Online Gambling Press

Italian “crisis legislation” could open up online gambling regulations

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The still restrictive laws on offering online gambling to Italians could be in for a more enlightened remake, industry observers are speculating. And it could happen before the end of 2009.

The reason behind the optimism is a recent slew of Italian “crisis legislation” proposals prompted by tough economic conditions and natural disasters this year, which have increased the need for additional tax revenues. However, anticipation should be moderated by the fact that the national regulator, the AAMS, has yet to make any formal announcements on what is and is not allowed, and when implementation might take place.

The speculation is that the Italians may be about to add cash games to lighten up the “tournaments only” regulations for online poker, and that online casino games will be added to the list of permissible online activities, along with new licences for scratchcard gaming.

The delay is reportedly not with the politicians, but with the regulator.

Indianapolis Colts 2009/2010 Odds Not Good

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Why the Indianapolis Colts will suck in 2009 – That’s the headline featured over at DeadSpin.com.  The odds are certainly against the Colts performing better than in past seasons.  Not only is Tony Dungy gone, so too are the team’s offensive coordinator Tom Moore and offensive line coach Howard Mudd.

"Virtually every article written about the team this offseason has implied that the transition to new head coach Jim Caldwell will be utterly seamless. He’s been around the team forever! Peyton does all the coaching anyway! Caldwell’s just like Dungy, only darker! Most people won’t even know the coach is some other dude now! I’ve seen any number of supposedly foolproof coaching handoffs in NFL history go awry to believe that s***. COUGH!richiepetitbonCOUGH! This all but guarantees that Caldwell will be a flaming s***wreck."

DeadSpin cites a few other concerns, among them, no more Marvin Harrison and his intimidation of other team defenses in the past.

Then there is this little nugget:

"It’s never a good sign when your toughest player is a safety who misses ten games a year. Bob Sanders skipped the team’s OTA’s this spring due to "the physical demands of the 2008 season," according to the Indianapolis Star. That physically demanding season included appearing in just six games. Pfft. What a pussy."

And while not factored into the 2009 odds, The Colts are always a Manning injury away from 5-11.

"Don’t think it can happen, Colts fans? Well, that’s just what Patriot fans thought about their supposedly durable little hero last year. It can happen."

The Indianapolis Colts are listed with the 5th shortest odds to win the 2010 Super Bowl with a payout potential of $1300 for every $100 bet at Sports Interaction.  The AFC Championship would pay out $700 for every $100 bet.  Winning the AFC South would pay $140 for every $100 bet.  Winning over 10 regular season games is the favorite featuring a line of -147.  Winning less than 10 regular season games pays slightly better than even odds:  $105 on every $100 bet.

Mary Montgomery, Gambling911.com 

Annette Obrestad Can Now Drink and Play US Poker Tournaments

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The first ever World Series of Poker Europe winner, Annette Obrestad, is about to turn 21.  For many a youngster, turning 21 means being able to drink legally in bars and finally being able to have consensual sex.  For Obrestad, sex and drinking is just an afterthought.  Turning 21 means finally being able to play in Stateside poker tournaments.

Ms. Obrestad already has her first tournament picked out.  It will be a Bellagio hosted event in December.

"They’re also going to have the Poker Player World Championship," she told PocketFives.com.  "I don’t know if you heard about it, but it’s a new thing that they have – a 30-something person invitational freeroll.  It is going to be televised and there’s going to be $1.5 million in the prize pool.  I’m invited to that.  I have no idea why, but it is going to be filmed in Las Vegas."

Other tournaments the young poker wunderkind will likely take part include the EPT Russia, WPT Marakkesh, and EPT Barcelona.  Even more important perhaps is the Caesar’s Cup, a concept developed by Betfair, which pits European poker pros like Obrestad against her American counterparts.

"I’m going to be the captain of the European team and Daniel Negreanu (pictured at right) is the captain of the American team.  Both of the teams are going to have six players and now they’ve announced that Peter Eastgate is going to be my first pick and Phil Ivey is going to be Negreanu’s first pick, so that’s a good start.  I think it is going to be pretty exciting and one player has a chance to qualify to play on our team through Betfair.  Just imagine how cool that would be for some random dude to get to play against 11 of the best players in the world in that format.  I mean, it is such an opportunity and if you don’t take advantage of that or at least try to qualify, then you’re a moron."

