Georgia Online Lottery -- Yesterday Georgia's House of Representatives approved with a 131-32 vote a bill that would allow customer's to play the state lottery online for a maximum of $5 per day. Advocates of the bill hail it as a way to boost lottery sales, a large portion of which are allocated toward a college scholarship fund that might otherwise have to be cut. If passed, the bill would make Georgia the first state to offer a lottery online. There is still much doubt as to whether the bill is consistent with U.S. Federal legislation, however, and problem gambling associations and convenience stores have voiced their opposition to an online lottery. The bill has been sent to the Senate for a vote.
Publicity -- Expect MSNBC and other mainstream media sources to cover the online casino conflict involving Hampton's Casino, its software supplier Real Time Gaming, and one player who was able to win $1.3 million playing Caribbean 21. In January Hampton's operator Ron Lewin called the player, claiming that he had evidence that the player cheated by using a "bot." During the recorded conversation, the player at first denied the charges, then admitted to them, though he later said that he was only trying to bait the operator in order to discover more information. After a thorough investigation of its software, Real Time Gaming announced three weeks ago that its game is flawless and there is no method for a player to cheat it. They also stated that Hampton's was not equipped with the systems it claimed to have used to detect the player's bot. The player has been denied all requests for play logs and has received no money.
Stats -- Global Betting & Gaming Consultants (GBGC), which tracks the 50 largest specialist gambling companies in its GBGC 50 index, estimate that the market capitalization of those top 50 stocks rose 75 percent in the last year. Combined, the capitalization of those companies totals $76.4 billion. 17 of the companies have a capitalization over $1 billion. During the same period the FTSE has risen only 21 percent while the Dow has risen 34 percent.
Betting Channel -- BskyB's new live interactive TV betting channel, Sky Vegas Live, went live at 6pm tonight. The channel will air live every night between 6pm and 2am from a "virtual" TV studio in London.
DeLotto Decision Delayed -- The court in the Netherlands presiding over the case of DeLotto vs. Ladbrokes has for the second time declared that it needs more time before it can render a verdict. After being postponed for six weeks on January 21st, the decision date was scheduled for yesterday, March 3rd. The court now says it will deliver a verdict in three weeks, on March 24th.