Cricket Australia to Lobby Government -- The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Cricket Australia is hoping to work with other sports organizations in lobbying state and territory governments to enact legislation that would prohibit athletes, officials and others with inside information from betting on events. Cricket Australia's officials argue that players with inside information can make just as much money by wagering as can investors who cheat the stock market through insider trading. Cricket Australia's chief executive, James Sutherland, said: "It wouldn't be our powers but those of the government to impose hefty fines and potentially jail terms on the most serious offenders than anything we can currently impose or is capable of being imposed under the current legal regime." Cricket Australia already forbids its players to bet on matches, but the organization has little power to investigate alleged betting.
South African Gambling Bill -- According to Reinhardt Buys, an IT attorney in South Africa, a survey by South Africa's National Gambling Board found that 250,000 South Africans (0.6 percent) gamble online. Buys argues that the country's new National Gambling Bill is not going to eliminate online betting and will not provide the means to police it. The bill seeks to prohibit not just the operation of online gaming sites but also consumer gambling and the advertising the gambling sites. The South African Chamber of Business stated that it "believes this provision will be very difficult to police. One only has to consider the high rate of pornographic material and spam that is distributed via the Internet and the difficulty in combating it to be aware that the monitoring of material accessed over the Internet is an extremely difficult task, and as yet no appropriate solutions have been found."
TAB War -- Victorian betting company Tabcorp has increased its bid for NSW's Tab Ltd.. At $2.03 billion, the bid still offers less cash than UNiTAB's $2.1 billion proposal, but Tabcorp believes its deal is superior because it carries the blessing of NSW Racing Pty. Ltd., the body that represents thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing across the state. The NSW government has said it will authorize legislation to permit one of the betting companies to merge with TAB, but only if that company can guarantee the state's racing industry that it will be no worse off after the deal. UNiTAB has not ruled out revising its current proposal, but NSW Racing's Chairman Tony Hartnell seems very confident that UNiTAB will never gain the favor of the NSW government or racing industry. Hartnell stated, "The possibility that the New South Wales government would publicly argue with the New South Wales racing industry, or vice versa, is low."
Betfair's New Marketing Director -- British betting exchange Betfair has appointed Ian Winton as its director of marketing communications. Winton, who will report to CEO Stephen Hill, will be responsible for all of the company's marketing communications. Winton founded Black Cat Direct in 1997 and served as the company's managing director until it was sold last summer.
DDoS -- Internet bookmakers in Europe have begun receiving e-mails indicating that the next coordinated DDoS attack could unfold in the days and weeks leading up to the Grand Nationals April 1-3. Hackers have begun sending threats to bookmakers and betting exchanges that service Europe, demanding that the betting companies give them money or else the they will launch DDoS attacks that will bring their services offline. Britain's National High- Tech Crime Unit is investigating the recent rash of extortion attempts and believes they are the work of organized criminals and not amateurs. The Financial Times reports that earlier this month representatives from over a dozen offshore betting companies met in Gibraltar to discuss ways to combat the growing threat to the online gaming industry.
Intralot Licensed in Malta -- After an international tender and two years of negotiations, Intralot has been awarded an exclusive eight-year license to operate all state lottery games in Malta. Intralot has established Maltco Lotteries Ltd, a company in which it owns a 73 percent stake. Maltco will install an online network of terminals that will connect to Intralot's central LOTOS System. Intralot will upgrade Malta's current Lotto and instant games and will introduce sports betting games and numbers games. The offerings will be made available through alternative networks.