Friday, Aug. 27
Casino Coins in England -- After celebrating its fifth anniversary, online casino affiliate program Casino Coins announced its newest venture, Casino Coins UK. The new program will cater specifically to the needs of U.K. affiliates.
Golden Palace Responds -- Golden Palace CEO Richard Rowe told IGN he was "really surprised" by the casino's latest marketing stunt: having a tutu clad "streaker" crash an Olympic synchronized diving contest. He added that he's a lot more excited about other projects and specifically referenced a sponsorship deal to send a Canadian aircraft into space and charity efforts the company is doing with the ball that David Beckham used to miss a penalty kick for England in the Euro 2004 tourney. Rowe also said the streaker has opted to pay a fine rather than spend five months in jail and that Golden Palace is not paying the fine for him.
In Other Olympic News -- Officials with Hilton Group, owners of U.K. bookmaker Ladbrokes, yesterday reported a huge boost in gambling activity over the last few months. The trend was helped in large part by Olympic betting, which smashed previous Olympic turnover records. Ladbrokes' first-half profits rose 72 percent to £190 million over the last quarter. Managing Director Chris Hill said turnover for the entire Sydney Olympics was £100,000. "We have taken that on one part of the shot put event (at this year's games)," Hill said. Most of that action, he added, has been taken over the Internet.
Protection for Tattersall's Investors -- A surprise new law passed this week in Australia protects elite investors in Australian casino Tattersall's. The law makes Tattersall's beneficiaries, who control about 10 percent of the group, exempt from regulations preventing new shareholders from buying double-digit stakes. The new bill was passed in conjunction with a ramp-up for Tattersall's as it eyes the Australian stock market for a float in November. Most beneficiaries are descendants of those named in the will of Tattersall's founder, George Adams, who died in 1904. It's a highly secretive group of more than 2,500 people. They shared more than $126 million in profits in one year alone.
Armed Bandits Get 22 Years -- The armed bandits who robbed betting shops all across London last year were sentenced today to a combined 22 years in prison. The gang of five stole more than £60,000 from the shops during its six-month run. They also targeted building societies during the crime spree. Kingpin Marlon Myrie was given a nine-year sentence. In one robbery, a betting shop employee was stabbed in the head with a screwdriver. The members of the gang were found guilty of committing over 40 offenses.
A New Gambling Search Engine -- Jumpat.com this week rolled out a gambling portal called RabbitLuck.com. The new site is a pay-per-click search engine for online and offline casinos and sports books. Operators can sign up for a free "test drive" of the system for a limited time. The Jumpat.com network includes 120 search engines that average a combined 400,000 clicks per day.
Thursday, Aug. 26
Lasseters Profits -- The recently released profit report from Australian online casino Lasseters estimates that the company saw a 25.6 percent increase in profits over the last year; the improvement was due mainly to "significant cost savings." The company's net profit was A$402,604 for the year, compared to a profit of $320,485 for the year ending June 30, 2003.
Project Fairdice -- The newly created Project Fairdice has debuted software designed to prevent online casino operators from rigging games. The system is an alternative to casinos working with audit companies, of which the group says players are leery. Spokesman Douglas Reay said the new software will "deal a bitter blow to conmen and criminals in the gambling industry and clear the way for the honest online casinos who give their players a fair chance."
Fireswirl in Europe -- Fireswirl Technologies, an online poker software developer, announced plans this week to expand its business and offer its products to U.K. and European clients. The Canadian company is hoping to reach sales of $20 million by the end of 2005.
John Ashcroft: You Got Served - Casino City reported today that U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and U.S. Attorney David Dugas were summoned by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana as part of the media firm's case against the Department of Justice. Casino City filed papers this month seeking a declaratory judgment regarding the department's crackdown on the advertising of Internet Gambling services.
Wednesday, Aug. 25
Casino.com Rumor -- Joe Coughlin, product development manager for Victor Chandler, has officially denied rumors that his company has acquired the Casino.com gaming portal from Boss Media. Boss sold the popular site, along with Gold Club Casino, to an undisclosed buyer last year. The site hasn't changed much since the sale. Victor Chandler operators a bingo site using software from Boss Media.
