ECOGRA MOVES TO REDUCE UNDERAGE AND PROBLEM ONLINE GAMBLING
26 May 2006
Second global training course scheduled in London for some 100 managers
The practical use of effective measures to promote responsible gambling at over 100 top Internet casinos and poker rooms will receive added impetus at the end of this (May) month when online standards and player protection body eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA) holds its second global training session in London, UK.
Online casino and poker room managers are concerned and committed to resolving the problems surrounding underage and problem gambling. Managers responsible for handling these issues around the world will converge on London for two days of intensive training by a team of specialists from the international Global Gambling Guidance Group (G4).
Last year a similar session was held in Cape Town, South Africa for eCOGRA sealed sites.
Andrew Beveridge, CEO of eCOGRA said that the course is part of an ongoing requirement for online casinos and poker rooms holding the "Play It Safe" seal to have trained members of staff overseeing effective responsible gaming measures.
"Because online gaming is so popular, attracting many millions of players worldwide, responsible operators know that keeping their site and their players safe is critical to their long term business goals and the overall good of the industry," he said. "We are pleased with the commitment in this area of our "Play It Safe" operators, who have now included specific responsible gaming measures, aids and advice on their sites and appointed staff to look after this critically important operational requirement."
Through lectures, homework and practical workshop sessions, attendees will learn how to identify problem gamblers using Brief Intervention Techniques (BIT) such as the Balinth method and role play exercises to learn how to intervene and deter these situations from arising. Delegates will also analyze case history material, and learn how to develop the latest front-line strategies using BIT through telephone and e-mail consultations with players. The impact of problem gambling on players' families will also be examined in detail, together with appropriate interaction at this level.
Beveridge views responsible gambling best practices as a vitally important requirement for the industry from both a compassionate and business perspective.
"Because our software supplier members and seal casinos handle the majority of the industry's revenue and player activity, we feel it is eCOGRA's obligation to ensure that responsible gaming is a top priority," said Beveridge.
"Allowing underage or problem gamblers to play is morally wrong, and could have industry wide commercial and legal consequences. Our third party audit teams pay particular attention to compliance by eCOGRA certified casinos and poker rooms and there are very few, if any online gambling venues that can match the effort and commitment our operators have invested in this area."
Goodlatte Bill goes before House Judiciary Committee on Thursday
The industry will be closely following proceedings in the U.S. House Judiciary Committee today (Thursday) as Rep Bob Goodlatte's Bill HR 4777 comes up for futher discussion and debate among the forty strong committee members.
The Bill seeks to prohibit Americans from playing and wagering at internet gambling sites and aims to hamstring financial channels used to fund Internet gambling.
The committee will be deciding how they want to report the bill to the full House of Representatives. The committee can decide to pass the Bill on to the House as it is, pass it on with agreed amendments or pass on a substitute Bill which means the committee is offering a different version to take the place of the original bill.
Media coverage has centred around a number of expert opinions that the attempt to ban the $12 billion industry from U.S. shores will again fail, as online gambling sites operate offshore and out of reach of American law.
David Carruthers, CEO of the U.S. facing gambling group BetOnSports, which is listed in London seems confident that the attempt will fail: "Are they likely to succeed? I think not." He goes on to opine that the United States is likely to become fully open and regulated within five years.
"That view is based on the pure economic reality, and the emergence of regulation across the globe," he said. "The United Kingdom and other jurisdictions are setting the pace, and you can not ban this activity. There are far too many people participating, and the U.S. tax authorities are not going to pass up this opportunity of generating revenue," he added.
Other experts said they did not expect to see a resolution in the near future."I would not be surprised if there were some compromise passed within the next two Congresses," said Harold Krent, dean of the Chicago-Kent College of Law. "But I would not expect any kind of compromise passed in the near future."
Banking represetatives have already indicated their resistance to having to police anti-online gambling financial measures. Analyst Richard Carter at London's Numis Securities said Goodlatte's bill was likely to meet resistance from the financial institutions for the same reason.
Analysts also point to the problems associated with vested interest "carve outs," for example in horse racing which will again prersent hurdles to the bill's progress. "Previous attempts to outlaw online gaming have been bedevilled by wheeling and dealing over exemptions for vested interests in other gambling sectors," Carter said in a research note.
The bill also appears to contravene a World Trade Organisation ruling that the United States should not discriminate between domestic and overseas bookmakers, and on conflict between the US "moral objection" to online gambling whilst permitting horse race betting via the Internet.
The time factor is important, too - there are relatively few congressional days in which the bill could be heard before U.S. elections in November. "We continue to view the possibility of any bills getting through both the House and the Senate during this term of Congress as very slim," said Carter.
Charles Wilson at Bridgewell Securities said that while the anti-gambling campaigners were unlikely to succeed, they had regularly caused problems for related share prices. "I don't think they can be ignored, because the noise that surrounds them is impacting the shares," he said.
Opposition to the Bill is intensifying from lobby groups of various perspectives, major companies carrying on their own campaigns and the Poker Players' Alliance that claims it represents tens of thousands of American poker players. Michael Bolcerek, the president of the Poker Players Alliance, is currently in Washington performing last minute lobbying with members of the House Judiciary Committee.
Bolcerek claims that the legislation will turn private companies into the government’s “morality police.” It would require Internet service providers to remove gambling related hyperlinks and force banks to monitor purchases and transactions to ensure that people aren’t gambling online.
According to a PPA press release: “The plan is an affront to civil liberties. If the committee passes the bill, your ability to enjoy poker online will be at serious risk.”
PPA is urging Americans to call the members of the Judiciary Committee and voice their opinion on the bill.
STOP PRESS:
As we went to press this week the news was emerging through IGN that the U.S. House Judiciary Committee approved Rep. Bob Goodlatte's HR 4777, "Internet Gambling Prohibition Act" as well as Rep. James Leach's HR 4411, "Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006."
The decision of the committee means that both bills take another step forward and will proceed to the full House of Representatives for further consideration.
Predictably, the question of allowing Internet horse racing betting came up and was debated, with an amendment introduced that clarifies that HR4777 makes no judgment about the legality of remote horse race wagering and instead leaves the issue to the Department of Justice to interpret whether or not it believes the Interstate Horseracing Act permits such wagering. Rep. Chris Cannon was mainly responsible for the amendment and revealed that he and Goodlatte had worked together to create the recent amendment to make Goodlatte's bill clearly neutral on horse racing. Cannon and Goodlatte also stated that the Department of Justice approves of the Goodlatte bill in its new amended form. The move was seen as a sidestep designed to avoid the "carve out" pitfalls that have had such a negative effect on earlier attempts to strangle online gambling.
Another amendment, proposed by Rep. Robert Wexler and intended to include all remote pari-mutuel wagering, including dog track and jai alai wagering as part of the horse racing carve-out, failed.
A follow-up amendment attempt by Wexler sought to ban all online gambling, but Goodlatte urged against the bill on the grounds that it would restrict states' rights - another contentious area in the past. Goodlatte called the amendment a "poison pill," stating that it threatened to kill the bill by removing protections that ensure legal gambling stays within the states. Wexler's second amendment was also defeated.
Goodlatte stated that that he is working with the banking industry on their problems with his legislation and will continue to do so, thus adroitly side-stepping other amendments that Rep.Robert Scott had been about to propose in regard to the obligations placed upon the banking sector.
Scott introduced an amendment that would have caused a furore among online gamblers. He sought to impose a criminal fine on anyone who places an illegal wager over the Internet, but it was defeated.
After almost an hour and a half of debate and consideration, Goodlatte's bill came to a vote before the committee in its amended form and passed 25-11. Before the committee moved on to the next order of business, Scott submitted to the record a letter from the government of Antigua that stressed concerns that Goodlatte's bill violated international trade laws established by the World Trade Organization.
Goodlatte's office distributed a press release almost immediately after the bill's passage. According to the statement:
"The Internet Gambling Prohibition Act allows states to continue to regulate gambling within their borders with tight controls to be sure that it does not extend beyond their borders or to minors. It also prohibits a gambling business from accepting certain forms of payment, including credit cards, checks, wire and Internet transfers, in illegal gambling transactions. The legislation also allows federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement officials to seek injunctions to prevent and restrain violations of this Act and obtain cooperation in the fight against illegal gambling."
Later in the afternoon the committee addressed Rep. James Leach's Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The bill passed by a voice vote in less than five minutes, with the only relevant action of note being a proposed amendment from Cannon that attempted to make the bill more consistent with the Wire Act by clarifying that wagers that violate the Wire Act should be blocked. Rep. John Conyers stated that he opposed HR 4411 and Rep. Scott stated that it, like HR 4777, does not appear to prohibit online gambling, only the offering of such services.
It is anticipated that the Judiciary and Banking Committees may work to integrate the two bills.
More background on the House Judiciary Committee mark-up hearing today of Rep Goodlatte's HR4777 Bill seeking to damage online gambling in the United States.
Three House members from Nevada -- Jon Porter (R), Shelley Berkley (D) and Jim Gibbons (R) - this week introduced legislation for an 18-month study of online gambling and whether games could be regulated and taxed, as they are in Britain. Goodlatte said in opposition that such regulation could not exist in the U.S.A. because gambling is regulated at the state, not federal, level.
The Goodlatte bill effectively would prevent state lotteries from taking their games online, due to claims that the technology does not presently exist to reliably keep gambling within a state. Fantasy sports leagues would be exempt. Goodlatte has skirted one area where he can expect difficulties by saying that his bill "is neutral" on parimutuel horse wagering (a powerful interest lobby), which has an online component that is the cause of an ongoing struggle between Congress and the Justice Department.
The legislative fight over an earlier version of Goodlatte's bill was at the center of the recent Abramoff lobbying scandal, which led to guilty pleas by Abramoff and four former associates, including three former congressional aides. Abramoff's client, a gambling services company, opposed the bill, and the lobbyist funneled $50,000 of the client's money to the wife of a key aide to former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.). The aide, Tony Rudy, pleaded guilty to charges that he conspired with Abramoff to corrupt public officials and defraud his clients. Questions about DeLay's role contributed to DeLay's decision to leave Congress.
