Bookmaker BetUS.com experiences substantial growth in wagers

Online betting operator BetUS.com reported that it has seen a striking growth in wagers placed on Eastern Conference outcome. The punters reacted immediately. As the announcement of the Pacers' suspensions was released, bets increased ten-fold. Since Sunday they have taken more than 1,200 bets, ranging from $5 to $10,000, on the Heat to win the East.

So far, three of the Pacers' star performers are out for significant parts of the season. It seems gamblers have lost faith in a team that was a strong favourite to win the Eastern Conference and to advance to the NBA finals. The punters didn’t change their mind even after the NBA players' union decision to file grievances on behalf of Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson and Jermaine O'Neal.

In the wake of the suspensions, Miami has replaced Indiana as the favourite, alongside Detroit, to win the conference title and compete in the NBA Finals. BetUS.com has also posted short odds of 3 to 2 (-150) that Artest will not be a Pacer next season. Odds that he will not play in NBA next season have been placed at 8 to 1.

New Report shows financial performance of gaming industry

The results of the survey are based on a survey MECN conducted in the past few months. Over 100 investors and gambling companies provided insights into the current status of gambling investments, opportunities and challenges, and future investments.

More and more investors are beginning to realize that the gambling industry is a promising global growth industry and offers a wealth of opportunities. But gambling, in many respects, still remains one of the financial community’s best-kept secrets. The new report entitled 'Investing in the Gambling/Gaming Industry' will allow for a better understanding of the industry and its investment attractiveness.

The survey shows the stocks of top performers, such as online operator SportingBet or Wynn Casinos, rose by about 320% or 181%, respectively, in the past 12 months.


Europe seems the place to be: 7 out of the top 10 performers are European companies, and close to 60% of the investors surveyed said that the performance of their investment in the gambling industry was “above expectations”.

As Martin Oelbermann, author of the study, puts it “Now seems to be the time to lift a treasure that has long been hidden.”

Holiday Giveaway

English Harbour Casinos Group will be launching an unprecedented campaign targeted to all their first time new customers from December 1st to December 24th.

The casino company is giving away one gift prize per day to thank their first time new customers for their business. All Every Day Giveaway prizes are major electronic brands and popular items with a total worth value of $10,000.

To participate, contestants will need to make their first time purchase of $100 in casino chips at one of the English Harbour casinos: Millionaire, Silver Dollar, SuperSlots, Caribbean Gold, All Poker Casino and English Harbour Casino.

A winner will be drawn everyday and a prize will be shipped to them the next day.

The company are giving away MP3 Players, Mini Portable DVD Players, Digital Cameras and more.

Additionally, new players will be able to receive a 100% welcome bonus and participate in other promotions such as the “Daily Double” where 3 new customers are randomly chosen every day to receive additional bonus offers.

Celebs to compete in Euro poker championship

Ben Affleck and British singer Robbie Williams are going head-to-head in a star-studded $1.3m poker competition.

Celebrity poker players from around the world will go to Monte Carlo next March to scoop the big money jackpot in a competition which has been described as the European version of the World Poker Series.

The Daredevil actor and Angels singer are first to sign for the big game, but The Bourne Identity star Matt Damon and Moulin Rouge! beauty Nicole Kidman are also tipped to take part.

The stars will join other famous names from the world of sport, music and film and seasoned poker professionals and amateurs.

Heartthrob Affleck is a strong contender after scooping a $360,000 (€271,560) prize by winning the California State Poker Championship in June.

Russian advertising restriction

The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, has passed a draft bill on restricting the advertising of casinos and gambling.

If the draft bill becomes law, it will prohibit advertising of casinos, numerous slot machine parlors, and other types of gambling on TV between 7 am and 10 pm.

Ads won’t be allowed to portray gambling and casinos as a way to gain social standing or a measure of personal success. Nor should ads discredit people who choose not to visit casinos or gamble. Adverts will not be allowed to target the young, so people used in the advets have to be older than 35.

The Duma committee chairman on economic policy explained the parliament’s restrictive policy follows the lead of other countries limiting access to gambling.

While the State Duma of Russia has so far reacted positively to the bill, the Cabinet of Ministers has opposed the law.

Go to Vegas for a Buck with sportingbetUSA

For a $1 buy-in, poker players can be on their way to Las Vegas on an expense paid junket for two, courtesy of sportingbetUSA. Every night from now until December 19, SportingBetUSA.com is celebrating the launch of its new online poker room by hosting their exclusive Vegas for a Buck satellite tournaments.

