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Golf fans watching this week’s World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational from Memphis on television may notice something a bit different since the coronavirus restart: Fans on the course. While the PGA Tour has already announced it would not allow fans at any tournaments the rest of the season, tournaments and title sponsors will be allowed to have up to 50 guests per day this week and that spouses/significant others also would be allowed.

None of those people will be tested for the coronavirus but must undergo a temperature check and will be limited to where exactly they can go on the grounds of TPC Southwind, a par 70 at around 7,240 yards that is a former dairy farm southeast of Memphis.

There are four WGC events annually on the PGA Tour and they have the biggest purses of any event other than the four majors, Players Championship and Tour Championship. The fields are absolutely loaded but much smaller (generally around 75) as players have to qualify to be eligible – being in the Top 50 of the world rankings is one way. There will be no cut this week.

In a week where it has been suggested by some that Daniel Negreanu’s latest World Series rant went over the top, we thought we’d look back at a hand five years ago that floored the six-time WSOP bracelet winner. 

Back in 2015, Negreanu came really close to making the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event but fell in 11th place when had this hand held, he might well have gone into the final as favourite. As it was, the largely unknown polarizing character of Joe McKeehen would go on to win the title. It was McKeehen himself who delivered Negreanu from the competition in dramatic fashion. 

The hand began at blinds of 200,000/400,000, eye-watering stuff. McKeehen, chip leader at the time, made a min-raise to 800,000 on the dealer button with jack-three of diamonds. So far, so standard, with chip dominance and ideal table position making this an easy decision. 

Once Butteroni slides away from the action in the small blind, folding his nine-three off-suit, it’s down to Negreanu in the big blind to make a decision. Fold, call, or, realistically, shove all-in and hope. 

Chinese gamblers are using smugglers to avoid pandemic-related travel restrictions in both Macau and on the mainland, according to local police.

On Monday, Macau’s Judiciary Police (PJ) announced the arrest of eight individuals linked to an aquatic smuggling ring that had been clandestinely ferrying mainland gamblers to Macau casinos and back again without going through the normal customs inspections.

A PJ spokesperson said the authorities got wind of this casino version of the Underground Railroad through discussions with their counterparts in Zhuhai, after which a joint operation was launched. Three members of the ring and five suspected customers were arrested in both jurisdictions.

The PJ said the ring and its motorboats had been in operation for at least one month, charging gamblers between RMB22k-30k (US$3,140-$4,280) apiece to make the trip. That sounds pricey, although it also included accommodation in Macau, as registering with one of the casinos’ hotels would have given the game away.

Colorado’s sports bettors splashed out more wagering cash in the month of June, despite a sports calendar that continues to resemble a paper target at a shooting range.

Figures released Tuesday by the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Division of Gaming show state-licensed online and land-based sports betting operators handled wagers worth just over $38.1m in June. The state doesn’t break out separate figures for online and retail betting “for confidentiality reasons.”

June’s handle was a decent improvement from the $25.6m reported in May, the first month of the state’s legal betting market. May also featured only six active betting licensees, all of them online-only, while June also included a single retail sportsbook (hence the confidentiality reasons).

These seven licensees reported combined betting revenue of $2.17m in June, from which the state’s share came to a paltry $217k. However, that’s more than twice the $96,537.55 the state earned in May, so they’re not complaining.

Oklahoma’s tribal casino operators have prevailed in their legal battle with the state’s governor over the renewal of their gaming compacts.

On Tuesday, US District Court Judge Timothy DeGiusti issued a ruling that affirmed the automatic renewal of gaming compacts between the state and tribal casino operators on January 1, 2020. The compacts are therefore valid for a new 15-year term following the expiration of their original agreement.

The dispute dates back to last summer, when Gov. Kevin Stitt announced that he would seek a higher share of gaming revenue for the state than called for in the original 2004 deal with the tribes. The tribes pay variable rates of 4-10% while Stitt (pictured) suggested a 20% cut of revenue was justified in exchange for casino exclusivity.

The tribes said they were willing to renegotiate the terms if Stitt acknowledged that the compacts automatically renewed at the start of 2020. When he refused to accept the renewals, the Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw nations sued Stitt in federal court. A handful of other Oklahoma tribes eventually joined the suit.