Thursday, July 3
Names and Faces --
Betfair said today that Stephen Hill will take over as chief executive, effective immediately. Hill is the former CEO of the Financial Times Group, which he left last year to work in the private equity field. During his with the Financial Times, he served as managing director of the Financial Times newspaper, CEO of Westminster Press Ltd. and director of strategy for the company. "Of all the companies I have looked at as investment opportunities, this is by far the most exciting. Like eBay, Betfair is using the internet to truly revolutionize the way customers can interact with each other," Hill said.
UK News -- Today the secretary of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport called for changes in the National Lottery. Specifically, Tessa Jowell said the public should be allowed to vote how the proceeds from the Camelot-run lottery be spent. "It is now time to give the National lottery back to the people," she said.
Legal Stuff -- Alex Salmond, a member of Parliament, has introduced legislation in the House of Commons that would protect gamblers should the company they gamble with dissolve without refunding their account balance. Slamond's plan is a reaction to the closure of Burns Bookmakers. The company's owners have disappeared and left debts of £100,000, including money that is owed to players. "Bookmakers can go out of business for two reasons," said Salmond, who is a supporter of racing. "They might just have a bad Cheltenham, or they might go bust, as appears to have happened in this case, because the abscond with the dosh. The financial test obviously provides some protection against the first, but it provides no protection against the second, and there should be some sort of lifeboat there."
Wednesday, July 2
US News -- >MGM Mirage, which recently made a splash in the I-gaming world by pulling the plug on its Isle of Man-based online casino, is being named one of America's 50 best companies for minorities in the July 7 issue of Fortune magazine. MGM Mirage is No. 31 on the list and No. 9 in terms of total number of minorities in its workforce. The company doesn't plan on relaxing its efforts to diversify. "We take tremendous pride in seeing our diversity efforts recognized in such a prestigious forum," said Chairman and CEO Terry Lanni. "While we are honored by this recognition, we are not satisfied that the job is done."
Contests -- Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest -- the "Super Bowl of competitive eating," if you will -- will take place on July 4, and BetWWTS.com is offering several betting options. Last year's winner, Takeru Kobayashi is the favorite to win with odds of 1-6. The Web site's sponsored winner, former football player William "the Refrigerator" Perry, is a long shot at 100-1. The contest takes place at Coney Island in New York.
Making Deals-- A partially owned subsidiary of Earthport plc, ensurePay Ltd. , recently signed on with bet365 Group Ltd. bet365 has 50 betting licenses in the United Kingdom and takes more than 350,000 weekly. ensurePay has also agreed to license its payment solution to The Gaming Federation. Tim Reeve, the CEO of ensurePay, said the agreements show ensurePay's growing market share in the online gambling business. "With Ladbrokes already using the payment system, Sportingbet recently going live, Betfair expected to follow shortly and transaction volumes developing as expected, earthport is experiencing sustained demand," he said.
Legal Stuff-- Adrian McPherson, the former quarterback for Florida State who was recently in court on theft and Internet gambling charges, has pleaded no contest and has been given a sentence of community service and 30 months of probation. He was facing up to 20 years of jail. "I'm just relieved it's all over," he told the Associated Press. "I'm ready to get back in school and get on with my life."
Tuesday, July 1
African Bit -- Some members of the government of South Africa are expressing reservations about a bill that would seek to make sure that the disadvantaged have a stake in the proceeds from betting. The KwaZulu-Natal Betting Bill is reportedly receiving a chilly reception in the African National Congress and from the Minority Front.
Names and Faces -- Ron Barbaro on June 25 resigned as chairman from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. and was replaced by Stanley Sandinsky. Barbara joined the group in 1998 when he was appointed chairman of the Ontario Casino Corp. and the Ontario Lottery Corp. The two groups merged in April of 2000. Sandinsky, a lawyer in Kingston, Ontario, has been the chairman of the Ontario Racing Commission for the last nine years. The Ontario Lottery Corp. operates the province's lotteries, charity casinos, commercial casinos and the slot machines at racetracks. It reports to the Ministry of the Attorney General. ... World Gaming plc last week announced a handful of changes to its board of directors. David Naismith has been appointed as the company's CFO and a member of the board, effective Aug. 1. Victor Collins is resigning from the board as non-executive director effective June 27.
