New owner stresses financial health but does not comment on reversal of bonus disqualifications.

The following press release has just been received from Jamie Taylor's Casino Rewards group, which has taken over the troubled ICL group today.

Although Jamie Taylor comments on the " ....unfounded speculation regarding delayed payments" he does not address the issue at the crux of the ICL problems - the questionable disqualification of bonuses from players who the casino group did not want, but who had met all the terms and conditions for the reward of those bonuses.

This remains a major issue for the player, affilate and portal communities and the manner in which the new owners treat this element, and the priority they give it will be closely watched.

Press Release

25 March 2005 - Casino Rewards Group, operators of leading casinos including Blackjack Ballroom and Golden Tiger, and Integrity Casinos Limited, operators of the long established Captain Cooks Casino, today announced that the companies have reached an agreement under which Casino Rewards will acquire all Integrity gaming entities.

Jamie Taylor from Casino Rewards stated, "The Casino Rewards Group and ICL are both Microgaming powered groups and share complementary business models, which will allow easy integration of ICL's product offerings and most importantly uninterrupted provision of service for all ICL players. This acquisition is an exciting opportunity that will make Casino Rewards a stronger company with increased opportunities for growth and greater resources to offer clients. ICL brings a suite of long standing and well respected brands, which really made the acquisition an easy decision, we can't wait to get the operational ball rolling, and put an end to the unfounded speculation regarding delayed payments".

Casino Rewards has emphasized that all players and affiliates will incur no intended disruption to business at ICL, with all player and affiliate accounts to continue and be paid as per standard trading terms.

About Casino Rewards

Casino Rewards has been a leader in the gaming industry for more than four years and is a member of the Interactive Gaming Council operating under their code of conduct guaranteeing fair and honest gaming. They operate 7 casino brands and 3 poker sites and are recognized as some of the most respected casino brands in the gaming industry, providing unparalleled, friendly, and professional 24/7 customer support, great value and the most rewarding promotions available anywhere online.

Casino Reward's casinos have been applauded for Privacy and Security Policies, state-of-the-art technology, guaranteed fast payouts, and commitment to customer care. Casino Rewards pride themselves on offering customers a complete gaming experience with promotions rewarding those that regularly play at Casino Rewards Casinos.

http://www.casinorewards.com

About Integrity Casinos

Commencing in 1999 Integrity Casinos made its debut in online gaming with Captain Cooks Casino, which has become one of the most trusted and established online casinos. Integrity later added Casino Kingdom, Captain Cooks Poker and more recently Casino Classic to its gaming suite..

Utilising Microgaming software and licensed in Kahnawake, Integrity Casinos prides itself in exceptional 24/7 player support and has been the recipient of multiple industry awards.

http://www.captaincookscasino.com
http://www.casinokingdom.com
http://www.casinoclassic.com
http://www.captaincookspoker.com
http://www.integrityprofits.com

Shedding expert players is one thing...dishonest bonus tactics is quite another

The storm over the Integrity Casino Limited group - Captain Cooks, Casino Kingdom and Classic Casino continued to rage this week as concrete fact in the form of aggrieved player complaints, many from what appeared to be ordinary gamblers began to surface.

Adding to the row were reports of affiliates being paid three weeks late, or not at all.

And appeals submitted to ICL by mediators were turned down on ridiculous grounds such as autoplay, just meeting bonus requirements and using currencies other than home country. None of these requirements were in the T&Cs pertaining at the time of the wagers, rendering the unilateral judgements blatantly unfair.

Despite repeated and sincere advice and guidance from industry specialists including InfoPowa, the ICL management stubbornly refused to acknowledge wrongdoing and reverse their flawed bonus disqualification policy. Unfortunately this has led to serious consequences, with responsible and player sensitive affiliates and portals alike distancing themselves from the actions of this formerly respected management.

How did a reputable and successful online casino group move from hero to zero in such a short timespan?

ICL management felt strongly about the smart gamblers who exploit casino bonusing to make their play more profitable - it didn't want them. The managers confirmed that this was their motivation on several occasions.

Management said that bonusing was an incentive to join the casino and remain a regular player "for entertainment" and that it would rather reward loyal players than help expert players to profit from its promos.

Following the advice of an analyst, the strong but risky decision was made to examine every account in order to identify the advantage players, and then expel them under the casinos' right of admission.

So far no problem - the right of admission is a generally accepted convention, and had those expelled been paid what they were owed there would have been no argument.

But from this point on, ICL appeared to stagger from one blunder to the next.

Their first mistake was not knowing enough about the industry to recognise the knee-jerk reaction that use of the word "audit" triggers. And that was how they described their first moves to inspect their accounts. It is a word which many casinos on their way under have used in order to stall player payments. Allied to the first reports of delayed affiliate payments, it immediately raised the spectre of financial failure in many player minds, and encouraged rampant and damaging speculation.

Then, ICL ran way over the promised 7 day timelines for its *audits*, creating further resentment and suspicion.

ICL was also found wanting when it came to communicating clearly and honestly with the player community, either ignoring emails and the furore in general or neglecting to answer pertinent questions at later stages regarding their actions. For example, they consistently avoided defining the category of player they wanted to get rid of, leading to speculation that expulsion orders were an arbitrary management decision.

But their worst mistake was the misguided notion that they could with impunity strip a player of his or her earned bonuses in contravention of their own T&C's.

The convention in the industry is clear and has the visibility of a flashing neon sign:

If a player accepts a bonus and wagers in full compliance with the T&Cs framed by the casino and in force at the time of the wager, he or she is entitled to all the rewards - all the rewards - that have been promised.

The only justification for removing bonuses under these conditions is where a player is fraudulent ie false ID, multiple accounts, previous fraudulent activity etc

This is Casino Management 101 stuff, and yet incredibly ICL took away monies that had been earned in compliance with their own T&Cs.

The uproar continues, and must surely have caused a major dent in ICL's business and reputation.

Where this will end is anyone's guess, but for ICL it is unlikely to be a happy finale....unless of course a change of ownership is in the wind. We're picking up whispers that that might be the case and soon.

If the rumours are true, then the new owners face a formidable task to repair the damage caused by these astonishingly bad management misjudgements.

The starting point has to be an immediate reversal of the bonus disqualifications that lay at the centre of the issue, and an honest attempt to redress the prejudice suffered by innocent players to date.

Until then, InfoPowa has to urge extreme caution around this formerly reputable group.

Final indignity for malware company

Another chapter of the Gambling Federation malware affair closed this week when the iGGBA issued the following press release announcing the expulsion of the company from its membership ranks.

"Following an official inquiry into the allegations of the use of malware in the Gambling Federation's software, iGGBA has determined that the company is in violation of the iGGBA Code of Conduct and has thereby terminated Gambling Federation's membership of the Association with immediate effect.

"The inquiry determined that the Gambling Federation had indeed intentionally embedded malware in their customers' software to prevent them from using certain competitor's web sites.

"While it is regrettable that one of the Gambling Federation's ex-employees did seek to illegally access and use the Company's customer database, the response of the company was incorrect and adversely affected customers who are the lifeblood of the remote gambling industry.

"It is vitally important that the industry takes action in ensuring that operators and suppliers are providing fair and fraud free services to customers and the actions of the Gambling Federation were inconsistent with this approach.", stated Richard Flint, Chairman of iGGBA."

Another affiliate grouping takes action

The consequences of Gambling Federation's conduct in dumping malware on to gamblers computers through its software download continued to revergerate around the Internet this week as another affiliate marketing group took action against the company and its hapless CEO Flaviano Fogli.

Gambling Portal Webmasters Association (GPWA) has joined Casino Affiliate Program (CAP) in distancing itself from Gambling Federation operations.

Internet poker Bill defeated

Associated Press reported early this week that North Dakota's flirtation with legalised Internet poker, Bill HB 1509 has come to an end following a decisive 44 - 3 vote defeat in the state Senate.

Senator David Nething probably summed up the feeling among voting legislators Monday when he said, "This is just another vehicle for more gambling in North Dakota, and I'm not so sure we want it."

The measure lost in the Senate, 44 - 3 despite the strenuous lobbying of fellow senators by the Bill's sponsor, Sen. Jim Kasper having passed the House last month on a 49 - 43 vote.

Sens. Connie Triplett, John Syverson, and Jack Traynor backed the measure. They supported it in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which reviewed the legislation. North Dakota voters would have had to approve a state constitutional amendment for the regulatory bill to take effect. Traynor said a Senate vote supporting the legislation would still leave the question in voters' hands.

"It strikes me that we should let the people of the state decide if they want this," Traynor said. "The promoters have told us it could amount ... to some significant economic activity in our communities."

Senators voted to approve amendments to the legislation Monday, before deciding to kill the bill. It was not sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee for further work, as is customary for a measure with a large price tag. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem estimated it would cost at least $1 million over two years to regulate the industry, an expense industry officials have said they would be willing to pay.

Critics of the measure said they were wary of the U.S. Justice Department's stand that Internet gambling in general is illegal. Stenehjem and Gov. John Hoeven declined to endorse the legislation.

"There are at least three federal laws out there that make this legislation suspect," said Sen. Carolyn Nelson.

North Dakota's Internet poker bill has been a frequently cited example of recent state attempts to broaden cyberspace gambling. South Dakota's Legislature has approved allowing telephone and electronic mail wagering on horse or dog races, as long as interstate betting is done using South Dakota bank accounts.

Lawmakers in Illinois and Georgia are considering bills to allow Internet lottery ticket sales. In Georgia, the measure is awaiting a Senate vote after winning easy House approval. The Illinois bill is still awaiting its first vote, in the Senate.

Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands have previously approved measures that would authorize licensing of Internet casinos, but the Justice Department's stance has stalled potential regulation in those jurisdictions.

One legislator said the Senate should not spend any more time debating Internet poker. "We have far more pressing priorities that we should be addressing ... whether they be K-12 education, or human services, or corrections, state employee salaries, renewable energy. Gambling is not one of those issues that's a high priority."

A row over rake rebates

Online poker fora were full of comment this week on what looks like a clash over rake rebates to players where relative newcomer and Party Poker skin, Poker Now (they opened in October last year) are at odds.

PokerNow is thought to be unique among Party Poker skins because it offers the same multi table tournaments as Party Poker itself, to which the other skins do not have access.

Online poker expert, Pokeraddict tells us that PokerNow's marketing was apparently geared towards rake rebates, competing with other skins by paying the affiliates 25 percent of rake back at first, although it is understood that in the end some were getting more then that.

These affiliates kicked back a sizeable chunk of this reward to the players they had signed up. Unfortunately for them, Party Poker strictly forbids any marketing practice that lures their players away. Offering players receiving zero rake back 25 percent or more back through affiliates more than likely falls into this "luring" category, and as Party's parent iGlobal Media does the banking it was possible to read the substantial player to player transfers that happened after affiliate payday as an indication of what was going on.

Sources claim that Party Poker lowered the boom on Poker Now by witholding their February payments whilst the entire system was subjected to a detailed inspection. This left Poker Now in an invidious position vis-a-vis payment to its affiliates and sent shock waves through the poker community, although it is believed that some affiliates paid their players the rake back rebates out of their own pockets.

Reports indicate that Eurobet, another popular rake rebate skin on Party Poker has seemingly been unaffected because it banks the players itself and Party Poker therefore does not have access to the database.

Importantly, the money in players' gambling accounts is not in danger as these funds are not held by PokerNow but by iGlobal. This money is as safe as money in any player's account on Party Poker or Empire Poker.

PokerNow has apparently had a previous affiliate dispute when one of their first affiliates skipped out on a number of payments and promises under the now notorious"SHARK" bonus code, which promised rewarding kickbacks and DVD's. There were massive sign ups and some people still remain unpaid with most never receiving the promised DVD's.

Party Now has acknowledged the dispute and makes the following comment:

"Discussions with PartyPoker are underway and within a few more weeks we will be able to clarify any ambiguities associated with acceptable marketing promotions by affiliates. During these discussions PokerNow would still request affiliates not to offer rake back deals. We are happy to let you know we are putting a plan into place to pay 100 percent of all monies owed, including February. This plan will be unveiled in approximately 3-4 weeks."

Nine months on, a casino shorts a player...and gets rogued

For the past six weeks InfoPowa has been chronicling in Casino Cautions the unprofessional and downright dishonest activities of Royal Dutch Casino, a small Costa Rican operation powered by Diamond Digital Systems and managed by the integrity-challenged.

Despite intense efforts to get a long-suffering player paid the measly $2 700 they owed him, in the end and after nine months they defaulted on the final payment, eventually shorting him by $ 1 000.

It's a long tale of deeply unsavoury conduct culminating in a thoroughly deserved consignment to the ranks of the rogues, which has been well documented by the Casinomeister portal here: http://www.casinomeister.com/rogue/royaldutchcasino.html

This is well worth the read as an example of just how low a casino management can go.

Royal Dutch Casino should be avoided at all costs by players looking for respectful and honest treatment.

New tax measures still give advantage to companies

Reports this week in the Antiguan press that suggested new taxes might have precipitated the departure of an online gambling group were denied by Director of Off-Shore Gaming Kay McDonald.

"We still have an advantage in this country for gaming companies because there is no corporate tax," she asserted in dismissing a front-page report that companies were leaving because the Antigua jurisdiction was no longer an attractive tax jurisdiction. "Also gaming companies pay out dividends and these dividends are not going to be taxed," she continued. "Under the income tax act, dividends are among revenue areas that are exempt from the new measure.

McDonald downplayed the information in the press report that an offshore company was reported to have signed off on a license to set up business in Khanawake in the Quebec province of Canada.

Discussing the state of affairs in the industry in relation to the pending income tax, spokesperson of the AOGA and McDonald's predecessor Ron Maginley said members of the industry felt "...the tax rate proposed by the government, may remove the cost benefit of conducting some portions of operations within Antigua."

Parliament is currently debating the new tax measures.

Woman Poker Magazine debuts

A new poker magazine is debuting that will cater to the growing number of female poker players. Woman Poker Player magazine is a one-of-a-kind, lifestyle publication covering issues unique to women who enjoy the sport of poker.

The magazine's chief editor is professional poker player Barbara Enright, the only woman ever to make the final table at the World Series of Poker championship event. The editorial merges powerful experiences from poker-playing women and men around the globe, the mathematics and strategies of poker, tournament trip reports, profiles of popular female professional players, and will include lifestyle concerns such as, fashion and wellness.

“Women may have a basic advantage over their male counterparts. Psychologists tell us that women possess a sixth sense, and this instinctiveness can be a valuable asset at the poker table.” Says Enright. “They have proved they can hold their own against men, and this was dramatically underscored when three women won gold bracelets at last year’s World Series of Poker, although women represented less than five per cent of the participants.

“Even so, women can be timid when they first enter a casino. This is where Woman Poker Player magazine comes in. We will be offering valuable pointers on general strategy, and strategy especially designed for women.”

April’s premiere issue includes profiles on professional women poker players, tips on playing with male players, and a glimpse into what to expect while playing your first live tournament.

The first issue of Woman Poker Player will be circulated free of charge. To receive your copy, visit http://www.womanpokerplayer.com.

"Little or no incentive" in present gambling tax proposals

Europe Economics, a London-based independent economics consultancy, issued a warning to the HM Treasury this week on proposed tax liabilities for UK online gambling companies under the new Gambling Bill.

The report, commissioned by the Association of Remote Gambling Operators (ARGO), states that unless a way is found to reduce the potential tax liabilities for online gaming operators, there is little or no incentive for any of the major players to locate in Britain when the Gambling Bill comes into force.

The report concludes that the Government needs to adopt regulations that are effective, proportionate and targeted; and recognise that taxes substantially influence the location decisions of operators and therefore the effectiveness of any regulations.

"There is intense international competition between remote gambling operators based in any number of other viable low-tax jurisdictions," explained the report’s author, John Spicer, "Against that background, the Government should be careful not to price the UK out of the market."

ARGO Chairman, Ian Spearing (William Hill), added: "This report is an important piece of work that we hope will set the scene for further discussions with HM Treasury about the future tax regime. Quite simply, Britain could have the best gambling legislation and regulation in the world, but it will be to no effect if the tax regime acts as a fundamental disincentive for gambling operators to be based in this country."

$357 777 progressive bonanza

This week Sportsbook.com announced that player ErikK became the second player this year to clean up on the significant Bermuda Poker progressive when he pulled a US $ 357 777 jackpot.

Like most players happily confronted by an event as big as this, Erik said, "I am in total disbelief. I thought things like this only happen to other people. This will allow me to help a lot of people who really need the money.”

Bermuda Poker is a variation of poker conceived aboard luxury liners cruising the Caribbean and its popularity comes from the majorjackpots a Royal Flush can deliver.

The jackpot is already back up over $300,000, as is sportsbook.com’s Free Ride progressive jackpot.

Chat text included in new mobile package

One of the top five Internet poker companies, Poker Room.com announced this week that it is launching what it claims is the first ever interactive cell phone poker.

Using the most secure protocols and patent pending collusion software, players can play Texas Hold 'Em for "play money" or "real money" starting on Monday, April 11, 2005. It is believed that the software in use will be from sister company Ongame.

Players who want to take their hand on the road, can sign up for the game on PokerRoom.com (the game is sent to their phone for download) and will play other members of the PokerRoom.com community, rather than a computer, as all cell phone games currently operate.

With more than 3.5 million users, there is unlikely to be a shortage of potential table mates no matter where one travels, claims the release.

"With television shows, online poker's accessibility and celebrity fans, Poker – Texas Hold 'Em in particular – has become America's new favorite pastime." says PokerRoom.com CEO Patrik Selin.

"With availability on cell phones, the game is available anywhere, anytime. The advance of cell phone graphics makes the experience almost identical to that of playing online and I think people will enjoy taking the game on the road."

The game offers an experience both geographically and interactively that has not been available in any mobile poker games before, says Poker Room.

The player can choose between 3 different views; Normal View which has graphics similar to those seen on Pokerroom.com, Symbol View which gives a view over the whole table with simplified graphics or the Text View which also gives history of how the hand was played. Additionally, there is a chat function allowing players to text one another during the game. The game also has an offline version where players can play against bots on three different levels.

TST certification and a harder line with licensees at RTG

InfoPowa has never hestitated to criticise turnkey provider Real Time Gaming when one of its licensees strays from the path of righteousness, and it is therefore meet that we take note of interesting information from a reliable company source this week.

It appears that a plan is shaping up to build on the generally favourable reception of the Montana Overseas dispute resolution service introduced last year by the parent company. There is certainly room for improvement in terms of communication and speed here, but the service is undoubtedly a step forward for the formerly "hands off" software provider and it is to be hoped that performance is ramped up in the months ahead.

Montana is apparently now part of any RTG closure process. Our source says that there is increased focus on ".....terminating or declining to renew the licenses of operators who are not able or willing to meet their obligations. Several operations have been closed recently. Montana has the authority to ensure that these shutdowns are carefully monitored, and that accounts with cash balances and legitimate payouts belonging to players of closed casinos are paid in full."

Finally, look out for a press announcement soon from the international TST testing labs or RTG itself - the word is that the company has passed certification tests on its RNG.

Footnote: For players not yet familiar with Montana Overseas, this is the address where emailed complaints can be lodged if the matter has proved impossible to resolve at any RTG-powered casino: http://disputes.montanaoverseas.com/

A gnome for the glossary

InfoPowa learned a new (for us) online gambling term this week - "gnomes."

We're reliably informed that the genesis of the term are those much ridiculed lawn ornaments, so whoever coined the term had a sense of humour.

Gnomes are apparently online casino accounts opened in the names of friends and relatives by greedy gamblers looking to exploit bonuses to the max. The *ring leader* player often gives the friend or relative a percentage of the bonuses to compensate for use of personal and financial details.

We're unsure of the collective noun for a group of gnomes, but a gang (for want of a better word) of gnomes can involve the use of one or two *personalities* or fairly large syndicates. The schizophrenic possibilities are daunting.

It's a risky practice, because if discovered the player does not get too much sympathy or return on investment.

Our source tells us that the practice is freely discussed on sites like the appropriately and presumably proudly named Bonus Whores.com.....

Ask Jeeves to change hands?

Internet conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp announced this week that it intends to buy Web search provider Ask Jeeves Inc. for $1.85 billion in an effort to knit together its diverse holdings and profit from search advertising, one of the fastest growing businesses on the Web.

The purchase will pit IAC against well capitalized Web search giants Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. as well as new sector entrant Microsoft Corp.

"Global search is the gateway to everything,'' said media mogul Barry Diller, chairman and chief executive of IAC, calling it a multibillion dollar industry growing at double-digit rates.

IAC, which plans a spin-off of its Expedia and other travel-related businesses in the second quarter, said it will integrate the Ask Jeeves search box and its Web search results on all of its sites, including the Home Shopping Network, event ticket site Ticketmaster, online dating site Match.com and online mortgage provider LendingTree, as well as Expedia.