The current Goodlatte bill is backed by religious groups such as the Southern Baptist Convention, professional sports leagues such as the NFL and online-auction giant eBay Inc. On the other side are members of Congress from casino-supported Nevada, who introduced rival legislation; casinos; an organization of small banks that says its members do not have the manpower to block all gambling transactions; and a vociferous group called the Poker Players Alliance. Civil liberties groups have also expressed concern at the possibility that interference with the freedom of the Internet through directives to ISPs could eventuate.
The Independent Community Bankers of America, a group of about 5,000 small banks that opposes Goodlatte's bill, said previous attempts got bogged down in complications and had little chance of passing. But Stephen J. Verdier, senior vice president for congressional affairs for the small bankers, said the Abramoff scandal "has raised the political saliency" of Goodlatte's bill. "It's kind of got us a little worried, frankly," he said.
Though banks have the right to examine all transactions and block them if required by law, they are in the business of making customer payments as quickly and accurately as possible, Verdier said, "not trying to decide if you're a good person or a bad person."
Inaugural Party Poker tourney generates $500 000 prize pool
What is probably the biggest poker prize in Russian gambling history was paid out this week to a 27 year old Moscow-based professional player who won the first Party Poker.com St. Petersburg Open poker tournament in Russia.
The media were describing Peter Vlasenko as Russia’s Poker Tsar after the young professional hit an $84,000 jackpot at the event, held in St. Petersburg’s Golden Garden Casino which, over an action-filled four days, generated an incredible prize pool of more than $500,000.
Although the tournament attracted a number of top international players, the final table consisted of 5 Russians and a Brit. None of the final table contestants qualified by Internet satellites.
"This is the first time I have won such a large amount of money in a single day," said the elated poker champ, who was closely chased by Mark Vronskiy, a 43-year-old poker pro from St. Petersburg at the end.
PartyPoker.com spokesman Warren Lush said: "We're delighted to be involved with an event that boasted the biggest prize in Russian poker history and congratulate Peter on his win. For the first time in a long time none of the internet qualifiers made the final table. This alone suggests that Russia could be a poker superpower in the future."
Great quarterly results and a change at the top imminent at major gambling group
Publicly listed Internet gambling group Sportingbet produced some imposing quarterly financial results and news of a change at the top this week.
The company revealed it's succession plans with the announcement that in October this year finance chief Andrew McIver would become Group Chief Executive whilst current top man Nigel Payne will move to an executive director slot with responsibility for lobbying for industry regulation in the US and Europe, and assisting Andrew McIver and the Board in researching and executing business development opportunities.
The move will coincide with the date upon which Sportingbet will announce its results for the 12 months ended 31 July 2006.
Commenting on the plans, McIver said: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead one of the largest and most exciting companies in this industry. I relish the challenge.
"I took over the role of Group Finance Director from Nigel five years ago and am delighted that I am now succeeding him again, this time as Chief Executive. Over the past five years, Nigel and I have worked closely together in laying down a long term strategy for Sportingbet and I see my principal task as continuing our focus on brand development and our core “supermarket” philosophy. This approach, through both targeted acquisitions and organic growth has proven to be a successful formula and I intend to drive the business forward on this basis.
"Over the next few years, I believe that the industry will increasingly emphasise the importance of the customer experience. Whether through website personalisation, innovative and focused product development, targeted marketing or enhanced customer service, the consumer’s experience will be an important differentiator of businesses in the sector. My aim is to ensure that Sportingbet continues to lead the way in this area."
Payne said he was pleased with the arrangements and would be delighted to continue as an Executive Director and help Sportingbet forward. "Sportingbet has a real depth of management talent that means I can now step down from the day to day responsibilities and concentrate on certain crucial areas such as regulatory development and business expansion.
"I am extremely proud to have led one of the most successful companies in the industry during its formative years, and that it has now become a significantly profitable international group."
Payne, a high profile executive and longtime advocate of regulation for online gambling has achieved an impressive track record for the group, and the latest financial results underline his success in this area.
In the three months ended April 30, 2006 the figures speak for themselves:
*Gross margin up 58 percent to GBP 84.4 million
* Operating profit up 43 percent to GBP 28.8 percent
* Profit before tax up 55 percent to GBP 21.2 million
* Cash generation from operating activities GBP 29.5 million
*Average daily Paradise Poker rake up 90 percent to GBP 575 339
* New registered customers up 86 percent to 500 000, and new real money players up 58 percent to 170 580, with an average acquisition cost of GBP 142
* Sports and gaming bets up 39 percent to GBP 149.3 million
The report showcases the interesting cross-over phenomenon between clients with carying betting and game preferences. 22551 (16.9 percent) of active U.S. sportsbook customers played poker as well, generating an average of $54 324 in rake every day, and 22685 (13.8 percent) of active U.S. poker players bet on sports and casino, generating $2.6 million.
Peter Dicks, the chairman of the group says that Payne has done a tremendous job in turning Sportingbet as a small player in an immature market into a global operator of considerable scale.
"The requirements of the business are increasingly demanding and require a broader and strengthened team. The Board is therefore pleased to announce these succession plans to create an expanded management team. We are delighted that Nigel has agreed to stay with Sportingbet to take on a role that is so important to our long term success," said.
Game Show Network's (GSN) television show "High Stakes Poker" with its innovative approach attracted a lot of praise...and viewers, last year and this has spurred the producers into taking another run at this exciting form of entertainment, starting June 5.
It is understood that the 2006 season of "High Stakes Poker" will closely follow the winning formula, with top players fighting it out in a No-Limit cash game where the minimum buy-in is around $100 000.
Reports were coming in throughout May that camera teams were busy at The Palms Casino and Resort, filming a second season of the exciting and successful show.
GSN spokesmen have revealed that the series is to be expanded from 13 to 16 weeks in the new season, with more players involved. The word is that many of the original competitors who included Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Sam Farha and Phil Hellmuth will be competing again, together with new big name attractions such as Phil "The Unabomber" Laak, Mike Matusow, Michael Mizrachi, Erick Lindgren, John Juanda, Amnon Filippi, David Grey, Minh Ly, Brad Booth, Gus Hansen and Cory Zeidman.
PLAYTECH CHAIRMAN JOINS SKILL GAMES COMPANY BOARD
26 May 2006
Withers appointed non executive director at Games Media
Games Media has announced the appointment of Roger Withers as a Non Executive Director. Withers is currently chairman of Playtech Plc, and a non executive director at payment processing provider, Fire One.
“I am delighted that Roger has agreed to join the team here at Games Media,” said Roy Howell of Games Media. “His primary brief is to broaden our international presence. Games Media has expanded its resources and sales dramatically over the last twelve months. Our shift to digital games and entertainment is gathering pace ahead of schedule and our drive for export revenue streams will accelerate with Roger’s support”.
Withers said; “This is a very vibrant and forward-thinking company and I am pleased to be joining at this stage of their development”.
Games Media is the umbrella organisation for a group of companies currently comprising of Games Multi Media, Global Games, Channel 1 Games and Voodoo Games. Each company has expertise in designing, developing and publishing compelling pay-to-play gaming and entertainment content.
Founded in April 2003 by Roy Howell and Andrew Ludlow, the company led a successful ‘buy-in management buy-out’ of AWP and Club specialist Global Games and now has business centres located in the Midlands and the South East of Britain.
LURE OF ONLINE CASINO ACTION CONTINUES TO ATTRACT U.S. LAND CASINO INTEREST
26 May 2006
AGA white paper and further land industry comment keeps the media interested
The intense mainstream press interest in U.S. land casino ambitions toward Internet gambling possibilities continued today with Reuters and other wire service reports examining the situation.
Earlier, comments by the AGA and by major U.S. land casino companies suggested a growing interest in gaining access to the growing universe of gamblers, although companies emphasised that they are not losing customers to foreign operators that offer Web wagering.
"It represents an enormous opportunity," said Alan Feldman, spokesman for U.S.-based MGM Mirage, the world's second-largest gaming operator. "And it is an opportunity that is being completely handed to foreign companies right now."
Standing in the way of this potential windfall is a 1961 federal law that forbids interstate telephone betting that the U.S. Justice Department has said also applies to the Internet, claiming that it is illegal for U.S. companies to offer online gambling.
Worldwide revenue from online gambling increased to about $12 billion last year from $3.1 billion in 2001 and is expected to hit $24.5 billion by 2010, according to estimates from Christiansen Capital Advisors. U.S. residents now make up about half of that market.
The number of Americans who placed bets on the Web doubled in 2005 to about 4 percent of the adult population, or about 8 million people, according to a survey by the American Gaming Association, an industry group that represents U.S. casinos and related companies.
"It is a new place for people to gamble," said Eugene Christiansen, a consultant with Christiansen Capital. "These are big businesses."
MGM Mirage launched an Internet gambling site branded PlayMGMMirage.com in 2001, but shut the Web site down in 2003, as it was not allowed to serve U.S. residents. "There is no business if you keep out everyone from the United States," Feldman said.
"Some of our companies would think of it as a missed opportunity," AGA Chief Executive Frank Fahrenkopf said.
"Most of our companies view Internet gambling as possibly another profit center." Companies such as MGM Mirage and Harrah's Entertainment would almost certainly start Web sites if Internet gambling were legalized in the United States, Fahrenkopf said.
Still, he added that U.S. gaming companies did not see Internet gambling as a threat to their business, as more than half of their revenue now comes from non-gaming activities that could not be replicated online.
Internet gambling may instead help expand the market in the United States. The AGA survey showed that people who wagered online were more likely to live far from casinos.
U.S. companies represented by the AGA, which until recently opposed the activity, are now calling for a Congressional study into its impact. Some foreign online gambling companies are kicking off their own campaigns, too, hoping to see online gambling legalised in the United States in the next few years.
