UK Tidbits -- Ladbrokes is expecting this year's football season to bring record-breaking betting based on this year's World Cup, tax-free betting in the United Kingdom and simplified betting rules that allow people to place single bets on U.K. football games. ... British Telecom today said today that when it launches its online payment method, Click&buy, it won't be offering the service to online gambling or pornography sites. Helen Davis, a BT business director, said the company is not going to do business with just anyone. "The need is definitely there for this service, but we're going to be selective about who we bring on board," she said. A rival payment service, Ymogen, said it will deal with gaming and adult sites. Ymogen CEO Mark Harding said some of his partners did not want to engage with adult sites, however.
Names and Faces -- Two members of Magna Entertainment Corp. 's board of directors are resigning. Joseph Harper, whose resignation was effective Aug. 7, is president of a competing California racetrack company and felt his
association with Magna was no longer appropriate. Terence Lanni, who is leaving Aug. 31, said his duties as president and chairman of the board of MGM Mirage gave him little choice but to resign.
US Tidbit -- The 1961 Interstate Wire Act applies just as much to Native American tribes as it does to states, Indian Country Today is reporting. The publication interviewed John Harte, general counsel of the National Indian Gaming Association, who explained that the Wire Act means that "right now, it wouldn't be a good investment for anyone to get into the (U.S.) Internet gaming market." The story, reported by
Tom Wanamaker, also quotes Cristala Allen, a member of the Texas Chamber of Commerce, as saying that many tribes can't wait to find a way to legally get into the Internet gambling business. "There are a lot of tribes, believe me, if they could figure out how to do this without losing their gaming license they'd have done so already," she said.