Lee Davy talks about the power of choice and how an unlikely teacher emerged from his home game to help him figure out how to make better ones.

I called Terry Welsh ‘The Run’ because when he held a straight, that’s what he called it. He also called AK ‘The Big Stick.’ He was the fish in the game who barely knew the rules. But he turned out to be my teacher.

When we got it in I always had the best of it. But the times when Terry would hit his miracle one outer would send me in search of a bare-knuckle boxing champion. I couldn’t handle him, but he always handled me.

I would shout at him for getting it in with the worst of it. I would try and make him look foolish seeking to remind the rest of the table that despite doing my coconuts I was better than him. It was pure ego 101.

Vietnam police have broken up an illegal online gambling ring as the latest draft of the country’s new sports betting legislation makes its way to the legislature.

On Saturday, police in Ho Chi Minh City raided four apartments and arrested 132 individuals who were caught betting on football and cockfights via unauthorized websites. Local media reported that the Ministry of Public Security had been investigating the illegal operation for a month prior to launching their raids.

Sports betting is strictly forbidden in Vietnam but that restriction could be eased if and when the country finally gets around to approving new legislation. On Monday, Vietnamnet reported that the latest draft of the country’s sports betting decree is expected to be submitted to the government for approval in December.

For years now, Vietnam has been tinkering with legislation that would allow legal betting on horse and dog races and international football matches. Under the current plan, qualified operators would be issued five-year licenses, after which the government will reassess what changes are required to improve the system.

Antigua’s trade representative has given the United States until the end of the year to comply with its World Trade Organization responsibilities or face the consequences.

On November 23, Antigua made a formal presentation to the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body regarding the now 12-year-old ruling that America’s trade policy vis à vis gambling and betting was in violation of its obligations under the General Agreement on Trade in Services. (Read the full presentation here.)

Specifically, the WTO found fault with America’s policy of permitting its domestic horseracing industry to offer interstate online betting while simultaneously blocking Antigua-licensed betting sites from offering similar services to US bettors.

The WTO ordered the US to pay $21m per year until it either scrapped its domestic online betting industry or allowed Antigua-licensed sites access to the US market. To date, the US has done neither of these options, nor has Antigua received one penny of this annual $21m, the total obligation of which has now accumulated to over $250m.

Week 13 of the English Premier League saw Spurs lose their first game of the season against league leaders Chelsea, Swansea and Crystal Palace battle out a nine-goal horror show in South Wales and Jose Mourinho sent to the stands again.

Spurs will not go through the season unbeaten in the Premier League after Chelsea came from behind at Stamford Bridge to win their seventh league game on the trot.

It capped off a dismal week for Mauricio Pochettino’s men who are now seven points adrift of Chelsea and out of Europe after suffering a defeat in Monaco in midweek.

It started well for Spurs. They were by far the brightest side. Harry Kane thought he had scored his 17th London derby goal in 18 matches only to see his effort chalked off for offside. But then Christian Eriksen – who had been criticised of late for not scoring enough goals – struck a thunderbolt in the 11th minute to give Spurs the lead they deserved.

November, 2016 – Quality slots and table games provider Habanero is daring players to enter the temple in search of mythical creatures and big prizes in its latest release, Fenghuang.

Once inside, a beautiful bird and handsome dragon lay in wait on reels one and five, before drifting towards each other until they collide and spawn a massive 2×3 blocked wild symbol.

New creatures can appear at any time during free spins. This gives players even more chance to score massive wins – which don’t stop until all the birds and dragons have exited the screen.

The HTML5 slot, which can be enjoyed on desktop, tablet, or phone, features a fixed 28 line game for 20 coins and pays left to right or right to left in the bonus.

Australian betting operator Tabcorp Holdings isn’t taking chances that an interloper could spoil its plans to merge with rival Tatts Group.

On Friday, Tabcorp announced that it had taken a roughly 10% stake in Tatts via a cash-settled equity swap with investment bankers UBS that gives Tabcorp certain voting rights. The purchase appears intended to ward off any competitors that might try to make their own acquisition play for Tatts.