Known for its cartoon butler and early strategy of encouraging Web searchers to enter queries in the form of questions, Ask Jeeves runs a Web search network that is a distant fifth to those of Google, Yahoo, Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, and Microsoft's MSN.

In search of advertising

Slickstreet Marketing is looking for the right agency to promote Prima Poker Network online poker site Royal Vegas Poker.com, and has reportedly settled on a short list of three. The three companies still in the running for the tasty $20 million account include Eisner Communications Inc., The Concept Farm and Avrett Free Ginsberg, the latter of which is a division of The Interpublic Group of Companies Inc.

The project is the first time the Gibraltar and South Africa-based Slickstreet has hired an agency, and is doing so in an effort to boost the online poker site in North America. The ideal agency will have experience in marketing retail brands over the Internet.

Italian breakthrough?

Better late than never is a report coming to us from Stanleybet that there have been some positive moves in the "sovereignty" debate regarding its operations in Italy.

Last month Supreme Administrative Court (Consiglio di Stato) in Italy handed down a decision that U.K.-licensed bookmaker Stanleybet International has the right to operate data transmission centers in that country, even in the absence of a gaming license from the Italian government. The court's decision is the result of several legal challenges, including the European Court of Justice's ruling in November 2003 on the Gambelli case.

Popular sportsbook portal working closely with Bluff Magazine

Sports911.com, a popular sportsbook portal is turning its attention to the booming poker sector.

"These are market segments that since our start in September 2000 have been widely ignored by us," commented Christopher Costigan, founder and President of Sports911.com. "I'm a firm believer in starting off slowly and meticulously in order to engineer a product that remains true to its core market. As such, we've been able to hone our craft in a very specific sector - that being online sports betting news and information. Now that we have built a solid niche within this respective community, Sports911.com must position itself to encompass a much broader scope."

That broader scope is Internet poker and poker in general in addition to the European sports and gaming scene.

"Over this next quarter we will crank up our online poker and European gaming coverage another notch, this includes extensive profiling of companies Sports911.com deems to be leaders in both sectors. On average we anticipate devoting at least 25% of our daily news coverage to Internet poker and European gaming whereas Sports911 in the past focused almost entirely on the North American sports betting arena."

Costigan claims that Sports911.com is already beginning to build a following in some European countries. Recent stats show the Netherlands to have the third largest concentration of Sports911 readers after the United States and Canada.

Other countries where Sports911.com readership is significant include: The United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Austria, Denmark and Sweden. Australia, Mexico and Japan also represent a decent percentage of Sports911 readers. This was probably a result of the portal cetering for the European market by providing regional sports and gaming news that interests readers in those locations.

As part of the new marketing strategy, Sports911.com has been working closely with Bluff Magazine publisher, Eric Morris, whose company regularly supplies poker articles while Sports911 actively promotes Bluff Magazine to its online readers.

"It's very important for us to develop positive synergies with who we consider to be the leaders in other market segments," Costigan said. "Eric Morris is considered a leader in the world of gaming and poker publications so having a solid relationship with his organization gives us a tremendous jump start to tackling what we once considered unfamiliar territory."

Traditionally, Sports911 has prided itself on offering original internally produced content. With online poker and Euro sports gaming, the web publisher will rely heavily on tapping into externally generated material from a variety of respected sources.

"The key difference being this material will serve to compliment everything else we already produce in-house," Costigan explained. "Unlike the majority of other media outlets, Sports911 operates around the clock and offers a wider mixture of content that appeals to poker and Euro sports enthusiasts alike, therefore providing a more centralised source of information."

The site will also feature tools and strategies to help poker players in addition to regular news features.

New radio show for Bluff Magazine

Eric Morris's popular poker publication Bluff Magazine will be on air this week in a new venture to bring poker news and views to the US airwaves.

The poker radio show, Poker Night Radio, has been re-launched as the Bluff Magazine Poker Hour and, every Wednesday at 6PM PT/9PM ET, brings news, insight and interviews from the thrilling world of poker, America’s fastest growing sport.

Broadcast on Sports Byline USA, Sirius Satellite Radio (122), the show is hosted by poker enthusiast and sports radio/television personality, Nick Geber, along with long-time poker player Dirty Wally. The show also goes out on the American Forces Radio Network, supporting American troops around the world.

The Bluff Magazine Poker Hour is currently the only nationally syndicated poker show in America. Superstars such as Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, and Daniel Negreanu have already appeared as guests on the show, with many more poker celebrities lined-up for the coming weeks.

“I’m very excited about the show,“ says Nick Geber. “We like to talk about what’s happening on the felt, as well as bring a little bit of what’s going on behind the scenes. The show has been re-formatted around some of the articles featured in the magazine and Bluff writers and contributors will be appearing regularly to bring you the low-down on the gossip and happenings on the circuit. Whether you’re a pro or an amateur enthusiast, the Bluff Magazine Poker Hour’s ultimate aim is to offer something for everyone.”

“Sports Byline radio is heard on nearly 200 radio stations and by 2.2 million listeners per week,” added Eric Morris, Publisher and Co-founder of Bluff Magazine. “Poker has become a mainstream sport in recent years, and that’s why it needs a mainstream platform to reach all the fans out there. Bluff Magazine is only in its fourth issue and already has distribution of 200,000 copies. That’s the scale of this thing and we’re thrilled to be a part of it.”

Former BSkyB execs found dedicated poker TV channel

Capitalising on the poker's booming popularity, a group of former BSkyB executives has launched a new UK digital satellite channel dedicated to poker programming.

Inspired by series such as the Celebrity Poker Club and the rise of online casinos, The Poker Channel, which went live on March 23, has been set up by former Sky Ventures commercial manager Crispin Nieboer, former head of Sky Music Chiara Cipriani and Sky producer James Hopkins.

The station will rely on originated programming, rather than attempting to compete with the likes of Flextech-owned Challenge for rights to Celebrity Poker Club, or Discovery for the World Poker Tour.

In the UK, indie Luckbox is producing three (16x30') series, Bar Beat, Up Close and Poker Godfather. Zeal TV has secured an order for Barny's Home Game (13x60'), featuring Hendon mobster Barny Boatman. US producer Artist Tribe, meanwhile, is behind a fly-on-the-wall documentary series called Beyond the Felt (13x30').

The channel will initially air between 14.00 and 01.00 but Nieboer said playout would reach 24 hours a day by May when the tournament reaches its climax.

While heavyweight sponsors and advertisers from the world of online casinos and beyond have already come onboard, The Poker Channel will also look to alternative revenue streams from mobile phones, offering a range of competitions, games, voting and on-screen chat.

"The main problem with what's out there at the moment is that its very samey, not made for the UK market and there's not enough live programming," said CEO Crispin Nieboer "We think we can do as well, if not better than the World Poker Tour. Live is the next big thing to happen in poker."

Texas Hold 'Em with ten opponents possible

Poker's eminence as a mainstream entertainment as well as gambling genre was emphasised this week with the announcement by entertainment provider Majesco that it has added addition a poker title to its current options of Nintendo DS games.

Texas Hold 'Em was selected by the company for the new game due to its proven thrills and popularity with players, a company spokesman revealed.

Texas Hold 'em Poker is a follow-up to the Game Boy Advance version released late last year. The DS version will allow users to choose as many as ten different computer opponents. The Nintendo DS wireless networking support is tailored to let players find the most suitable tournament mode that may put five friends on the same poker table.

The company did not disclose the release date for the updated Nintendo DS games, but these are expected to ship by end 2005.

Virtual horse racing, new BJ surrender option and VP among latest offering

Online gamblers at the wide range of Playtech-powered casinos have four more games to tickly their fancy this week, as the turnkey provider launches its latest gambling creations, which brings the number of games in this gambling suite to 75.

The new games are Blackjack Surrender, Derby Day, 'Jacks or Better' 10-Line Video Poker and 'Aces and Faces' 25-Line Video Poker.

Derby Day is a virtual horse racing fixed-odds game aimed primarily at the UK sportsbook market and at sports fans in general. It boasts several value-added features in addition to best-of-breed animation and realistic track sounds.

Blackjack Surrender is a game based on the Single-Deck Blackjack currently available in all Playtech-powered casinos but featuring a new surrender option. Available to players after they are dealt the first two cards, this feature allows players to surrender - thereby automatically losing the game round but only losing half their initial bet.

The 10- and 25-line video poker games were developed by Playtech in response to renewed demand in the online casino industry in general, and among Playtech casino players in particular, for a greater diversity of video poker games.

Iris Toledano, Playtech's Marketing Director says, "We're confident that this games release - and more will follow in the coming months - will further enhance the offering of Playtech-powered casinos and will increase operators' competitive edge in an increasingly crowded gaming market."

Annie signs up with Masters of Poker

Poker fans will soon be watching ace poker player Annie Duke, winner of the $2 million “World Series of Poker” Tournament of Champions Event on DVD. The popular champ has signed an exclusive DVD deal with Masters of Poker (MOP).

The series of DVDs, shooting this month at the Commerce Casino, will be distributed through retail stores and will be supported by a direct marketing campaign through MOP’s exclusive partnership deal with video label, Big Vision Entertainment.

“Getting a star like Annie, whose beauty and skill is helping to take poker to a new level, is a real coup for Masters of Poker,” says Big Vision CEO Houston Curtis. “My partner, Jon Moonves, and I are pleased to add Annie to our series of poker DVDs which already includes 9-time World Champion, Phil Hellmuth.” Andy Bellin, author of the best-selling Poker Nation, serves as co-executive consultant on this project.

Annie Duke, whose appearance on “The Late Show with David Letterman” remains the only visit to that program by a female poker player, is widely hailed as being one of the best poker players in the world. Known as “the most beautiful woman in poker,” her skills at the card table have helped her cement her reputation as an amazing competitor who has no fear when it comes to going head-to-head with the big boys.

And her show business involvement is only beginning, it appears - Lisa Kudrow and Warner Bros. TV are developing a sitcom based on Annie Duke titled All In for Fall 2005 on NBC.

Masters of Poker has released four poker titles to date, including “Phil Hellmuth’s Million Dollar Poker System” and “Phil Hellmuth’s Million Dollar Secrets To Bluffing & Tells” DVDs, with the Annie Duke DVDs to be released later this year.

New poker service offered started with Google problems

Want to know what the odds on winning are on that Texas Hold 'Em hand you're holding? Real Time Poker Odds gambling software website is testing an innovative ‘pay-by-link’ model that tells players the exact odds of their hand winning, whilst they're actually playing.

Users get a free licence if they create a hyperlink in a website or blog to the software website.

The venture apparently was developed as a result of the refusal of Google Adwords to deal with gambling-related sites, and essentially reduces the price of the software product from $47 to the click of a hyperlink. By giving away the software in return for links to their website www.free-online-poker-odds-software.com, the company hopes to improve its ranking within Google and the other search engines.

It remains to be seen if the approach will work, but top rankings within Google for highly competitive search terms are worth their weight in gold. Some Google and Overture advertisers pay up to $10 per click for the most competitive terms.

"We've had to come up with an alternate strategy to build our web presence," said a RealTimePokerOdds spokesperson, "If someone wants to use our software, all they have to do is link to our site, from either a website or a blog. That costs them almost nothing, but is very valuable to us."

C.O.N. loses manager to Get Minted

Getminted.com, the UK based online gaming site, has recruited high roller manager, Pasquale De Lucia, from 888.com, and is boasting about it.

Italian born Pasquale plans to launch a new big gambler scheme at Get Minted to ensure that serious players receive appropriate appreciation for their business.

"Getminted.com gives its players access to exclusive Vegas brands like Ten Play Poker, Three Card Poker and The Wheel of Fortune," Pasquale commented, "These are all directly licensed just as they would be in a Vegas Casino on the strip – the intellectual property available on the site sets it above other online casino experiences." Get Minted is powered by Wagerworks.

The former 888.com manager says the opportunity to become a high roller is open to everyone who plays for big money, and the program is designed to reward players for their loyalty to the site. There are three tiers to the scheme (Silver, Gold and Platinum) and the offers will be further differentiated by offering a personal service with large regular cash comps to players who qualify.

SkillJam Network to supply multiplayer games

Fun Technologies plc subsidiary, SkillJam Technologies Corporation has teamed with Denmark-based game developer Certus A/S to operate and distribute Certus' multi-player games throughout the SkillJam network.

Fun Technologies is the re-named CES plc started by Cryptologic founder Andrew Rifkin.

Certus' expertise lies in developing multi-player gaming based on its proprietary technology, 'SYMFONI'. It specialises in classic Java multi-player games, and has established partnerships with leading content providers across Europe. Since Certus' 1998 launch of a game site for the Danish television station 'TV2', the company has expanded its game suite from three games (Hearts, Backgammon and Connect 4) to include a total of 30 Java web games and nine mobile games.

SkillJam's agreement with Certus will bolster its current suite of online skill games with increasingly popular multi-player options, including card games such as Hearts, Whist, Spades, Thirty-One and Euchre, as well as a variety of board games like Backgammon, Battleship, Checkers, Chess and Reversi (Othello). It also further extends SkillJam's expansion into the European market.

Lorne Abony, Chief Executive Officer of FUN, commented, "We are extremely pleased with this partnership, which represents a new element in the SkillJam gaming experience. The addition of any new games to our portfolio is clearly a benefit to our customers in terms of variety, but popular head-to-head challenges such as Euchre and Backgammon will offer our customers a whole new level of competition and excitement."

New facilities to be added to Keno.com in the second quarter

Gaming Transactions Inc., the online gaming portal management company headed by former WG execs Patrick Smyth and Stephen White, has entered into an agreement with FutureBet Systems Ltd. to license that companys sports book software.

In terms of the agreement, Gaming Transactions will integrate FutureBet's online sports book into its Keno.com site early in the second quarter. Following the move, Keno.com will offer a full range of sports betting options and an extensive number of betting types, including straight bet, parlay, over/under, money-line, and teasers. The site will offer every North American sport from baseball to basketball to boxing, as well as soccer lines from over 60 different countries.

InfoPowa reported the launch of Gaming Transactions mid-February this year. The Delaware registered public company is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada and uses no-download software from RedRuth Ventures, branded CrediPlay which also powers SkillArcade.com. The operation runs on servers based in Costa Rica, although there are ambitions to move to the UK, dependent on the fate of online gambling legalisation under the Gambling Bill in that country.

CEO Patrick Smyth, together with fellow Gaming Transactions director and software development specialist Stephen White were both executives at World Gaming (Starnet) at one time. Smyth went on to found the Wiremix Media advertising agency before becoming President of digital marketing company Next Level and then President of CYOP Systems International.

According to Christiansen Capital Advisors, the sports book industry is valued at US $8 billion, and growing at an unprecedented rate with the expansion of the Internet into emerging markets.

Smyth commented, "A key functionality of the (Futurebet sportsbook) product is their real-time reporting tool, which is the most comprehensive available in the market today. As well, the FutureBet system gives us the option of using industry-adjusted odds feeds, setting our own lines, or setting up our own unique betting propositions. For example, who will be fired by Donald Trump next? We are excited to be working with FutureBet, and feel that their software is an excellent fit for our targeted player demographics."

High hopes for new mobile sportsbook

British mobile technology provider MFUSE has clinched the Littlewoods Betdirect project to launch a new mobile Java betting service in the UK. The service will be the fourth individual mainstream bookmaking mobile betting service to be launched in the region and is claimed to be the most advanced to date.

Betdirect's Matt Godfrey says, "This is an important step for us that fits well with our user base and channel development strategy. We expect to see a healthy proportion of new and existing users betting by mobile in the next 18 months. We chose Mfuse as they are proven to deliver, and we are very happy with the service and its delivery."

Betdirect mobile betting allows the punter to bet on all sports, including more sophisticated bets such as Tricast and Forecast. The product also has clearer usability and navigation and is more icon driven. Betdirect is also the first sportsbook to offer mobile specific free bet functionality, a feature which is expected to drive user uptake significantly.

Gearing up for the big one....

The seventh annual Global Interactive Gaming Summit and Expo (GIGSE) is on schedule to be the largest event of its kind ever held.

Taking place between June 13-15, 2005 at the Palais des Congres in Montreal, Quebec and produced by River City Group, the Expo floor has already sold out and is being expanded.

Between 1,000-1,200 interactive gambling executives from 45 countries are expected to attend, and with 80 days to go to the event, the Expo hall is already filled with 63 companies who will use the Palais as their company headquarters for the 3-day conference. An additional 13 companies are sponsoring related activities, events or promotions during GIGSE.

Sue Schneider, CEO of River City Group, noted, "We're so pleased that the industry is responding as they are to the planning of this event. With the rise of new i-gaming products such as online poker, it's an exciting time for the industry. And we're pleased that we've been able to hold the line on prices for this event for the past three years so that it's not only the largest but the best value in the world for the interactive gambling industry."

The program will include debate and presentations regarding many of the issues facing the industry. Obviously, discussions regarding marketing concerns, fraud control and cross-border legal wrangles will be covered. In addition, many of the leading licensing jurisdictions from among the 85 governments globally which sanction internet gaming operations will be featured.

Carrying over from the success of the 2004 GIGSE Sumo Wrestling Grudge Matches held to raise money for the UK-based nonprofit GamCare, the 2005 GIGSE will feature both a Silent Auction and another head-to-head match up of industry executives, this time in Segway Challenge races. The beneficiary of this year's charity events is the California Council on Problem Gambling (www.calproblemgambling.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting problem gamblers and their families, and to promote awareness, education, research, prevention and treatment for problem gambling.

Early bird registration rates are still available via secure online registration page on the event website, and offer another way to capitalise on the quality audience in attendance. With delegate fees well below those of other events that serve the I-gaming industry, GIGSE has the best value, best networking and best opportunities to reach this market.

Additional information on GIGSE may be found at http://www.GIGSE.com.

Getting to grips with multi-platform gambling

The month of June this year will see an eclectic gathering of online gambling people interested in an in-depth look at the rapidly expanding spread of gambling content across multiple platforms.

From the latest Internet, mobile and iTV technology to the current genre of kiosks and entertainment terminals, it will all be on show at ATE's "Multi-platform Gambling Content Forum" on 28 and 29 June.

It's a great month to be in summery London, and the venue is the conveniently situated Royal Garden Hotel.

Featuring leading exponents from established companies together with the latest market entrants, the Forum will mix traditional gambling suppliers and operators with key agents in delivery, software development, brand licensing, marketing and strategic planning, new media consultants and IP legal specialists. It's a value-for-money balanced mix of technology and marketing-driven sessions, reinforced with case studies highlighting current successful collaborations and projected future scenarios.

Contact Penny Gruber at ATE Limited, tel +44 (0) 20 7713 0302 and email: pgruber@ateonline.co.uk

Press Release

Following an official inquiry into the allegations of the use of malware in the Gambling Federation's software, iGGBA has determined that the company is in violation of the iGGBA Code of Conduct and has thereby terminated Gambling Federation's membership of the Association with immediate effect. The inquiry determined that the Gambling Federation had indeed intentionally embedded malware in their customers' software to prevent them from using certain competitor's web sites.

"While it is regrettable that one of the Gambling Federation's ex-employees did seek to illegally access and use the Company's customer database, the response of the company was incorrect and adversely affected customers who are the lifeblood of the remote gambling industry. It is vitally important that the industry takes action in ensuring that operators and suppliers are providing fair and fraud free services to customers and the actions of the Gambling Federation were inconsistent with this approach.", stated Richard Flint, Chairman of iGGBA.

For further enquires, please contact the iGGBA Secretariat at 0044-20-7620-2770 or via email at info@iggba.org.uk.

Integrity Casinos group takes a stand

Industry observers were this week interpreting a press release from the established and successful online casino group Integrity Casinos as a clear warning that the management has no intention of doing business with so-called *sharp* players, and intends to do something about it.

The consensus seemed to be that the release was a definite warning for the itinerant population interested only in taking advantage of bonuses: get out of Dodge as far as the group's online casinos are concerned.

Captain Cooks Casino, Kingdom Casino and the more recent Classic Casino are all part of the group.

The release reveals that staff are methodically and thoroughly carrying out a full inspection of every account - a formidable task given the likely size of this popular group's gambler base.

The objective is to identify the small percentage of gamblers with whom the group is no longer interested in doing business, and the intention is to enforce right of admission and refusal to contract with those it deems to be more interested in touring for bonuses than an ordinary gambling entertainment based relationship.

Although the group has not put a specific name to the category it is about to exclude, it probably covers whatever are loosely identified as "advantage players, smart players, professional gamblers, math players, bonus hunters or percentage players. "

The release states: "These actions are all designed to ensure that Integrity Casinos is known to operate brands where players who look for genuine gaming entertainment based around playing against the rules of the games fairly, are welcomed and treated with respect and courtesy.

"Players who do not fall into this category detract from the ability of Integrity Casinos to reward the genuine and legitimate players for their continued patronage of our brands, and will not be tolerated."

In enforcing the new policy, the group will be returning deposits and winnings to excluded players, but apparently disqualifying any bonuses. Once locked out, the players will be permanently excluded in terms of right of admission.

