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§ January 22nd, 2012 § Filed under Gambling § Tagged Gambling Comments Off
London: The integrity of the London 2012 Olympics could be shattered by the enormous threat of illegal gambling rings trying to fix results, Britains Olympics minister said on Sunday.
Event fixing could play a very real part at the Olympics, Hugh Robertson said, adding that he was trying to convince other governments to take the threat seriously to avoid a scandal which could scar the reputation of the Games.
We know that there are enormous illegal betting syndicates in both the Indian subcontinent and across the far east, Robertson told Sky News.
§ January 21st, 2012 § Filed under Gambling § Tagged Gambling Comments Off
2011 was by and large a good year for online gambling. We
have witnessed:
- Several gambling brands turn 10 years old, marking a decade
and change for the industry;
- Casinos expand their games selection on mobile devices,
particularly iPhones and iPads, while others have gives the fancied devices as
prizes;
- High volume gambling on the Royal Wedding and other Reality TV
shows…;
- Beach Life progressive jackpot slot has reached $6 million (and counting!);
- And many more.
Naturally, there were also unfortunate events, primarily the
Full Tilt Poker debacle following the Black Friday crackdown on online poker.
And now, as we face the New Year 2012, headlines call for a
sweep of the US and other optimistic scenarios. Here are a few that
we will all likely be happy to see in 2012:
Winnings
Someone will hit that elusive progressive jackpot! Will it
be you? Visit our site and find progressive jackpots
that are due a big payout, and other promotions as we list them daily.
New Games
Marvel slots are all the hype at Playtech casinos, so we hear. Likewise movie-based slots have made waves this year, such as The Lord of the Rings. New games will come out in 2012, and we cant wait to try
them out and review them for you. Will The Hobbit be the next big thing?
The Ultimate Payment Method
What are Moneybookers up
to in 2012, with their new Skrill
service? Is the ultimate payment solution in the making, one that you can use
for deposits and withdrawals, in your local currency, while protecting your
privacy, and throwing in a deposit bonus as well?
USA
And of course, no discussion of online gambling goes without
mentioning the United States, where online gambling might be banned, but then
again, might not be in the near future.
And a Happy New Year to Everyone!
§ January 19th, 2012 § Filed under Gambling § Tagged Gambling Comments Off
Gambling, partying and letting their hair down – Kareena Kapoor and Imran Khan will be seen doing all that in Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, one of the few films that has Las Vegas as its backdrop.
Director Shakun Batra says the place has such defined character that it is difficult for the filmmakers to accommodate it in any or every movie like other foreign locales.
§ January 11th, 2012 § Filed under Gambling § Tagged Gambling Comments Off
The UKs biggest online bookmaker, bet365, has continued to consolidate its position as one of the world’s leading online gambling businesses, after posting a £93.7 million ($145.46m) profit for the year, with wagers up by a massive 58% .
The Stoke-based companys impressive financial results came in spite of having to absorb £7.4 million in losses from its majority share in Premier League football club Stoke City.
Serial entrepreneur Peter Coates, 73, is the chairman of Stoke City, a side he acquired in 2006 from the Championship division for £5 million.
It was he who also founded Bet365, along with his accountant daughter Denise, (pictured right) in 2000. The business was then run from a portakabin with funding from Peter Coates betting shop business, with Denise subsequently developing the companys sports betting platform in March 2001.
The online gambling group has since grown to become bigger than William Hill and Ladbrokes online combined, and now boasts over 6 million customers in 200 countries across the world. Bet365 also employs more than 1,700 people and is Stokes largest private employer.
The business continues to be run as a family operation with Denise Coates and her brother John, the Joint Chief Executives, and their father Peter the Chairman.
Such has been the success of the business that Denise Coates, who owns 50.1% of the shares, has earned £37.5 million in dividends over the last three years alone, plus £4.5 million in pay and pension contributions for 2011.
Commenting on the family enterprise, Stoke born and bred Peter Coates said:
Whats nice is that Denise and John have done this themselves. I get the credit as the figurehead, but it should go to them. Weve never sought media attention and we dont seek it now, but weve a lot of people working here, and its good for them, and good for Stoke.
§ January 10th, 2012 § Filed under Gambling § Tagged Gambling Comments Off
By Stathis Kousounis
The decline in the annual turnover of Greece?s nine casinos continued for the third year in succession in 2011.
In the period from January to November 2011 the total turnover of casinos dropped by 18.5 percent from the same period in 2010, adding up to 382.2 million euros.
Last year?s drop came on top of the market?s shrinking by 17.7 percent in 2010 and 16 percent in 2009. The total number of entrance tickets dropped by 5.5 percent from 2010, to just over 2.6 million.
