Victoria Racing Fee -- The Age reports that Racing Victoria's chairman, Graham Duff, has called a meeting this week with corporate bookmakers, including Australia's IASbet and England's Sportingbet. Duff, who insists that the bookmakers must not be allowed to ride for free on Victoria's racing product, has called the meeting so that an appropriate product fee can be established. The bookmakers, and also English betting exchange Betfair, have previously indicated that they are willing to negotiate the fee, though discussions so far have not merited much. Betfair has not been invited to this week's meeting, however, because Duff says it is not a bookmaker but an interactive gambling service that threatens the integrity of sport. Meanwhile, Betfair says it is eager to contribute a "fair share to the Australian racing industry for what is clearly its product," and claims to be logging its own accounts of what it owes Australia racing, backdated from February.
GMTV Instant Win Games -- GMTV is launching GMTV Instant Win Games as a sub-site to www.gm.tv. GMTV Instant Win Games was designed by Gamesys, who will also manage and update the site. Featured games include scratchcards, slot machines, lottos, Shopping Spree, and more, and users earn prize points that can be redeemed for merchandise like DVD players and weekend getaways. GMTV will promote its instant win games through permanent menu links, banners, tower and tile ads, and its weekly newsletter.
Korean I-gaming Indictments -- Online Casino News reports that South Korean courts have indicted three Internet auction companies-- Korea Tender, Lowwin, and Seven Today-- on charges of illegal online gambling. The sites let users pay low bid fees for the chance to win prizes of higher value, a practice that the authorities consider to be equivalent to gambling. The authorities are said to be investigating, though it is still uncertain whether the auction sites are in fact breaking the law.
UNiTAB in New Zealand -- Queenlsand, Austalia-based gaming company UNiTAB Ltd. is attempting is first offshore venture by entering a deal with Telecom New Zealand whereby the two companies will jointly tender a request for proposal from the NZ government for the right to monitor the country's 22,500 non-casino gaming machines. The NZ government, which uses the Queensland Communication protocol as its monitoring standard, should issue a request for proposal by mid-2004.