US$ 90 million deal clinched on San Francisco company

The big story this week started with whispers that the major land casino slots manufacturer IGT was in discussions with gambling software developer WagerWorks on a US $90 million cash purchase merger.

Within days the speculation was confirmed, with the deal scheduled for completion before the end of August 2005.

WagerWorks recently opened a London office, staffing it with some senior people in what was believed to be part of a strategy to float on the London Stock Exchange, and it is unknown how this will be affected. The company has pursued a policy of not accepting bets from US players, which leaves it with clean hands from a US legal standpoint.

The company has a good working relationship with IGT, having provided software for some of the latter's slot machines despite its more usual business line of software and support for online casino and poker operators outside the USA.

Analysts said WagerWorks' policy of working exclusively in jurisdictions that permit Internet gambling and avoiding companies that offer play in the United States should enable IGT to dodge any regulatory problems.

"This acquisition gives IGT a foothold in Internet gaming without worry about jeopardizing its gaming licenses, since WagerWorks does work for only licensed and regulated sites," said Eric Hausler, a gaming analyst for Susquehanna Financial Group, in a note to investors.

"Internet gambling continues to explode in popularity driven by the proliferation of poker," Hausler said. "We see it more as a vertical play with longer-term accretive implications, although we see IGT more as a back-end supplier and content provider than interested in going into competition against brick-and-mortar customers. We see the acquisition as strategic, not transformational, given a myriad of regulatory issues surrounding mobile or Internet gaming, which may or may not get solved over time."

WagerWorks products power major online casino and poker operations in the UK like Virgin Games and Get Minted, together with Blue Square, Skybet and Paddy Power. It was also recently selected to power up the WPT poker site.

IGT has deep pockets, being a leading company in the US gaming industry - it recently reported results for the quarter ended June 2005 that showed a net income of US$ 114.7 million.

Players can choose bonus benefactors with the innovative Cashville

Online gambling software provider Microgaming’s July 2005 new game releases include a 50 Power Play Poker VP, and three feature-rich video slots with widely diverse themes.

This month’s flagship is a unique and highly entertaining 5 reel, 20 payline video slot that oozes wealth and the high life. Cashville has it all and then some. Wild and Scatter symbols, Free Spins, a double your money Gamble feature and for the first time a choice of 4 entertaining and rewarding bonus benefactors. The result is an impressive range of thrills and excitement packed into a major game with serious and varied reward potential.

Using a rich colour palette and the latest graphic design techniques and gaming technology, the theme introduces a variety of amusing bonus symbols and personalities, including oil baron Bill Bullion and a choice of oil rigs, the blue rinsed Dame Von Deeds with her tempting property portfolio, a suave Sir Sterling with his many bulging bank vaults and the extraordinary art collection of blonde widow Betty Boodle. Enhancing the monetary theme further are gilt-edged share certificates, Havana cigars, priceless jewelry and lots of lovely greenbacks.

In keeping with the overall ambience of wealth and success, the maximum jackpot on this game is a tempting 500 000 coins or 100 000 in currency, and lucky players could add another 9 000 in currency to that through the bonus feature.

In last month’s releases Microgaming introduced the Golden Goose bonusing program with 2 of an intended 4 new slots using the innovative concept. In a remarkably short time the Golden Goose Bonus seems to have enjoyed a positive reception from the player community, encouraging the company to launch the third game in the series called Genie’s Gems. With magic lamps and a generous genie this entertaining 5 reel, 20 payline, 10 coin game, with Wild and Scatter symbols, a Free Spin Bonus Feature, and a Gamble feature will have wide appeal delivering plenty of entertainment.

For an additional wager of five coins per spin, players have the option to activate the Golden Goose bonuses...creating more chances to win significant rewards.

Mythical household critters have nibbled their way through the graphics in the fun third slot in the July releases, branded Munchkins, a 5 reel, 15 payline video slot that boasts win-boosting Wild and Scatter symbols, a very generous x20 Free Spin Bonus Feature....and a chance for player to double their money on the popular Gamble screen.

The new game takes a light-hearted look at the folklore surrounding the tiny gluttons, which are mythical creatures of the night who eat everything from missing car keys and lost socks to mysteriously disappearing homework books.

Final game in the latest tranche is 50 Play Power Poker Deuces and Jokers, the latest in a series of 6 gamestyles that Microgaming is offering in this popular VP genre that offers fast action and big jackpots paying up to 120 000.

In Deuces and Joker every hand is dealt from a separate and independent deck of 53 cards instead of the normal 52 cards. The extra card is a Joker and is a wild card and substitutes for all cards to complete a winning hand. The Deuces in the deck are wild and substitute for any card to complete a winning hand. The Deuces are cards with a face value of 2.

When a Deuces or Joker card is dealt, a suit and denotation are automatically assigned to the card giving the player the highest possible payout for the hand.

Deuces and Joker 50 Play Power VP operates on the peerless Viper software platform, where in addition to autohold, the analyser tables give guidance on current odds and cover permutations to help gamblers make the right decision - a valuable player tool that enables faster and more accurate play

With razor sharp, clean and lean graphics allied to generous pay tables, it is likely that this new 50 Play game will feature high on the play lists of most VP fans.

ubet2win has British and Irish backing

British and Irish bookie group ubet2win could be moving into the online casino and poker sector once it has completed next week's debut on the London AIM stock market.

The company has raised around GBP 239 000 via a public offer at 3.5p a share, more than double the original GBP 100 000 expected, valuing the business at nearly GBP 5.5 million, thanks to the positive sentiment on gambling stocks following PartyGaming’s high profile big listing last month, with its shares up almost 40 percent in four weeks.

Discussions have reportedly taken place with online poker providers with a view to setting up a poker gaming site, with an online casino also anticipated in the future. ubet2win says that something like 6 percent of UK horse racing bets are now placed online.

But the Indians say no way....

InfoPowa's recent report on the ingenious ploy by Foxwoods land casino to introduce interaction over the Internet with its customers had a sequel early this week when State regulators ordered it to shut down the "PlayAway" promotion saying it violated Internet gambling laws and illegally expanded gambling off the Indian reservation.

The casino, among the world's largest, markets its "PlayAway" promotion as a way to play slots and card games from home, although all financial and win-lose decisions take place within the reservation and on the Foxwood premises.

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Gaming Commission said that it was reviewing a letter from the state Division of Special Revenue.

Following a meeting with Attorney General Richard Blumenthal the tribe stood its ground, saying its activites were legal.

"Nothing the player does from his computer can in any way impact on the outcome of the game, the results of which have already been determined by a computerised drawing at Foxwoods," the tribe said in a statement released Wednesday.

PlayAway allows gamblers to put their money down at Foxwoods, then check results online. The casino argues that it isn't Internet gambling because all the betting is done at Foxwoods.

"We certainly understand the argument," Blumenthal said, "but it is clearly contradicted by their own marketing for the game."

Blumenthal said the game was a magnet for minors.

"This game has to stop," he said.

By midweek further grounds for banning the game had emerged, principally that it had not been submitted for approval by the regulators.

More state officials were commenting, as Foxwoods stood by its intention to launch the game and a confrontation seemed inevitable with both sides making strong statements.

Towards the end of the week a more conciliatory tone had set in, and Foxwoods had held discussions with the regulators, although as we went to press no firm outcome was apparent.

Poker site
We've reported on the Full House Entertainment company out of Curacao previously as the company developed its exclusive poker software. This recently led to the launch of Poker Round.com, a fresh contender in the competitive online poker field and capable of hosting an unlimited number of tables and customers.

Pokeround delivers 24-hour non-stop and fully supported poker action against real players from all over the globe, with a selection of 5 games including Five Card Stud, Texas Hold’em, Omaha High/Low, Seven Card Stud High/Low and Five Card Draw.

The site was designed with the player experience front-of-mind and features easy to navigate lobby systems, crisp graphics and intuitive betting commands, all safely behind a 128 bit encryption regime and effective proprietary collusion detection software.

Management plans include hosting tournaments that have unique and significant prize winnings.

Sportsbook launch

Also from Curacao, Mercury Sports N.V., has launched Upunt.com, a new sportsbook operating on the Spherical Gaming platform.

With online sport-betting at an all time high, Upunt players have the opportunity to use the site to bet on a wide variety of sports including Soccer, Horse Racing, Tennis, Golf, Cycling, Motor Racing, Rugby, Cricket, and Props.

The site promises fast and secure betting transactions along with a variety of deposit options, and manager Bill Thomas says that full player privacy confidentiality is guaranteed.

No cash money involved in North Carolina poker tournaments

Media advertising for online gambling companies in the USA is not the only sector that has come under attack from the authorities, it appears...and there's a company out there that, like online gambling portal Casino City is prepared to challenge the activities of law enforcement agencies.

Charlotte-based 5th Street Entertainment LLC has launched litigation against five North Carolina law enforcement agencies for declaring that land poker tournaments run with prizes but no cash money is illegal.

The company, which organises poker tournaments, said that law enforcement agencies have prejudiced its business by declaring the games illegal and warning that restaurants or bars that host them could lose their state liquor licenses. The tournaments have been forced to stop awarding prizes as a consequence.

Company attorney William Bunting claims that: " North Carolina's gambling statute requires that something of value be bet in order to be considered gambling. This is merely a game people get together and play."

Opposition party politicians quiz government

The Turkish politicians were at loggerheads again this week over the question of enforcement of the law concerning online gambling.

Turkish media reports claim that the authorities are experiencing enforcement problems due to the offshore nature of some thirty Turkish language gambling websites...and the Justice and Development political opposition party is riding the government hard on the issue.

Last week opposition spokesman Ertugrul Yalcinbayir claimed that an increasing rate of virtual gambling existed in the country and submitted a list of questions to Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu.

The questions included "What means can prevent our people from gambling? What is the economic size of online and other kinds of gambling in Turkey? Does Turkey have the power to prevent online gambling? What kinds of precautions can be taken?"

Aksu said in his reply that online gambling and lotteries are illegal and therefore legal action will be taken where possible against these sites upon detection. The Ministry has issued directives to prevent online gambling and new investigations on the issue are on the way, he reported.

Aksu said that The Ministry cannot prevent online gambling sites as their roots are outside Turkey and in countries where online gambling is not illegal. However, Turkish officials would be contacting the hosting companies of these sites to demand that they are not be made available online in Turkey.

The feds respond

Casino City's challenge to the U.S. Department of Justice entered the next phase this week as the latter responded to Casino Citys appeal against a district court decision preventing it from being heard.

Casino City had earlier challenged the activities of the DoJ, which had been advising US media that accepting advertising from online gambling companies was illegal. There have been no prosecutions, but this resulted in significant losses as media and search engines backed away from such a risk and denied advertising space.

Legal representatives for Casino City used the freedom of speech provisions of the US Constitution in arguments before a district court, asking for a declaratory judgement. The company lost this first round when the court found in favour of the federal authorities, who claimed that because it had not been one of those companies directly addressed with a warning, CC had no standing to contest the issue.

Casino City then appealed to a higher court, and this week the DoJ filed its response, using the same grounds and seeking to have the appeal dismissed by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

As we went to press, Casino City remained determined to press its case, and was preparing a riposte to the DoJ brief.

16 000 players to vie for GBP 10 000 grand prize

Starting last Friday, one of the top providers of skill gaming, GameAccount.com is offering a tournament of note to players across 130 countries.

Claimed as the world’s largest Solitaire tournament, with a grand prize of GBP10,000 attracting an estimated 16,000 players, the competition format is 14 rounds of the popular card game 'Pyramid Panic.'

With minimum outlay and a good chance of reward, the tournament has a GBP 1 for each entry. Players may enter as many times as they may wish to improve their chances. The tournament is structured to offer ever increasing prizes with each round, and players have to beat 14 opponents to win the grand prize.

Kevin O’Neal, Marketing Director at GameAccount, the tournament is just the beginning of a significant campaign to take the skill games market to new heights.

“We intend to make remote skill gaming the new poker,” said O’Neal. “By the end of the year we plan to launch the first GBP 100,000 skill gaming tournament, which will generate attention and boost the position of skill games in the online sector.”

Skill gaming has been rapidly maturing in player size, revenues and cash prizes over the last 3 years; GameAccount paid out over GBP 1 million in cash winnings in June this year alone. The pioneering skill gaming provider has reported that next generation games and knockout tournaments are increasing average stakes and lifetime customer value.

'Forthcoming attractions' via videostreaming

The movie industry has been doing it for years - publicising its new offerings by short "trailer" movies to boost interest and attendances...now the concept has been extended to online gambling.

The Stan James.com site has introduced a 90 second daily presentation advising users of the offers, markets and features available at the sportsbook and across the companys growing casino, poker and gamesroom channels.

Developed by Dublin-based media production company, SonicArt, the technique has been possibly by technology improvements in compression and streaming, says SonicArt director Neil Walsh.

“It’s a very digestible way for a company to get information across to their consumers,” he says. “The majority of websites have only textual content in place to inform their customers, but now a site user can sit back and get up to speed with audio visual presentations full of calls to action and corporate branding.”

Content can include visuals, voiceovers, background music and animated text, and the feature is accessible on dial up connections as well as broadband.

And that upcoming acquisition could be a sportsbook...

In a recent InfoPowa bulletin we reported on World Gaming's rising share price and the companys intention to take on additional licensees and make acquisitions. It now transpires that the acquisition target is a medium sized sportsbook, and discussions are in progress with at least two potential candidates according to reliable industry sources.

The firm has revealed the identities of two new licensees in the form of Field Goal.com and Go Sportsbet.com. The announcement additionally advises that as part of one of these agreements it will license its rights to several of its proprietary domain names, including Gambling.net.

World Gaming has come through some tough times and hefty restructuring in recent years, largely inherited through the old Starnet group that it replaced. The turnaround strategy of head honcho Daniel Moran seems to be working admirably, with increasingly positive corporate reports emanating from the London-listed company.

Shell company now shows its hand

Sportswinbet listed earlier this year under a blanket objective of investing, acquiring, developing or agglomerating companies in the online gaming sector, and this week it showed its hand in revealing plans for an Asian-facing sportsbook based in the Channel Isles jurisdiction of Alderney.

After raising GBP 3 million on the exchange with a market capitalisation of GBP 28.5 million, the company established an egaming subsidiary and applied for an Alderney licence together with a hosting deal with Cable and Wireless. Hardware and software deals with undisclosed parties have also been clinched, laying the foundations for a sportsbook, probably Asian-facing as a result of meetings with several potential Asian partners.

If all comes to fruition, the resultant sportsbook would become the second Asian-focused operation of this nature to set up shop in Alderney. Asian-owned bookmaker SAMVO, which plans to operate an international football and basketball site, has an electronic betting licence from the island jurisdiction.

ex-Carmen Media men could make a difference

Despite a rather disquieting sell-off by one of its biggest shareholders, BetonSports remains bullish on its future, with a dynamic management partnership involving ex-Carmen Media men shaping up.

Based in Costa Rica, but with the US gambler clearly in its sights, BetonSports is predicting a rise in profits for the first half of this year, and there has been a noticeable change in corporate strategy evidenced by major investment in online marketing spend. The advertising and marketing budget is set at a substantial $14.4 million, and over $10 million of this has already been committed. The company will publish its report in October 2005.

Making things happen with this marketing war chest is the recently recruited William Griffiths as marketing director. This experienced executive worked closely with the new BetonSports operations director Clive Archer during his time at the Carmen Media online casino group.

Another new arrival is Scott Waller as Chief Technical Officer. He will have his hands full with a reported complete software upgrade scheduled for early 2006. The company has also reiterated that it is in the market for acquisitions, although the going rate for worthwhile buys is inflated at present, fuelled by the successful flotation of Party Gaming in the sector.

The recent sell off of a major part of its shares by BetonSport's largest shareholder, Boulder Overseas Corporation had a disquieting effect. Boulder sold GBP 28.75 million worth of it's 43 percent holding, although it retains an interest of 15.46 percent of BetonSports.

This journalist is looking for the negative....

Readers will be familiar with the mainstream media penchant for tragic gambling addiction stories, and it appears from an email sent out by a leading women's publication this week that this is a desirable element in a gambling story....for some.

A researcher or journalist called Laura at "Marie Claire Ideas @ IPC Media.com" sent the email, and this is what she had to say:

"My name is Lauren and I am writing on behalf of the women's magazine Marie Claire. Currently we are try to write a feature on women gambler winners.

"So far we have the potential for three pieces on poker, internet poker and the horses. We are now just trying to find an example of a winner from internet games such as Jackpot joy.

"Preferably, to make the story more interesting, we are also looking for this candidate to be a sufferer of gambling addiction.

"If you have any ideas or leads that might aid me in finding the right person could you please get in touch asap for the matter is quite urgent. I would really appreciate it!"

Well, here's one idea - an even handed approach that looks at the many positive things happening in online gambling.

Belle Rock Gaming redirecting poker traffic to premier site

It looked like the end of the road this week for the Prima network site Lucky Nugget poker room.

Belle Rock Gaming was advising affiliates that traffic would be re-directed to their flagship poker room at The Gaming Club.com, another member of the network.

The advisory said that "Belle Rock Gaming is consolidating all its poker brands into one strong, phenomenal brand. One brand means more control, better customer service and improved player retention."

It went on to advise that the change will ensure that all players are carefully looked after, leading to increased play and extended player lifetimes.

All current Lucky Nugget poker room players will be able to continue their game play without disruption. If players click onto either text links or banners, they will be automatically redirected through to a new home page that will then prompt them to click through to The Gaming Club Online Poker Room.

The change will not effect affiliate commissions in any way and systems are in place to track players through to The Gaming Club.

In fact, says Belle Rock, this is good news for affiliates because they will only have one major poker brand on which to focus player retention efforts, giving them better control. And for the players, this is apparently an improvement too, as they will probably find the bigger online poker environment more attractive.

A collective voice for poker players

With an estimated 50 million or more online and land poker players in the United States alone, and the phenomenal popularity of the game on a global scale, it is not surprising that the need for a unifying body for poker players is being discussed.

This week Poker News interviewed the latest manifestation of that need - the recently launched National Poker Association (myNPA.org)

Located in Franklin, Tennessee but with big ambitions to embrace all poker players, the NPA has apparently already been able to procure some excellent benefits for members and has growing appeal for players at a very reasonable cost ( a one year membership costs $25).

President Wes Parker said that the organisation may be moving to the more appropriate location of Las Vegas within the next year. The NPA, he told Poker News is designed for the everyday poker player and would like to become the lobbying group for poker players everywhere, expanding the game. By being "...a forceful lobby for the game of poker, we hope to have an impact in that area, among others, including legislation," he said.

Another key objective is to secure favourable discounts and other benefits for NPA members, and good progress has been made in partnering with many companies resulting in travel, hotel and car rental deals. The committee is also investigating insurance possibilities for players.

Parker says one of the difficulties faced by the NPA has been informing the massive poker playing public about their aims and organisation, although the NPA has been listed on Google.

"We are looking for the grassroots player, much like the USGA does with golf," he says. "We want to represent everyone who plays the game, not just the big names in the sport or the professional players.

"Poker is mainstream America now, not just in the backrooms and the shadows anymore. As our membership and the sport grows, we will have a more powerful voice to be able to have an effect on the matters that are affecting players in the sport today."

Another, and perhaps more structured, if parochial organisation is the United States Poker Association (Foruspa.org) which has more of a trade association flavour and has various programs designed to meet specific industry requirements:

Establish, in close conjunction with the tournament directors, a uniform set of rules for the competitive play of the game.

Develop grass-roots support for legalisation of poker rooms in those areas that currently prohibit them.

Facilitate discussions among parties interested in expanding competitive event revenues for all participants.

