Relax Gaming continues to strike new deals as it seeks to expand its operations. Just a few days ago, according to a press release, the Malta-based company signed a platform-to-platform agreement with Gaming Realms to offer the latter’s “Slingo Original” games on its portal, and has followed that up with another, similar agreement with Skywind Group. Relax will offer its library on the Relax platform, and Relax’s gaming partners will be given access to popular games like Boomerang Edge, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and more.

Skywind has been around for about the past seven years and now provides its products to companies in Asia, Latin America and Europe. It has over 200 mobile-focused titles that span online slot, casino table and arcade games. The company’s managing director, Oren Cohen Shwartz, states that teaming up with Relax is going to help Skywind as it seeks to enter regulated gambling markets around the world. He adds, “Expanding the reach of our growing range of premium games and unique engagement tools, to new brands and markets, is a key priority for us. I am sure that our strong partnership with Relax Gaming will be fruitful.

“We will supply our premium games and unique engagement tools to tier 1 operators quickly, in all the markets they operate in.”

In addition to the Skywind and Gaming Realms deals, Relax also signed a games supply deal with Interwetten last month. That arrangement will see Relax offer in-house slots and table games to the online operator, as well as give Interwetten the ability to release games from Relax’s partners that are in the Silver Bullet program.

Eldorado Resorts is hoping that it can pick up a permanent license to operate The Tropicana Atlantic City in New Jersey. It has filed a request for the license, which is expected to be reviewed today by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission (NJCCC) as part of the commission’s planned agenda.

Eldorado purchased Tropicana Entertainment about eight months, which, along with other assets, gave it the Atlantic City venue. That acquisition put Eldorado out $1.85 billion, and is now looking to receive full approval to operate the resort. It has been working through an interim license that was issued last September after the acquisition was finalized.

Tropicana has been around since 1981 as part of the Boardwalk group of casinos in Atlantic City. It is one of only a few that has survived turbulent economic times in New Jersey and which has continued to be a steady attraction, continuing to be the second-highest grossing venue, after the Borgata. The venue offers a casino, a hotel with 2,400 rooms, restaurants and retail options, an IMAX movie theater, a spa and an entertainment complex.

Tropicana is also home to one of New Jersey’s sportsbooks. It launched the operations last October, five months after the US Supreme Court decided that federal lawmakers were wrong when the signed off on the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) that banned states from offering sports gambling. The casino introduced a temporary in-person sportsbook through a partnership with William Hill that has now been converted into a permanent operation as of this past March.

Following approval of gaming expansion in Pennsylvania by state lawmakers, Penn National Gaming announced that it wanted to put a satellite casino in Morgantown. The Hollywood Casino Morgantown would be the first satellite casino in the state and local authorities didn’t have any problems supporting the idea, even if some local residents did. The next step is to receive permission from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), which could come as soon as today.

The PGCB is expected to lead a hearing today at 10 AM local time to discuss whether or not to green-light the project. Penn National is hoping it won’t find any major opposition to the $111-million casino, which would host 30 table games and 750 slot machines, and the possibility of including ten more table games.

The gaming commission will sit through a presentation prepared by Penn National that details the project in hopes of convincing the commissioners of the casino’s benefits to the local community, as well as to Pennsylvania. PGCB spokesperson Doug Harbach stated that the board could decide to vote on the proposal today, based on the presentation and public feedback, or decide to take more time before issuing its decision.

In total, Pennsylvania could ultimately see as many as ten satellite casinos scattered across the state thanks to the gaming expansion legislation that was approved in 2017. That legislation led the way for Penn National to be given authorization last year to construct two Class 4 satellite casinos, and the casino operator selected Caernarvon Township in Berks County as one of the two destinations.

A man waiting for a flight at an international airport is sprayed with the VX nerve gas and dies. The perpetrators are caught, asserting that they believed that they were participating in a prank video that was to appear on the Internet. It would make for an interesting novel or a mystery who-done-it game if it weren’t for the fact that the events actually took place. The man, reportedly a CIA informant and illegal casino operator, was the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and, as the case unraveled, it was finally determined that Kim was responsible for his brother’s assassination. At least, this is the assertion made in a new book being released.

Anna Fitfield, a journalist with the Washington Post, authored the work, asserting that Kim Jong-nam was behind several online gambling sites and operated a money-laundering racket. He allegedly was also a spy for the CIA, keeping track of activity in North Korea and the region.

As he was waiting for a flight to Macau at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in February 2017, two women smeared the nerve agent on his face, resulting in his death. The investigation into the murder determined that North Korea’s dictator had ordered the murder.

An IT specialist who asserts that he worked for the victim states that he managed security services for his different online gambling portals. He adds that Kim had massive amounts of fake $100 bills that had been produced in North Korea by that country’s government in the 1990s and 2000s. Those bills were later laundered through casinos in Macau and Fitfield alleges, “He lived in the shadows amid gamblers, gangsters and spies. He appeared to keep some links to the regime at the same time as living outside it.”

