Online Gambling Press

Yesterday, in a court case in St. Louis, Missouri, the 51 year old former CEO of BetOnSports pleaded guilty to racketeering. He admitted that the internet company lied about online gambling being legal, which resulted in clients losing millions of dollars, without having to expect anything back. The Former CEO David Carruthers from the UK was arrested in July 2006 in Texas, and been placed under house arrest ever since. He made an agreement with the prosecutors, in exchange for a guilty plea, and help in the case against BetOnSports founder Gary Kaplan and 6 others. In return for the  [ Read More ]

Associated Press reports that Delaware legislators anxious to raise more cash for state coffers by legitimising sportsbetting now face opposition from the powerful National Football League and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. A delegation visited Dover this week to lobby against Delaware Governor Jack Markell’s proposal to re-authorize sports gambling in the state. The NCAA officials’ starting gambit was a threat to ban all playoff games in Delaware if the state legalises sports betting, and NFL representatives made their opposition known in a brief meeting with Markell on Thursday this week. “I welcomed them to Delaware and they told me  [ Read More ]

Gibraltar Internet news source Panorama reported Monday that the British territory’s online-gaming sector has experienced a rash of layoffs in the past year. All told, Panorama said, the number of Gibraltarians employed by online casinos and poker rooms fell from 360 in October 2007 to 261 last month. Panorama also listed several popular Gibraltar-based online-gaming companies that have shed jobs, as well as the number of positions they’ve cut: PartyGaming, recently in the news for U.S. legal action against co-founder Anurag Dikshit, trimmed its staff of 317 in August to 227 employees in February; Mansion made similar cuts, reducing its  [ Read More ]

Online punters Downunder wager more money online than gamblers elsewhere in the world, reports the Melbourne Sun Herald this weekend. The newspaper references a new Canadian study by University of Lethbridge professors Robert Wood and Robert Williams which used a research base of 20,000 adults in 105 countries to reach its conclusions. The study claims that Australian and New Zealand gamblers spend an average of A$435 online every month – five times what punters put through land poker machines – and has prompted renewed calls for bans on online gambling in Australia, the newspaper reports. The Uni Lethbridge study also  [ Read More ]

PokerNewsDaily.com reported Saturday that the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association plans to file a lawsuit aimed at toppling New Jersey’s anti-gambling laws. According to the online news source, the lawsuit will target the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which currently prohibits sports betting in the state. The lawsuit is one of many iMEGA is pursuing as it attempts to undermine the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. This time, however, the organization has the backing of state lawmakers, who say they were not able to legalize sports betting before PASPA made it illegal. PASPA, which President George  [ Read More ]

Cryptologic's decision to merge its online poker interests with those of Boss Media became practical reality Wednesday as the phased transfer of several online poker sites began. The merge, announced late last year by Cryptologic, is motivated by a need to substantially reduce costs while improving liquidity for players. It will make Boss Media’s International Poker Network larger by the integration of six former Cryptologic network sites, with the timetable set as follows: 17 March – Extreme Poker 18 March – Classic Poker, Opoker, DTD Poker and BetJacks 19 March – InterPoker and ParBet Boss Media, together with St Minver,  [ Read More ]

Jacob Avery, a researcher in the University of Las Vegas’s fellowship program in gaming studies, delivered the latest lecture in the Gaming Studies Colloquium Series, titled “The Social Worlds of Everyday Poker Players” last week, taking a look at why poker players find it so hard to quit whilst winning. Opining that past research focused on the biomedical reaction in gambling, Avery is trying a different approach in observing how poker players reacted to situations and interact with each other at the table. He set himself three basic questions to address: Why do people find it so hard to quit  [ Read More ]

GTECH Corporation, which owns online gambling software developer Boss Media and other Internet interests is getting into the lottery sector with a deal that literally rocks. The company announced this week that it has signed a multi-year licensing agreement with the rock band Aerosmith, giving GTECH the exclusive rights to use one of the most powerful brands in the music industry for a lottery business. Top American rockers Aerosmith has massive international appeal with a fan base consistent with core lottery players – 60% male and 40% female, in the 25-54 age group. GTECH plans to develop innovative lottery games  [ Read More ]

London-listed online gambling software developer Playtech plc has scored another important coup, signing up Casino Gran Madrid, one of the largest and most prestigious land based gaming operators in Europe, as a licensee for its online casino and poker products. Under the terms of the license agreement, Playtech will provide CGM with its casino platform and poker product, through its iPoker network, as the operator launches its online operations. Mor Weizer, Chief Executive Officer of Playtech, said: “We are delighted to have secured this agreement with one of Europe’s largest and most respected land based operators. We expect this to  [ Read More ]

Prominent European politicians and gambling operators joined the debate on the liberalisation of EU gambling markets this week as the European Parliament prepared to vote on a largely negative own-initiative report on the ‘integrity’ of online gambling submitted last year by Danish MEP Christel Schaldemose. The report has been opposed by Britain and Malta. Speaking at a “Fair Play for Gambling” breakfast discussion chaired by MEP Malcolm Harbour, a former top European judge opined that politicians “lacked courage” in efforts to clarify gambling’s legal status. He pointed out that traditionally gambling has been regulated at member state level, and that  [ Read More ]