Establish policies and procedures for the endorsement of poker rooms and casino card rooms.

Establish uniform standards for internet poker rooms to assure consistent and fair play.

Conduct educational seminars for the general public to promote the expansion of competitive play.

Favourable sentiment makes this a good time.

Speculation is rife that Ultimate Bet is warming up for a GBP 200 million flotation in the near future, hoping to emulate the positive effects of a London listing experienced by Party Gaming and Empire Online.

Operator Excapsa has engaged Canadian brokerage experts Canaccord Capital to consult on a possible listing, hoping to raise at least GBP 30 million that would give it a market cap between GBP 145 million and GBP 200 million.

Launched five years ago, Ultimate Bet claims to be the seventh largest site in the booming online poker sector and has a gaming licence from the Kahnawake enclave near Montreal in Canada. It has recently launched in the UK under the Ultimate Poker brand.

CEO Jim Ryan will continue to head the company.

Tragic end for a talented young man

Craig Levin (31), who founded Gambling.com with his father, Graeme died tragically in a car accident last Friday July 22nd.

Widely known and popular within the online gambling industry, he was at one time Chief Technology Officer of what became the best known and most frequented Internet gambling portal in the business, which his father headed until it was sold in a management buy-out.

The company was recently purchased by UK-based Gaming Corporation in a $20 million deal.

Following the first sale of Gambling.com 18 months ago, Craig continued his successful involvement in the management of the portal backend and was active in developing Bingo interests.

His funeral took place earlier this week in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The InfoPowa partners extend their sympathy and condolences to Graeme and the family on this sad loss of a talented and likeable young man.

Real Time Gaming announces fix for flawed game, and is "researching" player compensation

The short paying of players on the RTG "Caribbean 21" game across a range of online casinos had a sequel this week when the turnkey provider issued an official statement on the issue.

Titled "RealTime release fix for blackjack 'bug', " the statement said that ythe provider had sorted out the problem and was now researching the extent of the prejudice to players and appropriate compensation.

Representatives from RealTime Gaming announced the delivery of a new patch for the blackjack game, designed to fix the short paying error discovered in the latest release of their online casino software.

Delivered to RTG-licensed operators on July 15, 2005, the patch rectifies a program "bug " that was discovered in the blackjack component of the online casino software.

The bug came into play when some blackjack players were in a bonus-balance play mode and then split aces. In these limited instances, wager values may not have been logged correctly, resulting in possible failure to reward some players correctly for winning plays.

RealTime Gaming personnel and RTG operators are currently researching and compiling each instance where the problem may have occurred, and promise full player restitution in cases of program error, with payouts coming as early as next week.

"We are committed to helping to set everything right with each and every RTG player, and are very thankful for their patience," said recently appointed RTG CEO Michael McMain. "Thus far, most of the players have been very understanding."

McMain went on to reassure players and operators that the bug was an isolated wager calculation fault and in no way had anything to do with the TST Certified Random Number Generator that powers the RTG platform. "Sooner or later, you are going to have a bug to deal with," says McMain, who was formerly the companys head technical executive. "Luckily, this is one we caught early, and we will be able to make things right for every player affected."

Players on leading fora viewed RTG's claim that the bug was confined to bonus play with sceptism, pointing out that there were instances where it had been encountered outside this area of play, too. The Caribbean 21 game was at the centre of a major furore last year when an RTG licensee refused to pay out a massive win on the game by a player. Eventually a settlement for an undisclosed amount was reached through mediation.

With half a million players, can this ancient game emulate the success of online poker?

Earlier this year there were reports of new online backgammon sites launching, using the tournament marketing model that has worked so well for Internet poker properties. This week Curacao-licensed True Money Games.com entered the fray with some impressive claims.

The company said that online backgammon could be the next big thing to follow internet poker, with growing numbers of online gamblers now playing the game.

Pierre Egger of True Money, which sponsored the Backgammon World Championships held earlier this month in Monte Carlo says, "Backgammon is now a popular alternative to online poker. Since 2004 we have seen the number of registrations on our backgammon server double to almost 40,000, and there are more than 500,000 people now playing online backgammon globally."

On Monday this week, Dennis Carlston (USA) won the 2005 Backgammon World Championships taking home over US$ 100 000. Total prize money for the tournament amounted to more than US$ 320 000, and the pot is expected to rise sharply in 2006 as interest in the game escalates.

In a landmark first, the final match between Carlston and John O'Hagan (USA), was watched live on True Money Games.com by backgammon fans around the world.

The match was automatically analysed in real-time by Snowie, the world's most respected Backgammon software-based Artificial Intelligence, developed by Snowie Group.

Originating in Mesopotamia in Persian times, backgammon is one of the world's oldest and best known games, and in many parts of the world it is significantly more popular than poker. Backgammon has been played on the internet since 1993.

Major table tournament will have a prize chest of GBP 450 000

The Interactive Gaming Council this week seemed to be taking a wide interest in e-commerce matters generally by appealing to all members of the public who may have carried out any kind of financial transaction over the internet to participate in an online survey.

Prepared by Rohan Miller, a professor at the University of Sydney (Australia) School of Business, the survey seeks to draw significant conclusions about the confidence that consumers have, or the lack thereof, in e-commerce sites.

Described as a 5 to 15 minute undertaking, would be participants are asked to click through to http://asr3.com/sm/login.asp?anom=112x1x1. No individual participants will be identifiable, and the results will be published in the academic literature. Approved by the ethics committee of the University of Sydney, the survey went live on 11 July 2005 and will continue for a month.

The IGC has underwritten the cost of the survey with money from one of its members.

One series of questions in the survey deals with disputes between e-commerce sites and consumers. Respondents are asked, for example, to rate the importance of third-party dispute resolution. This is a crucial issue, Dr. Miller said, because Internet consumers often do not have ready nor affordable access to the legal system that protects them from much of the risk involved in traditional, real-world transactions.

IGC executive director Rick Smith said the survey results could assist in establishing a best practice for the resolution of player disputes. He and Miller said the knowledge gleaned from the survey could help any e-commerce business reduce the perceptions of risk entailed in conducting transactions at its site.

The IGC has also been strengthening its Code of Conduct, which all members are obligated to follow. At its meeting last month, the IGC board approved the first revisions to the code in five years.

The new code states that, to ensure fairness, operators of online games should have each game's performance "...analysed by an independent, qualified person on a regular basis."

It requires members to implement anti-money laundering procedures, and directs them to use age and identity verification services as part of their efforts to prevent access to their sites by minors. The code also states that members agree to the IGC performing checks on their compliance with the code.

Pago 2005 report has some startling revelations...

The Interactive Gaming Council might want to look at the latest Pago Report for 2005 in its efforts to research e-commerce payment issues (see earlier InfoPowa report)

Reuters reports that the eagerly awaited report highlights new and surprising insights into European e-commerce.

One of the key findings: consumer purchasing and payment behaviour patterns and non-payment risks vary widely in the e-commerce industry sectors analysed.

Pago Report 2005 is based on the analysis of around 20 million real-life purchase transactions processed through the Pago platform in 2004. Entitled "Success and risk factors in international E-payment" the Cologne based payment service provider has published its fourth comprehensive annual study of e-commerce, claiming it is the only investigation into online business practice that uses statistical analysis of real purchase transactions instead of relying on polls and surveys.

The range of payment methods includes Visa and MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club, JCB, Switch/Solo as well as locally used direct debit methods.

Five sectors now at the forefront of e-commerce dominate the Pago report:

* E-retailing (online sale of tangible goods)
* Online Gambling (casino and card games, sports and other betting, lotteries)
* Pharmacy / e-health (online sale of drugs, medicines and other healthcare products)
* Telecommunication services
* Travel

The analyses considered purchase transactions in European online shops by consumers from Germany, the UK, and the rest of Europe as well as from countries outside Europe. Although the credit card clearly remains the most important and most popular payment method in general, German consumers have increasingly turned to direct debit payment. 64 percent of German consumers selected this payment method, an increase of 5 percent points from 2003.

Trends in European online gambling were very surprising too. Until now most experts believed online gambling to be risky for consumers and that online gambling providers were often the victims of credit card fraud. The figures prove otherwise.

Online gambling had the lowest credit card chargebacks, which are often generated when fraudulent credit card data is used. Only 0.26 percent of online gambling transactions led to chargebacks whereas the overall average chargeback rate in e-commerce stood at 0.83 percent.

At first glance, this figure looks only slightly different from a year ago. But whereas the chargeback rate for German consumers has decreased by 50 percent, it has increased some 200 percent for customers from other European countries.

All in all, effective fraud prevention - especially in credit card payment - remains one of the key factors for successful e-commerce businesses.

"Despite the fact that there was only slight growth in European e-commerce last year," Pago boss Ruediger Trautmann explains, "the trend towards more reliability and trustworthiness in online trading will gather pace."

Pago was founded in 1999 and is a Deutsche Bank AG and Beisheim Holding Schweiz AG company, offering its services through a global partner network.

And "Rick" rides off into the sunset (we hope)

Last week's fora furore over the behaviour of "Rick Scott" from Crown Vegas online casino in insulting players and trying to buy a probably illegal database for marketing spam had leading fora white hot this week, too.

Posting as "Tony @ Crown Vegas" an individual claiming to be one of the real owners of the online casino tried to cool the situation down by claiming that "Rick" had no authority to post as he was a dismissed junior employee who had somehow retained his casino emailing priveleges.

There was considerable doubt regarding this due to the energetic efforts "Rick" had put in to promote the interests of a company that claimed he had been let go, but in the absence of proof to the contrary the uproar finally died down, leaving Crown Vegas with a less than shiny image.

The important thing, however was that players had been warned about the attempted database purchase...and so had any would-be sellers of illegal player databases.

Plenty of software business experience here

Gord Herman, CEO of the Neteller plc online financial processing company named Ronald Martin the group's new Chief Operating Officer based on the Isle of Man this week.

Martin has worked in managerial positions for a number of software firms, including FirstService.com and JobAdvantage.com, and joins the Neteller executive team from GloboForce Ltd.

Herman said that Martin would be a welcome addition to the executive team, which is focused on global expansion and continued business growth.

He also announced that the internationally respected international auditors KPMG LLC had been contracted by Neteller for independent audit purposes.

Another Crypto connection as Harvey Solursh is appointed a director

The skills gaming company originally started by Cryptologic founder Andrew Rifkin, London listed FUN Technologies Inc., enjoyed a dynamic second quarter ended June 30 this year, judging by results published this week.

Highlights included:

* Consolidated revenue up 55 percent from Q1 2005 to GBP 2.3 million
* Subsidiary SkillJam revenues up 29 percent from Q1 2005
* Don Best revenues up by 77percent over Q1 2005, with strong cash generation
* Positive EBITDA for FUN of GBP 62 000, a milestone in the company's progress
* SkillJam signed new licensees including Inspired Broadcast Networks, AirMedia and LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation, and its registered users passed the 8 million mark.
* Acquisition of Fanball Interactive, LLC ("Fanball") completed for GBP 6.7 million.
* Agreements with eBay, Virgin Games and a leading U.S. cable operator

Lorne Abony, FUN's CEO, commented, "Revenue at all of FUN's operating businesses continues to grow strongly. This was also a very significant quarter for us as it was the first quarter in the Company's short history in which we generated positive EBITDA. We believe that revenue growth and EBITDA are appropriate indicators of the company's operating performance at this time. Accordingly, we intend to focus significantly on our performance in these areas."

Regarding Betbull.com, in which FUN was involved with the Austrian public company Bet & Win, Abony said that his goal was to focus the company's resources on those businesses which management believes have the greatest potential for long-term growth.

Consequently, FUN has decided to exit the operating portion of the exchange betting business. Management believes that the effect of this decision to discontinue exchange betting operations will positively impact the group's operating performance. At this time, FUN will maintain its 24.6 percent ownership position in Betbull.

SkillJam delivered a particularly good performance with a record total of nine distribution agreements signed during the second quarter. Many of these agreements will introduce skill games to new distribution channels, including free-standing gaming kiosks, interactive television and wireless applications.

The report included the news that Harvey Solursh, a longtime director at Cryptologic, has been appointed to the FUN Technology board.

FUN is a public company, incorporated in England and Wales, and is listed on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange.

Online gambling creates additional interest

The U.K. company GB Group is experiencing a welcome boost to its verification business as online gambling companies look for reliable services, and identity theft causes growing concern.

The Chester - based firm's data-checking products provide postcode and house number information, and details gleaned from driving licences, the electoral roll, utility bills, BT registers and other sources to cross check and provide verification.

This helps companies verify customers' details over the phone or internet, without having to go through the time-consuming process of requesting documentary proof.

ID fraud is thought to affect one in 10 people and cost the economy more than GBP 1.3 billion a year, constituting a major growth area for GB Group.

Gaming website operators such as Betfair, 888.com and PartyGaming are also helping the group hit the jackpot. They use its software to guard against underage players and expose fraudsters.

Heading the group is Richard Law, an accountant who dipped his toe in the corporate finance world by advising PhoneLink, a business information company on a public listing that raised GBP 12 million. He subsequently joined the company in 1993 as financial controller, becoming finance director 2 years later.

The business, which was renamed Telme, had 275 staff and sales of GBP 5 million at its peak but by 1998 was losing money. It was, however, cash rich and made a GBP 9 million swoop in 1998 for GB Group, which in Richard's words was an "...uninteresting but good quality, profitable business" selling postcode and house number information to call centres.

When he became chief executive in December 2001, the group's share price had slid to a rock-bottom 4.5p in the wake of the dotcom debacle.

"We knew we had to find a new market to use our core technology to grow our business and give it an exciting future," Law says.

A big breakthrough came in Manchester. He said: "At the time, the trams in Manchester were suffering from fraud at the hands of passengers who did not buy tickets.

"When challenged, they were giving false details to inspectors and fines were not being paid.

"We provided postcode and other personal information which was loaded on to the inspectors' handheld computers and enabled them to verify details given to them. There was a big deterrent effect and fraud was dramatically reduced."

GB Group also started supplying the Criminal Record Bureau with data- verification facilities, as it grappled with a backlog of checks on school caretakers and teachers.

Last year GB Group teamed up with BT for a joint venture, URU, which is enjoying rapid expansion. It enables subscribers to verify identities and ages, performing layer upon layer of checks ranging from phone numbers to mortality registers - fraudsters commonly adopt the identity of dead people.

So far, 66 companies have signed up to the service, ranging from mobile phone providers to online gaming operators.

Last year, GB Group's investment in URU meant its annual losses widened to GBP 242 000 but brokers are forecasting profits of GBP 1 million by 2007.

Law is now looking to expand the business overseas."There's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip but we are working to take the business global," he says.

Poker group successfully sues in defending its brand

There was a clear message in a press release from WPT Enterprises, Inc. this week - the company will continue to successfully defend its intellectual property against all comers.

The creator of the World Poker Tour television show has scored a number of intellectual property litigation victories in recent months, reflecting an aggressive and determined strategy toward intellectual property protection against infringers in order to safeguard and enhance its valuable brands and image.

WPTE General Counsel Adam Pliska revealed several recent outcomes, saying: "World Poker Tour is a globally recognisable brand, and we will aggressively police the misuse of our intellectual property. WPTE will protect its brands and goodwill to sustain the loyalty of our poker fans, television viewers and consumers."

Working closely with its outside counsel, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, and the firm's Intellectual Property practice group in Southern California, WPTE has prevailed in IP matters against a number of defendants, and the list makes for interesting reading:

• Ultimate Poker Challenge TV Show – Copyright and trademark infringement for use of WPTE footage and for superimposing the Ultimate Poker Challenge mark over the World Poker Tour mark.

• 5thstreet.proboards39.com – Copyright infringement of four WPT episodes, posted for "Bit Torrent" downloads.

• Playworldpokertour.net – Trademark domain name infringement matter.

• WagerLogic Ltd. – Trademark infringement relating to four trademark applications filed in Canada (Interpoker World Poker Tour, Wagerlogic World Poker Tour, Interpoker World Poker Tournament, and Wagerlogic World Poker Tournament).

• Mid-Ohio Super Satellite No Limit Championship – Trademark infringement relating to the tournament being falsely billed as an official WORLD POKER TOUR satellite tournament.

• World Poker Productions, Inc. - Trademark infringement for use of a name and a poker-related website, and in connection with the sale of instructional poker videos.

• Wpt.cl and Worldpokertour.cl – Trademark domain name infringement in Chile.

"WPTE has taken action in these cases and secured agreeable settlements and/or court-ordered injunctive relief in order to avoid confusion among poker players, to prevent the proliferation of unauthorized 'knock-off' merchandise, and to protect against the dilution of and harm to its valuable copyrighted material, trademarks and strong brand," noted Robert S. Gerber, a partner in Sheppard Mullin's Intellectual Property practice group.

"The company stands ready to pursue anyone, anywhere that attempts to misrepresent itself as affiliated with WPTE, trade on its valuable name and goodwill, violate its copyrighted material or other intellectual property, or otherwise harm its business interests."

Poker tournament will pay out 500 winners

One-time online poker industry leader Paradise Poker seemed intent on a higher profile this week as it publicised a free-entry online poker tournament with a first prize of a million dollars.

Places two through ten won't do too badly either - each will receive $10 000 and a free trip for two to an as yet secret but exotic location to play at the final table. 500 other winners will also receive prizes at varying levels.

Running through to August 26, Paradise will be offering three "FreeMillion" heats every day, with a 4,000-player limit per heat. Player must win entry through one of these three daily events.

The three tournaments begin at 4:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m., and 1:00 a.m. EST, and will advance 10, 20, and 30 players, respectively. Players who make the cut will be entered into the final event on August 27.

Players can enter as many times they want, but with stipulations. The first entry is free, meaning that players do not even have to have a real-money account. All following entries must be paid for with "MillionPoints," which can be earned by playing raked-cash games, multi-table tournaments, and mini tournaments, with 100 "MillionPoints" necessary to enter the heats. Players will be notified by an on-screen pop-up when they have reached the 100 million and are eligible for a heat.

Registration begins two hours before each heat.

Betfair negotiations for Tasmanian approval reach the hard cash stage

The Australian newspaper The Age reported this week that UK betting exchange company Betfair is prepared to give up 35 percent of its gross racing profits if Tasmanian authorities will give it a license to operate.

Premier Paul Lennon said that the local racing industry would get 25 percent, the State Government would gain 6 percent, and the rest would go to a levy for community services such as gambling addiction.

Betfair, in a partnership with Kerry Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd, is fighting strong opposition from the Australian Racing Board and existing national betting agencies. The company already accepts internet bets from Australian punters, but without a local licence it cannot advertise or open an office here, as online betting exchanges are outlawed in some states.

Lennon said a deal with Betfair did not represent a financial windfall for the Government, but instead was intended as a way of getting consistent revenue streams to the Tasmanian racing industry.

He said the industry also wanted reassurance on the integrity of a form of computerised bookmaking where anonymously matched punters can bet for a win or a loss in exchange for Betfair's commission.

"I believe probity and integrity issues won't be of concern to this form of bookmaking," Mr Lennon said.

It's probably the world's biggest poker table, and it doesn't come from Texas.

Milwaukee's Best Light, a SABMiller brand of beer, has sponsored the "World's Largest Poker Table" nationwide poker tour, which launched this week.

The poker table featured in the tour measures 30 feet in length and 12 feet in width, with proportionately huge poker cards, measuring 3 feet 3 inches tall. Ten players can be seated.

The World's Largest Poker Table tour is also being used as a vehicle to promote the premiere of a new two-disc DVD poker tutorial called "WiseGuys on Texas Hold'em," now available in stores, and featuring actors Vincent Pastore of "The Sopranos," Frank Vincent from "A License to Steal" and Vinny Vella from the film "Casino."

