T Minus 10. . . -- Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon told Parliament this week that the government is close to making a decision on Betfair's bid for an Australian license and that he expects an announcement within the next 10 days. Lennon's willingness to consider the proposal has sparked outrage in the international racing community. Opposition racing minister Sue Napier said he should act in the best interest of the Tasmanian racing industry when she presented opposition letters to the premier from racing associations around the world (including Japan, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and South Africa) urging him to deny the license.
DDoS -- Betfair's Web site went down for about one hour Friday reportedly due to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. The company apologized for the inconvenience in a statement on its Web site, but several customers had already complained on Betfair's forums that they were unable to view or place bets; some claimed that the outage had lost them money.
Sooner or Later -- New Zealand Lotteries spokeswoman Helen Morgan-Banda said today that a lot of issues need to be addressed before Internet versions of Lotto, Daily Keno and Instant Kiwi become available and that the 2006 target date might not be met. The main issues, she said, are player registration and age verification.
Zoned for Playing -- Software developer Zone 4 Play Inc. announced the completion of its multiplayer blackjack application. Developed in-house over the past 18 months, the patent pending tournament application is the company's online flagship product, providing 24/7 access for competitive blackjack players.
Some Conditions Apply -- Gaming solutions provider World Gaming Group has entered into a conditional purchase agreement with Real Entertainment Ltd. to acquire certain assets of the company, including those within the Sportsbetting Group, a subsidiary of Real. The completion of the sale depends upon World Gaming Group's securing the appropriate financing and obtaining the consent of its shareholders in late November. The deal can be terminated if the conditions are not met by Dec. 14 (unless both parties agree to extend it).
Leaving -- Sportech PLC's Roger Withers is leaving the company at the end of the month. Withers, who is also non-executive chairman of Arena Leisure Plc, has been a senior non-executive director for Sportech since September 2000 and served as interim managing director from November 2004 until September 2005.
Quoteworthy? -- "I love online gambling. At night, when I can't sleep, I play blackjack online until I get tired or lose my money."
- Nicky Hilton confesses a guilty pleasure in the August 2005 issue of Maxim magazine.