African Bit -- Some members of the government of South Africa are expressing reservations about a bill that would seek to make sure that the disadvantaged have a stake in the proceeds from betting. The KwaZulu-Natal Betting Bill is reportedly receiving a chilly reception in the African National Congress and from the Minority Front.
Names and Faces -- Ron Barbaro on June 25 resigned as chairman from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. and was replaced by Stanley Sandinsky. Barbara joined the group in 1998 when he was appointed chairman of the Ontario Casino Corp. and the Ontario Lottery Corp. The two groups merged in April of 2000. Sandinsky, a lawyer in Kingston, Ontario, has been the chairman of the Ontario Racing Commission for the last nine years. The Ontario Lottery Corp. operates the province's lotteries, charity casinos, commercial casinos and the slot machines at racetracks. It reports to the Ministry of the Attorney General. ... World Gaming plc last week announced a handful of changes to its board of directors. David Naismith has been appointed as the company's CFO and a member of the board, effective Aug. 1. Victor Collins is resigning from the board as non-executive director effective June 27.
Legal Stuff -- A law takes effect in Indiana today that will require people who send spam to adhere to a variety of new rules. The bill was voted for unanimously in the Indiana House and Senate earlier this year. Among the new regulations for spammers:
- Companies can't use subject lines like "I'm replying to your message" if the body of the email contains an unsolicited advertisement
- Spammers can't use a company's domain name to make it appear the message came from within the recipient's company.
- Spammers must put "ADV" in the subject line and "ADV: ADLT" in the subject line of an email containing adult material
- Senders of spam cannot sell a person's email address if the person replies to the original spam asking to be removed.
The new law allows individuals to sue for $500 for each spamming violation, although the bill's authors say they doubt many people will go to the trouble. Instead, the law could be used by large corporations to sue for slowing their workers' productivity by clogging their inboxes with unwanted e-mail advertisements.
Bit from the Netherlands -- Dutch gaming operator DeLotto scored a second major victory in court today when it was ruled that 21 foreign gambling Web sites must block Dutch players from their services. DeLotto received a similar judgment against Ladbrokes in January. DeLotto, which holds the gaming monopoly in the Netherlands, does offer online gambling to the country's residents, but must do us according to restrictions that offshore gaming sites don't have to follow. The group had asked more than 80 foreign operators to cease offering bets to Dutch residents, and all but 21 of those either agreed to comply or reached a settlement with DeLotto. Of the 21 remainders, none showed up to the court in Arnhem where the judgment in favor of DeLotto was rendered. Those 21 companies include Vlastimil, from the Czech Republic; AE Betfrom Canada; International Sportsbook Systems from Australia and Gamebookers, a company in Antigua.
UK News -- The Telegraph, a U.K. newspaper, reported recently that several years ago an American with ties to organized crime donated money to the U.K. Labour Party as a way of lobbying for a casino to be built in Notthinghamshire or the Isle of Man. Frederick DeMatteis in 1996 sent the money, about $15,000, to Colin MacLeod, an associate of his in England, and reportedly told him to give the money to the Labour Party. The newspaper reports that DeMatteis has been dead for two years and was involved in Mafia-controlled construction contracts in the United States.