Makin' Deals -- Grenada Enterprises Interactive and ukbetting are embarking on a partnership in which ukbetting will provide betting content for Grenada's iTV football homepages at itc.com/football and itv.com.f1. The online sales manager of Grenada said he believes ukbetting's services will be an important part of itv.com. "It is great to have ukbetting.com on board to help enhance our users' interaction with fixed-odds betting and as such ukbetting.com will become an integral part of itv.com," Jeremy Rosenberg said.
Bit from the UK -- Insiders in the U.K. gambling industry are saying gambling reform is not happening fast enough there. Roger Withers, chairman of Arena Leisure, told New Media Age recently that it is possible that the laws will be outmoded when they come into effect. "What the government is proposing in the Internet is fine, but it's not doing it fast enough," he said. "I understand the difficulty it has in acting more quickly, but with the growth on the Web and new technology, it's too slow." Peter Dean, chairman of Great Britain's gaming board, said primary legislation is needed to address Internet gambling. "The current laws affect online gambling in unintended and erratic ways," he said.
New Stuff -- PayPal, whose services were once only available in U.S. dollars, is now allowing customers to send and receive transactions in euros and pounds sterling as well as U.S. dollars. The company, which will shut down all online gambling transactions once its sale to eBay is complete, said currencies including Japanese yen, Australian dollars and Canadian dollars will be added in the upcoming months.
Names and Faces -- Scott Snow has been appointed the new executive vice president of development at MGM Mirage, a job he will start on Dec. 1. He is currently the president and COO of MGM Grand Detroit Casino.
Quoteworthy -- "When something is of murky legality, a company is stuck between customer desire to do what they think is legal and the law-enforcement folks who may have a different view. When something is clearly illegal it makes it easier for a company to ban something without drawing the ire of our own customers. We just need to know what we're expected to do." -- Vince Solitto, spokesman for PayPal, on the subject of Internet gambling. Quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Oct. 21, 2002.