Chartwell Games Corp -- Interactive gaming software developer Chartwell Technology has expanded its wholly owned London-based licensing and marketing subsidiary, Chartwell Games Corp, by appointing Pasqualino Rasile as IT director and Matt Webb as business development manager. Rasile has 10 years of experience in designing Web systems and has for the past four years served as IT manager for European sports book Globet. Webb held a senior sales and marketing position at British National Lottery operator Camelot before moving on to provide consultancy services to numerous international gaming ventures.
MrBookmaker's Games -- European betting company MrBookmaker.com will be adding a suite of new gaming products over the next few weeks. The first two games--The General & I and Dragon Keno--have already launched and were developed in partnership with gaming content provider Electracade and gaming solutions company Finsoft. Earlier this month Irish bookmaker Paddy Power launched two dice games that were developed by Electracade, marking the company's first product release.
Quoteworthy -- "I don't know why it is that people should say Tasmania should not issue a first license to a private organization to enable them to legally lay bets on various sporting events, both nationally and internationally, from here as it already happens."
- Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon, who expects to announce within two months whether Tasmania will license Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) and its British partner, Betfair, to operate a betting exchange.
Poker Beat -- PokerSchoolOnline.com teamed up this month with BugsysClub.com to organize a tournament to raise money for PokerShcoolOnline member David Wolner, who was about to undergo expensive treatment for Pancreatic Cancer. The $0 + $15 No Limit Hold'em tournament raised over $5,000, and PokerSchoolOnline contributed another $1,000. PokerSchoolOnline teaches members the game of poker through tests, reference articles, mentoring and weekly Web-based lessons. . . . Bodog.com has welcomed poker player Mike Mizrachi to Team Bodog. Mizrachi will compete at the World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas later this year. The company has begun calling him "Big Dog" and currently lists him as the 5/1 favorite to win the tournament. . . . ThwartPoker Inc. has created a new online game called "Poker Blitz" in which players choose the cards they want rather than being dealt a hand of random cards. All players select from the same deck and must pick, block and dodge the selections of their opponents. If a player picks a card that was also selected by another player in a current or previous round, the players are both blocked and dealt cards that have no value. The company says that this new way of playing takes all of the guess work out of poker and ensures that a player wins because of his skill rather than luck. Poker Blitz has been integrated into the Game Trust platform and is now available for real-cash tournament play at Miniclip.com.