A local online casino player has experienced the dream start to 2015 after hitting the jackpot to win a staggering £100,000.

Sarah Pugh (38) from Blackpool, who plays games such as Blackjack and Roulette on one of Europe’s leading mobile casino sites, LeoVegas.com, learnt of her life-changing win via the company’s Facebook page and is now set about the task of spending her winnings.

LeoVegas had been rewarding its loyal players throughout December by giving away a daily prize jackpot of £1,000 – culminating in Sarah winning the overall prize pot of £100,000 on New Year’s Day.

Sarah, who works for a clothing retailer in nearby Poulton-le-Fylde, is still in shock after hearing of her win and commented: “I’ve only been playing online casino with LeoVegas for around four months, so it’s fair to say that the win came as a massive surprise and has not really sunk in yet.

“I’ve not had chance to think about what I’m going to spend the money on but my immediate priorities are obviously my three children. It has given the family real financial stability for the future and is genuinely a life-changing amount, although I’m sure I’ll be able to treat us to a nice holiday, once it’s all sunk in.”

Shenaly Amin, UK Country Manager for LeoVegas.com: “We really appreciate and value our loyal players and love turning them into big winners, so thought the start of the New Year would be the perfect time to give away one of our biggest jackpots yet.

“We’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Sarah on her fantastic win and are really chuffed that the money is going to offer some financial stability and have a life-changing impact on her and her family. It’s brilliant news to start 2015!”

Lee Davy catches up on all the main headlines from a fun filled week including another PokerStars New Jersey entrance prediction from Ray Lesniak; WSOP.com & 888Poker to sharing prize pools; Steve O’Dwyer & Josh Kay winning in the Bahamas; Shane Warne leaving 888Poker; and a ton of stories from the team at PokerStars.

We’ll start Stateside, and with the New Jersey Senator Ray Lesniak. The Gypsy Rosie Lee of American online poker has once again rubbed his crystal balls. This time he believes PokerStars will receive approval to start operating on American soil by the end of March. It’s not the first time that Lesniak has drawn a date in the sand, and one believes it might not be the last. His under-estimation of the power of Sheldon Adelson’s ageing muscles is cited as the cause of his previously failed predictions.

Two outfits that are doing business in New Jersey are WSOP.com and 888Poker.com. Starting Monday the pair will start sharing prize pools in a bid to try and inject some monetary enthusiasm into an online poker market that contains as much enthusiasm as an under 14’s school disco.

“Shared liquidity will help create a better player experience that we hope will attract a diversity of players and begin to bring poker to a broader audience once again.” Said David Licht, CEO of the All American Poker Network (a joint venture between 888 Holdings and Avenue Capital).

The sites will share an estimated $130,000 in guaranteed tournaments each week.

Changes of Heart

Moving outside of the States and PokerStars shocked the poker community, last week, by reversing their attitude on two key areas of their business. The major reversal was their change of heart over their planned rake increases. You may remember that the poker community went a little crazy after Stars went public with their wholesale rake changes planned for Nov 3 and Jan 1 respectively – well they’ve changed their minds.

American cash game player Josh Kay has won the inaugural Latin American Poker Tour Bahamas Main Event after defeating the German star Martin Finger, in heads-up action, as part of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

[Image Credit: Pokernews & Danny Maxwell]

Josh Kay is a very happy man right now.

Not only does he have $367,928 reasons to smile, but he also knows that he waded through a field of exceptional players to earn all those dollars.

Kay is the winner of the inaugural Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) $3,000 Main Event, in the Bahamas – held in conjunction with the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) – and what a victory it was.

The Michigan native is ostensibly a cash game player, demonstrated by the fact that his winning paycheck contains the same sort of numbers that his entire Hendon Mob CV has chalked up over the past six years.

On the final day of action 11-players remained from a field containing 736 entrants, and that included two former PCA Main Event champions in Galen Hall and Dimitar Danchev. Hall would fall short of the final table, and Danchev would end his run in sixth.

Richard Trigg: PocketFives Yearly PLB Winner Video

jwplayer(“mediaspace”).setup({

flashplayer: “/video/player.swf”,

file:”http://30.cdn.bit2host.eu/videos/audio-interview/richard-trigg-pocketfives-yearly-plb-winner-ld-audio-interview.m4a”,

autostart:”false”,

Dan Bilzerian’s legal team advise the media that the Instagram King is keen to arrange a plea deal to avoid trial on felony charges that Bilzerian and his friend blew up a home made bomb in a Las Vegas desert.

