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Welcome to Bet Sages Gambling News Section, featuring the latest breaking
gambling industry news courtesy of InfoPowa News. This is your one stop source for
all and any of the latest developments concerning leisure based wagering
activities on the internet.
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| 02 FEBRUARY 2007 : HEADLINES |
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UK company develops mobile gambling vehicle for turnkey provider
The London-based private mobile applications developer Masabi has teamed up with online casino and poker room turnkey provider Playtech to launch mobile gambling facilities.
Masabi revealed this week that it has completed the design and development for Playtech of a range of mobile phone casino applications. Masabis secure mobile development experience, combined with its skills in developing applications on low-end phones, has allowed Playtech to effectively replicate its online gaming experience on mass-market handsets. The mobile product is now live, with the first mobile Slots, Black Jack, Roulette, Baccarat and Video Poker applications already rolled out to Playtech licensees.
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US Trade Representatives confirms ruling
It was Antigua and Barbuda: 1 - USA: 0 this week as news emerged of an important World Trade Organisation decision in which the United States has suffered a new setback in a four-year-old legal battle with the Caribbean islanders over U.S. restrictions on Internet gambling.
At issue is an April 2005 World Trade Organization ruling against U.S. exceptions or 'carve outs' for online horse race betting. Since then, the U.S. Congress has passed additional legislation to ban certain financial transactions related to gambling over the Internet.
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World Series of Poker champ and online betting group call it quits
Poker-focused media report that the endorsement agreement between World Series of Poker 2006 champion Jamie Gold and online gambling group Bodog has been ended prematurely.
Reports said that a senior media executive at the offices of Bodog marketing company Riptown Media had confirmed the split, attributing it to normal commercial imperatives in the United States, including the termination of non-Internet advertising rather than the recent public row between Gold and a television producer over an alleged agreement to split Gold's WSOP paycheck.
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Trading update reports disappointing player yields
Shares prices in the popular 32 Red online gambling group took a knock this week when the company reported disappointing per player yields in its trading update. The latest stats from the company show a 45 percent decline on per player yields in the casino product compared with last year's report.
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Virgin's online gambling enterprise could soon have a very big brother.....in Macau
Associated Press reorted this week that the online gambling interests of Sir Richard Branson, operated under his Virgin brand, could soon have a land-based companion in the rapidly growing Macau scene.
Quoting a Financial Times report, the news agency said the U.K. firm was close to securing a site of 20 hectares to build a US$3 billion land casino facilities, and that Branson met with Macau's chief executive Edmund Ho on late in January to discuss his plans.
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Mainstream press article asks some pertinent questions : 'These subpoenas and arrests are sheer hypocrisy'
The respected UK newspaper The Telegraph carried a hard hitting article this weekend which suggested that the US crackdown on online gaming may not be so much about morals as hard cash.
Writer Mark Choueke gives voice to the perceptions of many people in the online gambling industry when he writes: "The Americans, suggest the cynics, want to drive foreigners out to establish their own Vegas gambling brands."
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Washington State Rep. Chris Strow and his House Bill 1243 seem to think so....if it's in the privacy of your home
Washington State has earned the unenviable reputation of chasing and punishing online gamblers with more energy than that reserved for child molesters, but not all legislators in the state have closed minds and hypocritical attitudes toward a pastime they have made a felony for their citizens.
Mid-January a bill was submitted with the objective of excluding Internet gambling played from a person's home from being regarded as a felony. This also includes online poker.
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Five operators in China are being sought by cops from Korea
The Korean government offensive against online gambling continued this week with the arraignment of 76 online gamblers charged with using unidentified gambling websites, media in the country reported. The accuseds include an interesting cross section of society - a doctor, a company executive, a housewife, and a college student.
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Two slots, blackjack and a poker game kick off new games for a new year
Isle of Man-based turnkey provider and online gambling software developer Microgaming has swung into its 2007 games release cycle with four new offerings this week.
Players can chance their luck in the property investment game in a brand new 5 reel, 40 pay-line video slot with plenty of reel estate action called PRIME PROPERTY.
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Branson reportedly in talks with Aussie bookie group
Reuters carried an interesting sequel to our earlier InfoPowa report that Sir Richard Branson's Virgin group was putting together a land gambling resort deal in Macau valued at over 3 billion. Apparently the high profile Brit billionaire is in talks with Australian wagering firm Tabcorp Holdings Ltd. and other firms on developing the resort casino in Macau, according to Australian sources familiar with the matter.
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UK media report interest online gambling and a version of the World Series of Poker, too
The British newspaper The Observer reported over the weekend that the giant American land casino group, Harrah's Entertainment has some ambitious on and off-line plans for the UK..
