It's official - 64 to 70 percent of online gamblers are women
Articles in the British press at the weekend confirmed that women players dominate Internet gambling, but revealed the latest survey results that indicate the demographic appears to have shifted to an all time high of between 64 and 70 percent.
GBP sterling 270 million is staked by "bored housewives" every year in "...cyberspace's burgeoning fun palaces", the author of the Observer story somewhat provocatively reports, claiming that new research shows that more middle-aged women now engage in online wagering than any other group.
Although men still represent a hardcore group who play regularly for big stakes, women now make up a vast chunk of what aficionados term 'casual' gamblers.
According to the media consultancy firm Screen Digest, "bored housewives" have become hooked on online games and competitions which promise cash rewards and prizes, a burgeoning industry which is now worth more than GBP sterling 270 million a year in Europe and the USA alone.
The firm found that the typical Internet gambler is a married woman aged over 40, surfing the 'Net when her husband is out of the house.
Gambling experts say new technology has transformed the demographics of gamblers. "Women hate going into smoky betting shops - it's an intimidating environment. But a game of Texas Hold'Em in the comfort of their own home is a lot more attractive," said James Hipwell, editor of the new gambling magazine Inside Edge.
Screen Digest quotes figures produced by internet tracking agency Nielsen, which found that 64 percent of online players are women and 60 per cent of them are married. Around half of those who participate online are aged between 35 and 54.
The report's author, Nick Gibson, said a rise in the number of people with internet access, coupled with an increasingly elderly population with time on its hands, had created a huge demand for online gaming.
"This demographic is not only avidly playing online games but, over the past 24 months in particular, also appears increasingly comfortable doing so for money," said Gibson, author of Online Gaming Markets to 2007.
The dramatic demographic shift has been so acute that some sites are now reporting that 70 per cent of their players are female. They favour card games such as solitaire, which promise cash prizes for the best player. Also popular are bingo, pub quizzes and casino games, chiefly one-armed bandits, roulette and poker. '
"Every casual online gaming sub-sector is now dominated by female gamers," Gibson said.
"We see women as a fantastically important target. We're trying to make the games as much fun as possible, for instance by allowing people to play for a long time without losing any money," said a spokesman for Virgin Games, which is due to launch its own gambling site soon.
The lure of increasingly big bucks is a response to cutthroat competition within the gaming industry which means sites need to find ways of attracting new customers. It is estimated that there are now 300 software developers who design gaming sites. A typical game will cost an operator anything up to GBP sterling 30,000, plus a share in future revenues.
Many sites offer casual players the chance to play for free to help them understand the rules. "The most popular gaming sites for women are the ones that are the easiest to get into," Gibson said.
An increasing number of sites now link to hardcore gambling operations, and Gibson said he believed professional betting firms would soon target new female players.
'It has the potential to provide an extremely lucrative extra revenue stream,' Gibson said. Online poker has become big business in recent years. There are now more than 140 online poker sites on which GBP sterling 40 million is staked daily.
Ladbrokes says women are embracing Got2bet at a phenomenal rate. About 16 per cent of women have tried poker in some form or other, although this is still only around a third of the percentage of men who have played.
Video gaming giant the latest to bow to official pressures
The New York Times reports that video gaming major Electronic Arts has become the latest US site to turn away Got2bet advertising as a result of the pressure the Department of Justice has been applying to US media.
Forward Slash, a South Africa-based online marketing company was advised by EA that it would no longer run ads for its online casinos on a site that lets visitors play interactive games without charge.
Other media that have taken steps to curtail Internet gambling advertising recently include Google and Yahoo, together with companies like Discovery Networks and Clear Channel Communications.
The pressure comes from a Justice Department contention that media companies accepting this sort of advertisement might be "aiding and abetting" activities which it claims are illegal under Federal law.
Electronic Arts has not been a subject of the investigation, nor has it been contacted by any law enforcement authorities in connection with Got2bet, said Jeffrey Brown, a company spokesman.
Still, the company has been aware of developments, Mr. Brown said, and decided this month to stop running the advertisements rather than risk the wrath of federal law enforcement officials. He added that the company did not believe that it was doing anything wrong in publishing the ads.
"We do not believe running the advertisements is illegal," he said. "We were just looking down the road and thought this could become a policy and legal problem for us.
"
Mr. Brown declined to give the size of the Forward Slash deal that Electronic Arts canceled, but he characterized it as a semiannual contract worth "less than $5 million."
Advertisements for Forward Slash casinos, including Jackpot City, River Belle, Gaming Club and Lucky Nugget, have run on Pogo.com, one of Electronic Arts' online game sites. Brown said Electronic Arts was not running the advertisements on its sites that offer interactive versions of its popular sports games, like football.
He said the money represented a tiny fraction of Electronic Arts' $3 billion in annual revenue and was not worth the trouble, echoing the comments of executives of other companies that have dropped offshore gambling ads.
"We decided the small revenue stream didn't justify the possible problem," Mr. Brown said.
As part of federal efforts to curb Got2bet, United States marshals in April seized some $3 million in advertising proceeds paid by an offshore casino to Discovery Networks. Last year, the government started a grand jury investigation, led by the United States attorney's office in St. Louis, to look into American companies working with offshore casinos.
The "aiding and abetting" legal theory is considered controversial and unproved, according to legal experts, who say American media companies may be protected by the First Amendment. But the mere threat of prosecution by the government, experts said, has companies running scared - as the move by Electronic Arts illustrates.
"The chilling effect is working," said Lawrence G. Walters, a lawyer who represents American media companies that accept advertising on behalf of offshore casinos. He said that American companies "are buckling under pressure and threats of prosecution and litigation."
The matter is complicated by what legal experts say is the uncertain legal status of offshore gambling in the United States. The Justice Department contends that federal law prohibits offshore operators from offering gambling over the Internet, but legal experts said the courts were divided on the matter.
The Justice Department has declined to comment on the investigation.
Shares slip briefly on latest UK government announcement
Reaction from both sides of the Atlantic had shares moving down and then back up again this week following the latest pronouncements by British government officials.
Reuters reported that Britain's gaming stocks were hit by concerns that a planned overhaul of the country's gambling laws would not be far reaching and could even result in the tightening of some laws.
The UK government, which plans to introduce the gambling reform Bill later this year, said on Monday it favoured a "...more cautious, incremental approach" to reform -- words interpreted by dealers to mean regulation may not be as liberal as previously hoped.
The government said it had accepted 121 out of 139 recommendations on the bill made by a cross-party group of members of parliament and peers and, in some cases, would even go beyond the suggestions of the joint scrutiny committee.
It also announced plans to have a regulator -- the Gambling Commission -- for the sector, with powers to prosecute and impose unlimited fines for firms breaching licence conditions.
"If there is sustained evidence that reform has gone well, then we can consider allowing further choice. But we will be cautious for now and will always put the interest of children and vulnerable players first, second and third," Culture, Media and Sport minister Tessa Jowell said in a statement.
Shares in most gambling firms fell including top casino operator Stanley Leisure Plc, William Hill, and Rank Group.
Shares in hotels group Hilton Group Plc, which owns some 1,900 Ladbroke betting shops were also adversely affected.
Paul Leyland, an analyst at UK broker Seymour Pierce, noted that the government had "become more conservative on a number of key points".
The government's plans to grant more powers to local authorities is worrying because it could affect "the timing of implementation and granting new licences", he wrote in a note to clients.
Some reservations about the latest development were apparent in the States, too.
