Labour Donation -- Figures released by Britain's Electoral Commission yesterday revealed that in July the Labour Party accepted a £50,000 cash gift from Peter Coales, director of Bet365.com. Coates is a life-long supporter of the party and has made large contributions in the past, but this particular donation was given at a time when the government was drafting the final clauses of its Gambling Bill. News of Coales' gift has fueled speculation among the Bill's opponents that the government has been influenced by gambling entrepreneurs. Coates is also a shareholder in Lindley catering investments, which has contracts at football grounds planning to build casinos.
Making Deals -- I-gaming software provider Chartwell Technology Inc has signed an agreement to provide Ukbetting with a flash-based casino suite and soft games across a variety of Ukbetting's online gaming sites. London-based Ukbetting operates betting and gaming through the totalbet.com brand in addition to ukbetting.com and also provides sports content on sportinglife.com, bettingzone.co.uk, sportal.com and TEAMtalk.com. The company counts 5.5 million unique sports visitors per month.
Farewell -- United States Attorney General John Ashcroft announced his resignation yesterday. Under Ashcroft's command from 2001-2004, the U.S. Department of Justice warned media outlets that they could be held accountable to charges of aiding and abetting illegal activities if they advertised online gambling services. The so-called "public service" letters were soon followed by subpoenas issued to various companies in order to obtain information about the online gambling industry. In June 2004 the Department of Justice confiscated $3.2 million from the Discovery Channel after it canceled a deal to broadcast ads for ParadisePoker.com. Alberto Gonzalez seems like the most likely candidate to fill Ashcroft's post. According to the Associated Press, "Gonzales has been at the center of developing Bush's positions on balancing civil liberties with waging the war on terrorism — opening the White House counsel to the same line of criticism that has dogged Ashcroft."
EUVegas -- EUVegas.com has launched as the first online casino licensed under Malta's new remote gaming regulations. Using software from WorldMatch, the site offers no-download games of European roulette, blackjack, deuces wild, deuces wild multilane, aces and faces multilane and baccarat as well as a proprietary videopoker game and proprietary slots games. WorldMatch says it has developed an I-gaming system that gives access to the gaming sector to other entities without any commitment in terms of management, technology, finance or legal matters. The WorldMatch software is certified and audited by Italian certification agency CERMET.