Who am I to give Dan Bilzerian advice?

The man has a gazillion dollars, has more bit part roles in movies than a Ricky Gervais Extras character, sleeps with more women than I have cuddly toys, and owns a goat.

But if I were to give Bilzerian some advice it would be this.

“When blowing shit up in places where you aren’t allowed to blow shit up, don’t tell your millions of social media followers that you blew the shit up.”

Before the weekend broke out Bilzerian’s lawyer David Chesnoff told the press that he hoped to arrange a plea deal, to avoid trial, on felony charges that Dan Bilzerian created a homemade bomb, planted it on a tractor trailer, and then blew it up in a Las Vegas desert.

Bilzerian, and his buddy, Jeremy David Guyman, were arrested for the crime after a series of clues that Inspector Clouseau would have had no problem tracking.

THE AMERICAS

Caesars Entertainment convinced enough senior creditors to approve its bankruptcy restructuring; New Jersey reflected on its first year of regulated online gambling while Ray Lesniak promised PokerStars would hit the Jersey shore by March; Ontario officially launched its own online gambling site which made Alberta jealous; Indiana got its own sports betting legislation and the former NBA commissioner backed his replacement’s pro-betting position; the Iipay Nation filed a motion to dismiss the state’s case against their bingo site; Pennsylvania slots revenue fell for the second straight year; Paul Phua lost his bid to play poker while awaiting his sports betting trial and Income Access’ Allan Petrilli and Max Value Software’s Steve McLoughlin discussed affiliate marketing in America.

EUROPE

Germany convicted a player for gambling online; Unibet acquired Bingo.com and got spanked by the UK’s ad watchdog; Ladbrokes exited more European grey markets and secured a Rugby League sponsorship; Paf bought into the Italian market by acquiring Winga; Russia banned problem gamblers from driving; Romania amended its online gambling laws; PokerStars did an abrupt U-turn on its rake changes and vowed that its Spanish online casino would return shortly; Shane Warne bid 888Poker buh-bye and 53Outs’ Sinead Quigley Maher wondered if pros were allowed to have personal opinions; a European Union court said OPAP’s VLT deal was legit; Carl Hendy explained why SEO in online gambling needs to improve while Bastian Grimm explained the pros and cons of black hat SEO; the Keiser Report’s Max Keiser explained why online gambling sites should embrace Bitcoin; Robbie Davies explained how to be an igaming conference hero and Rebecca Liggero previewed the January conferences at which you can test out those theories.

ASIA

Crown Resorts’ Sri Lanka casino plans appear doomed after a change in the country’s leadership; Melco Crown Entertainment delisted from the Hong Kong stock exchange; Chinese authorities broke up a cross-border online gambling ring in Shandong; Macau could lose up to 50 VIP gaming rooms in 2015 and the city’s revenue slump took $7b out of the pockets of Galaxy Entertainment’s chairman; PokerStars signed their first pros from India and Japan; Paradise Co Ltd reported revenue rising in 2014; Nepal lawmakers pressured their tourism ministry to reopen shuttered casinos and Las Vegas Sands’ alleged efforts to dig up dirt on Macau officials will get an airing in former Sands China CEO Steve Jacobs’ wrongful termination suit.

This week’s official launch of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp’s PlayOLG.ca online gambling site has politicians in Alberta pondering their own online future. Jody Korchinski, spokesperson for the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC), said this week that online gambling is “actively under review” at the provincial gaming monopoly.

Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only two remaining provinces (besides the thinly populated Yukon, Nunavut and Northwest Territories) yet to embrace provincially run online gambling.

Korchinski told MetroNews the AGLC was “certainly aware that technology is changing” and that there are “expectations from consumers that [online gambling] be available for Alberta players.” Despite these expectations, Korchinski said “no final decisions have been made” as to when Albertans might see a homegrown online gambling option.

Whenever Alberta gets underway, let’s hope they avoid the serious security glitches that plagued the online gambling launch of PlayNow.com in neighboring British Columbia back in 2010. PlayOLG has had some comparatively minor glitches, particularly in the registration process. Some users reportedly got “not in Ontario” notifications, despite logging on from IP addresses within Ontario. Others complained about waiting up to an hour to speak with a human via live chat. OLG issued a statement to CityNews saying that demand was “very high” and that it “appreciate[s] everyone’s patience at this time.”