Ace King, Gambling911.com        

Ronaldo Stars in Iranian Film

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Brazil’s Ronaldo is set to appear in an Iranian film. 

From Sports By Brooks:

"The movie, which doesn’t yet have a title, is based on the true story of a 13-year-old Palestinian girl who dreamed of meeting Ronaldo when he visited the Middle East on a humanitarian mission in 2005. But she was killed in a political conflict before meeting him.

"The 32-year-old Ronaldo, who is thriving with Corinthians in his comeback from the third serious knee injury of his career, will appear in some scenes that take place in the girl’s dreams, said Farrokh Faradji Chadan, president of the Brazil-Iran chamber of commerce."

Shooting for the film, which is being produced by officials of the Iran-Brazil chamber of commerce, will probably begin in September in Lebanon. Producer Mansur Sohrabpur is planning to make use of filmmaker Mohammad-Hossein Latifi for directing the movie. 

Alistair Prescott, Gambling911.com 

PokerStars Macau Summer Poker Festival

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PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site with over 25 million registered players, today announced the schedule of the ‘PokerStars.net APPT Macau Summer Festival of Poker.’  This event marks the start of the hotly-anticipated PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Season 3. With five stops in five months, the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) remains Asia’s largest and richest poker tour in terms of both player participation and prize pools. 

The PokerStars.net APPT Macau Festival of Poker takes place August 25-30, 2009 at the luxurious Grand Lisboa Casino, home to the PokerStars Macau Poker Room – the largest poker room in continental Asia. The Festival of Poker will consist of 20 events, including the $40,000 HKD ($5,200 USD) buy-in Main Event and a prestigious ‘High Roller’ event with a buy-in of $88,800 HKD ($11,500 USD). There will be a number of preliminary and side events in a wide range of buy-ins, such as the $4,000 HKD ($500 USD) NLH Knockout Bounty Tournament, the $1,500 HKD ($200 USD) NLH Turbo Shoot-out and a $2,500 HKD ($320 USD) 6-Handed Fixed Limit Hold’em Tournament. See the full schedule below, or visit www.appt.com/tournaments/macau/ for more details.

"I’m pleased to see the sport of tournament poker continue to grow in Asia" said Team PokerStars Pro and Poker World Champion Joe Hachem "I played in the first APPT Macau in 2007 when PokerStars planted the seeds of No-Limit Texas Hold’em poker culture in Macau, and it’s been incredible watching that legacy take root and bloom. There are now hundreds of local players, cash games running 24/7 and tournaments available every week at the PokerStars Macau Poker Room. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next World Champion comes from Macau or elsewhere in China."

In Season 2, The PokerStars.net APPT Macau generated the biggest prize pool recorded for a poker event in Asia, more than $12.6 million HKD ($1.62 million USD).  Edward Sabat of the United States bested a record field of 538 players to take the first prize of $3.5 million HKD ($453,851 USD).  This year the APPT expects to beat its own records, with more players and a prize pool of more than $15.5 million HKD ($2,000,000 USD).

Jeffrey Haas, President of the PokerStars.net APPT, said: "This season’s APPT is set to be even bigger than Season 2 in terms of both number of participants and prize pools. This has been made possible by continued enthusiasm for the tour right across the region, with amazing levels of participation. As poker culture continues to grow in Asia Pacific and more extraordinary players emerge on the scene, they tell us how excited they are to match their skills against players from around the world to win the prestigious poker title of APPT Champion. We will continue bringing together vast numbers of poker players at many experience levels, giving them the greatest poker experiences, in some incredible places and constantly exceeding their expectations."

The PokerStars.net APPT will make stops in Seoul, Auckland and Cebu in the Philippines before moving on to Sydney for the Grand Final in December. Increased tournament capacities will enable the forthcoming tour to build on the success of Season 2 which attracted a total 1,772 players and created a total prize pool of $38,736,076.49 HKD ($4,998,268 USD). 

Last year, the best poker players from around the globe played at APPT events – including Team PokerStars Pros Joe Hachem, Lee Nelson, Isabelle Mercier, Barry Greenstein, Hevad Khan, Chad Brown and Player of the Year Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, as well as Johnny Chan, John Juanda, Scotty Nguyen, Grant Levy, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Eric Assadourian, Nam Le and  Liz Lieu.