Ordinary players will be unaffected by the moves, and will encounter no obstacles to their gambling at the casinos other than experiencing response delays for the short period staff are dedicated to this "...arduous task."

The policy illustrates a growing frustration with time consuming bonus policies and disputes among industry operators, and will be watched with interest as it is progressively applied.

But any retroactive disqualification of bonuses will cause a major row in the player community and could be extremely difficult to justify.

A perambulation around the IGC's expulsion of Gambling Federation...

One would think that the humiliation of public outrage and expulsion from the IGC would instil some humility and circumspection in Flaviano Fogli, the CEO of Gambling Federation, but this week he was back issuing press releases about this disgraceful incident.

Gambling Federation issued a further statement dealing with it's Malware crisis and the IGC action. It would seem that Fogli is a little disappointed at the actions taken against his group for deliberately including blocking malware in their software download to unknowing players!

He has blithely ommitted to comment on the main reason for his company's departure from the IGC, however.

QUOTE Gambling Federation is pleased that the IGC board supports the idea that theft and conversion of property is a reprehensible act. Unfortunately when IGC informed that there are appropriate means to deal with such cases, they failed to indicate what these means were.

Does IGC consider legally pursuing the perpetrator(s) of theft and conversion of property as appropriate means? Considering the offshore presence of the industry and considering that transfers of property do not, for the most part, leave a physical address, it is safe to say that legal actions are not effective and therefore not appropriate to solve this issue.

If an answer could be given, in a reasonable time frame, this might help to define a code of conduct for the entire industry, in the unfortunate event that an operator or software house is one day victim of theft and/or conversion of property.

If no answer is provided, it would appear that the only appropriate solution would be no action at all. If no action is the only possible answer to theft and conversion of property, then with this decision IGC is in reality, indirectly and unwillingly leaving it wide open to the ones that perpetuate theft and conversion of property and leaving its members without any possible protection.

This might discourage other operators or software houses from applying for an IGC membership.

Considering the delicacy of this issue, it is understandable if IGC would like to take the necessary time to answer. As for, Gambling Federation's membership fee, it is strongly suggested that IGC donate the concerned sum to a charity organization of their choice.

Statement from Flaviano - CEO of Gambling Federation Talia Paschini, Gambling Federation PR Manager UNQUOTE

Focusing attention on the secondary issue of a *suspected* database theft was seen by many in the industry as a smokescreen, and it was pointed out to this apparently insensitive executive that his time might be better spent:

Meeting G-Fed's responsibility in the first place to protect this database. There have been no assurances that this has been addressed. There has similarly been no evidence to suggest that emails have been sent to portals, affiliates or players, informing them that A) their private information may have been compromised and B) that their computers have been invaded with malware (with instructions on how to remove it.)

GFED's troubles may not be over yet. A site widely used by affiliates, Casino Affiliate Program has pulled the accreditation of the beleagured company which could impact its business...and the iGGBA where GFED is a member is still investigating the matter and will be issuing its findings soon.

Informative and wideranging interview with CEO

The international regulatory body eCOGRA was in the news again this week with an interview featuring CEO Andrew Beveridge carried out by the editor, Earl Burton.

The piece covers much new information on the poker regulatory framework and what it takes to meet the requirements of eCOGRA, which currently boasts 51 top quality casinos on its Seal list, probably responsible for the majority of business in the online casino space. The work of the Fair Gaming Advocate is also described.

Beveridge disclosed the new information that the giant Poker Room.com - Ongame organisation is nearing the end of the exacting third party inspection and approval process and looks likely to achieve Seal status along with other major networks in the near future. This global poker room is among the top four sites in the booming online poker sector with over 3 million players.

The recent alliance with the G4 player protection and problem gambling group is also covered.

Readers can view the interview at http://www.pokernews.info/news/2005/03/fair-gaming-online.htm

Israelis rake in over a billion a year, and it all started at the dentist says author

The Israeli publication Haaretz this week carries a fascinating article on the Israelis who own the parent company of online gambling giants like Casino On Net, Pacific Poker and Random Logic.

Written by Galit Yemini, the story remarks that Israelis who try to gamble at the popular global casino Web sites Casino-on-net.com or 888.com, which combines Casino-on-net and the Pacific Poker site, will find their entry barred. These two sites have made a strategic decision to block the entry of Israeli surfers, mainly due to the lack of clarity in Israeli law concerning Internet gambling.

Local gamblers have good reason to be insulted. While other international sites welcome Israelis and set up foreign-based sites in Hebrew, the biggest Internet casino site in the world, founded and controlled by Israelis, blocks their access!

Galit says that even without the Israeli visitors, however, the two pairs of brothers - Avi and Aharon Shaked and Shai and Ron Ben-Yitzhak - placed the right bet: The Internet gambling empire they established rakes in over US $1 billion a year, with estimated annual profits of $200-$300 million.

And he says that the mother company, VHL, which operates from Gibraltar and runs Casino-on-net and Pacific Poker, is now considering issuing stock on the London stock exchange, with a value around $2 billion, thanks to its high profitability. If the company does go public, it will have to disclose its financial reports, which could impact the whole gambling industry worldwide.

"Our policy is not to confirm or deny rumors on business discussions or contacts," responded a VHL source. "VHL will report or confirm only dealings that have matured to fruition."

The idea to set up Casino-on-net was apparently first raised in 1996 by Aharon Shaked, a dentist, while attending a dental convention held at a casino complex in Monte Carlo. He shared his idea with his brother Avi, who knew the Ben-Yitzhak brothers. The four founders set up the company, after purchasing a gambling license from the island of Antigua.

Shai Ben-Yitzhak is a software engineer who developed the technological platform for online casinos and founded Random Logic, a full-fledged Israeli company based in Tel Aviv. Random Logic provides the technology to all VHL's Internet casinos and is a separate entity from the other companies that operate the casinos and are registered in exotic tax shelters.

Haaretz reports that the Shakeds and Ben-Yitzhaks, like other top players in the Internet gambling industry, fiercely guard their privacy. Online gambling may be the most profitable Internet industry, but it is also the shadiest and most secretive, it says. Hundreds of Israelis work in it locally and abroad - as programmers, site designers, customer service representatives, etc. - and all have signed confidentiality agreements.

This industry has an astounding growth rate: In 1996 there were 30 Internet gambling sites with annual revenues of $30 million, according to data gathered by Christiansen Capital Advisers. In 2004 there were some 1,400 such sites with revenues of about $8 billion. This year these figures are expected to mount to 2,000 sites with revenues of $10 billion, about half of this from American gamblers. It is difficult to assess the size of this industry in Israel, but market sources estimate that there are tens of thousands of very active players, whose combined bets total tens of millions of dollars annually.

Experts attribute the massive expansion of this industry to the technological advances in broadband and cellular technology, which allow gamblers to bet on sports results via their cell phones or hand-held computers. The American obsession with poker, the most popular online game, is also credited with the surge in Internet gambling. PokerPlus.com estimates that revenues from approximately 200 online poker sites will reach $2 billion in 2005, representing 20 percent of all online gambling revenues.

Party Gaming, the company that operates partypoker.com, the largest online poker site in the world, attracts 55 percent of all only poker gambling, and is on its way to the stock market. The company has an abundance of cash and is planning to issue stock at a market value of $5 billion. Company owner Ruth Parasol, a California attorney with Jewish roots, is in no hurry to be interviewed, due to the problematic legal status of Internet gambling transactions. Industry sources say Parasol made a fortune from Internet pornography sites before switching to gambling.

Last week Poker Room.com - the fifth-largest poker site in the world, which will soon be launching a site in Hebrew - published its financial results. On Game, the Swedish company that operates Poker Room, had revenues of $60 million in 2004, with net profits of $20 million - a figure any Internet site can envy.

The Financial Times speculates...

Reuters is reporting that online casino 888.com is set to float in the second half of this year for around $1.6 billion (840 million pounds), quoting the venerable Financial Times in an unsourced article.

Cassava Enterprises, the owner of 888.com and one of the world's biggest Internet gambling groups, has apparently hired Credit Suisse First Boston to prepare the flotation, the FT revealed this week. Cassava was unavailable for comment.

The article did not say where 888.com would float, but London has become the de facto listing center for Internet gambling companies.

In January, the world's biggest online poker company, PartyGaming, said it was considering what would be one of London's largest share listings in more than three years, estimated at over 3 billion pounds.

The latest "live over the Internet" technology casino is Londons Casino.com, owned and operated under a Maltese license by Vegas Interactive Limited which has offices in Valetta, Malta and London, UK. It joins the growing list of operators using the services of Adam Anhang's Casino Web Cam (CWC) which offers live gaming over the Internet from casino-studios in Costa Rica. The casinos have built a solid reputation for fair play and efficient services, and this one is no exception with fully contactable 24/7 Support and Neteller, 900Pay and Firepay financial options all presented on a clean, professional and easy to use site. A matchplay signup bonus maxed at $150 is on offer.

Forthcoming attraction....

Keep your eyes peeled for what could be a real poker treat - WPT Enterprises, the company behind the World Poker Tour success story is due to launch its new online gaming site in partnership with WagerWorks sometime during the next quarter. InfoPowa has previously reported the deal between these two significant industry entities to introduce an Internet element to WPT operations.

World Poker Tour covers most of the big events in poker, and is consequently a major brand in the business. As previously reported, it will be using all of its considerable facilities and experience to market the new website, giving it a distinct cross-marketing advantage.

A dubious sort of record for Royal Dutch Casino

Royal Dutch Casino management reached a dubious record low with their sixth consecutive appearance in InfoPowa's Casino Cautions this week.

For sheer arrogance and duplicity, this Costa Rican organisation is hard to beat in our opinion, and they were still tap dancing around the issue of payment to a player who has now been trying to extract a $ 2 700 legitimate payout from this miserable outfit for nine months.

Two weeks ago these folks finally agreed to unconditionally pay the long-suffering player and asked for his bank details which were promptly supplied, using the mediating assistance of Bryan Bailey, the Casinomeister.

Ten days later, the player still having not received a sous, Bailey started leaning on the RDC's Angelo Vitorino, a singularly smarmy fellow with a penchant for assurances that RDC is professional and honest. Vitorino then indulged himself in an exchange of emails with what is widely believed to be a non-person called Jean Phillipe Le Blanc, going to extraordinary lengths to convince readers of his emails that this *person* was the former owner of the casino who had at last agreed to pay the player.

Incredibly, there is now a further delay in proceedings whilst an *agreement* that is "just a formality" is devised by Le Blanc for the player to sign - the first any of those involved had heard of in this ridiculously delayed payout where the player has made it clear that he is in no mood for "conditions".

Strangely (but perhaps predictably) there are indications that all of this email traffic is taking place from one particular computer!

STOP PRESS: As we went to press this week the player had been paid only $1700 of the $2 700 due amid further startling behaviour from this casino.

First, it's staff submitted an *agreement* which required the player to publish glowing testimonials - after nine months of being harried from pillar to post! He declined, which resulted in more debate, leading to a claim that the alleged *old owner* had defrauded the alleged *new owner* on selling the casino, but would now pay up.

Therein lay yet another complication, with the casino asking for a PrePaidATM account (having previously requested and been given bank and Neteller details)

Finally, the casino tried for the second time to marginalise the player's mediator by approaching him direct and attempting to change his mind on that glowing testimonial. Adding insult to injury, the charlatan who made the call asked the player to open an account at Royal Dutch Casino!

Players need to seriously watch this drama unfolding as an indication of the manner in which Royal Dutch Casino conducts it's business.

RTG-powered casinos were in the thick of things this week with the news that the unidentified owners of Cool Cat Casino had taken over Palace of Chance and Club Player, both of whom have been the subject of players complaints. Other than a rather gushing and not very informative release from Cool Cat, a pall of silence surrounded who was involved in the deal and how much cash changed hands. CC Manager Bianca Fox will apparently manage all three operations.

Members of the Royal Casino Group, which includes Ruby Dragon, Casino Extreme and Casino Heat were shocked at the short closure notice that suddenly appeared on a dead site this week. Software provider Real Time Gaming has not responded to enquiries, but the brief closure notice advised players that they would be paid in full within the next 14 days.

Connect To Casino has advised that effective 1 March it no longer has any relationship with either Portofino or Hampton casinos, having sold its interest to World eGaming. Googling that title reveals that the new owner is Windows Casino partner Avi Goldman. The software remains RTG.

US Department of Justice shows its (heavy) hand

The US mainstream media continued to follow the North Dakota attempts to legalise online poker last week, with some prominence given to reports that the US Department of Justice was showing it's heavy hand.

The Department reportedly sent a letter to the attorney general of North Dakota stating that the proposed bill "...could be in violation of federal laws."

Addressed to North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, and signed by U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Laura Parsky, the letter apparently mirrors those sent to the Nevada Gaming Commission and the U.S. Virgin Islands after those jurisdictions passed laws seeking to regulate the online gaming industry.

The correspondence apparently cites three federal statutes that the state could be violating if it moves forward with the legislation: the Wire Act, the Travel Act and the Anti-Gambling Act.

But legal experts who follow the industry say the DOJ is not on firm ground. Attorneys Anthony Cabot, Frank Catania, Pat O'Brien and Allyn Jaffrey Shulman testified last week before the North Dakota Senate, and all four were adamant that regulated online poker in North Dakota would not violate any federal laws.

"They (the DOJ) are real good at writing letters and threatening jurisdictions without having any basis of case law," O'Brien said during a press conference last week. Shulman said that a state wanting to regulate online poker is above refute from the Wire Act.

"I would stake my reputation on the fact that the Wire Act doesn't apply to online poker," she said. "I said that six years ago, and I stand by that today. There is a clear definition of the Wire Act as it applies to sports betting, and online poker doesn't meat that definition."

Catania said the Anti-Gambling Act would be a moot point because it allows the federal government to bring charges only against individuals who are operating gambling services that are in violation of state laws. "If North Dakota, or a similar state, passed a bill that allowed for the activity to be licensed and regulated," Catania pointed out, "then individuals would hardly be in violation of state laws."

The attorneys also argued that the Travel Act applies only to the distribution of funds gained from "illegal" activities. Therefore, if Internet poker was deemed legal in the state, any funds derived from the activity would be perfectly legal.

The perhaps premature nature of the DOJ's response to the North Dakota bill--it has yet to go before the full Senate is worthy of note.

"They can say what they want, but in 10 years they haven't brought one non-sports betting operator up on charges for violating the Wire Act or any of these other statutes," O'Brien explained.

Nevertheless, the DOJ letter is seen by some to cast some doubt on the Bill's chances of passing the Senate. Stenehjem told Associated Press that he's convinced the DOJ means business. "At one point or another, we are going to be, if this law is passed, in court, in a very protracted and potentially expensive lawsuit to defend the statute," Stenehjem said.

Stenehjem added that no online poker activity will be permitted in the state until the courts weigh in with their opinion on the law. "Before I would be willing . . . to establish an Internet gaming program in North Dakota, I would have to have a ruling from a court indicating that in doing so, we're not violating [federal law]."

The Senate Judiciary Committee, which held a hearing on the bill last week, is scheduled to vote on the bill this week. The bill was amended to include a "defense fund" created for the sole purpose of financing a court challenge if the DOJ were to bring a lawsuit against the state.

Thirty five percent increase in convictions

The Shanghai Daily news has reported that about 35 percent of gambling convictions issued in the city this year have concerned Internet betting, the Shanghai People's Prosecutors' Office revealed this week

"Compared to traditional gambling, online gambling costs less and is more difficult to detect," said Zhu Bochen, a spokesman for the office. "The trend has developed quickly in recent years."

Most online cases involve soccer gambling. Because of its convenience and high profit, it has attracted many gamblers, prosecutors said. So far this year, city prosecutors have charged 56 people in 17 gambling cases. These include traditional gambling games such as cards.

Giving examples, the official said that last year, a resident surnamed Hu was charged with organising online soccer betting by the Yangpu District Prosecutors' Office. In 2004, the man applied to set up the local agency for a Taiwan-based gambling firm which operated the Baoying Website. After Hu got the user name and code, he hired unemployed residents to recruit gamblers.

"They were handling 5,150 bets which added up to 4.74 million yuan (US$573,000) in several months," Zhu said. The gang earned 140,000 yuan in profit.

"Such (Internet) gambling is not restricted by time and space," said Zhu. "Gamblers can contact the agency through the Internet or by telephone at any time."

Prosecutors pointed out an agency can earn much more online than that of traditional gambling. The attraction has lured many to take the risk. On February 24, 2004, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court sentenced an online gambling gang to prison. The leader, Feng Zaisheng, a Taiwan native, was sentenced 2 1/2 years in jail. He was the first to be convicted of online gambling charges in the city.

Prosecutors also said gambling gangs were becoming better organised. Individual members usually had their own tasks, such as receiving money, keeping records or contacting gamblers.

Sumitomo Bank raid a reminder

As we went to press this week the story of what could have been the biggest bank robbery of all time - GBP 220 million - was hitting the headlines, a potent reminder that all users of the Internet need to be continuously on guard.

More than a million computers connected to the internet have been hijacked to attack websites and pump out spam and viruses, the UK press reported. The huge number of affected machines was revealed by security experts who have spent months tracking more than 100 networks of remotely controlled machines.

The research was published as it was revealed yesterday that a hi-tech crime ring tried to steal GBP 220 million from the London offices of Sumitomo, the Japanese bank.

The researchers gathered their data using decoy machines that looked innocent but were designed to attract hackers - whose actions were duly logged.

The study of "zombies" or "bots" - hijacked computers - was done by the Honeynet Project, a group of security researchers that use networks of computers as "honey pots". The largest of the zombie networks spied on by the team was made up of 50,000 computers. The researchers concluded that computer technology could be abused even by the most inexperienced of hackers.

They reported: "Leveraging the power of several thousand bots, it is viable to take down almost any website or network instantly. Even in unskilled hands, it should be obvious that bot nets are a loaded and powerful weapon."

Criminals are starting to use bot nets for mass identity theft, hosting websites that look like those of banks to gather confidential information and looking into online traffic to steal sensitive data.

And gambling sites have been hit hard by web attacks.

The Sumitomo raid was described as one of the most audacious thefts attempted in the City for many years. Police have been investigating it since October. The gang gained access to Sumitomo’s computer systems and tried to transfer the cash electronically to ten bank accounts around the world.

Their plan was uncovered before any cash was transferred and a man has been arrested in Israel. The plot was uncovered by the UK’s National Hi-Tech Crime Unit.

Gin rummy, pool and solitaire among prize-winning possibliities

UK public company Gaming Corporation plc has launched their new of Skill Gaming.co.uk, a new website targeting the rapidly growing skill gaming market.

The launch of expands Gaming Corporation's online offering to a market that is currently growing at 40 percent per year and was worth GBP 76.3 Million in 2004. The new website will offer games of skill for fun and for cash prizes, including Gin Rummy, Pool and Pyramid Solitaire.

Current regulation in the US classifies cash skill gaming as legitimate competition and it is therefore legal to market and promote to US citizens representing a large and growing market.

Commenting on the launch Justin Drummond, Chief Executive said, 'Skill gaming is a high growth area and this site gives Gaming Corporation the opportunity to access the US market for the first time."

We're going to be a consolidator - not one of the consolidated....

The CEO of Sportingbet.com which now owns Paradise Poker.com, one of the largest online poker companies was in Bismarck, North Dakota last week to give evidence to the Senate Judiciary Committee on legalised poker. He was interviewed by Marketwatch and had positive things to say about the benefits of US legalisation.

In very summarised form, these are the high points of his interview:

The US market commands some two thirds of the booming international online poker market, with Europe catching up fast. Legalisation will bring weed out less successful outfits, and Sportingbet intends to be a consolidator rather than one of the consolidated.

Since Sportingbet purchased Paradise Poker, shares of Sportingbet have rocketed 200 percent.

Payne made a strong call for US regulation, saying it was what the industry craved. He revealed that there are some 2 million poker players globally and that this number was conservatively expected to soar by 400 percent over the next three years. Paradise poker alone plays a million games a day, or 10 games a second.

Asked about the downside of online poker, Payne listed the topics used by detractors to oppose legalisation, among them underage and addictive gambling. He pointed out that technology to safeguard against underage gambling was now a reality, and that anti-collusion measures had improved significantly. He described allegations of money laundering as "theoretical"..

Taxation under legalisation, and how this would affect his company was covered in the interview, and Payne said that if Paradise was to relocate to North Dakota, the company would contribute something like $8 to $10 million in taxes thrpough a user fee of $10 a head which the operators would pay. He went on to reveal that Paradise Poker is expected to generate $100 million in gross sales this year, with a bottom-line profit of $60 million. Of that $60 million, two-thirds comes from the U.S., but a third from rest of the world.

If the entire online gambling business was regulated in the U.S. the country would receive $2 billion in taxes per year, Payne opined. That money exists already. It's a redistribution of income that other people - offshore banks, credit card companies -- are keeping that the U.S. could keep for itself.

