Tote Gets Face Lift – The 75-year-old betting organization in the UK, the Tote, announced a £5 million facelift for the company in a move to pull in more and younger punters. The company is expected to disclose further details of the rebranding at next week's Cheltenham Festival. Under the revamp, all of the Tote's 450 fixed-odds betting shops and its Internet and phone betting service will be called Totesport to reposition the consumer image that the Tote accepts bets on sports other than horseracing. The 59 on-course pool betting operations will be renamed Totepool. The new identity will see the group's offline shops touting the new Totesport fascia, which will also be used for its telephone and Internet betting.
New Magazine Launches – With a gambling overhaul expected soon in the UK, Dennis Publishing announced plans to launch a new magazine, Inside Edge, which will be marketed at the devoted gambler. The first consumer magazine in the UK dedicated solely to gambling, the monthly title, costing £3.99, will be targeted at 28- to 55-year-old men with high disposable incomes. It will include a focus on Internet betting alongside smart gambling tips, as well as how to make informed bets and offer strategic advice on sports, financial spreads and casino games.
Newspaper Rolls Out Games – Thisislondon.co.uk, the Evening Standard's online news website for Londoners, launched its stylish new instant win gaming package this week. Operated by online gaming specialists, Gamesys, the site offers everything from staple favorites such as slot machines, bingo and card games to interactive sports based games like Rugby Hero or Beat the Keeper. Games can be played for free to win prize points or on a 'pay-to-play basis' for cash prizes.
Bankruptcy Report Released – More people filed for personal bankruptcy in counties with casinos than in non-casino counties in America during the 1990s, according to a Creighton University study. While personal bankruptcy rates were higher in counties with casinos, business bankruptcies in casino counties were, on average, 35 percent lower than comparative non-casino counties. About 250 counties in the United States have casinos. Sixty of those are state-licensed casinos. The rest operate on Indian reservations. The study compared counties with casinos to non-casino counties that were similar in population, income and rates of poverty and unemployment. It then compared their bankruptcy rates from 1990 to 1999.
GLI Extends Deal – Gaming Laboratories International, a leading gaming products and systems testing company, extended its commitment to maintain its interoperability center for the benefit of the Gaming Standards Association (GSA) and its membership. In a renewed contract, GLI will continue to act as the GSA's sole interoperability gaming test lab for a specified length of time, testing devices and systems for GSA standards compliance. Testing has been and will continue to be conducted at GLI's Las Vegas office, where a staff of more than 30 engineers and support staff operate the 18,000 square foot laboratory. The Interoperability Center, the only one of its kind anywhere in the world, acts as a final checkpoint for regulators, suppliers and operators to ensure that devices and systems are compatible. It was created nearly two years ago and continues to expand with new products and systems being delivered daily.