 

DOJ Says New Jersey Governor Has No Standing

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The Department of Justice is opposing New Jersey Gov. Corzine joining the PASPA challenge as a plaintiff, saying he lacks the standing or interest to intervene. 

Corzine is working to get sports betting legalized in the state.

"The Constitutional claims that the Governor seeks to advance do not belong to him, they belong to the state of New Jersey," the DOJ claims in its Brief in Opposition.

He lacks a cognizable interest, the DOJ further asserts.

Corzine announced last month he would seek to intervene in support of a federal lawsuit filed by state Sen. Raymond Lesniak in an effort to overturn a federal ban on sports betting in New Jersey and 45 other states.

"The federal government’s prohibition on sports betting for some but not all states is fundamentally unfair," Governor Corzine said. "There should be uniformity in the application of federal law. If one state is allowed to legalize betting on sports events, all states should be allowed the same opportunity."

Since 1992, federal law has outlawed wagering on sports except in four states, Nevada, Montana, Oregon and Delaware. Last month, Delaware took advantage of its exemption in the federal law to legalize sports betting and table games at its three horse racing facilities.

Legalized sports betting in Delaware is a cause for concern within the gaming industry in New Jersey because it puts Atlantic City at a competitive disadvantage. Some estimates say as much as $10 billion could be bet on sports annually in New Jersey if such wagers were legal and could generate $100 million in tax revenue for the state.

Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher 

10% online casino bonus with 32 Red!

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After the introduction of Pay pal on 32Red as discussed in our previous article, 32 Red introduces PayPal they have announced a fantastic new promotion!

Until the end of July, 32Red in association with Pay pal are offering a 10% bonus on every casino deposit using the PayPal system. It’s not just for you casino newbie’s; existing customers can also take part in the great offer!

All you have to do is make a deposit of £10 or more using PayPal, then before you begin to play, make your way to the PayPal bonus claim page and they’ll instantly give you your 10% bonus of up to 250 free chips straight into your account!

So check out our site review and get down to 32 Red and get playing now!

Open Championship Betting (Best Odds)

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Gambling911.com believes the best Open Championship betting odds have come from Sportingbet.com, at least when comparing with their cousins across the big pond.

"I think you will find that Sportingbet.com on average pays about US$500 more than the US facing online sportsbooks with much of the field," observed Payton O’Brien, Senior Editor of Gambling911.com. 

The Open Championship has provided quite the traffic boost for Gambling911.com, especially when coupled with World Series of Poker coverage. 

"It’s going to be a long night as we have our staff providing nonstop coverage of both Open Championship betting and the World Series of Poker main event," said O’Brien.

While the WSOP will conclude sometime around midnight Wednesday, the 2009 Open Championship kicks off Thursday morning. 

"Much of the betting will take place over the next few hours," O’Brien points out.

Tiger Woods was listed as the favorite at Sportingbet, paying 5/2 odds, a quarter or more better than most online bookmakers.

Defending Open Championship winner, two years straight, Padraig Harrington, would pay out US$3300 for every US$100 bet at Sportingbet.

The Open Championship is one of the United Kingdom’s most bet on sporting events.

Sportingbet does not accept US citizens.   Those online sportsbooks that do accept US customers can be found here.

Alistair Prescott, Gambling911.com 

UFC 100 Draws Unusual Amount of Betting Action

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Earlier in the week, Gambling911.com featured a story on how Mixed Martial Arts and – more specifically UFC – betting could get hot.

Matt Youmans of the Las Vegas Review Journal spoke to a number of Las Vegas oddsmakers who claimed that, while the UFC continues to gain steam, it is probably less than 1 percent of Nevada’s overall sports betting handle.

Las Vegas Hilton sports book director Jay Kornegay called the 1 percent estimate mostly accurate but deceiving.

The Venetian sports book oddsmaker, Rob Akers, told the LVRJ that the demand for UFC betting events is growing.

"When we first started doing it, we were only putting up the main event. Now, every two or three weeks, we’re putting up five or six of the fights because the books are asking for more." Perhaps most important of all when it comes to MMA betting is the payout potential.

Gambling911.com hasn’t witnessed a whole lot of traffic related to UFC betting during recent events despite almost always enjoying some of the best rankings in search.

