For those of you -- like us -- riding your desk during AiG 2008, IGN's Asian correspondent Lorien Pilling will be reporting live across the three-day event. Click here to view today's news from Macau.
U.K. Culture Secretary Andy Burnham today announced that the government would not authorize a supercasino in Manchester, but the 16 smaller casinos will go ahead as planned. He also said that he would ask for a mandatory levy on gambling operators next year if operators do not start contributing to the Responsibility in Gambling Trust.
The Financial Times reports that about one in 10 of the United Kingdom's 3,800 gambling companies are currently paying into the Responsibility in Gambling Trust.
The Associated Press says Washington, D.C.-based grassroots group Poker Players Alliance spent $900,000 across 2007 to lobby the federal government on I-gaming legislation.
For folks interested in the goings-on of Harvard's Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, a list of its upcoming events may be found here.
Brand Republic reports Rank is believed to be reviewing its media account with Mediaedge:cia following a decline in players and the adverse material effect of the U.K. Gambling Act on its business.
Ladbrokes' Marketing Director Barry Clemo -- the mind behind the group's foray into televised advertising -- will leave the bookie to become the marketing head at Punch Taverns.
Pez Cycling News opines that a legal showdown between cycling's governing body UCI and Tour de France organizers ASO is "a'brewin." The French Cycling Federation has agreed to a request from the ASO that the 75-year old race, Paris-Nice, be run under the exclusive jurisdiction of French law. More on this later this week.
For operators and providers on the lookout for peripheral but promising technological leads in the Chinese market, China Daily has developed and launched a mobile news service whereby the paper's English-language news is sent directly to subscribers' mobile phones.
What would a day be without financial news? Genting International posted a full-yearly net loss of $271.5 million versus a net profit of $40.5 million in 2006. IGN reported in early January that Genting was preparing to enter the I-gaming space via licenses in Alderney and/or the United Kingdom.
For Parlay, Ladbrokes, Bwin and Sportingbet -- the collective locus of market chatter in recent days -- it was a quiet day. No new mystery suitors for Parlay; no wild ride for Ladbrokes' shares; and no comment from the Bwin and Sportingbet camps regarding the possibility of a 70p per share takeover offer.
Weird but true: New York Post reports that while you can't breathe the air in Los Angeles, the water is swell. The 18th Annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Contest pegged "Lala Land's" tap among the world's tastiest.
On the London Stock Exchange today, 888 was up 4.75p (3.0 percent) to 161.00, Paddy Power was up 0.48 euros (2.3 percent) to 21.40 euros and Sportingbet was up 1p (2.1 percent) to 48.25.
Chris Krafcik is the editor of IGamingNews. He lives in St. Louis, Mo.