Making Deals -- Online Gaming Systems announced today that it has been chosen by NTC, a Japanese company, to develop an online casino. The project, which is the OGS's first foray into the Asian marketplace, will be complete in the fourth quarter of 2003. OGS will design the site using its FIRE technology, a java-based system that was recently certified in the Northern Territory of Australia. David Kinsman, managing director of OGS (Australia), said the company will design customized Asian games for the site.
New Stuff -- Sky News reported today that a new identification program has been started for U.K. children. The campaign, run by CitizenCard, a photo ID organization, is called "interactiveAgeCheck" (iAC). Its aim is protect children from Internet content that is meant for adults, such as gambling. Andrew Chevis, the chief executive of CitizenCard, said the program will make the Web a safer place for children and retailers. "It will allow people of the right age to access the services they are entitled to, while denying it to those who aren't, or preventing them from under-age services," he said.
UK Tidbit -- Easibet.net will open its first betting exchange shop in Edinburgh on May 1. The concept, halfway between an "Internet cafe and a stockbroker's office," according to Henry Spurway, the Easibet.net's managing director, could lead to a chain of betting shops that challenge High Street bookmakers. "We are trying to open the idea up to everyone and attract women who would never think about going into a normal betting shop," Spurway said. "A lot of women play bingo and also go to casinos so we hope they will feel at home here. This has to be the way forward."
Congrats -- Betfair was recently given the 2003 Queen's Award for Enterprise in the category of Innovation. The U.K.-based company accepts more than £50 million in bets each week. It will be permitted to put the "Queen's Award" emblem on its site for the next five years.
Legal Stuff -- Sportingbet has begun the appeal process in Australia against a Supreme Court ruling that it must replay AU $2.6 million to K&S Corp. The company filed suit against the bookmaker last year after one of its former employees, Dennis Telford, allegedly stole company money and used it to bet with Sportingbet.