In October, the two companies announced plans to join forces to create an Australian betting monster with annual revenue of over AUD5b. Our own Rafi Farber slammed the merger as a nakedly anti-competitive move intended to create a single booming voice with which to badger the government to impose further restrictions on Tabcorb/Tatts’ online rivals, most of which are local divisions of international firms.

Those online bookies have already protested the apparent carveout that Tabcorp and Tatts received via the ban on online in-play betting contained in the proposed amendments to the Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) 2001, which the two domestic firms had long pressed the government to implement.

Australian casino operator Crown Resorts has tasked outside legal counsel with determining management’s liability in the arrests of 18 employees for violating China’s gambling laws.

In October, mainland Chinese authorities arrested 18 Crown staffers, including three Australian nationals, for allegedly promoting gambling activity at Crown casinos to Chinese VIPs. While one staffer has been released, the others were formally arrested this week and are now awaiting trial on as-yet unspecified charges.

On Friday, Fairfax Media reported that Crown had hired pricey law firm Minter Ellison to determine the company’s exposure to lawsuits or class actions from relatives of the accused and angry shareholders who saw Crown’s share price tumble following news of the arrests. A ‘senior Crown figure’ characterized the legal review “an act of corporate, legal and reputational arse-covering of the first order.”

A different source claimed Crown management had belatedly realized that it had “failed massively in its duty of care” to its employees and shareholders. The source said paper trails would prove that Crown managers “knew China had warned them not to market into China.”

Chinese authorities have shut down another live poker event, sewing further confusion as to their official stance toward such activities.

Wednesday marked Day 1 of the Asia Poker League (APL) event in Kunshan, a city of 1.6m located just outside Shanghai in Jiangsu province. The event, which was supposed to continue until November 29, marked the APL’s second tournament on Chinese soil, following its successful organization of the APL Beijing tourney this August.

The APL Shanghai obtained a license to operate through the PokerSports Shanghai Club, which has hosted similar events in the area without incident. But SoMuchPoker reported that Kunshan authorities ordered the tournament to halt play Wednesday evening, forcing players to bag their chips early while awaiting further news.

On Thursday morning, the authorities officially called a halt to the event. APL president Judic Kim insisted that his group “has always hosted events in compliance with local laws,” but appeared resigned to the fact that you can’t fight city hall.

Gaming Innovation Group Inc. (OBX: GIG) announces far-reaching updates to organizational structure merging recently acquired BetitGroup online casino operator brands (Kaboo.com, SuperLenny.com, Thrills.com) under one B2C gaming organization with previously owned Guts.com, Betspin.com and Rizk.com.

In an open letter addressed to all employees, partners, clients and shareholders, CEO Robin Reed and COO Mikael Ångman of GIG clarify recent events and future plans while highlighting the announcement of Tomas Bäckman (profile image see appendix 1), previously CEO in BetitGroup, to the position of CEO in Gaming Innovation Groups newly created B2C organization.

Bäckman is now to lead the charge for GIG to become “the leading iGaming operator in the Nordics”. The open letter reads as follows;

Dear All,

Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance has defended its decision to allow an American-style computerized lottery in the country, saying that the platform is running with transparency.

The ministry, which runs Vietlott, made the comment after many raised their eyebrows over the entry of a foreign partner in the lottery industry, which is a service exclusive to the state, according to Tuoi Tre News.

Vietlott partnered with an indirect subsidiary of Malaysia-based firm Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp), which was granted an 18-year investment license to operate the computerized lottery in the country in January.

Responding to government critics, Ministry of Finance deputy head of the finance and banking bureau Nguyen Hoang Duong contended that “Vietnam is inexperienced in this new business model” of running a computerized lottery.

We hope you’re enjoying the new design of CalvinAyre.com. I wanted to take a moment to highlight our new video section.

The new CalvinAyre.com video player houses all of our current and achieved videos from the past six plus years. We have interviews, conference highlights, product profiles and plenty more events that we’ve captured over the years.