This development in the financial results of casinos has also had a negative impact on state revenues, as besides corporate tax, the state receives between 20 and 33 percent of casinos? turnover.
The decline is attributed to the drop in the disposable income of Greeks, to the proliferation of illegal gambling and to the uncontrolled expansion of electronic gambling.
Market experts point at the similarly negative picture in games of chance such as state lotteries, racing etc., busting the myth of people resorting to gambling in times of crisis.
Data show that the turnover of the games of chance in Greece contracted by about 20 percent in 2011, dropping to 7 billion euros from 8.5 billion in 2010. State gaming company OPAP saw its revenues contract by 17 percent in the year to September annually.
§ January 7th, 2012 § Filed under Gambling § Tagged Gambling Comments Off
By OWEN CANFIELD
An ad in the Register Citizen Friday pictured a woman in her night clothes, curlers in her hair, a cup of coffee in her hand and her laptop, where else?, on her lap. The headline said, Find your Next Job in your Jammies.
Sponsored by the newspaper, the ad promotes a web site called www.virtualcareerevent.com/Connecticut.
What popped into my head as soon as I read the ad was John J. Rowlands Church and State radio program Thursday, the day before and I said out loud, Go broke in Your Jammies, too.
Rowland spent much of his three-hour WTIC-AM talk show lambasting Gov. Dannel Malloys absurd, full-throttle backing of on-line gambling for Connecticut.
Rowland was working that day without his usual partner, Rev. Will Marotti.
Rowlands key point was this: If the measure is adopted, it wont be housewives and old people who take advantage (in this case Disadvantage) of it so much as it will be it will be addicted gamblers, people down on their luck and kids.
The scheme will make many, many new gamblers especially among the young and the poor, many of whom already stand in line to buy lottery tickets.
And what about those establishments that are already in the business? Will they not be hit hard?
Its another horrible idea from the man who has already jammed through the biggest tax increase on Connecticuts citizens in history.
I like Rowlands radio show. He doesnt get nasty with callers who insult him with such comments as youre a jailbird so let me ask you this . . . He lets them blab on (the telephone provides an effective buffer between the caller and his defenseless target) and then answers them calmly. Its no secret that he had to resign from the states highest elective office and spend more than 11 months in jail. He will bear that disgrace and that stigma forever. But I kind of like his perseverence and sense of humor. Continued…
§ January 4th, 2012 § Filed under Gambling § Tagged Gambling Comments Off
New Survey: Kentuckians Want a Say in their Gambling Future
Written by Maria T | Sunday, January 1st, 2012
According to a new survey by Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group in Kentucky, the majority of state residents are in favor of voting on expanded gambling. The survey, which was commissioned by the state’s horse racing industry, asked over 600 Kentuckians a number of questions relating to gambling. A whopping 87% said that they demanded a vote on a constitutional amendment and 64% out of the 87% said that they wanted to see an expansion of gambling in Kentucky.
Gambling proponents believe that the numbers are encouraging. “We think that we will take that information down to Frankfort and talk with decision makers,” said Brett Hale, senior VP of corporate and government relations. “And we think we have a pretty good shot at getting this done.”
The survey was partially financed by Churchill Downs and Keeneland, as well as other members of the horse industry.
According to Hale, Kentuckians are bound to gamble, despite what the law dictates, and the money they spend may as well be directed to state causes such as roads and schools.
For Kentuckians to get the issue presented as a vote, the idea needs to get the blessing of the General Assembly. However, this is easier said than done. Senator President David Williams is a staunch opponent of gambling and it won’t be an easy feat getting the General Assembly to further the matter.
The idea has also irked groups such as the Family Foundation which have threatened legal action against casinos. “Slot machines is the crack cocaine of the gambling world,” said Martin Cothran of the Family Foundation, dramatically.
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§ January 4th, 2012 § Filed under Gambling § Tagged Gambling Comments Off
The Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC) has lifted an eight-year ban on the licensing of gaming lounges for shops with 20 to 150 gaming machines, saying the state needs the cash that the licensing fees will generate.
It was a ministerial policy direction in an effort to get more revenue from the industry, said Derek Peart, executive director of BGLC.
The ban has not been lifted nationwide. It remains in place on gaming lounges for the parishes of Trelawny, St James and Hanover, which are designated as the Exclusive Geographic Area (EGA).
The EGA is the area in which integrated resort developments, such as casinos, will be introduced.
Under the BGLC Act lounges with fewer than 20 machines pay a flat tax of J$10,000 per annum, while those with 20 or more pay 10 per cent of gross profit in taxes.
Of that 10 per cent, two thirds or 6.5 per cent is paid into the Consolidated Fund, 1 per cent is allocated to the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education Fund and 2.5 per cent to the commission itself.