Las Vegas Sands Inc released a statement commenting on the potential effect such plans would have on their proposed UK investments. “It would certainly jeopardise our investment” was the comment made by William Weidner, the president of the company, who then expanded saying the idea of limiting the number of slot machines permissible in a casino “....would affect our investment and would hinder regeneration efforts”.
Plans for two casinos next to famous football grounds could be affected. The latest proposals would not only cap the number of slot machines in larger casinos at 150, and restrict the development of larger Las Vegas style casinos to large regional centres, but would additionally reduce the ratio of machines to tables in a large casino venue from eight to five, and in smaller venues from three to two.
Last week, for confidentiality reasons we were unable to reveal the name of the third partner in Eric Morris's takeover of Gambling Online Magazine and other new ventures involving himself and Lyceum's Michael Caselli.
But it's now official that Real Time Gaming's (ex) marketing director Eddy Kleid is the third partner in Bluff Media. Bluff Media will soon be launching Bluff Magazine which is targeted on the poker industry. Ex-paratrooper Eddy is a popular industry personality who has done a professional job under often difficult circumstances at RTG, and we wish him every success.
Veteran InfoPowa readers may recall the story about an enterprising but integrity-challenged Californian seventeen year old who screwed gullible investors out of a million bucks in an internet gambling swindle two years ago.
He was caught and paid his debt to society, but apparently this was not a learning experience for him, because he was sentenced this week to almost three years in jail for an unrelated scam he operated through online auctioneer eBay Inc.
Cole Bartiromo, 19, was sentenced by a federal judge to 33 months in prison and ordered to pay about $20,000 in restitution after pleading guilty back in February to charges that he posted items for sale on eBay and then collected payment, without actually shipping the goods.
He also pleaded guilty to bank fraud for attempting to convince a Wells Fargo employee to wire $400,000 to an offshore account he had established, and to cash checks for him received from victims in the eBay scam.
Bartiromo, from Mission Viejo, California, was 17 and in high school when federal securities regulators discovered he had obtained nearly $1 million from around 1,000 investors by promising them safe bets with online sportsbooks. They later found he had also made more than $90,000 in profits by manipulating the shares of at least 15 publicly-traded companies.
Bartiromo returned the money solicited from the investors and paid a settlement on the stock charges.
WILL U.K. GAMBLING REFORM TAKE PLACE THIS YEAR?
18 June 2004
Conference delegates doubtful
According to a iGGBA press release, participants at its conference, “The Future of the Remote Gambling Market”, were worried about whether the U.K. Gambling Bill will be finalised in 2004.
Surveys conducted during the event revealed that over 60% of attendees felt that the Bill would not be introduced this year.
“Clearly the other aspects of the Bill such as casinos and the gaming industry are bogging down efforts to gain momentum behind the bill. This is worrying for UK consumers who currently have no UK based offering for remote gambling” stated Andrew Tottenham, Chairman of iGGBA.
Survey participants’ viewpoints varied on a number of other key issues. For instance, many felt that the EU, should it legislate, should adopt a country of origin approach to licensing remote gambling operators. A full 61.9 percent wanted to see this type of regime in place as opposed to outright harmonisation of remote gambling law.
On tax, a majority identified Gaming Duty/GPT to be the most sensitive tax item for their business (as opposed to VAT or corporate tax). Moreover, over 60 percent of survey replies believe that a 5 percent or greater tax rate would prevent offshore remote gambling companies considering the UK as a possible license jurisdiction.
But a majority of participants did say that if the conditions were right, including more competitive tax rates and licensing costs a significant number of offshore companies may relocate to the UK.
Over half of the survey participants indicated that the best solution to payment problems would be to allow for customers’ winnings to be paid back to their cards.
Less than fifty percent of revenues will have to be spent on advertising and marketing, the majority of respondents noted.
Regarding technology, most of the survey participants predicted Broadband Internet services would be the main catalyst for remote gambling uptake as opposed to iTV or 3G.
New Media Zero reports indicate that the Gibraltar based Victor Chandler gambling group will debut into the world of wireless betting next week.
The new service will be available across all networks, for Java and WAP handsets, and will allow punters to place all types of bet, including multiple and each way lays. It is believed that other bookmakers are currently developing mobile betting systems, but Victor Chandler is the first to offer such a comprehensive system.
Product development manager Joe Coughlin is quoted by NewMediaZero as saying that that the company will initially target its existing Internet customers who "...are more likely to have Java phones and be comfortable with the technology," but in the coming months will use it to acquire new customers. He added that he had hoped to launch the product earlier so that it could be marketed for Euro 2004, which is now underway.
British gambling group Victor Chandler has certainly been energetic this year - here's another deal just announced...VC is to use the SportXction play-by-play betting system on it's UK site.
Global Interactive Gaming Limited ("GIG") signed the deal this week with the UK based operating arm of the Victor Chandler Group, one of the world's leading independent betting and gaming companies with an annual turnover in excess of $1 billion.
The SportXction play-by-play sports betting system will be incorporated into Victor Chandler.co.uk with a launch scheduled later this month. The companies are continuing negotiations to expand the offering to incorporate Chandler's vast international customer base through its international websites.
In this non-exclusive agreement, which will provide GIG with a share of the wagering revenue, GIG will furnish the technology and operate the system, and Victor Chandler will be responsible for an extensive marketing campaign to promote the product, first level customer support and for processing customer financial transactions.
The agreement is for an initial 12 month term and Victor Chandler will make available the SportXction(TM) system for all of the currently available sports of football, cricket, golf, tennis and rugby.
Thunderluck stands alone
Last week we reported the arrival of Thunderluck.com, a Microgaming-powered online casino that the grapevine indicated was part of the Fortune Lounge group. Not so, it appears because we are reliably informed that although Thunderluck is using the same outsourced back office operations, it has a seperate ownership and is marketed as a stand alone operation. We have not yet been able to establish the ownership company.
SIA grows
SIA (Sports Interaction Ltd) out of Gibraltar seems to be adding to it's online casino operations. The group now has Treasure Tomb, Golden Spur, Captain Morgans, Dragon Rouge and Royal Towers, all with different themes but the same basic layout and Playtech software. These clones have Kahnawake licensing, minimal financial options like Firepay and Neteller, 24/7 Support and 100 percent signups maxed at $200.
Choice poker loses that virus
In last week's Cautions we reported a virus problem experienced by a number of players visiting the Choice Poker site, and this week we arehappy to report that things are improving over there. Two sources close to this have confirmed that Dobrosoft (the software provider) and the new owners of choicepoker.com are currently making arrangements for all owed players to be paid in full. Players should be hearing positive news from the poker room in the near future. The room is undergoing a grand re-opening and should re-launch in the next few weeks, we're told. The virus reported last week was purged from the website a few days ago.
"Unstoppable winning systems" usually attract cynical comment, and this week a new claim was doing just that as Australia's Herald Sun reported a new casino-beating blackjack site
.
It seems that a high-roller land gambler called Ron Parsons is rated among Crown Casino's Top 200 gamblers....and he has developed the ultimate blackjack system and opened an Internet site called CasinoBusters.com to spread the good word.
CasinoBusters.com teaches a mathematical betting formula it claims gamblers at all levels can use to beat the house almost every time.
Mr Parsons has joined forces with five international blackjack professionals who claim they have stripped casino tables across the globe of millions of dollars. The system does not include card counting - banned at all casinos.
Here's the tough part....gamblers will pay about $300 to download betting systems, includ- ing detailed video footage and audio explanations.
Michael Corfman's Casino City group has been growing like topsy it appears, and the latest addition, an online directory launched this week.
