LICENSED The Isle of Man government today said two new licensees, Fasbet, a Scotland-based betting exchange, and NYX Interactive, a Sweden-based gaming technology and software supplier, may now begin operating on the island.
NYX Interactive plans to establish the first network hub in the Isle of Man to offer its customers a variety of games including bingo, lottery, casino, poker and sports betting. All games and financial transactions will be operated, regulated and controlled in the Isle of Man and the company intends to facilitate a long term substantial business on the island.
Fasbet, which just recently launched, had been awaiting a license from a United Kingdom white listed jurisdiction. All Fasbet business will be conducted on the Isle of Man and the company expects to quickly establish an office in the jurisdiction.
PARTNERS Jadestone Networks AB, the Swedish based owner and operator of the multiplayer skill games network GamArena, today announced that Gala Coral, the United Kingdom-based online and offline gaming operator, will be one of the selected partners for DiceArena, the new multiplayer games offering launching across Europe in the coming months.
Gala Coral will launch on the DiceArena and promote it from all of its consumer sites.
GROWING Clarion Gaming and Beacon Events, organizers of the AiG Congress & Expo, expect the event -- the only one of its kind in Asia -- to become the largest gaming congress in the region.
In 2008 the congress welcomed over 500 attendees, an increase of 170 percent on 2007, and over 50 percent of these attendees were from Asia. AiG 2009 will see a further increase and the organizers anticipate over 700 attendees next year, making it the most important gaming conference for the region and reflecting the surge in interest in this sector.
Congress topics discussed at the event, scheduled for Feb. 24-26, 2009 in Macau, will include betting, poker, skill games, payments and fraud control, responsible gaming, lotteries and bingo, technology and software, multi-platform gaming and operations.
Early confirmed exhibitors in the expanded exhibition area include Iovation, Mahjong Time, Mahjong Logic, Transact24, and Cyberarts, Microgaming, Prolexic and NYX Interactive, who are also confirmed as sponsors.
BUSTED A Hong Kong man, convicted of running a number of gambling Web sites, on Wednesday was sentenced to eight years in prison and fined 20 million yuan, or US $2.9 million, in southwest China's Yunnan Province, reports Xinhua News Agency.
The case involved about 8.68 billion yuan in wagered money and more than 278 million yuan in illegal profits, a spokesperson from the Yunnan High People's Court told the news source.
The man, Tam Chi-wai, set up a gambling house in Myanmar in 1999 and went on to develop an online betting network. According to Chinese law, it is illegal to set up a gambling party or gambling house.
Mr. Chi-wai was originally sentenced in June in the Intermediate People's Court in Kunming, the provincial capital, but after an appeal the provincial high court upheld the sentence.
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