Backgammon

How to play Backgammon

The golden Cleopatra figurehead that once protruded from the bow of Caesars Palace’s famed floating barge lounge has returned to public view.

The restored statue now anchors a 60th-anniversary memorabilia exhibit in the Appian Way shopping arcade at the Las Vegas resort, as first reported by Vital Vegas.

Cleopatra is the latest and most prominent addition to the exhibit, which marks the opening of Caesars Palace on Aug. 5, 1966.

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Veikkaus is adjusting to a partial liberalisation of Finland’s gambling market under the new Gambling Act, which was ratified in January 2026. 

From July 2027, the company will lose exclusivity over betting and iCasino products, which will become licence-based, while retaining exclusive rights for lottery games, scratchcards, slot machines and physical table games. 

The company has committed to paying market-based compensation for exclusive operations, estimated at around €1 billion for a 10-year licence period, with a significant front-loaded payment scheduled for 2026.

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Since the Supreme Court’s PASPA decision in 2018, there has been an uptick on harassment against athletes from bettors. The collection of incidents, in the view of the industry, is typically construed as both troubling and prevalent. Against a backdrop of alarming threats in numerous sports, perhaps the most disconcerting occurred at the hands of Benjamin “Parlay” Patz, a California bettor.

Approximately 15 months after the high court’s ruling, Patz sent a series of explicit messages to four members of MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays, threatening to “sever” their necks open. Accused by federal investigators of targeting more than 300 accounts of pro and college athletes, Patz pleaded guilty in 2021 to transmitting threats in interstate or foreign commerce. Although a judge ordered Patz to undergo mental health treatment and abstain from gambling, he did not sentence the bettor to prison.

Years later, former Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin convened a sports betting hearing in December 2024, the first federal hearing held on the subject in six years. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, opened the hearing with an anecdote from March Madness the prior season. Despite recording a double-double in a win over Michigan State, former North Carolina center Armando Bacot received more than 100 threats on social media, Durbin told the committee. Bacot, who finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, drew the ire of bettors for missing the “over” on his rebound total.