Experts said they did not expect a definitive outcome either way in the near future, though the debate could ultimately lead to a compromise that limits access and increases regulation of online gaming.
"I would not be surprised if there were some compromise passed within the next two Congresses," said Harold Krent, dean of the Chicago-Kent College of Law.
AGA WHITE PAPER ON INTERNET GAMBLING RELEASED
26 May 2006
Average online gambling growth rate is 20 percent p.a.
Adding fuel to the U.S. media interest in the industry this week was the release of the American Gaming Association's (AGA) fourth white paper in its 10th Anniversary Research Series, providing an overview of the current online gambling market, current U.S. policies, proposed legislation and its possible impact, and suggesting that a Congressional study commission is needed to properly address the issue in the United States.
"An Analysis of Internet Gambling and its Policy Implications," is authored by David O. Stewart, an attorney at Ropes and Gray, LLP in Washington, D.C. The paper notes that while the U.S. Department of Justice and several individual state governments have long held that Internet gambling is illegal in the United States, the online gambling industry currently is thriving, due in large part to participation from U.S. bettors.
U.S. residents went online to bet more than $4 billion at off-shore, non-U.S. entities in 2005, Stewart says, and the rate of Internet gambling among U.S. residents is growing at a rate of more than 20 percent a year. Additionally, a number of foreign nations, including Great Britain, are in the process of legalising, licensing, regulating and taxing Internet gambling operators.
Stewart notes the current policy of prohibition permits a high volume of Internet gambling while imposing no regulatory policies to protect gamblers. "By driving all Internet gambling business to foreign entities," he writes, "the current regime also ensures that no jobs are created for American workers, no returns are earned by American companies, and no tax revenues are paid to American governments."
Stewart notes that recent legislative proposals to curb online gambling would take an important step in protecting U.S. customers from the potential hazards of the current illegal, offshore, unregulated online gambling market, but that the measures alone will not solve the problem. Stewart advocates the creation of a one-year Congressional study commission to evaluate the impacts of Internet gaming in the U.S., a position also recently adopted by the AGA.
Such a commission, he contends, could lead to effective Internet gambling legislation that takes into account a broad range of policy issues, including how best to protect children and problem gamblers and whether Internet gambling can be effectively legalised and regulated in the United States.
"A study commission approach could develop an effective, comprehensive legislative approach that would address the complex and often conflicting policies now in place, as well as the general confusion about the legal issues surrounding Internet gambling," he writes.
The white paper includes detailed information on the specifics of the current online gambling market, including the types of games being offered, the types of entities offering online gambling and where they are located, the payment mechanisms available for online bettors, the regulatory structures in place for online gambling, and prevailing tax rates. It explores the history of criminal and civil enforcement of Internet gambling laws at the state and national level, as well as the history of legislative proposals to curb online gambling. Finally, the paper includes a detailed look at the pros and cons of the legalisation of intra-state Internet gambling in the United States.
Each white paper in the AGA's 10th Anniversary Research Series will be authored by an individual or an organization with expert knowledge of the paper's topic and will provide either an analytical or broad-stroke examination of a different industry-related subject.
The full text of "An Analysis of Internet Gambling and its Policy Implications" is available in the 10th Anniversary Research Series" section of the AGA Web site at www.americangaming.org. Subsequent papers will be added to the site as released.
BUBBLE INSURANCE PLAN FOR NEXT WSOP MAIN EVENT
26 May 2006
Bluff Magazine and Mansion group partner up to reduce financial stress
Bluff Magazine head honcho Eric Morris has announced that his company has teamed up with Mansion Poker.net to bring Bubble Insurance back bigger and better for the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event.
In 2005, Bluff Magazine introduced Bubble Insurance at the WSOP Main Event, and had over 350 people participate by wearing a Bubble Insurance shirt. Knowing the mindset of the modern poker player better than most, Bluff imagined the last five people missing out on cashing in at the World Series of Poker. Normally these players would be nervous wrecks, but by signing up for Bluff/MansionPoker.net Bubble Insurance at www.bluffmagazine.com, they can guarantee their buy-in to next year's WSOP Main Event.
Bluff and Mansion Poker will buy players in to next year's World Series of Poker Main Event if they bust out within 5 spots of money, and the top six finishers wearing a Bubble Insurance shirt will also win a spot to face off against each other on Poker's newest stage, the Mansion Poker.net Poker Dome (see previous InfoPowa reports). A package valued at $8 000, with the winner taking home $25 000, and a shot at the million dollar first prize.
The top 6 bubble insurance finishers will join 210 other participants in the Poker Dome Challenge. They will play in one of 36 televised qualifiers. The winner of each qualifier will win $25 000, and a seat in one of the six televised semi finals. Winners of the semi-finals will receive a $50 000 cash prize and a seat at the televised final, which will be broadcast live on March 17, 2007. The final will award the winner take all million dollar prize pool.
FREE BINGO AT RIVERBELLE ONLINE CASINO
26 May 2006
Graeme Levin's BingoTek powers new game at top tier online casino
Graeme Levin's BingoTek has been selected to power free online bingo on River Belle Casino, one of the world’s largest and most respected online casinos powered by Microgaming software.
The free bingo game will be deployed as a lead generation program for the casino's online casino games, paving the way for pay-to-play bingo and upcoming slots additions that will be launched from the pay-to-play games.
River Belle plans to add these additional bingo games to its portfolio in the coming months, while its marketing agency, ForwardSlash, will be rolling out bingo games licensed from BingoTek to other online casinos.
Levin, former founder and operator of the successful gaming portal Gambling.com, is now firmly focused on the new and rapidly growing online bingo market. “We aim to propel the traditional gaming experience to a brand new level with a proposition that will please and delight novice and experienced gamers alike”, he said.
BingoTek’s first licensee, Bingodrome, has proved successful, consolidating its position as the best bingo game online by picking up one of the online bingo industry’s most prestigious awards, the coveted “Best Of Breed” award for April 2006 from BingoAwards.
More recently, BingoTek released Cyberslotz Bingo (www.cyberslotz.co.uk) in conjunction with partners RAL Interactive Limited (see previous InfoPowa reports). The UK bingo game has been met with enthusiasm from both new and existing players alike.
FOUNDERS RESIGN FROM BOARD OF PARTY GAMING
26 May 2006
Techie whiz and marketing guru step down to pursue other interests
Surprise of the week was a report in The Financial Times Tuesday that two of the Party Gaming founders have stepped down from the board with immediate effect.
Party Gaming announced that Anurag Dikshit, the company's operations director and technology guru, would step down from the board to focus on the development of new products and platforms as head of research and special projects. A spokesman for PartyGaming said: "He's the best technology brains we've got. He just revels in developing new products and platforms. All our technology is proprietary and most of it is Anurag."
Vikrant Bhargava (35) the marketing director, will also step down from the board and leave the company at the end of the year to pursue other, unspecified interests.
PartyGaming has started looking for a replacement both within and outside the company, but hopes to retain him as an adviser after he leaves.
Technical expert Anurag Dikshit and marketing specialist Vikrant Bhargava between them owned 39.6 percent of the world's largest online gambling group, and made fortunes - GBP 500 million between them - when the company listed on the London Stock Exchange last year.
Both men are in their thirties, and were involved with reclusive Party Gaming major shareholder Ruth Parasol from the early days of the company, which went on to establish itself as the world's biggest Internet poker site.
Dikshit held 31 percent, and Bhargava 8.6 percent of the stock.
Increasing pressure on politicians to consider regulation as an alternative
Major American media, including the International Herald Tribune and Bloombergs started the week with some interesting reportage suggesting that U.S. land casino companies were increasingly considering the online gambling business as a possibility.
The reports come on the heels of the American Gaming Association's recent call for a congressional committee to study online gambling rather than imposing the immediate ban that some legislators would like to see.
The reports named MGM Mirage, Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and other U.S. casino operators and said that there is increasing pressure on Congress to consider legalising online gambling. Lobbyists and spokesmen for the big brands in land gambling are quoted as saying that the best way to control the $12 billion Internet betting business, based offshore whilst drawing more than half its revenue from the U.S. - is to regulate and tax it.
"The argument the industry is making is, if it is being done offshore, why not bring it in to the U.S. so it can be regulated?" says Sen. John Ensign, a Nevada Republican who has discussed the issue with representatives of Las Vegas-based Harrah's, the world's largest casino owner. "It doesn't look like you can ban it."
The companies, which according to Federal Election Commission records have so far contributed more than $900,000 to congressional candidates in this fall's elections, are pushing lawmakers to take a first step toward legalisation by creating a federal commission to study it. Ensign and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, say the proposal has a chance of clearing the Senate this year.
Meanwhile, Republican representative Bob Goodlatte and Democrat Rick Boucher, are pursuing legislation to force U.S. financial institutions to cooperate with federal law-enforcement authorities in shutting down the flow of cash to Internet gambling sites based outside the U.S.
The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take up the measure this week, and Majority Leader John Boehner says he intends to bring it to a floor vote later this year.
Even if the measure passes the House, it would face long odds in the Senate, says Matthew Gerard, a gaming industry analyst at Investec Securities in London.
"Ultimately, we think it will be very, very difficult to get any prohibitive legislation through the Senate,'' he says.
According to AGA president Frank Fahrenkopf, U.S. casino companies are "neutral'' on the House measure, "Right now, the online gambling industry is just the wild, wild West,'' he says. "Why not take a hard look at it?''
That's what the U.S casinos are seeking with their proposal for a federal study. Fahrenkopf, a former Republican national chairman, says the study's purpose would be to determine if legalisation, regulation and taxation of online gambling would reduce the risk of fraud and abuse and increase government revenue.
Fahrenkopf is reported to have said that the "big boys'' like MGM and Harrah's want to get into the online gaming business if Congress eventually decides to legalise it.