With so much content, we needed a better way to display it. We’ve added categories to help you find the videos you’re looking for. We’re still fine tuning these so if you have a suggestion for a particular category, please let us know.

The Rundown

In spite of Carson Wentz’s rookie status, the Philadelphia Eagles are favored against Aaron Rodgers’ Green Bay Packers in a Monday Night Football matchup that involves two regressing teams.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

The Eagles are listed as the four-point favorite against the Packers with a 47.5-point total. Philadelphia in recent years has been masterful on Mondays, going 5-1 straight-up and against the spread in their last six Monday games. The Packers have had issues beating teams twice in a row, going 0-4 SU and 1-3 ATS in their last four games after winning the previous game in a matchup.

Green Bay is 4-6 SU and 3-6-1 ATS, due largely to a defense which has allowed at least 30 points in four consecutive games. The Eagles, meantime, have allowed only 38 points in four games.

PokerStars has announced the 2017 dates and venues for the PokerStars Championship and Festivals. And Cristiano Ronaldo and Dwayne Wade challenge you to #raiseit.

PokerStars has announced the 2017 dates and locations for their brand spanking new PokerStars Championships and PokerStars Festivals.

Back in August, officials from PokerStars announced their intention to consolidate all of their live tournaments within the PokerStars Championships and PokerStars Festivals banner.

The move made sense despite the sad loss of the European Poker Tour (EPT) and the regional tours that supported it such as the United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT), Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), and France Poker Series (FPS). It also signified the end of relationships with The Aussie Millions and Brazilian Series of Poker Millions (BSOP).

Nominees across 25 categories to compete for prestigious awards during LAC

November, 2016 (London) – iGB Affiliate, the most respected information provider for the igaming affiliate market, has announced the shortlist for the 2017 iGB Affiliate Awards.

At a ceremony to be hosted during the London Affiliate Conference (LAC), awards are up for grabs across 25 categories including ‘Best Website’ and ‘Best Affiliate Program’ for the poker, sports betting, lottery, casino, bingo and finance verticals.

A number of the industry’s biggest affiliates and operators are nominated for the awards, with the judges focusing on what separates successful nominees from the rest of the crowd.

In this week’s calling the clock we learn why the poker community think it’s a bad idea for Tim Ferriss to interview Phil Hellmuth; Maurice Hawkins wins his 8th WSOPC gold ring, and someone gives Tom Hall a million bucks for losing a bit of weight.

 15-years ago Mike Sexton joined a new and untested poker TV show called the World Poker Tour (WPT) as the lead commentator and relinquished any chance of ever becoming a future champion of the very event he was promoting.

It must have been a tough spot for the self-professed degenerate gambler. But time moves on, things change, and Sexton eventually got his opportunity to step out from behind the WWE style commentary booth and take a few shots at the title – and boy did he made it count.

Mike Sexton defeated 648 entrants to take the $317,817 first prize at the WPT Main Event in Montreal. It was a modern day magical moment as he came back from a 10:1 chip deficit to beat Benny Chen in heads-up action.

Online sports betting affiliate BettingExpert has withdrawn from the Russian market after its website was blocked by the country’s communications watchdog.

On Thursday, the Twitter account of BettingExpert’s Russian-language site announced that it was exiting Russia. The account said a full announcement would be released “in the coming days” but justified the exit as being prompted by the realization that “the current situation in the Russian market is not very interesting.”

BettingExpert began a Russian-language service in 2013 but its site was blocked this July by the Roskomnadzor telecom overseer, which has blocked thousands of actual gambling domains – including a whopping 979 between November 14-21 – since it was granted new powers in October 2015. Roskomnadzor has also targeted sites for promoting or facilitating online gambling, including many online operators’ social media accounts.

BettingExpert isn’t the only ones bidding Russia do svidaniya. On Tuesday, Opera Software, the Norwegian company behind the Opera online browser, announced that they were closing their Russian office on November 30, allegedly due to a decline in local revenue having made the office’s continued operation no longer viable.