China -- The Chinese government on Tuesday introduced new regulations reinforcing the campaign to impose public morality on citizens amid concerns about drugs, gambling and prostitution. Beginning March 1, citizens younger than 18 are banned from Internet cafes, discos and karaoke bars and such venues are barred from using "audio and video products and electronic games [that] harm national security and incite hatred toward other nationalities." The new rules also ban government staff and their close relatives from running entertainment venues, and people with criminal records related to drugs, rape, gambling and/or money laundering will not allowed to own or manage such establishments. But perhaps the strangest rule is one that forbids venues from using songs, films or electronic games that could "damage (China's) unification, sovereignty or territorial integrity." Offenders may be fined up to 30,000 yuan (US$3,700).
Selling 78 -- To address the U.K. Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) concerns regarding the supply of betting services through licensed betting offices in around 80 local areas of the United Kingdom, William Hill plc offered to sell 78 of its betting shops obtained in the August 2005 acquisition of Stanley Leisure plc's betting division. The OFT has accepted the offer and will thus not refer William Hill to the Competition Commission, which investigates proposed mergers, markets and the regulation of the major regulated industries.
The Sports/Poker Bridge -- Melbourne-based online bookmaker Betcorp is looking to convince more sports punters to broaden its gambling horizons to include Internet poker. The sports book, which took a beating from punters in the last quarter of 2005, when a string of heavily backed favorites won games leading up to the Super Bowl, said clients playing poker and casino games lost an average of US$2,003 last year while sports punters only lost an average of $698. The company projects online poker to contribute 25 percent of its revenues this year. Overall, Betcorp's sports book still produced a 12 percent rise in gross revenue to US$18.8 million last year, but gross revenues from casino games increased by 87 percent to $6.9 million while gross revenues from poker games increased from $200,000 in 2004 to a whopping $3.6 million.
Camelot and BBC -- U.K. National Lottery operator Camelot has entered negotiations with the British Broadcasting Channel (BBC) to produce National Lottery programming to be broadcast over terrestrial and pay TV as well as broadband environments. The deal is expected to be Camelot will now work with the BBC to agree terms for the deal which is expected to be implemented September this year, shortly before its current agreement with ITV expires.
Forgoing Sex -- Thirty-eight percent of 342 people surveyed recently by Online Gambler Magazine and online casino InterCasino said they would give up TV to gamble online, and 19 percent of them said that they would rather gamble online than go the pub for a pint. Nine percent of the respondents admitted to aspirations of quitting their jobs to play online professionally, 15 percent said they play online wearing underwear or naked, 8 percent sacrifice time with their partner to play poker and 5 percent admitted to forgoing sex to play.