PlayAway Denied -- Connecticut's Division of Special Revenue today denied Foxwoods Resort Casino approval for PlayAway, a game that entails purchasing keno tickets at the casino and then logging onto a Web site from home to see the results. Although players can participate in games on the PlayAway Web site, performance in the games in no way affects whether the tickets are winners or losers. The Special Revenue Division says PlayAway is illegal because it violates a state law that "prohibits any interactive online lottery games for promotional purposes." The division also says Playaway violates a tribal gaming compact that authorizes gaming services on the reservation.
888 IPO Radar -- Israeli newspaper Globes reports that Cassava Enterprises recently organized a meeting of its 300 employees to update them on the status of its expected public offering on the London Stock Exchange. CEO Shai Ben Yitzhak reportedly told employees that the IPO is likely to occur before the end of the year and that management has already launched the road show among investment houses. The company is expected to issue 25 percent of its shares and seek a valuation of around £750 million to £850 million.
Media Relations 101 -- Curacao-based betting company PinnacleSports.com issued a press release today explaining the details of its betting propositions on the price of gas in the United States. "Although several in the [oil] industry have suggested that gasoline prices will drop in the near future," the bookmaker stated, "the betting public believes that there is no end in sight for rising prices at the pump." The sports book on Friday opened wagering with the odds of the average price of gas in New York or Los Angeles rising to $3 per gallon by New Year's Day at a 30/1 long shot, but has dropped the odds to 9/5 because 90 percent of bettors have backed the price rising above $3. PinnacleSports' well crafted press releases have been quite successful in recent months in catching the attention of major media companies in the United States. CNN Money published an article about PinnacleSports' gas propositions within a few hours of the release, and with oil prices being such a big issue in the United States, it will not be surprising if more newspapers follow the story. At the end of May, hundreds of U.S. newspapers and television programs gave PinnacleSports.com exposure because of its odds on the final episode of American Idol.
Tas Stats -- The Queensland government's Office of Economic and Statistical Research reports that Tasmanians on average each gambled AU$6,750 in 2003-'04, an increase from $6,447 in '02-'03. Although the numbers indicate that Tasmanians gamble less than the Australian national average of $8,869 each, the figure is still far greater that the per capita figure of $2,141 in Western Australia, where gaming machines are outlawed. The number of gaming machines has been capped in Tasmania, but their turnover still rose by more than 10 percent. British betting exchange Betfair is trying to obtain a license to operate in Tasmania, and many of those who oppose the expansion of gambling argue that a full economic impact study of gambling should be conducted before any more licenses are granted.
Quoteworthy -- "They're making a mockery of the laws and the regulations here because what they've found is a loophole that allows them to advertise a site that is clearly--in a covert kind of way--promoting gambling with real money."
- Rick Broadhead, a Toronto-based Internet consultant, speaking to Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail in article that portrays the televised advertising of dot-net online gambling sites as clever ways of skirting Canada's laws prohibiting the advertising of online gambling sites.
Binary Bets -- Finspreads, the financial spread betting arm of IFX Group Plc, has officially launched its binary betting product. Binary bets are similar to fixed-odds bets in that punters know their odds and the time of the trade. Binary bets are typically of very short-term duration, such as hourly or daily, and give the punter a simple choice about a future event, such as whether an equity index will improve or decline over the specified time period.
Poker TV -- U.S.-based development-stage company The Poker TV Network Inc. and Pink Sheets-listed Nevada corporation TechSecure Partners Inc. have merged to form a new company that will engage in the production, distribution and transmission of poker-related programming through various media outlets. The new company will be called The Poker TV Network and trade under the symbol PKTV. It also hopes to acquire established cable or over-the-air television stations and production facilities and eventually launch a 24-hour all-poker television channel.