In an interview with the ex-mayor of Las Vegas and now Harrahs executive Jan Jones ahead of this weeks Supercasino decision in the UK, Jones told the newspaper that Harrahs could well open a European website soon. And as the owner of the World Series of Poker brand, the group is also considering the idea of bringing the exciting land poker concept to the UK, together with its online satellite action.
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Technology deal worth 320 000 signed
Reporting over the weekend in its Business section, the Sunday Times in the UK said that Brit bookie group Ladbrokes has formed a joint venture with Megainfo, a Hong Kong-based technology company.
Withour giving further details on the company or its area of expertise, the report said that the objective was to develop products for the Chinese betting market. Ladbrokes has apparently invested about 320 000 for a 49 percent stake in the business, which is to be rebranded Asia Gaming Technologies.
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Big winners in regular tournaments
This weekend's main online poker tournaments continued to generate plenty of action and player registrations for some excellent prizepools.
Poker Stars.com guaranteed Sunday million competition drew 2 768 ambitious poker players, who happily paid the buy-in for the $500+30 event in order to get a crack at the $1 384 000 prizepool, which put the best 414 survivors in the money bubble and made possible a winner's paycheck of over a quarter of a million dollars.
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Would be advertisers will have to register and apply to UK authorities
Online gambling companies based outside Europe and Gibraltar will have to apply to the government if they want to advertise their products in the UK when the activity is legalised on September 1, reports the Financial Times.
Quoting Tessa Jowell, culture secretary in the British Cabinet, the newspaper said a ban on websites run by companies with poor regulation would protect online gamblers from crime and exploitation.
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"In my view it is probably a restrictive practice and we might take it up in another fora," says EU exec McCreevy
In a rather short report that left questions hanging in the air, Reuters news service says that U.S. restrictions on online gambling may be challenged by the European Union.
The report quoted the bloc's top financial regulator, EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy who told the European Parliament, "In my view it [the anti-online gambling government activity in the United States] is probably a restrictive practice and we might take it up in another fora."
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"In order to protect, I'd say, their own business, their industry there, they have de facto prevented foreigners from online betting into the United States,'' McCreevy said at the European Parliament in Brussels. To journalists afterward he labeled it ``a protectionist measure.''
The Bloombergs business news service expanded on earlier Reuters reports (see previous InfoPowa bulletin) that European Community officials may be unhappy with the manner in which the United States has targeted online gambling for Department of Justice enforcement actions. In an earlier report, EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy told the European Parliament."In my view it is probably a restrictive practice and we might take it up in another fora,"
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"Gambling Law Debate" blog a one-stop-shop for current regulatory issues
Exhibition and conference organising group Clarion ATE has launched an online blog titled Gambling Law Debate. This website is a one-stop-shop for current regulatory issues relating to the gambling industry. Edited by Andrew Gellatly, Gambling Law Debate is an online network for legal professionals, lobbyists, media companies, and regulators to discuss and comment on all the key developments taking place in the online gambling law and regulation today.
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Amid rumours of another online gambling exec being targeted, DoJ deny this is so
Strong rumours that have been circulating this week that the U.S. Department of Justice enforcers are about to target another online gambling executive for arrest on a sealed warrant have been denied this week by a spokesman responding to a press enquiry by the publication eGaming Review.
U.S. enforcers have inflicted substantial damage on investor confidence in the international online gambling business through the alarm and fear which arrests of executives like David Carruthers and Peter Dick caused, and more recently the detention of Neteller founders John Lefebvre and Stephen Lawrence, even though the latter two are no longer employed by Neteller.
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Players report receiving pull out emails from major online gambling company
Has the Gibraltar-based online ga,mbling group Mansion withdrawn its services to US players? It would seem so judging by player reports of emails from the group this week.
Several of the emails carried the following wording:
"Earlier today, The Management Team at Mansion unfortunately had to make the decision to block all US members from placing bets/playing poker on our site. We regret this move however for the immediate future all US members will no longer be able to login to the poker software or play on the Casino or Exchange.
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Court says that foreign online gambling companies must reject Israeli gamblers
The Israeli business publication Globes Online says that an important legal ruling handed down this week by an Israeli judge could have consequences for foreign gambling companies based outside Israel.
Israeli Judge Abraham Heiman said that online gambling sites may not hide behind the fact that the company and its servers are located in another country.
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PartyGammon Million a big success
33-year-old German Andreas Maertens is celebrating after winning the inaugural PartyGammon.com Million at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas between 21st-25th January, scooping a world record US$600 400 payout for a backgammon tournament.