Payne strongly argued against the proposition that online poker was illegal in the US, saying that the only piece of legislation is the Wire Act. "Poker does not fall under the wire act, I'm not aware of legislation that determines poker to be illegal. If people are playing online poker with my business, those transactions are being managed and handled in countries that allow it. To make it illegal, you have to be violating some law. The courts have held that it's not illegal under the Wire Act."

In answer to a question on how many companies could go public in the near future, Payne said he thought the number is now up to 15, with PartyGaming rumoured to be about to list around May/June. "Quite a few will follow in the U.K.," he said. One of the most important reasons for that is that the U.K. regulates the industry.

The Senate has still to approve the North Dakota Bill introduced by Rep. Kasper and intended to legaise online poker in the state. If that happens, the Bill will then go before a vote of the people, probably some time in November 2005 or June 2006.

The best of the best will play in London for GBP 640 000

UK bookmaker Victor Chandler's online poker site, VC Poker.com has released format and registration details for the 2005 VC Poker Cup.

The event will take place in London, UK between 1-5 August 2005 and will be open to 128 players. The buy-in for the event will be GBP 5 000 giving an estimated prize pool of GBP 640 000 and a first prize of GBP 255 000.

Presided over by one of Europe's premier tournament directors, Thomas Kremser, the 2005 VC Poker Cup will retain the player-friendly structure that was so praised by players and media alike in the past, including provision for the players to wear sponsor's logos.

The event will be filmed extensively for distribution to a range of international television broadcasters, emulating the 2004 event that was viewed in over 20 countries.

Players wishing to play in the VC Poker Cup can register their details through the tournament website at www.vcpokercup.com or call the registration hotline on +44 (0) 20 7862 0045.

New partnership to embrace mobile devices, broadcast TV and iTV gambling

Technology provider Zone4Play, Inc. scored another coup this week when it signed up with Orbis Technology Limited to provide mobile devices, broadcast TV and iTV gambling through the latter's Open Bet interactive gambling platform.

Orbis is an NDS Group plc company (NNDS), and under the terms of the partnership agreement Zone4Play will develop front end solutions and game engines for mobile devices, broadcast TV and iTV gambling, which will be integrated with OpenBet. Orbis customers include some of the largest operators in the UK, such as Ladbrokes, Blue Square, Mecca Games, Sky Bet, Stanleybet, UK Betting, and Paddy Power.

Zone4Play is a one-stop shop for almost every type of interactive gaming solution including traditional betting services such as sports, fixed odds, and lottery on new and existing devices. This is in addition to recently launching a new medium of interaction: Broadcast TV Gaming services that enable integrating engaging SMS based interaction into special gaming-orientated television programs.

Founded in 1996, Orbis Technology has consistently proven itself as the market leader in the delivery of online gambling solutions. OpenBet, and its single account, single solution architecture, is the enabling technology for all of the gambling products, features and channels that sophisticated operators demand, using a single customer account.

Three weeks back we reported on the imminent takeover of Portofino, Hampton and Connect to Casino by the Doloplex group.

Very reliable information now to hand is that Doloplex has since withdrawn from the negotiations after standard due diligence. Doloplex has been offered the Vegas Magic and Vegas Frontier properties, on which dd has been successfully completed. These properties will therefore soon be joining the group.

And staying with information on online casino movements, it is reliably reported this week that Giant Vegas Casino has switched to Playtech software and re-launched, still owned by Australian-based Brian Goodman. Formerly powered by RTG, Giant Vegas and sister casino Kiss were the subject of controversy over player payments late last year, and closed.

But no comment on Casino On Net.ru!

Last week InfoPowa reported on the strange reticence at Luxembourg-based Gaming Mastery, a turnkey company responsible for loosing Lucky Chance.com on the Internet and on unsuspecting online gamblers.

Our report highlighted new information coming to light that Russian businessmen people were behind the companies, and that a faux *Casino On Net.ru* was in operation.

This week, much of the report was confirmed by one Dmitry Kotsubanov who came forward with the following statement:

"1. My name is Dmitry Kotsubanov, I am Russian and I am writing this post sitting in my office of Sales Director of GamingBits, in Russia. my email is kotsubanov.d@gamingbits.ru, my phone nr. is +7 (095) 722-3-911.

2. GamingBits is a trademark belonging to "IAA Web Design Company, Ltd." since 2003.

3. GamingMastery, Luxembourg is an independent, in the legal sense, organisation that has placed to us a request for participation in tender. Since we were the lowest bidder, we won that tender and got the request to develop an online casino, yet then we were unaware of who would be the owner of the casino we developed.

It turned out that the owner of the casino was a russian company ROSBET, Ltd. that placed the order to GamingMastery.

To make long story short, now we are exclusive developers of the software for GamingMastery. We have the right to sell at our own condiions all over EE and CIS, while GamingMastery sells to Americas, Europe, MEA countries.

This information, if needed, can be verified by David Kimble, operating manager of GamingMastery.

Regarding the Lucky Chance Casino: I can confirm that the Lucky Chance Casino is operating the software that we developed for GamingMastery and that was licensed after that to Lucky Chance Casino. I can guarantee that GamingMastery never did obtain from us any technique, capable of modifying the outcome of any card or dice or roulette game depending on the wagers placed. More than, according to the license agreement, no casino using this software can put software developers' logo on its website."

Unfortunately, Mr. Kotsubanov did not clarify the allegations regarding Casino On Net.ru!

Live webcast bingo planned

Common stock in Nevada based World Bingo League became available this week as the company announced commencement of trading and launched an information website at World Bingo League.com.

WBL is a software provider for the bingo, gaming and entertainment ventures. In addition to publishing business software for companies in the mass media and brick-and-mortar bingo business, the company plans to develop proprietary online bingo software systems for use on the Internet including a live web-cast of real-time game play and significant progressive jackpots generated by multiple WBL's operator Licensees

Bingo is the largest and most socially accepted method of gambling throughout the world, says WBL. It is projected that 1 percent of all land based bingo hall players will convert to online bingo by the end of 2005, with over 500 million dollars wagered on Internet Bingo by the end of 2005.

The WBL announcement does not source that information, however.

Plenty interest and tips on Poker 425

William Hill TV, Channel 425 on the Sky platform, launched a new style poker programme this week, 'Poker 425' for the late night poker viewer. The first programme will air in the UK on Wednesday March 23.

'Poker 425' is a weekly magazine style programme which moves away from the usual repeat broadcasts of old tournaments to bring the poker aficionado the most 'recent and relevant' news from the European Poker Tour. At the helm is a fresh 'poker' face in 5TV presenter Johny Gould and professional player Tony Kendall. 'Poker 425' aims to bring a fresh outlook to the game, featuring the most recent tournament action, results, analysis, interviews and tips from the top European professionals competing in the European Poker circuit.

David Hood, William Hill PR Director said; "We expect 'Poker 425' to attract a large slice of the late night poker viewership. An explosion in the number of players now participating in the game means poker is the hottest gaming product on the internet. William Hill is bringing together the popularity of williamhillpoker.com with players in over 150 countries and Channel 425 TV to ensure some dynamic content for 'Poker 425'. It is a natural fit for Channel 425's late night viewers."

Whilst stimulating betting activity via Hills established Internet and telephone mediums, Channel 425 offers viewers an interactive function via the iTV remote with a host of RNG products available 24hrs a day, 365 days a year.

Players can register to play roulette, virtual racing, spoof, roll-em and many other games whilst the daily programming on Channel 425 still revolves around Racing Live, a live 3½ hour show featuring up to 40 live greyhound races a night. The station starts live programming in mid afternoon with the recently acquired 'The Game' programme hosted by Patrick Kinghorn on TalkSport, which promotes evening football and sports betting opportunities.

'Poker 425 ' will be broadcast at 11pm each Wednesday night, and repeat at the same time nightly throughout the week.

5 million player reach

World Poker Exchange (WPE) announced thi week that IFILM Corp., a broadband entertainment destination reaching more than five million people per month will exclusively stream clips and highlights from Worldpx.com's first annual World Intercollegiate Poker Championship in Cancun, Mexico from March 12 - 14, 2005.

IFILM.com will film the final table of the free national Intercollegiate poker tournament that spanned 120 top U.S. universities, awarding scholarships and other college-oriented prizes as the first national on-line/off-line poker tournament exclusively marketed to college students.

The company will produce shorts of the tournament action, which will be hosted by MTV diva, Trishelle, interview the various college poker players, and capture the juxtaposition of poker play amongst Spring Break antics. The Poker Championship content will be featured prominently on the IFILM.com website and syndicated to online partner sites that are targeted on the college audience.

Haden Ware, CEO, World Poker Exchange says, "IFILM.com has a loyal following among college-aged consumers across multiple territories that appreciate independent and alternative video programming, making it a natural media partner for our unique college tournament. The college sector is one of the fastest growing demographic segments of on-line poker, which is why we chose to host the final table at ground zero of Spring Break."

Three US states are considering online betting moves

The "murky" state of US federal law on Internet gambling was highlighted in a mainstream media article in USA Today this week.

The report says that "....undeterred by murky federal law and emboldened by a (WTO) trade ruling, at least three states are edging toward legalizing online gambling, and Great Britain is on the verge of permitting its land-based casinos to take bets online from U.S. citizens."

Describing these happenings as the latest assault on the federal Wire Act of 1961, which bans use of telephones to place sports bets, the author writes that U.S. lawmakers have struggled unsuccessfully for a decade to update the law, hoping to restrain the fast-growing, $10 billion-a-year Internet gambling industry.

Legal experts say that the act is narrow, difficult to enforce and that it does not specifically ban casino games. The vague law has prompted online gaming overtures from States lawmakers who say they are confident proposed legislation will not violate federal law, and they are willing to defend themselves in court.

"No one wants tax increases. This is a legitimate revenue maker," says North Dakota state Rep. Jim Kasper, who introduced legislation that would allow Internet poker sites to operate inside the state which has just passed the House and now goes to a people's vote.

Kasper says legalised Internet poker could bring in millions through taxes and fees although North Dakota's constitution would have to be amended.

Illinois' legislature is considering a bill to allow the sale of lottery tickets online to state residents 18 and older. The bill, scheduled for a Senate vote next month, could generate millions, says state Sen. John Cullerton.

Georgia state Rep. Terry Barnard, has proposed a similar bill. It passed the House last week.

All this comes against the backdrop the possible advent of legalised online gaming in the UK, and of a closely watched World Trade Organization gaming decision. The U.S. is appealing a WTO ruling that it violates international trade rules by allowing credit cards to be used for domestic gambling but not online bets.

Betfair founder and major Irish investor involved

Dermot Smurfit Junior has raised a further Euro 2 million in a second round of financing for the internet gaming site Gameaccount.com, bringing the amount invested in the venture to Euro 7 million.

Among those stumping up for the latest round of financing are his uncle Michael Smurfit, cousin Tony, financier Dermot Desmond amd Betfair founder Andrew Black.

Smurfit says Gameaccount.com is heading towards annual turnover of Euro 2 million.

Goodbye to SAGE

The 15-member Philippine Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling last week that prevents Sports, Games and Entertainment Corp. (SAGE) from operating online gaming ventures in the country. The company previously held an (invalid as it turned out) exclusive licence from PAGCOR, the government body responsible.

The lowdown on Internet poker

River City Group's report on the burgeoning Internet poker industry is available for purchase from the US company. The electronic report includes statistical data on the market, information on the top providers and operators, recommended business strategies, a legal overview, marketing considerations, and keys to success..

Order online at http://www.rivercitygroup.com/interior.cfm/page/books/ and receive your PDF report within one business day.

Saturday night special....

The new high value bingo offering just launched by CyberBingo Corp. should attract the attention of players of this popular game - it carries the chance to win $10,600 in cash every week.

This $10,600 guaranteed bingo game will be played every Saturday in CyberBingo’s multi-part format, where each game is comprised of three parts and three prizes.

Director of Marketing, Aidan Bailey says, “CyberBingo’s philosophy is to really connect with our bingo audience and to offer promotions that will truly make them respond to us and feel a part of our online community. The $10,600 guaranteed games aim to give bingo players an opportunity to win a jackpot on a weekly basis."

Mobile gaming using a proved system is the goal

Golden Palace Casino is the latest online operator to sign up for mobile gaming with the ubiquitous Phantom Fiber Corporation, a provider of secure wireless technology and mobile solutions.

The casino has signed a five-year license agreement, in terms of which it will use Phantom Fiber's advanced wireless framework to deliver wireless wagering to its customers worldwide.

Golden Palace was an industry pioneer in 1997 and uses an entertaining mix of event-based public relations and marketing to capture new customers. Further extending its brand into the mobile gaming market, the online casino plans to continue its aggressive marketing approach which combines the power of media and over-the-top promotions to capture and convert customers to its wireless service.

Golden Palace Mobile will offer entertaining casino-style games supported by mobile banking facilities for Java-enabled phones and mobile devices powered by Windows Mobile's PocketPC Phone Edition and Smartphone, PalmOS, SymbianOS and RIM Blackberry.

Richard Rowe, CEO of Golden Palace.com said, "We feel that wireless gaming is imperative in delivering a complete solution for our customers. With many more phones, many wireless games, and a huge emphasis from carriers to promote data wireless connectivity, we strongly believe momentum is on our side."

Almost a million in rake achieved in first six months

Angelciti's President, George Gutierrez has announced the achievement of almost a million dollars in rake in the first six months of operations of the companys poker arm, Midas Entertainment, Inc. The press release reveals that Midas has taken in more than $3.5 million in deposits, processed in excess of $45.2 million in bets and earned more than $937,000 in rake.

Gutierrez says, "We have done well to date but anticipate further explosive growth as we begin to invest in additional marketing and promotion. We are also looking to make some key hires to the company within the next 60-90 days to further direct ongoing development."

A million a week in new SportingbetUSA promotion

SportingbetUSA has come up with an innovative promotion to drive traffic and create interest by launching a free online lottery with a whopping $1million weekly jackpot.

Just about every State in America has its own lottery and it appears that SportingbetUSA is exploiting this very popular trend by introducing what they claim is the only online lottery with a $1million jackpot. Entries are open 24/7 online, and the big attraction is that entry is free. All entrants need to do is submit 6 numbers out of 69 for a chance to win $1million every Sunday.

Quite how the business arithmetic stacks up on this is not clear to us, unless it is profit from garnering entrant's email addresses.

Visitors to the site enter the drawing by providing SportingbetUSA with their email address and their pick of six lucky numbers. Entrants are allowed to enter once a week until the final drawing held on October 30th, 2005. If a player correctly chooses the 6 numbers drawn out of a possible 69, that individual becomes an instant millionaire. All visitors to the site are eligible to play, and drawings are held weekly at 8pm Sunday evening.

And players having a problem with selecting lucky number combinationsare catered for, too - there's a ‘Quick Pick’ option in which the site's random number generator provides instant selections.

Full rules are available at Sportingbetusa.com/lottery.

Sliding scale dependent on number of employees

Sports911.com reported this week that current lobbyist information suggests *licensing* fees for sportsbooks (and presumably online casinos in the territory) will be determined by the number of employees.

For some time politicians and legislators in the country have been working on proposals to upgrade the current Costa Rican business licensing to full online gambling status.

The lobbyist has given unconfirmed taxation or fee figures as follows:

From 1 to 20 employees - 13 million colones or approx. $27 800

From 21 to 60 employees - 21 million colones or approx. $45 000

Over 61 employees - 32 million colones or approx. $68 500

This will be an annual tax, updated to keep pace with the local CPI. There are apparently punitive measures included whereby *unlicensed* operations can be closed down, and the management or ownership held personally responsible for all penalties and evaded taxes.

Lobbyists believe that the proposal, which is in the hands of congressional legislators at present, could be approved within the next few weeks. What is not yet clear is when the law will come into effect, and what detailed regulations will be framed to guard against player abuse, money laundering and other critical areas of international concern. The question of inspection, monitoring and enforcement, and who does it will also be of keen interest to the industry.

TBG to revamp an old online favourite

Online gambling site Littlewoods Casino.com, part of the Littlewoods gaming group, is backing an April revamp of its site with a six-figure advertising and publicity campaign.

The gambling brand wanted to promote its service as established and trusted, and to develop a fresher, more contemporary look, and the revamp is to include a range of landing pages built in Flash with the aim of encouraging users to stay longer.

The online marketing initiative will target users with a high predisposition to play online casinos, mainly 24- to 45-year-old males who work in the financial industry. A test ad campaign based on different creative ideas and formats, including banners and pop-ups, will soon run across 30 different sites for a month.

The most successful media placements will be extended for another two months. Ads planned as contextual and exit placements will run across financial sites such as Digitallook.com and other sites like Racingpost.com.

Agency TBG has been appointed to handle the creative revamp based on previous work for Litlewoods, and will work on further online campaigns for the online casino.

Ex-Starnet-WG execs in million dollar marketing deal

It certainly looks as if Gaming Transactions Inc., the online gambling venture founded by ex World Gaming execs is gathering momentum following an agreement to purchase a million dollars of advertising at its Keno.com site.

InfoPowa reported the launch of Gaming Transactions mid-February this year. The Delaware registered public company is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada and uses no-download software from RedRuth Ventures, branded CrediPlay which also powers SkillArcade.com. The operation runs on servers based in Costa Rica, although there are ambitions to move to the UK, dependent on the fate of online gambling legalisation under the Gambling Bill in that country.

CEO Patrick Smyth, together with fellow Gaming Transactions director and software development specialist Stephen White were both executives at World Gaming (Starnet) at one time. Smyth went on to found the Wiremix Media advertising agency before becoming President of digital marketing company Next Level and then President of CYOP Systems International.

The million dollar advertising agreement is with Red Ruth Ventures which will purchase advertising for the Keno.com site. Red Ruth has prepaid USD$ 1 million in advertising from online gaming portals, which it will be selling exclusively to Gaming Transactions Inc. The deal includes email newsletters, interactive rich media and static advertisement space.

Smyth says, "We are fortunate to have reached a deal of this magnitude for such an excellent marketing product. Red Ruth has a database of players, and web locations that are a natural fit for Keno.com's advertising strategies."

Global revenues from online gambling will reach USD$14.52 billion in 2006, up from USD$3.81 billion this year. This is according to a report from the Informa Media Group, which says that the US will generate 24 percent of all online gambling revenues in 2006, whereas Europe will generate 53 percent.

Best college player in the country gets a scholarship, a laptop and a ticket to the London Open

The "best college player in the USA" was $10 000 richer this week following the finals of World Poker Exchange's Intercollegiate Poker Championship in Cancun, Mexico.

The champ was Nate Belt from the University of Kentucky. Belt competed against five other regional finalists in a live tournament hosted by "MTV Real World: Las Vegas" star Trishelle Cannatella. Finishing in second and third places were Ryan Demeter of Vanderbilt University and Devin Hanneman of the University of Utah, respectively.

Belt will receive the grand prize, which includes a $10,000 cash scholarship, a laptop computer and an all expense paid five-day trip to the United Kingdom to compete in the World Poker Exchange London Open on August 3-6, 2005. At the signature lifestyle tournament, Nate will receive free entry into this high stakes televised competition worth $10,000, and have the opportunity to share in a minimum prize pot of $2 million while playing against some of the world's top poker players.

Belt is originally from Bowling Green, KY. He is currently a freshman majoring in Biology with a pre-medicine concentration. A member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, Belt and his friends play poker once or twice a week; a ritual that certainly paid off in Cancun.

"I've been playing poker for fun for a little over three years now and never thought it would amount to my playing with the pros at the London Open," Belt said in statement today. "The last call I made in the championship game wasn't the smartest, but I went on instinct and now I'm glad I did. I've never been to London, so this is the opportunity of a lifetime."

The World Poker Exchange Intercollegiate Poker Championship was an online and offline poker championship that required no entrance fee. Open to students from 120 top universities throughout the United States, the tournament attracted more than 1,000 students from throughout the U.S. vying for scholarship cash prizes.

Takeover bid for two more RTG-powered casinos is successful

InfoPowa received a press release from the USA this week indicating that the consolidation trend in the industry continues, with Cool Cat Casino.com taking over Palace of Chance and Club Player Casinos, which have had a chequered history in recent times.

Cool Cat Casino launched only a year ago, and is backed, according to the PR blurb by "....a powerhouse of solid investors which allows them the flexibility to continue growing from strength to strength." Those investors are not identified in the release, but it would appear to suggest that payment to players with legitimate claims should not be a problem.

Palace of Chance was established in 2000, and along with Club Player Casino has managed to survive the viccisitudes of operating in today's difficult market.

