iGGBA Meeting -- iGGBA (interactive Gaming, Gambling and Betting Association) will hold its fourth annual general meeting on Jan. 27 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Cromwell Room at Earl's Court while the London International Casino Exposition is taking place. The meeting's program includes speakers Sarah Thomas of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Nigel Payne, CEO of Sportingbet. iGGBA will also elect a new council and chairman at the meeting. Director Wes Himes said iGGBA welcomes guests who would like to learn more about the association. .
British Happenings -- The Sunday Observer reported that the within a matter of months, the U.K. Treasury will "close a loophole" that allows betting exchanges to pay far less betting duty than traditional bookmakers. The paper quoted one of its well placed insiders as saying, "The duty and the commission that exchanges make just doesn't add up. It's all pointing to the Treasury acting to stop this." A National Audit Report released last week revealed that betting exchanges received £2.67 billion in wagers and paid £7.3 million to Customs and Excise last year while traditional bookies received close to £30 billion in wagers and paid £376 million. . . . Following a request by Sports Minister Richard Caborn, the Treasury has asked the National Criminal Intelligence Service to perform a risk assessment investigation to determine whether criminals could be using bookmakers to launder money. Caborn has apparently been influenced by the report published last week by the Center for the Study of Financial Innovation. He stated, "As the independent report shows, this could well be a potential avenue for money laundering. We have to take that seriously. We have to do a proper risk-assessment and then we can legislate properly. An assessment was made some time ago but in light of the new gambling legislation and all that is going on. We are asking the Treasury to consider whether it is necessary to have a new risk-assessment. We believe it is." Caborn has also stated that the government will receive a cash advance to create the Gambling Commission before the Gambling Bill has even obtained final approval. A repayable advance of £367,000 will be paid from the government's Contingencies Fund and used to hire senior staff and pay for office space. "Our intention, subject to parliamentary approval, is that we protect as many individuals as we can, from as early a date as possible," Caborn said. "In order to do this we need to carry out essential activities to set up the Gambling Commission, which will require some expenditure in advance of the legislation receiving Royal Assent."
One Ball and 100 Million Bets -- Sportsbook.com, the flagship brand for Sportingbet, announced that it has taken its 100 millionth bet. The company also claims to be taking an average of 8.3 bets per second. . . . Sportsbook.com recently stated that it is "determined to purchase" the ball that Boston Red Sox first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz has refused to give to the Red Sox Major League Baseball franchise. The ball was used in recording the final out of the Red Sox' historic World Series victory in October 2004. The Red Sox want the ball back, Mientkiewicz wants to sell it and Sportsbook.com wants to buy it and give it to the city of Boston. The company hasn't made the amount of its offer public.
More from China -- Chinese police have arrested close to 600 people in relation to online gambling with a Taiwanese company called Baoying. The cases involve over $60.5 million in gambling funds, $2.8 of which has been seized. According to China's Ministry of Public Security, Baoying had been cooperating with individuals in mainland China since March to organize online gambling. Of those arrested, 395 were organizers and 202 were gamblers, some of whom are government officials. China announced two weeks ago that it would implement a strict policy on all types of gambling because it was discovered that some government officials had gambled large amounts of public money with foreign operators.
Satellite Deal -- BettingCorp, an OpenTV Corp.-owned developer and operator of multi-channel remote gaming solutions, has signed up to the global distribution network of GlobeCast, a satellite services subsidiary of France Telecom. The deal makes BettingCorp's PlayMonteCarlo fixed-odds games portal available on BSkyB's platform, uplinked via Eurobird 28.5°E from GlobeCast's Brookman's Park teleport. Globecast will also house PlayMonteCarlo's servers, which will be controlled via a VPN to enable remote access from PlayMonteCarlo's production center in London.