Skill gaming comes to town...

It's being touted as the next big wave, and there certainly is a lot of action in the sector - we're talking Skill Gaming and that's the focus of a major conference scheduled for September 8 - 9 2005 at the Hyatt Lake Las Vegas.

Diarise "I-Gaming InDepth: Skill Games" which will combine an educational conference program with productive networking events and a display area for companies that produce or market products related to skill games.

Featured speakers represent companies that are leading the way in the skill games sector including GameAccount, SkillJam, Fun Technologies, Greentube I.E.S, GameColony.com, Fanball and Christchurch Casino.

Focused conference topics will address issues such as turning free-play gamers into paying customers, drawing business from other verticals, drawing the line between skill and chance, customer retention and more.

Readers can find full details here: www.rivercitygroup.com/skills.

NY Times: "American position on Internet gambling is becoming an object of derision"

The New York Times carried a major article on Internet gambling titled "Casinos Without Walls, Or Rules" this weekend, covering the successful defiance of Party Gaming to threats from federal authorities, and the more regulatory frame of mind of foreign governments like the UK.

The well balanced piece commented that Party Gaming unusually included in its prospectus that its Gibraltar based directors faced the threat of legal action in the US due to that countrys federal interpretation of law that online gambling is illegal.

But it quoted the Party Gaming view that the activity was not illegal per se - federal prosecutors just say it is, and their opinion remains legally untested.

Although 90 percent of its customers are in the USA, Party Gaming operates from Gibraltar.

The article traces the remarkable success story of the company to the present, where annual revenues easily exceed half a billion US dollars and a successful public offering in London has just been completed, making billionaires for its founders.

It quotes US analysts, who predict that the total online poker market will mushroom to US $ 6 billion by 2009 from only $1 billion last year, despite the uncertain legal climate in the USA.

"The World Trade Organisation and foreign governments alike are siding with companies like Party Gaming and against the United States," the story continues. "Indeed, among international bodies and foreign governments, the American position on Internet gambling is becoming an object of derision."

The author of the article quotes from the 2003 report by the British government Department for Culture, Media and Sport saying, "There is a growing gambling market for online gambling where national boundaries no longer have any meaning.

"Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the USA, where despite the apparent illegality of cross-border gambling more of its citizens gamble online than anywhere else in the world.

"To deny this appears in many ways to fly in the face of the reality of international banking and the inherently international nature of 21st century telecommunications."

The edition also carries stories on poker legend Stu Unger, Gibraltar and on remote gambling from hand-held devices within casino resort premises in Vegas.

Casino managements shown how to deal with problem gambling issues

Management delegates from online casino operations around the world converged on Cape Town, South Africa last week for a unique educational seminar on problem gambling.

Organised by independent self-regulator eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA), the course was held to coincide with new responsible gaming requirements recently approved by its Board.

The programme, believed to be an industry first for a collective group of online casinos, was designed to brief eCOGRA seal casino managers on the new regulations and provides them with sufficient information to set up policies and training programs in preparation for the introduction of the new safety precautions contained within the eGAP requirements.

40 delegates, representing general management, support, audit and marketing disciplines for 55 seal-bearing casinos, attended the event. The programme included expert tuition on the prevention of underage gambling, the psychology of problem gamblers, how to identify compulsive players and the best way to handle cases of this nature.

The custom built course was conducted by specialised Swedish psychologist and researcher Thomas Nilsson together with senior G4 executive Pieter Remmers and senior trainer Rob d'Hondt.

eCOGRA's regulations have been framed in consultation with the G4 (Global Gambling Guidance Group) organisation which recently introduced responsible gaming policies and operating parameters at eCOGRA approved PokerRoom.com. The regulations provide minimum standards and requirements in respect of warnings and options regarding problem gambling, self exclusion and control mechanisms for gamblers, and promotional and advertising best practices in this area.

Andrew Beveridge, CEO of eCOGRA told delegates that responsible gaming was a critically important element in online gaming operations from both a moral and practical industry viewpoint and eCOGRA was yet again leading the way in setting gold standards player protection practices for the industry to follow.

He said, "Apart from a firm moral obligation to prevent underage or addictive gambling, we must remember that the industry’s detractors are increasingly focused on the dangers of underage or addictive gambling, and this is a potential Achilles Heel for the industry."

He added, "Your commitment in joining eCOGRA has its roots in a real desire to be professional, responsible and above-average in your operational practice. The responsible gaming aspect has now been made an integral part of the eCOGRA standards required to achieve this level of business conduct."

9 line Millionaires Club, more Rapid Fire and scratch cards in new gambling suite

Cryptologic games development subsidiary Wagerlogic was keeping up with the opposition this week with the launch of 14 new games.

The companys Bonus Pack 7 includes 12 variations of multi-line video slots and two scratch card games – the first ever developed by WagerLogic’s parent company, CryptoLogic.

There are 9 new 20-line video slots, branded Treasure of Isis, Around the World, Masquerade Ball, Daily Horoscope, Reel Renovations, Emerald Isle, Congo Bongo, and Haunted House.

A.J. Slivinski, the md at Wagerlogic says the new 9-line video slots, Mr. Rich, Barnyard Boogie and Jade Idol, are sure to be a hit among players, especially Mr. Rich, which is the latest addition to the popular Rapid Fire Jackpot group of progressive slots.

The new suite also introduces the first scratch card games, where winning is through matching three identical symbols. In High Fashion, these symbols include clothing, make-up and jewellery, and in Money Farm, the symbols are farm animals.

A major game in the range is a multi-line version of Millionaires Club – a 9-line video slot designed to give players a chance at a dream jackpot. Millionaires Club has already paid a substantial US$774,024 jackpot.

The launch of the new games brings WagerLogic's full games inventory to over 150 games across progressive slot and casino table games, multi-player bingo and player-to-player poker.

William Hill Casino.com, Littlewoods Casino.com and InterCasino.com are already offering the new games.

"New Generation Platform" due soon

The week saw more than a little hype going down on something the Playtech sites are terming "The New Generation Platform," which seems to be an update on the companys download gambling software system.

Official press material had not been issued as we went to press, but it is believed that the launch is imminent.

Monaco Gold Casino claimed that the new software "...marks an unprecedented advancement in online gaming software for players the world over," and went on to boast a range of updated and innovative features that apparently include a wider range of games with greater quality and graphics.

Describing the feature as a "special benefit" the casino says that Playtech's latest enables the playing of several games simultaneously through a multi-window facility. And with new HTML-based support systems, players will now be able to see detailed playing histories on past bets and wager outcomes.

Depositing into a cashier window whilst playing is another improvement, together with new customer support layouts with help topics made easier and communication with casino operators better.

Joseph Hachem takes Steve Dannenmann in marathon session

"Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oy, Oy, Oy" was the roar from Australian spectators early (Vegas time) on Saturday morning as their countryman Joseph Hachem was declared World Champion of the 36th (2005) WSOP, winning $7.5 million and fame in the world of poker.

9 players took their seats at the final table at Binions at 4.00pm local time in Vegas last Friday with Aaron Kanter holding the most chips after a gruelling week of poker that resulted in 9 players surviving from a field of over 5600.

Every one of them would leave the table with at least a million dollars.

As previously reported, the following were the first to leave the final table in this order:

Mike Matusow - 9th

Brad Kondracki - 8th

Daniel Bergsdorf - 7th

Scott Lazar - 6th

By the early hours of Saturday morning Irishman Andrew Black had gone with $1 750 000 in prizemoney for his 5th placing. The highest blinds in WSOP history - $120 000 to 240 000 with an ante of $40 000 were declared.

Then it was the turn of 27 year old Aaron Kanter, who departed with $2 million, leaving the field to Barch, Dannenmann and Hachem.

By 6.18 am last Saturday Tex Barch was on his way out the door in 3rd place with $2.5 million, leaving Dannenmann and Hachem to fight it out in some very exciting poker that saw record pots of $16 million and all-ins of $15 million at hand number 212.

Hachem was in a strong position, with more than twice Dannenmann's chip count, and around half an hour later at 6.46pm it was all over - Dannenmann walked away 2nd with $4.5 million....and those Australian victory chants were rolling around the room.

Hachem (39) is a former chiropractor turned professional poker player who was born in Lebanon and lives in Australia. He has been playing poker for 10 years. Married with four children, this is his first World Series of Poker.

Humans rule, OK!

Renowned for their at times inane if eye-catching publicity, Golden Palace online casino came up with an interesting PR exercise recently when they held a contest to recognise the top poker robot, and then matched the winner with a really good human player.

Whilst it did not generate as much coverage as the historical confrontation some years ago between IBM's Deep Blue and the best chess player in the world, Gary Kasparov, it was an entertaining update on the concept.

The World Poker Robot Championship brought together six of the world's best programmers to compete for $100 000. Created by Hilton Givens of Indiana, Poker Probot took the top prize after routing its opposition and was then matched with professional poker ace Phil "Unabomber" Laak.

The result was a human victory to balance the record books (Kasparov lost his match with Deep Blue) Cheered on by an audience chanting, "Humans, Humans," Laak won the 300 hands, three-hour contest. The Unabomber finally killed off Poker Probot with a game-winning pair of aces, beating his competitive computer counterpart, who had a pair of kings.

There was an interesting footnote to the story - Laak won a $100 side bet that he made with the bot's programmer.

Wireless sports in new Score Runner.com deal

Las Vegas entrepreneur Wayne Alleyn Root signed another gambling deal this week, this one to provide sportsbook fans with email or cellphone access to the latest U.S. scores.

Branded Score Runner, the venture is in partnership with top film producer Warren Zide, who's movie successes have included American Pie and Final Destination. Zide is the founder of the Score Runner concept that empowers sports gamblers to receive scores in real time and as frequently as every two minutes using the convenience of text messaging on cellphones or email.

Users customise their personal scoreboard by choosing the games and teams they want to follow, the delivery method they prefer, and the time interval they wish to receive updates. ScoreRunner also allows subscribers to stop and start their scoring alerts instantly from their cell phone and PDF devices.

Root, who is chairman of the GWIN Corporation and a widely followed TV personality said that ScoreRunner will give sports fans and gamblers everywhere the edge by giving them the freedom and flexibility to follow scores without being tied down to a television set or computer.

"It’s like having your own personalised scoreboard with you wherever you go," he said.

GWIN has agreed to advertise and promote ScoreRunner on its multiple media properties and to its databases of sports gamblers. The agreement also provides ScoreRunner with access to GWIN’s database of 250,000 serious sports gamblers.

GWIN will also utilise the ScoreRunner technology to deliver their new “WinnersonDemand” advice services to ScoreRunner subscribers, offering Root’s handicapping advice to a significant new audience. GWIN will receive a revenue share and minority ownership of ScoreRunner.

SkillJam contracted to supply games

The recent agreement between Virgin Games and FUN Technology's subsidiary SkillJam had industry observers speculating that Virgin was about to access the major U.S. market, taking advantage of the legal status of games of skill in that country.

That speculation was vindicated this week when Virgin director of marketing Russ Sleight was quoted in the media as saying Virgin Games plans to welcome the US playing community for the first time, using a skill gaming site.

In deference to UK sensitivities Virgin has previously barred US players from its casino and poker websites, and this policy is to remain in force when the skill games site starts operations.

“We will not be cross-selling our gambling products to our US players,” Sleight confirmed, although he made the point that Virgin’s US position was the subject of regular reviews.

Such reviews could be influenced by developments flowing from the reformed UK Gambling Act, which when promulgated around 2006 / 2007 is widely expected to permit UK licensed operators to accept US casino and poker business.

Sleight revealed that his company would invest marketing budget on skill games commensurate with that committed to bingo and online casino advertising.

“Skill gaming is a very Virgin proposition and we are going to enter the market running," he said.

“This is a mass-market product and it is ready to be taken forward by a major land-based brand."

Marketing specialists latest trading update shows major gains

Recently listed Internet marketing group Empire Online released its latest trading update this week, showcasing another strong quarterly performance with a gain in profits to US $13 million.

By the end of year 2005, management has plans to generate at least 50 percent of revenues from sources outside the United States, where presently 60 percent of its revenues originate.

Net gaming revenues from the group's casino and poker sites were estimated at US$25.3 million, a rise of 83 percent on the same period last year. The majority of these came from subsidiary Empire Poker's website, which contributed US$20.3 million.

CEO Noam Lanir said Empire was showing strong growth internationally, and has begun above-the-line advertising campaigns in the UK with plans to launch offline campaigns in four new countries during the next six months.

Casino revenues, which are derived from affiliate deals with major gambling sites like 888.com (Casino On Net) and Starluck Casino fell 9 percent to US$5 million, a result attributed to an extraordinary series of big jackpot wins by players.

Foxwoods comes up with an ingenious gaming concept.

News Channel 8 in the USA reported a clever business move by the Indian tribe owned Foxwoods land casino this week - but the state Attorney General does not seem to like it.

Foxwood's latest initiative, due for launch next month is to increase business through a new product called Foxwoods Playaway....and it involves the Internet and empowering gamblers to play from home.

The management at Foxwoods claim that Playaway is a game and not gambling.

Foxwoods Playaway games will allow people to play in the privacy of their homes. Players buy tickets on the Foxwoods casino premises that come with an access code that they can use to log in and play from home via the Internet.

However the results of the game are already predetermined by a computerised drawing that takes place on the casino premises.

Foxwoods spokesman Arthur Henick, says, "Nothing the player does from his or her computer can impact the outcome of the game. Unlike illegal offshore internet casinos, no financial transactions of any kind ever take place on the Internet. There is no betting...and no pay out via the medium."

Players may only redeem winnings in the regulated setting of the casino.

But state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's concern is that gaming is only allowed within the boundaries of the reservation, something Foxwoods argues is exactly what will happen when players over 21 begin buying tickets for the play-away games...at the casino.

Blumenthal does not seem to be convinced, saying "Under federal law in the compact with the tribe gambling can take place only within the reservation boundaries. Clearly this gambling is anywhere, any time. That is exactly their pitch and those circumstances make it severely problematic.

"One of the great problems that is raised by this practice is that it appears to condone or perhaps promote underage gambling because there is no face to face check as to who is actually playing the game."

Foxwoods responds to that by pointing out that underaged gambling is monitored by the same methods as any other game at the casino. The tribe says they plan to meet with the Attorney General to clear up any misunderstandings.

Red Felt developed software for first licensee

CYOP Systems International Inc. and RDC Services Ltd. have inked an agreement whereby the former will license its poker software, developed by subsidiary Red Felt Software, to the latter.

RDC is an experienced interactive marketing and management outfit, and will pay a set up fee and a percentage of the net rake to Red Felt Software Inc.

Completion of the new licensee site is expected by the end of August 2005 with marketing commencing toward the end of summer; historically a good time to begin interactive gaming site promotion.

The Red Felt package includes a full website, no-download poker software backed by real time reportage, hosting and server monitoring and credit card processing.

CYOPs claims that more than 200 online poker sites collectively are generating some $3 billion a year in revenues, with an estimated 1.7 million players active online as Internet poker players in the past six months. 150,000 people play on an average day, according to PokerPulse.com.

Online gaming will continue to be an explosive cash generator. Gaming consultants Christian Capital forecast that gaming revenue will rise to $22.7 billion (US) by 2009, from $8.2 billion in 2004, a growth of 22 percent. Online gaming is also expected grab an 8.1 percent share of the global gaming market.

The CYOP - Red Felt poker software can be previewed at Red Felt.com, and the proprietary play for cash site Ten Seat Poker.com.

Isle of Man based group acquires top European sportsbook

It appears that the owners of Betbug.com, the Isle of Man based Trident Gaming group has racked up another profitable acquisition this week with the purchase of leading European sportsbook Gamebookers for a cool US$ 43 million.

The purchase price is to be paid in a cash and shares financed by US$ 34.7 million in cash funded by convertible debt and the issuing of over 9.3 million shares in Trident Gaming and is equivalent to roughly eight times historic earnings.

Gamebookers is one of the strongest performers in the European sector, with a turnover of around Euro180 million. It was recently named the 33rd most influential firm in online gambling by eGaming Review and posted an annualised pre-tax profit of GBP 3.2 million based on the past six months trading.

New owner Trident is run by industry veterans Antony Novac and John O'Malia who founded the US-focused betting exchange firm Betbug, which was acquired by Trident in June this year.

O'Malia, Trident's chief executive, said the combination of the two betting platforms gave the firm a strong position in the global gaming market.

“BetBug is the only legal way to offer online sports betting in the US,” he said. “By adding Gamebookers and its hugely successful sports book and three active European gaming licenses, the directors believe that Trident is uniquely well positioned for global success."

Trident is not affiliated with the two executives previous software business 1X Inc, although 1X Inc may provide some software support services to Trident for an interim period of 3-4 months.

Trident will now seek white label partners for both the Gamebookers and Betbug systems, according to O'Malia. "We expect to build on our current licensee base and rapidly expand our white label partnerships with major online gaming providers," he revealed.

Ongame software on the PokerNetwork chosen.

These days it seems hardly a week goes by without Gaming Corporation appearing in the headlines with a new acquisition or expansion. This week it was the announcement that the company is moving into the lucrative online poker sector through a deal with Ongame, which recently joined the eCOGRA self-regulatory fold.

Dynamic, London-based Gaming Corporation took over the popular Got2Bet and Gambling.com portals and search engine earlier this year, and also owns Casino.co.uk.

CEO Justin Drummond said that agreement had been reached with Ongame's PokerNetwork that will enable his company to enter the fast growing online poker market.

Under the terms of the agreement PokerNetwork will provide fully customised poker software that will enable Gaming Corp to offer its rapidly growing database of customers a state of the art and highly liquid multiplayer poker application that can be accessed both online and via a mobile device.

Gaming Corp will undertake all responsibility for customer support and financial transactions but will pay PokerNetwork an ongoing license fee for the use of the poker software.

“This is a key deal for Gaming Corp; we will be able to offer our extensive customer database multi-player poker that can be accessed on the internet or via a normal mobile handset. Mobile poker players simply log on to a live poker table in the same way they do online joining thousands of simultaneous players competing from the internet or mobile device,” Drummond said.

The PokerNetwork includes the massive Poker Room.com, making available literally millions of players and hundreds of tables to poker players seeking the variety and excitement of international poker action.

Virtue Fusion powers new operation

Hard on the heels of their announced entry into the online poker sector through PokerNetwork, the London-based Gaming Corporation has launched a new Flash-based no-download online casino with both online and mobile capability.

Gaming Corporation plc owns the Got2Bet.com and Gambling.com portals and search engine, and the major British portal Casino.co.uk.

The casino site is located at Games.casino.co.uk, and uses software that has been jointly developed over the past 18 months with Virtue Fusion, including fifteen online casino games and nine state of the art mobile java games such as Blackjack, Roulette, Stud Poker, slots and scratch cards.

The java mobile games can be downloaded from the website or via the Casino.co.uk WAP site at Wap.casino.co.uk. Play is available in both practice and real cash mode.

Registration and deposits can be made either via the mobile handset or online by either credit of debit card. Over 40 leading handsets are currently supported by the casino software and this number will increase as new phones are launched. The games are accessible across any mobile network in the UK.

Gaming Corp plans to market the new casino across its network of sites.

Sara Vincent, Commercial Director of Casino.co.uk commented,

"We are extremely pleased to announce the launch of our new flash based multiplatform casino. It not only further enhances the Casino.co.uk product portfolio, but with such a high percentage of the population owning mobiles, it expands our reach and market penetration."

Several shows in production for Fall airing in the US.

