Tidbits from the U.K. -- Last week
Ladbrokes said it would stop taking bets on U.K. horse races unless the
British Horseracing Board changes its plans to raise the tax it collects from bookmakers. The chain said it would rather replace U.K. races with more races from abroad, like it did during the foot-and-mouth eruption, than pay up to £37 million a year to the board. The BHB controls racing content and raises £61 million a year from the betting industry by taxing it at a rate of 1.5 percent of turnover. In May the board proposed to increase the levy to 2.5 percent plus VAT.
David Michaels, head of the
Hilton Group, which owns Ladbrokes, said if the plan becomes reality, his company will simply do without British horse races. And he's not just making idle threats, he said. "It's not what we want to do, or what the industry wants to do, and these are extreme statements," he told The
Guardian of London. "But these are extreme times, and the BHB proposal is just silly."
Jim Furlong, BHB director, told the Racing Post last week that bookmakers are "scare mongering" about the proposed levy and that they could "easily afford the very reasonable price that racing is requesting."
Former Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Sir John Wheeler will lead the review group that is charged with examining potential conflicts of interest in the activities of the Jockey Club. The group's other two independent members will be Peter Benson and Adrian Grazebrook. The Jockey Club will have two representatives of its own on board, Lord Hartington and Nicholas Wrigley. The group will be investigating the conflict between the Jockey Club's claim to act for the best interest of racing as a whole and its status as a racecourse owner through Racecourse Holdings Trust.
The Isle of Man Department of Home Affairs said last week that it will announce on Sept. 20 which companies will receive the three Internet gambling licenses currently up for grabs in the principality. The department said it took longer than expected to do background checks on the many companies that applied for the licenses and will seek approval to grant an additional nine licenses when it finds suitable applicants.
The chief minister of Gibraltar has confirmed reports that there will be massive changes in the territory's business tax structure, and that there will be no tax difference between offshore and local companies' taxes. The tax, which can reach a maximum of 35 percent, is to be lowered to 8-12 percent as the territory attempts to keep some of the formerly tax-exempt companies from leaving.
Legal Stuff -- The president of the American Gaming Association, Frank Fahrenkopf, said last week that there is still a chance a measure preventing betting on college games through Nevada sports books could pass Congress. "There's an awful lot of people who think the NCAA bill has gone away," Fahrenkopf told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "That's clearly not the case." The measure is supported by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who say it's wrong to wager on amateur sports. Fahrenkopf also said, on Aug. 31, that he thinks a bill aimed at making Internet gambling illegal will be introduced in the House of Representatives within two weeks. He said Nevada's making Internet gambling legal is what will spur action at the federal level. "Nevada is sort of an impetus," he said. "(Proponents of a ban) are using the Nevada legislation as a rallying cry to say, 'We have to do something.'"
Macao, which returned to Chinese rule in 1999, passed legislation on Aug. 30 to end the monopoly that is its gambling industry. Three gambling operators will now be allowed to do business in the territory.
Two people were arrested on Sunday in India for allegedly betting on the third and final India-Sri Lanka cricket match. Both people had bet on the final match
result, police in India said. A cell phone and color television were seized by police; papers from the scene show the accused had recorded an investment of more than 340,000 rupees from bookies and had to pay about 225,000 rupees to various winners. They stood to make a profit of 118,000 rupees.
New Stuff -- Sportsbetting.com is kicking off the NFL football season with a free prediction contest called Gridiron Pick'em. Each week contestants can pick the teams they think will win and assign the teams a ranking. The person with the highest weekly score wins a $100 wagering account for the site and advances to part two of the game, which involves predicting the winners of the 11 playoff games. A contestant who predicts the outcome of all 11 games wins $500,000; the consolation prize is a trip to the 2002 Pro Bowl in Honolulu.
