Bitcoin, now reborn as Bitcoin SV (BSV), isn’t just the best payment option for gambling operators, it’s also proving to be the best blockchain to handle data. Bitboss CEO Matt Dickson recently took the stage at CoinGeek London to demonstrate all the ways his company is already making blockchain integration a profitable endeavor for anyone offering gambling.

The Bitboss wallet is a great start. As Dickson demonstrated, a tightly integrated BSV wallet, that records transactions to the blockchain and talks to the backend, provides immediate benefits for all parties involved with a player’s action. And APIs are coming, so operators can start reaping the benefits soon.

Dickson used an example of a customer playing slots to show how the whole system works. A Bitboss slot smart contract watches the BSV Mempool in real time, and sees transactions broadcast to pick them up. It generates a transparent random number, which is then sent to the content provider. Once the end result is generated, a smart contract divvies out the payout to the affiliate, the player, the content creator, and Bitboss.

By using the BSV blockchain for the majority of data handling, content creators save a tremendous amount by not needing to run their own gaming servers, and the transparency of the BSV proves that everything is on the up and up.

A real estate and finance attorney in Kentucky should have been familiar enough with the laws, and the repercussions of breaking them, to not get caught up in a major illegal operation. However, H. Harris Pepper of Bowling Green apparently thought he was above the law or smart enough to avoid being caught, and helped launder money tied to illegal online sports gambling operations. Pepper has now had his day in court and decided to cut a deal to avoid a potentially long jail sentence.

The Bowling Green Daily News reports that the 53-year-old attorney acknowledged that he was a willing participant in a number of illegal activities instigated by a partner, Douglas Booth. He collaborated with Booth from 2008 to 2016 to help wash hundreds of thousands of dollars that the latter was picking up from illegal gambling websites, many of which were run out of Costa Rica. Booth was using the proceeds to purchase a number of real estate properties, and Pepper, in his capacity as a real estate attorney, helped to cover up Booth’s ownership.

Knowing that Costa Rica has been, for many years, a hotbed for offshore gambling sites that target U.S. citizens, law enforcement departments have been monitoring the web to track those behind the sites. It wasn’t difficult to follow the digital trails and, after Booth’s operations were uncovered last year, investigators were able to determine Pepper’s involvement. Booth was charged last year with five counts of failing to file federal tax returns, four counts of money laundering and a single count each of conspiring to commit money laundering and illegal transmission of wagering information. He pleaded guilty to all charges.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office went after Pepper earlier this month, charging him with a number of crimes related to the illegal activity. However, when he went before U.S. District Judge Justin Walker yesterday, he had already worked out a deal to plead to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, allowing him to possibly receive a sentence significantly lighter than what would have otherwise been imposed. Due to the agreement, instead of 20 years behind bars, he could be looking at a maximum of 366 days.

Donaco International, the Australia-listed casino operator with venues across Indochina, can’t seem to catch a break. Just after it thought it had its house in order and was ready to bounce back from a weak 2019, the coronavirus comes in to upset any positive momentum. As it scaled back operations and was forced to send workers home with no pay, Donaco’s wallet took a beating and it apparently now is finding itself in a bad spot. It announced today, as part of the company’s updated financial report (in pdf) sent to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), that it needs some outside assistance to help cover its bills.

In releasing the financial numbers covering the last six months of 2019, new Donaco non-executive chairman Mel Ashton took advantage of the opportunity to stress the need for an injection of funds. He stated in the filing, “The board is aware that the liquidity of the company may tighten from the closure of the border crossing between China and Vietnam in January due to the outbreak of Covid-19. Donaco is seeking to access financing to support payment obligations and working capital requirements of the company.”

As last year drew to a close, Donaco could only play the cards it had been dealt, and reported a net loss after tax of AU$1.5 million (US$985,000) for the last half of 2019The good news is that this was much better than the $36.8-million ($24 million) net loss that it was forced to report for the same period a year prior. Supporting the company’s results more was a non-cash impairment charge sent last year on the value of the license for the Star Vegas casino as part of the cancellation of an online gaming license. That impairment was for $4 million.