Several big, poker-related shows are in the works from the popular American TV network GSN, formerly known as the Game Show Network.

The shows are an extension of the current fad for broadcasting live poker events, and will air in the U.S. Fall.

GSN will begin taping its first show, "The James Woods Gang Vs The Unabombers in Poker Royale," on Monday, July 25 at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, California.

The show features an all-star line-up with James Woods and Kathy Leibert leading a team of players in a No Limit Hold'em match against Phil 'Unabomber" Laak, his partner and 2005 Women's WSOP champion, Jennifer Tilly and actor Brad Garrett of "Everybody Loves Raymond," fame. The series is scheduled for Friday nights as part of GSN's Casino Night.

On July 27, GSN production starts on "Poker Royale: Battle of the Ages," a unique event that pits the world's top players over age 60 versus the top six poker players under 30.

Among the veterans will be TJ Cloutier (six WSOP bracelets), Dan Harrington (earned $2.14 million in consecutive WSOP appearances), Gabe Kaplan (Welcome Back Kotter, commentator from NBC's Heads Up Championship), Barbra Enright (Best all around player 2002 Legends of Poker), Maureen Feduniak (2003 winner World Poker Tour Ladies Night), and Wendeen Eolis (4th place at 2004 Legends of Poker Ladies Night).

The under 30 line-up features some of today's hottest players with hotshots like Michael Gracz (2005 WSOP bracelet winner), Erin Ness (2nd place Poker Royale: Young Bloods), Evelyn Ng (2nd place WPT Ladies Night), Kasey Thompson (poker pro), and Dutch Boyd (11th place in 2003 WSOP).

GSN has also ordered a pilot shoot for "Annie Duke Takes on the World," a Duke-produced show in which four amateurs compete to play Duke heads up.

There's no shortage of talent in the GSN productions - the highly respected Phil Helmuth and producer R.J. Culter are teaming up to create a series that teaches amateurs the skills of poker. No futher details are available on this project yet.

A different perspective on an old relationship

One of the more interesting views on online gambling relationships surfaced this week in an opinion expressed by a respected analyst in a review of online gaming.

Discussing the relationship between Noam Lanir's growing Empire Online marketing group and the (online poker) market leading Party Poker with which it does business, along with other major companies, Citigroup Smith Barney opined:

"We see Empire as like a troublesome child to PartyGaming, small but growing faster and taking more than its fair share of the budget.

"We think PartyGaming’s best option is to tie Empire in by buying it.

"Empire (ep.com) finds online poker players who then play on PartyGaming’s systems in return for which Empire pays PartyGaming a royalty. Empire’s players account for around 4 percent of PartyGaming’s EBIT.

"This EBIT share appears unimportant. However, PartyGaming makes less profit on Empire players than players that come to PartyGaming direct. We estimate that PartyGaming’s 2005 EBIT would be some 11 percent higher if it achieved a “normal”profit on Empire’s players.

"One assumes PartyGaming would want to renegotiate the deal with Empire. PartyGaming has the biggest online poker business and Empire benefits from the liquidity it can offer its players. However, Empire has the option of taking its +/- 9 percent share of the online poker market elsewhere, beefing up a new partner’s poker room, reducing PartyGaming’s dominance a little and perhaps getting an even more favourable revenue share from the new partner.

"If PartyGaming bought Empire the inefficiency of competing with each other could be eliminated, Empire’s market share could be secured for PartyGaming and Empire’s successful non-US player recruitment could be expanded, reducing PartyGaming’s dependence on the US.

"We calculate that PartyGaming could pay a 30 percent premium for Empire without EPS dilution.

"Empire would get the best deal from a new poker partner if it agreed to bring all of its poker business with it. We estimate that the pro forma effect of Empire leaving the PartyGaming network would mathematically be only a 5 percent reduction in 2005 estimated earnings. However, the damage to PartyGaming from the implied re-jigging of market shares in the online poker market is uncertain.

"We would like to see PartyGaming acquire Empire; consolidation is one reason why it floated and a deal could make financial and strategic sense. However, our valuation is based on the status quo being maintained and Empire leaving would not be a major problem for PartyGaming.

"With the World Series of Poker due to be on TV in August and September driving even more online poker participation, we believe that the newsflow will be excellent in the short term.

"We reiterate our 1S (Buy/Speculative) rating and 185p target."

Head techie becomes CEO

Michael McMain, who formally headed software development for turnkey provider Real Time Gaming has been appointed CEO of the company with immediate effect. He replaces one of the co-founders of the group, Michael Staw who will take up the position of chairman.

McMain has extensive management experience and his leadership and industry knowledge make him the ideal choice for the position, says a company press release.

Staw said, "We are accelerating, and there is no-one in the industry more qualified to lead our company forward in the years ahead. It's a small change that should do big things to spur our continued growth and leadership in the industry."

McMain's promotion should ensure commercial continuity and the management change will have little or no impact on productivity. The company has not announced who McMain's successor as head of software development will be.

Probability Games providing the games

Another mobile gambling milestone was reached this week when Sky TV subscribers in the United Kingdom were told that they will now be able to download and play free versions of a new range of games direct to their cellphones.

Customers can opt to play the games for real money once they have downloaded the free version to their handsets and passed an age verification test.

A company called TV Commerce is working on the project with Sky TV, using Games Probability Corporation to manage and develop a range of specially branded casino and slot games. The games all carry the station branding and related content, such as programme schedules and promotions.

The games have a particularly British feel, including a fruit machine titled ‘Fortune Teller’, which also provides players with a daily horoscope.

TV Commerce has provided an initial budget of up to GBP 100 000 to market the new games using television, database marketing, press and TV arrangements with other media owners.

The main marketing campaign will start in September, growing in intensity in the build up to the Christmas period. The backers anticipate that the venture will render a significant return as early as end 2005 and going forward.

Quicksilver Mobile Casino starts operations

Probability Games Corporation also featured in news of another mobile casino deal this week, this one with Quicksilver, a subsidiary of UK listed gaming group Talarius plc.

The partnership led to the launch of Quicksilver Mobile Casino which offers a suite of branded, mobile telephone casino-style games. The start of operations establishes Talarius as the first High Street operator to offer “gaming on the move” to its bricks-and-mortar customers in 142 high street outlets.

The Quicksilver Mobile Casino is open to anyone in the UK who is over 18 and has a Java compatible phone, on any UK mobile network. Registration, which adheres to a robust age verification process, is entirely through the cellphone medium and customers can choose from a range of games, including Slot machines with fixed and progressive payouts, Roulette, Blackjack, Stud Poker and Hi-Lo.

Low-stake, “little and often” game players are being targeted with bets from as little as 10p. In a pre-launch trial to a small section of its database, Quicksilver found that customers like to play in dwell-time and down-time for short periods. A national rollout of the service through Quicksilver shops and to the Quicksilver membership is now under way.

Commenting on the launch, Nick Harding, CEO of Talarius, said: “Slot machines and table games are the largest single slice of the UK gambling industry and attract the broadest spectrum of people. By offering a fun and value for money service on mobiles, we believe that Talarius can take the Quicksilver brand into places and to people that we could not otherwise reach.”

Probability Games Corporation, who are regulated in the UK, designs and operates casino games for mobile phones.

It was established by Charles Cohen, the founder of beenz.com and John Scaife with development capital from Vincent Tchenguiz. The company has agreements with T-Mobile, Monstermob and Last Minute.com to supply mobile games, compatible on at least 70 percent of British cellphones.

White label casino, betting exchange and poker solution for Victory 247 site

The Betsson betting exchange company has announced a three year deal with Victory247, a new gaming portal with powerful connections to a major European TV company that plans to specialise in interactive gaming in the region.

The terms of the agreement call for Betsson to provide a white label casino, betting exchange and poker games package, backed by full support and financial services from Betsson.

“Victory247 is, through its owners, uniquely positioned to succeed,” says Betsson President Anders Holmgren.

Major table tournament will have a prize chest of GBP 450 000

The major British gambling group William Hill announced plans this week to sponsor a major televised poker tournament between 17 and 25 October 2005 where the winner will receive GBP 150 000.

The William Hill Grand Prix Poker Tournament is the group's first move into the major table tournament sector, with a GBP 100 000 in sponsorship being added to the players' stakes to create a prize chest of GBP 450 000, with the winner taking home GBP 150 000.

One of the UK's top TV poker production teams, Presentable Limited has been signed up to showcase the programme, which will be aired in early December on the Poker 425 channel on Sky TV. Presentable has extenstive experience in the poker TV field, having produced the successful Late Night Poker series.

Will Hill's plan is to invite only world leading players to play in the event, the whole concept behind the tournament being to put the skill back into the technical game, and move away from what it calls "...a 'blind structure' that is made for speed."

With 7 heats of 8 people at each table, comprising 8 online qualifiers and 48 top international poker professionals the event promises to be a fascinating exposition of the art of skilled poker play.

Entrants will be allowed to wear logos and branded merchandise, and Internet qualification for the 8 online entries, began this week through the William Hill Poker.com website.

New instant messenger service enjoys fast take-up

The Gibraltar-based Belle Rock Gaming group of online casinos reports that its recently introduced "Belle Rock Buddy" facility is attracting widespread sign-ups.

The facility is based on Instant Messenging and adds a new dimension to the customer relations activities of the group. In just three weeks since launch, over 25 percent of Belle Rock Gaming players have downloaded the application.

The Belle Rock Buddy acts as a 'personal gaming assistant,' providing instant, fingertip access to all of Belle Rock's casino games and promotions, as well as other personalised and exclusive services. The application received overwhelming player support during the trial period, with players highlighting its ease of use and ability to simplify the gaming experience.

One of the goals is to enable players to keep track of promos, together with their gaming transactions, accessing what they have wagered, won and withdrawn. The latest games releases and other news is also available. The system will be updated daily to ensure the very latest account information is available.

Belle Rock Buddy was introduced following extensive player studies through an independent research company. Players were able to review the service during a pilot phase and were invited to provide personal feedback through a series of online chat forums.

Ladbrokes GBP 76 million takeover of 141 Welsh betting shops

The rivalry between William Hill and Ladbrokes intensified this week with the announcement by the latter that it had bought 141 family run betting shops to close the gap in outlet numbers.

The deal brought Ladbrokes into equal contention with William Hill as the UK’s biggest bookmaker following the deal.

By acquiring control of the Jack Brown network, Ladbrokes increased its presence in Wales five-fold to 156 outlets, bringing a windfall of GBP 76 million for the sellers, which include members of the Brown family who have run the business since 1927.

Unfortunately, it may have put a question mark over the jobs of 70 staff at the head office of Jack Brown in Pontypridd, South Wales, which Ladbrokes intends to close.

The Jack Brown brand will disappear as all the betting shops, comprising 127 shops in Wales and a further 14 shops located in the Birmingham area, will be rebranded as Ladbrokes over the next six months.

Talks over the deal lasted more than a year and took place at a time of considerable consolidation in the betting industry.

William Hill overtook Ladbrokes as Britain’s biggest bookmaker in May when it struck a deal for 624 betting shops from rival Stanley Leisure in a deal worth GBP 504 million (see InfoPowa report).

It then sold 28 of the sites to the Tote earlier this week as it sought to ease competition concerns from the deal.

William Hill has 2,174 shops in the UK and Northern Ireland, giving it a slight advantage over Ladbrokes which will now trade in 2,111 outlets.

Ladbrokes – owned by leisure giant Hilton – expects the Jack Brown group to contribute GBP 4 million to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation between July and December.

The group will install its state-of-the-art technology in all the shops being acquired, enabling gamblers to watch and wager on international horseracing and sports as well as all UK track meetings.

Around GBP 12 million will be spent by Ladbrokes on refurbishing the stores in a process lasting 18 months. Jack Brown employs a total of 520 staff.

Casino spokesman confirms fault in RTG software has been fixed.

There were probably a few red faces at Atlanta-based gambling software provider Real Time Gaming this week as players started complaining on the fora that the companys Caribbean 21 game appeared to be short-paying on splits.

Although clearly not intentional, the issue was embarrassing, as a casino spokesman for Geisha Lounge and Grand Aces affirmed in a public statement on the fault.

Confirming that the fault had been across all RTG powered casinos and had already been addressed by RTG, the spokesman said, "The issue is an embarrassing thing for RTG and for us obviously and we will be taking this up with RTG.

"The issue was as follows: The 21 games split function was not paying out correctly for wins.

"I welcome any and all people who played the 21 games to contact us and we will take a look at your account and apply the necessary winnings if you have lost out plus a comp."

RTG were due to issue a press release early this week but at press time none had been received.

$400 000 in prizes and a 300 hand bonus

Poker Plex will be a tempting venue for bonus and prize hungry poker fans soon - the site is about to start running No Limit Hold'em daily guaranteed tournaments with a prize pool of $400,000.

The tournaments are scheduled to take place four times every weekday, together with guaranteed Sunday Tournaments offering an additional prize pool of $50,000 each week.

All players will also layers pickup a $50 monthly bonus for every 300 hands played, and planning is well advanced for satellite tournaments to major poker championships like the Caribbean Poker Classic in November.

Growth is just starting in this industry

Dow Jones reports that Party Gaming, which recently enjoyed a successful IPO on the London Stock Exchange has been listed as a "buy" recommendation by UBS.

The listing advises that PartyGaming is a global market-leading online poker group with an estimated 54 percent market share and is "...likely to be incorporated into the FTSE 100 in September."

The advisory takes a bullish view on the industry, commenting that "...the growth in poker is just starting, and from a standing start in '01, the group now has 400,000 active customers per month - a small fraction of the estimated 50 million players in the US alone."

Is Jackpot Joy on the IPO trail too?

For the past several months, especially when Party Gaming was on the run-up to its successful IPO in London, there has been media speculation that other major Internet gambling companies like 888.com (Casino On Net) and Betfair will be going for public listings.

This week a new name emerged following news in the Sunday Times which reported that Jackpotjoy.com is in talks with advisers about a possible GBP 100 million flotation on the London stock market as it seeks to become the latest firm to capitalise on the online gambling boom.

Jackpotjoy, which runs internet bingo and other "instant win" games, is in the final stages of assessment by financial advisers and apparently intends to set a date over the next two weeks.

"I can confirm that we are in discussions about our strategic options, but I cannot comment beyond that," the finance director at parent company Gamesys, Michael Mee, reportedly told the newspaper.

Jackpotjoy is licensed in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles. The site was launched in 2001 and claims it has 500,000 players on the books and pays out over GBP 20 million a month in winnings.

While a float on AIM is the board's preferred option, a sale to a larger gaming group could not be ruled out, The Times said.

How US poker enthusiasts play

The World Poker Exchange published the results of its survey of US poker players recently, revealing some interesting facts.

For example, 75 percent of US pokerheads play at least three times a month, while 39 percent play five times a month.

And good news for Internet poker rooms and networks - 45 percent of poker players preferred to play online. Another 45 percent preferred playing face-to-face with friends.

The fairer sex seems to prefer playing online, too. Women were 6 times more likely to play online than in a casino.

Internet poker playing clearly has considerable appeal - according to the overall assessment, more than three out of four US poker players regularly play online each month.

Personal privacy is definitely a player concern...
The casino manager (identified only as "Rick") from Crown Vegas and Sunset Palace online casinos has not been doing himself any favours this week with a rather aggressive response to being caught soliciting private information databases on Internet gamblers.

Alert players monitoring the Start Casino forum picked up the solicitation...and several responses from the unsavoury sort of people who sell this detailed private information such as player names, emails, phone numbers etc. usually without the players' consent or knowledge.

One of the monitoring players challenged "Rick" on the ethics of such a quest, only to be told he was an "idiot" and a "loser", and out of place on an industry message board.

Here's a quote:

"I imagine that I make more in a day than you make in a year. So please keep your comments to yourself, loser. Cheers, Rick." and "Why are you involved in this thread in the first place? This is an industry board, idiot. Nothing here concerns you, run along now."

Personal privacy is a great concern for players, as any experienced and professional operator should know.

2003 AOL case finally comes to a conclusion

Readers will remember the shocking reports two years ago of the AOL techie who stole 92 million personal email addresses by using another employee's access code at AOL's Virginia headquarters.

Then he compounded the crime by selling this private and supposedly confidential information to a Vegas spam merchant for online gambling called Sean Dunaway, who used it to send unwanted gambling advertisements to subscribers of AOL. Charges are pending against Dunaway

The thief, Jason Smathers was caught and taken to court on a guilty plea, but last December Judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected the plea, saying he was not convinced Smathers had actually committed a crime.

Fortunately, the matter was finalised last week, with Smathers again entering a guilty plea in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where the judge said prosecutors now had sufficiently established a criminal case.

By selling the addresses to Dunaway for $28 000, the 24-year-old former American Online software engineer is estimated to have set off an avalanche of up to seven billion unsolicited spamming emails.

Smathers could face up to 2 years jail time, together with mandatory restitution of between $200,000 and $400,000, the amount the government estimates AOL spent as a result of the e-mails.

Federal prosecutor David Siegal said Smathers had engaged in the interstate transportation of stolen property and had violated a new federal "can-spam" law meant to diminish unsolicited e-mail messages.

AOL has since launched a major assault on spam, significantly reducing unsolicited e-mails.

IPO adviser now investor relations exec

A key member of the Numis Securities professional team that guided Internet gambling marketing company Empire Online through its GBP 512 million London IPO last month has now joined the company as investor relations adviser.

Andrew Burnett is a skilled leisure and gaming analyst and latterly corporate financier who will also play an important role in Empire in its future business strategies pertaining to acquisitions and mergers.

Noam Lanir, CEO of Empire Online, said: "Following our successful IPO we are rapidly rolling out our operations throughout Europe and will also consider making strategic acquisitions. We intend to play a leading role in the anticipated consolidation (of the industry) and we are looking to Andrew Burnett to spearhead this for us, working closely with our existing financial advisers, Numis."

Burnett predicted that the gaming sector is set for a period of tremendous growth and consolidation over the medium term.

Suspicions mounts that offer was not genuine

With the World Series of Poker championships placing poker firmly in the media headlines earlier this month, the timing was thought by many industry observers to be right for poker news and announcements.

One announcement that really grabbed everyone's attention was a report that one of the best known poker legends, Doyle Brunson had offered to buy control of Steve Lipscomb's World Poker Tour for $700 million. Speculation was that Brunson was financially backed by some big poker company names, although this was never clarified.

The offer had a deadline less than a week ahead, and although WPT were taken by surprise their executives say they attempted to professionally assess the offer by requesting more detail. Surprisingly, it seems that Mr. Brunson failed to meet their requests and the offer was allowed to expire. However, news of the offer initially caused a surge in the WPT share price, which then turned southward as it became clear that the proposed deal was in trouble.

There was speculation that the offer was not sincere and this week angry complaints were lodged with the Securities and Exchange Commission, triggering an official investigation into what some Wall Street analysts suspect may have been a bogus offer. The results will make for interesting reading when made public.

Fresh logo and a revamped site

There's a brand new, and aesthetically appealing look to the popular Poker News.com site this week.

The extensive revamp has produced an attractive new logo and design, and plenty of exciting new features.

Out go the old regular stories and room reviews. In come features written by poker players for poker players, interviews with industry experts, business people and the stars of poker.

Room reviews have been re-designed to allow readers to submit their own thoughts, opinions and user ratings. Where readers have an interesting story to tell, they are being encouraged to submit it for possible reward.

Navigation of the website has been significantly improved. Poker Resources is a quick and easy guide for those looking for rules, strategy, variations and tips. Poker Stories presents stories by players, for players. Player Central is a detailed aid for those deciding where to play poker online, providing in-depth reviews, user ratings and a fully updated freerolls list. There are also B&M tournament schedules listed and home game venues.