Fahrenkopf's association projects that the online betting business will double to about $24 billion a year in global revenue by 2010, and that a study conducted recently showed that as many as 15 million American players logged on to more than 2,600 Web sites last year.
The Justice Department continues to investigate and prosecute online sportsbooks that accept funds from U.S. customers. On May 17, prosecutors in Washington announced money-laundering charges against two people, including an American, who operated an Internet betting parlor in Antigua.
In addition to making campaign contributions, the U.S. casino operators have reportedly retained some of Washington's top lobbying firms, including Patton Boggs LLP and Barbour Griffith & Rogers LLC, to promote their interest.
An ambitious $60 million poker tournament (see previous InfoPowa reports) scheduled for July 12th has been cancelled according to planners FSN and Mansion Poker.net, but a $1 million first prize alternative at the same Dome venue in Las Vegas is shaping up to be a major attraction.
Details for an upcoming TV series branded The Mansion Poker.net Poker Dome Challenge were released this week, and the first event will be screened on FSN this weekend at 11pm Sunday.
As previously announced, the studio audience will be able to see the players' hole cards, but cannot be seen or heard by the players at the table, who are enclosed in a glass 'dome', with soundproof one way mirrors that prevent them from seeing the audience. FSN is bringing back the heart monitor for this series, and commentators will include several well known poker personalities.
The format for the new show is a weekly contest in which six highly experienced qualifiers will face off in a one table tournament. The winner of that tournament picks up $25,000, and advances to the semifinal round. The six winners of the semifinal table square off in another single table tournament, with the winner of that table picking up $50,000, and moving on to the final, where he or she will play a winner take all tournament worth $1,000,000.
According to George Greenberg, FSN's Executive Vice President of Programming and Production, FSN was simply not prepared to produce both the upcoming Poker Dome series, and the $10 million buy-in event at the same time.
"When we took a step back and looked objectively at the size and scope of producing both the premiere season of the Mansionpoker.net Poker Dome Challenge series and the 2006 Mega-Event, we had to be honest with ourselves - these are two massive projects, each requiring considerable resources and manpower." Greenberg said "To produce them both simultaneously would compromise the quality of each, a concession FSN is not willing to make. Therefore, we have decided to cancel the 2006 Mega-Event and focus on delivering an explosive 43-week series that will change the way poker is televised."
Easybets infrastructure in Malaysia to handle new China facing acquisitions
Multi million dollar deals featured on Bet On Sports's landscape this week as the group moved its Asian aspirations up a gear.
The London listed company announced its acquisition of China facing sportsbooks Hooball and 777ball, effectively doubling its Asian market presence.
Wholly Internet based with a principal customer content in Guangdong and Zheziang provinces, Beijing and Shanghai, sportsbook activity largely centres on football and basketball. The business will be fully integrated into the existing Easy Bets operating structure in Malaysia to deliver enhanced management control, cost savings, improved processing channels, additional key personnel skills and product diversification across all of the groups Asian brands.
The initial purchase price of US$22 million will be satisfied on completion of the acquisition through US$10 million in cash and the issue of 3,859,089 ordinary shares of 1p each in the capital of BoS. Deferred consideration of up to US$16 million has been agreed, to be paid in cash depending on the profitability of the business in the year after completion. The maximum total purchase consideration for the business is US$38 million.
The acquisitions are in profit, a company spokesman confirmed, revealing that the historic profit before tax to 31 December 2005 was US$3.6 million. The current rate of gross handle is approximately $120 million per annum, in respect of two sportsbook brands, but including exchange betting of $8 million per annum; additionally, there is a new casino, which commenced operations in March 2006, with an initial gross handle of $5 million in that month.
During the 15 months ending 31 March 2006 the business had 28,274 sign ups, 40 percent of which were real money sign ups with deposits. Active clients between January 2005 and March 2006 remained relatively stable at approximately 6,500 a month.
Because the new acquisitions are to be integrated into the existing Easy Bets operation, the earnout period agreed with Tim Lambe, Managing Director of Easy Bets, upon acquisition of Easy Bets in May 2005, has been extended from three to five years. Adjustments have also been made to the cost base and percentage entitlement to profits above a minimum level in year 3 of the earnout which extend to years 4 and 5 such that the cap on total consideration for the Easy Bets acquisition is now US$40 million compared to the original US$32.5 million.
BoS CEO David Carruthers said: "This acquisition is not merely earnings enhancing. We see China as a “must-be-in market” and with Hooball and 777ball consolidating our Easy Bets presence, our first mover advantage is significantly increased. The diversification of revenue streams away from the US further mitigates the seasonality of activity in our US facing business.
“These brands meet our criteria of proven profitability, territorial expertise, straightforward IT integration and robust processing channels combined with effective risk management. We strongly anticipate that the benefits of integration with Easy Bets in terms of cross selling, marketing, skill sets and cost savings will rapidly become apparent. Immediately prior to a World Cup doesn’t look like the worst of times to be acquiring such a strongly soccer-centric sportsbook.”
Max Hsiun, former CEO at Hooball and now Easy Bets’ Business Development Manager commented, “I am delighted to be part of the BoS Asian plan and teaming up with a quality brand like Easy Bets with its resources and reputation can only be good for the long term future and the successful development of the Hooball business.”
SKILL GAMERS' FIRST QUARTER REVENUES UP 174 PERCENT
26 May 2006
FUNTech enjoys another impressive quarter, but overall loss due to expansion dampens investor enthusiasm
First-quarter results from skill gaming provider Toronto-based FUN Technologies show a 174 percent revenue increase from 2005, with marked success in the FUN Fantasy and FUN Skill divisions according to company statistics released last week.
With Quarter 1 revenues up at US$7.76 million, the group led by Lorne Abony was celebrating an increase of around 174 percent over Q1 for 2005. Subsidiaries FUN Fantasy revenue for the quarter was up 189 percent and FUN Skill revenue increased 154 percent from 2005 to 2006.
Despite the rise in revenues, the share price took a three quarter of a percent knock following the publication of the results, which indicated a net overall loss of US$2.26 million as the group continues to expand.
FUN’s recent acquisitions illustrate an increase in international focus, after agreements were signed between Lycos, TV2 Denmark, The Sun Online and Sky. It also acquired the assets of mobile and online multi-player game developer Octopi LLC, as well as Fantasy Sports, which provides NASCAR-related fantasy sports racing solutions.
The generally positive results were partially accounted for by the arrangement made on 10 March whereby ‘Old FUN’ became a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Media, following the latter’s 51percent purchase of FUN shares. Liberty also invested US$50 million in the company.
Recently acquired FUN Technologies’ subsidiary, WorldWinner has joined SkillJam Technologies to co-host the Worldwide Web Games (WWG). WorldWinner was formerly one of FUN’s largest competitors.
The collaboration with SkillJam for the WWG, which was formerly known as the SkillsGames World Championships sees FUN teaming up with partner sites such as AOL games and Virgin Games. The prize for the final of the WWG will be US$1million.
The third week in June this year sees some pretty heavyweight legal and regulatory briefs that will be examined by a diversity of experts.
The International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL) is presenting its semi-annual forum between 21-23 June 2006 at the Grand Union Hotel in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
This comprehensive gaming law conference will focus special attention on European - and especially Eastern European -
gaming developments as part of the IGML's commitment to public education on gaming law issues, and participants are invited to register and share their insight and information. Professional, focused and pertinent discussion of gaming law is the first priority.
It's crucial that gaming lawyers, operators, suppliers, educators and all industry associates involved in this important aspect of the business understand the issues and direction in which international jurisdictions can impact their own legislation.
The River City Group organisers promise a wealth of information, debate and collegiality at this event, which is open to members and non-members alike. More details on the River City Group website.
With late on-site registrations still pouring in this (Tuesday) morning the 8th Global Gaming Summit and Expo at the Palais des Congres in Montreal had already set a new record of upwards of 1600 delegates, with a full program stretching ahead for the next three days, and exhibitor numbers up from 92 in 2005 to 130 this year.
Sue Schneider of organisers River City group announced the figures in her introduction to the keynote speaker at the conference, the noted author and legal academic from Stanford Law School, Professor Lawrence Lessig.
A masterpiece of logic, the Professor's address covered key events in the development of the Internet since the early efforts of Tim Berners Lee in 1992 to create a privacy prioritised medium, skillfully integrating this with later developments in cookies and IP mapping, important "sovereignty" legal decisions and leading into the advanced research into personal ID developments taking place today.
In an absorbing exposition, Lessig used these milestones to illustrate the title of his address: "How Regulation Will Happen - The Leviathan Is Coming" arguing that ID-dependent regulation was probable within the next five years and explaining how Law, Custom and Norms, the Market and the Architecture of the Internet all influenced it's future development and the question of regulation in a world troubled by global terrorism and criminal or anti-social activites such as spam, virus infection and phishing.
Microsoft and others are currently developing ID options which allow the Internet user to remain generally anonymous to the world, but require that he or she register and prove certain aspects of identity for reference should the need arise.
Professor Lessig made the point that ID of this nature renders the Internet regulatable and was a trade-off of some Web freedom in return for a safer and more trouble-free environment where countries could well develop treaties regarding the manner in which their citizens were treated vis-a-vis issues that were legal in one country but not necessarily in another.
Examining the case for online gambling, the Professor made the point that it may be a mistake to base future success using the offshore argument in the US situation. Developments may make the viability of this approach questionable in the years ahead, and the industry would be well advised to recognise the growing importance of ID and start working on more proactive options more in keeping with the way in which the Internet was developing.
Net neutrality was not incompatible with an additional ID layer on the Internet, where pseudonyms could for example be used which nevertheless had traceability without too deeply infringing privacy.
A measure of the intense interest in the Professor's theories was the very active question time, followed by many delegates crowding around the academician to hear more of his views.
