Young Venezuelans Aspire To Gaming Stardom Despite Obstacles

Professional gamers who aspire to become international superstars train an average of 40 hours a week. It's a dream job for many teenagers, offering such advantages of recurring income, the ability to work from home and combining hobby with career.

CAGUA, Venezuela, Sept 1(Reuters) - Gamer Gabriel Parra was ecstatic to see himself hailed as the "Venezuelan star" after scoring the fastest time in an international Formula 1 eSports racing competition in May.

"There are a lot of interested people, there is a lot of talent here in Venezuela, a lot of players," said Abreu.
(Reporting by Deisy Buitrago in Cagua; Writing by Steven Grattan; Editing by Christian Plumb, Alexandra Hudson)

"The truth is that when I saw the result... it was something magical, surprising, a dream I always had as a child that came true," said 23-year-old Parra, poker pkv who lives in central-Venezuela's Aragua state, and started playing video games at the age of four.

She replied that she was 'dealing with the report before us which deals with recommendations around casinos and there's enough in this report to keep me busy, particularly with the finding of unsuitability. 

He is one of some 3,000 young Venezuelans competing in the multi-million dollar "eSports" industry, a lucrative business with international signings, prizes and millions of viewers which has started to boom in the Andean nation, despite economic chaos, poor internet connection, power failures and local restrictions on war games.

The dream of earning a living as a professional gamer is particularly resonant for many young people in Venezuela given the sparse opportunities otherwise available in a country with a minimum monthly salary equivalent to about $22 a month.

DAR ES SALAAM, Sept 30 (Reuters) - A regional court on Friday dismissed a case brought by a group of Maasai villagers claiming the Tanzanian government used violence to evict them from their ancestral lands in the north of the country.

The company has since overhauled its management in an effort to reverse years of languishing sales and has been bolstering its e-commerce capabilities as online shopping accelerated during the pandemic.

Sept 7 (Reuters) - GameStop Corp on Wednesday reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss and a partnership with FTX US to increase its presence in the cryptocurrency space, sending the video game retailer's shares up 10% in extended trading.

Mr Gotterson has made 12 recommendations to tighten controls in the state's casino industry, including for venues to go cashless with patrons to use cards linked to their identification and set with loss limits before they start gambling.

Mr Gotterson found the company guilty of a serious dereliction of its anti-money laundering responsibilities, deliberately misled the regulator and had poor corporate culture with a 'one-eyed focus' on profit at the expense of patrons.

Former acting chief executive Geoff Hogg admitted Star wasn't fully up-front with the Queensland regulator when it changed a policy in order to conceal $55million in banned transactions from a Chinese bank.

Rights groups and the Maasai community say the villages are outside the park's boundaries, and that villagers were the victims of a violent police crackdown aimed at forcing them off their traditional lands to make way for trophy hunting by tourists and conservation.

'The Star does under the legislation have an opportunity, natural justice, to put forward a case about what should happen next so I don't want to preempt that but it is open to government to cancel their license, to suspend their license,' she said. 

The government said four Maasai villages are located within the boundaries of the Serengeti National Park, which was originally demarcated under British military rule for gaming but redrawn for conservation by subsequent administrations.

The land disputes between the Maasai villagers and the national park management emerged in 2012 but later in 2017 the government ordered the residents to leave and security forces later evicted them by force.

"The court has given a strong signal to the international community that evictions and human rights abuses against indigenous peoples should be tolerated if they are done in the name of protecting nature," Longo said.