Friday, Dec. 19
UK Gambling Board -- England's Department of Culture, Media and Sport has appointed four new members to the Gaming Board. Gambling Minister Lord McIntosh has selected Gilian Milburn, Eve Salomon, Bill Knight, and Ben Gunn to serve four-year terms beginning Jan. 1, 2004. The new members will guide the Gaming Board through its transformation into the Gambling Commission, as laid out in the United Kingdom's draft Gambling Bill. Also on Jan. 1, current board member Marie Stevens will step down from her office.
Bingo Upgrade -- Bingo portal site Bingo.com on Dec. 1 upgraded all 21 of its games with new custom graphics and control, improved layout and unique game features. Bingo.com says the redesign should maximize player enjoyment, brand strength and advertising revenue.
New Rules for Greek Cyber Cafes -- ekathimerini.com reports that the Greek Finance Ministry has issued new rules for Internet cafes and stated that a violation of any of the rules will result in a cafe's losing its license either permanently or for 10 to 60 days. The Greek licenses are issued depending upon the number of operating computers, so if a cafe were to obtain three more computers, then a new license must be issued. All Internet cafes must be located on the ground floor of a building, must have no secluded areas, must have only door for entrance and exit and must display at least two signs that clearly state that "Any gaming and any kind of betting is prohibited."
ICANN -- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a U.S. group that authorizes the Internet's domain names and addresses, has approved six "At-Large" community groups to participate in the Internet governing process and to help promote better understanding. Four of the approved groups are in Europe, one is in the Asian Pacific and Australian region, and the other is in the Latin America and Caribbean Island region.
Thursday, Dec. 18
Logos -- Matti Hautamäki, one of Finland's leading ski-jumpers, wants to take the Finnish Ski Association (FSA) to court because it has ordered him to remove a Ladbrokes logo from his skis. Hautamäki, has signed a sponsorship contract with Ladbrokes whereby the Ladbrokes logo appears on his skis in every event he participates outside of Finland, but the FSA had already signed a common sponsorship deal with Oy Veikkaus, Finland's state-owned betting and lotteries monopoly. Hautamäki's lawyers will argue that he, and not the FSA, has the right to decide what logo goes on his skis. Meanwhile, Ladbrokes is engaged in legal dispute over its advertising of online gambling services in Finland.
Intralot in Romania -- Before the end of the first half of 2004 Intralot will begin operating fixed-odds betting in Romania on behalf of CNLR, the state's gaming operator. Intralot will organize and manage operations and risk for soccer, basketball, tennis and Formula 1 racing fixed-odds betting. Intralot will install its Lotos gaming software and 1,800 of its Coronis online betting terminals at CNLR outlets. CNLR and Intralot also plan to cooperate later on developing video-lottery games in Romania.
Chinese WWTS -- BetWWTS.com has launched both simplified and traditional Chinese language versions of its online sports book to meet increasing demand from a growing Asian customer base. The sites offer full Asian handicaps on European soccer and all major league sports.
Casino Telecast Betting -- Kenilworth Systems Corp. says it will provide live television broadcasts of casino table games like roulette, baccarat and craps to digital cable and satellite users while allowing viewers to wager on the action. The company, which reports to have a patent for its live broadcast system in 49 countries, plans to telecast its games from casinos in the Philippines and other Asian countries. The company's first target is China.
VirtGame's PR -- VirtGame Corp. has enlisted the help of Las Vegas-based Multimedia Enterprises to market its products and perform public relations work. Multimedia, which has much experience in marketing and public relations for the gaming and leisure industry, will begin work on VirtGames' Sports Bet Express wagering system that will soon be installed in some Nevada bars on a trial basis.
XRAYMEDIA -- XRAYMEDIA Inc., says it will complete an exclusive media purchase agreement with an online casino provider within the next few days. XRAYMEDIA expects to begin processing cash media transactions in the first quarter of next year. The company will announce more details next week.
