Security Recruits -- The British Jockey Club has attempted to strengthen its management of intelligence by recruiting three police intelligence experts to join its security staff. One of the recruits is a former chief inspector and the other two were civilian officers who specialized in managing and assessing information. The club plans to continue expanding security by recruiting a betting expert and investing in a massive IT system that could store information about every race in the country. Both measures would help the group detect irregular betting activities. Paul Scotney, the club's director of security, said he also hopes the Jockey Club can eventually become registered as an organization with access to the Criminal Records Bureau's data.
Flying Circus -- Following the success of its camel racing game, CamelLot, the fundraising betting site GoodLot has launched Flying Circus, a new Flash game that lets players bet on simulated races between planes and gyrocopters, which fly across the sky, trying to avoid ducks, balloons and UFOs.
iTV Stats -- Screen Digest, a market research and analysis company that publishes business reports on media markets, has released its iTV Betting and Gambling report, which estimates that Europe's iTV betting market should turnover 4 billion euro by 2007 with gross margins of 709 million euro. Screen Digest also found that the United Kingdom accounts for 76 percent of the iTV betting market, but speculates that by 2007 it will take only 65 percent of the market. Finland, France and Italy are expected to begin generating revenue from iTV lotteries in 2004.
State Law vs. Federal -- Lou Greenwald, the chairman of New Jersey's Assembly Budget Committee believes that a federal law which prohibits all but four states from permitting sports gambling is unconstitutional. Greenwald would like to allocate more money toward hospitals by passing legislation that would legalize sports betting in Atlantic City. "We have gambling in New Jersey. I think we've demystified the notions of corruption in the casino industry," Greenwald said. "We need to look at something that helps them and, in helping them, helps us." He believes New Jersey could win its case if it were challenged by the federal government, and Governor James McGreevey and hospital officials are eager to hear his proposal next week. New Jersey was once exempted from the federal law banning sports betting, but lost that exemption when it failed to approve sports betting by a Jan. 1, 1994 deadline.
I-Gaming in Philippines -- ABS-CBNNEWS.com reports that Philippine Sen. Robert Jaworski is preparing to file charges against Sports and Games Entertainment Corp (SAGE) for continuing to offer online gaming, even though the Supreme Court ruled in January that the company must discontinue service. The court ruled that state-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor) did not have the authority to grant an online gaming franchise to SAGE six years ago, and therefore declared SAGE's license null and void. IGN has been monitoring SAGE's Web site for the past four months, and despite Jaworski's complaint, it appears that the company's online gaming services are in fact shut down. Meanwhile Pagcor has launched several of its own online gaming operations with help from technology and information provider Philweb Corp.