Two of Europe’s most popular live poker events have been shelved due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic affecting live festivals around the world.

The Malta Poker Festival and Masters Classics of Poker will not take place in their regular venues this year after the Coronavirus pandemic put paid to two more massive live events.

The Masters Classics of Poker in Amsterdam used to be tied to a World Poker Tour Main Event in a festival which having been present at, I thought was a great festival. It was at one of the MCOP events that I met Felipe Ramos, now one of the faces of GGPoker, as he made it to the final table only to eventually miss out on the top prize.

As I interviewed him after the event, he expressed the opinion that, just like his good friend Neymar, second was nowhere and as good as 8th place to him, it was all about the victory.

Two of Europe’s most popular live poker events have been shelved due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic affecting live festivals around the world.

The Malta Poker Festival and Masters Classics of Poker will not take place in their regular venues this year after the Coronavirus pandemic put paid to two more massive live events.

The Masters Classics of Poker in Amsterdam used to be tied to a World Poker Tour Main Event in a festival which having been present at, I thought was a great festival. It was at one of the MCOP events that I met Felipe Ramos, now one of the faces of GGPoker, as he made it to the final table only to eventually miss out on the top prize.

As I interviewed him after the event, he expressed the opinion that, just like his good friend Neymar, second was nowhere and as good as 8th place to him, it was all about the victory.

It’s not sensationalizing to suggest that New York is in dire need of an economic shot in the arm. So the suggestion this week that the reopening of casinos could be the one-armed bandit that could come to the rescue of the Big Apple is a fascinating one.

From live poker to table games, casinos generate money and New York, at the epicentre of a major COVID-19 outbreak earlier in the year, suffering as many deaths from Coronavirus as some European countries, is in desperate need of economic recovery.

As our own Erik Gibbs reported last week, New York’s citizens have been less than happy with this, and were threatening to march in protest at the state of play.

As reported by the Daily Gazette, that’s exactly what happened, as New Yorkers marched on State Capitol building in Albany to ask Governor Cuomo to open up the lucrative areas of business.

While there has not yet been any type of official announcement about major changes coming to Scientific Games, the multi-faceted gaming operator has been making some adjustments that would seem to indicate otherwise. It was reported last month that Sci Games chairman Ronald Perelman wanted to get rid of his stake in the company, which currently sits at around 39%. It also took a $198-million hit in the second quarter of the year because of the coronavirus. While neither of those by itself would warrant speculation that something big is coming, add them to the latest announcement and a possible image begins to emerge. Sci Games submitted a filing (pdf) to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, guaranteeing lucrative severance packages for its top brass should a takeover occur. 

The notice describes a “change in control” (CIC) plan that would give six top executives a generous amount of cash in the event Sci Games changed hands. Among those covered by the plan are CEO and President Barry Cottle, CFO Michael Eklund, Group CEOs Patrick McHugh and Matthew Wilson, Chief Legal Officer James Sottile and Chief Accounting Officer Michael Winterscheidt. The company’s plan states, “The CIC Plan provides that in the event an executive’s employment is terminated by the company within 18 months following a change in control without cause or by the executive for good reason, the executive would be entitled to cash severance payments equal to the sum of his base salary and severance bonus amount, multiplied by two in the case of Messrs. Cottle and Wilson, and one-and-a-half, in the case of the other executives.” If, for some reason, the severance pay doesn’t reach the same level as a performance bonus for that year, then the severance package will be increased to meet that performance bonus.

There’s speculation that the brass decided to implement the measures because of Perelman’s interest in dumping his shares. That, in itself, would seem to indicate that there might be some friction at the top and that, perhaps, not everyone is on the same page when it comes to how the company needs to work to move forward. It appears that maybe things aren’t as solid at the company as it tried to make things seem this past April when it announced that it had more than sufficient capital assets to get over the coronavirus. 

It could just be that Sci Games’ past is coming back to haunt it. Calvin Ayre’s Rafi Farber laid out a solid argument in February for why the company’s track record over the past few years is a little suspect, and it might be that everything is coming to a head because of COVID-19. Maybe the salary cuts the top brass were willing to take this past March weren’t a result of a burning desire to support the company, after all.