"It’s one of those things where you can just feel a breakout coming but it hasn’t happened just yet," says Gambling911.com Senior Editor, Payton O’Brien, who has monitored UFC betting traffic for some time now. 

UFC 100, which takes place this evening in Las Vegas, appears to be a whole different animal.

"We’re getting a whole lot more search traffic for UFC 100 betting odds than with any previous MMA event," O’Brien acknowledged.  "People are definitely looking for good numbers and preparing to bet on these events."

All of Gambling911.com’s sponsors were offering UFC betting odds, some featuring better payout odds on specific fights. 

"It’s somewhat unexpected to see this event performing as well as it is," O’Brien said. 

Online bookmakers are taking bets as small as $10 on UFC 100.  Some of the underdogs pay up to $400 for every $100 bet depending on the online sportsbook. 

While not Earth shattering, O’Brien estimates that UFC 100 betting traffic will be double that of previous UFC events. 

UFC 100 wagering compliments the action coming in on the 2009 British Open, which begins Thursday.  Other than that, American football (both NFL and College) bets don’t really start flowing in until August, thus making January one of the slowest betting months of the year both in the U.S. and worldwide. 

Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher

 

 

 

Party Gaming trading update: announces Italian poker site

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Online gambling group Party Gaming's agreement with Intralot SA three months ago to provide an Italian online poker operation came to fruition this week when the gambling group announced the launch of the new Intralot.it poker site. Following the receipt of certification from the Italian regulator, AAMS, the Intralot poker service is now being rolled out and will join Party’s Italian poker network.

While the group’s Italian poker network has only been operating a few weeks, with the expected introduction of poker cash games before the end of the year, the Board is hopeful that Italy will prove to be a profitable and exciting regulated online gaming market in the medium to long-term, the company said in a statement.

Party Gaming took the opportunity to additionally deliver a pre-close trading update, revealing that since 6 April 2009, revenues have remained robust and in line with that achieved in the first quarter of 2009.

Online casino revenue has shown a significant increase from the first quarter despite a fall in casino active player days due to seasonality and lower levels of cross-sell from poker. This revenue growth has been driven by the group’s main casino site, Party Casino, which accounts for over 70% of the Party group’s casino revenue. This operation continues to perform strongly on the back of a substantial increase in the number of games offered as well as the launch of a dedicated affiliate programme and major international marketing campaign, both of which commenced last month.

There has been a marginal reduction in active player days in the poker operations compared with Q1, but this due to the summer months in Europe, where online activities are quieter. Rivals who continue to offer poker to US clients continue to provide very strong competition. The company reports that its enhanced player loyalty programme, improved player promotions and a new offline marketing campaign saw each of these metrics improve last month. As a result of these initiatives, poker yields have been softer than in the first quarter due to increased bonus and player loyalty costs, resulting in a reduction in poker revenue versus the first quarter.

Sports betting revenue was down on the previous quarter, reflecting a reduction in betting volume due to the end of the season for European football, which remains the single most popular sport for betting customers.

Whilst bingo is currently small in the context of the Party group, management says that it believes it represents a significant opportunity with the global online bingo market estimated at $1.5 billion per annum. The B2B deals signed over the past few months with CIRSA, DM plc and Channel 5 are expected to benefit bingo revenues during the fourth quarter of 2009.

Party appears to see the recent New York US Attorney’s seizure of online poker funds with US e-processors as an opportunity to take players away from the US-facing poker rooms, and it has increased its marketing spend in certain territories.

Whilst this has already had a positive impact on player numbers, it is also expected to lead to distribution costs being slightly higher than the firm’s previous full year guidance of 38-40% of net revenue. However, continued cost savings and favourable currency movements have meant that lower staff and overhead costs have mitigated the increase in marketing costs and consequently, clean EBITDA margins for both the half year and the full year results are still expected to be in line with that achieved for the full year in 2008.

The group’s interim results will be announced on 28 August 2009.

Jim Ryan, Party Gaming’s CEO said: “The Group’s strategy remains on-track and I am pleased that many of the seeds we have sown over the past year are now beginning to bear fruit.

“The improvements to our poker product and loyalty programme, the addition of Intralot to our Italian poker network and the launch this week of bingo and casino facilities for DM plc are clear examples of this. We look forward to the rest of the year with confidence.”

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