Law Suit -- Commonwealth Bank of Australia is suing International All Sports to recover a sum of $17 million, roughly the same amount of money stolen from the bank by one of its managers, Kim Faithfull, over the course of five years to place wagers with the betting company. The bank claims that IAS encouraged Faithfull's habit-- which accounted for 65 percent of IAS's revenues--by sending gifts such as expensive wines and an invitation to attend the Melbourne Cup as a guest of Mark Read, IAS's owner. The bank also believes IAS was aware that Faithfull was a banker and acquired his assets fraudulently. According to Commonwealth's statement to a federal court, IAS "wilfully shut its eyes to Mr Faithfull's fraud, or consciously refrained from inquiry" as to the source of Faithfull's funds. The Northern Territory Government Racing Gaming and Licensing Commission has already declared that its investigation of IAS was "unable to find any breach of relevant regulatory regime on the part of the licensee, nor any culpable shortcomings in corporate governance." The South Australian Supreme Court, however, recently ordered Sportingbet to pay back over $2.6 million to a company after one of its employees stole $22 million to gamble. Commonwealth has also filed suit against the Totalisator Agency Board of Western Australia, which accepted over $178,500 in bets from Faithful.
Goodbye -- U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has named James Martin as the man who will replace Raymond Gruender as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. Gruender, who is responsible for initiating a campaign against I-gaming advertisements by issuing warnings and subpoenas to media bodies, has submitted his resignation, effective midnight Friday, to become a judge for the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Martin, a prosecutor who joined the U.S. attorney's office in 1984, is Gruender's executive assistant. Legal experts say Gruender's resignation won't have any short-term implications on the campaign against I-gaming since the prosecutor's office is not likely to cease an open investigation.
Rumor Mill -- Rumor has it that World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel will resume advertising for the PartyPoker and PokerStars networks. But rather than advertising for the PartyPoker.com and PokerStars.com sites, which permit poker playing for real money, World Poker Tour will promote PartyPoker.net and PokerStars.net, which will only allow poker playing for fun. The thinking is that World Poker Tour would not be promoting gambling services if it promotes a site at which no real money is wagered, even though the actual gaming site would be just a few clicks away.
Quoteworthy -- "If the government ignores the unanimous recommendations of the scrutiny committee, then we move into a different world. At that point, it gives a clean bill of health to what the exchanges do. We would have to look at, or at least examine very seriously, whether to enter that marketplace. I don't see how, as a very serious player in the market, we could be happy with a situation where a competitor can exist offering our customer base betting opportunities to act as a bookmaker without paying tax and levy. It would be questionable how long that would be sustainable."
- An anonymous inside source with Ladbrokes, as reported by The Sunday Times.
Ladbrokes CEO Chris Bell told the BBC2's the Money Program Friday that he believes at least one British horse race per day is fixed. The Racing Post has since reported that Alex Pagett, group corporate affairs director for Ladbrokes, will not deny speculation that the company is considering launching an exchange of its own. Accoring to Pagget, "Ladbrokes has no immediate plans to have a betting exchange. Our prime focus right now is to get a level playing field in the industry as far as exchanges are concerned. But, it would be foolish to rule anything out. I am in touch with out chief executive several times every day, and I know exactly what’s going on.” In related news, within the week the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport is expected to reject the joint scrutiny committee's suggestions that the government examine a new tax regime for betting exchanges.
BoDog Poker -- Costa Rica-based BoDog.com has chosen software from Micropower Corporation (www.micropowercorp.com) for its upcoming poker room project.
Skill Poker -- After two years of development, ThwartPoker Inc has released what it calls a "first-of-its-kind" poker room that replaces chance with skill. Called ThwartPoker, the game network claims to add skill and strategy by allowing players to pick the cards they want, rather than being dealt cards at random. The ThwartPoker.com Web site has launched with two games, Hold'em Blitz and 6 Card Battle, which are free to play. Multiplayer online tournaments for prizes will launch later this month. A mobile version of ThwartPoker has already gone live on Verizon Wireless and AllTel thanks to its licensing deal with Atlas Mobile Inc.