G2E gets a new look

Global Gaming Expo (G2E) 2005, to be held Sept. 13-15 this year at the Las Vegas Convention Center, will feature the iGaming Business Pavilion - a featured presence for online gaming operators at this important gaming exhibition. The pavilion, a joint effort between G2E and i-gaming publication iGaming Business, will focus on gaming companies that have established a presence in the growing global online gaming market.

i-Gaming Business editor Mike Caselli says the online gaming sector now accounts for more than 3 percent of global gaming revenues. According to the firm Media & Entertainment Consulting Network (MECN), more than 60 percent of industry experts surveyed believe that online poker will be the dominant offering in online gambling in two to three years. The amount played on poker Web sites around the world in 2005 is expected to be more than $60 billion, with commission revenues around $3 billion. According to The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 24, 2005), revenue for the roughly 2,000 gambling Web sites will reach $9.8 billion in 2005, up from $7.5 billion last year and $5.7 billion two years ago.

The iGaming Business Pavilion will attract a wide range of visitors, including service providers for interactive gaming operators. Professional services providers such as law firms focused on Internet gaming, online gaming auditors, financiers and specialty jackpot insurers will showcase their products and services during the three-day expo, along with online payment solutions providers, Internet security specialists, player verification specialists and hosting facility managers.

The pavilion will be located in Hall C2 of the G2E show floor, and will be complemented by a dedicated conference track addressing various issues in interactive gaming such as the current state of domestic regulation, the challenges of going mobile, the latest gaming development products on the horizon, and perspectives on international regulatory affairs.

"The experience at the iGaming Business Pavilion will be one of total immersion into the world of interactive gaming," Courtney Muller, G2E's industry vice president and show manager claims. "It will be a showcase of A-list providers, which will allow firms interested in the space to hand-pick the providers and service professionals necessary to get their interactive gaming service up and running."

Last year, attendance at G2E was around 25,000 industry professionals from around the world - visit the Web site at www.globalgamingexpo.com.

Industry must be more forthright in defending players' interests

The Gambling Federation malware issue is still the subject of heated discussion among online players after a gambler discovered blocking malware within a standard GFED casino software he had downloaded to his computer some three weeks ago. IT specialists in the player community assisted in isolating and identifying the malware, and other players warned by this found that their GFED downloads had also included the hostile element.

Leading gambling portals took up the issue and GFED issued a contrite admission through both its PR manager, and later its CEO Flaviano Fogli. Fogli issued a guide for the removal of the malware and publicly admitted that it had been an ill-advised practice.

For some weeks there have been calls for the trade associations to which GFED belongs to make a statement, but nothing has appeared.

This week, the regulator eCOGRA issued a public statement on the issue, which follows:

Andrew Beveridge, Chief Executive of the international regulatory body eCOGRA spoke out today on the recent discovery that the Gambling Federation Group software download had for some months included a covert element of malicious software (malware) designed to block users from the sites of competitors.

"eCOGRA believes it is the responsibility of every organisation that represents the interests of the online gaming industry and its players to send a strong signal that the use of this sort of tactic is unethical, dishonest and totally unacceptable to any responsible business." he said.

"Including malware in a download to a player's computer without his knowledge goes far beyond the routine inclusion of harmless advertisement tracking or log on recognition "cookies" and must be discouraged in the strongest possible terms in both the interests of the players and the poor perceptions of the industry that it creates.

"Trade organisations have been rightly criticised by the player community for their lack of action resulting from the GFED debacle. At eCOGRA, we're already vigilant in ensuring that this sort of practice does not happen at any of our sealed casinos".

Beveridge emphasised that in the case of an eCOGRA Seal casino, there is little likelihood of this kind of situation arising due to enforced policies on management and financial probity verification, in-depth inspection of all operational aspects of an applicant, subsequent ongoing monitoring and review and detailed and specific regulations with which eCOGRA Seal casinos are required to comply.

"In the event that an operator is found to be in contravention of any of the eGAP requirements, this is reported to the compliance committee." Beveridge revealed. "If there are no relevant mitigating circumstances, the committee should not hesitate to withdraw the Seal. eCOGRA's structure, staffing and policies and procedures has been very carefully constituted to provide for effective self-regulation. Any member or approved operator that does not comply with the organisation's detailed standards effectively undermines the core values and purpose of the initiative, and simply cannot be tolerated," he said.

As we went to press, iGGBA head Wes Himes said, "I have only just been made aware of this issue and it deeply concerns me. To reassure you, I have taken this issue to our Council and we shall be taking action on an agreed basis sometime soon. I can not speak more about this as it would preclude the options the Council may take, but rest assured we will be addressing this issue as soon as possible."

STOP PRESS:

As we went to press this week, the IGC came through with the right decision in this truly shocking breach of ethics and responsible conduct. The trade association has made the appropriate decisions regarding the Gambling Federation debacle - the company has been expelled, and Flaviano Fogli, the CEO has departed the IGC Board.

IGC Terminates Membership of Gambling Federation

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 10, 2005

The Interactive Gaming Council today accepted the resignation of Flaviano Fogli from its Board of Directors. The IGC Board has also terminated, by unanimous vote, the membership of the Gambling Federation, a Canadian company for which Fogli serves as chief executive officer.

The Gambling Federation provides services to online casinos, primarily acting as an affiliate network. According to published reports, the company had installed malware (malicious software) in Gambling Federation’s software that players downloaded to enable play at certain casino sites. When installed, the malware prevented the players from accessing three specific casinos that had been involved in an earlier dispute with Gambling Federation.

Fogli said the malicious code was designed to block access to the three casinos that were involved with a former Gambling Federation employee who Fogli alleged had stolen the email addresses of players at Gambling Federation casinos. The affair was discussed on several message boards devoted to online gambling, and Fogli issued an apology in a posting on a forum at CasinoMeister.com. Fogli exhibited remorse for the retributive action taken, something he conceded was inappropriate.

After an investigation of the situation and an interview of Mr. Fogli, the IGC took the step to terminate Gambling Federation’s membership and accept Mr. Fogli’s resignation. It was the determination of the IGC that the actions of Gambling Federation were contrary to the letter and spirit of the IGC’s Code of Conduct and contrary to the best interests of the interactive gaming public and industry.

In a letter to Fogli after the IGC Board of Directors met on March 9, Mark Stone, the IGC’s chair, thanked Fogli for his “openness and candor” at the board’s meeting. Stone told Fogli that, “the Board understands your outrage at the conduct of your competitor. The theft and conversion of property, be it software or email lists, is reprehensible and should not be practiced or condoned by any reputable business. But there are also appropriate means by which to deal with such actions. It is felt that the action by Gambling Federation in this case is not one of those appropriate means.”

Stone added that the actions of Gambling Federation “jeopardized the integrity of the entire industry. The act hasn’t just prevented a competitor from getting a few visitors; rather it has shown the general public one more example of how vulnerable each individual’s computer and personal data are to attack and interception.”

Rick Smith, executive director of the IGC, said the organisation had to take an unequivocal stance when confronted with an action such as that of the Gambling Federation. “Causing someone to download intrusive software onto his or her personal computer is totally unacceptable by anyone, under any conditions,” Smith said. “I am saddened that this was done by an IGC member, and I apologize to our many upstanding members and to the online gaming public.”

The Gambling Federation had been a member of the IGC since March 15, 2004. The termination of its membership is effective immediately.

50 - 44 victory for legislators who want to put legalisation of online poker to a vote

The Bismark Tribune carried good news for poker fans this week when it reported that state legislators wanting to legalize Internet poker in North Dakota had won another victory when the House voted 50-44 in favor of a resolution that would put the question to a vote in the June ballot.

House Concurrent Resolution 3035 allows citizens to vote on whether the North Dakota Constitution should be amended to make Internet poker legal.

The vote on the resolution was taken yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) following a four-hour hearing on House Bill 1509, a separate bill which would set guidelines for establishing the industry in the state.

Supporters of the game say millions of people are already gambling on the Internet on offshore sites that receive little or no regulation. Rep. Blair Thoreson said regulating the industry will help reduce problems with those who already play the game. "If we don't do something to regulate it, who knows what the downside is," Thoreson said.

Internet poker sites operate offshore because of fear of the 1961 Wire Act, which was aimed at preventing betting over the phone lines. However, supporters of the legislation say that law does not apply to Internet poker.

"Obviously the Internet wasn't even a gleam in anyone's eye at that point," Sue Schneider, CEO of River City Group, told the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday. Schneider said the law is specific to sports betting, not Internet poker.

Opponents of the bill are worried that legalizing Internet poker will pit the state against the federal government, or it will lead to an expansion of gambling.

Rep. Kari Conrad, said the state could spend $1 million to fight the federal government if the Justice Department says the state's law is illegal. "All of the other gaming we've considered was in the realm of possibility. This is not," Conrad said. "This I think it is too big of a gamble."

Nevada has already passed legislation legalizing Internet poker, but that legislation never went into effect because it required approval of the Justice Department, which has taken the position under President Bush and former President Clinton that the practice is illegal.

Nigel Payne, CEO of Sportingbet Plc., the largest Internet sports and gaming business in the world, said the industry wants to be regulated because it will give customers more confidence in their operations. "Customers will flock to a Web site that's regulated," Payne said.

Payne, who flew into Bismarck from the company's headquarters in London, also testified in favor of the bill, and said his company alone would generate $10 million a year in tax revenue for the state.

Also attending the hearing and giving evidence for online poker was Michael Corfman, the portal and publishing industry personality who has challenged the US Department of Justice on their attempts to intimidate online advertising media.

Corfman, who is president of Casino City Press of Newton, Mass., said the number of poker sites has risen from 43 in June 2003 to 266 at the end of last month.

"If a state agrees to license Internet poker sites, American players, who make up a majority of the market, will naturally gravitate to sites regulated in the United States," he said. "That's just common sense. If you were gaming, or going to play poker, where would you rather play? I think you'd all rather play in a regulated environment, and you'd rather play in the United States than some overseas jurisdiction."

Some opponents of the bill said the problems the industry would bring would outweigh the benefits.

Sen. Connie Triplett said she has not decided how she will vote yet. However, Triplett, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the arguments from opponents seem to justify the need to regulate the industry. "The opponents did a better job of pointing out the need for the bill than the proponents," Triplett said.

The issue is far from being resolved by the Legislature.

HCR3035 and HB1509 will both have to be approved before Internet poker could be legalized

"We can help," says Chief Executive, Andrew Beveridge

The news that a key Bill seeking to legalise online poker in the state legislature of North Dakota is making good progress has been welcomed by the online gaming industry's regulatory body eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (www.eCOGRA.org).

The CEO Andrew Beveridge commended Representative Jim Kasper for sponsoring the legislation, which now moves to the state Senate for hearing on March 8.

"North Dakota is setting an important state precedent by introducing legislation that will protect players of this popular card game through sound and enforced regulations, and has the potential to make significant contributions to the state economy through taxes and operational presence on U.S. soil," he said.

Beveridge went on to reveal that eCOGRA has recently completed extensive studies of viable online poker regulation in order to add enforced online poker regulation to its services. "Three of the top seven poker operations (as rated by PokerPulse.com) have already started our eGAP inspection process, which is being carried out by one of the world's leading audit firms," he said.

"Player protection is key to the industry’s success. Players can feel safe in the knowledge that gaming is fair, payouts are timeous and customer service is superior on all sites certified by eCOGRA. eCOGRA is now well experienced in designing and applying effective regulation of gambling operations through rigorous assessment by internationally recognised audit firms. This verification applies currently to fifty one online sites that handle much of the international online gaming market. eCOGRA would be delighted to share its knowledge with state legislators to further this process." eCOGRA is already involved with a number of online gaming jurisdictions, sharing knowledge about practical and effective regulatory requirements and the methodologies required to ensure effective monitoring.

Gambling regulation has traditionally been the prerogative of individual states in North America, a right that has been jealously guarded despite occasional interference from the federal government. The governor of this progressive state is reported to support the Bill.

The eCOGRA CEO drew attention to comments made earlier this year by eCOGRA indpendent director Frank Catania. Addressing the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States, the former director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement observed that 82 jurisdictions worldwide provide some form of regulation for various types of Internet gaming.

He said, "The ability to do real time auditing makes regulation easier and more efficient than the systems currently used by the terrestrial casino regulators. State-of-the-art technology, combined with proper operating procedures, has proven effective in preventing minors from gambling online and in combating money laundering. "This form of gambling cannot be stopped, but it can be effectively regulated and taxed. State legislators in Illinois and Georgia recently introduced bills to permit the online sale of lottery tickets."

Support from the experts as poker Bill debate continues

Some high powered industry personalities were gathering in North Dakota this week to show their support for a proposal to legalise online poker. Associated Press reports that the 2004 World Series of Poker champ, Greg Raymer is among a contingent of poker industry officials visiting North Dakota who are lobbying for a bill that could make it the first U.S. state to license Internet poker sites.

Raymer spoke at a news conference in the state capital Bismark organised by Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo, who is sponsoring legislation to authorize state licensing and regulation of Internet poker sites.

A resident of Stonington, Conn., and a former biotechnology patent attorney for Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company, Raymer won the World Series of Poker last year. The annual Las Vegas event drew more than 2,500 players last April, and Raymer's victory earned him a $5 million prize, paid in cash.

No U.S. state licenses Internet poker sites, and a group of industry officials and experts said Monday that North Dakota could reap a financial windfall if the state is the first to take the plunge. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Bill this week.

Several officials, including Frank Catania, an attorney and former top New Jersey gambling regulator and independent director of the online casino regulator eCOGRA, and Patrick O'Brien, a lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and former U.S. customs agent, disputed U.S. Justice Department statements that Internet gambling is illegal.

"It's very easy (for the Justice Department) to write a letter, but it's something else to get into court and defend that letter," O'Brien said.

Allyn Jaffrey Shulman, an attorney who is an owner of Card Player magazine and chief executive officer of the poker Web site CardPlayer.com, said she believes poker is a game of skill, rather than gambling.

Raymer agreed, although he said "luck is a huge element" in poker. He played poker as a part-time professional for a dozen years before winning the World Series, and he never had a losing year, although he had stretches where he lost more than he won, Raymer said.

"I know plenty of other people out there who have supported themselves just from playing poker for long periods of time," Raymer said. "Clearly, if it was a game of just luck, which you can say about things like roulette, craps and slot machines, they could not have made a living for all that period of time by playing poker, because they're not going to stay lucky for decades."

White label provider BTD stakes its claim to mobile gambling

Be The Dealer, a white label online casino provider says that the future of casino gaming has already become a working reality for Japan’s 7.2 million avid cell phone gamers - and it has positioned itself to get some of the action.

Since February, Japanese owners of Docomo cell phones have been playing Java-based slots via real money casino accounts from the company's latest production and entry into the mobile gaming sector, Ark Casino.com.

BTD claims that the launch of ArkCasino’s cellular games package marks the first time that an Asian online casino has offered secure, real money wagering via cell phones. This next-generation gaming platform is the result of a joint effort between Japanese cellular programmers TBR Entertainment and established operator CV On NET, owners of the proprietary BeTheDealer Casino software.

Ark Casino is a licensed operator of BeTheDealer Casino, where Japanese players can access both the PC download casino and the new cellular casino with the same, free account. The download casino offers BTD’s full suite of 23 casino games, replete with the patented ‘Dealer’ functionalities. The cellular casino currently offers three variations of BTD’s 3-reel multi-line progressive jackpots slots, with video poker and blackjack to be released within the coming weeks.

“The technological advances in our cellular product will lead the way into a new realm of gaming and casino entertainment,” said Shmuel Ephron, CEO of BeTheDealer Casino. “While other software companies are developing and promising a dynamic cellular future, we have already delivered a higher quality product to an excited and enthusiastic audience.”

Full service e-CRM solution promised

Ladbrokes has appointed interactive agency Agency.com and direct marketing agency WWAV Rapp Collins to improve its customer relations. Both agencies are owned by Omnicom, and together will provide a customer relationship management (CRM) system for Ladbrokes online and telephone customers.

Agency.com will focusing on the digital side of the business, while WWAV Rapp Collins will concentrate on Ladbrokes’ offline communications and data strategy.

The agencies will provide a full service CRM solution, including on and off line communications strategy, data analysis and segmentation, creative development, production and management of campaigns.

The agencies, which won the contract following a 7-way pitch, will initially provide their service to Ladbrokes’ UK customers, with plans to extend full services throughout Europe and the Far East.

Darren Moffett, general manager of CRM at Ladbrokes, said: “With the e-gaming marketplace growing at such a rapid pace, it is absolutely crucial that we not only focus on market share growth but also on the value of our existing customers.”

Great win in Battle of the Sexes

The final hand was dealt and Kathy Liebert pulled it off for the women, winning Poker Royale : Battle of the Sexes on GSN. After capturing every episode, the men were relegated to the sidelines to watch Liebert accept her $130,000, which she shared in part with her female teammates.

Settling the debate in the final episode, Liebert skillfully played her way around top poker players Amir Vahedi, Layne Flack and Antonio Esfandiari. She came from behind and led the women's team to victory after six episodes where the men triumphed over the women, earning them bragging rights until the final table was concluded.

"I used all of my acting skills," said winner Kathy Liebert. "At one point I let them think I had a poor hand. I knew if they smelled weakness, they would try to bluff me and I had "the nuts." The guys put all their chips in when I had the superior hand. Their egos got the best of them. It serves them right to get beaten by a woman."

The previous six episode's winners were Amir Vahedi (two-time winner), Antonio Esfandiari, Layne Flack, Paul Wolfe and Greg Raymer.

Battle of the Sexes winner has plenty more tourneys ahead

Fresh off a stunning victory in televised poker's Battle of the Sexes last week, Kathy Liebert - one of the all time leading female money winners in professional poker - has joined PartyPoker.com as its spokeswoman.

With her decisive win Liebert has vaulted into the public eye. On a show that aired on March 4, she prevailed over 11 men and women in GSN's Poker Royale: Battle of the Sexes, claiming first prize and female supremacy in a traditionally male bastion. On March 13th when the next round of Fox's Poker SuperStars takes to the air Liebert will take to the felt against a lineup of top poker pros.

The Poker Royale: Battle of the Sexes is far from Liebert's first trip to the victory circle. In March 2002 she became the first woman to win a tournament with more than $1 million in prize money at the inaugural PartyPoker.com Million.

Liebert joins as a spokeswoman just in time for PartyPoker.com Million IV which takes place on a ship cruising the Mexican Riviera. The tournament will include Liebert and 750 other hopefuls vying for a prize purse in excess of $7 million and is being filmed for the World Poker Tour on The Travel Channel. The tournament cruise departs from San Diego Harbor on Saturday, March 19, 2005 on Holland America's ms Oosterdam.

Liebert also recently won the $1,500 Hold 'Em Shoot Event at the 2004 World Series of Poker, claiming a $110,180 paycheck and joining the elite World Series bracelet winners. In addition to her two career highlights, she has been in the money at more than two dozen major international poker tournaments and has amassed more than $2 million tournament winnings in seven years of play.

Real time bonus site growing fast

In the space of just a few months Casinofeed.info has now attracted over 50 major operations with the recent addition of Ladbrokes to its real time bonus contributors.

The site has pioneered the concept of providing players with a totally independent venue which has up-to-the-minute information on current bonuses on offer, updated in real time by participating operations, and player traffic has apparently been building at a gratifying rate as the word spreads.

A Russian con on CON

Last year's conundrum on the allegedly Luxembourg-based turnkey provider Gaming Mastery and it's licensee Lucky Chance.com was solved this week when we received a translation from a major Russian portal, where one of the managers writes that the owner of LuckyChance is the Russian company GamblingBits, and confirms that LuckyChance and Shans.Ru is one and the same casino. By the way "Shans" is the Russian word for "Chance". The report has some unflattering things to say about GamblingBits, pointing out that their latest *masterpiece* is Casino-on-net.ru! They allege that they are the Russian version of casino-on-net.com. But casino-on-net.com apparently is not involved.

Player asks Royal Dutch "...just where did you get my address?"

Royal Dutch Casino was this week accused by a player of using misleading promotional tactics...and asked how the beleaguered casino obtained her address.

The player found promotional material in her spam folder, allegedly from a site named "Astrology-Info 1" The 'pull' in the spam was the statement;

"You are the draw winner - check below" which she found suspicious because she had never entered a draw.

All was revealed when she scrolled down, however - it was another "HUGE" promotion from Royal Dutch Casino. And of course she was not a winner.

This sort of misleading advertising joins the list of other misconduct by the casino management and certainly does little for what is left of the RDC reputation.

And the player is asking awkward questions - like how Royal Dutch Casino obtained her email address when she has never downloaded their casino or been in contact with it.

Coming at a time when there have been suggestions that a former employee of Gambling Federation had joined Royal Dutch and was suspected of taking a player database this does not sound good....because the player in this case has in the past played and given her details to Gambling Federation operations!

As we went to press this week Royal Dutch assured the player that it abhorred spamming and suggested that this example may have emanated from an affiliate (an ancient excuse for marketing misdeamenours) Unfortunately, an expert examination of the promo email showed that it had actually come from Royal Dutch itself!!

And a player remains unpaid eight months on...

Adding to the criticisms of Royal Dutch Casino came the news that a week after promising to pay a player who has been trying to get his money out of them for eight long months, nothing has appeared. After some unpleasant wrangling over the $ 2 700 payment, Royal Dutch finally agreed last week to pay up, and asked for the player's banking details which were promptly supplied. As we went to press nothing had been received.

