Poker Movie -- As the popularity of poker both online and in casinos and homes across the globe continues to grow, RKO Pictures has released the new movie Shade in a limited number of theaters in the United States with a full scale release scheduled for the end of April. Sylvester Stallone, Gabriel Byrne, Stuart Townsend, Jamie Foxx and Melanie Griffith star in the film, which features poker hustlers who make a living by frequenting the shady underground clubs of Los Angeles. PokerStars.com was on hand as a sponsor of the Hollywood premiere of the film on April 6.
Return of the Luddite -- Australian Prime minister John Howard confirmed in a radio interview that Richard Alston, the former communications minister who retired last fall, is under consideration as a candidate for chairman of Telstra, the telecommunications company. During his career as communications minister, Alston, who is commonly referred to as “The Great Luddite,” attempted to ban online gambling and e-mail forwarding while rationalizing that South Korea’s citizens desired massive amounts of broadband because they were so fond of pornography. He also spent $4 million on the Department of Communications, IT and the Arts' Web site, although the project was allocated only a $0.6 million budget.
Illegal Malaysian Book -- Malaysian police on Sunday arrested seven individuals for operating an illegal multi-million dollar soccer book out of a posh 15th floor apartment. Police say the suspects operated the scheme from the apartment but used another facility in Hong Kong as the collection center. Police also estimate that suspects had been taking up to $1.6 million in bets each day on English Premier League and European soccer matches. The individuals had set up a Web site that allowed bettor to place wagers and pay via credit card.
College Gaming Study -- The United States' National Center for Responsible Gaming announced this week that a new Harvard survey of student gambling patterns indicates that college students face no greater risk of gambling problems than do other adults. Researchers Richard LaBrie, Howard Shaffer, Debi LaPlante and Henry Wechsler used data from a 2001 survey of college gambling behavior and found that the results are nearly equivalent to the figures of the most recent survey of adult gambling patterns.