Missing out on revenue
But since 2003 the country has been missing out on that revenue when the PJ Patterson-led administration placed a moratorium on new licences for large lounges in order to develop stronger laws aimed at policing the sector.
Since the start of this fiscal year April 2011/12 up to October, the state collected $864.8 million from the BGLC, a shortfall of some $23.8 million from the $888.6 million they had budgeted to collect.
Similarly at the end of the last fiscal year they collected approximately $1.5 billion, $143 million less than the $1.67 billion anticipated by the government into its coffers for that period.
The reason given for imposition of the moratorium was to facilitate the introduction of airtight regulations and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that patrons were not cheated.
Since 2003 several amendments have been made to the BGLC Act, including imposition of a gross profit tax regime applied across all sectors overseen by the commission – betting, gaming and lotteries – which became effective June 2010.
There have also been changes in definitions, for example, a betting lounge is differentiated from a gaming lounge, as well as a change in the term gaming machine.
Where the equipment has more than one playing station or multi-seats, each station/seat is deemed a machine and each machine under this definition attracts a charge.
Previously the number of stations on a machine was not taken into consideration.
With this change of definition, Peart said that it brought several of the companies that were operating as betting lounges into the gaming lounge category.
Currently there are about 601 premises operating machines, of which 27 are classified as gaming lounges, 15 of which had their status upgraded with the change in the definition of a machine.
A betting lounge has less than 20 machines, while a gaming lounge has 20 or more.
While Peart did not elaborate, he said the lifting of the moratorium also came against the background of lobbying from the sector.
Representations have been made from investors and those who would want to get into it, said Peart.
The BGLC is already accepting applications for large lounges.
In November, Gassan Azan and business partner Adam Epstein announced an investment of some J$2 billion in a new chain of gaming shops branded Sizzling Slots across Kingston.
In the gaming lounge category there are big players such as Supreme Ventures, operators of the Acropolis branches and Coral Cliff in Montego Bay.
There are also others like Monte Carlo at the Terra Nova and Fletchers, a gaming lounge once located at Upper Waterloo Road in Kingston, which in July 2008 transferred its operation to Mandeville, and is now trading as Palace.
According to Peart, the gaming industry has a gross turnover of some J$25 billion to J$26 billion annually. The sectors contribution to the Jamaican economy is often under-estimated, he said.
Expenditure on gaming activity is based on discretionary income and with the recent recession like other forms of entertainment there has been a decline but still doing fairly well, said Peart.
For the fiscal year 2010/11 gross profit for the industry amounted to J$251 million, a marginal decline compared to the previous years J$259 million.
sabrina.gordon@gleanerjm.com
§ October 15th, 2011 § Filed under Gambling § Tagged Gambling Comments Off
Full Tilt Poker, a popular online gaming website that used to offer gambling to millions of players worldwide, faced license revocation by gambling control commission last week accusing the site for misleading officials about its financial operations.
Andre Wilsenach, exe director of the Alderney commission, said in a statement on their official website that Full Tilt Poker reported seized or restrained balances by US authorities as liquid funds, and have also been giving out unauthorized loans and failed to report material events for the same.
Sources reported Full Tilt saying in a press release that the license revocation makes it more difficult for them to execute any sales and repayment to their players. The company also said it is still committed to repaying players despite “the potential damage done by the commission and its disregard for our players.”
Jeff Ifrah, a lawyer based in Washington representing Full Tilt, avoided to immediately return messages seeking comments from The Associated Press. Ifrah was heard saying last week on a popular Web forum for poker players that an investor from France has signed a letter of intent showing enough funds to take over the besieged company and pay back its players. Moreover, Ifrah was found telling players on TwoPlusTwo dot com that the said deal with the investor from France would become “more difficult, if not impossible,” if Full Tilt’s license were revoked by the Commission.
US prosecutors have accused Full Tilt Poker’s website of operating as “a global Ponzi scheme” by stripping player accounts and paying the company board members $444 million. These payments included transferring funds to well-known poker players, which includes about $25 million to 2000 World Series Poker champion Chris Ferguson known as “Jesus” and a hefty $42 million to Howard Lederer known as “The Professor” in the poker community.
§ October 14th, 2011 § Filed under Gambling § Tagged Gambling Comments Off
The man threatening to bring down the government if the Prime Minister fails to act on gambling reform said yesterday pressure on the controversial issue made him feel sick.
But he said he was determined to demand punters set a limit when they were betting.
Channel Nine has confirmed following discussions involving CEO David Gyngell, managing director Jeff Browne and Nines rugby league executive producer Matt Callander on Monday there will be no editorials on gambling reform in todays broadcast.
However, a captive audience of thousands of NRL fans at the game will see big-screen advertisements featuring league legend Steve Mortimer saying the reforms are unAustralian and will hurt league.
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