Makin' Deals -- Youbet.com is teaming up with Global Cash Access to give its customers the ability to transfer funds from their credit cards or checking accounts directly into their Youbet.com accounts. The GCA product, called QuikFunds, ensures that funds are only transferred from a state where such wagers are legal. Once that is verified, QuikFunds asks the player to confirm the amount requested and acceptance of
a service fee. The player is then provided with a confirmation number to assure that the money was sent to his or her Youbet.com account.
Legal Stuff -- Land-based bookmakers in Bermuda are angry about the amount of business taken from them by Internet and offshore bookies. As a result, they are asking their government to repeal the 20 percent tax on gambling, which is one of the world's highest gambling levies. Lee Beauchamp, the manager of SeaHorses, one of Bermuda's largest bookmakers, said if he didn't have to compete with tax-free Internet betting, his business would be doing better. "Over the past five years we have lost in the region of 25 percent to illegal gambling and gambling on the Internet," he said. "We used to have three shops, but business has contracted. I put it mainly down to illegal gambling and Internet gambling."
Awards -- The International Masters of Gaming Law and Global Gaming Business magazine have named Harlan Goodson, the director of the California Department of Justice's Division of Gambling Control as the winner of their first Gaming Regulator of the Year award.
New Stuff -- Telecom One, a U.K.-based telecommunications and mobile company, is launching a digital television channel. TX1, as the channel is called, will focus on the promotion and sale of mobile games that can be delivered to mobile phones via SMS and WAP download.