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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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| 29 DECEMBER 2006 : HEADLINES |
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The consolidation wagon rolls on....
Israeli Internet entrepreneur and marketing expert Noam Lanir has sold his remaining shares in Empire Online to Party Gaming for US 40 million, the Y-news site reports this (Wednesday) morning.
A year and a half after the company listed on the London Stock Exchange, the indications are that Lanir is heading out of the online gambling business. He has revealed that he will use the revenues from the sale of Empire, which total USD 300 million, to invest in real estate.
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Remember Lanir's purchase of 30 million shares last month?
Both Empire Online and Party Gaming spokesmen today (Thursday) confirmed yesterday's media reports (see previous InfoPowa bulletins) that a sale of the former was being discussed.
Discussions on a sale of Empire's gaming business and assets are at an "advanced'' stage, Empire said today in a statement reported by both Reuters and Bloombergs news services.
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Both land and online operations considering options in newly liberated gambling environment
The welcome news earlier this month that Spain is to permit its provincial governments to decide on more liberal gambling policies has brought the country - and its gamblers - into sharp focus for international land and online gaming companies.
According to the business press in South Africa, gambling companies are seriously considering the possibilities for South African business in the new environment
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Rumours abound in the end of year "slow news" gap
The traditional slowdown of news over the festive season week usually revs up the rumour mill, and this year was no exception as various industry publications reported "unconfirmed rumours" that Party Gaming group could be planning a return to the American market it so recently (and some say precipitously) left.
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Live Poker using modern media to deliver player services
Live Poker.com, a progressive online poker community that engages players with realistic, full-screen 3D game play, is using the latest media to communicate with players, launching a free series of original Live Poker Podcasts designed to help online poker players improve their game and enhance their online experience.
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Respected lawyer takes an objective look at a contentious U.S. law
Allyn Jaffray Shulman, a respected legal eagle in the USA takes an objective look at the 1961 Federal Interstate Wire Act at Card Player.com this week in a well argued article that puts this outdated law into perspective. It should be required reading for every Department of Justice official tempted to apply the law to Internet gambling.
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Stats show that Poker Stars prevails
The Which Poker site has declared after online research that since the signing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in the US, PokerStars has become not only the world's largest tournament online poker room, but also the world's largest cash game online poker room.
The new ranking follows the poker rooms decision to continue accepting players from the US, filling a vacuum left by the abrupt withdrawal from the U.S. market of former market leader Party Gaming, which has seen them swap places with the Gibraltar-based giant as the world's biggest online poker room.
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Not much festive cheer for these sports betting operators
Associated Press reports that law enforcement authorities in the Suffolk County of New York State were active last month in the run-up to the festive season, busting an Internet gambling ring involving an unidentified Costa Rican operator and in the process uncovering a drug network as well.
In enforcement activity, 17 arrests were made and a million dollars in "illegal" funds seized, the District Attorney for Suffolk County Thomas Spota revealed this week.
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Great graphics in new software
Pok3d.com is the latest arrival on the 3D online poker scene, and its outstanding graphics are already generating favourable comments.
Launched by the French video games developer Mekensleep, the new site claims that it represents a revolution in Internet poker because players can customise personal avatars and use them to project emotions to their opponents.
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Internet gambling set to expand
Greek punters spend over Euro 8.5 billion a year on their passion for gambling, the Greek news medium Kathimerini reported this week, commenting that growing amounts are being spent on casinos, lotteries and illegal online gambling.
About Euro 3 billion will be spent in all of the country's nine casinos in 2007 while annual turnover booked by OPAP, one of the largest companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange, is around the Euro 3.5 billion mark.
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Million-to-one gamble for Kynikos
It takes in-depth knowledge and the courage of one's convictions to risk all and swim against the mainstream to ultimate truimph, but that's what broker James Chanos apparently did with conspicuous success just before the advent of the UIGEA.
The London broker's hedge fund, Kynikos Associates went after what FT.com calls the million-to-one-chance trade, but when Chanos bet that the online gambling business was about to be hammered by unexpected legislative developments in America he hit the jackpot in what FT labels one of the sweetest deals of the year.
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"Congress failed to understand that Internet gamblers are exceptionally resourceful, fiercely independent and technologically savvy..."
All In magazine writer Lena Katz launched a scathing attack on the U.S. Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the publication this week, explaining why companies with the grit to stay in the American market would succeed despite the Act's attempts to dislocate financial transaction systems.