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen has some explaining to do, and he might have to do it in court. For the past several years, there have been a couple of initiatives created to bring casino gaming to the state, but they have all fallen flat for various reasons. However, the latest attempt, created by the “Keep the Money in Nebraska” (KMN) campaign, backed by several gaming operators and the horse racing industry, was hugely successful in finding the support it needed. That is, until it got into Evnen’s hands. According to the initiative’s backers, Evnen has struck the measure from being added to the state’s elections this November and, since the public has to vote on the subject of gambling, this spells trouble for the gaming community. Now, KMN wants Evnen’s decision to be overturned and is looking for the courts to help, but it might already be too late.

KMN is maintained, in part, by Ho-Chunk Inc., a company that belongs to the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. In its quest to see the casino issue appear on this November’s ballot, it successfully received 475,000 signatures from registered voters, well above the threshold required. It looked like everything was going to move forward so that voters could decide whether or not to allow casinos to be included at race tracks, but Evnen threw everyone for a loop when he decided that the language included in the ballot entry was misleading. Instead of trying to seek alternative wording, which is common in situations like this, he simply removed the entry completely. 

Evnen is going well beyond the scope of his responsibilities in this case. He is alleged to believe that allowing the casinos at the racetracks will ultimately lead to casinos being built on tribal land. According to federal law, which governs all recognized tribes in the country, tribal class III gaming properties can be offered on sovereign land only if they are already offered elsewhere. As a result, Evnen feels that allowing the measure to move forward for a vote would be a green light for tribal casinos. However, he is apparently missing two fundamental points – that’s not his decision to make and the tribes would still have to negotiate a compact with Nebraska before introducing a class III gaming facility on their land. 

To make Evnen’s decision more suspect, his office had reviewed the wording on the initiative before KMN began its signature-gathering exercise and found no problems. The fact that Evnen has waited so long to make his move – the group turned in their results at the beginning of July – only fuels the idea even more. The ballot deadline is September 11, which gives KMN only 17 days to try to find a resolution. 

Pennsylvania lawmakers have heard the call, and a new bill seeks to ban smoking in state casinos. Rep. Dan Frankel has put forward a bill that would amend the Clean Indoor Air Act of Pennsylvania, specifically to close loopholes that allow operators to permit smoking in their premises.

House Bill 2298 would better define the previous law, providing specific requirements for gambling floors, but also bars, nightclubs, and other businesses. Casinos would initially be required to have 75% of their gaming floor be smoke free, and could then appeal to adjust that requirement if their revenue in the smoking area is disproportionately higher than their non-smoking area.

With the Covid-19 pandemic making masks almost a requirement for going out in public, removing a mask to have a drag presents an obvious public health risk. But smoking itself is a public health risk, and creating a permanent ban on public smoking makes some sense. During a virtual meeting with the Breathe Free Pennsylvania Coalition, Frankel said:

“Exposure to second-hand smoke kills approximately 41,000 non-smokers in the U.S. every single year. It made sense before the Pandemic, but the idea of rolling back these protections once they’ve already been put in place is absolutely inconceivable.”

Some southern states in the U.S. can’t seem to catch a break this year. As if dealing with a global pandemic weren’t enough, Louisiana and Texas are now staring down Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm that is expected to make landfall in the area sometime early today. The coronavirus has already caused significant economic damage to the area, and the casinos in the region have been struggling to gain a footing. Now, with the possibility of the hurricane ravaging the states, the casinos are once again looking at taking massive losses.

Hurricane Laura is expected to produce winds of 130 mph or higher, churning up the waters of the Gulf of Mexico as it approaches the U.S. This will produce not only massive damage from the strong winds, but also from the surge of the tide that could easily push inland. There are four casinos in the Lake Charles area of Louisiana, which sits only about 40 miles from the Gulf Coast, and they call could potentially face permanent damage. As of yesterday afternoon, all four – Delta Downs, the Golden Nugget, Isle of Capri and L’Auberge – had already halted their operations in anticipation of the arrival of the storm.