Names and Faces Changing Places -- MDI Entertainment Inc. recently appointed Evelyn P. Yenson as its senior vice president of international sales and marketing. Her duties will include pursuing licensing opportunities outside North America. Yenson most recently was senior director of corporate communications for Scientific Games International; prior to that she was executive director of the Washington State Lottery. John Jackson, chairman of Hilton Group Plc, is to be succeeded by Ian Robinson, who joined the company in April as a board member and deputy chairman.
Records Broken -- The 65-casino network Jackpot Madness has reached a record-breaking $40 million in payouts, it announced on Sunday. No other online gambling network has paid out that much, the company said. Another record was broken this week when an online Jackpot Mania slot was hit for $414,119. Jackpot Mania said this represents the world record for the largest online progressive jackpot ever won.
Makin' Deals -- Wireless versions of World Gaming's most popular offerings-blackjack, slots and sports betting-will be available for Microsoft's Pocket PC in November and its Palm OS in December. The new wireless betting games are the result of a three-year deal announced on Thursday by World Gaming Plc and Sona Innovations Inc., a wireless software developer. Poker.com Inc. announced on Thursday that it has entered a partnership with Microgaming Software Systems Ltd. As per the agreement, Microgaming will be able to give all of its casino licensees a poker room sublicense. Poker.com will get a licensing fee and a monthly royalty with each sublicense sold by Microgaming to its existing and new licensees.
Interactive Solutions Corp. has signed a five-year license agreement with Encore Software Inc. Encore will incorporate Interactive Solutions' TheBet and TheBook casino and sports book software into its new retail software offering, called Vegas Fever Winner Takes All. The program is due to begin shipping this fall. Kiosk technology provider TrackPower Inc. last week signed a letter of intent to create a joint venture with Post Time Technologies. The new company will be owned 50-50 by TrackPower and PTT, and will provide Internet streaming video for the North American racing industry.
Greyhound race betting site gobarkingmad.com has put its online marketing campaign in the hands of ukaffiliates.com, a subsidiary of The Deal Group Plc. The site reports that the campaign has already resulted in increased betting conversion and strong retention rates. The dog racing site made another deal this week-its owner, Gaming Insight, entered a five-year partnership with Victor Chandler. Chandler's 140,000 registered users will be provided with a direct link to gobarkingmad.com.
A Tidbit from Down Under -- The Victorian government will welcome a new research project about problem gambling. John Pandazopoulos, Victoria's gaming minister, on Thursday said the research would help balance the economic benefits of gambling and its negative effects on the community. The project is slated to cost AUD $1 million and will be conducted by the independent Gambling Research Panel.
Tidbits from Canada -- Due to the large amount of criticism it has gotten from financial institutions and other intermediaries, the Canadian government announced it's delaying the launch of a key section of its new anti-money laundering legislation. The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) Act was passed in June and was supposed to be enforced in early November. The rules will now be divided into two sections; the first section requires banks to report suspicious transactions to a new federal agency and will come into effect in November as was planned. The second section will require banks to report all transactions more than $10,000 to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre. Kevin Shaughnessy of the Canadian Bankers Association said member banks are displeased: "Our concern is that the government will receive an awful lot of reports from legitimate Canadian businesses that will not be meaningful in their attempt to combat money
laundering," he said.
The Canadian province New Brunswick is blocking 39 gambling and pornography Web sites from its civil servants. The move comes after a December 1999 study showed that in one week, government employees made 1,600 visits to online gambling sites; during one day, 92 visits were paid to porn sites.
The Racing Network Canada on Friday launched its digital service, which offers four channels of live horse racing on Bell Express Vu. Rogers Digital Cable offers two of the channels in Ontario. The service will be free for its first several weeks.
Quote Worthy -- "It's an absurd figure. If that is what is on the table, then we will do without British racing. And we could survive."
-- David Michaels, chief executive of the Hilton Group, on the possibility of the British Horseracing Board raising the tax it collects from bookmakers to 2.5 percent plus VAT from 1.5 percent of turnover.