Baggy Green Moves -- The Australian Federal Police (AFP) were asked in May by the Department of Communications, IT, and the Arts to investigate reports that Baggy Green, Australia's official cricket web site, was violating the Interactive Gambling Act by displaying gambling advertisements. The AFP has now declared that it will not investigate the matter due to lack of resources, but the cricket site has already relocated to the UK anyway. Baggy Green's operator, ninemsn, says the site was moved to the UK because of performance issues, but Hostworks, the company that hosted Baggy Green and still hosts all of ninemsn's other web sites, claims that it had never been informed of any performance problems.
Quantum Wager -- The Jockey Club of the U.S. and Scientific Games Racing have established a cooperative working relationship in order to achieve their goal of improving the horse racing industry's wagering systems and to make them more secure. The groups are presenting the Quantum System, which will allow the transmission of wagering and wagering information to all mobile device and will utilize an independent, industry owned central database for real-time security monitoring and information management. The Quantum System was first deployed at Delaware Park in July, and the Jockey Club and Scientific Games Racing plan to install it at several racetracks throughout 2004.
Wagering in Nevada Bars -- VirtGame is working with United Coin Machine Co. to develop Sports Bet Express, a wagering system that will use VirtGame's Primeline sportsbook software to link betting stations at United Coin Machine's Nevada-licensed bars to sports books in Nevada casinos. The Nevada State Gaming Control Board has already granted its approval for the companies to offer Sports Bet Express on a trial basis, so United Coin will install sports betting stations in 25 of its bars and other establishments in Southern Nevada. After the trail period the companies will seek permission from the Nevada Gaming Commission to distribute Sports Bet Express in other state-licensed locations across the state.
Finnish Mobile Gaming -- Finnish I-gaming solutions provider European Game & Entertainment Technology Ltd (EGET) has delivered a mobile graphical user interface (Mobile GUI) to Fintoto Oy, a Finnish horse tote games organizer. Called the WinOne gaming system, the mobile GUI gives mobile users with XHTML enabled browsers access to Fintoto Oy's I-gaming services without having to download additional software.
Gambling Bill Scrutiny -- Bookmakers in the United Kingdom are again pleading for the government to investigate online betting exchanges, this time as part of the Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee's review of the Draft Gambling Bill. According to the Independent, a Betfair spokesman responded by saying, "Our argument is absolutely sound and their argument is particularly commercial. I hope the committee supports the move [to conduct an investigation] because then it will be another independent assessment that has gone in our favor. You start to wonder how many you need. I have always said that if logic prevails over vested interest, then we will win."
I-gaming With the Telegraph -- Gamesys has built and will operate the Telegraphs's new instant-wins games area at www.games.telegraph.co.uk, which is launching this week. The site includes traditional games like slot machines, lotto and card games, as well as topical games like Rugby Hero and Beat the Keeper. A lot of the games will be refreshed regularly, and users can either play for free or can pay to play for cash prizes. Users playing for points can trade them in for entries into drawings for merchandise like DVD players, digital cameras, weekend getaways and more.
Liberty's New Gaming Sites -- Liberty Entertainment Group is launching a new web site at www.libertycasinos.com that will offer two casinos, Big Dollar and South Beach, using Microgaming's Viper gaming software. Liberty will also offer players Microgaming's new MegaSpins game, which lets users play nine slots games at once.