The Latest on BoS -- The U.S. District Court in St. Louis on Wednesday extended until July 31 a temporary restraining order that prohibits besieged online sports betting company BetOnSports PLC from taking bets from the United States. A hearing on the new order is scheduled for Monday.
Fun with SCRABBLE -- Online casual gaming providers Fun Technologies Inc. announced today that it has signed a North American licensing deal with the Hasbro Properties Group, the intellectual property development arm of Hasbro, Inc., to develop "SCRABBLE Cubes," a 3-D word game based on the classic crossword game. Players will be able to compete in a variety of tournaments for cash on Fun's WorldWinner and SkillJam sites, as well as Fun's partner sites, including GSN.com, AOL Games, MSN Games, Pogo, Real Networks and Virgin Games. The game will be available in the third quarter 2006.
Change in Italy -- A law decree aimed at cutting Italy's deficit by 11.2 billion euros includes measures calling for liberalization and deregulation of the country's gaming and betting industries. The legislation will affect interactive P2P remote fixed-odds betting and real-money remote skill gaming. Businesses based in the EU, EFTA and elsewhere will be permitted to operate, provided they comply with the reliability requirements to be set by AAMS (the Independent Administration of the Legal Monopolies ). The government additionally plans to launch a license tender for a total of no less than 7,000 new land-based gaming shops and kiosks. Regulation of remote gaming services will be subject to payment to AAMS of a fee of no less than 200,000 euros, and for skill games, the applicable rate is 3 percent of the wagered sum for bets other than horse racing and P2P betting, effective from Jan. 1, 2007. Article 39 of the law decree dictates that the changes must be implemented by no later than Dec. 31, 2006.
Poker Players Unite -- The Poker Players Alliance (PPA), said today that its membership has more than doubled since the U.S. House of Representatives voted to ban online gambling. The PPA now boasts more than 75,000 members coming from all parts of the United States. "This large jump in membership shows that American poker players are coming to the defense of a game they love," PPA President Michael Bolcerek said. "With the rising threat to the online game, poker players are starting to become politically savvy. . . . The right approach is regulation of online poker, not prohibition of America's card game." Legislation similar to H.R. 4111 is being pushed in the U.S. Senate, but it is not likely to receive any attention before the Aug. 4 recess.
Poker Rocks -- Online sports betting entertainment Web site BetUS.com and Bluff Magazine will stage a World Series of Poker rock concert Sunday at The Joint in the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas. Pop punk band Goldfinger will perform and San Francisco's legendary DJ John Howard will spin records for a lineup of celebrities that includes NBA stars Robert Horry, Mitch Van Exell and Michael Simley as well as the cast of HBO's "Entourage."