Quoteworthy -- "There's a hard core of about 10 to 15 percent of the public who are morally opposed to gaming. It's part of their religious background."
- Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., president and CEO of the American Gaming Association. Yesterday the AGA released its annual "State of the State" report on gambling in the United States, which estimates that last year 53 percent of Americans played the lottery, 35 percent gambled in a casino, 18 percent played poker, 6 percent wagered on races and 2 percent gambled online. The report also includes data from a survey by Luntz Research in which 54 percent of Americans said gambling is "perfectly acceptable for everyone," while 27 percent said gambling is "perfectly acceptable for anyone but not you personally," 15 percent said gambling "is not acceptable for anyone" and 4 percent did not know or refused to answer.
CTXM Games -- CTXM--a developer of software (with an emphasis on I-gaming), a provider of IT consulting and development services and a subsidiary of Com-Tec-Co, has an agreement in place to supply online betting company Expekt.com, whose main target is the Scandinavian market, with 10 fixed-odds soft games. The first release of games will include flash versions of "Hockey Shot," "Run of Hearts" and "Spin That Wheel," all of which CTXM says include special themes for Scandinavian punters. CTXM has also launched a "Virtual Greyhound" race book on Expekt.com. Last week the company provided Ladbrokes.com with three games: "Slapshots," "Golden Jacket" (the name used by Ladbrokes for its virtual greyhound race book) and "Penalty Shootout."
No Fear of Kyl -- Peer-to-peer betting network BetBug.com said in a press release issued today that it might actually welcome U.S. Sen. John Kyl's Internet gambling prohibition bill. "BetBug are confident that if the Kyl bill was made U.S. law, it would cement their position as the only legal online betting network in the U.S.," the company stated. Betbug says its unique betting network does not violate the Wire Act or the proposed Kyl bill because the company does not act as a bookmaker that participates in wagers, sets odds or knows the underlying nature of private wagers among individual users of the system.
Gaming VC -- Gaming VC, a German online casino operator that floated on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market in December, plans to launch an online poker site in July. The company also plans to target more European markets by launching foreign language sites.