Beginners will probably find the Online Poker FAQ valuable in their search for information about online poker and choosing a room to play in.

The main focus of PokerNews will remain industry related news stories. John Caldwell, director of PokerNews.com US operations will provide interesting interviews and analytical stories about the business of poker, and these will be available twice a month.

The convenience of mobility lets you sharpen your skills anytime and anywhere

There's another interesting product on the poker horizon this week with the news that the World Poker Tour people have partnered up with software producer Radica Games to launch a top quality, go-anywhere poker game for handheld appliances.

World Poker Tour No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em retails in the U.S. for around $19.99 and provides easily loadable Texas Hold 'Em for 5 players in the traditional WPT short handed style at a six handed table. The user plays against the credible artificial intelligence (AI) of the other players and attempts to knock them out, sharpening poker skills in the process and aiming to make a "final table". The action is fast paced but easy, and there are many surprises to be found in the game.

Presentation is reported to be first class, with crisp graphics, clear labelling and a screen layout that brings up all information in an easily visible format, showing the size of the pot, current bet and which players are in. Opponents' chip stacks can be assessed, and the AI is realistic, with opposing play that includes eight different styles covering bluffing, aggressive and passive strategies at appropriate stages of play.

More media planned by various publishers

Intense interest in gambling of all types seems to have triggered plans from several publishers to launch new newspapers, magazines and reality TV programs aimed at providing the gambler in Britain with more information and interest.

Further information has emerged regarding the new UK gambling newspaper (see earlier InfoPowa reports) "The Sportsman"scheduled for launch next year with Jeremy Deedes, the former Telegraph Group chief executive, fronting the 128-page daily tabloid for gamblers. If GBP 12 million in venture capital can be raised, the new publication could become the biggest national title to launch for some time.

Dennis Publishing has ambitious plans for more gambling media, too. It is adding two new titles to "Inside Edge", the magazine for professional gamblers it launched 18 months ago. From next month, "Total Gambler" will be given away free with Dennis men’s titles like Maxim, Bizarre and Viz. Its 28 pages will be aimed at gamblers of all levels, with a substantial print run of 650,000. Later this year, the UK’s first dedicated magazine for poker enthusiasts is due, according to media sources, which predict that this as yet untitled publication will have a large print run, too.

The expanded coverage is not just in traditional media, either. Channel 4’s Late Night Poker series is returning to British screens in August with a new reality TV flavour. On the renamed Late Night Poker Ace, players will compete to become the UK’s best amateur player, with entrants playing on the site to win through to championship games on TV.

Some of the new projects have been targeted on taking over established media rather than building new vehicles. Former foreign secretary Robin Cook fronted a GBP 210 million bid for the 80 000 circulation Trinity Mirror’s "Racing Post", backed by investment bank Warburg Pincus in March.

Speaking to the media on his "The Sportsman" project, Jeremy Deedes is quoted as saying that the explosion in interest is a consequence of Internet betting activity through betting exchanges like Betfair, which enables gamblers to bet against each other on a wide variety of events. Online casinos and bookmakers are also doing good business.

“All this has meant that the culture of betting has embraced a new generation of young people who are interested in sport and what goes on in the City,” says Deedes.

Internet gaming companies spend heavily on advertising to capture these young gamblers. As Richard Downey, publisher of Dennis’s gambling titles, says: “The one thing that they all want is mass market exposure for their brands. In terms of mainstream media, there is not much for them to go into.”

Charlie Methven, the former Telegraph sports writer who is to edit The Sportsman, says the media has only really caught on since the unexpected success of Inside Edge. “From my days as a horse racing journalist, I knew a lot of people who kept saying they had lots of customers looking to read about betting. Like everyone else, I was a bit slow. I should have been doing this a year ago, but better late than never,” he says.

Unlike the Racing Post, which is mostly about horse racing and greyhounds, The Sportsman will concentrate on whatever is the main betting story of the day.

But not for gambling....

The Interfax agency reported this week that NASDAQ-listed Sohu.com, one of the largest portals in China, has officially started public testing of its proprietary online *casual* game platform "Sohu Game."

Sohu will launch the first group of nine casual games, which will be integrated into this platform for public testing. Most of these games are chess and card games and Sohu email account holders can access to play.

The article does not explain the nature or design of the games, but given the strict prohibitions on gambling that are energetically enforced by the Chinese authorities, it is unlikely that they will be for gambling or for monetary reward.

The company will also launch a special portal for its new game platform.

All four of China's largest portals, SINA, Sohu, NetEase and Tom Online, have launched their own casual gaming platforms. Casual games have become an important new growth point for the Chinese internet.

19-20 October 2005, Singapore

Mobile Gambling Summit Asia 2005 focuses on the mobile gambling business and the massive growth potential of the Asia-Pacific market for this sector.

The global Mobile Gambling market will be worth $19 billion by 2009, and the Asia-Pacific region will contribute the largest share of total gross revenues for mobile gambling by 2009.

And handset penetration in the region is still skyrocketing, making this market a hot option for mobile gambling.

Hear from the Asia-Pacific mobile gambling market leaders including: DrHo888, SportingBet, Ladbrokes, Betonsports.com, China Gloria Lottery, Intertops, Two Way TV Australia, Samvo, Siemens and Nokia.

Full speaker list and registration information is at http://www.mformobile.com/gamblingasia05/

Deutsche Bank had just made public what appears to be a positive report on the industry as we went to press this week.

InfoPowa has not yet seen a copy of the broker's report, but it apparently points out that many of the companies in the online gambling space are generating substantial profits, with European companies making the most of the grey areas in US legislation.

Deutsche Bank has been following Partygaming and Sportingbet with 'buy' recommendations and a price target of 175p and 425p respectively, and has stayed with its 'buy' stance on Hilton and raised William Hill to 'buy' from 'hold', with a price target of 625p from 575p, noting the growth prospects from its online business.

The report from such a respected source is likely to have a favourable impact on public company shares and the manner in which the industry is perceived.

World Gaming has also issued a press release highlighting increased interest in its stock, and confirming that it is on the acquisition trail.

WSOP 2005 is building to a climactic finale today

It has dominated the gambling and mainstream media for the past two weeks or more, but as the 36th World Series of Poker runs up to the finals interest has reached a fever pitch.

With a prize fund of almost 53 million dollars, and the involvement of the biggest names and companies in poker, it's not hard to see why.

The beginning of this week saw 5619 hopefuls - experts and casual players alike - arriving in Vegas for the start of poker's biggest event, the World Series of Poker championships.

With a $10 000 buy-in, many of the players were sponsored through their fame in the game or by winning satellite tournaments online. Players begin with $10,000 in chips, then play for six days in marathon sessions that can last up to 12 hours a day.

So big was the field that Harrahs as owners of the event had to start by organising a massive area at the Rio to accommodate the scores of tables, and initially bring the players together in groups of 2 000.

By Thursday, when a now more manageable group of only 27 players were left standing the grand finale moved to Binions. Along the way many top names in poker had fallen among the thousands who crashed out, but there were still legendary names like Hung La, Kenna James, Greg Raymer, John Juanda, Lee Watkinson, Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow, Tim Phan and Fred Bonyadi, and one woman - the UK's Tiffany Williamson.

In the past, Internet sponsored players, called "dead money" by Vegas pros who consider them amateurs, have stunned the poker world by coming away victorious. Chris Moneymaker won more than $3 million in 2003. Greg Raymer won more than $5 million in 2004. Both were Internet players.

With a first prize of $7.5 million to be won, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes for "in the money" players at this stage, the scene was set for some exciting and competitive poker.

Going into the final day of the 36th World Series of Poker the attrition rate among the professional players continued to be high with faves like Phil Ivey, Tim Phan and Greg Raymer falling by the wayside.

Minh Ly was at 19th position when he went out just ahead of Ivey at 20th, Phan 24th and Raymer 25th. They were preceded at the end of Day 5 by John Juanda (31) Farzad Bonyadi (41) Lee Watkinson (45) Pat Hayden and Rod Pardey.

With 23 players now left to battle it out to the final 9 at Friday's top table at Binions, Mike Matusow is still contending fiercely in the top spot, and a little known 27 year old US realtor called Aaron Kanter was impressing onlookers.

The UK's Tiffany Williamson was the lone woman left in the event on exactly 1,000,000 in chips heading to Binions after a bruising encounter with Greg Raymer. Her position was not strong.

STOP PRESS:
As InfoPowa went to press the field was down to 10 as follows (not in any particular order): The only woman left in the tournament, Tiffany Williamson was the 15th player to be eliminated, but will return to London $400 000 richer.

Ambience and excitement in new online casino direction

Microgaming has again showed its flair for innovation and cutting edge online gambling technology with the launch of the first Multiplayer Casino software at Riverbelle Casino.com.

Based on the positive player response to online multiplayer poker, the use of the latest developments in this technology to create more exciting casino gaming and environments represents a significant step forward that will ultimately give players the ability to gamble with their contemporaries all over the world on a wide variety of games.

Although Riverbelle is pioneering this exciting new product, the Trident group expects to have it available on the King Neptune's and Trident Lounge casinos shortly, and other groups are expected to quickly follow suit, rapidly broadening the market penetration of the new concept.

Players are being encouraged to try out the new software amid initial reports that the gameplay is fast, fair, smooth, and the interaction outstanding.

Using chat facilities and high resolution graphics in conjunction with the advanced software, Multiplayer Casino (MPC) creates additional gaming ambience and boosts the overall gambling experience.

There are three categories of slots:

Multiplayer Standard Slots is a global Slot Bank game where gamblers play with each other on slots in several slot rooms.

The slot rooms contain eight slots.

A player may only sit at one slot machine per room.

All slot machines are visible to all the players.

To take part in a game a player is required to place a bet. The slots will spin individually as each player activates.

Multiplayer Community Slots is a global Slot Bank game where gamblers play in company.

Community Slots have regular and community payouts.

Community payouts are payouts for community winning symbol combinations. Players are only paid out for community wins if they are seated at a slot machine and have placed a bet on the winning spin.

Each game is played on an individual basis, and wins are according to a standard pay table.

This does not apply to community payouts. These are the top three wins depending upon the game and the slot room. This payout is for each of the players present in the slot room, who took part in the spin where the payout was won.

Each win combination has a standard payout and may have a Community payout. The player with the winning combination receives the player payout and the balance of the players receive the Community payout.

Multi-Player Pot Slots is a global Slot Bank game where gamblers play against each other for a central pot. The player with the highest points at the end of the spin, wins the pot.

Points are awarded at the end of each spin. The number of points is dependent on the winning combination formed on the payline. The points awarded are re-set at the end of each spin.

Pot Slot is when the amount wagered is added to a common pot, less a small service fee. At the end of the spin, the player with the highest points, wins the pot.

The new technology is not confined to slots, and Blackjack players can also enjoy this new gambling experience.

There are many Multiplayer Blackjack tables to choose from with different betting limits and the most popular American and European rule variations.

Players can chat to each other during the game and can play together to try and beat the house.

Players can play at a table with chosen companions or simply join other Blackjack players from all around the world at the 3 and 5 seat tables.

Hotel management less than happy at CD intrusion

Reports from the Rio hotel, where this year's World Series of Poker championships have attracted a large following are that hotel management have been less than impressed with a rather clumsy, if not irresponsible marketing effort by Paradise Poker.

Apparently a person or persons unknown but presumably deployed by the poker site slipped unwrapped CD's of the companys poker software under the doors of hotel guests, perhaps hoping to drum up business.

Regrettably, the hotel was apparently not consulted first, and the "posting" was not done in a discriminating way.

InfoPowa asked Paradise Poker for a comment on this story but after three days there had been no comment as we went to press.

Latest Poker Pulse survey shows solid gains for Prima Poker network

The online poker Bible, Poker Pulse.com has released its latest list of top sites showing some dramatic traffic gains by the Microgaming-powered Prima Poker Network which carries 35 leading brands.

PokerPulse rankings are based on observed total real money players and estimated ring game pots and the current list is for the period ending the second quarter 2005.

The giant Party Poker.com operation still maintains a significant lead in the industry at the top of the list and continues to benefit from the massive publicity surrounding its recent IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

The high profile and skilfully marketed Poker Stars.com is second, but Prima has moved up and supplanted longtime number 3 Paradise Poker.com, owned by the Sportingbet organisation.

Way back when, Paradise was the top online poker venue before being unseated by Party Poker. It has now dropped to seventh position.

The much publicised Bodog.com poker room is dead tied in 14th place with Full Tilt Poker and an interesting struggle is developing between the two highly visible rooms.

Boss Media's International Poker Network is doing well at number 12.

This is the Top Ten on Poker Pulse.

1 PartyPoker
2 PokerStars
3 Prima Poker Network
4 UltimateBet
5 Pacific Poker (888.com)
6 PokerRoom.com
7 Paradise Poker
8 Ladbrokes
9 CryptoLogic
10 Tribeca Poker Network

Playtech powered network now targeting general gambling public too.

Hotel Casino Network.com, a group that originally aimed to leverage extensive land hotel experience and contacts to provide online casino gambling on hotel networks around the world, has expanded its marketing to the general Internet public.

The company has commissioned Income Access of Montreal to provide affiliate marketing programs capitalising on HCN's Playtech software, full Support and accounting facilities that promise a 1 - 4 day payout regime and Kahnawake licensing.

“Hotel Casino Network is a welcome addition to the community of gambling clients already using our programs,” said Income Access CEO, Nicky Senyard.

“We have designed the Hotel Casino Network affiliate program to offer online gambling affiliates attractive commission options, personalised affiliate support, detailed accurate tracking and reporting as well as many other features that affiliates need for success.”

Stars turn out in second edition of a popular Vegas tournament

The LV Convention and Visitors Authority have teamed with Clear Channel Entertainment (and a few wrinkly rockers) to organise a reprise of a popular poker tournament in the gambling city.

For a buy-in of $10,000, poker fans can sit at the same table with rockers Gene Simmons, Dave Navarro and Jerry Cantrell during the second annual Vegas Rock Star Poker Tournament and Sweepstakes.

The event takes place between August 25-27 at the Palms Casino Resort. Poker players who want in on this action should go to Vegas Rock Star Poker.com.

Readers will probably be hearing a lot more about this event - a series of promotions with radio station partners in New York, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco are planned.

US$700 million bid sends stock northwards...then south again.

Surprise news of the week came from Reuters, reporting that U.S. poker champion Doyle Brunson had bid $700 million cash for WPT Enterprises Inc. just days after the company known for its World Poker Tour television show launched an online gaming site.

Market rumors of the bid, which were later confirmed by WPT, sent its shares surging almost 59 percent last Friday to a new high of $28.20 on Nasdaq.

The bid offered a 100 percent premium over the Thursday closing price of $17.75 which valued WPT at about $357 million.

"This bid was unsolicited," Chief Financial Officer Todd Steele told Reuters. "We are going through the normal evaluation process for anything of this nature, and that will likely result in bringing it before the board."

WPT spokeswoman Jackie Lapin said the bid was made by Brunson with a team of unidentified financial backers. Later reports from CNBC suggested that the Binion (Vegas land casino operator) family was among those involved with Doyle Brunson.

Brunson, 71, a legendary U.S. professional poker players, was not immediately available for comment. He was otherwise occupied in Las Vegas playing in the World Series of Poker.

Analysts said the offer may seem high on the surface but was not necessarily so when looking at WPT's business model.

And that's when the wheels started coming off the offer, which had an expiry date of Tuesday this week. WPT CEO Steve Lipscomb couldn't seem to get the information he needed for serious consideration of the offer from Brunson, and as the week wore on it was clear that frustration was setting in.

The shine had disappeared, and media reports were suggesting that WPT Enterprises Inc's shares had turned southward because the Brunson bid had crumpled, prompting speculation about the offer's veracity.

"At this point, without any further information, we would let it expire," said WPT's Chief Executive Steve Lipscomb. "When the offer arrived last Thursday we were not looking to sell the World Poker Tour and we are more than happy to just get back to business."

A company spokeswoman said WPT, which owns the popular World Poker Tour television series, spoke to Brunson late Monday who indicated he would provide no further information about the vague, cash offer that was received last Thursday. And on Tuesday the offer was allowed to lapse.

UK players beware

UK-based players should be taking note this week of the rather strange goings-on at Riverboat Casino.com, which has disqualified winnings and bonuses from UK players on the grounds that it is in the midst of a major *investigation* into fraud from that country.

The problem is that although this action has been ongoing for some six months according to casino reps, any ban on UK players is not displayed in the T&Cs or anywhere on the site. And judging by the tales of the aggrieved the casino has not been stopping UK players from registering and wagering....it even has the United Kingdom on a drop down menu!

The site information aspect is easily rectified by the casino management, but should they continue penalise UK players who went there in good faith and played within the T&Cs exhibited at the time of their wagering, when no ban was displayed?

The answer is of course not, and Riverboat management needs to reconsider these cases whilst it is putting the "No UK Players" sign up on the site.

Another heavyweight client for SportXction system

Littlewoods subsidiary sportsbook BetDirect will be equipped with interactive in-run sports betting soon following an agreement with Interactive Systems Worldwide Inc. signed this week.

The companies have agreed to work together to formalise plans in relation to ISW subsidiary Global Interactive Gaming (GIG) providing its SportXction interactive betting product to Littlewoods Betdirect, one of the UK's leading home gaming companies, across its existing Internet, mobile phone and interactive television platforms.

The companies intend to complete a formal agreement and launch SportXction(R) on the Internet during the third calendar quarter of 2005.

During this time, the companies will also evaluate the deployment of SportXction(R) across Littlewoods Betdirect's existing mobile phone and interactive television platforms.

Interwetten to use casino and soft games suite

Canadian turnkey provider Chartwell Technology Inc has won a five-year contract to provide Flash-based casino and soft gaming products to Interwetten Gaming Ltd.

Interwetten managing director Hartwig Zimmerl says that the agreement calls for Chartwell to launch casino and soft games for Interwetten’s site, Interwetten.com in the near future.

But no denouement.

Last week's story on the US Customs confiscation of allegedly counterfeit cheques sent by Fedex from a casino group (see InfoPowa report) had a sequel early this week. Unfortunately it doesn't clarify these strange happenings any further.

As we went to press last week, the reputable casino group involved continued to assert that the $25 000 worth of cheques were definitely not counterfeit, and the player involved had engaged a lawyer to find out from US Customs why they thought there was counterfeiting going on, and why they had opened her private mail.

This week the player reported that the casino group had successfully cancelled the cheques, again confirming through their bank that there were no counterfeits. An alternative payment method had been found to speedily pay the player, along with an inconvenience bonus, and the player was happy with the casino (although as we reported last week the casino needed to learn a communication lesson from this issue)

On the Customs front no evidence had yet been produced to back up officialdom's claim that the cheques had been counterfeit. Nevertheless, the cheques remained impounded by Customs in the "Penalty and Fines" department, and the player was asked to sign a letter agreeing to "...abandon her property seized by US Customs"

And that's as far as anyone would go.

The player's lawyer advised her to simply accept the status quo; the player was happy that she had been paid anyway and everyone else intrigued by this story was left with the frustration of only being able to speculate on how and what had really happened!

Someone with a thing about auctions?

Popular portal and watchdog site Casinomeister.com was hacked at the weekend by a person or persons unknown who, according to Zone-H attacked several other sites in the same timeframe, mainly those that had carried auctions.

In Casinomeister's case, a script in the Casinomeister Auction section was found to have a security hole which the hacker exploited. Auctions are not a regular Casinomeister feature, but one had been held earlier this year to raise funds for the Asian Tsunami victims.

