Imminent Vote -- Washington sources have reported that the House of Representatives has scheduled a floor vote Wednesday for a new anti-Internet gambling bill: a merger between Rep. Leach's, R-Iowa, HR 4411 (The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) and Rep. Goodlatte's, R-Va. HR 4777 (The Internet Gambling Prohibition Act). The new bill, HR 4411, is not coming up under any suspension, which means it would only need a simple majority vote to pass.
Major Marriage -- Gaming technology company Orbis, a division of NDS, has announced an exclusive deal with online betting exchange Betfair to offer a brand new service to Orbis' clients using the OpenBet platform, which includes Ladbrokes, Sky Bet, Victor Chandler, Tote, UK Betting PLC, Paddy Power, Blue Square, IGH, Globet, Littlewoods and Betway. The Orbis-Betfair partnership gives Orbis' clients exclusive access to Betfair markets, prices and events, affording them the advantage to offer customers more competitive prices and a broader range of events.
The Jersey Effect -- A budget crisis in the New Jersey government has resulted in the closure of Atlantic City casinos, and at least one online casino, Sportsbook.com, is reaping the benefits. "We've experienced a significant increase in the amount of casino and poker related revenue on our site today from our customers in and around the Atlantic City area," group Marketing Director Alex Czajkowski said. Their good fortune could end soon though, as the state government reached a deal today on a new state budget, and the shutdown will end in the next 24 to 36 hours. Gov. Jon S. Corzine and lawmakers will increase the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent and use half the $1.1 billion generated to help lower property taxes. Corzine shut down non-essential government operations on Saturday after the legislature failed to pass a budget by the July 1 deadline. Casinos, which require state monitors to operate, closed Wednesday, putting 36,000 casino employees out of work.
Busted -- One of Australia's best-known jockeys, Chris Munce, and six others were arrested Monday in Hong Kong in a bribery scam investigation. Munce is accused of providing tips about horses to illegal bookmakers and punters in exchange for advantages or bets placed on the jockey's behalf, as well as dividends generated from those bets, according to the Independent Commission against Corruption. Four suspected illegal bookmakers and two alleged middlemen were also arrested. . . . Chinese authorities have busted a 1 billion yuan (US$125 million) Internet soccer gambling ring dating from July 2005 in the southwestern province of Sichuan, the Beijing News reported Wednesday. Police on June 22, 2006 detained over 20 suspects involved in the syndicate, according to the publication. The Web site that gamblers were using to place bets had been set up by an underground company in Hong Kong and had over 2,000 registered users. . . . Korean police have also been busy exposing a multitude of adult gambling PC rooms (similar to Internet cafes) and an illegal gambling program developing company. The cyber crime team of the Ulsan Metropolitan Police Agency arrested seven people Tuesday on charges of running adult gambling PC rooms using illegal gambling software. According to the police, the suspects are charged with setting up PC rooms in Seoul and Daegu and providing illegal gambling software and computers to more than 280 PC room member businesses from April to just recently as well as selling 76.3 billion yuan ($80,482,866) of cyber money to customers and then pocketing around 53 billion yuan ($55,904,485) in illicit gains after settling accounts.
Ratings Down -- England's dramatic World Cup loss to Portugal on Saturday caused a serious drop off in sports and gambling Web site views, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. In the week leading up to the exit match, after David Beckham went off injured and Wayne Rooney was sent off for violent conduct, ratings for sports and gambling pages were down 20 percent to 83 million pages viewed in the week before the tournament began, compared to 106 million during the week of England's second match against Trinidad & Tobago. Nielsen/NetRatings said England's underperformance had led to a decrease in sports betting as the team headed for the knock-out stages of the tournament.