton, believes his side have a “proper fight’ on their hands after losing to fellow relegation strugglers Cardiff in front of their home fans.

Typically, if you lock 11 starving bluebirds in an aviary with 11 equally famished seagulls, the gulls will rip the birds apart. On Wednesday night, when the last remnant of Week 31’s fixture list played out on the South Coast, the exact opposite happened.

I live in Cardiff, and until Monday night, the vibe has been the same all season – Cardiff City will soon be playing Championship football. Today, there’s a new belief.

Chris Hughton called Brighton’s relegation tussle with Cardiff City a “proper fight” after the Seagulls lost their fourth successive league game without scoring in a 2-0 defeat against visiting Cardiff.

The first night of the Champions League Quarter-Final second leg ties has ended with Barcelona and Ajax marching into the Semi-Finals as Manchester United and Juventus tumble out of the competition.

It was a night when the whole world expected Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to hog the headlines.

One of them did.

Messi has two, possibly, three more games to close the 16-goal gap at the top of the Champions League All-Time Top Scorers order of merit, and Ronaldo can only sit on his Polar Bear fur rug and watch.