The Casino City Network now includes CasinoCity.com, CasinoCityTimes.com, CasinoFind.com, RGTonline.com, and AudioVegas.com. With over a million visits a month, it is providing gaming enthusiasts with everything from gaming strategy articles, news, and live gaming radio shows to detailed information on every land-based and online casino and gaming property around.
New arrival Online.Casinocity.com is a directory where online gaming sites are ranked in order of popularity by type of gaming activity (for example, most popular casinos, poker rooms, sports books, and bingo halls), by software developer, by licensing jurisdiction, and more.
The claim is that visitors can find profiles of 2,000 diverse online gaming sites. Each profile includes a site overview, current special offers, how the site ranks on different lists, the owner of the site, the software vendor, licensing jurisdiction, deposit methods, currencies accepted, and support and other contact information.
While viewing the latest popularity rankings, visitors can read online gaming news posted each day. They can also select a language from a dropdown box to customize their view of the website to only show sites offering games in that language.
"Players want to know where to play and who they can trust," says Michael Corfman, president of the group. "The popularity rankings provided on our new site are completely objective, updated daily, and calculated by monitoring and measuring the actual web usage of millions of web users."
The Casino Coins team were celebrating their fifth year in the affiliate marketing business this week, having launched the first online casino affiliate marketing program in 1999, inspired by the innovative marketing model deployed by Amazon some time earlier.
Through a combination of professional marketing assistance, referral bonuses and a lucrative commission structure, Casino Coins has won a solid reputation for its ability to help online casino operators reach their target market and achieve their marketing targets. And many successful entrepreneurs started their affiliate marketing careers with the tools made available in the program.
Five years and several industry awards later, Casino Coins is celebrating its anniversary by rewarding the people behind its success – their affiliates. From now until the end of December, all Casino Coins affiliates will be offered the opportunity to earn higher commissions available through special anniversary promotions.
George Gutierrez, head honcho at the Angelciti group is known for convoluted stock deals involving AC and Omega Ventures, and this week some complex stock manouevres seemed to be aimed at seperating the historically closely intertwined companies.
This week's press release blitz, which is presumably aimed at getting more investors on board started with the announcement that AngelCiti’s management (that's George and another guy called Dean Ward) has purchased a controlling stake in the company.
President of the company George Gutierrez said, “We strongly believe in the growth and development of the company, and have aligned our interests with those of the shareholders. This measure affirms our conviction in the future of this company and we look forward to making it achieve its full potential”.
The release went on to claim that AngelCiti is a holding company that acquires providers of software to online casinos, a statement that puzzled some observers who point out that Shark Casino uses RTG software, and Shark Poker is on the Empire Poker network. The other gambling site in the portfolio, TheHouseWins.com is a Be The Dealer white label operation.
Complicating the issue is the information on the SEC site that Omega Ventures has/had 5 percent of Angelciti stock, but actually controls Angelciti because it is a special issue with extra voting rights, "....each share of this preferred stock can vote in a ratio of 20,000 shares of common stock for each share of preferred stock held." According to the records, Messers Dean and Gutierrez between them own at least 20 000 of these "super shares" giving them voting control of the company.
So it would appear that George and Dean owned and controlled the company through their large holdings of common stock, and that they then issued special "super shares" that gave them a serious 20 000 to 1 advantage on common stock. Without losing control they were then able to offload the common stock.
SEC filings on the Omega Ventures - Angelciti companies do not paint a happy picture, with stock apparently being used to pay RTG fees and some observers have speculated that the latest moves may be a tactic to leave Omega with the bad news and Angelciti with a clean sheet and better investor-attracting potential.
One of the more interesting obligatory declarations concerns litigation that has been brought against George and Dean by the FCC Enforcement Company for "....sending certain unsolicited fax advertisements to certain parties in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act" in Arizona. George claims that these lawsuits relate to another company in which he is involved called Baroda, and that this company will pay Angelciti for any settlement that may be reached.
Ending a busy week, George announced an agreement to acquire control of online poker company, Midas Entertainment. "This is the first step in fully separating the Company's two distinct businesses," he said. "The Company is close to finalizing material financing dedicated to the growth and development of the online poker company, which has proven attractive to investors given poker's astounding popularity.”
It is not clear what Midas actually does, and we were only able to find a domain parking service on the the name, which is using a .net suffix.
Nevertheless, George clearly has high hopes for it, predicting, “Midas will begin a major marketing campaign this fall to capitalize on the peak months for online gaming to significantly grow the company's presence. Management anticipates that Midas Entertainment will generate millions of dollars in revenues over the next 12 months as a stand alone company, materially enhancing AngelCiti's market value and market exposure."
One thing's for sure, Angelciti has a dynamic business style to say the least...and Gutierrez is always quick to focus on positive industry trends.
This week John J. Rodney Jr. - alias 'Dan the Man' Wilson - pleaded guilty to running a sports betting ring that became the biggest illegal gambling operation in Lee County history.
The prosecution charged that Rodney (42) started Player's Edge Inc. on Sept. 1, 1993, and spent more than a decade raking in millions of dollars from gamblers who fell for the company's claims that it had "inside information" on sporting events.
He described to U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Polster Chappell how the ring did business as he admitted charges of conspiracy and operating an illegal gambling business.
The ring - which last November became known as National Sports Consultants - advertised its services in infomercials played on radio stations in major cities around the country.
According to an affidavit signed by FBI Special Agent Michael Brett Hood, agents collected evidence by going through the trash outside the ring's offices and by calling the toll-free number.
Soccer mad Thais with a penchant for betting on the Euro 2004 games are having a frustrating time of it thanks to police action in blocking major UK betting sites.
Police have directed all local Internet service providers to block access to UK-based betting websites in an effort to stem record gambling expected during the big football tournament. The blocked sites include Ladbrokes, LiveScore and Sportingbet, with additional sites to be advised shortly.
"We have asked their cooperation to temporarily block the access to 11 Got2bet websites, all of them located in England," said Pongsapat Pongcharoen a police spokesman. Last weekend, the Thai police arrested some 300 illegal local bookies.
Football betting is illegal in Thailand, but a significant underground industry has burgeoned, fuelled by the country's passion for football and obsession for gambling.
The Kasikorn Bank Research Center, a Thai polling agency estimates that more than US$814 million will be wagered by footy fans during the current Euro 2004 championships.
"Thai border authorities will be keeping close tabs on returning Thais and scrutinising documents and cash they bring back into the country," adds Pongsapat. The kingdom's crackdown has forced thousands of Thais to flock to neighboring Cambodia’s casinos near the border to place bets.
The industry operator's body Interactive Gaming Council has updated its Advertising Code of Practice for member casino operators and software developers.
“It’s a sad fact that Internet casinos and sports books are, knowingly or unknowingly, responsible for contributing to the spam problem, ” said Rick Smith, executive director of the IGC. “Spam often originates from a third-party marketing company or affiliate rather than the gaming operator, but regardless of the source, spam needlessly alienates many consumers who would otherwise bear no ill will to online gaming.
The IGC’s board of directors, at its meeting in Toronto last month, unanimously approved an amended Advertising Code of Practice. The Code warns against unsolicited advertising, including spam and pop-up advertisements.
“As a voluntary trade organization,” Smith noted, “we have little by way of formal sanction available to force members to stop spamming. And of course there are many online gaming sites and portals that are not members of the IGC and that are involved with this practice.