Checking credit cards and blocking websites proposed

According to the Turkish daily news the burgeoning Internet gambling industry in Turkey could face legislative difficulties in the months ahead. Government ministries and other organisations are to launch a campaign to fight online gambling and betting, by blocking Web sites, following credit card transactions and introducing new taxes

The number of illegal gambling and betting sites on the Internet is increasing day by day, says the report. Committees composed of various Turkish state ministries, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK), universities, Internet service providers and various non-governmental organisations are pursuing efforts to combat such sites, reports the Anatolia news agency.

Related units are working to fight illegal gambling and betting sites through introducing legal sanctions. In this respect, it has been decided that certain clauses would be added to a draft bill that seeks to reorganise the Turkish National Lottery Administration's (MPI) structure.

Under the bill, the MPI will be in charge of undertaking arrangements on and oversee “virtual” betting games and lottery draws. Furthermore, those violating the new decrees will face fines and imprisonment.

One of the courses of action the MPI will be responsible for, in coordination with relevant committees, is to block access to illegal gaming and betting sites over the Internet. Similarly, advertisement of such sites from other sites on the Internet will also be considered illegal, in an attempt to decrease their business.

And unspecified but *related* committees are proposing that people gambling online could be tracked through their credit card transactions. It has been determined that $2 million is spent on online gambling through credit card transactions in Turkey. Whilst some factions want criminal sanctions, banks believe that such an approach would not be in conformity with the law as it presently stands.

Turkey's General Directorate of Revenues is adding more pressure by preparing a new bill that would place taxes on online gambling and betting sites. A top official from the directorate, noting that credit cards and money orders are being used in this "illegal activity", said, “Banks and other administrative institutions will add the ‘lottery tax' to any activity related to online gambling.” The official said that although the current lottery tax is around 10 percent, the one applied on virtual games will be twice this rate.

Legal tussle over corrupt bank official gets nasty

Theft of A$ 19 million by an Australian bank official who gambled the money away is the subject of a sequel being played out in the Australian civil courts this week.

Online sportsbook, International All Sports, says the Commonwealth Bank's mismanagement and sloppy internal controls are to blame for the multi-million dollar theft from a Western Australian bank branch, for which the former branch manager is serving a five-year jail sentence after stealing from his branch in Karratha and gambling it on the Internet.

The bank is suing International All Sports for more than $17 million, maintaining the online bookmaker should have known the money was stolen.

The company has lodged its defence and a counterclaim in the Federal Court. International All Sports chief executive, Robert Edge, says his company is not at fault. "All we did was receive money over an Internet line," he said.

"When we receive money from a client, we're unable to assess the client's state of mind, we're unable to assess the client's culpability, we're unable to assess much about the client other than an Internet message."

Advanced Wireless Framework a big success

Phantom Fiber Corporation has been having a run of success in attracting new licensees. The provider of secure wireless technology and mobile solutions, this week announced a flurry of new deployments across several brand operators as a result of the rapid execution of its business strategy.

Almost a year ago, Phantom launched an aggressive mobile strategy designed to dominate the wireless gaming market using its Adaptive Application Architecture (A3) -- a unique development methodology which enables clients to easily adapt to changing requirements in a fast-moving mobile device marketplace. As a result, over 600 mobile devices are supported today by Phantom Fiber's Advanced Wireless Framework (PFAWF).

The unprecedented momentum and growth experienced by Phantom Fiber in the past year has set the stage for a series of new deployments for wireless applications powered by PFAWF. Seven new sportsbook operators will launch this week. They include:

TradeWinds Sportsbook and Casino,

Badlands Casino and Sportsbook,

Guardian Guaranty Corporation Sportsbook and Casino,

Extreme Lines Sportsbook and Casino,

Regency Sportsbook and Casino,

Diamonds Sportsbook International,

Carib Sportsbook

The company says that additional wireless deployments are expected in the near future with several new operators lining up to take advantage of what Phantom claims is the most robust architecture currently available to the gaming industry.

Tenth member of growing poker network will have access to 4 million players

PokerNetwork launched its tenth partner, Caribsports.com this week.

Established in 1993, Carib was the first sportsbook to be founded in Antigua. In 1997, Carib took an ambitious step by launching its first website – Caribsports.com, which has since developed a formidable web presence. Carib has been registered to operate on-line gaming activities since 1997 and currently holds licenses in both Belize and Antigua.

The licensing agreement allows CaribSports.com customers to play poker games online within the PokerNetwork community and access the already established base of close to 4,000,000 players worldwide.

PokerNetwork is unique in that it offers Java based, no-download-required, poker software as well as downloadable clients for Windows. As the only product on the market to do so, this enables Mac and Linux users to plug in and play poker within the PokerNetwork community.

ESPN-Micropower poker site pulls in the crowds
In last week's InfoPowa round-up we reported on the launch of ESPN's impressive new online poker initiative, powered by Micropower. The recipe must be right, because within two days of the launch over 30,000 people had signed up, reflecting resounding consumer interest in the game. The sports media company launched its free online poker game last week as part of its multimedia effort to capitalise on a trend spurred by TV programmes such as the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker, which airs on ESPN's cable television network, and other attractions arfe likely to build the player base further in the molnths ahead.

International publicity blitz
Texas Hold’em author Kim Birch has been schmoozing the international media for the launch of his winning online poker course and website at http://www.onlinepokeradvantage.com. He has been interviewed by both Danish media and international publications such as the UK gambling magazine Inside Edge. Since 2002 the author has been earning an annual six figure income playing online poker in both live money and Sit and Go tournaments and is ready to share his experiences and teach the average poker player how to play better and boost winnings. The author is one of the few fulltime professional Danish poker players and attends poker tournaments all over the world.

Three weeks back we reported on the imminent takeover of Portofino, Hampton and Connect to Casino by the Doloplex group.

Very reliable information now to hand is that Doloplex has since withdrawn from the negotiations after standard due diligence. Doloplex has been offered the Vegas Magic and Vegas Frontier properties, on which dd has been successfully completed. These properties will therefore soon be joining the group.

And staying with information on online casino movements, it is reliably reported this week that Giant Vegas Casino has switched to Playtech software and re-launched, still owned by Australian-based Brian Goodman. Formerly powered by RTG, Giant Vegas and sister casino Kiss were the subject of controversy over player payments late last year, and closed.

WPT's new site approved, and a new approach to cross-border online gambling

Alderney Gambling Control Commission has issued its nineteenth eGambling licence to WagerWorks (Alderney) 3 Limited, for the operation of WPT Online.com in association with World Poker Tour.

The Commission also reconsidered its position with regard to cross-border gambling and resolved to adopt the following principles in this regard:

* The Commission is aware that some countries have introduced laws to prevent foreign e-gambling operators from offering gambling services in their jurisdictions. Some of these laws relate to a genuine concern about the social impact of gambling in general, while others have introduced such laws to protect the local gambling industry. Irrespective of the rationale for such laws, the Commission does not see itself as being responsible for enforcing the laws of other countries;

* The onus is on the licensee to ensure that, at all times, he conducts his business in a lawful manner and therefore to keep abreast of the laws of the jurisdictions within which he conducts business;

* The Commission takes a keen interest in the legal actions involving its licensees, irrespective of the jurisdiction, as it may affect the general suitability of the licensee to hold a licence;

* The Commission supports a free-market approach towards egambling, which means that it will not prevent its licensees from offering gambling to players in other countries, whether it is e-gaming or e-betting; and

* The Commission is of the view that the egambling transaction takes place where the egaming or ebetting transaction server and database are based. Hence, the requirement that the egambling servers be based within the Commission's regulatory jurisdiction.

Playing Internet poker for cash regarded as "unacceptable"

The Canadian Press bucked the trend on positive poker reportage this week with an article that claims that, according to a recent survey more than half of Canadians think playing Internet poker for cash is unacceptable.

The poll, conducted by Decima Research found that in regard to the Internet poker questions 56 percent were against the idea, 25 percent had no problem with it, and the rest fell somewhere in the middle.

The Canadian press claims that the poll is one of the most detailed snapshots to emerge of gambling attitudes, and suggests great unease about online casinos. It also reveals a spike in public concern about addiction and lax regulation in regions where video lottery terminals are widespread.

There's no shortage of foreign-based Internet commercial casino games. But such sites are illegal in Canada unless run by provincial governments. .

Turning to online gambling in general, the publication comments that gambling critics fear it's just a matter of time before government-backed virtual casinos arrive and multiply. "My concern with Internet gambling is it gives you a cloak of anonymity," says Montreal-based addiction counsellor Sol Boxenbaum. "You can get up in the middle of the night and go into the den while your spouse is asleep and gamble. And there's really no protection against underage gambling."

Decima survey director Richard Leigh-Bennett is quoted as saying, "You're seeing that half the people think (online gambling) is a problem, but then you've got almost 80 per cent of the population participating in it. If you look at (rates of) smoking and drinking, it's quite a bit lower. People are aware that there's some sort of problem, but it's something that is so ubiquitous across the country that people see it as relatively harmless entertainment."

The controlled online survey of 3,538 adults was password protected to ensure participants only responded once. It is considered accurate within 1.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. 61 percent of those surveyed said they'd gambled at a casino, while 30 per cent said they'd done so in the past year. Fewer than 1 percent said they bet at a casino once a week or more.

US claims Antigua is "susceptible to money laundering"

London-based Law and Tax News this week says that the 2005 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, published last Friday, claims that Antigua and Barbuda are "susceptible to money laundering activity." Apparently this claim originated from the US State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

The report, released as the tiny Caribbean jurisdiction continues to lock horns with the US government over the latter's ban on the use of online gaming services by US citizens, stated that:

"Antigua and Barbuda (A&B) has comprehensive legislation in place to regulate its financial sector, but it remains susceptible to money laundering because of its loosely regulated offshore financial sectors and its Internet gaming industry. Money laundering in the region is related to both narcotics and fraud schemes, as well as to other crimes, but money laundering appears to occur more often in the offshore sector than in the domestic financial sector."

The report went on to advise that:

"The Government of Antigua and Barbuda should continue its international cooperation, and rigorously implement and enforce all provisions of its anti-money laundering legislation. Antigua and Barbuda should take the necessary legislative and regulatory steps to ensure its gambling sector is properly covered by anti-money laundering legislation and is strictly supervised."

"Additionally, Antigua and Barbuda should vigorously enforce its anti-money laundering laws by actively prosecuting money laundering and asset forfeiture cases. Antigua and Barbuda should ensure that all offshore banks licensed there have a physical presence, consistent with international standards."

An information treasure trove for the industry

Casino City’s Gaming Business Directory has become a key source of information for executives in the online gaming space, and the 2005 edition of this comprehensive, 700-page reference publication is now available, with stacks of current information on gaming properties, property owners, gaming industry suppliers and their executive contacts.

The directory covers over 3,500 gaming properties around the world with detailed property profiles and names and titles of executive contacts across more than 40 departments. Over 7,000 industry suppliers are also included along with agencies and commissions, associations, trade shows, trade publications, and more.

"This directory is a must-have for anyone doing business in the gaming industry. If you're an industry supplier, you can use it to grow your business by marketing to casino executives or gaming manufacturers. If you're a casino executive, you can use it for competitive analysis or to find a good vendor to work with," says Michael Opton, the publication's editor.

"It's rare that a product exceeds your expectations. The Gaming Business Directory is one of those products,' says Elizabeth George of the American Training Institute."

Highest ever number of attacks in January

Players beware! NewsFactor reports that the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) in the USA has released a study on recent phishing activity, noting that the number of phishing emails has grown by 42 percent in January.

According to the watchdog organisation, almost 13,000 new and unique phishing e-mails were reported to the APWG, putting the number of attacks at their highest level ever. The group also noted that the number of unique phishing Web sites has increased in the last three months, from 1,740 in October to 2,560 in January, representing a 47 percent rise.

The U.S. continues to be the top location for phishing sites, the group noted, followed by China and Korea. Malicious Web sites frequently attempt to install keylogger programs, most likely for password theft. The sites take advantage of known browser vulnerabilities to install the programs on a user's site.

The number of company names being used in phishing attacks also has increased. When phishing first began, Citibank was the main target, as phishers attempted to convince users that they were acting on behalf of the financial institution. But more recently, many other brand names are used in a similar fashion.

Phishers succeed in convincing up to 5 percent of online users to respond, making them vulnerable to identity theft and financial loss, according to the APWG.

The sharp rise in phishing activity highlights a serious problem, said Dave Jevans, APWG chairman. "What's going on is alarming, and it poses a danger to users," he said. "We need user education, but that's not all that has to be done."

Phishers pose a particular problem, Jevans added, because they're highly organized and motivated by money -- unlike typical virus writers. "Phishers are very technologically savvy, and they'll try anything if they think it will work," he remarked.

And new research predicts even bigger revenues

Another major Brit gambling group has entered the competitive but booming Internet poker market with the launch of Ukbetting plc's new online poker room this week, heralded by predictions that the market could double in 2005.

Shares in the British smallcap were up 4 percent after it announced that it had launched poker and an online casino on its European gaming Web site Goldbet.com.

Gamblers lost $237 billion to gaming companies worldwide in 2004 and will be losing about $277 billion a year by 2008, said a report on Thursday by investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

Online gambling has grown to $9.2 billion since its birth in 1995 and is forecast to produce a 22 percent compound annual growth rate between 2003 and 2008, driven in particular by poker, said the report. Sports betting represents 45 percent of total online gambling spending with other gaming representing 32 percent, but both could be overtaken by poker by 2008, if not earlier, it added.

Online gambling is becoming a booming industry in Britain, one of the few jurisdictions where it is welcomed. "We're the market that's embracing online gambling," said DKW analyst Andrew Lee.

Online casino 888.com., widely expected to go public, recently estimated the amount Britons are gambling over the Internet has increased more than six times in the last year.

Research study by Intercasino identifies peak hours for online gambling, too.

Researchers at InterCasino.com released the results of an interesting study of the members of the giant Cryptologic-powered online casino this week.

It appears that most UK gamers who use the casino live in the South of England where 23 percent of all UK members log-on. London alone provides the second most populated area, with 12.2 percent followed by the North West with 12 percent.

The database review also revealed that it is the 18-35 year old market who are the keenest gamblers at Intercasino, with over 63 percent of members in this category.

Saturdays are the most popular day of the week for people to play online at the casino, and from 6 pm until 12pm over 50 percent of members log on, with peak times at 8pm.

Heavier penalties and targeted individuals suggested

Reports from Beijing indicate that the National People's Congress (NPC) the country's top legislature, has been asked for a stand-alone bill to prohibit gambling activities.

The proposal was submitted by legislator Luo Yifeng, who called for government and company chiefs to be made special targets and for heavier penalties to be introduced in any future crackdown.

"A new, special law banning gambling, with heavier penalties meted out to violators, is a lasting solution to prohibit gambling," the politician claimed.

However, China's gamb-busters and legal experts, whilst agreeing on harder strikes, say they prefer amending or changing judicial interpretations of current statutes to creating new anti-gambling legislation.

The current Criminal Law of the country, enacted in 1979 and amended since, sets a maximum punishment for gambling of three years in jail. These penalties are seen by some as too lenient when considering that many cases involve millions of yuan and often corrupt social morals, Luo said. "My proposed law will explicitly ban any government officials and State firm executives from gambling," said Luo. "It will also set up parameters to differentiate normal entertainment activities from gambling activities," he added.

Casinos and other gambling activities have caused a chain of social problems, and participation of officials and State firm executives has increased corruption and led to a loss of State assets, and it was imperative that the law be given more of a "deterrent effect," Luo said.

The debate on an anti-gambling strategy has attracted widespread attention during the current week-long NPC session. The anti-gambling campaign office under the Ministry of Public Security yesterday said the relevant clause of China's criminal code was too weak to deal with the situation in the country and outside its immediate borders.

"But considering China's current conditions, the time is not yet ripe for making a special anti-gambling law," the office said in a statement. "It is better to revise the existing Criminal Law to fix the problem in a more timely fashion," it said.

The statement singled out two points many law-enforcers believe will facilitate the crackdown on gambling.

The first is the imposition of more severe penalties, and the second is to ensure that the Criminal Law includes new forms of gambling, such as gambling on the Internet and or gambling outside the Chinese mainland.

The definitions of the various forms of gambling could be clarified soon. Chu Huaizhi, a senior law expert at Peking University, said he has participated in a workshop sponsored recently by the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate, which sought to make some judicial interpretations on Article 303 of China's Criminal Law.

"The explanations, to be published soon, will define more clearly gambling activities. We can always improve our monitoring and control measures to stop the activities at the very root sources through use of high technology and more efficient border checks," he said.

Backgammon resurgent

"All in, full house, straight flush…our world is inundated by the game of poker. It's on our TVs, in our homes, and on our computers. But poker isn't the only game in town. The newest way to fatten your wallet is actually a game that's been around for 5000 years: backgammon."

So says a well written blurb from Play65.com, which has unveiled what it claims is the world's largest online backgammon community, allowing players from all over the world to compete for each other's riches. With daily tournaments and a variety of game structures, beginners and experts alike can play against one another for fun and hopefully profit.

And backgammon has been ruled a skill-based game and is therefore probably legal under US laws. The ancient game has retained its popularity for centuries, and is currently experiencing a resurgence among young gamblers, especially those attracted to its online possibilities.

GBP 350 000 marketing campaign planned

Casino Agency - formed last year as a marketing, communications and consulting offshoot of UK-based HPS Group is to handle search facility Gambling.com’s GBP 350,000 through-the-line marketing campaign.

Gambling.com currently allows consumers to search for the best choice of online gambling sites, including casinos, roulette, sports betting, bingo, lottery and slots – while also offering a mix of free games, tournaments and the opportunity to vote in monthly polls to find the Top Sites.

The appointment follows Casino Agency’s work at the start of the year for another client, InterCasino, which involved a deal it secured with Sky One to sponsor a glamorous US TV series Las Vegas.

Tim Rosenberg, marketing director of gambling.com, said: ‘We’re looking to raise our profile and get the message across to consumers that www.gambling.com is the first place for them to visit in order to find the best in online gambling.

Ninth profitable consecutive quarter

Turnkey provider Chartwell Technology Inc announced solid financial results for the first quarter ended January 31, 2005 this week.Highlights of the quarter included:

Revenue of $4,815 000 compared with $2,198 000 during the same period in fiscal 2004;

Net income of $1,486 000 compared with net income of $386 000 during the same period in fiscal 2004;

Software license fees of $4,622 000 compared to $1,939 000 during the same period in fiscal 2004;

Cash flow from operations of $1,236 000 compared to $821 000 during the same period in fiscal 2004;

Working capital of $23,323 000 compared to $10,549 000 during the same period of 2004;

Compared to the same period of 2004, total revenue increased 119.1 percent, operating income increased 418.6 percent, net income increased 284.9 percent and earnings per diluted share increased 166.7 percent.

“Consistent with our objective of delivering continued growth and profitability, I am pleased to report our ninth consecutive profitable quarter,” states Don Gleason, Chief Financial Officer. “I am encouraged by the overall growth of the industry in general and our installed customer base but even more excited that new customer business contributed 18 percent of our total sales revenue.”

Planned personnel additions in the software development and support organizations have contributed significantly to the 32.2 percent increase in software development and support costs. Software development and support expenses accounted for 51.4 percent of the company’s total costs in the first quarter of 2005 compared to 56.6 percent in the same period of 2004. Sales and marketing expenses increased by 105.7 percent to $600 000. The increase in sales and marketing expenses is directly attributable to additional sales and marketing headcount and the costs relating to the operation of the London, U.K. sales office.

Getting to grips with European law

Getting a take on the European legal landscape is the priority for the many delegates who have already signed up for the forthcoming European Gambling Briefing (EGB), which takes place on 25th–26th April at The Conrad, Brussels, Belgium.

Those attending will receive the very latest expert opinion on the legal and economic status of gambling in Europe and how it impacts on pan-European gambling and betting operators.

The two-day event, which will be chaired by leading Belgian attorney Thibault Verbiest and Bill Galston, former chief inspector, Gaming Board for Great Britain and an independent director of regulator eCOGRA, will examine the latest issues and test cases including the recent decision by the Dutch Supreme Court to uphold the ban on Ladbrokes providing internet-based betting services in the Netherlands, and how the judgement fits with previous findings by the European Court of Justice, notably the Gambelli and Lindman cases.

Previewing the conference, Thibault Verbiest, who is a specialist attorney at the Brussels and Paris Bars, said: “With over 30 speakers including representatives from the EU Commission, leading lawyers in seven EU jurisdictions and pan-European operators including Casinos Austria, Ladbrokes.com, Sportingbet and StanleyBet, the EGB has to qualify as the most comprehensive and authoritative conference ever held on gambling in Europe. Our collective aim is to bring some clarity to what is a complex legal landscape and to provide pointers for investment and growth.”