After a brief break for refreshments Paul Lauzon of the IPSOS Research group explained the importance of professional market research and its capabilities in an industry where product-driven marketing had tended to dominate. As the competition grows, he said, there was a need for marketing to become more consumer-driven. Valuable advice was given on when it was most appropriate to conduct various strategic and tactical forms of research project and the wide range of possibilities.
In a parallel session entitled "State of the Industry - an Overview of the Market", Warwick Bartlett of Global Betting and Gaming Consultants UK looked at statistics conveying the magnitude of the industrys growth in all sectors in recent times and gave fascinating insights into regional sectors and the pros and cons of each.
The significant potential of cross-marketing through convergence of company interests and mergers was examined, as were the dangers of a perception that the sector was volatile in a stock exchange sense.
It was important for self interest and for the industry that companies worked harder on building trust and respect with shareholders, governments and regulators, he said bemoaning the lack of an effective body that could speak authoritatively for the industry and create a better perception of transparency and professionalism.
"Investors need more information than an annual report," he said. "The industry needs to talk with one voice, and commercial rivalries need to be put aside in the interests of providing better consolidated information that creates an improved perception of the business. We need to interact with our various audiences more than we do and in such a way as to combine our strengths. "
Citing what he sees as industry negatives, Bartlett said that there was a lack of cohesion with companies fighting seperate issues; there was a lack of positive PR to combat negative perceptions of gambling; lobbying was insufficient and not well coordinated and measures were underfunded.
"We need to remember that fighting individual legal battles is not necessarily effective in changing the way things are," he said. " Laws are changed by creating a need for change among the people - the electorate, who influence the politicians who change the law.
"The online gambling genie is out of the bottle and has many positives: It is now an industry of financial consequence; it creates employment and enables the government to tax and spend; it is a widely accepted pastime and governments should not criminalise what is really ordinary behaviour - most citizens want legalisation and not prohibition."
On the Marketing front, Debbee Silverman of Gone Gambling.com chaired a diverse panel comprising Bryan Bailey of Casinomeister, Michael Caselli of iGaming Business, Dave Hallonqvist from Spotted Dog Media, Micki Oster from the Trident Group and David Wang of World Poker Tour.
With such a widely experienced group the examination of i-gaming marketing concepts attracted a large audience for the following conclusions:
In the USA marketing has become more restrictive thanks to the efforts of the Department of Justice, necessitating the use of different and smarter techniques.
Performance-based returns were nowhere near as enticing as they were in the halcyon days of online marketing.
The marketing space was now crowded, making life more difficult and more expensive for the smaller companies.
PR opportunities are not being full exploited and bear review by most companies.
Mainstream media, and especially TV had appeal but was expensive and harder to track. This was especially so when the importance of sustained activity was recognised.
In this market it was important to develop both online and offline strategies for maximum penetration. Frequent Internet users tended to mentally screen out adverts that did not interest them immediately. One interesting observation was that players recruited offline tend to develop into better investments in terms of lifetime expected value and loyalty.
Branding was critically important and had to be sustained, and customer care creating trust and reputation was a key factor for success.
Looking ahead, panelists felt that responsible gaming measures were increasingly important. In the future it would be necessary to develop more closely targeted marketing with carefully defined demographics. Cross-marketing through collaborative agreements and ventures or mergers would be a growing feature. There will be a move away from "conditional" bonusing in favour of stronger and more direct offers and loyalty rewarding tactics, perhaps even following land casino strategies.
It is likely that in the years ahead major legislative changes are possible in the USA, opening the way to very large, well established land brands entering the market with massive marketing experience, reputations and budgets thus increasing the competitive levels.
Technology developments aimed at screening out advertising on TV will call for the marketing elements to be mainly carried more subtly in the program content.
It's impossible to get around to all of the interteresting parallel sessions at GIGSE, so we'll simply mention those here. Susan Breen of Mishcon de Reya and Daniel Bruno of GMP Securities gave insights into the complexities of a subject assumning ever greater importance in online gambling - Mergers and Acquisitions.
Veteran freelance journo Fred Faust and Advantis manager Cyrus Mavalwala gave a pressure course on PR in their management oriented "Public Relations - Addressing a Neglected Need."
The efficient performance of Due Diligence from both a business and IT perspective were examined by Peter Chadha and John Barker of BDO Stay Hayward in the UK, and 32 Red's Pat Harrison, Will Griffiths of Bet On Sports and Joe Brennan from Industrial Strength gave tips on how to really get the brand out there and treat customers right with some back-to-basics advice.
After a very full program with solid information and content, delegates will be letting their hair down tonight at the opening cocktail party sponsored by those friendly and efficient Swedes at Ongame Poker Network. When that function ends at 9pm, delegates will disperse to a variety of dinner engagements as the networking machine swings into high gear - always a great advantage at GIGSE!
BINGO AND SKILL GAMES KICK OFF DAY TWO
By industry standards the numbers have a way to go, but bingo and skill gaming have plenty of potential
"Online Bingo is not your grandmother's game," said Parlay Entertainment's Andrew Branscombe as day two of the 8th Global Interactive Gaming Summit and Expo went into high gear with panels discussing bingo and skill gaming.
He was referring to the different player demographic online where women in the 25 to 45 year age group dominate an onbline bingo market worth $200 million a year that attracts 5 million players, 75 percent of them from the USA, 15 percent from the UK and the remainder in a wide range of countries with different cultures but a love for the 800 year old game.
With up to 4 000 concurrent players on his companys network, the Parlay Executive said that there was still good room for growth, and that big and well known brands like Virgin Gala and Party Gaming were making their presence felt in the sector.
Electronic bingo devices were being increasingly seen in land halls, which could be useful in preparing the transition of growing numbers of land bingo players to the online version. Big tournaments were now becoming more frequent....some paying out almost a million dollars in a significant escalation of business from earlier tourney prizes of around $1 000. And whilst lifetime player values were not at casino or poker room levels, they were improving.
"The space is not yet heavily competitive, and there has been little penetration of markets outside the UK and USA," he said, adding that up to 40 percent of sites were still free play only.
Doing a little crystal ball gazing, Brunscombe said that the versatility of the bingo module would continue, being suitable for standalone, plug-in and network applicationsd. Big, linked coss-site progressive jackpots as practised in land bingo would evolve along with better technology and some industry consolidation.
1 Gaming president Daniel Kajouie largely supported Brunscombe's assessment, saying that bingo was an ideal addition to casino sites and had solid potential. There was a strong element of the community in the games, it was exciting to play and socially acceptable.
Dermot Smurfit's Skill Games panel featured a number of very experienced executives in the sector. Smurfit, the marketing guru at Game Account in the UK led a definition of skill gaming as games where the player should feel that skill plays a real role playing and winning against others. His company had introduced Gin Rummy, Backgammon and even a form of P2P Blackjack with some early success.
Mahjong Mania panelist Ian Sherrington revealed that his company has signed a number of major provider deals for this highly popular Asian game, including Microgaming, where it was believed that Vegas Partners Lounge would probably pioneer the new addition.
Richard Sweet of Funtech said his company now had 25 million users on the books, and that efficient ranking technology was important to ensure that players were fairly matched or they would move on. Tourneys were active, and his typical demographic was a 35+ middle income American female, although demographics could shift dependent on game.
Newcomer due to launch soon in collaboration with Bet & Win was GamArena. Andrew Pelger said this mainly Scandinavian targeted venture would try to attract competitive males for its P2P gaming and that tourneys and several innovations had been part of the extensive development process.
When it came to looking ahead, Eberhard Durrschmid of the Austrian company Green Tube said that in Europe there were differing cultural and traditional game differences, so localisation was important.
The panelists were unanimous in saying that the sector needed to prove its economic viability and publicise the advantages of offering the wide range of games that were now available and essentially legal. Revenues were thought to be doubling year on year but had not yet reached the levels of other forms of online gaming. There were ongoing technology improvements to safeguard the players against hackers and robot player and these would continue to be developed to assure players of fair games.
One of the most spectacular addresses at the conference, thanks to some dynamic digital video backing was from the world's biggest TV program producer Endemol, working through subsidiary Victoria Real. Manager Brian MacSweeney used a supersized screen to full advantage to showcase how innovative use of mass-entertainment techniques can be imaginatively deployed to draw the mass market to online gambling.
This was really something different, using TV reward shows and online versions to increase excitement and participation through cross-selling and sheer entertainment.
MacSweeney's comapny has already done outstanding work with progressive companies like Ladbrokes Poker and live play betting on The Gaming Club's new sportsbook, and a new division of Victoria Real has been started to further develop this exciting new approach to getting more players. The 12 episode Ladbrokes Flash tutorial is worth seeing.
Other sessions of specialised interest on Day 2 dealt with weighty legal, taxation, sovereignty and advertising issues affecting the industry.
The Expo part of GIGSE opened late in the morning with 130 exhibitors, an increase over last year's 90. All the big names were there except, suprisingly Cryptologic-Wagerlogic.
The development teams at Microgaming are clearly still going flat out and CEO Roger Raatgever said that regular monthly multi game releases would continue, offering players the benefit of a wide choice embracing different game genres. Strengthening the central Microgaming brand, the company has brought its progressives products together under the Microgaming Progressive Network banner, and the old Prima brand now becomes Microgaming Poker Network. Good news from the Alderney jurisdiction is that the MGS software has been thoroughly tested and approved to that jurisdiction's stringent standards, making the software probably the most tested on the Internet (it is also eCOGRA-approved and continuously monitored for fairness)
Rival, the new software kid on the block with the innovative and popular interactive, or i-slots equipping four online casinos belonging to the Curacao registered The 400 Group was making a splash with human versions of its virtual story characters. The newly appointed CEO Stephen Padveen says his company is very well funded by parent Black Chip and that he is gathering a team of top quality people to ensure that Support activities are professionally run and that games development continues apace - 2 years of preparation went into the turnkey software and games. Padvbeen is in the industry for the long haul and is determined that both his company and his licensees should operate to best industry practice standards.
