American Values -- On Tuesday House Republicans released their "American Values Agenda," which is aimed at re-energizing social conservatism. The GOP Agenda includes a list of 10 "family values" bills, of which number eight is a push for Internet gambling prohibition. A House GOP aide told CNN that the first three items that are likely to be addressed are the Pledge Protection Act, Marriage Amendment and the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. It is the intention of leadership to pass all of these bills through the House in July.
Potter Bets -- Online betting site WagerWeb.com has opened a book on which two characters will be killed off in the seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter book series. Author J.K. Rowling confirmed this week that two characters would be killed and that one of them could even be the boy-wizard himself. Harry Potter betting propositions were offered by several online sportsbooks last May after Rowling told reporters that a character would be killed. Soon afterward however Blue Square received a huge number of bets on the correct character, Dumbledore, all of which originated from the town of Bungay, which is home Clays, the books' printer.
Tennis Fix? -- Betting exchange Betfair contacted tennis authorities Tuesday after heaps of money was bet on a first round match at Wimbledon won by Britain's Richard Bloomfield. Betfair reported that up to £340,000 was bet on Argentina's Carlos Berlocq to lose just hours before he went down 6-1 6-2 6-2 to Bloomfield in Tuesday's match. Betfair reported the oddity to the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), with whom it has an information-sharing agreement, and the Grand Slam Committee. The bodies are now investigating the reports.
Turkish 3D Poker -- To answer the apparent demand for online poker in the Turkish market, Swedish online gaming developer Designed Quality Entertainment's (DQE) customer Esprit Marketing has introduced the first Turkish-language 3D gaming site, 3BoyutPoker.com. Esprit Marketing is the company behind the site The3Dpoker.com, which launched in May.
LiveHive Clients -- Software development company LiveHive Systems announced today that it has signed two North American online sports wagering companies to its roster of customers. BetCRIS Sportsbook and 5Dimes Sportsbook have selected the LiveHive NANOGAMING Solution to provide real-time event wagering to their customers as the action is taking place during any live sporting event, reality TV show, or live broadcast such as award shows or elections.
New Jackpot Factory Games -- Online casino group the Jackpot Factory Group announced today that it has added four new Microgaming-powered games to its four casinos- All Slots Casino, All Jackpots Casino, First Web Casino, and Wild Jack Casino. The new game titles include a five-reel 30 payline video slot called Mad Hatter, a five-reel galactic-themed video slot game called Starscape, Bonus Deuces Wild Video Poker, and Joker Poker 100 Play Power Poker, which deals from a 53-card deck.