GLI-Certified -- Wireless software and service provider Sona Mobile Holdings today announced that Gaming Laboratories International has certified its "casino on demand" wireless gaming platform under the GLI-26 "Wireless Gaming Systems Standards." The platform, which features a three-card poker game from gaming supply company Shuffle Master, is set to launch later this year.
Poker: Okay; Porn: Not so Much -- Susanna Huovinen, Finland's transport and communications minister, was quoted by news source Keskisuomalainen as saying on Tuesday that the scope of the country's law preventing access to child pornography Web sites should not be broadened to include online poker. The paper said that a government appointed gambling forum, established in 2004, had suggested the law--enacted in January 2006--should apply to certain online poker sites. "Child pornography is criminal material, which online poker is not," Huovinen told the paper.
Launched -- U.K.-based charity lottery Weather Lottery on Thursday launched its online betting system, which allows players to place bets through charitable Web sites of their choosing.
Playing Along -- I-TV services developer Two Way TV has produced a two hour play-along TV poker show for PokerZone Television called "Texas Hold'em Challenge," which will air four hours daily on Sky Digital's PokerZone TV channel.
A 'Hefty Price Tag' -- The Antigua Sun on Thursday reported that Antigua and Barbuda's dispute with the United States before the World Trade Organization will "leave a hefty price tag as its legacy to [the] country." While the cost of the litigation has not been reckoned, Antigua's minister of finance, Dr. Errol Cort, acknowledged that millions of dollars have been spent. "In terms of money, it's been an expensive venture," he told the paper. Cort added that the government had received a "fair amount" of financial support from members of the I-gaming industry.
On the Decline -- Gibraltar-based online daily Panorama.gi reports that online gambling-related employment figures in the U.K. territory are on the decline. Without citing sources Panorama said that, since September 2006, 131 of the territory's 1,783 I-gaming employees had been cut. Operators 888, Victor Chandler and PartyGaming maintain the highest employee populations, with 348, 304 and 298 respectively.
Quoteworthy -- "We would be very sensitive not to market directly to people from these countries. Where governments become uncomfortable is with a barrage of offline [non-Internet] marketing and language-specific and currency-specific local software."
Party CEO Mitch Garber as quoted by The Guardian today regarding his identification of the Netherlands and Scandinavia as "areas of Europe where the company was limiting its marketing to stealthy Internet promotions because of government hostility to online gambling."
Stock Watch -- Shares in Rank Group jumped 14.50p (6.65 percent) to 232.50 on news of its positive full year results, which were released today. Playtech also made headway on the LSE, with shares climbing 19p (5.88 percent) to 342, after releasing strong full year results on Wednesday.