Meanwhile, the provincial Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is worried that PlayOLG will create more problem gamblers. Robert Murray, manager of education and community resources at the Problem Gambling Institute of Ontario, CAMH, told the Toronto Star that PlayOLG will draw in players who might have held off gambling online with internationally licensed online gambling operators. Murray says “for a segment of the population the convenience of gambling remotely is going to be attractive especially since it is government sponsored.”

Murray’s concerns aren’t supported by the data, at least, not long term. Studies have shown that problem gambling rates typically undergo a surge as a result of new gambling options, but that these spikes are short-lived and numbers fall back to previous levels as the novelty wears off. Other studies have shown that problem gambling rates have remained constant despite significant increases in both the availability and variety of gambling options.

South Korean casino operator Paradise Co Ltd reported revenue up 3.8% to KRW 591.3b (U $544.5m) in 2014. Paradise operates five of the country’s 17 casinos and is currently building the $1.7b Paradise City integrated resort joint venture with Sega Sammy Holdings on Yeongjongdo island.

Table games continued to be Paradise’s dominant revenue driver in 2014, rising 3.5% to KRW 558.7b for the year thanks to table drop rising 12.7% to KRW 5.3t ($4.9b). Electronic gaming machines rose 10.4% to KRW 32.6b.

Meanwhile, South Korean politicians are coming under increased pressure to pass legislation that would allow locally owned cruise ships to offer onboard gambling. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Chung Hong-won urged the National Assembly to pass 14 pending motions, including a bill that would allow Korean-owned cruise lines to equip their vessels with casinos. Like all but one of South Korea’s brick-and-mortar casinos, these floating casinos would be accessible only by foreign tourists.

A member of the Prime Minister’s staff reminded the Korea Herald that the Harmony Cruise line, which launched with great fanfare in 2012, went bankrupt just two years later. The official compared Harmony Cruise with casino-equipped Malaysian cruise ships, which traditionally generate between 30% and 40% of revenues from gaming.

The desire to jump-start the domestic cruise industry is shared by the country’s president, Park Guen-hye, who made it among her election campaign pledges. The tourism industry employs some 850k citizens and Park wants to boost that to 1m by 2017. The country has also set targets of attracting 16m foreign tourists and raising tourism revenue to $24b by 2017.

Accused online bookie Paul Phua has lost his bid to play poker while he’s waiting for his illegal sports betting trial to commence. Phua and son Darren have been charged with operating an online sportsbook out of three luxury villas at Caesars Palace during last year’s FIFA World Cup.

The Phuas had asked the courts to allow them to pass the time by playing some poker at casinos on the Vegas strip while they’re out on bail. Phua Sr. is a known high-stakes player, having participated in the original $1m buy-in Big One For One Drop event at the 2012 World Series of Poker.

The Phuas’ attorneys noted that (a) the charges against their clients had nothing to do with poker, (b) casinos weren’t exactly lax when it came to keeping an eye on their customers and (c) the Phuas are rapidly burning through the entire Netflix catalogue (we may have made ‘c’ up). Prosecutors argued against allowing the Phuas to ante up, saying the Phuas’ alleged illegal behavior had been “furthered through associations made and maintained through poker gambling salons.”

On Thursday, US Magistrate Judge Bill Hoffman denied the Phuas’ request, saying they’d offered no new evidence to justify lifting the court order preventing them from entering casinos and they remained “a danger” to the public. The trial is scheduled to get underway on Feb. 9.

CARD-COUNTER SUES PLANET HOLLYWOOD, CAESARS

Sticking on the Strip, a pro gambler from New Jersey has sued Caesars Entertainment’s Planet Hollywood Resort, claiming he was illegally detained by security in June 2013 after they caught him counting cards. Ross Miller has also filed charges against Caesars in New Jersey over similar claims of illegal detention at three of Caesars’ Atlantic City casinos in 2013.

Miller told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he was originally detained in May 2013 at Caesars Atlantic City, then again at Harrah’s AC in July and at the Showboat in November. In each case, Miller was charged with disorderly conduct, only to be acquitted on one charge while the other two charges were dropped. Multiple patrons have sued Harrahs in the past year over alleged overzealous and violent tactics by security personnel.

