Dutch Site -- Online gaming operator Vegas Partner Lounge has launched a new online casino website at NL.SunVegas.com that caters to Dutch speaking players. The site is supported by 24-hour service at a new Dutch toll free number. Just last week a court in the Netherlands issued a ruling in a long legal battle between state-run lotteries and sports betting monopoly De Lotto and Ladbrokes. The court ruled that Ladbrokes must cease making all of its online gambling opportunities available to Dutch citizens or face severe fines. Several other cases involving foreign-based commercial gambling operators are still making their way through the Dutch court system and are likely to end the same way, but all of those cases involve European companies upon whom penalties can actually be set. Vegas Partner Lounge on the other hand is licensed and operated from the Kahnawake in Canada— where it is probably out of reach from the Dutch court system.
Mobile Racebook -- Antigua-based online betting company CaribSports.com has signed a deal with wireless platform developer Phantom Fiber Corporation that will allow CaribSports' members to access its horse racing book via mobile devices. Phantom Fiber has already launched a mobile version of CaribSports' sportsbook.
Ubet2win -- Betting company Ubet2win, a newcomer to the industry, has signed a deal with Victor Chandler that will enable to the company to begin offering online casino and poker games on its ubet2win.co.uk Internet site. The company began trading on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange at the end of July. The company also holds a license to access the Betfair Application Programming Interface in order to manage its bets more efficiently and profitably.
Law Suit -- Michael Tomeny, a founder of Gibraltar-based gaming company Mansion who was executive director of Canbet from February 2000 until April 2003, is now suing Canbet and International All Sports over the contents of an e-mail the two companies sent to customers in August 2004. The purpose of the e-mail was to update customers on the status of the merger of the two companies. Tomeny says the e-mail suggests he was released because of poor performance, but he insists that he left the company because he believed Canbet should be based in Britain where a liberal approach to gambling was being adopted, rather than in Australia. Australia-based International All Sports says it will defend itself against the allegations. The case will be dealt with by the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Quoteworthy -- "Just like the open road, it's fun, fast, and its always free."
--Tagline of a late-night television commercial airing in the U.S. promoting Bodog.net, a site where web surfers can learn the game of poker for free. Costa Rica-based Bodog.com is reportedly about to launch a new generation of its proprietary poker system.