Part of the improvement in the financial results can directly be attributed to the company’s Aristo casino in Vietnam. Despite the country now having to be more diligent over concerns of the coronavirus, the casino reported a 42% increase in its net gaming revenue for the last six months of 2019, taking in around $3.8 million. Star Vegas, however, dropped 18% to $16.7 million.

Fans of the rock band KISS may soon be able to rock and roll all nite in a new KISS-themed casino in Mississippi. The group has reportedly started negotiating with a development company to revive the former Margaritaville Casino Biloxi and turn it into a resort with a rock-and-roll flare, with the famous band taking center stage. Crazy, crazy nights could be on the way.

The RAM Group, a gaming and hospitality company out of Arizona, purchased the property about a year ago after it had sat closed for around five years. The operator of the casino and the landlord of the 68,000-square-foot property had a falling out in 2014, leading to the venue being shut down and its hotel never completed. After securing the property, RAM said, last November, that it had signed a letter of intent with KISS to bring the property back to life.

According to the Sun Herald, those plans are apparently now coming to fruition, and the Rock & Brews restaurant chain, of which KISS members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are a part, will be launching the Rock & Brews Casino. The venue is expected to have a 300-room waterfront hotel, a casino spanning 40,000 square feet (or possibly more) and other amenities, such as a concert venue, a swimming pool and an event space.

The funding for the development is apparently in place, and it looks like the project is going to go all the way. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is going to be held on March 15, at a time that still has to be determined, and could see one or more of the KISS members on hand to celebrate the great expectations. Paul Stanley has reportedly been confirmed as a participant in the ceremony, and the event is timed in coordination with a local concert the group is giving later that night.

Everybody loves resorts fees, right? Although Caesars Entertainment has warned that eventually, customers will become fed up with paying these unclear fees, the resort and casino operator is betting that they haven’t reached that point just yet, as they are now raising resort fees at four additional Las Vegas properties.

VitalVegas first broke the news, reporting The Linq Hotel, Harrah’s Las Vegas, Flamingo and Bally’s will raise their fees starting on March 3, bringing the total fee up from $35 to $37, totaling to $41.95 a night once taxes are added on.

Oof. Told resort fees at Harrah’s, Flamingo, Linq and Bally’s increasing to $37/night plus tax ($41.95), effective March 3, 2020.

— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) February 27, 2020

In poker, players can often spend double digits of hours each day they’re training in a bid to improve their poker strategy. Sometimes, however, it’s the extra things you can do to improve your life that end up having a positive effect on your poker game.

Last time, we detailed how you can perfect your travel game, and we’ve already told you five diet changes every poker player can benefit from. This time, we’re looking at the first building block for almost every good day at the felt – a good night’s sleep.

Poker, by its very design, is such a stirring game that sleep can often seem counter-intuitive to winning. Casinos pump oxygen in to keep players of all their games awake. Online tournaments often last until the early hours of the morning. Poker is exciting, demanding and uses mental energy, often exhausting amounts. It can, however, keep you up.

Falling asleep may seem impossible at the end of an exciting tournament day during a major event, for example, but it can be achieved. Here are five ways to help yourself get the rest you need to be at your best. We’re going to skip right past the ones we tipped you in the diet-based advice, purely because if you’ve read up to this point chronologically, you’ve already kicked caffeine, alcohol and excessive sugar intake… haven’t you?

London is a popular destination for poker players from all around the world to live, but when it’s your hometown, you feel like part of the poker furniture. That’s certainly the case for Chris Da Silva, who is an ambassador and sponsored pro for PokerStars LIVE at the Hippodrome. We spoke to Chris to find out if he can survive being put to the test by 15 bigs.

If you were to be shot at dawn, what would be your last meal / drink?