PokerStars should receive its New Jersey online gambling go-ahead by March, according to state Senator Ray Lesniak (pictured). The senator, who has been a fierce champion of the gaming industry in New Jersey, made the prediction in response to queries via Twitter. When asked why Stars’ application has continued to languish, Lesniak suggested it was down to “more due diligence window dressing” on the part of the state Division of Gaming Enforcement.

For the record, this isn’t the first time Lesniak has made such a prediction. In September, Lesniak suggested Stars would be popping a US-made bottle of champagne within “weeks, not months.” On Friday, Lesniak offered his apologies, saying he “didn’t factor in [Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon] Adelson’s influence.”

Adelson is vehemently against the spread of online gambling in the US via his Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling (CSIG) and his support for the Restore America’s Wire Act (RAWA). In October, Adelson told attendees at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas that Amaya Gaming’s acquisition of Stars had done nothing to expunge the illegality that resulted in the Black Friday criminal charges against Stars and thus Stars had no business doing business on US shores.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is reportedly very keen to secure the Republican party’s nomination for president in the 2016 election campaign. Adelson is one of the GOP’s top campaign donors and would presumably frown on any prospective nominee who failed to do their utmost to keep Stars out. Asked why Christie might risk Adelson’s ire, Lesniak said “Adelson’s play to ban eGaming in Congress is dead and PokerStars new ownership too formidable to deny.”

In related news, the Associated Press reported that the New Jersey poker sites of WSOP.com and 888poker.com would begin sharing liquidity as of Monday. Caesars Interactive Entertainment, which operates WSOP.com, believes more bodies at the tables will give a boost to the state’s sagging regulated online poker market, which hit a new record low revenue of $1.87m in November, barely half its January 2014 peak of $3.4m. The state is due to release December’s numbers on Wednesday (14).

PlayOLG, the online gambling site of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG), made its official launch on Thursday. In December, the site began a customer-focused preview involving 3,500 members of its Winner’s Circle Rewards program. Apparently, none of these early adopters spontaneously combusted as a result of their online play, clearing the way for OLG to open up the site to all adult residents of Canada’s most populous province.

OLG spokesman Tony Bitonti said the site underwent “some fine tuning on some of the registration, some of the verification, nothing major” as a result of its customer preview. The site currently offers slots, casino table games and lottery ticket sales while poker, bingo and parlay sports wagering have been promised for a later date.

OLG joins its provincial monopoly counterparts in British Columbia, Quebec, Manitoba and the four Atlantic provinces in offering some form of online gambling. OLG believes half-a-million Ontarians spend around $400m to $500m annually gambling online with international sites and hopes its Spielo G2-powered online site will generate additional profits for the province of $375m over its first five years of operation.

Moving west, the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation announced a new CEO last month. John Stinson will assume the role of CEO on Feb. 16, taking over from Winston Hodgins, who is stepping down after 12 years to “lead various business development initiatives in the corporation.” Stinson has vowed to provide customers with “exciting and innovative products.” Manitoba launched its online gambling site one year ago and has so far been spectacularly underwhelmed by its performance.

Moving even further west, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) has informed the provincial government of 22 technical malfunctions over the past four years. Among the items on the list obtained by the Vancouver Sun was a hiccup in the software for BCLC’s customer rewards program, which failed to pay out $471k worth of loyalty points to Encore Rewards members.

BCLC was forced to examine two years worth of internal records in order to figure out who was owed what, but BCLC repaid the lot to the 2,898 affected players, adding a 10% bonus to smooth any ruffled feathers. However, BCLC opted to keep the $52k it failed to pay out from a separate software glitch because the 82k affected players were only owed an average of 62¢ apiece.

Anyone thinking Russia was set to ease up on its longstanding antipathy towards gambling got a rude awakening after the country said it would no longer issue driver’s licenses to people who can’t handle their gambling.

This week, Russian authorities announced they would no longer issue driving permits to anyone suffering from certain “mental disorders,” including transgender or transsexual individuals, anyone with a fondness for fetishism, exhibitionism or voyeurism, as well as those who suffer from “pathological” gambling.

The new restrictions have come under widespread criticism from human rights activists and the country’s medical profession. The BBC quoted a warning from Valery Evtushenko of the Russian Psychiatric Association, who believes individuals who fall into the aforementioned categories will avoid seeking professional help lest they be ‘outed’ and face the revocation of their driving privileges.