Additional areas which will be debated over the course of the two days include money laundering, the legal status of advertising gambling services to consumers, social responsibility, age verification on remote sites and opportunities for growth within Europe.

Over 150 delegates from 20 countries are expected to attend the EGB, making it one of the most popular events staged by ATE Conferences.

Enquiries on the European Gambling Briefing should be directed to Penny Gruber; tel +44 (0) 20 7713 0302, email pgruber@ateonline.co.uk. For further information and ticket availability on the two-day event, follow www.ateonline.co.uk/conferences.

Industry must be more forthright in defending players' interests

Andrew Beveridge, Chief Executive of the international regulatory body eCOGRA spoke out today on the recent discovery that the Gambling Federation Group software download had for some months included a covert element of malicious software (malware) designed to block users from the sites of competitors.

"eCOGRA believes it is the responsibility of every organisation that represents the interests of the online gaming industry and its players to send a strong signal that the use of this sort of tactic is unethical, dishonest and totally unacceptable to any responsible business." he said.

"Including malware in a download to a player's computer without his knowledge goes far beyond the routine inclusion of harmless advertisement tracking or log on recognition "cookies" and must be discouraged in the strongest possible terms in both the interests of the players and the poor perceptions of the industry that it creates.

"Trade organisations have been rightly criticised by the player community for their lack of action resulting from the GFED debacle. At eCOGRA, we're already vigilant in ensuring that this sort of practice does not happen at any of our sealed casinos".

Beveridge emphasised that in the case of an eCOGRA Seal casino, there is little likelihood of this kind of situation arising due to enforced policies on management and financial probity verification, in-depth inspection of all operational aspects of an applicant, subsequent ongoing monitoring and review and detailed and specific regulations with which eCOGRA Seal casinos are required to comply.

"In the event that an operator is found to be in contravention of any of the eGAP requirements, this is reported to the compliance committee." Beveridge revealed. "If there are no relevant mitigating circumstances, the committee should not hesitate to withdraw the Seal. eCOGRA's structure, staffing and policies and procedures has been very carefully constituted to provide for effective self-regulation. Any member or approved operator that does not comply with the organisation's detailed standards effectively undermines the core values and purpose of the initiative, and simply cannot be tolerated," he said.

"It is to be regretted that silence and apparent lack of action from industry representative bodies on this issue could result in all being labelled as ineffectual by both outsiders and the playing community. If industry codes and rules already in place are not enforced and supported, it seriously damages the credibility of the organisations concerned," he concluded.

The North Dakota Poker Bill needs your support

Last month InfoPowa reported on the progress of an important Bill in the state legislature of North Dakota that seeks to legalise online poker, and we're happy to inform readers that the proposal is making good progress.

The Bill was sponsored by Representative Jim Kasper and passed the state House on February 16. It now moves to a hearing in the state Senate in the regional capital Bismark on March 8. If it passes, it will position North Dakota as a leader among American state jurisdictions, regulating the industry to protect players and generating important taxes. It could set a precedent and open the door for the first time to online poker operations based on U.S. soil, with positive effects for local economies. Given the huge popularity of poker in the United States particularly, where a reported 50 million citizens enjoy this skilled game the potential is significant.

Gambling regulation has traditionally been the prerogative of individual states in North America, a right that has been jealously guarded despite occasional interference from the federal government. The governor of this progressive state is reported to support the Bill, but various legislative and constitutional hurdles lie ahead before the Bill can become effective, and Representative Kasper has asked for industry support for licensed, regulated and taxed online poker at the hearing on March 8 in Bismark.

The legislators were probably influenced by the comments of industry luminaries such as Frank Catania, In January he testified before a meeting of the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States. The former director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement and a current independent director of self regulator eCOGRA, observed that 82 jurisdictions worldwide provide some form of regulation for various types of Internet gaming.

He said, “The ability to do real time auditing makes regulation easier and more efficient than the systems currently used by the terrestrial casino regulators. State-of-the-art technology, combined with proper operating procedures, has proven effective in preventing minors from gambling online and in combating money laundering. “This form of gambling cannot be stopped, but it can be effectively regulated and taxed. State legislators in Illinois and Georgia recently introduced bills to permit the online sale of lottery tickets.

"At the local level, many government officials can see that attempts to thwart the rapidly growing Internet gaming industry are not doing anyone any good. Consumers are not receiving the regulatory protection they need, state and local governments are losing a source of tax revenue, and American companies are being deprived of opportunities in a global market, whose revenue for 2004 was estimated by Christiansen Capital Advisors at $7.5 billion.”

The Interactive Gaming Council has come out strongly in support of the North Dakota initiative, urging its members and the gambling public alike to voice their approval for legalised and regulated online poker

$9.3 million loss last year

Vegas gambling giant Harrah's Entertainment Inc. has reportedly halted operations at its UK Lucky Me.com online gambling site following losses of $9.3 million last year.

Introduced in November 2003 for British bettors the site was first suspended in October, Harrah's revealed in its annual report to shareholders this week. Spokesman David Strow said that the virtual doors of Lucky Me had been closed because it was losing money.

Lucky Me allowed players to access a wide range of games through a monthly subscription. Gamblers paid from about $17 to $84 per month for access to bingo and other games with cash prizes ranging from $8.50 to $1.7 million. The site featured a sophisticated identification process that prohibited bets from U.S. residents as well as from other countries where Internet gambling is prohibited.

Developed in partnership with Revahertz Networks, a Boston-based, privately-held software game developer that founded Gamesville, a games-for-prizes site that was sold to the Internet search engine Lycos in 1999, Harrah's had high hopes for the site.

The closure comes after Harrah's announcement in January that it would dissolve a partnership with Gala Group Ltd., to build casinos in Britain after the UK Parliament significantly restricted the number of casinos that can be built under the new gambling bill, which is now expected to allow only eight Las Vegas-style resort casinos. Going into the Gala deal, Harrah's and other U.S. operators were optimistic that more casinos would be permitted. But concerns about problem gambling and a proliferation of neighborhood casinos led to a more restrictive gambling bill than had been anticipated.

Strow said the gambling bill and legislative concerns didn't factor into the decision to abandon Lucky Me.

Poker playing for free to a massive audience

Sports channel ESPN is going into the poker business in a big way, judging by a long and unwieldy press release doing the rounds this week. The channel will be offering free online poker play through Micropower software on a site that will provide information ranging from a poker book, through wireless poker play and DVDs to a range of poker consumer products. And backing it up is an 11 week All-In Poker Challenge online tournament culminating in a free seat at the Harrah's 2005 World Series of Poker.

The multi-faceted poker initiative will reach across many divisions including ESPN.com, ESPN Wireless, ESPN Books and ESPN Enterprises, the company's brand extension and new business development arm. The new ESPN Poker Club launched this week on ESPN.com, and includes the site's new free online poker game.

The deal could shake up the industry as this effectively floats a business model that gives US-based blue chip companies the opportunity to legally capitalise on the popularity of poker and more importantly, capture a revenue stream from playmoney play.

We're told that so far the launch has been pretty smooth - after one day, ESPN is already running around 20 live ring tables and another 30 STTs. Today ESPN will link the download to the main page which means ESPN.com will be channeling some 10 million daily uniques to the game environment, soon to be followed by ESPN TV hitting the market with 'play poker at ESPN.com' running in their sportsticker - ever 15 minutes, nation-wide.

The first 11 weeks of play on ESPN.com will be exclusively devoted to the Degree All-In Poker Challenge, with the tournament winner earning a seat in the Harrah's 2005 World Series of Poker courtesy of Degree. In coming months the initiative will also launch a wireless poker game; a poker-related book from ESPN Books by syndicated poker columnist Steve Rosenbloom; DVD's of the 2004 World Series of Poker and the ESPN Original Entertainment series TILT; and a line of high-end poker-related consumer products.

Created by game developer Micropower, the on-site game allows poker aficionados of every skill level to choose from six different games: Texas Hold'Em, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Hi/Lo, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo and 5 Card Stud. After an initial software download, ESPN.com users can compete against other ESPN Poker Club players at online poker tables in single- and multi-table tournaments.

Extensive editorial content including "How To Play" information is available on each of the games offered, tips for playing winning poker, answers to frequently asked poker questions, and exclusive columns from ESPN's "Jackpot" Jay Lovinger, poker guru Phil Gordon and more.

On the tournament front, each Sunday at 2 p.m. ET for 10 weeks, ESPN.com will hold a Sunday Qualifying Tournament for the Degree All-In Poker Challenge that will include all players that qualified in the week prior. The top 50 players each Sunday will earn a seat in the Finals tournament beginning May 15 at 2 p.m. ET. The winner of the Finals tournament will earn the seat in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas in June.

Each week, players will have four ways to earn a spot into the weekly Sunday Qualifying tournament:

Late March 2005 will see the advent of Poker Hold'em Tournament. The single-player wireless game will give players an opportunity to play against up to nine computer opponents in a no-limit Hold'Em tournament. Players will not play for real money and will be able to choose from a number of different avatars, with each computer opponent having their own unique and consistent style of play, leaving it up to the player to learn to "read" their opponents. The game will be available via several major mobile service providers between its March launch and early summer.

In addition to ESPN Poker Club, ESPN's television networks will bring poker fans 38 original hours of professional poker beginning with the U.S. Poker Championships on March 24 and 26 on ESPN (six hours total), and continuing with 32 hours of exclusive coverage of the 2005 Harrah's World Series of Poker from July through November on ESPN and ESPN2.

Champion site
Poker fans have a new information resource this week following the launch of PokerTrails.com, a poker news website edited by World Champion poker player Brett Jungblut. The well presented site features news, tournament happenings and poker-related articles, all put together by an ackowledged master in the business with plenty of respected contacts.

Gentlemen, start your engines
Watch out for a familiar gambling logo on European racetracks soon. The Austrian public company BetandWin has announced that it is to partner with the exciting Red Bull Formula 1 racing team. The main focus of betandwin's sponsoring activities will be on Red Bull Racing's team of drivers, which will be going to the starting line in its first year with David Coulthard, Christian Klein and Vitantonio Liuzzi. The drivers' overalls will feature the betandwin logo, and the company will also have its sponsor logos on Austrian driver Christian Klein's headgear.

Net Entertainment parent acquires an online betting exchange
As InfoPowa went to press this week the news was coming in that Swedish public company Cherry AB, which owns the well known online gambling turnkey provider Net Entertainment has acquired the betting exchange Betsson.com. Cherry’s board decided to convert its convertible loans and call in all options in the British Internet gaming company Betsson. The transactions will mean that Cherry will obtain 100 percent ownership of the British company.

A number of convertible loans and options are included in the agreement, in which Cherry has invested a total of Euro 3.45 million to obtain control of Betsson. Euro 3.1 million has already been paid through a combination of share purchases and convertible debenture loans. The remaining Euro 0.35 million, will be paid in cash. Through the redeemed options Cherry will also acquire the remaining 29 percent of Betsson at market value, to be determined by a valuation from two independent external parties.

Cherry will be reorganising its Internet gaming operations as a consequence of the new acquisition. Shareholdings in companies that run Internet gaming operations are to be held in a new area of operations called Cherry Online. The Net Entertainment subsidiary, which is purely a development company, will be accounted for separately.

Over a million in cash and prizes in new tournament series - and a mystery luxury location for the finalists

Sportingbet group member ParadisePoker.com launched the first Paradise Masters Online Championships midweek in a six day celebration featuring a series of tournaments and events in which players compete for cash and prizes.

The highlight of the series will be a No Limit Texas Hold’Em tournament with a prize pool valued at well over $1 million on Sunday March 6. Players will fight it out exclusively online until 10 players remain. Those final 10 will be flown to a mystery luxurious location to play the remainder of the tournament face-to-face.

The buy-in for the Paradise Masters is $600. To allow everyone a chance to participate in the main event, ParadisePoker.com is offering daily qualifying tournaments where players can compete for their entry from as low as $2.

“With the continued growth in the poker industry, we want to give everyone a shot to learn and play the game,” said Bruce Stubbs, Marketing Director for ParadisePoker.com. “In addition to offering low price tables, we're offering exclusive daily free-to-enter tournaments available in the countdown to this exciting event.”

ParadisePoker.com is one of the booming poker industry's major poker rooms. Established in 1999, it was taken over last year in a record-breaking business deal by Sportingbet PLC, a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange, to form the world’s largest online betting company.

Internet gambling's Oscars set to roll

Bluff Media's Gambling Online Magazine was busy contacting portalmasters this week in order to make available to them links to this year's Readers' Choice Awards voting.

Nicknamed the 'Gambling Oscars', Gambling Online Magazine's Annual Readers Choice Awards are now widely accepted as the interactive gaming industry's most numerously voted and prestigious honours.

Its detractors don't like the voting incentives offered by certain sites, but the fact remains that the various categories are open to votes by the 250,000 readers of Gambling Online Magazine and the gambling public in general.

The awards have grown to include over 40 categories, and online gamblers have the next 8 months to make their choices known, dividing the voting into three periods separating the most popular voting categories, Casino, Sportsbook and Poker Room.

Voting will take place on the magazine's website www.GamblingOnlineMagazine.com and will be available to all visitors. At the end of each voting period, Gambling Online Magazine will announce the top 10 nominees for each category and issue each nominee with a nominee citation reflecting that site's achievement as a reader favourite. The final winners will be announced in Gambling Online Magazine's Year Book Edition.

Readers can go direct to the voting booth at http://www.gamblingonlinemagazine.com/gambling-readers-poll-form.php

Government industry and commerce offices get the word out

According to the Xinghua agency, the General Administration of Industry and Commerce (GAIC) in China has ordered its local branches to forbid overseas gambling companies from opening offices in that country.

The GAIC has urged local departments in charge of the industry and commerce to work with police and cultural departments to monitor online betting activity. Online gambling will be punished in accordance with law, the GAIC said in a strong statement.

It also ordered officials with industry and commerce departments of all levels not to gamble. Private entrepreneurs' associations at different levels should also play a role in educating private business people, it said.

The move is the latest in a series of nationwide raids and measures designed to reduce or prevent all forms of gambling, and includes draconian measures such as forfeiture of rewards from illegal practices.

Good news for Viper players
Kudos to Microgaming, which has apparently tweaked into conformity the contentious elements in the blackjack basic strategy options for their Viper autoplay. Expert players have noticed changes to Atlantic City BJ and Vegas Strip BJ, with the previous opinions and criticisms addressed. The software informs players of the changes as they log on to any changed game. And giving players the option to use the changes or keep the original strategy is an elegant solution.

Playtech games for UK major
Over 60 download and 40 Flash games form the Playtech gambling suite aboard Totesport Casino.com, a new site operated by an old, well established British gambling company. Founded in 1930 as a horseracing betting company Tote Investors Limited became a household word with UK punters and was taken over by Totesport in the 'sixties to become one of the top five British gambling groups, with 190 000 registered players and 450 retail shops. Now venturing into online casino and sportsbook gambling, the company clearly has significant cross-marketing opprtunities and should enjoy fast growth. The on line casino has all the usual elements of Support and good financial facilities through Tote Credit Limited. Totesport CEO Trevor Beaumont is optimistic about the new venture and its manager, Rebecca Spy. The site is a little disappointing and plain for a group with this sort of history and clout - one expects something more spectacular.

Royal Dutch dispute rolls on
The Royal Dutch Casino people have again offered the aggrieved player his cash...BUT subject to a 40+ wagerthru'. He has rejected it because as outlined in earlier InfoPowa bulletins he had already fulfilled all the T&Cs when he tried to make his withdrawal eight months back. He still has emails from RDC at that time which confirm his claim and make various excuses for delayed payment. There is no doubt that he is being screwed in our opinion.

RDC representatives were this week complaining about posts highlighting this casino's shortcomings and inconsistencies in this affair on the message boards, and hinted darkly that management are thinking of withdrawing their not-so-generous offer, which might indicate that their offer was deliberately structured so they could turn their backs on the player "Having offered a *fair* settlement"

The casino has also threatened to publicly post the player's gaming records. This could be interesting because they have consistently refused to give those to the player. As a counter to any possible fabrication should this be done, the player has supplied details of individual transactions to independent observers as a safety cross-check. And the player has challenged the casino to go ahead and publish.

In Costa Rica, enquiries are continuing into the LOHB Banking SA previous owners and their e-processing company.

STOP PRESS: As we went to press this week, Royal Dutch management contacted the Casinomeister, deliberately excluding the original mediator in this dispute from the communication. The casino has backed off and unconditionally agreed to pay the player the $2,700 he is due. After eight months of stress, this will be welcome news for the player but remains a serious indictment of the way this casino has conducted its business. It is an example of what can be achieved by a determined player with a legitimate claim.

Imminent Shut-downs
We're not sure if the right hand always knows what the left hand is doing at Real Time Gaming. Earlier responses from them regarding slowpay and uncommunicative Support at Winners Playground and Grand Royal online casinos made no mention of a close down, yet in reply to InfoPowa's latest enquiry we have just received the following (bear in mind that Montana is an offshore arm of RTG):

"Montana Overseas has informed us that they are initiating close-down procedures on the properties known as Winners Playground Casino, Grand Royal Casino and GiantVegas Casino. All outstanding player liabilities will be paid during the liquidation. This process will start on March 1st, 2005 and players will receive notification of their options for withdrawal."

In response to an InfoPowa email on clarity, RTG advised that Giant Vegas is under seperate ownership (believed to be part of Brian Goodman's Australian based group that recently closed down Kiss Casino) and is the subject of a seperate closedown.

This is a strange affair - only late last year WP was boasting about a new approach with a new management but the same owners, and there was a sudden spurt of overdue payments being made.

The bottom line is that WP and GR, and Giant Vegas are all closing, but players will be paid through Montana and the process has already started.

A question of charges
Poker World seems to be doing its damnedest to chase players away with a series of draconian withdrawal rules that will not sit well with poker fans. Fortunately there are not too many fans playing at this site according to reports from several players, and that is hardly surprising. In a competitive sector like online poker, these conditions are no threat to the opposition:

Pokerworld will charge the player $15 on cashout unless.....


1) Previous deposits were made through NeTeller
2) No withdrawal of any type has been made in the previous 14 days.
3) The account has been open and active for the last 30 days

Split from Connect To Casino

Players who were worried about Support glitches and rumours of a shutdown at Realtime Gaming (RTG) powered online casinos Portofino and Hampton have been assured by an RTG spokesman that the faults were temporary and the result of changes necessitated by a new ownership structure.

The spokesman told InfoPowa, "Hampton and Portofino are not closing down, but there has been a partner change. Hampton and Portofino have separated from ConnectTo Casino and changed their customer service arrangements as a result.

"Due to consequent upgrades and hosting changes last week there was some temporary downtime. Hampton and Portofino have resolved these issues and are now back to business as usual."

Robotic collusion?

Intriguing press releases from a company called Casino Robots were cropping up all over the Internet this week, punting ".....an intelligent software robot capable of consistently winning games of Texas Hold'Em Poker at popular online Poker Rooms."

Poker Robot Collusion Edition for Windows is claimed to be able automatically and simultaneously to play in up to nine of the ten seats available per game, for real money, using a strategy advocated by an unidentified nine-time World Champion of Poker. No knowledge or experience of Poker is required, the blurb claims.

"This combination of statistically sound strategy and awareness of nine of the ten hands in play inevitably results in consistent wins for the robot Poker players," the release reveals. "No knowledge or experience of Poker is required. However, if the user wishes to play in multiple seats themselves they can manually override the robot player decisions with the click of a mouse button. Users can also alter the rank of hands played, the types of table to be selected and the duration of play. The progress of each game session is displayed and updated in real-time. Poker Robot Collusion Edition also draws upon the analytical capabilities of Poker Trainer, our comprehensive Texas Hold'Em Poker odds calculator and opponent analysis tool."

Internet poker is big business, with an estimated US$180 million wagered at online Poker tables every day. Playing (or should that be 'preying') on this trend, Casino Robots claims that its software demonstrates that online Poker Rooms are unable to prevent collusion. "Whilst it may on occasion be suspected, it remains impossible to prove that collusion has occurred." the hype continues, with apparent scant regard for the evils of collusion and cheating.

This ethics-challenged provider also develops intelligent software capable of playing Blackjack, Poker and Roulette at popular online Poker Rooms and Casinos.

Initial poker player reaction has been both critical of collusion and cynical about this software.

Something tells us that it will not be long before a counter measure is active...there might even be one available right now.

Poker competition nears grand finale

The name calling has been done, sarcastic punches thrown, and the final table for six players is ready in GSM's Poker Royale: The Battle of the Sexes.

So far, the men have won every match in the series, but it all comes down to that final table where on Friday, March 4 at 9:00PM ET/PT one gender will prove once and for all who is better skilled at No Limit Texas Hold'Em. Will the men blitz the women, or can the ladies strut their stuff and walk away with the title of the stronger gender and a cash prize of $130,000?

