Makin' Deals -- Scientific Games Corp. and
NCR Corp. recently announced a joint agreement to pursue new opportunities in Australia and Asia. A subsidiary of Scientific Games,
Autotote Systems Inc., will team with NCR to offer technology including terminals, central systems and management services to pari-mutuel organizations in Australia and Hong Kong. Dayton, Ohio-based NCR helps companies transform business data to help them improve their customer relationships.
eBet Ltd. has finalized contract negotiation for the first sale of its card-based gaming system to a New South Wales club, Wentworthville Leagues Club, which will install the game in its 330 poker machines. eBet's system, called EPS, is the only card-based program approved for sale in NSW. Tony Toohey, chief executive of the club, said card-based gaming is popular with patrons, 60 percent of whom said in a recent survey that it will help them
control their gambling expenditures. eBet has also put the finishing touches on its sale of a card-based system to Reserve Hotels, which will install the game in its Sylvania Hotel. eBet on Friday announced that it has sold a card-based gaming system to North Sydney Leagues Club Ltd. The system will be installed in the club's 315 machines.
Tidbits from the U.K. -- The Isle of Man Home Affairs Office this week released a list of procedures to be followed by firms it has chosen to receive I-gaming licenses. The procedures include giving the department a floppy disk and hard copy of all games and rules to be used along with block diagrams and flow charts of the games' operations, getting approval from the Home Office for a £2 million deposit in an Isle of Man bank, and issuing the department a check for £80,000 to cover the license fee. Which companies will get licenses is expected to be announced on Sept. 20.
CryptoLogic Inc. is beginning the certification process in the Isle of Man and Alderney, it said last week. The company, which is in the final stage of certification in Australia, also announced recently that its site was hacked in late August, resulting in players winning more often than the games were programmed to allow.
One in three gamblers don't trust Internet betting, according to a Mintel market research study cited by The Belfast Telegraph on Wednesday. The Telegraph article, titled "Racing: Internet Bets Still a Gamble for the Punter," stated that the reason many punters avoid Internet gambling is that they are reluctant to give their credit card numbers out online.
Tidbit from the Caribbean -- Dominica will soon enact legislation aimed at getting it removed from the Financial Action Task Force's list of countries it deems uncooperative in fighting money laundering, the country's attorney general said this week. David Bruney told the Associated Press that the bill is to be voted on next year and will, if passed, allow foreign authorities to see financial information from the island's banking sector. Ukraine, Grenada, Russia, the Cook Islands, Egypt, Guatemala, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, the Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Nigeria, Niue, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines were also on the FATF's list.
Names and Faces Changing Places -- The British Horseracing Board will be losing a member-Paul Greeves, who announced on Monday that he's resigning his position of racing director. Greeves, who has been on the board for eight years, will leave when a replacement can be found to become operations director at Weatherbys. According to the Racing Post, Greeves' resignation comes just after that of Teresa Cash, who quit her job as head of marketing and communications and will leave in late November. Cash said there is no shake-up going on at the BHB. "There is nothing to be read into that," she said. "Both of us had a very happy relationship with all at the BHB, from the chairman of the board to everybody. There is no destabilization going on here whatsoever."
European Game & Entertainment Technology Ltd. Ab named a new president and CEO on Monday. Lauri Gorski will succeed Mika Jahkola, who has been the company's leader for the past year and a half. Before working at EGET, Gorski was business director of operational services at ICL's London office, where he was responsible for business management and new growth segments.
New Stuff -- Racecourse and Internet betting company Arena Leisure said last week that its Internet site, attheraces.co.uk, will go live in the next few weeks. The group of companies with stakes in attheraces consists of Arena, which has a one-third stake, and Channel 4 and BSkyB. Arena's managing director, Ian Penrose, said the site will be launched in mid-October and will feature live racing, commentary and tote and fixed-odds betting. The company is in the process is selecting up to three fixed-odds bookmakers.
Betting service Betfair is joining U.K. newspaper The Daily Telegraph in launching person-to-person gambling linked to The Telegraph's online sports coverage. The two companies will share revenue from the service, which will allow prospective bettors to lay odds against each other on sporting events. Links to the betting service will be placed alongside the Web site's sports coverage. Tom Gadd, head of sport.telegraph.co.uk, said the Betfair partnership was a natural progression for the Web site.
Tidbits from the U.S. -- The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush is changing the Clinton-era money laundering policy. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Treasury Department will be easing the rules in one area while stepping them up in another area. The proposed regulations would reduce the number of currency transactions banks report to the government. They would also extend the reporting requirements for large cash transactions that apply to banks, securities dealers and casinos. An administration official said the goal of the proposed changes is to decrease the amount of paperwork and increase prosecutions.
The parent company of Cantor Index, a British online spread-betting firm, occupied several of the top floors in the World Trade Center. Cantor Fitzgerald, which had headquarters on floors 101, 103, 104 and 105 in building one, said Thursday that it has accounted for about 300 of the nearly 1000 employees it had at the World Trade Center. The list of names of people accounted for is on Cantor's Web site, www.cantorusa.com.
A spokesman for Harrah's Entertainment Inc. said this week that the casino company does not intend to enter the Internet gambling industry. "Harrah's has no plans to get involved in that form of gaming," Gary Thompson said. "We have a wait-and-see attitude about it because we are very concerned about the legalities of using the Internet for that purpose." Thompson said Harrah's has concerns about underage gamblers gaining access to online betting sites as well as the integrity of the current operators.