In 2009, Russian authorities restricted most forms of gambling to four geographically isolated designated gaming zones (to which Sochi and the Crimea have since been added). None of these gaming zones have managed to attract any serious traffic, a fact that won’t be helped now that some gamblers can no longer hop behind the wheels of their Ladas. Frankly, we can’t think of a better incentive to gamble online from the safety of one’s home (despite those new fines).

BAN ON CHRISTMAS NEXT?

The timing of Russia’s announcement coincided with Wednesday’s Orthodox Christmas celebrations. Perhaps Russia would be wise to reintroduce the early Soviet ban on celebrating the birth of Jesus, if only to prevent future problem gamblers the state will subsequently have to ban from driving.

A study released shortly before ‘regular’ Christmas found that parents who give their kids too many Christmas presents could be setting them up for gambling problems later in life. Researchers at the University of Missouri and University of Illinois found that “children who receive many material rewards from their parents will likely continue rewarding themselves with material goods when they are grown.” Previous research has shown that adults who define themselves by their possessions are at a much higher risk of developing problem gambling behavior.

Sheldon Adelson isn’t the only casino tycoon to see his fortunes fall in 2014 thanks to the ongoing revenue slump in Macau, the world’s top gaming hub. Forbes has just released the Hong Kong version of its annual rich list and the four casino operators who made the grade each saw their personal fortune dip in 2014. None surpassed the $10.8b decline experienced by the Las Vegas Sands chairman, but you know, a billion here, a billion there… pretty soon you’re talking about real money.

Galaxy Entertainment Group chairman Lui Che Woo (pictured) led the casino decliners by losing a hefty $7b last year, leaving him with a mere $13.4b with which to somehow bravely soldier on. Lui slipped three places from last year’s list to rank fifth on the 2014 chart.

Pansy Ho, co-chair of MGM China and daughter of Macau’s old godfather Stanley Ho, slipped from ninth place last year to #12 this year with a $5b net worth. Stanley’s son Lawrence, who controls two-thirds of the Melco Crown Entertainment joint venture, slipped from #12 to #31 with $2b, down 41% from the year before.

Angela Leong, Stanley’s fourth ‘wife’ and a major shareholder in Stanley’s original casino operation SJM Holdings, slipped from #19 to #36 with a net worth of $1.8b. Another of Stanley Ho’s wives, Ina Chan, fell off the list entirely this year. Chan holds a 13% stake in casino operator Macau Legend as well as a stake in SJM. She was #46 on the 2013 list with $1.1b but her wealth has since been cut by half.

Both Lui’s Galaxy and Lawrence Ho’s Melco Crown have new projects opening in Macau during 2015, which they hope will backstop their falling fortunes and possibly even jumpstart a little growth. But for the moment, hope comes at a premium. Wells Fargo just issued a note saying it expect Macau gaming revenue to fall between 16% and 19% in January, based on current trends. Happy new year!

Computer scientists working out of the University of Alberta are claiming to have created a computer program called Cepheus that is unbeatable playing Heads-Up Limit Hold’em

First there were the Texas Road Gamblers. Men who carried more weight in Smith & Wesson than coinage. Let’s choose a figurehead of that time: Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson.

Then there were the online grinders. Wizards of a virtual world who managed to play more poker hands in a day than Brunson played in decade. Let’s choose a figurehead of that time: Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom.

So what does the future hold?

According to the boffins at the University of Alberta Computer Poker Research Group, they have created a computer program that has played a billion billion hands. That’s more hands that human beings have managed in the history of civilization. Let’s choose a figurehead of the future: Cepheus.

Doyle ‘Texas Dolly’ Brunson, Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom or Cepheus – if they squared of in pairs, who would come out victorious after a series of Heads-Up Limit Texas Hold’em games?

“Cepheus loses to no one over a long enough time. You just have to play enough hands so that luck goes away,” Neil Burch, a computer scientist involved in the project told The Guardian.

Steve O’Dwyer has beaten Roger Sippl, in heads-up action, to win the record breaking $1.8m first prize at the $100,000 Super High Roller at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

When it comes to winning Heads-Up Limit Hold’em games then a computer program called Cepheus is the undisputed master, yet when it comes to winning $1.8m first prizes there is nobody better than Steve O’Dwyer.

Steve O’Dwyer was an absolute revelation in 2013. He won over $2.4m in live tournament earnings, including victory at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Monte Carlo, for his first-ever seven figure score.