The men took the $10,000 pot in all of the previous six episodes. Now based on their performance in those episodes, the top three point leaders for the men and women will face off for the championship. The players who earned those spots are Kathy Liebert, Evelyn Ng, Karina Jett, Antonio Esfandiari, Layne Flack and Amir Vahedi.

It has all the hallmarks of classic competitive hype. According to Liebert, "Men think women can't play poker! Well, they're going to discover that under-estimating women is a big mistake. The male ego is going to be their downfall." She continues, "These guys think women are easy to read but we women know how to deceive them and they will fall right into our web. The guys are going down."

Layne Flack says, "If poker relates to anything like it does in life, then I am sure the women will beat us down far enough to where they may pull into the lead once in a while."

Poker Royale: Battle Of The Sexes is hosted by radio personality Tom Leykis, along with co-host Kennedy, and colour commentator and poker pro, Robert Williamson III.

Harvard discussion on internet poker

The Harvard Crimson campus news reports this week that the hallowed Harvard Law School held a forum on Poker and the Law, where learned lawyers, a pro gambler, and a lobbyist discussed online gambling.

The experts gathered around a table—sans cards—to discuss everything from legal issues to card strategy in an event titled “Going All In: Poker and The Law."

Panelists focused their discussion on an issue that has caused some controversy in the legal world recently: the legality of online gambling.

Dan Walsh, a lobbyist for internet poker and casino gambling in Washington who sat on the panel, called the online poker issue a “legally gray area” that will require time before a legal consensus can be reached. “The vast majority of people think that internet gambling should be legal,” he said. “Sooner or later, I think the U.S. government will need to come around on it.”

Shaun Clark, counsel to the World Poker Tour (WPT) a high stakes poker tournament aired on television said the difficulty in locating online gambling criminals has made current laws hard to enforce. ”The guys that are running these internet sites are running them off-shore, which makes it extremely difficult to track,” he said.

Panelists also criticized rules that organisations and casinos are imposing on poker enthusiasts.

At one point, panelist Andy Bloch, a professional poker player and 1999 HLS graduate, presented a copy of a contract that he signed in order to participate in the WPT. He said he had crossed out areas on the document that he deemed illegal to protest the organisation’s constraints on participants’ rights to gamble outside of the WPT.

“The contract basically says ‘If you want to play in our tournaments…then you also have to give up all of these other rights,’” Bloch said, adding that professional poker players are making efforts to organise into a union of sorts.

But legal talk didn’t dominate the night—the congregation of expert poker players present offered their guidance to enthusiasts in the audience seeking tips.

Bloch said “aggression” was what pushed him to the finals of major poker tournaments. “Being the first one to take the step out is a very good strategy,” he said.

The event was moderated by Weld Professor of Law Charles R. Nesson (HLS Class of ’60). In his closing remarks, Nesson offered his own viewpoint on the poker debate.

“It’s so much an American thing,” Nesson said. “The idea that it’s illegal is offensive to me.”

Nesson also said that as a student at HLS in the 1960s, one former professor recommended that playing bridge was the best way to prepare for law school.

“A lot of good learning is about strategy, especially in deal-making,” said Regan A. Smith, a second-year law student. “Getting good at poker is a way to sharpen those tools.”

Adam M. Burrows, a second-year HLS student who organized the event, said the forum confirmed his hypothesis that there is a connection between the law profession and poker.

“I think it’s interesting how a lot of the players you hear about recently are lawyers,” he said. “Somehow I think there’s a tie between poker and legal professionals.”

No faceless operator here

Internet poker room owners are re-learning an old lesson, according to a report in this week's London Free Press - that it helps establish trust and a solid relationship with your customers if you are upfront about your own identity and involvement.

The article uses the host at PokerNow.com, Jane Jack to make the point. The 41-year-old Stratford born former accountant, has been running her online poker site since last September from a beach home on the tropical island of Antigua. Last year, Jack decided to quit her job as a financial controller with a Cambridge plastics company and play her hand in the booming business of online poker.

In terms of previous gaming experience, she started playing serious poker in the late 1990s in Ontario's charity casinos and has proved that she's a good poker player through an understanding of the mathematics of the game and a tendency that has been noticed by other woman players - male opponents often underestimate members of the fairer sex at the tables.

"The poker world is still seen as a man's world and when a woman sits down at the table, she's seen as a pushover," Jack laughs.

She identified the online poker field as having potential early on and lined up backing from private investors generous enough to hit all the right notes in setting up her site. Then she formed a partnership to share a client base and technology with Party Poker, the list-leading Internet poker site based in India.

The reward for diligent business research, solid investment and lots of plain hard work are now starting to materialise. Since last September, PokerNow has signed up 4,000 serious poker players and thousands more "play for fun" participants who the poker room hopes will convert to real money action.

The serious players put up money, usually by credit cards, and play poker with each other. PokerNow makes money by taking a "rake" of $1 to $3 from the winning pot.

Jack is boosting credibility by becoming the persona behind PokerNow. Her biography and photo are posted on the website. She personally answers a steadily growing daily email workload and appears at trade shows across North America. "If you go out and talk to people, they know you are for real," she said.

New service from an old BJ hand

US-based BJ expert Bruce Holway, aka Cipher to many fora posters has joined Damian Dunlap and Mark Altland's Players Union.com site as "resident blackjack expert".

In a press release this week a union spokesman says, "(Holway) brings over 24 years of gambling experience, and over 8 years of online gambling (to the site). He has created a very unique way of tracking internet blackjack trends, named of course Cipher Strands".

Holway is quoted as saying, “The more proficient a person becomes at reading trend analysis, the better their averages become while winning consistently in on-line Blackjack. It takes a lot of practice to learn how each casino puts a session of Blackjack together and believe me, as you learn to recognize the various trends, you can definitely see that there is some serious psychology involved in accurately reading a session of Blackjack.”

Holway will answer visitors' questions and offer explanations on his research material.

The union site has also launched a series of independent casino reviews, prepared by several new casino critics, bonus critics and moderators. The site content now includes a daily sports wagering column, and a columnist who concentrates on bonus reportage.

Rounding off its entertainment offerings to players, the site has announced an exclusive promotion to tie in with the March Madness timeframe this year.

Good news for Will Hill shareholders.

Reuters reported this week that William Hill shareholders are in line for a GBP 453 million payout through a return of capital, following a 22 percent rise in annual earnings.

Earnings per share for 2004 rose to 36.2 pence, the British gambling group reported. Pretax profit rose 21 percent to GBP 205.3 million, towards the bottom end of market forecasts which ranged from GBP 204 million to GBP 213.9 million. The total dividend rose 32 percent to 16.5 pence.

"Returns of capital are flavour of the month in the leisure sector and the news should be well received. However, the return of cash also demonstrates that the stock has few growth opportunities to invest in," brokerage Seymour Pierce said in a research note.

he chairman at William Hill said the Board had decided to return the GBP 453 million to shareholders as it did not feel it could use the money on suitable acquisition opportunities in the casino sector. The British government is planning to deregulate the gaming industry to make it easier for new parties, including U.S. companies, to enter the sector.

"The Gambling Bill now appears less likely to offer opportunities for expansion of the UK casino industry, and synergies between casino and betting operators, than were originally anticipated," said chairman Charles Scott.

"Consequently, the board is not inclined to commit significant capital to potential acquisitions outside of its core bookmaking and gaming businesses at the current time," he added.

Existing shareholders will get an extra 115 pence per share, either in the form of a dividend or in cash. The gambling group said that its balance sheet had been further strengthened by securing new bank facilities of GBP 1.2 billion.

Chief Executive David Harding said that despite the cash return, the company could still buy more betting shop chains.

"Our first priority would be to buy more betting shops. I think we could buy another 600," he told reporters.

William Hill shares have outperformed the benchmark FTSE 100 index by about 10 percent over the last year.

Profits soar 28 percent with good contribution from online interests

Ladbrokes, the UK bookmaker owned by the Hilton Group, unveiled record profits this week, up 28 per cent to GBP 273 million, with valuable contributions from internet gambling and virtual roulette machines.

The Hilton group also announced it was returning up to GBP 400 million to shareholders by selling as many as 18 hotels.

Profits from Ladbrokes' internet operations rose 50 percent over the year to GBP 21.3 million, and profits in its betting shops rose 24 percent to GBP 215 million. Winnings on virtual roulette machines were up 41 percent and Ladbrokes now takes GBP 584 a week from each machine.

Chris Hill, managing director of Ladbrokes, urged Parliament to push ahead with the introduction of the Gambling Bill, which he said will bring better regulation of the betting industry.

"The laws as they stand are out of date and need to be modernised," he said. The Hilton Group hopes to benefit from the Bill's casino proposals. It wants to win one of the eight new supercasino licences that the Gambling Bill will allow.

"We have put in a serious bid for Blackpool because we think we have two strong brands, Hilton and Ladbrokes, that could make the development work," he said. It is also looking at other sites for supercasinos in Birmingham and Brighton.

Pre-tax profits at the group rose 41 percent to GBP 383 million

New trading statement shows some progress - and an AIM listing?

After a long climb back to corporate health, and some tough restructuring it appears that turnkey provider World Gaming is making a solid comeback.

Releasing a trading statement in respect of its year ended December 31, 2004, the UK-based company reports that it expects earnings before interest, depreciation and extraordinary gains of between $6.0 million and $6.5 million (2003: $4.5 million) equating to basic earnings per ordinary share of between 18 and 20 cents per ordinary share for the year.

During the fourth quarter of 2004, a transaction with Sportingbet plc gave that group an interest in the WG's software for a finite period. In the fourth quarter of 2004 and for the full year to December 31, 2004, this transaction has resulted in an extraordinary one time gain expected to be in the region of $12.0 million – 12.3 million after charging associated costs, and WG expects net profit relating to the Sportingbet transaction of between $17.0 million and $18.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2004.

The result of the transaction is that WG no longer receives royalty fees from Sportingbet. However, it also no longer has the costs associated with the entire development group and is receiving hosting revenues equal to Sportingbet's usage with a 10 percent mark-up (estimated to be $2.5 million in the twelve months following the date of the transaction).

Fourth quarter royalty revenues from continuing licensees have grown approximately 28 percent when compared to the same period last year. Like-for-like operating costs after taking into account the hosting cost recovery have reduced approximately 66 percent despite one-off professional and other costs incurred in the quarter.

Basic earnings per share have been calculated on approximately 32.4 million shares. It should be noted that as a result of the transaction described above, shares previously held by Sportingbet PLC of approximately 13.5 million have no voting or economic rights all of which in aggregate can be acquired by the company for $1 at which time it has positive retained earnings to do so and have therefore been excluded.

The first quarter of 2005 has apparently been encouraging enough to meet with management's expectations and growth trends experienced in the fourth quarter of 2004 are continuing in 2005. In addition, the Company continues to make progress with the strategies outlined at its 2004 Annual General Meeting. In this regard, World Gaming will be updating shareholders over the coming weeks with progress in respect of its listing on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange.

Supreme Court rules agains online gambling franchisee

The last hope for Sports Games and Entertainment Corporation (SAGE) to hold on to its Phillipines gambling franchise ended this week when the Supreme Court "...affirmed with finality" its ruling that voided the franchise for online gambling that was given to SAGE by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

The high tribunal denied the motion for reconsideration filed by the SAGE on grounds that it did not present substantial arguments to warrant the reversal of its earlier decision.

In its earlier January 2004 decision, the high court said PAGCor acted beyond the limits of its authority when it permitted SAGE to operate sports betting and Internet gaming stations in the Phillipines.

WTO lawyer puts the spotlight on a Nevada land casino's Internet betting facility

In a fascinating study of the WTO dispute on online gambling between Antigua and the USA, the respected publication Las Vegas Review-Journal this week comments on the fact that while Internet gambling may be illegal under federal law, at least one Las Vegas casino is offering online betting to customers within Nevada's borders.

The Journal reports that Station Casinos' online wagering service came up during hearings this week on a U.S. appeal of a ruling last year by the World Trade Organisation. In March, the WTO declared that U.S. restrictions on Internet gambling are unfair trade barriers.

During hearings in Geneva, Switzerland, Stanford McCoy - a lawyer for the United States Trade Representative -- argued Internet gambling is harmful because it is "remote" gambling that is not regulated.

Mark Mendel, a lawyer representing the Caribbean nation of Antigua against the United States, criticised the "remote" gambling argument and cited Station Casinos.

"In fact, the U.S. is full of remote gambling, including telephone betting in a number of states, telephone and Internet sales of lottery tickets in a number of states, telephone and Internet betting in Nevada, interstate telephone and Internet gambling on horse racing and a number of other instances," Mendel said in an interview after the hearings.

Mendel said there was at least one other Nevada casino that offers Internet gambling.

Station Casinos spokeswoman Lesley Pittman later confirmed an Internet betting service has been available for about four years to the casino's customers who are Nevada residents. Customers are required to come to the Station sports book with documents proving they are Nevada residents older than 21. If customers meet these requirements, they are allowed to set up an account with Sports Net Connection.

"They can make bets over their computers with a maximum of $2,000 a day per player," Pittman said.

Pittman said the Internet service is a closed-loop system approved by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. She said she doesn't know whether other casinos are offering similar services.

Mendel said the three WTO judges from Australia, Egypt and Italy seemed impressed when he pointed out the Nevada example.

The U.S. Trade Representative's office declined to comment on the appeal, and a call to McCoy was not returned.

A WTO ruling on the U.S. appeal is expected by late March or early April, Mendel said.

"If we win on appeal, which I expect, the U.S. is going to resist implementation of the judgment, and we are going to have to hold their feet to the fire," Mendel said. "If it is a substantive ruling against us, then I think there will be a dramatic crackdown on Internet gambling businesses.

The Department of Justice has said a 1961 federal statute, which bans the use of telephones to place bets across state lines, also prohibits Internet gambling. But efforts in Congress to strengthen the 44-year old law or impose a blanket ban on Internet gambling have repeatedly failed.

After last year's WTO decision against U.S. restrictions on Internet gambling, the British Isle of Man began targeting customers in America, Mendel said. "It was absolutely a landmark ruling, and the appeal will be, too," he said.

But Mendel insists Antigua's case is about more than Internet gambling. Since American businesses have benefited tremendously from international trade agreements under WTO, he said, the United States can ill afford to ignore an unfavorable ruling on its appeal. "The U.S. has benefited from WTO more than any other nation," Mendel said. "The U.S. has used WTO and its dispute resolution process as a sword against other countries to gain access to foreign markets for U.S. goods and services."

This may explain why the European Union, Japan, Mexico and Taiwan are supporting Antigua's case against the United States.

And the company results seem to confirm the research findings.

Telecomm analyst group RHK revealed this week that online entertainment worldwide is expected to increase threefold in five years, driven primarily by Internet television.

Revenues from video, which includes IPTV and video on demand; music downloads, games, gambling and adult entertainment are expected to increase to $36 billion in 2009 from $12.3 billion last year. This year, online entertainment is expected to reach $15.8 billion.

IPTV, an acronym for Internet protocol TV, is expected to be the biggest driver behind the 24 percent annual growth in online entertainment, RHK analyst Josette Bonte said. "It's very embryonic right now, but it's growing at a compound annual growth rate above 100 percent," Bonte said.

The second biggest driver will be online games that involve multiple players, Bonte said. Music, on the other hand, is not expected to contribute a lot of new revenue, primarily because prices for music subscriptions are expected to drop.

"(The telephone companies) have no choice but to go into video services," Bonte said. "Their core services are being eaten up by cable operators."

IPTV, which is more widely used in Europe and Japan, distributes television programming, and other services over a broadband connection that feeds into a special set-top box. Telephone and cable companies are looking to attract customers by offering telephone, video and hi-speed data services in a package that would be less than buying the services individually. The companies could also offer wireless services as a fourth offering.

On a related theme, a bullish piece was carried by Inform ITV proposing that the runaway success of Internet poker has sparked growing interest in interactive TV gaming generally.

The story uses respected UK gambling icons like Ladbrokes, William Hill and Sportingbet to illustrate the point. Ladbrokes recently revealed that profits from its online gaming division were up 50 percent to over GBP 21 million, apparently boosted by explosive growth in online poker, which is soon expected to overtake revenue from traditional sports betting.

Meanwhile online betting and casino site Sportingbet announced record profits for the last six months, up 85 percent to GBP 26 million on a turnover of GBP 825 million, driven by an GBP 8 million profit on turnover of GBP 12.5 million in the Paradise Poker division it acquired last year. With over 800,000 registered poker players and as many games played each day, growth has exceeded expectations.

Annual results for British bookmaker William Hill, which recently launched its own TV channel, featuring interactive casino games such as roulette are also anticipated with interest.

The piece quotes The Sunday Times, which reported “...the holy grail for interactive betting groups is gambling via television”. The one page story in the business section concludes “It cannot be long before the technology develops sufficiently to allow interactive poker on television”.

The technology is not necessarily the limitation, at least in the UK, where the Sky platform is already littered with gaming and gambling opportunities.

Sixty to ninety day timeline for new mobile gaming platform development

Turnkey U.S. provider Chimera Technology has entered the mobile gaming race with an announcement that work has commenced on a mobile gambling platform and games that should be ready for licensing in two to three months.

President Ken Chua says that a thorough due diligence review was conducted which determined that it would be beneficial for Chimera to proceed with this initiative. Once the implementation process has been completed, the new gaming platform will be made available to all current and future Chimera licensees. As a result, players will be able to play these games of chance on their Internet enabled cellular phones for either real money or fun money. The mobile gaming platforms will include such favorites as black jack, baccarat, video poker, virtual horse racing, hi-lo and many other games.

Paul Skeldon, a senior analyst with Juniper Research, predicted in a recent report that mobile gambling worldwide would grow from almost nothing in 2003 to $16 billion in 2008. Skeldon also projected that U.S. gamblers will spend more than $2 billion on mobile gambling in 2008. With billions at stake, a number of gambling companies already have set up operations for wireless phones, mostly casino-style games for gamblers in Europe and Asia.

Preliminary research has indicated that the United States market is ripe for this type of gaming platform and that it will be readily accepted to make it one of the fastest growing segments in gaming in the United States.

This Derby shows who's cock of the walk...

Quirky story this week comes from the Philippine Star, which reports that the state-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) has approved the introduction of the country's first Internet-based cockfight betting system.

Branded TeleSabong, it is the latest online betting game offered by Pagcor and listed Internet gaming company Philweb Corp. and is intended ".... to maximise the revenue generating potential of PAGCOR Internet service operations, using Philweb as a technical and marketing consultant.

The newspaper reports that the online betting formats follow traditional cockfighting formats such as Singles, Parlays, and Pick the Derby Champion.

The First Annual Poker on Tour Convention could soon be coming to a (U.S.) city near you.

Poker on Tour will make its official debut in a 3-day event on March 17-19, 2005 at the Biltmore Hotel, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The official national tour will launch in May, and will cover 28 cities in four legs ending in Las Vegas.

Poker on Tour is designed to promote, educate and inform the public about the world of poker. Featured guest speakers, poker authors and poker pros will join the tour to give lectures and conduct several Q & A sessions allowing the public to interact with the pros to get the ins and outs of the game. Poker player and author of two gaming/poker books Gary Carson will be at all three events and Pody Poe is confirmed for Friday and Saturday. Dan Michalsi is scheduled as featured speaker for all three days of the event as well.

Vendors expected on the tour are online poker rooms, gaming platforms and software, poker novelty items and other promotional companies.

Inside Poker will make its debut as the newest gaming publication under the SGPN umbrella. This magazine is the official publication of the tour and will be on newsstands and in card rooms and casinos starting in May. Special discounts will be given in the premier Issue of “Inside Poker” to all vendors attending the event.

Major media coverage of this three-day event is to be heavily generated by newspaper, radio and TV. Media day is scheduled on Wednesday March 16th, from 2-5 p.m

To inquire about pricing or how to attend or become an exhibitor at the convention, contact:

Sports Gaming Players Network
Rod Myers
President/CEO
Las Vegas, Nevada
702-369-3911
info@sgpn.net

Gearing up for Amsterdam

BetFair, PartyPoker, MyBookie, Winward Casino, Clear Channel, NETeller, Empire Poker, BetGameDay, VIPsports and a whole host of other major players in the affiliate business are going to be there.

It's the 2005 Casino Affiliates Conference scheduled for April 7 - 8, 2005 at the NH Grand Krasnapolsky Hotel in Amsterdam.

Full details are here: http://www.cac2005.com/speakers-amsterdam-2005.php

Is love in the cards?

The guys at Sports911 have put up a bit of fun in the form of the website Single Casino Players.com, where gamblers can meet other gamblers to "...look for a life partner, or just someone to hang out with"

The only gamble here is who you might end up with, for registration and profile creation is all free on the well-executed interactive site. Members will also be invited to play in special 'for fun-only' online poker tournaments as the concept develops.

The blurb informs players, "When someone contacts you it costs you nothing - the only cost is when you initiate contact with someone", and then the charge is apparently "...less than a cup of coffee."

It's certainly a new idea for the online gambing community...

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa