Strong Q2 for GigaMedia -- Taiwan-based software provider GigaMedia has released second-quarter results, which show revenue up 88 percent to $40.1 million against figures from the previous-year period. The company said that, with regard to its Everest Poker arm, the number of active, depositing players increased by 12 percent from Q1 2007. Consolidated gross profit also saw marked growth, up 101 percent to $31.8 million from $15.8 million during Q2 2006--and 11 percent from the Q1 2007. "We expect even stronger growth in the second half and excellent momentum into 2008," said GigaMedia CEO Arthur Wang.
Upping the Age -- NewsRoomFinland.com reports that Finland's Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has drafted a proposal to raise the country's minimum age requirements for gambling, both on and offline, from 15 to 18. According to Ismo Tuominen, a ministry official, the proposal is a watershed in the ministry's legislative history, as the effort is the first move on record to raise the age limit. Kimmo Hakonen, the country's deputy national police commissioner, confirmed with the news source that the Ministry of the Interior is set to establish a working group to examine the proposal.
Party Shares Approach 52-Week Low -- Shares in PartyGaming dropped to within .25p of their 52-week low, 25.00p, on today's close, down 1.25p to 25.75. In a trading update released in early July, the company said--ahead of its first-half report, due out Aug. 29--that it was confident about prospects for 2007. Shortly after Party published the trading update, brokerage Numis Securities released a note to the London Stock Exchange emphasizing the volatility of the shares, especially in relation to the "online gaming regulation news flow" from the United States. This week, press reports regarding Party's "secret meetings" with the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) suggest that DOJ could attempt to repossess as much as $900 million from the company.
Sounding Off -- New York state Reps. Steve Israel, a Democrat, and Peter King, a Republican, have said that the U.S. I-gaming prohibition is "misdirected . . . and probably unenforceable." In a piece prepared for the New York Post, the bipartisan tandem was critical of the measures employed by former Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who successfully attached the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act (UIGEA) to a must-pass ports security bill last October. "Years ago, the Treasury's Secret Service agents used to help Harry Truman put poker games together in the White House," the piece reads. "Now, they'd be locking him up." Reps. Israel and King are among 35 co-sponsors supporting Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank's Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act (IGREA).
Farcical Selection -- Sir Richard Branson has reportedly called for a formal government inquiry into last week's decision by the National Lottery Commission to name Camelot as the preferred bidder for the U.K. National Lottery license. Branson told the Sunday Telegraph that his People's Lottery group "would have been very happy to risk another £10 million on a bid if there had been a level playing field." Branson called the selection process a "farce," adding that "the government needs to conduct an urgent post-mortem to ensure . . . this is not allowed to happen again."
Sports Betting in Macau -- British press reports have that Ladbrokes' China-facing ambitions will not include a casino, but will be directed toward establishing a sports betting operation. Company finance director Brian Wallace was quoted as saying: "It is an extraordinary growth story, but we're not looking to open casinos in Macau--the real thrust for us in that region is sports betting."
Stock Watch -- On the LSE, Playtech was up 7p to 331, 888 was up 1p to 109 and CryptoLogic was down 0.45p to 10.87