So when 2014 seemed to be running towards his lowest annual haul since he started playing the game, he could be forgiven for taking his foot off the gas a little. Then – BOOM! O’Dwyer took a trip to Macau, threw HK$500,000 into the ring and walked away with the title of the APPT Asia Championship Super High Roller winner and $1.8m in prize money.

Today, O’Dwyer becomes the only player in history to have consecutive $1.8m wins on his Hendon Mob profile, after winning the $100,000 Super High Roller at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) just two months later.

The event didn’t just break all PCA records for a Super High Roller event, it broke the PokerStars record for any of their $100,000 buy-ins worldwide. 50 unique players, and 16 players mental, or rich enough, to re-enter, created a total prize pool of $6,402,000, with the winner getting their hands on $1,872,580, a $15k Steel and Diamond SLYDE watch, and the bragging rights belonging to the victor of the first major tournament of 2015.

Day 1 ended with Sam Greenwood in charge, and it was a rather expensive day for Dan Shak, Mike McDonald, Scott Seiver, Cary Katz and Daniel Colman (2 buy-ins) and Bill Perkins (3 buy-ins).

Lee Davy gives you a short update on the important milestones of 2014 for Raising for Effective Giving, a community of poker players interested in making an impact in the world.

As I write this, Steve O’ Dwyer, Bryn Kenney and Roger Sippl are locked in a battle to win the $1.8m first prize at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $100,000 Super High Roller. Three men have each paid $100,000 for the privilege of playing cards and the winner will win $1.8m.

I think it was the great Winston Churchill who said, ‘We make a living by what we get.” And whoever gets that $1.8m will be making a quite wonderful living. But there was a second part to that Churchill quote. One that deserves a line all on its own.

“We make a life by what we give.”

The poker community generates a lot of money, and thanks to the likes of Philipp Gruissem, Igor Kurganov and Liv Boeree there is a way to turn a fantastic living, into a great life.

A year ago, that trio, helped create Raising for Effective Giving (REG). The beginning of a movement of poker players all sharing the same goal: to hand a percentage of their poker winnings to those less fortunate, and therefore make a positive change in the world.

Great men and women in the world don’t look for opportunities – they make them. It was T. Boone Pickens who said that all too often people tend to ‘Ready! Aim! Aim! – Nobody likes to fire!’ Well, Gruissem and the gang took action. They fired. And they have hit the jackpot.

A European Union court has ruled that the Greek government’s decision to give betting operator OPAP an exclusive video lottery terminals (VLT) license and an extension of its monopoly on games of chance did not constitute unlawful state aid.

In December 2011, the Greek government awarded a 10-year exclusive contract to OPAP to operate 35k VLTs. In exchange, the state was to receive €560m. Greece also extended OPAP’s monopoly over 13 “games of chance by any means” by a further 10 years (from 2020 to 2030). For this, OPAP agreed to pay €375m plus 5% of gross gaming revenues.

At the time, the cash-strapped country was preparing to sell its one-third stake in OPAP in order to raise funds to help repay the €240b bailout Greece received from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Critics have charged Greece with unfairly fattening up OPAP at the expense of private operators in order to boost OPAP’s value on the open market. In 2013, the Emma Delta consortium purchased the government’s OPAP stake for €652m.

In April 2012, seven Greek casino operators filed a complaint about the VLT deal, saying the €560m price could have easily been exceeded had the government allowed for more than one VLT license to be issued via a public tender.

The Commission’s study of the two deals showed that the VLT deal was “significantly” more valuable than €560m, yet it found that OPAP had overpaid for the monopoly extension. To close the gap between these two deals, Greece announced it would pay an additional 5% on VLT gross gaming revenue if daily revenues breached certain thresholds.

In October 2012, the Commission okayed the VLT deal, saying the rejigged compensation was adequate and therefore the state was not conferring an advantage on OPAP. The casino operators filed a protest, saying the Commission had failed to initiate a formal investigation procedure, infringed their right to effective judicial protection and had failed to correctly assess the question of whether OPAP was being given an unfair leg up.

On Thursday, the General Court of the European Union rejected these arguments, saying it hadn’t encountered serious difficulties in assessing the deals and thus no need to initiate a formal investigation. The Commission’s redaction of economic data in the non-confidential version of the decision didn’t prevent the casino operators from grasping the Commission’s reasoning, nor from challenging the decision in court. The Court also said the casino operators had failed to demonstrate that the Commission erred in assessing both the VLT deal and the monopoly extension at the same time.