Denied -- The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) of the Philippines held a hearing Wednesday to determine whether Pagcor (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation) should be granted special access numbers through which it can monitor, regulate and tax mobile text games. Pagcor wants to route all text-based games through the numbers 888, 777, 878 and 787 and then apply a 20 percent tax on all text-based games. The company's proposition was opposed by Smart Communications and Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel), who believe the company has not provided enough safeguards to prevent minors from gambling. The companies also believe Pagcor might try to use text messaging to introduce new types of gambling products, although Pagcor spokesperon Dodie King insists that Pagcor wants only to regulate text games, not to offer them. The NTC inevitably decided that it could not approve Pagcor's request until the company does more to insure that minors will not be able to gamble on text-based or other mobile gambling games. Of the 19 million subscribers of Smart and Piltel, more than 97 percent are prepaid customers who have to register personal information with their accounts.
Suing Down Under -- Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph reports that Betfair is threatening legal action against the Australian racing industry for restraint of trade. Sydney-based law firm Gilbert and Tobin has launched preliminary action against TABs, racing officials and race clubs across the country on behalf of the company. Betfair is apparently looking into whether certain factions of the racing industry may have shown an illegal bias against it or possibly even colluded to prevent it from establishing a business in the country. "We have written to representatives of various racing bodies setting out our concerns," Betfair's Mark Davies said. "This has been precipitated by certain public statements made recently."
South Africa -- South Africa's minister of trade and industry, Mandisi Mpahlwa, stated this week in his budget vote before Parliament that his department will work on developing a policy on Internet gambling this year as part of a program to improve consumer protection. Last fall the government passed a new National Gambling Act that does not explicitly allow the operation of online gambling facilities but does contain a schedule of transitional provisions that requires the Gaming Board and minister to consider and eventually introduce legislation to regulate interactive gambling.
NetRatings -- Internet research company Nielsen/NetRatings estimates that the number of online gamblers in the United Kingdom has increased by 45 percent in the last year. With over 1.3 million visitors in February 2005, the National Lottery is the most popular gambling site in the United Kingdom and among one of the top 40 most visited sites overall. William Hill is the second most popular site and PartyPoker.com the third. In all, it is estimated that about 3.2 million British Web surfers visited a gambling site in February. About 75 percent of those gamblers access the Internet with a high-speed connection and spend about 20 minutes online each session. Users on slower connections spend an average of 29 minutes online per session. More than 14 million people across all of Europe are thought to have visited an online gambling site in February.
Investors' Conference -- CIBC World Markets, the wholesale banking arm of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, is inviting some of its institutional clients to the first CIBC World Markets Global Gaming and Gaming Technology Conference in Toronto on April 19. The bank says it believes the timing of its invitation-only conference "is important given the explosive growth in online gaming which has provided investors with tremendous returns. The conference will feature presentations by senior management from public gaming and gaming technology companies in Europe and North America, including Virgin Games, FUN Technologies, BetandWin, Chartwell, Scientific Games, CryptoLogic, NETeller, Las Vegas From Home.com and Youbet.com.