[Image credit: WPT via flickr]

Any meal that has plantain in it. It’s a tropical plant in the same family as a banana. It’s not quite fruit, but you cook it or fry it and it’s a complimentary dish. Any meal that has planted in it makes me happy. I’d go with a drink of water only! 

Most people aren’t even aware that 2020 is a Leap Year, which is basically a free day of life … and sports betting. For the second time ever and first since November 2017, the UFC is staging a card in Norfolk, Virginia, and Saturday’s Fight Night event is headlined by a flyweight title matchup between Joseph Benavidez and Deiveson Figueiredo. The main card at Chartway Arena in Virginia’s second-largest city by population starts at 8pm ET on Leap Day and shown on ESPN+.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

The flyweight champion is technically Henry Cejudo, but last December he announced he would be relinquishing the belt to compete solely in the bantamweight division, where Cejudo is also the champion. So, this fight is for the vacant title.

The 35-year-old Benavidez, an American, is the No. 1 contender. It’s his third title shot in this division and he lost the previous two to Demetrious Johnson (December 2013 and September 2012). Benavidez has won his past three since a split-decision loss to Sergio Pettis in June 2018 and comes off a second-round TKO victory over Jussier Formiga last June.

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

We live in an era where three men – Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic – are rewriting tennis history as they dominate the sport in a manner that is completely unprecedented. Between the trio, they have won 56 Grand Slam titles. Yet there was a time where three other men might well have done the same.

Two Americans – Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe – and one Swede, the eponymous Björn Borg, were constantly in the limelight as the 1970’s gave way to the 1980’s. In total, they won 26 Grand Slam titles between them, but it may have been so many more. This week, we look at the third of the three men, Jimmy Connors, and how his refusal to give up the fight against two such impressive foes defined his success.

Playing with a left-handed style – just like McEnroe – Connors mopped up titles looking like a Rubber Soul era Beatle with his mop-top. Below that haircut existed a fiery temper and this was never better evidenced than when dealing with the srurly McEnroe. Both Americans went at it in this famous clash in 1982:

Online casino operator Mr Green Ltd has been hit with a £3m penalty by UK gambling regulators for some truly boneheaded failures to verify the sources of customer funds.

On Thursday, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced that Mr Green (aka MRG) had agreed to pay £3m to the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms after the regulator uncovered “systemic failings in respect of both Mr Green’s social responsibility and AML [anti-money laundering] controls which affected a significant number of customers across its online casinos.”

The news didn’t come as any real surprise, having been flagged the day before by MRG’s parent company, UK bookmaker William Hill. The aforementioned failings were identified as part of a UKGC compliance assessment in July 2018, long before Hills officially took control of MRG last year.

The UKGC’s assessment started with an examination of three MRG customer accounts, which identified failures from both responsible gambling and AML perspectives. These failures weren’t isolated incidents, occurring over a four-year period ending November 16, 2018.

Struggling online lottery and casino operator 500.com lost over $91m in 2019 and has only around half that sum left in its coffers with virtually no revenue coming in.

On Thursday, the Shenzhen-based, Nasdaq-listed 500.com announced that its revenue in the final three months of 2019 totaled a mere RMB8.6m (US$1.2m), less than one-third of the RMB27.2m the company generated in Q4 2018. The company’s operating losses tripled to RMB298.7m while the company booked a net loss of RMB307.9m.

The full-year figures were equally grim, as revenue fell by more than two-thirds to RMB39.7m ($5.7m), operating losses nearly doubled to RMB634.4m and net losses hit RMB636.4m ($91.1m).

Nearly 99% of 500.com’s Q4 revenue came via its European-facing The Multi Group (TMG), which offers online lottery betting and casino products via the Multilotto brand. The brand has suffered ever since the beginning of 2019, when the launch of Sweden’s regulated market forced Multilotto’s customers to re-register their accounts, except many chose not to bother.