Fortunately, in this case not too much damage was done. The home page was defaced, necessitating a site shutdown whilst webmaster and owner Bryan Bailey sorted the mess out.

"I shut the site down and had it removed from the server, and I am now in the process of uploading the entire site with nice clean files from my harddrive," Bailey told his members. "I don't want to have any hidden trojans or worms stashed any place. All databases went untouched since they are located elsewhere."

The site was soon back up again.

2005 Top Fifty makes interesting reading.

New community gaming area

Internet auction site eBay has signed up FUN Technology subsidiary SkillJam to develop and provide a series of co-branded skill games for its new community gaming area due for launch later this year.

Chess and golf style games will be among the offerings, which users pay a fee to play for the chance of winning cash prizes. eBay will also integrate the games with content on its auction pages.

"If someone is looking at a Web page with a relevant item, such as golf clubs or a chess board, a pop-up will appear on screen inviting them to go to the community section of the site and play a related game," a spokesman for SkillJam revealed.

FUN Technologies also leases its white-label online games software to Virgin, AOL, Microsoft and Disney.

A side effect the drug manufacturer didn't plan

Associated Press reported an intriguing story this week of an unusual side-effect from a drug normally prescribed for sufferers of Parkinson's Disease.

The story records that a Californian man using the drug Mirapex for Parkinson's Disease is suing the drug manufacturer, Boehringer-Ingelheim after losing thousands of dollars playing slot machines in a nearby casino several times a day for almost two years.

Then he came across an Internet report that linked the drug with compulsive gambling. He stopped taking Mirapex, and within three days found that his compulsion to gamble vanished.

A Mayo Clinic study published in July’s Archives of Neurology describes 11 other Parkinson’s patients who developed the same unusual problem while taking Mirapex or similar drugs between 2002 and 2004. Doctors have since identified 14 additional Mayo patients with the problem, said lead author Dr. M. Leann Dodd, a Mayo psychiatrist.

“It’s certainly enough for us to be cautious as we are using it,” Dodd said. “We wouldn’t want them to have some kind of financial ruin or difficulties that could be prevented.”

Dr. Leo Verhagen, a Parkinson’s specialist at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center who was not involved in the study, says he and some colleagues all have a few patients who developed compulsive gambling while taking Mirapex, a drug that relieves tremors and stiffness. The behavior usually disappears when the drug dose is lowered, Verhagen said. He praised the Mayo article for raising awareness for doctors and patients.

The 54 year old Californian was not treated at Mayo or involved in the study. He said the problem is underreported “...because of the embarrassment factor” and is one of several patients suing the manufacturer, accusing the company of failing to adequately warn patients about the potential side effects.

California attorney Daniel Kodam, who filed the lawsuit last year, said he’s spoken with more than 200 Mirapex patients who developed compulsive behaviors, including excessive gambling, sex and shopping. He is seeking to have the complaint certified as a nationwide class-action lawsuit. A similar suit has been filed in Canada, Kodam said.

Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the central nervous system that affects more than 1 million Americans.

It is alleged that the Food and Drug Administration was contacted but failed to act on numerous adverse reaction reports about Mirapex. An FDA spokeswoman said the agency is examining the reports to determine if there’s any connection to the drug but declined to say how many it has received.

Katherine King O’Connor, a spokeswoman for the Ridgefield, Conn.-based Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, said there’s no scientific evidence that Mirapex causes the problem. Still, the company revised Mirapex’s package insert earlier this year to include compulsive behavior among potential side effects after receiving “rare” reports — all after the drug was approved for U.S. use in 1997, O’Connor said.

Mirapex was among top-selling Parkinson’s drugs last year, with more than $200 million in U.S. sales, according to IMS Health, a pharmaceutical information and consulting firm.

Though a few of the Mayo patients took related drugs, Dodd said most used Mirapex. They included a 68-year-old man who lost more than $200,000 at casinos over six months and a 41-year-old computer programmer who became “consumed” with Internet gambling, losing $5,000 within a few months.

Dodd said Mayo doctors now ask patients using the drugs if they have suddenly taken up gambling. Affected patients are usually switched to different drugs or doses, and the result is often dramatic, “like a light switch being turned off when they stopped the drug,” she said.

"Winning Edge" show starts September 2005

BetonSports (BOS) subsidiary BOS Poker.net is to sponsor the "Wayne Allyn Root's Winning Edge" TV show due for launch in the USA in September this year in a deal that whilst not quantified in dollar terms was claimed to be signficant.

BOS Poker.net is an informational poker site for fun, entertainment and prizes only, and is the newest venture by BOS into the world of poker. The agreement includes sponsorship of both "Wayne Allyn Root's WinningEDGE" national TV and radio properties.

Chairman & CEO Wayne Allyn Root said of the partnership, "This deal with BOS Poker.net is the largest sponsorship deal in our history. It comes on the heels of our announcement that we plan to become heavily involved in poker - the most high profile and fastest growing form of gaming in the world today."

Land and online casino company launches new venture

Christchurch Casinos E-Gaming is a company familiar to online gamblers as the parent of Playtech-powered Kiwi Casino.com, Kiwi Bingo and Tiki Bingo but this week the company included the latest gambling fave in its offerings with the launch of KiwiSkill.

KiwiSkill is a New Zealand online gambling site where players bet against one another in a selection of skill-based games.

Instead of providing traditional online casino games such as poker and bingo, KiwiSkill enables players to compete in a selection of close to 100 games of skill.

"This is a very exciting time for us" commented a CCE spokesman. "Kiwi Skill has a diverse range of games such as Bejeweled, Trivia, Solitaire, Dynomite and many other popular titles which enable players to pit their skills against other players in real time tournaments or head to head play."

Skill gaming is a relatively new online gaming market that is seeing massive growth the world over. Its unprecedented popularity stems from its ease of use and ability for people to challenge their colleagues to a friendly game of skill online. Kiwi Skill players can play their favorite game in tournaments, head to head competitions or challenge other players from all over the world for cash prizes.

Kiwi Skill has a comprehensive 'Community' element were players can challenge each other to games, check out leader boards, post on the message forums, join VIP Tournaments or invite friends to play. Every time a player takes part in a game, whether they loose or win, they are awarded loyalty points which can be cashed in or swapped for prizes such as DVD players, TV's, notebook computers or gift certificates to name a few.

Cross marketing opportunities with both Christchurch's land and online casinos would appear to be a definite possibility.

New UK publication attracts several media men

British gamblers will soon have a brand new newspaper to keep them abreast of sporting and gaming affairs if Ben and Zac Goldsmith, sons of the charismatic late billionaire Sir James Goldsmith have their way.

The two have put up some GBP 500 000 to start the ball rolling on the publication, branded "The Sportsman" which is aimed at the growing number of people who bet via the Internet on everything from poker to sports and financial markets. Targeted on the British gaming industry, worth GBP44 billion in bets taken last year, it will be published seven days a week and cover sport, the City and politics.

Charlie Methven, a former Daily Telegraph journalist, and Max Aitken, great-grandson of the legendary Express Newspapers proprietor Lord Beaverbrook, are behind the paper, with Jeremy Deedes, former chief executive of the Telegraph Group, who is chairman.

Compton Hellyer, chairman and founder of the spread-betting company Sporting Index, is a non-executive director.

The paper is seeking further investment of GBP12 million before it can launch.

Another major skill gaming deal

Delegates to this year's GIGSE conference in June may recall that one of the speakers on skill gaming, FUN Technologies Lorne Abonie had to cancel due to an urgent business deal - this week the details of that deal were announced.

Fanball Interactive, an Internet venture that offers online fantasy sports leagues for the National Basketball Association, National Football League and Major League Baseball, out of Minneapolis was the prize, acquired by FUN for a cool $12 million and the prospect of a share in future profits based on earnings targets over the next two years.

The total value of the deal could rise to $22 million.

Fanball president and co-founder Rob Phythian and other managers will stay on in their current roles.

Fanball has seen some tough times. It filed for bankruptcy protection during the 2001 dot-com bust, listing assets of $524,388 and liabilities of about $5 million. A private investment group bought the company out of bankruptcy, keeping Phythian at the business.

Fanball made the most of its second chance: Fun Technologies said that Fanball recorded $1 million in net income in 2004 on turnover of $4.6 million.

Lorne Abony, CEO of Fun Technologies, said that Fanball's site was receiving 1.5 million visitors per month.

FUN Tech has a busy quarter....

FUN Technologies is making the most of the burgeoning skill gaming sector, following its acquisition of Fanball with a significant deal between subsidiary SkillJam and Virgin Games.

The exclusive, multi-year agreement with Virgin Games means that SkillJam becomes Virgin’s supplier of skill-game products and services.

SkillJam will provide a library of skill-based games available, including single-player branded games such as Zuma, Bejeweled, Collapse, Solitaire and Name that Tune, as well as multi-player games like Pool, Chess, Checkers and Hearts.

SkillJam will develop, operate and support customised, Virgin-branded skill gaming websites for the US, UK, and European markets.

“This partnership is a major step in our ambition to build a destination gaming site for the mainstream market. The marriage of our brand, distribution and marketing muscle with SkillJam’s world-class technology and content will be a potent force in the market,” Oscar Nieboer, Managing Director of Virgin Games, said.

Good business through an old favourite on a thoroughly modern platform

Skill gaming provider Game Account reports that its online Gin Rummy is showing the potential to generate significant player numbers and cash wagering tournaments.

The company claimed this week that its Gin Rummy game is mimicking the growth so commonly associated with the poker phenomenon.

Sophisticated turn-based multiplayer games are helping to increase skill player value. Gin Rummy players are now spending double the amount of GameAccount’s casual games player, with an average Gin Rummy player generating $50+ revenue per month compared to $25+ spent by an average skill gamer.

According to GameAccount Marketing Director Kevin O’Neal, peer-to-peer (P2P) games like Gin Rummy are proving to be very popular with recreational gamblers as well as traditional game players, attracting an even broader audience than poker.

The increasing popularity of Gin Rummy may be attributed to the high numbers of players from the United States. Gin Rummy is a skill game, and skill games are legal in the US.

“Because skill gaming is legal in many US states, it can advertise its presence to a US audience. So traditional skill games like Gin Rummy are instantly recognisable and have become popular in this new sector. Ultimately, skill gaming is a way to introduce soft gamers to gambling online,” O’Neal added.

Game Account says the online skill games market is currently worth $269 million per annum and has demonstrated such a substantial rate of growth that it is expected to reach $526 million by 2007.

South Koreans play cyber games

Korean news site Donga.com reports that some innovative thinking is being applied by South Koreans to get around gambling regulations.

The activities are centred on four main venues, HanGame, Netmarble, Pmang and Mgame. These effectively online gambling sites recorded 234.3 billion won in revenues last year, up from a mere 82.4 billion won in 2002.

Traditional gambling industry revenues from horseracing, motorboat-racing, Kangwon Land Casino, on the other hand, saw decreases in revenue last year by 25 percent to record 7.92 trillion won.

The growth of Internet gambling has been spurred by the explosive increase of users in their 20s and 30s and female users, reports Donga. It claims that the number of registered users for the four major sites has risen to upwards of 15 million, an increase of 1-2 million per year. Sixty percent of users are in their 20s and 30s, and female users account for 40 percent of total users.

The Korean Game Development Institute (KGDI) expects the online game market to grow by 20 percent annually until 2007.

The gaming sites' main source of income is from selling cyber money or avatars (one`s characterised self on the Internet) which deposit cyber money. Users can win as much as one billion won in cyber money for online games like Go-stop, a traditional Korean card gambling game, if buying an avatar worth 70,000 won.

Cyber money worth one billion won for Go-stop is being traded at 13,000 to 15,000 won in the online game market. The actual price fluctuates in similar fashion to share price movements, and is controlled by supply and demand.

Sellers, after completing the transaction, play a game with the buyers, in which sellers intentionally lose money to the buyers. This activity is called "transfusion." Some sellers go further and hand over the ID and password of the account containing the cyber money.

The total monetary amount of items exchanged across 100 Internet sites reached 500 billion won last year. The lack of relevant regulation keeps this transaction within the legal boundaries.

According to the Korea Media Rating Board, 196 games with varying degrees of gambling involved were newly released last year, twice that of the number released in 2003.

The committee is not eligible for regulating these games unless cyber money is directly charged by using cash, or cyber money is transferred to gift certificates, letting gaming companies sell items with cyber money as a form of bonus to avoid regulation.

According to a spokesperson for Dandobak, a group that seeks to limit or discourage the spread of gambling, "It is nonsense to think of this as non-gambling because only cyber money is used, and it can still lead to problems.”

Lee Jin-oh, the general executive of the Korean Network to Regulate and Improve Gambling Industry, said that online games could lead to real gambling such as horse racing or casino games.

"Internet games can clearly lead to gambling addiction and should be heavily regulated along with the more traditional gambling industry," he added.

Pegasus Gaming subbing Chimera Tech software

The latest online poker room to enter this competitive space is likely to be via Pegasus Gaming, which this week announced the successful testing and integration of a P2P multi-table suite of poker card games.

The games offered include Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Stud and several games which are offered in Asian markets.

These products are to be added to a suite of Internet casino platforms and offered as an optional addition to all licensees, who will be able to run tournaments and offer specific incentives to players as part of the customisation of all products.

Pegasus has just clinched a deal with Chimera Technology for exclusive license distribution rights to a suite of Internet casino platforms and applications. With the acquisition completed, the company is ready to market the system to operators.

The Pegasus business plan calls for operators to be provided with a complete turn key solution for sports betting, a suite of casino games and thoroughbred horse racing, all backed up with complete backend management services.

Management is rather ambitiously projecting that up to 5 licensees could be on board by year end.

President and CEO David Cheng says the company has been appointing sales agents to aggressively market the product in Europe and Africa. In their third press release of the week, Pegasus announced that they were negotiating for a mobile gaming technology package to license, presumably also from Chimera who are known to be working on this technology.

Restricted broadcasting and public viewing

Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, has endorsed amendments to the Law on Advertising that effectively limit the advertising of casinos and gambling activities, reports Tass.

The revised law aims to restrict the involvement of underage Russians in any form of gambling.

Effective immediately, casinos and other gambling venues may no longer place outdoor advertising or promotions.

Radio and TV channels may not air gambling promotional material from 07h00 to 22h00 hours, and the new law also introduces a ban on advertising in airports, at railway stations and metro stations.

Gambling advertisements may only be placed inside gambling venues or in specialised gambling printed media.

The content of advertising material is controlled, too. The contents of gambling ads of any type may not contain promises of a sure win, cannot target underage citizens or (quaintly) "...use the images of people and animals."

Companies violating the law may face penalties up to 500,000 roubles (around US $ 1800).

And what does "re-education through labour" involve?

Police carrying out a nationwide crackdown on gambling in China have detained or arrested more than 702,000 people, including 1,617 government officials, since the beginning of the year, the government has said.

The report by the official Xinhua news agency was the latest in a series of updates on the crackdown. Communist leaders say that gambling is aiding official corruption and organised crime.

According to the ministry of public security, 3,874 of the suspects were prosecuted, 1,479 were given prison sentences, 5,115 were being "....re-educated through labour" and 105,000 remained in detention, Xinhua said.

One for the ladies
Poker players who keep abreast of what's happening in this exciting game will know that a growing number of women players are competing, many rising to the top ratings at the tables.

Reflecting this important player demographic is the upcoming Women's Poker Convention which is to take place at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas from August 12-14 this year.

Hosted by poker author Lou Krieger and featuring addresses by leading exponents of the art, the aim of this event is to provide women players with all the information they need to succeed in the field and overcome the challenges of competition.

The keynote speaker is Jennifer Harman, a frequent top drawer player in some the biggest cash games in the world, World Poker Tour champion, and two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner.

Presenters include WSOP champion Barbara Enright, two-time WSOP champion Susie Issacs, noted poker writer Amy Calistri, and professional players Roxci Rhodes, Cat Hulbert, and Lacey Jones.

Supporting the presentations will be a panel discussion and a women's poker tournament will be the grand finale.

Ladies can register for the tournament and learn more at Womens Poker Convention.com

In depth conferences
River City Group is looking for sponsors for an exciting new series of conferences branded "InDepth".

These events are designed to focus the networking and educational spotlight on issues surrounding important I-gaming industry sectors.

The first two events are scheduled as follows:

I-Gaming InDepth: Skill Games - September 8-9, 2005 in Lake Las Vegas, NV. The beautiful Hyatt Lake Las Vegas venue will welcome discussions on the Skill Games segment of I-gaming.

I-Gaming InDepth: Poker - December 8-9, 2005 in Nassau, Bahamas. Travel to the warm Bahamas for an in-depth discussion about online poker and the specific issues surrounding this lucrative I-gaming segment.

Potential sponsors or delegates interested in attending can obtain further detail at the River City website.

Stock popular with both institutional investors and the public

Dominating the week's business headlines, the Party Gaming IPO in London was keenly followed by industry observers from its start with institutional investors buying the stock to the public's involvement later in the week which saw the stock climb from 116p to almost 150p as we went to press.

The shares gathered steam as the public entered the market following institutional investor buying which saw the shares up almost 14 percent. Public sentiment drove the stock up a further 6.5 percent Thursday.

The stock was at 149 pence ($2.65) in late afternoon dealing on the London Stock Exchange, well above its offer price of 116 pence at the start of trading earlier this week.

Associated Press reports that the market value of the Gibraltar-based company now exceeds GBP 5.7 billion ($10.21 billion).

Analysts had originally expected an offering that would value the company at close to 5.5 billion pounds ($9.9 billion), given the boom in the worldwide online poker market -- of which PartyGaming estimates it has a 55 percent share.

But PartyGaming said it planned to sell shares at between 111 pence and 127 pence, a lower than expected range. Some analysts blamed that on investors' fears about a U.S. clampdown on online gambling. PartyGaming, which runs the partypoker.com Web site, derives about 87 percent of its income from U.S. gamblers.

PartyGaming's online poker gaming room has attracted more than 1 million users since it was set up in 2001. Customers pay a rake to the company to play against each other on individual tables of up to 10 players or in tournaments.

It is estimated that the majority of its earnings last year came from the US, with Party Gaming generating a pre-tax profit of GBP 371 million ($665 million) in 2004. During the first three months of the 2005 financial year earnings growth has continued and sales have almost doubled from the same period a year earlier.

The group, formerly known as iGlobalMedia, also has gaming brands including Starluck Casino and PartyBingo.

End 2006 could see the first licenses

The government agencies involved in implementing the UK Gambling Bill, which will see major reform in the British Isles and official regulation of online gaming seems to be moving ahead slowly but surely judging by government timelines released this week.

The key Gambling Commission is planning to start its regulatory role from autumn 2005, commencing with a formal consultation process as to how the provisions of the act are to be implemented.

It is anticipated that applications for the first UK e-gaming licenses for online casinos and poker rooms will be accepted from late 2006. The number of applications will depend on the levels of taxation decided on by the UK government, as several major online gambling companies have indicated that their choice of licensing jurisdiction will depend on how reasonable the tax regime is to be. With credible government regulatory alternatives available in Gibraltar, Malta, Alderney and the Isle of Man, gambling firms will have a choice.

The answer to this crucial taxation question is expected from government around November 2005, along with draft codes of practice for licensees.

Readers can keep abreast of developments by visiting www.gamblingcommission.co.uk.

Casino Player's "Best of Gaming" recognizes online casinos

King Neptune's Casino (www.kingneptunescasino.com) and Trident Lounge Casino (www.tridentloungecasino.com) have achieved top positioning in the popular Casino Player magazine "Best of Gaming" edition out this week.