Wednesday, Dec. 17
Theft at Betfair -- Betfair is putting £198,077 back into its pension fund after one of the company's former directors, Andrew Petrie, stole £1,584,757.71 from the fund over a span of 21 months. Petrie, who used some of the stolen money to gamble, confessed to three charges of theft and was sentenced to six-and-a-half years of prison. The £198,077 that Betfair is returning to the pension fund covers the profits that Betfair made from Petrie's betting with the company.
Estonian News -- Spordiennustus A/S, an Estonian licensed gaming operator that is a joint venture between the Estonian Olympic Committee and Pafer A/S, is receiving an online gaming platform from European Game & Entertainment Technology Ltd. (EGET). The EGET WinOne Gaming System will launch with help from Ålands Penningautomatförening (PAF) during Spring 2004 and will at first take bets on local and international sporting bets, but will later be modified to take bets on almost any event. Spordiennustus hopes its I-gaming system will be an important source of funding for Estonian sports.
BSkyB Loses Rights -- E.U. Competition Minister Mario Monti announced that a deal between the English Premier League and the European Commission will force British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) to forfeit the rights to eight live, top-flight English soccer matches each year to a terrestrial rival. According to Monti, "The Premier League has committed to significant changes to its media rights policy for its 2004-5 season. We have also received commitments from BSkyB regarding its existing wholesale offer of channels, a new wholesale offer of pay-per-view matches to other pay TV companies, and, most important, some licensing arrangements for up to eight high-quality matches per season." BSkyB retains the rights to 38 games a year.
Spam-index -- Clearswift, the secure e-communications solutions company that analyzes thousands of spam messages each month to produce a Spam-index that "gives a snapshot picture of the nature of spam e-mails on a monthly basis," has released its findings for November. According to Clearswift, about 50 percent of all spam in November was healthcare related, most of it selling Viagra or similar products. Healthcare-related spam represented only 27 percent of all spam in October. Alyn Hockey, research director at Clearswift said, "The kind of spam that is being sent seems to change each month. The kind of spam that is being sent seems to change each month. Each category appears to be going up and down like a yo-yo, although the level of pornographic spam seems to be going down on the whole. This latest analysis suggests spammers are attempting to capitalize on people's concerns for looking and performing at their best for the Christmas party season."
Casino Reality TV -- The Fox network plans to give viewers Casino: an hour-long reality show portraying the grand opening of Las Vegas' Golden Nugget and the day-to-day lives of Thomas Breitling and Timothy Poster, the two entrepreneurs who purchased the casino. The show's developers also plan to document the activities of the Golden Nugget's pit bosses, cocktail waitresses, entertainers, security guards, and patrons from around the world. Fox has ordered 13 episodes of Casino, which will be co-produced by Mark Burnett, creator of Survivor and The Restaurant.
Tuesday, Dec. 16
Ladbrokes Stands Firm -- Officials with Ladbrokes said today that it could be a year before a decision is made in the company's case against Finland and its state-run gambling monopolies. Ladbrokes also said it would probably continue to advertise its services in the Finnish media. If they are then found guilty of a breach of the ban on marketing, they will appeal to the European Court of Justice. The situation could get interesting before the Commission hands down its judgment though. The Finnish Ministry of the Interior said it will try to block Ladbrokes' services by going to the courts, the same approach taken in Holland.
Quoteworthy -- "It looks like we are using technology to sell sex and gambling. But there are loads of places people can go for that. What people really want and what we are really selling is a sense of belonging and connection."-- Debbie Mason, spokesperson for The Gaming Channel and its flagship product, Avago. Mason's comments appeared in today's Independent in an article explaining how The Gaming Channel's business model differs from that of traditional television networks by earning its revenue through interactive services rather than through advertisements.
CAN-SPAM -- American President George Bush today signed the Controlling the Assault of Non-solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act. The Act, which will take effect Jan. 1, 2004, establishes rules governing how companies may communicate with consumers. It includes provisions that prohibit e-mail messages with false headers or sexually oriented e-mail that is incorrectly labeled. The Federal Trade Commission will receive new powers to enforce the laws, and it could possibly even set up a national do not e-mail list.