The potential catastrophe has already forced Louisiana’s governor, John Bel Edwards, to recommend that area residents evacuate, with predictions of a storm surge of at least 20 feet. The hurricane is arriving along the coast as of this writing, and the effects could reach as far away as New Orleans, about 205 miles to the east of Lake Charles. New Orleans, also home to several casinos, is a high-risk area, as there are parts that sit almost ten feet below sea level. 

According to current data, some areas are already seeing storm surges of up to eight feet with sustained winds of 93 mph and gusts of up to 127 mph. Hurricane Laura could also provoke isolated tornado activity, which would further decimate the region. A tornado watch has been put in effect for some areas, including the Louisiana cities of Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Beaumont and Lake Charles.

Macau casino concessionaires have been warned: if they end up playing host to a Covid-19 infection, they could be closed down. The Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau (DICJ) issued a warning to the casinos just ahead of a potential return of Chinese tourists.

The DICJ held a joint meeting with the six local gaming operators and judiciary Police (PJ) to discuss how to keep the pandemic out of the special administrative region (SAR), while also recovering the gambling industry. At the meeting, DICJ Crime Investigation Department Head Luis Leong noted that if any establishment is confirmed to have a Covid-19 case, containment procedures dictate that it will lead to a temporary closure.

That would be bad for any casino, and they certainly wouldn’t want to intentionally bring in a Covid-19 infected person. To be safe, the DICJ urged strict and rigorous enforcing of pandemic prevention health measures, including all the measures we’ve come to expect. Rigorous cleaning and disinfection, temperature checks at the door, and even including cleaning and disinfection, and entry measures such as demanding body temperature checks.

The step beyond what most other casinos in the world though is a requirement for visitors to show a negative nucleic acid test, proving they don’t have Covid-19. The same test has been required of Chinese nationals returning to their home country from abroad. Fake tests will get visitors a meeting with the police.

Illinois sports bettors are being urged to sign up now ahead of FanDuel’s imminent arrival, while Illinois is urging two other betting operators to stop acting like they’re characters on WWE Raw.

FanDuel is aiming to launch online betting in Illinois ahead of the kickoff of the new National Football League season, which officially gets underway on September 10. All FanDuel needs now is for its land-based partner, Boyd Gaming’s Par-A-Dice Casino in East Peoria, to receive its ‘go live’ signal from the Illinois Gaming Board (IGB).

Boyd filed its application with the IGB on August 19, and given the regulator’s usual two- to three-week processing window, FanDuel may be waiting right up until the Texans and the Chiefs start smashing helmets before it’s legally allowed to accept any Illinois wagers.

Regardless, FanDuel is urging bettors to register ahead of time, especially since the state is once again allowing bettors to register online without having to confirm their registration at a betting site’s land-based partner venue. However, that window of opportunity may only last until September 19, depending on who whispers what into Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s ear.

There have been several millionaires, many first-time winners and a lot of regular pros winning WSOP bracelets during this 2020 WSOP Online Series, but Nick Maimone is a name which stands out.

The very nature of this WSOP 2020 Online Series is one that has never happened before, replacing the traditional Las Vegas-based occasion at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino with the online facility for players to battle it out for WSOP bracelets from home.

The latest of those players to do so was Nick Maimone, who took down the Marathon, a $1,500-entry no-limit hold’em event with 1,438 entries and a lengthy 14-hour duration. The fact that Maimone won $302,471 and his maiden WSOP bracelet wasn’t so unique, this stay-at-home series creating more winners than ever before with 31 events in July on WSOP.com and another 54 currently being played out via GGPoker’s impressive poker software.

Winning the title by defeating Diego Bittar heads-up, Maimone reminded the world just how good he is, with his previous #1 ranking on Pocket Fives signalling just how impressive an online player he is. Clearly, the lockdown has affected many players in a negative way, with live poker suffering due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, but players like Maimone have at least been able to rely on their undoubted prowess online.