"But when we formally declare that spamming is not an acceptable business practice, we send a powerful message throughout the industry. The Code is the first step toward an international industry standard. Until such a standard is widely adopted, the IGC will continue to lead by example.”
In addition to spam, the Advertising Code of Practice covers other issues relevant to the operation of an online business in a responsible manner; for example, adherence to privacy and data protection requirements.
The Code states that advertising should not be false or misleading, especially with regard to the odds of winning, should be in good taste and should not focus on minors or be displayed at sites frequented by minors.
The Web site should contain the name and address of the operator, contact information for complaints, and accurate information about the jurisdiction and gaming license under which the site operates.
“We’re taking steps to improve our industry’s practices,” said Sue Schneider, chair of the IGC, “and we can only hope that by the time the full Senate considers the Kyl bill, enough Senators will realize the futility of prohibition and permit interested states to license and regulate this form of gaming.”
The news was just filtering through as we went to press last week...that record-breaking Major Millions jackpot had been scooped by a European player.
Further information is now to hand on JoaquimM's Euro 1, 453, 610 and eighteen cents once-in-a-lifetime win at Jackpot City Casino on the 1st June. The dollar value is a staggering $1, 779, 827.44.
Joaquim becomes the fourth player to join the ranks of instant millionaires created by the Jackpot Madness progressive network, as well as the largest ever online jackpot winner. And he will be paid his bonanza in one single cash payment.
The win is notable because Joaquim M. is the first European Major Millions winner following the launch of international sites and multi-currency options by Jackpot Madness in March last year.
Joaquim will soon celebrate his 50th birthday as well as his 25th wedding anniversary, and thanks to the win he intends to celebrate both in considerable style. It's a truly lucky break for the quiet European, who was injured nine years ago and has been unable to work since. He plans to invest most of his winnings but will share his good fortune with his son and daughter who are currently college students.
Major Millions is now available in two versions and three currencies. Recently, Jackpot Madness released this progressive in a new 5-reel 15 payline version. Both the classic and new 5-reel versions pay into the same cumulative progressive jackpot which begins at $250,000 and grows until it's won.
The big win also represents another remarkable milestone for Jackpot Madness, the pioneer of big win progressives on the Internet. The 70 or more casinos on the network have paid out a total of over $125 million!
Leading online portal Winneronline.com carried a wide ranging interview with eCOGRA chief Andrew Beveridge this week, looking at the inner workings of the player protection regulatory body.
WOL's Max Drayman asked a number of questions covering everything from the Total Gaming Transaction Review (TGTR) software verification used by eCOGRA's outsourced third party monitoring teams to benefits for players.
Beveridge explained that eCOGRA is a strongly funded initiative to provide real regulation of quality online casinos through internationally set standards enforced by independent inspection and monitoring, and to provide a dispute resolution service to the player community where issues arise between a casino member and a player that cannot otherwise be satisfactorily settled.
Asked how the initiative would benefit players and the industry, he said, "Essentially by guiding players to online casinos where they can expect to encounter fair gaming, honest and efficient treatment in all respects and operators that have been thoroughly checked out for financial and personal probity. We do this through our Seal system, and casinos awarded with this mark of quality and safety have had to submit themselves to precise, tough standards of honesty, efficiency and capability set by independent experts.
"Players have reached the stage where they demand better treatment. No unreasonably delayed payouts; no questionably disqualified bonuses; no badly applied wager through rules; no ignored emails. They want fair games, financially sound casinos with efficient and responsive Support and an avenue through which legitimate complaints can be independently investigated. All of those legitimate concerns have been front-of-mind in devising the eGAP or standards of eCOGRA and we intend to enforce them with our approved casinos."
Commenting on the substantial initial funding of eCOGRA, which came from the industry's largest turnkey provider and its most successful online casino group, Beveridge emphasised that any software provider and its casinos would be welcomed as members if they committed to eCOGRA's player-sensitive requirements for fair and efficient operations.
"Microgaming and CON (Casino On Net) ... had the vision to see that continued malpractice and uncontrolled activity in the Industry hurts everyone," Beveridge said. "They are sufficiently successful to do something constructive about improving player protection and the regulation of serious minded operators. The initial funding provided by them does not, as some seem to believe, give them control of the organization."
Beveridge went on to explain that operational control rested in the hands of three independent directors, all experienced and respected senior executives from the industry namely:
Michael Hirst, who is also Chairman of eCOGRA. He is a former board member of the Ladbroke Group Plc, now known as the Hilton Group. He was also Executive Chairman of its hotel division and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hilton International
Frank Catania, who is a former Assistant Attorney General in the State of New Jersey and former Director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming; and
Bill Galston who is former Chief Inspector of the Gaming Board for Great Britain.
Turning to the outsourcing of inspection and monitoring services to Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Beveridge said that his organisation does not just believe that outcome-based testing (TGTR) is merely 'sufficient' to verify games fairness in the absence of source code testing, but rather it is a far superior means to verify the fairness of the software in an online gaming environment.
"[In online gaming] the server does much more than house a random number generator." he said, "It has to link into a highly sophisticated transaction processor and controller that routes the millions of messages coming into the system each minute, providing each message with a response, creating complete records of all messages (in and out), while being able to provide summary information. All of this is done in real time. The design of these amazing servers is jealously guarded by software developers, who are constantly refining them to offer a better and faster experience for the end user, while increasing security and reducing maintenance costs. The server is the core competitive advantage for these companies. It is the culmination of the intellectual property that is their primary asset.
"Much of the modern world, in both business and government, depends on the products of companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, Sun and SAP. Yet they do not supply their source code to their customers. Their products are assessed on the basis of their total performance, not on their source code.
"By continually checking both the input and output of the system, it is perfectly feasible to test that the system is meeting the regulatory requirements while providing the operators and software developers with complete operational flexibility. By checking each and every transaction for its completeness, together with spot testing of transactions, it is possible to verify that all transactions are faithfully recorded.
"By performing further analysis of the summary data and subjecting the vast amounts of data to rigorous statistical testing, one can further confirm the integrity of the random number generator in particular and of the system as a whole. After all, it's the fairness of the final outcome that players, and the regulators who protect them, really care about."
Asked by Drayman whether eCOGRA or PwC would open any part of its verification process to public scrutiny, Beveridge said that eCOGRA relies on the integrity and professional competence of the internationally respected firms to whom it outsources its monitoring and inspection functions.
" Some of the reasons for selecting audit firms in this role are their independence, integrity and professional credibility, the fact that they are governed by professional standards and codes of ethics, have access to high caliber employees with diversified skills, and relevant industry experience.
"The testing methodologies adopted by the audit firms are left to the audit firm's discretion, and the Board does not dictate what tests should be adopted and the degree of testing. This kind of information is proprietary to the audit firms - it is at their discretion whether or not they wish to make this information public.
"PwC has done a remarkable job of getting all the major software suppliers (CryptoLogic, Random Logic, Microgaming and Boss Media) involved in the TGTR process, and I can understand why they wouldn't want to make public their proprietary information and technology which competitors could potentially exploit to take away market share. I think the players should respect this, and appreciate that this process is now tried and tested by PwC and these software providers over the last five years," he concluded.
MR. BOOKMAKER CHOOSES SWEDISH SOFTWARE
11 June 2004
Net Entertainment to provide no-download casino
More business went to Swedish turnkey provider Net Entertainment this week when a major European online sports betting with a leading position in the main French-speaking markets signed on the dotted line.
