World View: Any source is a good source when desperate journalists can't dig up the most basic of facts

Online gambling group 888 has set up a joint venture with the $12 billion (£8 billion) Avenue Capital investment group to launch online gambling in the United States.

The boom in poker and other gambling games shows no sign of letting up, at least for 888, one of the most popular online gaming groups.

Outlook Coming soon to a home cinema system near you: The World Trade Organisation (WTO) presents "The Online Poker Punch-Up" produced and directed by the Government of Antigua. Copyright? There is no copyright any more! Available for $1 at www.get-hollywood-for-nearly-nothing.com.

Simon Lane was one of those writers whose published oeuvre is only matched by the supreme fiction of their own existence, the mythic resonance of their travels and tribulations, those who boldly spin the text of their own legend daily, or more likely nightly. He was the absolute embodiment of the English gentleman-novelist in permanent exile, a self-described "drinker with a writing problem"; it was reassuring to know that in the most distant exotic corners of the world Lane would always be there, in an impeccably stained handmade suit, propping up some impossibly dangerous bar dispensing outrageous wit and wisdom.

Britain's oldest casino has refused to pay out £7.3m to a world-beating poker star and has launched a probe into how he took on the house at a skill-free game of chance, and won.

Such purity of aspiration at the election is replaced with crude calculation

One reason Mr Entwistle got the nod is that he offers continuity, along with dependability

It is all about the dude within.

He retains his gift, as in the election that never was, for plucking defeat from the oesophagus of victory

Nottingham fighter can gain wider recognition after his superb title triumph over highly rated Bute

Online gaming company Bwin.party has signed a deal with a native American tribe to offer online poker services in California ahead of an expected relaxation of internet gambling laws.

Outlook Short-stacked in poker terminology is when a player is close to busting out, with only a small pile of chips to play with. In such a position you're reduced to hoping that the cards will deliver something playable so that you can push all those chips in.

Jackpot. Betfair was celebrating a big win yesterday after the betting firm was awarded one of the first licences for online gambling in Germany. With Europe increasingly regulating internet gambling, fears that it may struggle to win licences have weighed on the stock and, as a result, the sense of relief was palpable as Betfair jumped 45p to 839.5p.