William Hill and iTV -- British bookmaker William Hill has appointed marketing firm Poulter Group to market its digital betting TV channel. Poulter, one of four companies bidding for the contract, will get £250,000 for the first year. The new channel, to go live on Sky in October, will cover a range of sporting events and feature betting opportunities, random numbers games and virtual racing. Poulters' marketing support for the channel's launch will include online activity, in-store communication and direct mail.
Kelly's Coup -- Russ Phillips will become the deputy chief executive for the Association of British Bookmakers starting Nov. 1, 2004. Phillips, who will work under Tom Kelly, has spent the last four years with Office of Fair Trading. He will join the association after compiling the OFT's 200-page Rule 14 notice, which outlined the department's conclusions following its investigation into racing. The notice was published in April 2003. The British Horseracing Board claimed victory in its negotiations with the OFT in June this year, and Kelly is celebrating his coup in successfully landing Phillips.
eCOGRA and PWC -- Officials with eCOGRA, the voluntary regulatory I-gaming trade group, announced a partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers to research and provide a series of policy papers geared toward I-gaming operators. The reports will be made available for free to all eCOGRA members. The fist report will focus on security of information issues.
iGGBA and Channel 1 -- Channel 1 Games this week became the newest member of iGGBA's growing list of members. The company, part of the Games Media Group, is a new business specializing in content development and publishing for a range of games and gaming platforms. iGGBA's membership, which started with 10 founding members nearly two years ago, has grown to 48.
Tilt -- Plans are underway at U.S.-based all-sports network ESPN to launch an original drama series based in Las Vegas with gambling as the central theme. The new show, "Tilt," will piggyback off the network's coverage of the World Series of Poker and will take a similar approach to gambling and Las Vegas that the show "Playmakers" did to the National Football League. Tilt will begin airing in mid January on Thursday nights.
Tuesday, Aug. 24
BetOnSports Strategy -- David Carruthers, CEO of Costa Rica-based betting company BetOnSports, said he's extremely pleased with his company's mid July $101 million float on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market. He said the company is "particularly delighted with the quality and quantity of institutional investors who are now shareholders in BetOnSports." He also revealed that BetOnSports plans to open its very first land-based betting shops in the Central and South American regions during the fourth quarter of 2004. The company would like to open 1,000 shops within the next three years. They'd also like to enter new markets by acquiring Internet gambling brands in Asia, Australia and Europe.
WTO Delay -- Representatives from Antigua and Barbuda and the United States on Aug. 16 requested that the World Trade Organization's dispute panel continue the suspension of panel proceedings between the countries for another 28 working days. The parties now have until Oct. 4 to negotiate a compromise. It's second agreement to delay proceedings; the first occurred July 1.
Mobile Scratch -- Finnish digital gaming solutions provider EGET (European Game & Entertainment Technology) has rolled out what is billed as the first ever mobile scratch-card games. The group the week delivered its first two mobile lottery scratch cards to Sperospel.se, the Swedish national gaming operator. Any customer with a mobile phone equipped with MMS (multimedia messaging service) capability can order a scratch card by sending an SMS message a premium number. Users can also schedule tickets to be delivered on a regular basis. The two mobile scratch games, "Femman" and "Sperolotten," have already been available for some time at the Sperospel.se Web site.
Refinancing Bourse -- Betting exchange Punt2punt.com has ceased operating due to a lack of financial backing. Parent company The Gaming Bourse stated in May that it hoped to raise £5 million by floating on the Alternative Investments Market, but announced at the end of June that it had abandoned those plans. According to the company's marketing director, David Parker, "The company is currently going through a second phase (of) refinancing and (restructuring). We only soft launched the site and never hard-launched it, and we had not gone head-to-head with Betfair by introducing racing on the site; it was mainly financial markets, football and tennis with racing part of phase two."
