Online gambling operator Genesis Global plans to “vigorously” appeal the suspension of its UK operating license for as yet unspecified compliance shortcomings.

Earlier this week, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) suspended the license of Genesis Global Ltd and prohibited the company from offering services to UK customers through 12 gambling sites authorized under that license. The UKGC didn’t go into details, saying only that the suspension was related to “a number of compliance issues.”

The UKGC did say that it was conducting a review of Genesis Global’s license under section 116(2)(a) of the Gambling Act 2005, which focuses on whether an operator may be unsuitable to carry on the activities permitted under its license.

On Thursday, Genesis issued a statement saying the UKGC’s announcement followed a routine compliance assessment earlier this month. The company said it had emerged from previous assessments of this type without incident.

It’s always good for poker sites when a big name wins one of their flagship events. Of course, the advertising material might tell us otherwise, and that it’s ‘anyone’s game’ if a player with almost no success in poker takes down a major title. The reality is, however, that while the odd ‘rags to riches’ story helps fluff the aspirational element of playing poker, a star name taking down a title also builds the new influx of players wishing to emulate that poker celebrity.

The Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis is a great poker celebrity to take home a trophy, backed as he is by a loyal legion of poker fans. He won $96,000 when he won the $500,000 guaranteed Stadium Series Heat 16-High event, which cost $2,100 to enter and took place in a no limit hold’em format.

Veldhuis had some really tough opposition on his way to claiming the win, with players such as partypoker pros Joao Simao and Anatoly Filatov, Sam Greenwood, Antoine Saout and 888poker player Dominik Nitsche all in the field and making the money.

The final table was reached was Joao Vieira got close but busted on the final table bubble in 10th place, and he was quickly followed out of the online lobby by British tournament pro Andrew ‘Statto’ Hulme. Hulme, who has a fantastic record over the past decade in Britain let alone the rest of the world, won $10,517 for his efforts before he was joined on the virtual rail by Russian player ‘MiracleQ’ and former EPT Malta champion Aliaksei Boika. Others who would fall before the heads-up included Pablo Brito Silva and Ivan Luca – with Veldhuis busting Luca with pocket aces – but it was Mike ‘Sir Watts’ Watson who made the duel for the title and a famous showdown would seal a memorable end to the event.

Australian lottery and betting operator Tabcorp Holdings has undergone a senior management shakeup, apparently following an informal vote of non-confidence by some major shareholders.

On Thursday, Tabcorp filed papers with the Australian Stock Exchange announcing a plan to replace its current chairperson Paula Dwyer with Steven Gregg (pictured left), a Tabcorp non-executive director since 2012. Dwyer plans to step down on December 31.

Tabcorp also said CEO David Attenborough would follow Dwyer out the door sometime in the first half of 2021, although the company is still conducting the global search to identify the individual that will fill Attenborough’s corner office.

Dwyer said that with the company’s tortured integration of rival Tatts Group nearly finished, “the time is now right for a new chairman to lead” Tabcorp into the future. Similarly, Attenborough cited the near-completion of the Tabcorp-Tatts combo as providing the signal that it was time for him to push on.

Germany-facing online casino operators could find themselves off the hook for potential prosecution if they choose to immediately implement rules laid out in the new federal gambling treaty.

On Thursday, German broadcaster NDR reported that a working group comprised of state law firms is recommending that internationally licensed online gambling operators who currently offer casino products to German customers could avoid enforcement actions if they agree to pretend that the new federal gambling treaty is already in force.

In January, Germany’s 16 states agreed to a new federal gambling framework that will authorize online casino and poker products as of July 1, 2021. But these products will be subject to strict limits on deposits and online slots stakes, while punters will also be required to hold separate accounts for each gaming vertical.

Internationally licensed online sportsbooks that hope to receive licenses under Germany’s new framework were told to cut off their online casino customers until next July but not all operators complied. While some states are willing to tolerate this defiance, others are most definitely not, posing a threat to the hard-won consensus on the new treaty.