Nambling Notes - Sept. 18, 2002

18 September 2002

New Stuff -- Great Britain's casino companies clearly aren't waiting around for a green light from U.K. regulators to enter the Internet space. Today, only a day after Littlewoods Leisure launched its online casino in Isle of Man, The Ritz Club went live with its Curacao-based casino site. Both of the new sites were developed by CryptoLogic's WagerLogic gaming software subsidiary. The Ritz Club has also secured an online gaming license in Alderney. The new online casino is located at www.theritzclublondon.com.

Tidbit from Las Vegas -- The producers of this week's Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas are already calling the show a huge success. The official attendee headcount for the day one was 8,183, a huge increase from last year's 5,996 day-one mark. Six-hundred sixteen companies (up from 375 last year) are exhibiting at the show. Last year's event contended with the long-running World Gaming Congress & Expo, which took place a few weeks later. The "dueling" conference game was put to an end in February 2002, when the organizers of G2E acquired the World Gaming Congress & Expo and merged the two events. Exhibits for this week's show are open until 6 p.m. today and from 12:30 pm. to 4 p.m. Thursday. The inaugural Interactive Gaming Symposium will be held Friday, starting at 8 a.m.

Makin' Deals -- Interactive Systems Worldwide Inc. announced today that its Global Interactive Gaming Limited (GIG) arm has signed a software licensing agreement with ukbetting plc, a British online sports content and wagering service provider. GIG's SportsXctionTM software will be incorporated into ukbetting's sports wagering Web sites. ukbetting boasts a customer base of more than 100,000 wagering accounts across three wagering sites. Its four sports content operations reached approximately 4 million unique users in August 2002. GIG will furnish the technology and operate the system; ukbetting will handle marketing, first-level customer support and transaction processing. The two companies will share wagering revenue. The SportsXctionTM system enables users to wager in real time throughout the course of a sporting event. It can be used with virtually any sport. Initial integration of the system into ukbetting's Web sites is scheduled for late October, with real-money betting commencing in early November.

Tidbit from Australia -- The Courier-Mail reported today that World Games Inc. has found itself in the midst of an international investigation for allegedly defrauding investors through a bogus pyramid scheme involving a virtual stock exchange run out of Queensland. The company is accused of ripping off hundreds of investors around the world through a scheme in which it offered subscribers tens of thousands of Swiss francs a week for referring punters to its Web site and from commissions on gambling transactions. Two men in Gold Coast, Queensland and one woman in Sweden have been implicated. A group of more than 20 investors, meanwhile, are launching a class-action lawsuit against its operators. Police in Queensland said the two men were expected to appear in the Southport Magistrate's Court in November to face 40 counts of fraud relating to their involvement in VG Global, an earlier version of the scheme, which was owned by Harraford Developments of the British Virgin Islands. The Swedish woman is accused of promoting the service. The Courier-Mail quoted Swedish police inspector Peter Norberg as saying, "It's an empty shell; nothing is involved but the right to earn money from those who enter lower in the pyramid." Lawyers for World Games said they weren't aware of any investigation or court action.