Playtech as usual had a large and impressive stand, and told us that their promise at the ICE show in January to deliver 3 to 4 new games every month had been kept and would continue. The company is hitting its stride after a successful London IPO and recently signed up the Hard Rock Casino.
It's perhaps a sign of the times as the industry matures, but there was a noticeable presence of anti-fraud and ID verification companies received plenty of attention from visitors as these new products were impressively demonstrated. Iovation's device-based ieSnare offers a comprehensive, flexible and scaleable product that VP Operations and founder Molly O'Hearn is clearly proud of and with good cause.
New to the gambling industry but already widely experienced in banking and other business sectors is Idology from Atlanta, Georgia. President and CEO John Dancu told us that his online checking and verification system has over 4 000 data sources including public databases, although credit bases are eschewed. With powerful cross-reference capability and the inclusion of knowledge-based question information the product is likely to be popular.
Global age and identification verifier 192 Player-ID was also attracting attention for its fast, real-time action using a wide range of independent databases internationally. Citadel Commerce is one of the firm's clients.
Getting back to the software providers, Boss Media has been busy since our last interview with them at ICE in January. The affable Marketing Head Eric Matsgard told us that the company has been working hard to develop 15 to 20 brand news Flash games to retire the older Java offerings, probably this summer. The company has signed a longterm licensing agreement for poker and casino games with Gibrlatar-based white label company St Minver, and has experienced remarkable success with its poker venture at government owned Svenske Spel Poker - in six weeks the player signups are exceeding that of Scandinavian giant Unibet. Work with the Swedish TV show BingoLotto has also progressed well. Boss is especially pleased with the reception its launch this week of a totally new interface and navigation upgrade received. Access steps have been reduced from 18 steps to 4, and the layout and graphics are outstanding. 2 new games accompanied the launch.
Boss was always complimented on its graphics, but many delegates were saying that the PKD.com poker firm has surpassed it with animated avatars, extraordinaryily sharp graphics and swooping, dynamic camera angles that bring the game to life. The large screen demonstration stopped visitors in their tracks and the site at Pok3d.com was picking up some heavy action. Owned by Codecom Limited the company is based in Limassol, Cyprus.
Gambling Federation was present and promoting it's association with the workmanlike poker software and network from Tribeca Tables. The recently released dog show slot "Best of Show" has been popular and more new games are being developed for the sumnmer months in Europe.
Orbis Openbet was pulling the crowds in with the sharp 'n scary graphics and sound effects on their slot Heaven and Hell. And therte arte new games on the way including Backgammon. Something like 26 Flash games in the casino suite will be launched shortly.
Net Entertainment, the successful Swedish provider that is now a standalone firm in the Cherry group is celebrating its 10th anniversary in the business this year, and new developments showcased in January are now operational.
Rounding off a busy day, with several important sites left to visit tomorrow, InfoPowa attended two interesting presentations over the lunch period. In Online Casino Management 101 a big crowd listened to Casinomeister's Bryan Bailey giving tips on how to handle online casino issues in a professional and ethical manner. As Bailey commented, "None of this stuff is rocket science, and yet we so often see casinos infuriating and frustrating players by not looking after the fundamentals of good customer care and plain old business common sense."
Player views were presented in a well attended and fast-moving panel discussion on the need for regulation. Chaired by Michael Hirst OBE, the panellists included Andrew Beveridge of eCOGRA, Ted Loh and poker authority and writer Roy Cooke as player representatives.
Player representatives at an online gambling conference in Montreal today called for more Internet casino and poker room operators to join regulatory initiatives in order to afford online players additional protection.
Discussing the need for more effective regulkation of online casinos and poker rooms, Loh said that trust was critically important in the online gambling space, and that several national licensing jurisdictions were failing players by not responding to complaints and failing to effectively police the activities of their licensees.
"Too often players are treated badly by an operator, and when they turn to the licensing jurisdiction for relief they are ignored," he said.
Noted poker writer and expert Roy Cooke said that better discipline and regulation at online poker sites could be good for business, as only 10 percent of American players have ventured into online poker for real money play due to personal fears and perceptions of collusion or being cheated.
Loh added that there were insufficient assurances for players that softwares were fair and operational standards were professional and maintained at a high level. This had led to the formation of standards and enforcement self-regulator eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA) which was a positive move in the right direction with excellent dispute resolution facilities, but needed more support from software providers and their licensees, and more transparency in its dispute findings.
eCOGRA CEO Andrew Beveridge pointed out that the 76 operations currently entitled to bear eCOGRA's "Play It Safe" seal were supported by three of the largest software providers in the industry, all of which had been required to pass tough probity and software evaluations.
"But it is true that the more providers and online casinos and poker rooms join us, the more comprehensive the protection for the player," he said. "The eCOGRA initiative is open to all and the industry needs to pull together to ensure effective player protection and better efficiencies. Companies can do that by engaging with eCOGRA, where our seal-holders already handle some 70 percent of the online casino business," he said.
Beveridge discussed the eCOGRA inspection and monitoring technology developed by a top tier international business services group to check and verify the fairness of software. He outlined the practical requirements for best practice casino and poker room operation enforced by his non profit organisation.
Panel chairman Michael Hirst OBE raised the question of problem and underage gambling in the online environment, and was told that on-site advice and measures, together with practical training courses for staff at "Play It Safe" venues were all part of the eCOGRA system, working in partnership with the international Global Gambling Guidance Group (G4)
GIGSE DAY THREE
The importance of entertainment, transparency and technology
The third and last day of the Global Interactive Gaming Summit and Expo in Montreal gives the opportunity to look back on a period of intense information sharing activity and reflect on the trends and developments since the last major industry conference only 5 months ago in London.
In summary, the trend is to enhancing the gaming experience and through it client retention through the use of wider entertainment techniques; the continuing critical need for solid anti-fraud and excluding underage gambling product; more player protection and the ever present dynamic advances in technology.
Each of these were examined in detail in the Day Three presentations and out on the excellent Expo floor this year.
Early morning sessions presented the latest information and product development on ID verification appropriate to combating underage gamblers and fraud threats. At least four companies at the show were presenting improved services using a wide range of international databases to achieve this goal, and today it was the turn of the UK firm 192.com, already widely experienced in other industries.
Sales Director Ian Green told delegates that his company conducted 30 million searches a year for 700 clients around the global, delivering the fast and accurate verifications that were demanded by clients, especially in the online gambling business. This helped reduce the incidence of underage gambling, fraud, chargebacks and provided reliable ID checks.
Interesting online and offline techniques, often complementing each other had been a feature of new technology and database developments which were steadily improving Internet gambling defences against the unscrupulous, but there was as yet no "silver bullet" complete solution he said.
In a related but seperate session, the problems of underage and addictive gambling received close attention from a sizeable audience listening to Robin Burgess of Responsibility in Gambling Trust, a British body trying to develop and fund treatment worldwide.
Early morning conference goers interested in how poker networks are put together were rewarded for their diligence by an excellent presentation by an executive who should know - Jeffrey Haas from the giant PokerNetwork in Sweden.
Later in the morning poker delegates were treated to two other quality poker sessions, one by poker writer and player Roy Cooke - an excellent speaker - on poker marketing to the players, and another involving serious poker players Ken Kafieh and Jimmy Corporino who emphasised the skill element in poker and talked about player preferences regarding payment (immediate if possible!) gifts, tournaments, bonuses and the online experience.
Both players underlined the element of fear of cheats which could discourage novice Internet poker players, and an interesting discussion on bots developed: conclusions - bots are not currently a serious threat but improving AI technology could change that in the years ahead.
The importance of sportsbooks as feeders of players to the game of poker was noted, as was the far better climate nowadays for top quality online tuition in the game, evidenced by the large number of young, successful players in the online poker space.
Cooke's words of wisdom were especially worth noting - player retention is critical, as is top rate player support and service. "If you lose your losers, you'll lose your business," he commented pithily."Use your statistics to keep your finger on the pulse and generate activities that your players want. Second depositors are your real "acquisitions" so look after them with honest games and solid service."
Cooke said it was important for poker to distinguish itself from the general run of gambling, thus reducing the risk of legal complications. Poker players gambled against each other, and not the house and the levels of skill were considerable.
Unfortunately, in Cooke's opinion there is too much cheating online, and this needs to be the focus of constant attention as it discouraged new players. He quoted a recent study which showed that only 10 percent of the millions of American players have ventured into online poker for real money play due to personal fears and perceptions of collusion or being cheated.
Money, fraud detection and techie IT matters dominated other sessions, but a games workshop on mobile gaming was the one most delegates attended, mainly because this promising sector has yet to deliver the big revenues expected.
Yishai Habari of Gibraltar-based 777Mobile.com delivered an expert paper well illustrated with accurate and current statistics, including one that strategic partner Probability Games already has 20 000 players on the books. Not big business, but certainly indicating the potential of the genre.
Habari pointed out that this was the time to get involved in the market as there was as yet no dominant competition, but over the next 12 to 18 months that would change. Habari suggests that phone gambling appeals to a wider audience, particularly females but that technology hurdles include keeping pace with the dynamic technology and different protocols.
Following Habari, Mfuse's commercial director Charles Palmer pointed to similar bumps in the road and showed that 95 percent of revenues were from existing sportsbook gamblers, with in-game betting peaks on Saturday afternoons and on big match days. Mfuse has an impressive client list of 18, embracing most of the big names in UK betting.
Getting new phones properly configured was at times a hassle for players, and games for cellphones were best specifically designed for this application rather than adapted from Internet versions. "Operators need to understand that mobile is very different from online," he said.
Final session of the morning before the Expo Hall again opened was a high powered panel discussion of industry leaders, now a traditional part of the GIGSE program.
Moderated by River City's Sue Schneider under the banner "I-Gaming - What Have We Done" the panel consisted of Trident group's Michele Oster, Calvin Ayre from Bodog, Lee Richardson CEO of Chartwell Technology in Europe, Intertops founder and entrepeneur Detlef Train and research guru Eugene Christiansen of CCA.