IASbet -- In late November Queensland Racing granted International All Sports Ltd.'s subsidiary IASbet.com Pty. Ltd. a racing bookmaker's license that allows the company to operate at betting and race meetings held each Saturday and Sunday by the Sunshine Coast Turf Club. IASbet.com can take bets either face-to-face or via telephone.
Sportech -- George Rushton was appointed Managing Director of Sportech plc last month, following the retirement of Colin McGill, who at 55 has decided to return to Scotland after having successfully managed the acquisition and transformation of the Liverpool-based Littlewoods Gaming business. Rushton, 50, has much experience in the leisure industry, having previously been a Main Board Director at Bourne Leisure and Managing Director of Hotels and Resorts at The Rank Group’s Holidays Division.
Monday, Dec. 15
Baggy Green Moves -- The Australian Federal Police (AFP) were asked in May by the Department of Communications, IT, and the Arts to investigate reports that Baggy Green, Australia's official cricket web site, was violating the Interactive Gambling Act by displaying gambling advertisements. The AFP has now declared that it will not investigate the matter due to lack of resources, but the cricket site has already relocated to the UK anyway. Baggy Green's operator, ninemsn, says the site was moved to the UK because of performance issues, but Hostworks, the company that hosted Baggy Green and still hosts all of ninemsn's other web sites, claims that it had never been informed of any performance problems.
Quantum Wager -- The Jockey Club of the U.S. and Scientific Games Racing have established a cooperative working relationship in order to achieve their goal of improving the horse racing industry's wagering systems and to make them more secure. The groups are presenting the Quantum System, which will allow the transmission of wagering and wagering information to all mobile device and will utilize an independent, industry owned central database for real-time security monitoring and information management. The Quantum System was first deployed at Delaware Park in July, and the Jockey Club and Scientific Games Racing plan to install it at several racetracks throughout 2004.
Wagering in Nevada Bars -- VirtGame is working with United Coin Machine Co. to develop Sports Bet Express, a wagering system that will use VirtGame's Primeline sportsbook software to link betting stations at United Coin Machine's Nevada-licensed bars to sports books in Nevada casinos. The Nevada State Gaming Control Board has already granted its approval for the companies to offer Sports Bet Express on a trial basis, so United Coin will install sports betting stations in 25 of its bars and other establishments in Southern Nevada. After the trail period the companies will seek permission from the Nevada Gaming Commission to distribute Sports Bet Express in other state-licensed locations across the state.
Finnish Mobile Gaming -- Finnish I-gaming solutions provider European Game & Entertainment Technology Ltd (EGET) has delivered a mobile graphical user interface (Mobile GUI) to Fintoto Oy, a Finnish horse tote games organizer. Called the WinOne gaming system, the mobile GUI gives mobile users with XHTML enabled browsers access to Fintoto Oy's I-gaming services without having to download additional software.
Gambling Bill Scrutiny -- Bookmakers in the United Kingdom are again pleading for the government to investigate online betting exchanges, this time as part of the Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee's review of the Draft Gambling Bill. According to the Independent, a Betfair spokesman responded by saying, "Our argument is absolutely sound and their argument is particularly commercial. I hope the committee supports the move [to conduct an investigation] because then it will be another independent assessment that has gone in our favor. You start to wonder how many you need. I have always said that if logic prevails over vested interest, then we will win."
I-gaming With the Telegraph -- Gamesys has built and will operate the Telegraphs's new instant-wins games area at www.games.telegraph.co.uk, which is launching this week. The site includes traditional games like slot machines, lotto and card games, as well as topical games like Rugby Hero and Beat the Keeper. A lot of the games will be refreshed regularly, and users can either play for free or can pay to play for cash prizes. Users playing for points can trade them in for entries into drawings for merchandise like DVD players, digital cameras, weekend getaways and more.
Liberty's New Gaming Sites -- Liberty Entertainment Group is launching a new web site at www.libertycasinos.com that will offer two casinos, Big Dollar and South Beach, using Microgaming's Viper gaming software. Liberty will also offer players Microgaming's new MegaSpins game, which lets users play nine slots games at once.