Quoteworthy -- "The issue that we're really concerned with is that young people are becoming involved in an illegal activity and then get in over their head. Then the bookie's in charge. Certainly a $1 pool is not going to cause any of that to occur. We understand that the $1 pool is very much part of the NCAA Tournament. But we have to take a zero-tolerance policy. We need to send a clear message."
--Bill Saum, the NCAA's director of gambling activities, explaining in an interview for Knight Ridder Newspapers why the NCAA condemns all forms of gambling on college sports, including office pools for the March Madness basketball tournament in which 10.7 percent of Americans participate, according to one of the organization's surveys.
Poker 425 -- William Hill TV, Channel 425 on the BSkyB network, will premiere a new weekly late-night poker program called Poker 425 on March 23. Sponsored by WilliamHillPoker.com, the new program will feature the latest news, results and analysis from the European Poker Tour in addition to interviews and tips from some of the tour's top professionals. William Hill PR Director David Hood says the company "expects Poker 425 to attract a large slice of the late night poker viewership."
Free Lottery -- SportingbetUSA.com has launched a free online lottery that gives players a chance to win $1 million every week. Players can participate by picking six numbers once a week up until the final drawing on Oct. 30. Any player who chooses the correct numbers automatically wins $1 million.
Mobile in Japan -- I-gaming operator BeTheDealer Casino has licensed its proprietary software to ArkCasino.com in order to launch a secure, real-money mobile casino platform that is available to subscriber of the DoCoMo 3G cellular network in Japan. Mobile solutions company TBR Entertainment has also contributed technology to the project. The cellular mobile version of the casino currently offers three 3-reel multi-line progressive jackpot slots, and video poker and blackjack are to be released within a few weeks. Figures show that 7.2 million DoCoMo users have played the slot game since its launch in February.
Poker Beat -- Victor Chandler will hold the VC Poker Cup in London August 1-5. The buy-in is £5,000, and the competition will be limited to 128 players, with the first place finisher taking home £255,000. The event will be filmed for international broadcast and is expected to reach a larger audience than last year's tournament, which was shown in 20 countries. . . . On March 19, the cruise ship MS Oosterdam will set sail from San Diego Harbor with about 725 players who will participate in the PartyPoker.com Million IV. Six hundred seventy players have qualified for the cruise and a chance to win a piece of the $7.2 million prize pool by playing on PartyPoker's Web site.