Floater -- The latest I-gaming company to announce its intent to float on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange is Fairground Gaming Holdings. The group plans to raise about £8 million through the float and use the money to acquire and consolidate I-gaming properties. The company is headed by CEO Evan Hoff, who worked for Price Waterhouse as a chartered accountant before founding forwardSLASH, an outsourcing and marketing provider to the online gaming industry. Hoff is an executive of Quest Limited, a London-based due diligence and intelligence firm that services major U.K. corporate and professional firms. "The online gaming sector is beginning to benefit companies with scale and brand recognition," Hoff said. "We see significant opportunities for a consolidator such as Fairground Gaming to target and attract relatively small operators and to create a sizeable and synergistic business model to capitalize upon the market potential."
Quoteworthy -- "With women it tends to be hidden, and a shame issue. With online gambling women don't need to leave the house to gamble and this, coupled with the ease of getting credit cards, is leading to massive problems. It is such a quick and easy thing to do, You just download the software, put in your credit card number and get your log-in and password. From then you can place bets, play the machines or take part in casino games."
--Lesley McMahon, a research fellow in the school of town and regional planning at the University of Dundee, explaining the findings of her latest study to The Scotsman. McMahon says a study she recently completed shows that increasing numbers of women in Scotland are turning to online gambling as a "coping mechanism" to block out failed personal relationships and depression. McMahon also claims that online gambling is likely to be a hidden cause of homelessness and that many women choose to keep their problem secret because they think they will be refused help from social services if it is revealed that gambling is the cause of their debts or mortgage difficulties.
ProTrade -- The Associated Press featured a widely syndicated article this morning informing Americans about ProTrade, a new Internet site that enables players to buy, sell and trade athletes as though they were stocks whose value rises and falls according to performance. The site is designed to appeal to the more than 20 million fantasy sports players in that players can enter leagues and set up teams, which are essentially stock portfolios. Later this year players will be able to create competitive leagues with set entry fees that will be held in escrow and distributed minus a 2 or 3 percent commission. The site will sustain itself via commissions and advertising. Former San Francisco 49ers head coach Bill Walsh is on board as a member of Pro-Trade's advisory board.
Suicides -- The Herald Sun has revealed information from a gambling-related deaths report compiled by Australia's National Coroners Information System, which used Victorian coronial findings from June 2001 to June 2005. The report shows 70 gambling related deaths (68 were suicide, the other two were deaths of the addict's partner), indicating that on average at least one Victorian gambling addict kills himself every three weeks. A vast majority of the deaths were men, and more than half of them were aged 30-50. Poker machines were the gambling type that was responsible for 68 of the addictions, while roulette and horse racing were listed in the other two. Victorians lost AU$2.4 billion last year on 27,000 poker machines, while the state government received over $1.37 billion in taxes.
Content Deal -- Bluff Magazine, whose BluffPokerTour is currently taking place at some of the world's most popular Internet poker sites, has signed a deal to showcase content on AskMen.com's online poker channel. Bluff Magazine will make its collection of celebrity interviews and tips from poker professionals available on the Web portal, which receives over 5 million unique readers each month.