Popemobile -- Online casino GoldenPalace.com, the online casino that has become famous for its outrageous promotional stunts, has purchased a 1999 Volkswagen Golf that was once owned by Pope Benedict XVI (then known as Cardinal Josef Ratzinger) for $244,591 on eBay. The auction page for the car received over 8.5 million hits, and hundreds of news media providers on both sides of the Atlantic have already provided coverage of the sale--many of them specifically mentioning GoldenPalace.com.
Quoteworthy - "A decade from now, when Party.Poker.co.uk and PokerStars.com have swallowed up ICI and BT, historians may seek to explain how this card game progressed at such bewildering pace from the back rooms of redneck Alabama bars to the apex of the FTSE 100. On one level, it will be a story simply told by reference to a Holy Trinity of popularizing breakthroughs."
- an excerpt from an article titled "How Poker Took Over the World" and written by Matthew Norman for The Independent.
Taz License -- ABC Online has reported once again that the licensing of Betfair and PBL to operate a betting exchange in Australia hinges on whether Victorian betting agency Tabcorp agrees to waive a AU$5 million annual racing fee that Tote Tasmania pays to Tabcorp to participate in betting pools. Geoff Harper, chairman of the Tasmanian Racing Club told ABC that he believes there is a strong chance Betfair and PBL will not receive a license if Tabcorp drops the fee. Otherwise, he says, "I think the government is looking quite rightly at Betfair as a source of replacement for that $5.3 million in revenue." Next week Harper will lobby Australian Racing Board members to support his bid to scrap the payment to Tabcorp.
Summit Gaming -- A new company called Summit Entertainment Group has entered the online gambling sector with the launch of an online sports book/bingo hall/bingo room at LuckySummit.com. Software for the new sites was designed by Ikonsoft Ltd.. In the near future Summit Entertainment also plans to launch a radio station called "Summit Radio," which will cover online and offline gambling topics as well as issues affecting all Internet users.
Poker Industry Mag -- Casino Connection International, publishers of Global Gaming Business magazine, has announced the launch of a new quarterly called PokerBIZ, which will provide coverage of the global commerce and industry surrounding the game of poker. The company says the new magazine is designed to teach card room executives how to attract players to their facilities and to reveal successful practices in customer service, tournament organization, equipment upkeep and employee motivation. It will also examine online poker rooms, poker-like table games, poker machines, and more.
Partners -- Gibraltar-based white-label I-gaming software provider St. Enodoc is partnering with mobile gaming operator Profitability Gaming to create a mobile casino product for the European market.