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Senior German court dismisses complaint by subsidiary
The legal news for Bwin this week could have been better, as reports emerged that Germany's highest court had dismissed a complaint by Bwin subsidiary Sportwetten Gera GmbH against an Internet gambling ban imposed by the state of Saxony-Anhalt two years ago. The company referenced a 1990 law from Communist East Germany that permitted sports wagering in its submissions.
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Two new slots for the holidays
Online gamblers were given a wider choice of games in time for the seasonal holidays this week when the English Harbour group of online casinos launched two new games developed by Vegas Technologies.
The games are likely to grab the attention of both video slots and poker fans alike, with the addition of a basketball themed video slot and a Five Card Mulligan game.
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US company entering UK pub game sector?
It appears from an announcement by Nasdaq-listed Scientific Games this week that the company may have ambitions in the UK "Amusement With Prizes" (AWP) and "Skill With Prizes" (SWP) game sector, producing games for the British public house (pub) market.
The announcement revealed that SG had completed the acquisition of Games Media Limited and related companies, an English group that develops, publishes and markets AWP and SWP games for the British pub sector. The acquisition is expected to be neutral to 2007 earnings.
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And judge hints that he could lose the case against Leyser
The dispute between WSOP champion Jamie Gold and television produced Crispin Leyser took a new turn this week when a U.S. judge upheld the continued freeze on half of Jamie Gold's $12 million 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event winnings.
The court agreed, however to a request from attorneys for both parties for the cash to moved from Harrah's custody, where it has lain since the dispute surfaced, to an interest bearing account pending final resolution.
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SE Asian government may be moving toward regulation, but for now it's police business as usual
Despite an active program to legalise and regulate online gambling, the South East Asian country of Vietnam continues to enforce gambling bans with enthusiasm, and this week police in Ho Chi Minh City busted a major gambling ring, seizing over $400 000 in allegedly illegally obtained cash.
Police raided a major Internet football betting ring last Sunday, arresting 14 bookmakers and seizing money worth over VND7 billion (US$437,500). The raid followed a covert surveillance investigation before specialist officers, assisted by forces from the central police department, moved in with 100 officers, simultaneously raiding 13 premises. They caught illegal bookies taking billions in the local currency in bets.
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US officials were not present when Mounties visited Canadian company
The intriguing story of an official police visit to a Vancouver marketing company doing work for Absolute Poker (see previous InfoPowa reports) took an interesting new turn this week when a spokesman for the RCMP provided more detail.
Contrary to perceptions created by the original report in a video presentation on YouTube, it now appears that US officials were not present when Canadian federal police visited the company, which still remains unidentified. Nor has the RCMP elaborated on the nature of the visit, the questions that were asked and who was questioned.
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A reminder of how indebted online poker players are to the NFL!
PokerListings carried a timely piece by the New York Post's Geoff Earle this festive season week to remind us all of the role played by the American National Football League in getting the Frist Bill through Congress attached to an unrelated but urgent security law.
The late night legislation became the now infamous Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Bill, which targets online gambling financial transactions and has ruined public companies and inconvenienced U.S. players.
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$1 000 000 multi-table tournament planned.
Online poker room Everest Poker has joined the million dollar tournament league with the announcement this week of a competition with a $1 million guaranteed prize pool.
"This is our biggest event yet, and I'm tremendously excited to roll it out and see what happens," said Jonathan May, Everest Poker property manager.
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Hi tech improves gambling chip safety
Some months ago InfoPowa reported on development work by Gaming Partners International on hi-tech gambling chips with embedded alarm-triggering tracers. In a sequel to the story this week, GPI has announced that the final product will be launched next month - probably at the London ICE show.
The anti-theft measures incorporated into the chips consist of an RFID-based Electronic Chip Surveillance (ECS) system that uses tags within the chips, triggering alarms if taken through electronic sensors.
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Licences for sports and horse betting granted
The William Hill and Ladbrokes betting groups are ending 2006 on a high note with the news that both companies have been granted licences for sports and horse betting over the Internet and the phone in Italy. The awards were confirmed by the Italian state betting agency AAMS.
Both companies also won new licences for horseracing and sports betting at betting centres throughout the country as well as at franchises in venues such as bars, cafes and newsagents, the AAMS reported on its Web site.
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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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