In a wide ranging and educated discussion the potential for continued significant growth in the industry was discussed, as were impediments that might cause problems such as legality issues in the USA and a lack of transparency and agreed metrics in the industry which made it more difficult for outsiders to assess viability.
The percentage of total gamblers who used the Internet was still relatively small, leaving vast room for expansion, and the rapid advances in technology would bring the opportunity for new or enhanced products and safer business.
Some debate took place around the subject of regulation as a means of achieving more respectability and delivering a better service to players.
At this point a questioner from the floor made a critical observation: as a newcomer to the industry he did not see any global umbrella organisation acting as the standards setter and unified voice of the industry, which was too fragmented to be as influential and powerful as it might be.
Citing the Direct Marketing Association as an example, the delegate pointed out that this sector had been in a similarly fragmented state, and that coming together has massively improved matters for all concerned. The idea seemed to resonate with the panel and the audience.
Internet gambling groups needed to become more sensitive to their international surroundings in addition to their focus on growth. In most world regions the arrival of offshore gaming firms had brought benefits such as financial streams, taxes and employment, but had also created problems like inflated property prices.
Ayre pointed to his Bodog Foundation and was supported by Christiansen in saying that companies in the maturing industry needed also to develop more social consciousness.
Echoing several presentations on enhancing the gambling environment with more general entertainment, there was agreement that this was a trend going forward, and Train remarked that European TV was keen to collaborate with Internet gambling companies for betting content, but everyone was constrained from moving purposely by the slow reactions of governments.
Discussing obstacles to the business, Train made a memorable comment as one of the pioneers of Internet gambling: "I have seen it all, and I have no more fears. The attempted bans, the proposals to cut off our financial channels, monopolistic government policies, competition - we are still in business, and that will continue to be the case."
The huge potential of the business was accepted, but what about the threats? The panel defined some of these:
* The US legality situation. The downside attendant on a ban being successful was obvious, but if the industry in the States was regulated there would also be more intense competition as very big, well known and well funded US companies came into the industry.
* Being an entrepreneurial, fast growing but young industry there was a lack of depth and strength in available management talent and that was being increasingly addressed by bringing in top people from other industries.
* Consolidation would continue and would generally be a good thing, creating fewer but more powerful and well run companies with more acceptable transparency and uniform business reportage.
* Regulation and more industry cohesion to present the positive was needed to better protect the player and increase social acceptance.
* Most licensing jurisdictions need to become more conscientious in overseeing the conduct of companies under their authority.
* Better marketing to grow the customer base of the industry and keep driving growth.
* Stock volatility, which needed to be addressed by educating outside financial analysts and setting uniform metrics and good track records as more companies go public.
* Monopolistic and hypocritical practices by governments and states. There was an opinion that the future would see a positive and more consistent cross border situation evolve in the European Community, and there was general respect for the practical manner in which the British government was approaching the reform of gambling law and its regulation.
One particularly strong message voiced by Michele Oster and supported by the panel was that trust was of paramount importance for the player, the public and the investor when it came to the online gambling industry. The best people to create that were the companies currently involved in the business through honest and professional conduct and respect for the customer, if necessary enforced by regulation.
On that positive note the session ended and delegates moved to the Expo Hall for the last opportunity to test drive new products.
InfoPowa visited RealTime Gaming, which as usual impressed with a very functional and informative exhibition that even included back and neck massages for stressed delegates suffering from too much *networking*!
Manager Brad Romano, who moved to RTG from the Bodog organisation some time ago walked us through developments in the five months since the ICE show in London, and clearly the developers have been busy! RTG has moved away from its old accommodation in Carpenter Drive, Atlanta to new premises more suitable for increasing levels of staff and activity. The company has formed strategic alliances with edgy young companies like Game Marketing and Dynamite Games to get the best creative input possible and Brad showcased Version 6.0 of their turnkey system, which has been in test and is being rolled out to licensees for full operations this week. In addition to admin improvements there are some vibrant new reel games, namely:
Golden Glove (an exciting baseball themed 5 reel 209 liner) which promises lots of action and excitement.
Hill Billies
Honey To The Bee
Mermaid Queen
Realm of Riches
Outta This World (an extraterrestrial offering with plenty of features)
Watch out, too for Vegas 3 Card Rummy, which has elements of both Caribbean Stud and 3 Card Poker plus bonus bets. Another new game targeted on the Asian market is 7 Stud Poker with outstanding graphics. RTG will be releasing at least another two new games this year, probably around August, and 7 new games will be added to the Flash suite, too.
Not far away on the Chartwell Technology stand commercial director Aideen Shortt introduced us to some very crisply executed soft games that have been developed since January. These included a Multi-reel branded Bonus Hi/Lo which looks like a crowd-pleaser, An amusing offering branded Card Sharks and a cutting edge version of an old bar game called Spoof which has bonus rounds and looks like a lot of fun whilst being something different.
Most of the 3 reelers in the Chartwell suite have been upgraded to 5 reel, and business is reported to be brisk.
World Gaming was present and focusing mainly on their recently acquired Sportbetting site which boasts a casino, racebook and poker, the latter powered by Boss Media.
Their 3 Card Poker game released earlier this year is proving to be a winner with the players, and the current casino games suite is to be released in Flash as well, we were told by marketing director Paul Botelho and director of product development Adam Cortiula. In-play wagering is developing well the executives teased with a promise that in September or October there would be some major
announcements...which they declined to even hint at!
GIGSE is always a good place to find the new and unique, and this year we found something special at a software company with English and Spanish connections called Gextech.
"Fantastic League" has been developed over 3 years and has an exciting range of possible applications in the betting and entertainment industry - in fact the UK's Sky Vegas Live on SkyBets TV has already woken up to the potential and has a deal.
Displayed on a large plasma screen, the quality and shading of the graphics in this game were undiminished and even enhanced - one can almost feel the ambience of a large soccer stadium.
So what's the game about? Using very advanced techniques the company has developed a way to present a complete football experience, replete with red and yellow carding, stadia on demand, different team strips and precision dynamic action. It really has to be seen to be believed.
Powered by a thoroughly tested and developed Random Number Generator, the software delivers many different versions of a football game where the outcome is unknown - the betting possibilities and excitement inherent in that are obvious.
The game really has a "big" and very immersive feel to it, and league tables and other statistical information can be brought up on screen. Being careful with copyright in these litigious branding days, the game can produce player and strip likenesses to suit a variety of nations and audiences.
Marc Chapman, who is the Gextech commercial director is confident this unique product will fly, and pointed out some of the unique features, like building up the stadium audience with SMS messages, its global appeal as "the beautfiful game" and its multi platform capability - iTV, mobile or Internet using videostreaming to websites.
The company already has a penalty shoot-out vignette available on cell phone as a minigame that is fun and entertainment in the true sense of the word.
Final closing event this evening will be the velcro racing by industry personalities designed to raise funds for problem gambling, and once again the industry has shown it has a heart with over $150 000 raised before the action even starts!
Return to Top ECOGRA 100 SEALS CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED
12 May 2006
Target for 100 "Play It Safe" casinos and poker rooms by end 2006 achievable
Hard on the heels of its announcement of 7 new poker room certifications for the "Play It Safe" seal, eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA) this week unveiled a new campaign to increase the number of online casinos and poker rooms committed to player-safe gaming.
Dubbed the "100 Seals Campaign," the goal is to maintain high standards while boosting from 76 to 100 the number of certified top-tier venues entitled to display eCOGRA’s "Play It Safe" seal.
The campaign is expected to reach additional audiences at the eighth annual Global Interactive Gaming Summit & Expo (GIGSE) 2006 in Montreal, Canada. On Wednesday May 17 at 2.30pm eCOGRA Chairman Michael Hirst will host a panel entitled, ‘Self-Regulation: Best Practices to Play It Safe.’
Panellists will include industry personalities such as Roy Cooke, Card Player Magazine, well-known players’ advocate Ted Loh, and Andrew Beveridge (CEO eCOGRA). All GIGSE attendees and media are welcome to participate.
"‘Play It Safe’ online casinos and poker rooms already handle a substantial percentage of the total global online gaming business,” said Beveridge. “We intend to extend the player protection that is built into our international standards by bringing more top-tier online gaming software providers and licensees on board before the year's end."
Right now, more than a dozen casino and poker sites are undergoing eCOGRA’s third-party inspection and monitoring process. The “Play It Safe” seal helps to attract and retain players, and tells the world that these sites regard players’ needs-- trust, honesty and fair gaming, as a priority.
Participants in the 100 Seal Campaign receive:
* Cutting edge, player-sensitive standards, together with independent inspection, monitoring, enforcement and infrastructure that is applicable worldwide.
* An independent, London-based “Fair Gaming Advocate” who helps resolve player disputes in just 48-72 hours on average.
* Professional training, services and marketing support to meet best international business practices and responsible gaming standards.
* Expertly designed measures and guidelines to curb underage and problem gambling, backed by personnel training courses.
* One-step-ahead standards to meet future challenges in poker and mobile gaming.
Beveridge extends an invitation to online gambling software providers and their licensees: "If you’re ready to meet the 21st century challenges facing the industry, we’d like to invite you to join the 100 Seals Campaign and become one of the most respected 100 online gaming sites in the world."
ENGLISH HARBOUR DOUBLING LATEST (Update)
12 May 2006
Online casino group apologises and will compensate players
The English Harbour row took a positive turn early this week when the respected Wizard of Odds, Mike Shackleford published his initial findings, and the online casino group admitted it had been at fault and offered return of monies plus a 20 percent bonus for the hassle.
Shackleford said that he has reviewed the detailed playing logs in conjunction with Odds On the software provider, which in assembling the data had also discovered certain anomalies in the double up records.