The casinos, which both belong to the Trident Group and are widely acknowledged as being among the most successful online casinos in the industry, took the Best Customer Service Award (King Neptunes) with Trident Lounge the runner up, and 2nd prize in the Best Payouts Award (King Neptune's)

The awards are based on free voting by subscribers to the almost 120 000 circulation Casino Player magazine, a highly respected gambling interest publication based in the United States which enjoys international popularity.

Customer service is available to Trident group casino and poker room players via a round-the-clock, toll-free telephone, e-mail and Live Chat Support communications system.

Trident group spokesman Scott Gaines paid tribute to the customer service staff at the casinos in acknowledging the awards.

"Much time and effort goes into selecting the right staff and then training them in the latest CRM techniques using the best systems available, and being recognized by the readers of such an influential magazine vindicates the investment we have made in training and motivation," he said. "Consistently maintaining high levels of efficiency and responsiveness takes both skill and commitment, and we're proud of our Support and Accounting staff for achieving this key goal."

This could be an improvement in payout efficiency...

The rumours were rife at the GIGSE conference that this deal was going down (see earlier InfoPowa reports) and it is now official - Vegas Partner Lounge has taken over Golden Riviera Casino and others in the Golden Star group.

With immediate effect the five Golden Riviera Casinos (Golden Riviera.com, Miami Paradise Casino.com, Slots Royale.com, River NileCasino.com and Casino France Net.com) and one Poker Room (Golden Riviera Poker.com) will come under the management of Vegas Partner Lounge whilst retaining their seperate brand identity.

"This is a major coup for us" says Austin Green, Sun Vegas Casino Manager, "The Golden Riviera Group is exceptionally strong in the European markets. Their casinos have a unique style in the industry and offer some of the best promotions around."

No details have been released on purchase cost, or whether the former owner of Golden Riviera is to remain in the industry.

The Golden Riviera Group and Vegas Partner Lounge are to remain two separate brands.

"We decided that each group has it's own character, it's own style, and players, we want to maintain that individuality" comments Green. "We have no interest in becoming the largest group of online casinos, we'd rather keep the personal touch.

"We're looking at this acquisition more as a merge. The identity Golden Riviera has built over the last few years is what appeals to us, it's what we hope to maintain. Resources will be pooled, information shared, and hopefully bonds formed that will ensure both Vegas Partner Lounge and Golden Riviera grow from strength to strength," he concluded.

Both groups have successfully achieved eCOGRA player protection seal status, and this will therefore remain.

Vegas Partner Lounge began as a single online casino operation with Crazy Vegas Casino.com. With the addition of Sun Vegas Casino.com and Crazy Poker.com it was obvious big things were still to come. VPL expanded further when it took over management and marketing of 777 Dragon.com, Cinema Casino.com and Arthurian Casino.com, and then in 2003 Casino US.com.

2004 saw the introduction of many additional games, and the conversion of all Vegas Partner Lounge online casinos to the latest Viper Software - sporting more games than any other online casino. With the introduction of Maple Casino.com in September 2004, Vegas Partner Lounge also introduced the Canadian dollar into the online casino market.

Bluff Brings Bubble Insurance to the WSOP

The worst place to finish in any poker tournament is on the bubble. But finishing on the bubble at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the absolute worst finish in the entire sport of poker.

Finishing just one seat out of the money at the WSOP means you’ve blown your $10,000 entry fee, labored a week grinding your way to the brink of victory; yet receive NO reward or recognition for your efforts. One seat OUT of the money is every player’s nightmare.

But Bluff Magazine thinks that finishing on the Bubble isn’t anything to be ashamed of at a tournament of this importance and at this level. With 6,600 players competing for a bracelet this year, the 2005 WSOP is the biggest sporting event in history. So to celebrate 2005’s bubble finishers, Bluff Magazine is offering Bubble Insurance, which could put the last five players finishing OUT of the money in 2005, back into the series in 2006, with a seat sponsored by the largest poker magazine in America.

According to Bluff Magazine editor, Michael Caselli, “Bubble insurance is a cool way to take some of the sting out of hitting the felt at 100 mph and missing your shot at becoming a millionaire. Besides paying for next year’s WSOP seat, Bluff will feature all the players that cash in on their Bubble Insurance policy in the magazine, giving them the recognition they deserve for beating thousands of other combatants at poker’s big dance.”

Bluff is offering Bubble Insurance for up to 1,000 players in this year’s 6,600 player field. Players can register for Bubble Insurance for free at the Bluff Magazine trade show booth on July 6, 7, 8, and 9th provided that they agree to wear their free Bluff t-shirt through out the main event. Bubble Insurance players finishing 1-5 places OUT of the money will be awarded a seat at the 2006 WSOP.

If you are playing in the 2005 WSOP or know someone who is, you can refer them to booth 805 at the WSOP Trade Show, July 6, 7, 8, and 9th where they will be able to insure themselves against going out on the bubble. Bluff Magazine Bubble Insurance is free and available to all 2005 WSOP players.

Bluff Magazine is currently going from strength to strength it appears. After a relatively short life, it is America's largest poker magazine with 225,000 copies printed and distributed nationwide. Bluff's 125,000 newsstand copies and 100,000 event and location copies gets the publication into the hands of all poker enthusiasts eager to keep up with the fast-pace of the modern game.

iGAMI to represent online gaming marketers

Arbitrary and retroactive changes to affiliate "partnerships" recently by certain online casino groups has reinforced the need for a more unified affiliate marketing community and the formation of a non profit organization to do this, say prominent members of the affiliate community.

Titled “International Gaming Affiliate Marketing Initiative” (iGAMI) the body is designed to protect the interests of affiliates and marketers of online gaming and according to the founders has been needed for some time.

One of the fundamental guiding principles of the new organization will be that affiliate programs should be true "partnerships" and that programs or casinos should not permit one partner to negatively affect another through the use of unethical practices.

Additionally, concerns over prompt payments, knowledgeable support - both technical and administrative, accurate tracking and statistics, responsible behavior by both affiliate and the affiliate program, and being treated fairly and with equality with regard to peers will prevail in the new organization's mission and operating philosophy.

iGAMI will endeavor to encourage industry wide cooperation and communication among all individuals conducting affiliate business in the industry so that common interests and goals can be effectively met.

Affiliates or other parties who are interested in getting involved in the developmental stages of the new organization are invited to email interested@igami.org for additional information or visit the organization's website at www.igami.org.

New Wager Works powered poker site - but not for U.S. players

They've been talking about it for months, but this week World Poker Tour Enterprises finally launched their branded, real money poker website.

WPTonline.com features a live multiplayer poker room with head-to-head and tournament play. The site prohibits bets from players in the U.S. and other jurisdictions where online gaming is prohibited, and is regulated by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission.

WagerWorks developed the software being used by WPTonline.com under a licensing agreement with WPTE.

In addition to having a variety of multiplayer poker games, ring table games, Sit & Go and Multi-table Series tournaments, WPTonline.com features a customized version of the WagerWorks Poker Software. Designed with WPT's guidance, the software showcases a completely new graphic package to match the WPT television experience as well as advanced game features catering to the avid poker player.

The WPTonline.com website is a fully integrated poker room and casino site, featuring a comprehensive suite of gaming products -- including such popular games as Monopoly, Blackjack, Roulette, Baywatch, Bingo, Wheel of Fortune and The Price Is Right.

Players will be offered unique promotions based on the WPT franchise, creating a seamless community between the Internet and television.

Steve Lipscomb, President and CEO of WPT Enterprises, Inc., vows, "WPT aims to be the 'People's Choice' for poker. We want to give our WPTonline.com players every opportunity to participate in the entire WPT experience, which is why our online players will be afforded premier opportunities to enter WPT land-based tournaments as well as WPT Invitational events."

Players will also be eligible for innovative player incentives and premium online events, together with exclusive membership in the WPT Elite Members Club where players will earn rewards and other privileges.

Given the prominence of the WPT brand and its massive TV exposure, marketing is likely to be extensive through syndicated TV with licensing rights in over 100 countries and territories.

According to market research firm Christiansen Capital Advisors, L.L.C. (CCA), the global online gaming industry will reach the $10 billion mark in 2005, more than double total revenues in 2002.

CCA says the European market alone will experience triple-digit growth in online poker over the next two years.

Broken promise?

The Chance group of online casinos headed by Brian Woods (Black Widow, Sterlinghouse and Grand Banks) has been on the influential Casinomeister rogue list for some time after Woods admitted that bonus takers were low on the payout priority list.

That seemed to be coming right at the last GIGSE conference in Montreal, where Woods had a serious meeting with the Casinomeister in an attempt to get off the list, and promised to mend his casinos' slow pay and bonus disqualification ways in return for being placed "on probation."

Unfortunately the probation had hardly begun when Chance pulled a questionable bonus disqualification on a legitimate player who had complied with all terms and conditions. The casino management invoked its omnibus "bonus abuser" clause which it must know to be inappropriate in such an issue.

A more effective way of dealing with the case would have been to pay all monies legitimately owed under the T&Cs pertaining at the time of wagering and then either lock the player's account or bar further promo offers to him or her.

As the Casinomeister pointed out, if this sort of T&C goes against the grain the players have the ultimate say by taking their business elsewhere.

Movie star is a poker champion

Movie star Jennifer Tilly (46) won poker fame too, following her victory in the World Series of Poker Ladies No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em event at the Rio in Vegas this week. It was the first time that a Hollywood celebrity has achieved a winner's bracelet in the globally famous tournament.

Tilly's skillful play earned her $158,625 as she beat 600 players to capture first place in the gruelling two-day event that featured some of the top female professional poker players in the world. The buy-in was $1,000.

"I think she showed an incredible amount of talent," WSOP media director Nolan Dalla said. "She had an enormous chip lead and never looked back."

Tilly said she's learned plenty of pointers from her boyfriend, poker player Phil "Unabomber" Laak.

An Oscar nominee for her role in the 1994 film, "Bullets Over Broadway," Tilly is the first woman in this year's WSOP to win a bracelet.

Gambling's popularity continues

Online poker is on a winning streak. According to research firm River City Group, Internet poker alone is a $2 billion-a-year industry with a million players monthly.

ComScore Media Metrix - which measures all U.S. Internet users at home, work and college locations -- reports more than 29.1 million unique visitors to online gambling sites in April, out of a total audience of 165 million.

And, according to a recent survey from the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center, card playing for money has increased among males between the ages of 14 and 22. In 2004, 11.4% of in-school male youth reported betting on cards at least once a week, up from 6.2% in 2003; furthermore, 11.4% of these weekly card players are likely to gamble on the Internet. In addition, 43.2% of players who bet money weekly on cards were under 18, according to the Annenberg survey.

Todd Brunson gets his first bracelet

Event 21 at this year's WSOP tournament was a red letter day for Todd Brunson, son of the doyen of poker players, Doyle. He won his first WSOP bracelet playing in the $2500 Omaha 8 or Better section and took winnings of $255 945 in a field that numbered 359 players. The final table included accommplished players and two former bracelet winners.

Dad, who has nine WSOP bracelets to his credit was playing in another event but occasionally visited to see how Todd was getting on, but the latter is no newbie - he has prevailed in over ten major tournaments and wrote a chapter on Seven Card Stud in the book Super System 2.

Todd needed less than ninety minutes of heads up play to win his first bracelet. On the winning hand he was behind most of the way and caught a runner-runner straight to clinch the victory. Todd also made history when he became part of the first father-son duo to win bracelets.

Dedicated column started in NY Times

The poker craze has hit mainstream media with a weekly column scheduled for the New York Times starting this week.

Commencing Saturday, the New York Times will begin running a weekly poker column, written by author and writing instructor James McManus. The column, plainly titled "Poker," will appear in the Times' sports section each Saturday, and will cover a range of the game's appeal, including the strategy and psychology involved in home poker games, online poker, as well as major land-based tournaments.

McManus made his mark on the world of poker when he entered the 2000 World Series of Poker (WSOP) as part of a piece he was writing for Harper's magazine. Although his participation had initially literary motivations, McManus ultimately came in fifth at the tournament, taking home $250,000.

Seif in the money and the glory

Professional poker player Mark Seif produced a highly creditable performance this week to become the first person at the World Series of Poker to win two championships this year, placing him second in the money and first in the running for the WSOP's "Player of the Year" award.

Seif, who is currently ranked number 10 globally according to Card Player magazine won his first gold and diamond WSOP bracelet in the $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout on June 17 for $181,330 and collected his second bracelet last Friday in the $1,500 NL Hold'em event where he bested 2,013 players, the third largest field in WSOP history.

Seif's victory, which included beating defending world champion Greg "Fossilman" Raymer, netted him $611,145. Earlier in the month he placed 53rd in the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em winning $7,475 bringing his 2005 WSOP winnings to date to $799,950.

An ex-lawyer who switched to pro poker playing in 2001after winning half a million dollars, Seif said, "This has been one of the most thrilling experiences of my life -- it's really just starting to sink in that I've done so well. For the last five years, I've been trying to win a bracelet at the WSOP so this is a significant accomplishment for me. It's also a big deal for my mom who maybe will start saying I'm a pro poker player instead of a lawyer!"

Nine players competed in last Friday's event to win the WSOP bracelet and the $611,145 top prize. Mark Seif won and took home $611,145 with Minh Nguyen in second place on $329,975 and Bill Gazes at third with $202,790.

Nolan Dalla, WSOP media director, said, "Mark Seif has paid his dues in this game. For years he has done it all. He's won several tournaments, made several final tables and finished high in the money several times. Up to now, the only thing that has eluded him has been the gold bracelets at the WSOP. Mark has not only fulfilled that dream, but he did it twice. He now joins an elite group of poker players who have won twice. It is an honor well deserved."

36 tournaments in 41 days but the London lads are "focused"

The Prima Poker network sponsored Hendon Mob, four of Britain's top professional poker players, are currently in Las Vegas to on a six-week mission for gold in the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

With 36 poker tournaments in 41 days, Ram "Crazy Horse" Vaswani, Barny Boatman, Joe "The Elegance" Beevers, and "Rocky" Ross Boatman will hit the felt at the RIO to secure as many gold bracelets as possible.

The odds this year are likely to be stiffer, with more players entering the event through satellite tournaments than ever before. "We have a big job ahead, but we've come prepared to focus on poker for the next month and a half," said Barny Boatman of the Hendon Mob. "Poker is our livelihood and this is the world championship. We won't be satisfied until one of us wins a gold bracelet."

The Hendon Mob is willing to talk Hold'em, Omaha or Seven Card Stud with anyone that will listen, too. They will be available throughout the next six weeks to provide insight and live updates from the WSOP. To date, The Mob has demonstrated their poker skills on Fox Sports Net, NBC, ABC and FOX, tutored 'Cousin Sal' on Jimmy Kimmel Live and have been featured in the WPT and the 2004 WSOP on ESPN.

Members of the Mob are:

Ram "Crazy Horse" Vaswani: Best known for his many different styles of play, can be quick and aggressive or slow and methodical. In addition to playing multiple final tables at the 2004 WSOP, Ram won the European Poker Tour's Irish Masters.

Barny Boatman burst onto the international poker scene in 1999 when he became Europe's top ranked Seven Card Stud player. He is recognized on the poker circuit as a formidable and daring opponent, rising to victory at the 2004 Helsinki Freeze Out, after finishing a close second in 2003.

Joe "The Elegance" Beevers is a former banker who paid for his bachelor's in finance by giving poker and blackjack lessons to his teachers and friends while in school. Joe is fresh off a seventh place finish in the Five Star World Poker Classic at the Bellagio where he took home $188,000. In 2004, he won the Four Queens Poker Classic and placed second at The Gaming Club World Poker Championship.

Ross "Rocky" Boatman is pure theatre. Well-known for his eight years as playing the loveable "Kevin" in Britain's most successful TV drama series, London's Burning. His years in front of the camera and on stage have made him one of the world's most unreadable players. Ross is currently the British Hi-Lo Omaha Champion.

Purchase of affiliate partner makes for a well integrated group

London based Gaming Corporation plc added to its growing and diverse portfolio of online gambling companies this week by taking over Casino.ie - its largest affiliate partner.

The latest acquisition follows moves which saw top portal Got2Bet and the important specialised search engine Gambling.com both joining the group in major deals over the past two months. Gaming Corporation already owned other large online gambling firms at the time and is clearly building up a significant and well-integrated group.

Casino.ie is a leading Irish online casino operator and was acquired for a consideration of £60,000 that will be met in cash. The consideration includes the web site address www.casino.ie and all existing players, database of registered users and assets of the business.

Justin Drummond, Chief Executive at Gaming Corporation, commented,

"Casino.ie has been our largest and best performing affiliate partner over the last 12 months, a performance that we believe can be significantly improved upon when the marketing and promotional expertise we possess is brought to bear. This will enable us to exploit fully the potential revenues off this valuable property".

"We will convert the website, currently transacting in sterling, into a euro denominated site and will use Casino.ie to form the basis for our expansion into Europe and the euro zone."

The essential link

That critical element in online gaming - e-cash processors - are cashing in on the increasing popularity of Internet gambling, says EGR Magazine this week, examining some of the market leaders.

UK-based based Moneybookers is on course to reach 1 million account holders by July, reports EGR as the alternative payment sector continues its spectacular growth.

The firm, which is owned by the same venture capital firm as sportsbook Gamebookers, has reached the landmark figure in just under four years.

And it will be seen as further evidence of huge growth in the alternative payment sector, following the successful flotation of competitors FireOne and NETeller.

Growth remains strong at Isle of Man-based NETeller, which has over 1.5 million members and reported quarterly profits of US$18.2m in its Q1 results.

NETeller has been one of the year’s big success stories on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investments Market (AIM), with its value almost doubling since the beginning of the year.

Canadian firm FireOne, the parent company of e-wallet Firepay, has also seen its share price rocket since listing on AIM at the beginning of June.

FireOne was trading at 320p this week, a rise of almost a third from its listing price of 241p.

Watch out for a new venture from Google, too - the company is expected to launch its e-wallet system in the next few weeks, but the firm is unlikely to offer the service to gambling merchants.

Singapore : online gaming takes the spotlight at the Asian Casinos Expo.

Industry experts at the Asian Casinos Expo in Singapore say that governments in the region should legalise and regulate the online gaming industry, which is worth between US$50-$60 billion a year.

The demand for online gaming in the region is huge and will continue to grow, whether it is legalised or not, they say.

"Over the years people have estimated the market in Asia to be worth between US$50 billion to US$60 billion a year, which is a huge number. What I can say is, that number will continue to grow dramatically over the coming years. I would expect it to double every year over the next 4 to 5 years within Asia," said Tim Levene, CEO of Intellilogica.

Hong Kong may have instituted a law making online gaming illegal but for most Asian countries, it is a grey area.

Industry players say Asian governments should look at regulating and legalising online gaming.

Said Levene: "I don't think they have a choice, the internet has no borders. And if Government feel that by prohibiting internet gambling, they can restrict it, then they are really not looking at the true picture. Internet gambling is growing at well over 100 percent a year. The number of customers is going to grow considerably over the next 20 to 30 years. The government must recognise this, regulate it and benefit from these revenues that currently are seeping outside of their borders everyday."

With the growth of internet broadband in Asia, some online casinos have moved up a gear to a more interactive format.

They are now employing 'live' video streaming with a real dealer in a studio setting.

Peter Kjaer, CEO of Ho Gaming Solutions, Macau said: "As we move forward, more and more people will adapt the 'live' dealer concept with a web-cam type of real game. That's because it's comforting for the player to know that it is a real game, not a machine."

Ho Gaming Solutions has spent millions on its online gaming site that is seen as a complementary but very important part of its overall casino business.