Legal Stuff -- A law has taken effect in Indiana that will require people who send spam to adhere to a variety of new rules. The bill was voted for unanimously in the Indiana House and Senate earlier this year. Among the new regulations for spammers:
- Companies can't use subject lines like "I'm replying to your message" if the body of the email contains an unsolicited advertisement
- Spammers can't use a company's domain name to make it appear the message came from within the recipient's company.
- Spammers must put "ADV" in the subject line and "ADV: ADLT" in the subject line of an email containing adult material
- Senders of spam cannot sell a person's email address if the person replies to the original spam asking to be removed.
The new law allows individuals to sue for $500 for each spamming violation, although the bill's authors say they doubt many people will go to the trouble. Instead, the law could be used by large corporations to sue for slowing their workers' productivity by clogging their inboxes with unwanted e-mail advertisements.
Bit from the Netherlands -- Dutch gaming operator DeLotto scored a second major victory in court today when it was ruled that 21 foreign gambling Web sites must block Dutch players from their services. DeLotto received a similar judgment against Ladbrokes in January. DeLotto, which holds the gaming monopoly in the Netherlands, does offer online gambling to the country's residents, but must do us according to restrictions that offshore gaming sites don't have to follow. The group had asked more than 80 foreign operators to cease offering bets to Dutch residents, and all but 21 of those either agreed to comply or reached a settlement with DeLotto. Of the 21 remainders, none showed up to the court in Arnhem where the judgment in favor of DeLotto was rendered. Those 21 companies include Vlastimil, from the Czech Republic; AE Bet from Canada; International Sportsbook Systems from Australia and Gamebookers, a company in Antigua.
UK News -- The Telegraph, a U.K. newspaper, reported recently that several years ago an American with ties to organized crime donated money to the U.K. Labour Party as a way of lobbying for a casino to be built in Notthinghamshire or the Isle of Man. Frederick DeMatteis in 1996 sent the money, about $15,000, to Colin MacLeod, an associate of his in England, and reportedly told him to give the money to the Labour Party. The newspaper reports that DeMatteis has been dead for two years and was involved in Mafia-controlled construction contracts in the United States.
Monday, June 30
UK News -- Department of Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Tessa Jowell is expected to announce later this week a plan under which the organization of the National Lottery would be divided into three separate licenses. The plan is said to be a reaction to the falling sales of lottery tickets since the contract to operate the National Lottery was awarded to Camelot in 2001. Representatives from the government say it is unlikely that under the new plan Camelot would be able to win the contracts to operate all three licenses, and that Ladbrokes, Stanley Leisure and Sir Richard Branson are all expected to compete for the business. In 2002, lottery sales dropped £400,000, although sales of scratch cards increased 21 percent. Camelot's profits decreased 26 percent that year.
Legal Stuff -- South Africa's new anti-money laundering legislation went into effect today, LawAndTaxNews.com is reporting. The regulations will require people who want to open bank accounts to submit identity papers, utility bills and income tax and VAT registration information to the bank.
Bit from Down Under -- Western Australia Racing Minister Nick Griffiths today called for the country's federal, state and territorial governments to take action against betting exchanges. "This form of wagering creates a substantially new type of betting contingency -- the capacity to bet that a particular horse will not win," he said. "The ability to lay bets through exchanges and thereby profit from a horse losing can be seen to carry with it a real temptation for owners, trainers, jockeys, stable staff and others close to the industry, to compromise the integrity of racing." Griffiths said he is going to discuss his thoughts with New South Wales Racing Minister Grant McBride, senior executives of TAB Ltd. and the Australian Racing Board. Griffiths said he would like to see betting exchanges denied Australian betting licenses.