"I was able to confirm that the double-up on video poker did indeed pay out less than it should have between April 13 and May 2," wrote Shackleford. "According to English Harbor the problem was caused by a buggy software update on April 13, which was automatically corrected by a subsequent update on May 2."
The Wizard routinely reviews the EH logs for fairness on a monthly basis, he reveals. "Though players noticed the problem in April, I would not normally see the April data until mid May. This underscores the important point that my auditing service can not guarantee that players will get a mathematically fair game at every given instant. I can only attest to the fairness and return percentages in the past," he commented.
Shackleford also confirmed that although the problem seemed to have been confined to the period April 13 to May 2, he will be scrutinising earlier logs to make sure, and will be monitoring future play closely.
In apologising to the player community, English Harbour management said that the anomalies were caused by a bug in the software staging release on late on April 13 and went unnoticed. "On May 2 we had a maintenance release that during the course of our investigation seemed to have corrected the problem," the companys communication says.
"When we were alerted to the claim, we ran through several trials and also simulations. We checked randomness of the distribution of cards in the doubling game over different time periods and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary."
Based on this, the management made an "interim release" to reassure players on the fora but continued the investigation, bringing in the independent services of Shackleford, who had already been alerted to the problem.
However, in complying with Shackleford's request for player logs the staff "....noticed an issue that seemed to have spanned the later two weeks of April. We mentioned this to Michael as we continued to work with him. Through Michael's investigation, he concurred with our observations and was able help quantify the variance in the odds."
The English Harbour announcement ends with an assurance that "...we will be refunding affected players on the net loss on the doubling game plus an additional 20 percent of their net loss. Players will be receiving an email as well as a message within the casino itself shortly."
The initial reaction of players on the fora was not positive, with many players asking for more detail on the technical cause and nature of the fault, and voicing suspicion at EH's initial denial that anything was untoward. Neutral and expert industry personalities have offered to make an independent assessment of the EH debacle to set players' minds at rest.
MAJOR BRAND CONSOLIDATION AT MICROGAMING
12 May 2006
Top turnkey provider to bring Prima and Jackpot Madness into the corporate brand
Two famous online gambling brands will fade away by late summer this year, getting a shiny new look after being absorbed into the main Microgaming brand, the company announced this week.
The progressives brand Jackpot Madness and The Prima Poker Network will morph into Microgaming Poker Network and Microgaming Progressive Network with a new ‘Powered by Microgaming’ seal, which will appear on all the sites which use the company’s software.
Both the Jackpot Madness and Prima Network brands will be phased out by late summer to give players a period to adjust to the changes. Both of these websites will be integrated into a new Microgaming.com website. Monte Carlo Millions, a major Monaco-based poker tournament traditionally sponsored by the Prima Network will be dropped in favour of a number of exciting new marketing opportunities to be announced soon.
Company spokesmen say the move will serve to simplify all future communication. By focusing on one single brand, the company believes it can create greater impact in a consolidating market and that ultimately, the Microgaming logo and identity will give players added confidence in an operator’s ability to deliver fair, intuitive, entertaining play.
It looks as if Microgaming intends to keep the pressure on its competitors with regular monthly new games releases - the announcement reveals a program to release a total of 60 new games in 2006 alone. It also reaffirms the group's commitment to "...ever richer game playing experiences with constantly evolving software using cutting edge technology, together with advanced fraud control and transparency innovations."
CEO Roger Raatgever says: “We have led the industry for over a decade during which time separate brand names have served us brilliantly and helped our operators attract millions of new players to online gaming. Now we are entering a new stage of growth and we believe that by making these changes we are ready for this new era.”
Microgaming launched the first fully operational online casino over a decade ago. It was the forerunner of such industry innovations as Cash Splash, the internet’s first wide area progressive jackpot, launched in 1998. The company's 11 progressives have paid out $199 million in total. Microgaming now powers 120 casinos and has developed a choice of more than 300 casino games in eleven languages and the software to support six major currencies. With links to hundreds of developers, Microgaming powers over 40 poker rooms on its network.
The Racing Post Adds Skill Games to Online Portfolio
White label skill games network provider and developer GameAccount has been chosen by The Racing Post, a daily UK-based horse racing and sports betting newspaper, to provide skill gaming to its online readership at Racing Post.co.uk.
The newspaper's online customer base can now access over 20 multiplayer games and tournaments through the GameAccount network, joining players wagering real money from over 130 countries worldwide.
Browser-based games now playing within the GameAccount network include Sit ‘n’ Go games like Gin Rummy and Backgammon together with a selection of exciting P2P games such as Tournament Blackjack, Three-Card Poker and Solitaire variants featuring sophisticated knockout tournaments offering up to GBP 150 000 in prize money.
Ross MacEacharn, Online Business Development Manager at the Racing Post, says: "GameAccount was the right choice to serve our customer base considering their portfolio of skill games and wagering models tailored to our needs. We can now provide a serious extension to the user experience.”
GameAccount offers a single-wallet skill gaming solution together with a proven inventory of dynamic games that have been supplied to major online partners like Sportingbet, Betcorp, Paddypower, SkyBet, (BSkyB), Tiscali, FHM and Wanadoo.
The Professor teams up with iGaming Business magazine
iGaming Business magazine and Casino Affiliate Programs.com have signed a deal to publish the only dedicated gaming affiliate magazine on a quarterly basis, aimed at providing affiliates with an essential offline tool to help drive measurable results.
The as yet un-named publication will be a brand extension of the CAP website, and like iGaming Business will enjoy the highest available circulation, high quality independent editorial, together with a sleek design. Providing a comprehensive coverage of the diversity of issues facing today’s affiliates, the quarterly will focus on all areas of online marketing including analysis of the latest and emerging trends, implementation of new technologies, key business strategies, marketing tips and online advertising methods.
Complimentary copies of the magazine, due for release in September 2006, will be rolled out to 5,000 gaming and non-gaming affiliates looking to reap the financial rewards of a market which has become a significant force within Internet commerce. In addition, the magazine will be distributed at various affiliate related events including; Ad:Tech, Casino Affiliate Convention (CAC), and Webmaster World.
Advertisers in the magazine must be CAP Certified Partners, demonstrating the integrity of the magazine and allowing affiliates the assurance of reliability when choosing a program to work with.
CHINESE ONLINE GAMBLING BUSTS CONTINUE
12 May 2006
Over 350 on-line gambling cases prosecuted in 2006
Xinhua reports that Chinese police have prosecuted more than 350 online gambling cases and detained over 700 suspects so far this year, according to the Ministry of Public Security.
A ministry official said online pornography and gambling, the spread of computer viruses and hackers have become serious problems, that hinder the establishment of a healthy Internet environment.
The spokesman said that the pressure on this sort of questionable activity would continue, adding that the ministry and public security organs in some major cities have set up web sites allowing netizens to report online crimes.
The Ministry will also work together with other relevant departments to spread Internet-related legal knowledge to citizens, to enhance their awareness and establish a healthy, orderly and harmonious Internet environment.
A former director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement and respected legal figure in online gambling, Frank Catania published an article this week condemning the rush to ban online gambling in the USA.
"Every attempt to regulate activity on the Internet seemingly raises questions about the proverbial slippery slope," writes Catania.
"But if regulation of the Internet is a slippery slope, then surely an outright ban of an Internet activity constitutes falling off the cliff."
Describing the current attempts in Congress to ban as an "over-the-cliff" approach, Catania says the proposed legislation would cut off the ability of Americans to use the Internet for (almost) all forms of gambling, with the big exception those who bet on horse racing, underscoring the golden rule in politics: "With enough money and political muscle, special interests can win themselves an exemption."
In the strongly worded article, Catania writes: "We all know the Internet is revolutionising the way we obtain information, enjoy leisure time and connect with others. This prohibition attempt has little to do with the technology; it's really about some members of Congress trying to impose their own sense of morality on the Internet. The fact is that Christian conservatives pushing these bills are attempting to force their religious beliefs - that gambling is immoral - on all Americans (except those who bet on the horses)."
"It's time that Congress developed a consistent and sensible policy for Internet gambling. What the bill's supporters fail to understand is that short of completely banning the Internet or heavily censoring the Internet as China does, there will always be Internet gambling available to U.S. players. The Internet sails far beyond our boundaries or the long arm of U.S. law. More than 70 countries currently regulate Internet gambling, and sites based in these countries are accessible to U.S. players. A ban on Internet gambling just doesn't make sense," Catania avers.
Pointing out that a ban on Internet gambling would not address issues such as preventing underage gambling or offering assistance to problem gamblers, the article suggests that instead of prohibition, the US politicians should turn to regulation to deal with these problems.
"State-of-the-art technology to regulate the activity, including age verification software and existing government databases, combined with proper operating procedures and strict regulation, can prevent minors from gambling online and offer greater assistance to problem gamblers," Catania opines.
"If Internet gambling were regulated, for example, sites could cross-reference driver's license databases or voting registration lists to verify the age of players. For problem gamblers, a regulated environment provides operators with the tools to monitor online activity and be instrumental in harm minimization. And regulation of Internet gambling operations, like the regulation of the brick-and-mortar gambling industry, allows all transactions to be tracked, audited and taxed, relieving concerns over financial impropriety."
Urging Congress to adopt a fair and consistent policy of regulation, Catania says that whether the gambling entertainment is online or offline, consumers deserve diligent regulators who make sure that operators are honest, games are fair, winning players are paid promptly, problem gamblers are offered assistance or ultimately barred, and minors are prohibited from playing.
Catania concludes his op-ed piece by saying: "History has taught us that prohibition does not work. Instead, we need lawmakers to develop policies that offer consumer protections without restricting Internet access, freedom or innovation."
Frank Catania is president of the Catania Consulting Group, a New Jersey-based a consulting firm that specializes in gaming issues. He serves on the Board of online gambling standards and self-regulation body eCommerce and Online Gaming, Regulation and Assurance as one of three independent directors, and was at one time director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.
