The District of Columbia’s long-delayed legal sports betting launch has been postponed yet again, this time (allegedly) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The DC Lottery was originally scheduled to launch its Intralot-powered digital sports betting product in January, but in November that timeline was pushed back to sometime in the first quarter of 2020. On Monday, the Washington City Paper reported that the Lottery had now ‘indefinitely’ delayed its betting launch.

A spokesperson said the Lottery’s web and mobile wagering platforms “are tested and ready to go live.” The problem is that the mass cancellation of sports events due to the coronavirus has left the Lottery with “little-to-no games or bets to offer” DC residents. The Lottery was “revising” its launch strategy and promised updates in the coming days, including “introducing the brand and its functionalities.”

The spokesperson denied that the betting launch was due to Intralot’s financial woes. The company’s shares have been on a fairly uninterrupted downward spiral since the end of January 2018, when they stood at €1.37. The shares closed Tuesday’s trading on the Athens exchange at just under €0.14. Earlier this month, Intralot appointed a new CEO, Sokratis Kokkalis, but it still hasn’t issued its Q419 financial results.

Some of the best poker books don’t offer you strategic advice, but instead inspire you to take up the game and improve at it. For lovers of a poker anecdote, as most of us are, Devilfish: The Life & Times of a Poker Legend is a book that has few equals.

To say that Dave Ulliott was a rogue and raconteur is not to disrespect him, but more to understate him. His poker stories had beguiling beginnings, mesmerizing middles… and no end. He could talk for hours and you’ll feel like it had been minutes.

Ulliott would frequently leap onto stage, grab a guitar and entertain people wherever he went. He’d join in with buskers, corral strangers in the street to hear him sing and woo the crowds at the World Series of Poker… before taking their money at the poker table. He was a born entertainer:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLAJdRByqXI?feature=oembed&w=500&h=375]

After the cancellation of the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) Season 9 Championship, it would have been easy to put any Rocket League action on the back burner, or maybe after-burners. Instead of that course of action, however, Psyonix today announced that the Rocket League Spring Series will begin on April 14th with a $250,000 addition to the regional Rocket League Championship Series also on the cards.

Following the Coronavirus outbreak, many live events were scuppered, with plans for millions of sports fans around the world thrown into chaos. From Premier League football to French Open tennis, Fortnite fans to Dota2 devotees, live sports fans and Esports fans have faced up to weeks of uncertainty with a stoicism.

Plenty of previously live events have nowhere to go, with football an obvious example of a game that simply cannot be played any other way than in huge stadiums that lose millions when they aren’t full. Esports, however, are a different type of game. The original game that is often enjoyed by crowd in a live stadium is an online pursuit; the natural regression of Esports is to pull back to everything being online. The game is still the same, the teams and players are still operating in the circumstances in which they usually perform.

Rather than crown an overall Season 9 Championship winner this season, the RLCS will play out four regional Spring Series tournaments. Here are where and when each region will line up:

“The following is what happens when you give two degenerate gamblers their own TV show…”

Some poker TV shows feature poker as the main player, others use the game as a backdrop for gangsters to shout at each other or dramatic characters to feel the emotional pull of a gambling addiction or enjoy the escapism of the game.

The two-year run of prop-betting poker show ‘I Bet You’ did no such thing. The show featured Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari as two best friends prepared to prop bet each other through the trials and tribulations of a life on the road as poker pros at the top of their games.

Nothing was off limits, no subject was taboo and nothing was left unsaid by two men for whom filters were designed purely for sunglasses. Poker prop bets often originate from stories heard at the felt. Remember that one about Huck Seed doing a front flip within 24 hours but his uncle was a gymnast? What about that prop bet where the guy trod water for 24 hours? No, he bailed and paid out at 4 hours.

US casino giants Caesars Entertainment and Eldorado Resorts are pushing ahead with plans to merge their operations, although the timeline will likely be pushed back a few months.

On Tuesday, CNBC quoted a source with firsthand knowledge of the imminent union of Caesars and Eldorado saying the transaction, which was expected to close sometime in April, will now likely not be a done deal until June.

The delay has been blamed on disruptions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shut down all commercial casino operations across the country. Social distancing efforts aimed at minimizing further transmission of the coronavirus have resulted in the postponement of public hearings with gaming regulators in Indiana, New Jersey and Nevada.

Delays in obtaining regulatory approval in the countless other states in which the two companies operate have already proven costly. The deal terms require Eldorado to pay Caesars shareholders a monthly penalty of 10 cents per share if the transaction wasn’t closed within nine months of its public announcement. That nine-month deadline expired last week.

China has relaunched lottery operations in Hubei province, the epicenter of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

On March 29, the Hubei provincial Sports Lottery Management Center announced that it would restart lottery sales on Tuesday in all provincial cities and counties with the exception of the city of Wuhan, where lottery sales are expected to resume on April 8th.

China suspended all lottery sales in late-January for the annual spring festival but the rapid spread of COVID-19 ultimately stretched that suspension to a record 49 days, including the entire month of February, as the authorities tried to minimize community transmission.

Two weeks ago, China’s National Sports Lottery Center announced that two-thirds of the nation’s lottery operations had resumed sales, albeit under significant new restrictions. Retail lottery hubs are putting desks in their doorways and selling tickets without allowing customers to physically enter the shop, while other retailers have set up kiosks on the street spaced at least six feet apart.

The Philippines’ gambling regulator says it’s continuing to provide cash for local pandemic relief efforts despite the fact that the suspension of gambling activity means its coffers are running dry.

On Tuesday, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) issued a statement regarding the P20.5b (US$403.3m) it has contributed to the local efforts to reduce further spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. This includes P12b to the National Treasury and P8.5b to the Socio-Civic Projects Fund of the Office of the President.

PAGCOR chair Andrea Domingo noted that the regulator had fully complied with President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of a public health emergency by shutting all land-based casinos, eGames, bingo, poker, slot machine clubs and sports betting facilities on March 15. That was followed three days later by the suspension of all Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) and their service providers.

With nearly all gaming under lockdown, Domingo said PAGCOR was losing an average of P5b-6b per month in lost revenue. Domingo said “the entire Philippine gaming industry will suffer” the longer the shutdown persists “but the people’s safety is of paramount importance.”