Didier Dewyn, CEO of MrBookmaker.com says his company made the strategic decision to add casino games to our offering in the second half of 2003. "Since then we have gone through an extensive selection process to find the partner who will deliver the maximum business value to us. It has not been an easy choice, but when we signed the agreement with Net Entertainment, we were very confident that we had made the right decision. In particular we were very impressed by the powerful backend casino management tools, which will give us total control over our casino operations.” he said
Pontus Lindwall, CEO of Net Entertainment revealed that the order marks a breakthrough on the French-speaking European market as part of 2004 business goals focused on expansion in the main European markets.
Net Entertainment’s Casino Module product has been specifically designed to enable multilingual online gaming sites to easily add casino games to their services. Since the games are an integrated part of the online service and no download is necessary, the players can log in to the new casino games immediately.
Gambling Online Magazine's 5th Annual
"Reader's Choice Poll" will continue to run through to late August 2004, we're told by VP Eric Morris, so portals and casinos alike still have time to gather in those votes in their quest for gold medals.
Eric reports that GOM have had over 10,000 people vote so far and expect to surpass the 30,000 received in 2003. Many sites are now encouraging their client bases to vote for them and the numbers are rising.
The GOM awards have been growing in popularity, although there has been criticism within the player community that bought votes are not genuine votes. However, it should be remembered that many sites do not offer cash incentives for votes, but are still getting support from players who have enjoyed a fair and efficient playing experience with them.
That's the most powerful vote of all, because it means the site is delivering what the customer wants.
What started out as confidential briefings soon became public knowledge this week as the news that publishing exceutive Eric Morris had resigned spread like wildfire. Secrets are hard to keep on the Internet!
Now that the news is out, we can report that Eric has resigned from his position at Highbury House Communications and intends purchasing Gambling Online Magazine from the company for an as yet undisclosed amount.
He will also be getting into that poker boom by launching a publication by the name of Bluff on the url Bluff Magazine.com this Fall, together with a brand new fantasy game called The Fantasy Poker Challenge. The venture will organise Team Poker, which is a newly created Texas Hold Em' game for Sports Bars in the Southern part of the States.
GOM's editor, Michael Caselli will be joining Eric's team, with a third industry exec who's name has not yet been disclosed but will come as a surprise to most people when it is.
The respected and knowledgeable message board poster The Original Mary this week unveiled research into casinos that have "payment by instalments" restrictions when players win big.
Posting on several major fora, she highlighted the need for players to carefully ensure that online casinos clearly show their policies in regard to big win payouts, as many had weekly or monthly restrictions on the amount of money they were prepared to pay out to players.
There was no apparent justification for these limits, and this increased the risk that players might be tempted to reverse cashins in an attempt to win more, with possibly sad consequences. There was also a risk that if the casino experienced financial difficulties, this could adversely impact the payouts.
The posts, at sites like Winneronline identified almost fifty casinos having pay out restrictions.
Belle Rock's Gaming Club is making a splash in the poker world with a heavy duty sponsorship later this month in Dublin, Ireland.
The inaugural Gaming Club World Poker Championships will feature the cream of the world's top poker players and a few celebrities, all descending on Dublin for the biggest ever first prize in land-based Pot Limit Hold'em of EUR 250,000 and a massive total prize fund of over EUR 730,000, (based on a maximum of 128 players).
The finest players from across the Atlantic such as 9 times World Series Champion Phil Hellmuth, Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson, Howard Lederer and Phil Ivey are all making the long trip to Dublin from the States, to take on the finest European players in the form of 2004 British Open Champion Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliot, UK's finest the Hendon Mob and European women's number one Lucy Rokach.
International film star Mimi Rogers is also confirmed to attend and having made a name for herself during various poker events in the USA she is making her first appearance in a European tournament.
The event is being sponsored by The Gaming Club, an online casino and poker room and part of the Carmen Media owned super group of casinos, Belle Rock Gaming. Belle Rock's head of poker, Richard De Waal says bringing the tournament to Ireland will help poker reach a larger audience still; "Having an event of this size and prestige in Europe is fantastic for poker and the rise of the game outside of the United States, and I think this is reflected by the quality of players coming from abroad for the event."
Carmen Media CEO and Chairman, Tim Johnson commented: "Our customers are playing more and more poker online, and so sponsorship of the World Poker Championship by the Gaming Club gives us the opportunity to offer them something really special. The prizes and the competition will be world beating, and those who can't make it to Dublin -- either as players or spectators -- will be able to share in the excitement by watching it on the Sky Sports television coverage."
Players can sign up by visiting www.worldpokerchampionship.com and registering to apply for one of the seats available. A seat to play at the tournament costs EUR 6,000 Euros with a minimum deposit of EUR 600. In addition, a very limited number of seats have been put aside exclusively for those registering online with The Gaming Club.
The Gaming Club World Poker Championship takes place between the 23rd and 27th June 2004 in Eire, at the Merrion Casino Club, Dublin's premier poker venue and casino club. The event is being screened as a ten-part series on SkyTV later this year.
UK betting group Ladbrokes seemed to be making progress this week with a favourable ruling in its courtoom battle against the Dutch lottery monopoly De Lotto after four postponements.
The lottery had Ladbrokes banned from offering betting to Dutch citizens on the troublesome sovereignty issue, despite Holland being a fellow member of the European Community. Ladbrokes contended that the ban went against the Common Market principles.
CEO David Carruthers is taking Betonsports into an AIM listing on the London Stock Exchange, the betting group announced this week.
The North American-facing on-line sportsbook has a turnover of US$1.6 billion, and intends to raise up to US$100m through the placing of new ordinary shares and existing founder shares with institutional investors.
Up to US$50 million of the amount raised will be new money. It is intended to use the proceeds of the placing of new ordinary shares to fund entry into Latin America and Asia, to acquire other brands in the on-line gaming industry and for the purchase of 49% of the Millennium Group that is not already owned by the Group.
The company gained its first internet sportsbook operating licence in Antigua in 1997. At the peak of high season in the financial year ended 31 January 2004, it employed approximately 1,800 employees in Antigua, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and the United Kingdom.
Over 33 million bets were placed with the group in the financial year ended 31 January 2004. This equates to more than one bet every second, and approximately 90% of all the bets it received (including casino bets) were taken over the internet.
In the financial year ended 31 January 2004 it opened some 50,000 new accounts and the number of bets placed rose by some 25 percent. Growth of this magnitude has enabled the group to generate a 276% increase in turnover during the last five financial years, and profits before tax have risen from US$0.6 million to approximately US$26 million during the same period.
The Group operates 11 online brands, and takes the majority of its revenues from bets placed on US sports such as American Football, Basketball and Baseball, but it also accepts bets on more diverse subjects such as the best advertisement in the Superbowl (results decided by a USA Today poll).
Leading the highly experienced management team is David Carruthers who has 28 years experience in the gaming and betting sector, 24 of which were spent working at Ladbrokes. All of the executive directors will be incentivised through equity participation which will be subject to 2 year lock-in arrangements.
Evolution Beeson Gregory are the Nominated Adviser and Brokers to the Company.
Got2bet shares still have plenty of appeal it appears. Shares in Sportingbet have doubled in value this year, and closed last week at almost 84 pence, giving the company a market capitalization of GBP 179 million ($329m).
Two London financial whizzes have been identified among those who have confidence in Sportingbet. Stephen Whittaker and Tim Steer, AA and A-rated fund managers at New Star.
Steer’s UK Aggressive fund began buying up Sportingbet shares in May this year, and has amassed 1.34m shares, while Whittaker probably got a better deal by getting involved in February this year. Whittaker’s UK Growth fund now owns 2.6m shares in the bookie.
