Betfair, Malta and Taxes -- The U.K. Treasury could reveal the findings of its review on gambling taxation as early as next month (as part of the chancellor's pre-budget report), and there are reasons to suspect that it will replace the current tax structure on betting exchanges--which pay 15 percent of gross profits like bookmakers--with a tax regime that requires betting exchanges to pay a tax on punters' winnings. Britain's largest betting exchange, Betfair, this week began running some of its operations from Malta in a move that has been interpreted by some as a warning to the Treasury that the company could easily move all of its servers offshore if the British government were to mandate a tougher tax scheme for betting exchanges. Betfair acquired a license to operate in Malta in May 2005, and spokespersons said at the time that the company intended to launch a new product and had no intention of moving its operations. As it indicated, Betfair indeed launched its new in-house-developed "Exchange Poker" product from Malta today. The company had previously used poker software licensed by CryptoLogic.
Ladbrokes Galore -- Ladbrokes plans to unveil a massive overseas expansion plan that will see it open betting shops outside Europe for the first time, in accordance with U.K. gambling regulations. The sports betting chain--part of the Hilton Group--aims to set up joint ventures with local companies in overseas markets and open shops under the Ladbrokes brand name. Ladbrokes will provide expertise in a range of areas, including gaming technology, the layout of the shops and managing the books--all in return for a presence on international high streets. The company is expected to unveil the strategy to the market before the end of the year. It hasn't named the governments involved in talks, except for Singapore, where Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong gave the go-ahead for the state's first casinos this year. Hilton, meanwhile, was recently awarded a license to open a casino at its Paddington hotel in London.
Coming Soon -- Internet sports book provider betinternet.com plans to launch a full-featured online casino in 2006 with software provided by RealTime Gaming. Garry Knowles, sports book director for betinternet.com, said, "We serve customers around the world, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We needed a casino solution that would give our players more options and could integrate across a number of languages to provide a seamless experience."
Bingomania! -- EGET, a Finnish supplier of real-money interactive games, today announced the delivery of single-player and multiplayer bingo games to three of its customers, PAF, Spero and Spordiennustus, located is Åland Island (Finland), Sweden and Estonia respectively. EGET has also extended its multiplayer bingo to mobile devices.
eBay Swallows VeriSign -- International online trade company eBay has announced the purchase of payment security technology provider VeriSign. PayPal, eBay's payment provider, will absorb some of VeriSign's security tokens (physical devices that generate constantly changing security information), which make transactions far more secure than with standard unadorned credit cards.
Mac Hold 'Em -- Macintosh and Apple PC users can now play Texas Hold 'em and other games at Pacific Poker by using the recently added Quick Play software. Pacific Poker’s Mac software download (available at Mac-PacificPoker.com) gives new Mac players up to $100 as a first-time bonus.
Maltese Regulations -- Malta's Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LGA) has published draft amendments to its Remote Gaming Regulations 2004. The LGA says the amendments are part of its ongoing commitment to address the numerous changes that have arisen in the industry in just the last year as well as an attempt to create a streamlined, future-proof regime. The amendments address changes in the poker and skill games markets as well as the emergence of a new breed of business models that modify the methods of interaction between licensees and service providers. The update aims to further broaden the concept of game-neutral and technology-neutral licensing and to facilitate the uptake of regulated intermediaries. The public consultation period on the amendments ends on Nov. 16.