The nightly satellite tournaments run through December 18, 2004 at www.sportingbetUSA.com at 10 PM EST. Winners will advance to the final event held on the 19th of December at 10 PM (EST). In addition to the grand prize package, runners-up will be awarded cash prizes.

The Grand Prize winner will spend their expense paid weekend gambling with a friend at the at the fabulous Rio Hotel, the new home of the World Series of Poker, with a $1,000 cash courtesy of sportingbetUSA. Besides three nights in a suite at the Rio, the prize package includes flights for two from anywhere within the continental United States.

sportingbetUSA’s poker room expands the company’s online offering to include America’s favorite past-time: Poker! But more than satisfying the appetite of poker fans worldwide, their new poker room makes sportingbetUSA.com one of the largest and most comprehensive betting, gambling and Poker sites online. From a single account, players have instantaneous access to sports betting, casino gambling and a high-tech online poker room.

Vegas for a Buck satellite tournaments run on www.sportingbetUSA.com, www.aces.com, and www.playersonly.com until December 18th, 2004.

Casino City Raises the Stakes in Free Speech Lawsuit

Online gambling website Casino City has filed a 28-page Memorandum of Law in response to the Department of Justice’s recent Motion of Dismissal. The memorandum seeks to explain why the company’s lawsuit, which it filed in August to establish its First Amendment right to advertise online casinos and sportsbooks, cannot be dismissed.

The memorandum states, 'The DOJ in a well orchestrated plan unabashedly set out to stifle the free speech of an entire sector of the advertising industry contrary to the U.S. Constitution. Now, faced with a challenge to its conduct, the DOJ is asking this court to effectively immunize it from judicial review.

“To protect itself from the harm of self-censorship, or worse yet, prosecution, Casino City seeks pre-enforcement declaratory relief from this Court ... the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal circuit courts, recognizing the severity of content-based prohibitions that inhibit or chill expression, have ... created a body of law that clearly allows for and recognizes First Amendment pre-enforcement challenges.'

Michael Corfman, President of Casino City said, 'The arguments presented by the DOJ in their motion to dismiss were seriously flawed. We anticipate a prompt decision by the district court upholding our right to bring this lawsuit against the Department of Justice.'

The full text of the memorandum is available at http://Online.CasinoCity.com/firstamendment/

Bush plans hit another gambling group

Betonsports recently became the third company to be floated on the stock market to suffer a major share price slump since the US government crackdown on gambling.

The company had issued a major profit warning that triggered a 51 per cent slump in the share price. Floated at 140p, I then slumped quickly to 79p.

Betonsports said the Bush plans had caused radio stations to cancel about $110 million worth of advertising campaigns during the football season.

Betonsports also suffered a major loss of $3m on NFL games as 12 out of 14 matches went against the book.

Saturday Night Live Star to Host Poker Show

Kevin Nealon, the longest running cast member of Saturday Night Live as agreed to host GSN’s up and coming poker TV show Poker Royale: the WPPA Championship, premiering Tuesday, December 9 at 9.00pm ET/PT. Nealon will commentate in his own inimitable way on the action as amateurs and pro players do battle for the chance to split $10 million dollars with a GSN viewer in the $10 Million Poker Sweepstakes.

The championship, filmed at the Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, includes star players such as Carlos Mortensen, Kathy Liebert and Paul Wolfe.

GSN is currently the only U.S. television network dedicated to game-related programming and interactive game playing featuring game shows, reality series, documentaries and casino games. It is distributed through all major US cable systems and satellite providers and reaches 57 million homes.

New Jackpot at Mapau Bingo

Mapau Bingo has just launched a new and increased jackpot on its online bingo game.

In addition they offer players up to 110 per cent on their first deposit via certain purchasing methods.

The company also offers Virtual scratch cards, Poker and slots all while punters play Bingo.

Other features include the ability to buy bingo cards in advance, come off line, and when you next log on, the site will work out if you won any money on games played whilst you were out.

Vegas casino tries for more funds

Las Vegas Sands, owners of The Venetian casino, has increased its initial public share offering to more than $500 million.

Funds that were originally at $350 million in September are expected to be used to build the new Palazzo casino, which is under construction and is scheduled to open in 2007 next to The Venetian, as well as expanding the company's presence in Macau. Las Vegas Sands has also announced agreements to build casinos in the United Kingdom.

According to the filing, Las Vegas Sands plans to offer 23.8 million shares at an estimated price range of $20 to $22 per share, with a payout of $524 million.

A spokesman for Las Vegas Sands said: 'The concentration of luxury and themed casino-hotels and resorts is expected to continue encouraging visitor interest in Las Vegas as a business event and vacation destination and, as a result, increase overall demand for hotel rooms, gaming and entertainment.'