Sportingbet had turnover of over GBP 1 billion last year, and posted a remarkable 557 percent increase in profits to GBP 9.2 million ($16.9 million) in April this year. The company has over a million registered gamblers, taking an average eight bets per second from 104 countries and operating in twenty four currencies. Europe is the fastest growth area, although the USA remains its main market at present.
The Bodog.com sportsbook group recently opened an RTG-powered online casino which is already making a name for itself, but this group are not resting on their laurels, with news just in that a poker room is in prospect.
From what we can see, they do not seem to be contracting RTG's LVFH package judging by a press release from Micropower in Vancouver, Canada. The release announces that BoDog.com has chosen Micropower software for its forthcoming poker room project.
A company spokesman said, “Players love BoDog –one of the most respected and trusted online entities in iGaming today– so naturally we at Micropower are very excited to see just what BoDog has in store for the poker platform, especially when you take into consideration the features our software has to offer them. Comparably it’s a little like having built this Ferrari and then getting the opportunity to watch it race with no less than the circuit’s hottest driver behind the wheel.”
Shares in Britain's No 2 betting shop chain William Hill fell after its chief executive sold nearly all his shares in the company, worth some GBP 5 million reports The Guardian and the Independent.
The sale came as analysts advised clients to sell the stock.
Forty nine year old CE David Harding's sale of 946,954 shares was for personal reasons believed to be in connection with a divorce settlement and not a reflection of his commitment to the business, a company spokeswoman said. Mr Harding, who earns GBP 640 000 a year, still holds 50,000 shares - the company has a total of around 420 million shares.
In a note entitled "Follow The Leader", brokerage Seymour Pierce said investors should also sell the stock. "Competition is increasing across all channels and should be increased on gambling reform. Finally, we believe entry into gaming will be difficult and highly expensive."
Under a float bonus scheme, paid when William Hill joined the market two years ago, Mr Harding received a GBP 1.4 million cash bonus. At the same time he was awarded 630,000 shares, then worth a further GBP1.4 million, which could not be accessed until last month. Last June he received 366,600 additional shares from the William Hill executive directors' incentive plan.
Since flotation the group's share price has rocketed from 225p to a peak of 558p this week. The improvement has been powered by the axing of betting duty and the arrival of fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT) - or touch-screen roulette machines - in betting outlets, which have added a huge new dimension to the traditional bookie's business. William Hill has 4,000 of these machines and they are expected to generate more than GBP 2 billion in turnover this year.
Quirky story of the week comes from the BBC, which reports that Ladbrokes outlet on Putney Bridge Road in London has an unusual solution for bad business brought on by too many lucky gamblers....or bad vibes?
A feng shui expert has been brought in to discover why customers keep raking in the money. Payouts to gamblers visiting the outlet are 20 percent higher than the norm.
Dr Paul Darby of Nottinghamshire said the shop's layout is to blame for clients' good luck. He says the office is in the cellar where there is no natural light, and the energy of the nearby river is blocked by a new police station.
"The layout of the shop is upside down - there's rubbish outside the front, and the kitchen area and toilets are at the back, blocking all the energy", the expert said.
We haven't heard whether the remedial action has been successful yet...
African flavour
Latest online casino from Playtech is African Palace Casino.com, a cool looking site with an authentic African feel to it. The owners claim to have other online casinos but do not identify these. As you might expect the financials are in South African Rands, dollars and euros on this operation, which carries a 60 plus download gambling suite of good quality. The casino is operated by a Curacao-licensed firm First Grand Gaming NV, and offers a wide range of financial options such as Neteller Instacash, Moneybookers, PPATM, 900Pay and FirePay. Email, livechat and tollfree 24/7 Support is available, as are the usual range of Playtech bonuses, starting with a phantom matchplay incentive maxed at $100 with a x10 WT of D + B (more for BJ and BJ Switch)
Unexpectedly ordinary
For a some time now we've taken it for granted that new casinos from Microgaming will have luxurious, above-average presentation, so we were rather disappointed at the somewhat ordinary appearance of Thunderluck.com, a new arrival that we understand is being operated by the Fortune Lounge group. Perhaps beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in any case this one has all the trappings of a big, professional operation with a large download gambling suite of excellent quality, Playcheck and Cashcheck, a 24/7 Support contactable through Foneback, email and a wide international range of toll frees and Kahnawake licensing. There's a big choice of financial instruments including Neteller, FirePay, Click2Pay and UseMyBank and some interesting promotions on-site.
All change at King Solomans
Real Time Gaming has announced that the well established King Solomans Casino is presently converting onto its software platform. Apparently no arrangements have been requested yet in respect of sister casinos in the Empire of Gold group. KS has had a varied software experience, starting with Microgaming then moving to Aquaonline/IGS and now to RTG. Indications are that the casino will maintain its Kahnawake licensing. The change for players will be noticeable, but shouldn’t disrupt current styles or tendencies. On the contrary, the comprehensive suite of RealTime games should expand player choices, with more than 45 game titles in a variety of categories, including multi-player poker and bingo.
New sportsbook
Look out for Gaming Club Sportsbook.com, the latest gambling venture from the Belle Rock supergroup. The site claims it is powered by software from a Brit outfit we had not previously heard of called Ludologic.com.
As we were going to press the news was filtering through that a European player identified as JoaquimM has become the biggest Major Millions online progressive jackpot winner yet with a full cash payment of US $ 1 779 827.44 (Euro 1 453 610.18). The record win was achieved at Jackpot City Casino but as at press time full details were not yet available. The network that runs Major Millions across dozens of top casinos, Jackpot Madness as paid out over $100 million on it's eleven progressives so far.
Too long to wait
The Playtech powered group that embraces Black Widow, Grand Banks and Sterlinghouse Internet casinos has featured here before, but the complaints of slowpay continue to mount and another warning is therefore appropriate. Their Support seems unconcerned or uninformed and is of little help to aggrieved players who have run out of patience with delays of well over a month. One stressed-out player this week complained that he has been waiting for six months for payouts of under $3 000 from Grand Banks and Sterlinghouse. When mediator Bryan Bailey of Casinomeister tried to expedite matters he was given the unlikely story that the delay had been occasioned by the player's refusal to go on to a faster payout system. Faster than six months? We would certainly hope so. The surprising thing is that players continue to frequent venues like this where they have to wait for unacceptably long periods for a simple payout. Perhaps they are uninformed newbies, greedy for the bonuses or just risk addicted.
A different approach to collecting
Frustrated players are definitely getting smarter...and more determined. After over a year of trying to negotiate a payout with Warren Cloud's Vegas Strip Group (who own Crystal Palace) one player resorted to a very direct method that could set the tone in future. He hired a well connected lawyer in Cyprus where the casino is based, who charged him on a contingency basis at 10 percent of the money collected. And it worked - he finally received - in full - the money owed to him, and suggests this as a last resort alternative to going unpaid. The lawyers can be contacted through George Yiangou and Co. gyiangou@logos.cy.net or gyiangou@yiangou.com.cy.
