Jackpotjoy.com on TV -- "Tonight with Trevor MacDonald," a current affairs television program on ITV1 in England, will tonight air a segment on the increasing number of women gambling online. The show will provide information about recent research indicating a rise in women players and will examine Jackpotjoy.com, a site that reportedly has more female than male players. Andrew Dixon, a spokesperson for the site, told the show, "Jackpotjoy.com did not set out to attract female players, and our marketing was never targeted as such, but within our first year of operations, we saw a large number of women joining the site. Now we make sure we design a number of games with our female players in mind, such as our recent 'Footballer's Widows' game, which received even more hits and winners than its male equivalent, 'Euro 2004 Penalty Shoot-Out.' Our success in attracting and retaining female players, is also reflected in our commercial partnerships, including major brands such as femail.co.uk and gm.tv."
Centrebet DDoS -- ABC Online reports that Northern Territory, Australia-based bookmaker Centrebet has admitted to paying online extortionists to cease bombarding the company's Web site with DDoS attacks. The company admitted in April to having gone offline for an undisclosed amount of time due to DDoS attacks, estimating that the downtime cost it $2 million in turnover. Centrebet, which does 95 percent of its business online, is in the process of implementing hardware to combat future attacks.
Payment Options -- A man from New Jersey has been arrested for allegedly running an online betting site that allowed players to receive winnings in cash or sex. Police say the site's operator, Salvatore Teodoro, employed prostitutes, two of whom were under 18, to deliver cash or sexual services to winners. Police had been observing the operation for the last five months, but had to apprehend Teodoro sooner than planned because he physically beat an informant after discovering he was working with the police. The site apparently gained new players through word of mouth.
Chandler's SportXction -- Interactive Systems Worldwide Inc (ISWI), has signed another deal with Victor Chandler to make its SportXction play-by-play wagering system available at Victor Chandler's international Web site, www.victorchandler.com. In June ISWI signed a deal with Victor Chandler UK Limited, the British operating arm of the Victor Chandler Group, to make the SportXction system available at www.victorchandler.uk.co. This latest agreement makes the SportXction system available to all of Victor Chandler's international customers. Last week ISWI announced that it had developed a version of SportXction that could accept wagers in any language and any currency.
Quoteworthy -- "It's a rare event for all the states and territories and all the racing industry to agree, but this was the case with betting exchanges. The federal government obviously is driven by an election imperative. They are in policy-free mode. Here was an easy opportunity to render betting exchanges ineffective. All the federal government had to do was extend a ban on Internet casinos to include betting exchanges. The states don't have the power to stop the intrusion into the Australian market by overseas betting exchanges. It needed to come from the communications minister. The states and territories have said they won't license betting exchanges. But if there is one crack, my company will be straight in. We will either start a betting exchange in our own right or in an alliance with an interested party. And there will be plenty of interested parties wanting to set up business with us. I am not going to sit back and see our business undermined by Internet operators from outside Australia."
- UNiTAB's CEO Dick McIlwain, commenting to the Courier-Mail about the Australian government's decision to not amend the Interactive Gambling Act.
Also in Australia -- Juggernaut British betting exchange operator Betfair says it would create 150 jobs in Tasmania if the state government were to grant the company a license to operate in the state. . . . Syd Sterling, the Northern Territory's racing minister, said his state would not be the first to license a betting exchange.
Year-Round Operations -- Hong Kong Jockey Club chairman Ronald Arculli has proposed a plan that would allow the club to telecast and offer bets on overseas horse races to residents of Hong Kong. The suggestion is part of a plan to extend the club's operations to a year-round schedule and increase revenue. If allowed to wager on overseas matches, punters would be able to bet year-round (currently no races are held in the summer months) and workers would remain employed during the summer months. Other measures include shifting some of the race meetings on the dirt track at Sha Tin in June to the months of July and August. The plan awaits government approval.
Jockey Charged -- The UK Jockey Club has charged jockey Gary Carter with "conspiring to ensure that certain horses he rode would not win or be placed in the interests of bets laid on [the Internet betting exchange] Betfair." Another jockey, Pat McCabe, and trainer Shaun Keightley will face similar charges in relation to the running of Red Lancer at Wolverhampton in October 2003.
Be the Croupier -- Nova Internet, a British Virgin Islands-based company, has created a person-to-person casino site called Croupier Club that lets members participate in games as either a regular player or the croupier. The site is operated by C.V. Holdings LTD, a registered company located in the Isle of Man with a gaming license in Curacao.