Poker Central partners with CBS to extend the coverage of the World Series of Poker to more eyeballs than ever before.

Look into the rearview mirror at the coverage of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), and the picture is bleak. For years, broadcasters shunned the pinnacle of poker privilege with fans restricted to the highlight reel, but all that changed in 2017 when Poker Central acquired global rights.

Today, when the WSOP sprints into Vegas like a greyhound on heat the fans expect nothing more than top-notch live stream coverage, and expert commentary and analysis, and for those living in North America and Australia there is a special treat this year.

Poker Central has partnered with CBS to extend the coverage of the WSOP to even more eyeballs. The 4 million subscribers who pay for CBS All Access will receive 25 days of coverage, eight days will be exclusive to PokerGO, with eight days shown across both platforms. Also, CBS Sports Network will air highlight shows, as will CBSSports.com, the CBS Sports app, and CBS Sports HQ.

A collection of stories from the world of online poker including the GGNetwork chief on Short-Deck, a Winning Poker Network upgrade, a Brazilian Sèrie A poker linkup, and an update from the Spring Championship of Online Poker.

The United States Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station lies at the site of the South Pole and has been permanently manned since 1956. I wonder if the current occupants are competing in the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP)?

This trio is.

Maksim “MAMOHT_T” Mamonov has taken down the SCOOP 36 (H) $530 No-Limit Hold’em PKO Six-Max beating 2,376 entrants to win the $87,440.79 first prize. Mamonov has earned more than $7.4m playing online tournaments. It’s the Russian’s second highest score, behind the $181,000 he won for finishing third in a 2013 SCOOP event.

Three weird and wonderful barrels including Red Dead Online poker restrictions, Tom Dwan and Daniel Cates teaming up, and Annette Obrestad is the makeup queen.

Life sucks.

Kids scream because their angel wings don’t make them fly, wives won’t have sex with you because there’s no connection, and let’s not get into the Game of Thrones finale.

Fortunately, game producers, Rockstar, have the answer: Red Dead Online. The online blockbuster allowing you to roam around the Wild West like Clint Eastwood has cut the beta umbilical cord, and despite a few hiccups, it seems an excellent way for you to disappear from your sucky life.

Nevada’s online poker players may finally get a second option after PartyPoker’s parent company GVC Holdings was granted a local gaming license.

On Thursday, the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) unanimously approved the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s recommendation that GVC be awarded a state gaming license. However, the license is limited to two years, in part due to the confrontational tone of the NGCB hearing into GVC’s application earlier this month.

That early May hearing featured NGCB members pressing GVC execs, including CEO Kenny Alexander, on the company’s controversial grey/black-market history in markets such as Turkey. GVC did brisk business in Turkey but jettisoned the operation in 2017 over fears that its Turkish presence might complicate its planned acquisition of Ladbrokes Coral Group.

By most accounts, Alexander didn’t respond well to being upbraided by the NGCB but he opened Thursday’s hearing by apologizing to NGCB directors. GVC chairman Lee Feldman also apologized while saying the company had upgraded its compliance approach and structure to address the regulators’ concerns.

Daily fantasy sports cum sports betting operators DraftKings and FanDuel are signaling that they won’t be excluded from any legal Illinois betting market without a fight.

Thursday saw the release of a new video by Bet On Illinois (BOI), a lobby group consisting of DraftKings and the FanDuel Group (an offshoot of UK-listed gaming giant Paddy Power Betfair). BOI’s mission statement is to “bring mobile sports betting to Illinois,” particularly if that mobile betting is offered by DraftKings or FanDuel.

Illinois has been struggling to pass legislation that would legalize betting in their state, but that effort was compromised a couple weeks back when state Rep. Michael Zalewski tacked on some ‘bad actor’ amendments that would require DFS operators to serve a three-year ‘time out’ before acquiring betting licenses.

The ‘bad actor’ amendment is based on the Illinois Attorney General’s late-2015 opinion that DFS was gambling. By extension, firms such as DK and FD that were offering DFS to Illinois residents at the time were breaking the law and must now atone for their sins.

Casino operator MGM Resorts has been fined $100k for allowing minors to access the gaming floor and quaff forbidden beverages at its Massachusetts property.

On Thursday, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) announced that it had imposed a $100k ‘civil administrative penalty’ on the MGM Springfield casino for multiple instances in which individuals under 21 years of age were able to gain access to the casino’s gaming floor and consume alcohol.

According to the MGC’s Investigations and Enforcement Bureau (IEB), the underage infractions started last August and totaled 22 incidents over the next three months. A further eight incidents occurred in a 10-day span starting in late November, followed by 14 more incidents between last December and late April.

The incidents kept reoccurring despite the MGC ordering MGM to block under-21’s access to the crosswalk across the gaming area, limiting them to the perimeter of the slots and table games zone, but apparently this ‘look but don’t touch’ approach only seemed to whet the young-uns’ appetite for forbidden fruit.