Careful with this connection
Complaints against RTG-powered Connect to Casino and its sisters Hampton and Portofino are appearing on a number of leading message boards and are a cause for concern. Some weeks ago the CEO at Connect 2, Keith Kane pulled his PR man off the message boards in an apparently petulant gesture after some robust criticism. In one exchange a poster complains of an unjustified $100 debit from his account which appeared to suggest a connection between Destination Poker and Connect to Casino. Spokesmen from the operations have denied any relationship despite both apparently knowing about the issue. The player has yet to be reimbursed although a $50 bonus has been offered due to a "bank mess up"
Oasis not so cool
Any casino that retroactively disqualifies winnings or bonuses should be approached with extreme caution, and this week there are allegations that Oasis Casino has been pulling this stunt. It is claimed that Oasis offered a bonus, a player wagered under the T&Cs attached to that bonus and was granted it, only to be declared a bonus abuser and see the bonus disqualified when he tried to cash out. The casino had not responded to our request for a comment as we went to press.
The US Department of Justice expanded its attack on Internet gambling in April by confiscating $3.2 million in advertising cash paid to Discovery Communications by Tropical Paradise sportsbook for advertising slots, according to a report this week in the New York Times.
The newspaper reported that Federal law enforcement officials routinely seize money they suspect is connected to activities like money laundering, terrorism or drug smuggling and this has apparently been extended to cases involving internet gambling advertising.
The money initially belonged to Tropical Paradise, a Costa Rica-based Internet casino operation, which in October paid Discovery for television spots to advertise an online poker room, ParadisePoker.com.
According to court documents, the government seized the money and told Discovery, which is based in Silver Spring, Md., that it could be party to an illegal activity by broadcasting such advertisements.
Federal prosecutors contend that Got2bet sites are illegal, but the offshore casinos fall outside their jurisdiction. So for nearly a year, the government has been trying to curb the sites' activities by investigating and pressuring American companies that provide services to offshore gambling sites on the theory that they are "aiding and abetting" the operations.
Until now, the effort has largely involved seeking information from American companies, including major broadcasters, Web portals and industry consultants. The seizure of money significantly escalates the government's attack.
Matt Richtel, the author of the report says that the move has raised strong criticism from First Amendment experts, media industry executives and people involved with offshore casinos. They assert that the federal government is relying on an untested legal theory in taking action against American companies, and using tactics more typically used against organised crime activities.
"This is not drug money or terrorist money," said Rodney A. Smolla, dean of the University of Richmond School of Law. "The fact it is being treated as such shows a crusader's zeal against offshore gambling."
The possible message being sent, legal experts said, is that any American company that does business with an offshore casino - including software makers and consultants - could be in danger of having proceeds from that business seized.
"This is a strategy of intimidating anybody who is in the chain of commerce," said Lawrence Walters, a lawyer who works with offshore Internet casinos, as well as software companies that do business with the casinos.
The Justice Department declined to comment about this case or other investigations in this area.
Tens of millions of Americans place bets over the Internet, wagering on sporting events and on casino games like virtual blackjack, roulette and poker. But the casinos are outside the United States, typically in Costa Rica and the Caribbean or in Britain, where the operations are fully licensed and legal.
The legality of online betting is a complicated matter of some dispute in the United States. The government asserts that the federal Wire Act prohibits all Internet casinos, but the courts have been divided, legal scholars said.
The individual states also have laws that prohibit any gambling enterprises that they do not formally authorise. Some states, but not all of them, make it illegal for individuals to place a recreational bet; New York, for instance, does not make it illegal to place a bet online.
In June 2003, the Justice Department sent letters to trade groups representing major broadcasters and publishers, telling them their members could be violating the law by displaying advertisements on behalf of offshore casinos. The government said the businesses could be seen as aiding and abetting the activities of the casinos.
Then, Raymond W. Gruender, the United States attorney in the Eastern District of Missouri, convened a grand jury, sending subpoenas to companies asking them to provide a broad range of information about their relationships with offshore casinos. The investigation had a significant impact. Some major broadcasters, including Infinity Broadcasting and Clear Channel Communications, stopped taking gambling ads last fall. Google and Yahoo, the Internet search engines, said in April that they would stop taking such advertisements.
So far, executives at media companies have not voiced public challenges to the government campaign. An executive for one media company, who asked that his firm not be identified so as not to attract further attention from the Department of Justice, said that the government was promising to go easy on broadcasters and Internet sites that cooperate with its inquiry.
The executive said he had heard from people involved in the investigation that the government might begin levying fines or pressing charges against media companies.
INTERNET PLAYERS THE TOPS IN WORLD POKER
4 June 2004
Online satellite tournaments bring through more winners
For the second year running Internet poker players have scooped the top prizes at the final table of the World Series of Poker, which took place at the Bellagio in Las Vegas last Friday reports Associated Press.
Last year it was Chris Moneymaker, but in 2004 it was a Connecticut patent attorney called Greg (Fossilman) Raymer who beat all comers to become the reigning champion with a cash prize of US $ 5 million.
And the last man he had to beat was another Internet champ, 23 year old Dallas student David Anthony Williams.
A field that began with 2,576 entrants, many of them Internet players on May 22 was down to nine by Friday afternoon. The game was No-Limit Texas Hold'Em, in which a player can risk all his chips with every draw of a card, guaranteeing high-stakes action and big losers.
In head-to-head play, Raymer had a stack worth $17.1 million compared with the $8.2 million held by Williams. On the seventh hand, Williams pushed all his chips into the pot and Raymer matched him.
Both had full houses -- but Raymer had eights over twos, while Williams had fours over twos. Williams busted out.
Raymer, 39, whose nickname comes from his hobby of collecting fossils, snagged the top prize of $5 million and Williams earned $3.5 million for second place.
Opponents knocked out by the finalists did not go home empty handed.
Mike McClain (39) and Swedish player Mattias Andersson (24) banked $470 400 and $575 000 respectively whilst Matt Dean (25) received $675 000 for his seventh placing.
Al Crux, a professional player from New York state and 38 year old Glenn Hughes from Arizona won $800 000 and $1.1 million respectively, and fourth placed 1995 champion Dan Harrington picked up $1.5 million.
Third place went to Josh Arieh, a 29 year old professional player from Atlanta who earned himself a cool $2.5 million before being knowcked out by Raymer's three queens to his pair of nines.
The player protection and regulating organisation eCOGRA announced this week that it is now able to provide its Seal casino operators with Dutch, Chinese, Japanese,
Korean, Portuguese and Hebrew certificates in addition to the
French, German, Spanish and Italian certs that were previously provided.
The continueing threat of Distributed Denial of Service attacks was highlighted again this week when Blue Square’s Chief Technology Officer, Peter Pedersen, called on governments to do more to combat cyber-extortion and DDoS attacks, which are becoming increasingly sophisticated and costing Britain millions of pounds.
Pedersen says he has "lost count" of the number of attacks, believed to originate in Eastern Europe, which temporarily overload and disable systems if blackmailing demands are not met.
In Pedersen's view, unless more is done to combat the assaults and find the culprits such attacks could threaten the future of e-commerce itself.
“If the government continues to urge UK public companies to get online, then it needs to introduce more legislation against cybercrime and press ISPs to provide more defences for customers,” he said. “Ecommerce won't happen if these threats continue to grow. Small companies can't take the same measures we can, and ISPs often charge more to mitigate risks for small and medium businesses.”
The National Hi Tech Crime Unit reports that DDoS attacks are becoming increasingly advanced, and even banks and online sites such as eBay are now being targeted.
Brit gambling companies interested in finding the best way to reach potential interactive television clients were promised a new advisory service by Digital Television Services (DTS) this week.
Managing director Daniel Winner says the service is designed to assist bookmakers, pools operators, bingo companies, lotteries, casino operators, broadcasters, platform operators and production companies in evaluating how to reach tv viewers with an interest in gambling… and how to launch & operate new services which are sensitive to the proposed UK reformed legislative framework, and satisfy the best practice guidelines for problemn gamblers set out by Gamcare.