Maertens beat 36 year-old Danish backgammon ace Lasse Hjorth Madsen 23-22 in a thrilling final in front of Matchroom Sport's television cameras. Both players were online qualifiers from PartyGammon.com in a field that featured 10 former World Champions and 25 of the top 32 'Giants of Backgammon.' The total prize pool exceeded the guaranteed US$1 million and hit over US$1.2 million.
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Blandford resigns from Board "to pursue his own interests"
British business media are reporting the surprise departure from the Sportingbet plc board of directors of founder Mark Blandford, together with fellow director Bob Holt.
"As the company continues to drive further efficiencies from its business we have agreed to reduce the size of the board," said Chief Executive Andrew McIver in a rather non-committal company statement on the departures.
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NBC and Caesar's Palace team up to provide poker spectacular
NBC has announced the return this March for a third season of the popular bracket-elimination poker tourney, National Heads-Up Poker Championship.
The tourney pits 64 top players against each other in an event that will be flmed for television in the tournament room at Caesar's Palace between March 1st and March 4th, 2007, with the highlights aired on NBC in April and May.
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Territory could be setting an example followed by other states
Betfair spokesmen reacted with disappointment to the news this week that the Western Australia state government is to prosecute gamblers in the state's jurisdiction for wagering on betting exchanges.
In terms of new laws that came into force this week, such gamblers could face fines of A$10 000 or up to 2 years in jail
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But the research appears to focus on land gambling, the sample is not quantified and the researchers are not identified
The California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs released a study on the prevalence of problem gambling "in the nation" this week, but did not identify which company conducted the research, how big a sample it covered or whether it was confined solely to land gambling.
The department's Office of Problem Gambling (OPG) said that the study had revealed that between 750 000 and 1.2 million California adults are considered pathological or problem gamblers.
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GNUF.com launches...and no, we don;t know what it stands for either!
Several former Ongame executives are doing their own online casino thing with a new online casino, bingo and poker site intriguingly branded GNUF.com and licensed in Malta.
The operators have chosen Microgaming as their gambling software provider, and the operation is expected to prove a particularly big hit in the Scandinavian and Nordic markets, while still attracting players from further afield.
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But turnkey provider isn't saying who it is....
Causing widespread speculation this week, gambling software developer and turnkey provider Playtech suddenly announced that it was in negotiations with "...a pure Asian-facing gaming business" regarding the award of a new licensing agreement.
Presumably constrained by the preliminary nature of the negotiations, the company said that it could not at this stage provide any further detail, but would advise the market when progress was made.
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King Cashalot comes through for Aussie 32Red player
UK Online Casino 32Red.com is celebrating one of the biggest ever jackpot wins at an online casino, after its King Cashalot progressive jackpot slot machine was hit for over 1 million ($1.9 million) this week.
The female 32Red VIP player who scored bigtime sat down in front of her PC at her Australasian home late on Tuesday evening. In an incredible confluence and luck and coincidence, she had visited 32Red 32 times since joining and within a few minutes, she was an instant millionaire as the five King Cashalot symbols slotted into place - bagging 1,000,641 ($1,987,698) for a bet of only 2.25.
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53 percent rise in turnover the foundation for a promising future
Pari mutuel and sports betting operator Betinternet released its interims this week for the period ending 26 November 2006. The company saw a 53 percent rise in group turnover to 43.6 million, compared with 28.5 million in 2005. EBITDA profit came in at 182,000, a promising turn around compared to a 600,000 loss in 2005.
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Scandic Bookmakers leaves Tain for Bwin subsidiary
The Danish language gambling website Scandic Bookmakers is the latest online poker site to join the large Ongame internet poker network, migrating across this week.
Formerly powered by Tain no-download software, Scandic has been in business since 1997 and is licensed by the Malta jurisdiction.
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Possibly consequences of Judge Heiman's ruling
Earlier this week InfoPowa reported on an important ruling by an Israeli judge, who found that online gambling sites outside Israel may not hide behind the fact that companies and servers may be located in another country.
It appeared this week that Bellerock may be excluding Israeli gamblers from its sites as a consequence of the ruling. Players from Israel reported receiving emails from the Gibraltar-based online gambling group which said:
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| PREVIOUS NEWS ARTICLES... |
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| 17th June 2006
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| 24th June 2006
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| 1st July 2006
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| 11th July 2006
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| 23rd July 2006
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| 27th July 2006
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| 6th August 2006
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| 12th August 2006
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| 18th August 2006
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| 25th August 2006
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| 1st September 2006
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| 8th September 2006
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| 2nd October 2006
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| 24th November 2006
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| 1st December 2006
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| 8th December 2006
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| 22nd December 2006
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| 29th December 2006
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| 8th January 2007
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| 12th January 2007
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| 19th January 2007
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| 26th January 2007
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