Super Bowl Ads -- Online poker site InterPoker.com has signed an advertising deal with Eye Candy, a company that places giant media screens at major sports and cultural events, that will put 147 30-second advertisements for InterPoker's play-for-fun site, InterPoker.tv, on a large video monitor outside Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville on Sunday while the Super Bowl is taking place. The deal also includes agreements to display the commercials outside other prominent sporting events throughout the year.
New Protestant -- Business Week has published an article that profiles Casino City President Michael Corfman and discusses his company's legal case against the U.S. Department of Justice. The article depicts Corfman as someone who has defied authority and stood up for what he believes is right throughout his life. While attending a Catholic high school, Corfman wrote for an underground newspaper called the New Protestant, and later as a student at MIT he drafted a petition to protest the Vietnam War and obtained thousands of signatures, including that of the school president. The article also mentions that Corfman "has solicited donations from online gambling companies and trade associations to help pay for the lawsuit. One of Corfman's financial supporters is Britain's Sportingbet PLC, BusinessWeek has learned. Sportingbet Chief Exec Nigel Payne confirms that his company has helped fund the case, but he says it has done so through a third party, which he declines to identify. Corfman, who won't specify how much money has been contributed, says he can't afford the lawsuit on his own, since Casino City makes a small profit on revenues of several million dollars." The article appears in the Feb. 14 issue of Business Week and is also posted on the Business Week Web site.
China -- The running totals in China after the first three weeks of an assault on gambling show that more than 4,000 people have been arrested for cross-border gambling violations that are estimated to cost the country US$94 billion each year. An additional 760 suspects have been arrested for alleged participation in 249 Internet gambling gangs. In the capital city of Beijing, police have broken up eight Internet gambling rings, one of which is thought to have made $28 million. In the northern Hebei province, police arrested three individuals who are alleged to have coordinated activities with many overseas gambling web sites that processed more than $1.2 million worth of transactions monthly. Meanwhile, legislators from the island province of Hainan have proposed studying the effects of legalizing gambling as a way to revive its economy. The idea has received much criticism in the press and is not likely to succeed.
Farewell -- Pontus Lesse has announced that he will resign as CEO of European sports book Unibet. He will remain with the company through the end of 2005, but will gradually shed his responsibilities over time.
MVP Webcam -- Online gambling group MVP is launching a second-generation version of the CasinoWebcam platform, a product that has brought huge growth to the company's online casino. Using streaming video to enable customers to bet on action taking place in real time at a land-based casino, the new version of the CasinoWebcam software promises sharper sound and graphics as well as quick and easy access to the Flash-based no download games. According to an MVP spokesperson, "Players are demanding the transparency and fairness that only a webcam casino can offer. When we saw CWC's new Flash software, with its fantastic new streaming video, we knew we had to implement it as soon as possible." The company is rumored to be planning live webcam blackjack tournaments.