"The Government’s draft gambling legislation envisages extended choice for adult gamblers with new safeguards to ensure responsible gambling. In this new environment, television is likely to emerge as an attractive distribution channel for companies who want to combine popular gaming formats with the entertainment values of television," he says.
DTS claims it has received support and backing from opinion leaders in the gambling and television industries for its initiative, among them Martin Graham Scott who is Managing Director of Fancy a Flutter (the interactive tv gaming venture created by Rank and NDS)
Graham Scott says "DTS has already shown its strategic worth to companies like ours. This advisory service embraces all business issues which need to be considered by any would-be TV betting channel. We welcome this initiative as it has been shaped following consultation with the industry itself as well as broadcasters and platform owners.
One of the top providers of Internet gambling software, WagerLogic Limited, has added eleven new video slots to their award-winning suite of games.
The new slots are branded to describe individual themes with 20,000 Leagues, Cash Caper, Cool Bananas, Dick Danger, Eastern Dragon, Free Kick, Kanga Cash, Love Bugs, Magic Carpet, Nothin' But Net and The Oracle.
The suite offers three to 20 pay-line games, and animated bonus rounds that award cash, prizes and free spins. Each new video slot offers at least one bonus feature, allowing for chances at free games that can double or triple the fun. The new video slots allow wagers between 1¢ and $180, satisfying the widest range of bets and the largest audience of bettors. Each game pays a generous 95%-98%, ranking them with the loosest slots on the Internet.
"Bonus Pack 4 represents the next generation in graphics technology and game development," says Justin Thouin, CryptoLogic's Casino Group Product Manager. "By delivering eleven more of the most popular types of video slot games on the Internet, CryptoLogic-developed software is the clear choice for players."
To experience the new games for yourself, visit InterCasino (www.InterCasino.com), the first to go live with the full suite of eleven games. InterCasino was voted by Gambling Online Magazine's readers as "Best Casino of the Year"; and thanks to Bonus Pack 4, InterCasino now has even more to offer.
The reform of gambling legislation is not confined to Britain it appeared from news out of Russia this week, where the Duma or Parliament introduced proposals for gambling reform.
The proposals are aimed primarily at gaming taxation reforms, in which owners of licensed casinos and other gambling venues will have to register their businesses and pay taxes to the regional government where they are physically located.
Under current law, gambling firms pay taxes only to areas where they are registered, allowing them to be located in one area but registered in another (less expensive registration) area.
Addressing the State Duma on May 27th, Igor Igoshin, Deputy Chair of the Appropriations Profile Committee, said that, in 2002, more than 290 organisations and individuals in the Moscow region alone paid taxes. He added that the amendment to the law would increase much needed regional revenue for constituent parts of the Russian Federation.
The proposals did not specifically refer to Internet gambling, which remains a grey area in Russian law and is unregulated. It is understood that companies wishing to operate internet casinos in the Federation must first acquire a standard casino licence, and then request permission to extend their land services to the Internet.
The latest Alderney press release offers some interesting numbers and names...and claims that the Channel Islands licensing outfit is the "pre-eminent" regulatory jurisdiction.
The Alderney Gambling Control Commission released its annual report for the year ending 31 December 2003 this week. The figures for the year 2003 reveal a healthy surplus of £535,502 over expenditure, generated from interactive gaming and gambling licensing fees, compared with the previous year’s results which produced a small surplus of £62,165.
From the report it is evident that Alderney is now recognised as the pre-eminent jurisdiction worldwide which attracts world leading interactive gambling companies wishing to operate within a fully regulated environment.
At the end of 2003, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission had issued 10 licences to well known brands both in the UK and US. These include blue chip operators Sky, Ritz, Rank, Harrah’s, Venetian, WagerWorks, CryptoLogic and Paddy Power.
Since the beginning of this year, the Commission has issued a licence to WagerWorks (Alderney) 4 who operate “The Price is Right Games.com.” and Blue Square Gaming (Alderney) Ltd . This week, the commission issued a licence to WagerWorks (Alderney) 5 who intend to operate Virgin Games.com. The Commission is also currently considering an application by Cantor Fitzgerald, the well-known US and UK financial brokerage firm. “By the end of June we expect a total of nine Alderney licensees to be fully operational”, said Chief Executive Officer André Wilsenach.
In his Chairman’s report, John Godfrey, Chairman of the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) stressed: 'The main objective of the Commission is to provide a regulatory environment that meets ‘world-class standards, thereby protecting the reputation of Alderney while attracting ‘world class operations.'
“This is not what is typically offered by many other gambling jurisdictions elsewhere. There are currently about two thousand internet gambling sites which are owned by approximately 350 businesses operating from jurisdictions other than Alderney, of which only a handful are regulated in any meaningful way.”
Alderney offers state-of-the-art telecommunication infrastructure and hosting facilities. The island also compares very favourably with other Got2bet jurisdictions in respect of fiscal benefits, including low corporate taxes, no VAT and no gaming taxes.
Most importantly, Alderney is recognised by the major gambling jurisdictions in the rest of the world, including the UK, Europe and the United States of America.
Founded in May 2002, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission is an independent , non-political body which is chaired by John Godfrey, an expert in gambling regulation, and includes people with specialist experience in gaming, regulation and licensing.
For some weeks the message boards have been debating the activities of alleged pyramid scheme firm World Games Incorporated, which is said to be associated with the Victor Chandler organisation in an Got2bet venture.
This week the Royal Canadian Mounted Police took a bold step in posting an informative regarding the group and various prosecutions surrounding it. The message from the RCMP was as follows:
"My name is Sergeant Karen Suchar of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Canada) and I am one of two primary police members assigned to investigate the operation of World Games Inc. in Alberta, Canada. As a result of overwhelming requests for information on this organization, we have chosen to disseminate the following information out of a moral and public responsibility.
"It is our belief and that of the Attorney General of Alberta that World Games Inc. is operating an illegal Pyramid Scheme in addition to promoting an illegal lottery. Following our investigation, criminal charges were laid in September of 2003 against seven Albertans as well as one Australian for contraventions of the Criminal Code.
"In addition, World Games Inc. and Greg Kennedy have been charged by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and will stand trial June 7, 2004 for Pyramid Selling offences in accordance with their Trade Practices Act.
"A conviction was also registered in March against a Swedish WGI member for promoting an illegal lottery in association with World Games Inc. It is also our information that Scandinavian police investigations are continuing.
"Should you wish to review the details of our investigation and other criminal convictions and charges around the globe, I urge you to view the attached "Word" documents. If we can be of any further assistance to you, please feel free to contact us directly. I have also included an internet "link" to the official website of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police which provides information regarding Pyramid Schemes."
Two reports on gambling innovations caught our eye this week as being somewhat out of the ordinary.
Agence France Presse reported that the state-run Phillipine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and its operator Philweb is to offer Internet betting on cockfights within the next few weeks. Philweb predicts that the popular but cruel islands sport will generate annual revenue of some 60 million pesos ($1 billion)
In the more conventional world of soaring gas prices and gambling in the United States, big-name Harrahs Entertainment Inc. has begun a program that will offer free gas cards to members of its Total Rewards slot club loyalty program.
The prize is 10 litres (that's 2-some gallons) of top quality German beer delivered FOC in a casino-sponsored fun "Bierfest" competition currently being run by the popular Casinomeister portal site and Roxy Palace.
You can check out the rules on the site, especially if you're into Northern Bavarian brewskis! Check it out here!
