Caribbean Support -- Following an intervention by Antigua and Barbuda's Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer last week at the 16th inter-sessional summit of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Caribbean leaders have passed a resolution to support Antigua and Barbuda in its Internet gaming services dispute with the U.S. at the World Trade Organization. The Caricom resolution regards the dispute as a pioneering one that has been and will continue to be instructive on how small nations can defend their rights in the WTO. The submission hearings for the U.S. appeal of the WTO dispute panel's ruling on the case is scheduled to take place in Geneva next week.
Chinese Bust -- Chinese police announced today that they have shut down yet another online gambling operation. The Xinhua state news agency has reported that a man named Liu Junwei and several associates have been arrested as the local representatives of a foreign gambling company, but there is no mention of where the foreign company is based. Liu apparently ran a soccer betting website for nine months. Officers confiscated US$7.2 million during the bust.
NZ Lotteries -- The New Zealand Lotteries Commission put out a press release today stating that claims made by Gambling Watch, an anti-gambling lobby group, about interactive gaming are untrue and misleading. According to the Commission's CEO Trevor Hall, "Any interactive offering we eventually make will be lawful, responsible, strictly controlled and carefully monitored." Hall also clarified that the Gambling Act of 2003 permits the NZ Lotteries to offer remote gambling, but he stressed that it will no do so until after a new gaming system is introduced in 2006. "Our new system will replace our centralized gaming system," he stated, adding, "A new gaming system is required to ensure NZ Lotteries products can continue to be sold through our retail network after the conversion of the organization's telecommunications data links to the Internet Protocol standard. An added feature will be the ability to offer games remotely, but this will only be done after strict guidelines have been developed and agreed to with government regulators. Some of the measures we will be working through with the regulators will be safe-guards such as compulsory player registration, strictly enforced age restrictions and limits on the number and/or value of any online purchase by a registered player in any given time." Last week GTECH Global Services Corporation was selected as lead bidder for the gaming system contract.
Sponsorship Deal -- Sports Acumen-- an Australian company based at Canberra Racecourse that offers fixed odds and spread betting via the Internet, telephone and over the counter—has signed a deal to become a sponsor of reigning Super 12 champions, the Brumbies, for the 2005 season. Sports Acumen's General Manager Robert Gallagher says the sponsorship offers the opportunity to promote the company's business to an international audience through the Super 12 competition while also creating a strong link to the Canberra community.