Welcome Aboard -- The Association of British Bookmakers has appointed Russ Phillips as its new deputy chief executive. For the last four years Phillips has served as a principal case officer for the Office of Fair Trading, where he compiled the 200-page Rule 14 notice published in April 2003 and explained the U.K. government's conclusions after an investigation into racing.
Quoteworthy -- "I'm certain there are thousands more people out there like me. It's so easy to play and because you're not dealing with cash; it never feels like you're losing thousands."
- Eileen D'Arcy, a 37-year old Scottish mother of four whose story was featured in the Sunday Mail. D'Arcy reportedly lost £50,000 over the course of 18 months by playing Internet fruit machines.
Monday, Aug. 23
Sharp Minds -- Betfair has given partnerships in the Sharp Minds Betfair racehorse-ownership syndicate to six winners of competitions on its betting exchange. The syndicate has already acquired its first horse, dubbed "Say What You See," and has delivered it to the stable of champion jumps trainer Martin Pipe. Betfair will award the final two partnerships in the syndicate to the winner of an auction at the Champions Ball in October and to the winner of a Betfair/Racing Post competition during the St. Leger meeting.
Roulette Machine Stats -- The Guardian published an article Friday estimating how popular virtual roulette machines have become in the United Kingdom since their introduction less than three years ago. The publication reports that more than £290 million is gambled per week on the roughly 15,500 virtual roulette machines at Britain's top five betting shops-- Ladbrokes, William Hill, Coral, Stanley Racing and the Tote. (The Guardian did not consider the 2,500 smaller independent operators.) With the National Lottery drawing £88 million in ticket sales per week, it is safe to say that Britons spend over three times as much on roulette machines than on the lottery. If the Guardian figures correctly, roulette machines would deliver an annual turnover of over £15 billion to the big five betting shops. Tom Kelly, CEO of the Association of British Bookmakers notes, however, that such high turnover doesn't necessarily translate into incredibly high profit because a large amount of the money staked by punters is recycled through the machines and paid out to punters. With that in mind, the Guardian estimates that the big five reap over £8 million in profits per week from betting on the machines.
Quoteworthy -- "I don't believe that the burden lies with my client. I think the burden lies with the government. Any time the government takes action which has a chilling effect upon free speech, commercial or otherwise, the burden is on the government to meet certain clear criteria that have been set forth by the United States Supreme Court and lower courts, and that's their burden. And all we have to do is bring to the attention to the courts the fact that the government has made a threat that has a chilling effect on free speech and then the burden is theirs."
- Barry Richard, attorney for Casino City, the company that has challenged the legality of the U.S. Department of Justice's attempts to suppress advertisements for online gambling services.
He continued, "Now the reason that we believe they cannot meet the burden is because the advertising that our client is carrying is legal advertising. It does not seek to cause people to engage in any illegal activity anywhere. The government has no substantial interest in stopping us from doing it. They cannot stop people from engaging in illegal transactions by interfering with our right to run legal and constitutionally protected free speech. We don't think that the methodology that they've threatened is narrowly tailored to accomplish whatever purpose they think they have. That's the criteria that they have to meet under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution to curtail our free speech."
Minister's Praise -- The British Amusement Catering Trade Association (BACTA) is seeking professional advice to clarify the legality of Internet roulette terminals that emerged across the United Kingdom this summer. Gambling minister Andrew McIntosh has written a letter to the organization praising its actions, stating, "I wanted to let you know how encouraged I was to learn of BACTA's determination to tackle this issue. It is an excellent example of the industry working with its members to promote social responsibility in the industry." He added, "social responsibility is an integral part of the Gambling Bill and I am grateful that BACTA is setting a good example to the rest of the gambling industry."
Guineas Sponsorship -- Kahnawake-licensed online poker room UltimateBet.com has signed a one-year deal to sponsor the Guineas Festival at Newmarket for the second year in a row. The deal includes the title sponsorship for the UltimateBet.com Guineas Festival on April 30 and May 1, 2005 and the three main races: the 2,000 Guineas, the 1,000 Guineas and the Group 2 Jockey Club Stakes.