Justin Bieber may have been partying a little too hard when he posted a recent tweet challenging Tom Cruise to a fight. The performer wants to take on the action-movie star in the UFC Octagon in what many would expect to be an extremely lopsided competition – in favor of the Mission Impossible star, of course. Sportsbooks have started to weigh in on the possible match, as well, and have been setting odds, just in case Cruise decides to accept the challenge.

This past Sunday, Bieber tweeted, “I wanna challenge Tom Cruise to fight in the octagon. Tom if you don’t [sic] take this fight your [sic] scared and you will never live it down. Who is willing to put on the fight? @danawhite ?”

According to oddchecker.com, Cruise is getting early odds to win at ½. However, Bieber has received 6/4 odds that he would be able to take out Cruise. A spokesperson for the site, Callum Wilson, states, “Cruise’s performance in Far and Away highlighted his (on screen) boxing ability. On the other hand, Bieber seemed to struggle in a scuffle with Orlando Bloom a few years ago.”

Odds Shark weighed in, as well, putting its support behind Cruise. It responded to Bieber’s tweet, stating, “We don’t like your odds, Justin.”

Sam Soverel features in an explosive episode of Joey Ingram’s podcast to talk about his controversial hand in the later stages of the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em, and shares some interesting gems on Haxton, Bonomo and the high stakes circuit.

Sam Soverel has appeared on the Joey Ingram podcast in response to a lava flow of suggestions hurled at him by the likes of Isaac Haxton and Justin Bonomo that the Poker Central High Roller of the Year intentionally angled his way into a third-place finish during Ben Heath’s $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em bracelet victory.

As I wrote here, Soverel folded out of turn in a crucial hand that played out three-handed, leading to Heath eliminating Dmitry Yurasov in fourth – an act worth an additional $180,000 to Soverel.

You can view the hand here.

A potpourri of pieces from partypoker including a further update on the extermination of bots, a reaction from the enemy, and news from Monster Series and POWERFEST.

When it comes to the clemency of bots, partypoker is as ruthless as a buckle welt teenager holding a Monarch between his whorls.

In May, the online poker room ignored the screams of bots desperate for a suck on their motherboard’s nipples, executing 42 of them, 33 (78.6%) from the Dotcom market, and nine (21.4%) from their Doteu patch.

The lighthouses of direct player feedback spotting eight of the closures, and if you come across some funky shit while scanning partypoker’s tables then email [email protected], and they will do the killing.

Has any U.S. Open in recent history had more storylines entering the tournament than the 2019 version? Where to begin!?

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

First, there’s the course: Pebble Beach Golf Links, arguably the best and most picturesque public course in the United States. It’s not overly long at just over 7,000 yards (par 71), but the winds will make it play longer and Pebble Beach has very small greens. It was a no-brainer for the USGA to give Pebble Beach the U.S. Open this year because it’s the 100th anniversary of the course’s opening. It’s the sixth time Pebble Beach hosts this tournament and first since 2010 when Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell won at even par by a stroke over France’s Gregory Havret. McDowell is +10000 to win this week.

The USGA tries to make the U.S. Open the toughest tournament in golf in terms of course setup so it’s quite possible no player finishes under par this year.

Another round-up of news from the World Series of Poker as Frankie O’Dell sets a new Omaha record, Eli Elezra wins his fourth bracelet, and Josh Pollock wins his first.

Bristol is an English city, home to Portishead and Massive Attack, the mother and father of trip-hop, and also Muntjac Deer, recently spotted more frequently in the inner city.

Muntjac Deer don’t come into the inner city to listen to trip-hop. They bounce into town because of the variety of nosh. Nosh is slang for food or fellatio. Muntjac deer don’t get into fellatio because their antlers get in the way.

Since the war, humans have hunted wolves to extinction in the UK, and because we are a civilised society, we don’t let too many people roam around armed like a Clint Eastwood’s Joe, so the Muntjac deer don’t have many predators hence the confidence.

Cambodia’s government continues to hand out new casino licenses like they were Halloween candy, while slow-rolling the country’s long-awaited gambling legislation.

Cambodia issued a whopping 52 new casino licenses (one per week!) in 2018, bringing the total number of active gaming licensees to 150. On Tuesday, the Khmer Times quoted government representative Ros Phearun saying there’d been 13 new licenses issued in the first four months of 2019, boosting the number of active licensees to 163.

Phearun, the deputy director-general of the financial industry department at the Ministry of Finance, noted that there were actually only 51 casinos currently plying their trade in the country. Some of the other licensees are still in the process of building their venues, while others have halted their operations for one reason or another. And in truth, most of these licenses are actually issued for online gambling, not land-based gaming.

While Cambodia’s casinos were once concentrated in border towns such as Poipet and Bavet, Phearun revealed that 91 of the 163 licenses were for operations based in Preah Sihanouk province, which has witnessed massive development in recent years following an influx of Chinese businessmen, ex-pat Chinese workers and the occasional gangster.