Singapore conference experts predict major growth in online gambling

Reporting on the proceedings of a recent conference in the region (see last week's InfoPowa), the Singapore Business Times says two upcoming integrated resorts in the area might make bricks-and-mortar casinos the talk of the town, but online gambling is where the bigger growth will be.

Quoting industry experts, the report predicts that online gambling will grow at 50 to 70 per cent a year for the next five to ten years. Industry studies also indicate that by next year, global Internet gambling revenues will have grown to US$12.6 billion.

"I don't think that's unreasonable," Tim Levene, chief executive of gambling investments fund Intellilogica is quoted as saying. "The percentage going online to gamble is still a tiny percentage in terms of the international online community."

Well known turnkey provider Realtime Gaming says it has seen a 20 per cent growth for the last six years, and gross profit margins of over 36 per cent. With more than 60 clients, the company has handled over US$20 billion worth of wagers over a five year period.

RGT vice-chairman, Daniel Schultz, is quoted as saying there is explosive potential for online gambling because land for hosting face-to-face gambling could be limited and expensive.

Euro 18.94 million the price of killing 5 year agreement

The Austrian public company gambling group Bet and Win has reversed out of its 5 year business-to-business "white label" agreements on Betoto.com and The Croupier.com, only 18 months into the deal.

The group is to pay a total purchase price of Euro 18.94 million, the equivalent to nearly three times the anticipated gross revenue for the year 2005 to buy back the white label sites, made up of Euro 5 million in cash and 200 000 shares in three tranches. The white label sites are currently the property of Nomato Investments Limited which will receive the purchase price under a new agreement of sale.

n business notices on the transactions, Bet and Win says that in the spring of 2003 the group's business model was expanded by the addition of a business-to-business offering with the working title of "White Label", the purpose being to generate additional value for the company by operating online gaming platforms under other brand names.

Under this business model, betandwin was to act solely as a service provider, whilst the local partner was to assume responsibility for marketing and sales, and take ownership of the values brand and customer values created.

The first such joint venture was set up and operated in the form of a pilot project with the website www.betoto.com aimed at the Greek market.

Although the project proved an overwhelming success: together with betoto, betandwin has since become the market leader in online sports betting on the Greek market, and for strategic considerations, at the end of last year the company decided to drop this business-to-business model.

Expanding on its rationale, Bet and Win says that technological leadership in the field of sports betting has increasingly proved to be a key element in the company's future success: due to its importance it was decided to enhance this rather than make it available to third parties.

Bet and Win has also entered into a long-term marketing agreement with built-in success factors with the current management of betoto.com so as to be able to continue benefiting from the local expertise of its Greek partners in the future, thus expanding the regional market position which both companies have already achieved.

Fortune Lounge group's Personal Messenger has a 90 percent take-up

Back in January this year there were those who doubted that a new player communications initiative from Fortune Lounge online casino group would be popular. This week statistics showing a 90 percent take-up of the facility by active players proved them wrong.

Released in January 2005, the Fortune Lounge Personal Messenger (FLPM) empowers new and existing players to receive personalised messages, account information, gaming news and updates on the Fortune Lounge Group’s latest promotions, bonus offers and prizes in real-time. The application is designed to help players avoid the extremely rigorous spam filtering systems of many e-mail providers that can prevent legitimate invitations and offers from reaching the intended recipients.

Believed to be the industry’s first tool for delivering player-specific information direct to the desktop, the FLPM is similar to instant message and chat applications and resides unobtrusively in the task bar, activated only when a new message is received.

A new release of the FLPM, scheduled for mid July, will provide a 24-hour link to Fortune Lounge’s dedicated support team, access to account balance information, a direct link to the casino winners’ wall and easy retrieval of Players Club loyalty point balances.

The FLPM application offers automatic and manual message retrieval to enable players to choose how they would like to receive information. With automatic retrieval, an alert sounds when a new message or content becomes available. Players also have the option of choosing when to check for new messages and updates manually. The application can be removed at any time without disrupting the operating system or casino play.

Players at the following online gaming venues have access to the FLPM:

Desert Dollar Casino
Fortune Room Casino
Havana Club Casino
Platinum Play Casino
Royal Vegas Casino
Royal Vegas Poker
7Sultans Casino
7Sultans Poker
Vegas Palms Casino
Vegas Towers Casino
Vegas Villa Casino

A flash tutorial and full download can be accessed at http://fldtc.fortunelounge.com/FLPM_Download.asp

"Lightening" and more lower limit games

Keeping pace with player demand in the popular online poker sector this week is software developer WagerLogic Limited, which has released new enhancements to the poker software used by its licensees.

New features include high-speed “Lightning” games and an expanded range of lower-limit games that offer Internet poker players a choice of games at their desired speed and levels.

"It's about delivering market-targeted products to our customers for greater player choice, entertainment and revenue potential," said Lewis Rose, CryptoLogic's President and CEO. "Whether you're an amateur or a poker aficionado, CryptoLogic software offers the game you want, at the speed you want, in multi-currencies - and around the clock."

The new “Lightning” games are pitched at players looking for high-speed action. Players have only 12 seconds to act or hands are folded, and blinds are posted automatically. WagerLogic has also added 10 new game levels for players who prefer lower-stake games, including 0.15/0.25 No Limit and Pot Limit games, and 0.25/0.50 and 0.50/1.00 Limit games.

"We are excited to offer one of the most extensive poker offerings on the Internet from 0.15/0.25 to 150/300 that give players a variety of games to play," said Andy Goetsch, CryptoLogic's Vice President, Poker Software Development. "From play for free action at a speed you can learn, to high stakes, fast-paced poker to tournaments, we care about poker and the heart of the Internet player."

New study from Mintel International

Mobile gambling has a hot future, according to a new study by Mintel International just out.

The review reveals that mobile gaming has become an increasingly rewarding area of cellular phone revenue, climbing to $200 million in 2004 and increasing its stake in the U.S. at a rapid rate.

Already a popular activity in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, mobile gambling is projected to generate $3 billion in revenue in the U.S. in 2009. Still, mobile gambling will account for only 1.5 percent of mobile industry revenues, according to Mintel's forecast.

The U.S. casino gambling market generated revenues of $48.3 billion in 2004. This market is predicted by Mintel to reach $70.6 billion in 2009. Mobile gambling forecast revenues for 2009 equate to more than 4 percent of this predicted casino gambling revenue.

"This is really an untapped profit center for companies that produce gaming content, as well as wireless carriers," said Erik Thoresen, research analyst for Mintel. "Cell phones are rapidly growing in their functional capabilities."

The cell phone industry has experienced a significant boom within the last five years, reaching $113 billion last year in service subscriptions and handset sales alone. Internationally, the number of cell phone users will surpass 2 billion this year.

"Mobile gambling is driven by the same sort of innovation that is growing ringtone downloads and mobile movie previews," said Thoresen. "Cell phone technology is able to integrate within the context of our culture, due to increasingly more sophisticated technology. Many Americans are turning to their mobile phones for entertainment as well as communication."

Stars aplenty in this tournament

The World Poker Exchange has announced the first round of celebrity poker heads, including Willie Garson ("Sex and the City") Nicholas Gonzalez ("The O.C.,") Richard Kind (Bewitched, "Spin City") and Mimi Rogers (Stone Cold), who will be among the international celebrities gathering at The Old Billingsgate Market in London to vie for a $2 million prize at the World Poker Exchange London Open.

"Our first round of celebrity poker enthusiasts, who are each accomplished players in their own right, are expected to show their best poker faces as they go against poker pros who will also be coming to London in pursuit of the $2 million winner take all prize," commented World Poker Exchange Managing Director Haden Ware.

The high stakes gaming event to be staged in London on the banks of the River Thames features a $2 million guaranteed prize pool and distinctive cultural, entertainment and dining experiences. A pinnacle of the four-day event will be a private concert, a separate charity tournament and VIP Reception featuring South London-based funky pop act Dirty Vegas, international chanteuse and "Queen of the Nightclub" Grace Jones, and celebrity club and party DJ Guy Preston.

The London Open will be broadcast as a Bravo primetime TV special "World Poker Exchange London Open."

Parlay Entertainment to provide latest Bingo software

The Irish lottery site Rehab Lotteries is to add Bingo entertainment to its offerings following a deal between Canadian provider Parlay Entertainment Inc. and New Media Lottery Services, Inc.

John McGuire, Managing Director for Irish Rehab Lotteries has said of the launch, "It is undoubtedly the most serious attempt yet in this country to use the Internet to generate fundraising income for good causes.

"Internet usage is showing rapid growth in Ireland with 40 percent of all Irish homes now having web access and of all Irish adults, some 38 per cent are now purchasing from home on the Internet. This medium is ideal for the distribution of new and fun lottery products, and we are confident that this channel will raise significant funds for our training, employment, health and social care services to people with disabilities and those who are socially disadvantaged."

Expect more of these as the skill games phenomenon takes hold

The growing popularity of skill games has triggered the introduction of more sites dedicated to this sector of the online gambling industry, and the newest arrival this week is Money Gaming.com for real money skill gaming fans.

The site will offer games of skill from Backgammon, Chess, Word Games (e.g. Scrabble and crosswords), to various classic board games, including Checkers and Othello and Solitaire. Video game style games such as Pool, Battleships and Mini-Golf are also available.

Players will be able to play against people from all around the world or opt to play against friends and family in private games rooms. MoneyGaming.com has also highlighted the fact that skill gaming of this kind is not classified as gambling according to UK and US law, thus allowing the company to be based in the UK.

The worldwide market for online games will reach $9.8 billion in 2009, representing a 410 percent increase over 2003 revenue of $1.9 billion.

“Online gambling has clearly become part of everyday life,” said CEO of The Money Gaming Corporation Liad Shababo, “MoneyGaming.com essentially integrates all of the fun and adrenalin of online gaming, but in a skill-based, user friendly, safe and secure environment.

Intermix Media to pay $7.5 million fine, and Mercedes puts on the brakes

The Associated Press wire service brought the scumware issue front-and-centre again this week with a report that posed the key question "....so why do marketers use pop-ups when they must know it alienates the very people they are trying to convince to buy their wares?"

The report quoted a former corporate executive, saying "It irritates the heck out of me. It (uninvited adware) took a week to take off every little piece of crap that was put on my computer. Every time I rebooted, it started to come up again."

Pop-up ads carried by spyware and adware aren't just employed by fringe companies hawking dubious wares, the report goes on. Big tech companies are counted among its users, including broadband phone provider Vonage Holdings Corp., online employment agency Monster Worldwide Inc. and online travel agencies Expedia Inc., Priceline.com Inc. and Orbitz LLC.

These companies acknowledge they've used adware to reach potential customers, though they say they shun any (spyware) programs that monitor online surfing or extract personal information.

Even Fortune 500 companies have turned to adware: Sprint Corp. for its PCS mobile phones, major banks peddling Visa credit cards, Sony Corp. and retailers including Circuit City Stores Inc.

And Mercedes-Benz USA had its cars flashing on consumer's computer screens before the company, fielding complaints, put on the brakes.

Spyware and adware often land on computers without their owners' full knowledge, hitching a ride during visits to porn and gambling sites or in downloads of free games and screensavers. Often, the payload arrives with downloads of cartoon-character wares aimed at children.

Infected computer users can get barraged with pop-up ads and find the unwanted programs difficult to remove.

So far, law enforcement has mostly targeted the transmitters. Intermix Media Inc. has agreed to pay $7.5 million in a tentative settlement of a lawsuit by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

But Spitzer isn't stopping there. He is threatening to hold accountable household-name advertisers that use adware networks. No longer, says Spitzer, can companies play dumb.

That's making many advertisers nervous, though they insist they work with subcontractors and often don't know about any adware use until they get a complaint.

"There's plausible deniability at each tier," said Chris King, product marketing manager at anti-spyware vendor Blue Coat Systems Inc.

Big-time online advertising is built on layers: A big advertiser, such as a Fortune 500 company, directs an agency to handle a campaign. The agency then farms that message out to specialists in various media, which can include spyware and adware purveyors.

"We do everything we can to make sure our partners adhere to our standards," said Jeffrey Citron, Vonage's chief executive.

Yet a pop-up ad for Vonage appeared in a screen shot that Spitzer used in his case against Intermix. Citron said he was unaware of the ad and promised to look into it, as he said the company does with similar complaints.

Mercedes-Benz says its ad was carried to hard drives last year by an agency it has since fired, while computer maker Dell USA has fired "a handful" of affiliates for carrying Dell's coupons and ads over adware.

"This is not a practice we condone," said Dell spokeswoman Jennifer Davis.

Dave Methvin, chief technology officer with tech diagnostic site PC Pitstop, said problems are no surprise given the many layers involved, but big advertisers have the clout to stop them.

"If you're going to be a good corporate citizen, part of your responsibility is to make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen rather than to say it's three levels down," Methvin said.

"If a big company advertising on the Internet makes all of its suppliers down the chain sign a statement (and agree to penalties for breaking the rules), quickly the problem would go away."

It's not just big advertisers who have ties to spyware and adware.

Yahoo Inc. made a deal with adware company Claria Corp., formerly known as Gator Corp., to provide search listings for its SearchScout toolbar. The popular search engines Ask Jeeves and Google also benefit from adware, says Internet researcher Benjamin Edelman.

He says an Ask Jeeves toolbar generates ads without users' full consent, while Google's search listings appear in queries made through a questionable third-party toolbar. Ask Jeeves and Google officials dispute Edelman's account and say they don't use any spyware or adware. Company policy bans the use of adware by Google, said spokesman Barry Schnitt.

Several states have adopted anti-spyware bills, and the U.S. House approved two in May that carry jail sentences of up to five years in prison. The bills, which don't target advertisers, are now before the Senate, where similar legislation died last year.

While Spitzer and some lawmakers in Alaska, Pennsylvania and Utah say advertisers should also be held accountable, not everyone agrees.

"So many people have such antipathy toward adware and spyware vendors that it blinds them to the underlying legal principles," said Eric Goldman, a cyber law professor at Marquette University.

He said any liability would be unprecedented and would be akin to holding an advertiser responsible for libel by the newspaper in which the ad appears.

Some advertisers defend the practice.

"It is just a marketing tool that we use," said Expedia spokesman David Dennis.

Expedia, like many other adware users, insists it has rigorous standards and checks to make sure customers want their ads and can easily remove the software if they don't. Dennis said the company works closely with its ad agencies to make sure.

Melinda Tiemeyer, spokeswoman for Sprint PCS, said Internet users have clicked on ads delivered by adware, meaning they find them useful. Sprint is OK with using adware because users, she said, accept it in exchange for phone service offers and discounts.

But other advertisers including Netflix Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. have changed their attitudes.

"I think it was more of a realization that this was becoming more of a concern in consumers' eyes and there was a growing level of frustration," said John Bonomo of Verizon, which discontinued adware last July. Still, "it was effective," he said.

"Clearly folks are uncomfortable about it," Edelman said. "Everyone knows that everyone hates pop-ups ... eventually companies just got embarrassed, especially when they get on your computer through this kind of trickery."

An online business based in Russia will pay Web sites 6 cents for each machine they infect with adware and spyware, security researchers say, calling the practice "awful."

The depths to which some scumware dispensers will go to infect consumers' PCs with adware and spyware was examined recently in an article from TechWeb News, which reported that an online business based in Russia will pay websites 6 cents for each machine they infect with adware and spyware.

iframeDOLLARS.biz, which according to a WHOIS lookup, is registered to a Nick Fedorov in Nizhny Novgorod, a Russian city on the Volga about 240 miles east of Moscow, will pay Webmasters to place a one-line exploit on their sites to snare unwary surfers.

The code exploits a number of patched Windows and Internet Explorer vulnerabilities, including some that go back as far as 2002. Systems that haven't been updated, however, would still be vulnerable to the exploit.

According to analysis done by the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center, the exploit drops at least nine pieces of malicious code, including backdoors, other Trojans, spyware, and adware, on any PC whose user surfs to a site hosting the exploit code.

iframeDOLLARS says it pays $61 per thousand unique installs, or 6.1 cents per compromised machine, to any site that signs up as an affiliate. The Russian firm boasts that its exploit works "without any ActiveX console or any pop-upsIt means that you will not lose your unique visitors." Nor, apparently, give away the fact that the code is dropping malware onto machines whenever a vulnerable user simply visits an affiliate site.

On its own site, iframeDOLLARS claimed that it handed out $11,890 in payments last week, which if true, would translate into nearly 195,000 infected PCs. But the business is picky. "We won't buy Russian and Asian (Japanese, Korean, Chinese) traffic," it tells prospective partners on its Web site.

Richard Stiennon, the director of threat research at anti-spyware software vendor Webroot says the practice is ".....new in that they're taking an existing business model - an affiliate-style program - to exploit a [Windows] vulnerability to plant their code."

What's not new is exploiting Windows to install adware and spyware, Stiennon added. CoolWebSearch, the most pervasive and pernicious piece of adware on the planet by the Boulder, Colorado-based company's calculations, is typically installed using some of the same vulnerabilities.

Stiennon estimated that iframeDOLLARS could collect as much as $75,000 annually from the adware it placed on the infected machines during the past week (and which cost it approximately $12,000 in payments to place). "They could be making a lot of money," said Stiennon.

Dan Hubbard, the head of security at Websense, a San Diego-based Web security and filtering vendor, said that iframeDOLLARS.biz has been around for some time, known to his team, and included in Websense's database as a malicious site.

"They've tried other things in the past [to install adware], including malicious Java applets and PHP exploits," said Hubbard.

Nor are they alone in taking this model and maliciously running with it, Hubbard added. Other sites, since shut down, have tried a similar approach, paying for other sites to infect PCs, then reaping the revenue rewards.

"I'm surprised that [iframeDOLLARS] hasn't been shut down, too," said Hubbard.

According to the Internet Storm Center, organisations can prevent the downloading of adware and spyware from iframesDOLLARS' servers by blocking the IP address 81.222.131.59.

"Share the burden," retailers say to banks

The increasing number of fraudulent online credit card transactions through identity theft and stolen credit card details has prompted U.S. National Retail Foundation members to protest at having to shoulder the entire burden.

Consumers are protected by credit card-issuing banks, which waive bogus purchases and contested cash transfers. Merchants, however, must absorb the cost if the banks decide they weren't vigilant.

Online merchants, especially small ones, say they are getting stung by the burgeoning black market for stolen credit cards, reports eCommerce News this week.

And a rash of recent security breaches at Visa USA, MasterCard International, American Express (see last week's InfoPowa) and others this year could worsen the problem, says the Federation.

Exacerbating an already bad situation, merchants routinely are stuck with "exorbitant" bank charges when items are purchased fraudulently.

Thousands of compromised credit card numbers are reportedly floating in cyberspace, where crooks hawk them, use them to buy goods over the Internet and electronically withdraw cash from credit card accounts.

"If the bank can assert that the merchant didn't follow certain best practices and appropriately verify the identity of the customer, then the merchant pays," says John Pironti, a security analyst at consultant Unisys.

This approach does not meet with universal approval. One retailer is quoted as saying, "Why should I pay fees for fraudulent credit card purchases they (the card issuers) don't catch?"

The costs for fraudulent online purchases should be shared by credit card issuers who have suffered data breaches, says Mallory Duncan, general counsel at National Retail Federation. "Under the current system, the retailer is guilty until proven innocent."

But the nation's largest banking trade group contends merchants knowingly take on a greater risk when credit card transactions are made online. It is their responsibility to develop tighter security systems, says Nessa Feddis, an attorney at the American Bankers Association.

A surefire way to eliminate charge-backs? Here's one not very constructive solution: "Shut down your Web site," says Ori Eisen, CEO of The 41st Parameter, which sells software that authenticates online credit card purchases.

River City Group releases the latest

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Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa