No Rest for the Weary -- The U.S. government today was given another 30 day to prepare its case against Neteller co-founders Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre. The two men were arrested in January and charged with money laundering in connection with Internet gambling. They have not been indicted. Today's continuation counts as the fifth.
Moving Forward -- 888 chairman Richard Kilsby has said that the company is acting on its plan to continue to roll out new gaming applications through both the introduction of backgammon and the unification of a wide selection of casino games into its poker client. Kilsby has stated that the new initiatives are progressing in line with expectations.
Announced -- The South African Broadcast Company has reported that Mandisi Mpahlwa is set to announce that the National Lottery will soon be running again. The minister has faced considerable criticism for suspending the lottery following a legal challenge to it, largely due to suggestions that charities have lost out on funding from the established Lotto. The minister has rejected these claims, stating that charities have not been affected due to the surplus of money in reserve.
Renewed -- Virtus Roma and Lottomatica S.p.A. have announced that their sponsorship agreement has been extended through June 2009. The club announced its confidence that continued sponsorship from Lottomatica will help Virtus Roma do its part to maintain basketball’s status as a top-flight European sport.
Opened -- PacificNet, the Chinese gaming supplier, announced that it has opened an office in Zhuhai, a city adjacent to Macau, to serve as a product development and R&D center.
Inked -- Shanghai eWorld China Information Technologies Co. has signed an agreement with the Shanghai Welfare Lottery Center to operate China’s official online lottery. The Chinese lottery passed $10 billion in sales last year, $6 billion of which was generated through the welfare lottery. Although the vast majority of the proceeds from the lottery will go to the winners and social welfare programs, the company is to receive 6.5 percent of all sales, leading to an increase in revenue that will partly benefit from the development of an online instant lottery.
Appointed -- Les Brydon, former regional operation director at Talarius, has been appointed gaming support director of the company’s Quicksilver Adult Gaming Center. Brydon’s position, the highest so far in his career, will charge him with overseeing hardware acquisition and the rollout of a CCTV development for Quicksilver.
Stock Watch -- Despite an 8.7 percent slide since the start of the month, shares in Tattersall's rose 1.9 percent to A$3.79 after it was upgraded from a neutral rating to a buy rating by UBS Investment Research. Meanwhile, Robert C. Becker, VP and treasurer of Scientific Games, has filed a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting the sale of 15,000 shares of common stock at $36.65 a piece.