Nambling Notes - Feb. 19, 2004

Quoteworthy -- "These are exciting times for iTV gaming. Interactivity on television is still in its infancy but the next few years will see it evolve swiftly from its current state of simple SMS or red button voting for contestants on Big Brother and Pop Idol. As interactive digital television becomes ubiquitous in the 21st century home, and consumer awareness of the possibilities grows, demand will increasingly be for services such as 'live' gaming within game shows. The challenge for service providers will be to harness the power of emerging technologies with fresh formats that generate new revenues for broadcasters but don't compromise on entertainment."
- Damian Cope, managing director of The Gaming Channel. Cope discusses the potential of iTV betting in a new netimperative.com online gambling report.

Spam Cops -- China's state media agency, Xinhua News, reported that the Internet Society of China, the country's Internet police, has published a list of 656 spam servers across the globe. China's government has said that these servers must cease sending junk e-mail by March 20th or they will be blocked. 62 of the servers are located in China, 65 in Taiwan, six in Hong Kong and 523 in the rest of the world. China already blocked 127 local spam servers last September.

Instant Love -- Game On, a division of Littlewoods, has launched an interactive instant scratch-card game called "Instant Love" that will complement the new ITV dating show Love on a Saturday Night. Viewers can press the red button during the show to buy a £1 scratch card. In the first stage of the game the love-o-meter chooses which of four cash prizes the viewers will play for. In the second stage the player must try to uncover six of nine hearts from behind the scratch panel in order to win the prize.

Soaring Profit -- NetEase.com Inc., an Internet gaming portal whose shares are traded on the Nasdaq, experienced a net profit of $39 million in 2003, an amount that's 20 times greater than $1.9 million the company received in 2002. NetEase attributes its success to its Westward Journey game, wireless services and advertising. Two other Chinese Internet portals, Sohu.com and Sina.com, have also obtained financial success in the past year because of wireless Internet access via mobile phones. All three companies get paid whenever mobile user downloads games or information from their sites.

Gaming Law Workshop -- The International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL), a non-profit association of attorneys, gaming regulators and gaming executives, is hosting a one-day workshop on gaming industry legal issues on April 16 at the Marriott Grand Hotel Flora in Rome, Italy. Expert panels will discuss gaming cases that are under review by the European Court of Justice and policies that are being developed by the European Union, such as database protection and privacy. The workshop will also address advertising restrictions in certain countries around the world, gambling debt enforcement, the movement of North American operators to the United Kingdom and more. Information is available at www.gaminglawmasters.com/rome.

HK Jockey Club's Network Visibility -- The Hong Kong Jockey Club has implemented Micromuse Inc.'s Netcool suite to provide end-to-end visibility of its network infrastructure, which includes wagering on horseracing, football games and the lottery via personal digital assistant, telephone, short message service, Internet, two-way messenger and off-course betting centers. The Jockey Club will use Netcool solutions to collect and consolidate event data from various element management and silo-based information systems to produce a centralized, real-time, Web-enabled customer focused view.

TAB Merger -- The Australian Financial Review reports that the New South Wales government is worried that a merger of state betting company Tab Ltd. could potentially cause the government to lose AU$216 million worth of wagering taxes to rival states. The government has told UNiTAB Ltd, which is currently in negotiations to merge with TAB, that the merger cannot take place unless the company guarantees that a multimillion dollar tax stream is not endangered.

Playboy -- Playboy.com has signed an agreement with 1633SA, the company that publishes the French edition of Playboy magazine, to launch Playboy.fr for Internet and mobile devices within the next four weeks. The site will offer the traditional Playboy goodies in virtual format in addition to a link to online wagering and gaming site that is already available at www.playboy.com/gaming.