The 3,000-room Venetian casino was opened on the Strip in 1999 on the site of the demolished Sands. With travel to Las Vegas surging, Las Vegas Sands opened a $275 million hotel tower expansion to The Venetian last year.

Las Vegas Sands revenue in the third quarter rose 88 percent to $343.6 million.

Casino profits still rising

Casino profits in mid-west USA have risen again after a drop immediately after the summer months. Gamblers poured $101.9 million into the combined coffers of Northwest Indiana's five riverboat casinos in October, outpacing August and September but not coming close to July's record of $112 million in revenues.

The area is experiencing a steady increase, with Indiana's share of the gambling market growing by four percent, while neighboring Illinois has seen its share swelling by 13 percent, despite the end of a state-imposed tax scale, set to expire in June, which has proved unfavourable to the gambling industry.

'It's nice to see the Northwest able to continue to grow,' Horseshoe Casino manager Rick Mazer said. Although revenue dipped at the Horseshoe to $30.5 million in October from $32.8 million in September, Mazer insists this was to the benefit of gamblers.

'We have been very generous to our customers,' Mazer said. 'Our whole percentage is down, but our volume indicators are in good shape.'

Betfair and IbetX Vie for Sporting Options Punters

Following Betfair’s proposal of a rescue package for former customers of stricken betting exchange, Sporting Options, IbetX.com has countered with a deal of their own, designed to attract punters left out of pocket by the company’s collapse. IBetX has announced that all Sporting Options customers opening an IBetX account will receive £1,500 in credit or 25% of their outstanding balance, whichever is the lowest.

Last week Betfair said that they intended to compensate around 5000 of Sporting Options 5300 clients in an effort to restore public faith in the security of the betting exchange model. 'Our rescue package reflects Betfair's commitment to the betting exchange punter and to the nascent betting exchange industry. It is a testament to Betfair's financial strength that we are in a position to be able to do this,' said Stephen Hill, Betfair CEO.

'Protecting customers' funds should be a condition of a bookmaker's licence and further, the new Gambling Commission should have the power to conduct spot-check audits of online and bricks and mortar bookmakers to ensure that this is the case,' he added.

At the weekend it emerged that Sporting Options biggest creditor was one of the company’s founders, Kevin Griffiths, who is owed over £1 million. He is understood to have injected 80,000 into the troubled betting exchange just weeks before administrators were called in to close it down.

CelebPoker to Host Star-Studded Tournament by the Sea

Celebrity poker site CelebPoker.com is to host a star studded poker tournament in Southend on England’s South Coast. The UK celebs lined up for the Turbo No Limit Tourney include from the world of soccer, Paul Ince, Kenny Miller, Teddy Sheringham, Matthew Etherington, Simon Davies, plus Scott Robinson, Chris Brooks, everyone’s favourite rogue trader, Nick Leeson, and many more.

The £1000 + 50 buy-in tournament, to be held at the Rendezvous casino this Sunday 28th November, is being thrown celebrate the launch of celebpoker.com’s new software. The cutting-edge new package allows poker fans to play their favourite celebrities at games such as limit, no limit, pot limit poker, and multi table tournaments, with up to 10,000 players online at any one time and tournaments every hour of every day. It is also one of the few sites that enables Mac users to play, as well as Windows and UNIX.

“Our new software offers fantastic graphics with quick game play to ensure that the action and efficiency of our games is the best on the Internet, said David Donovan, CEO of CelebPoker. ”Key differences over other software is that players have the choice of downloading the software or playing our non-downloadable version which allows people to play at the office, at an internet café, in fact anywhere that has an internet connection.”

Gamsure responds to Sporting Options demise

GamSure, first ever bond guarantee provider for the online gaming industry, said today that the Sporting Options fiasco and the loss of its customers' money, could have been avoided if they had a player’s bond scheme in place. GamSure says that the demise of the betting exchange should act as a sharp warning to the industry about the need to ensure a guarantee for the financial liability of both gambling operators and individual players.

GamSure has been working closely with Government jurisdictions, banks, insurance brokers and bank processors to implement an industry-wide bond scheme which does just that. The bond scheme involves gaming and gambling operators taking on a small cost per user. Then, in the event of bankruptcy or license withdrawal, for example, GamSure would take on the responsibility for the operation.

Gareth Wong, GamSure’s founder today said “The unfortunate demise of Sporting Options just goes to demonstrate that further measures need to be implemented now to enable the developing international remote gaming industry to stand on its own feet. GamSure’s pioneering bond scheme is a necessity to bring transparency, trust and confidence to the industry and to also provide a proxy that consumers can understand.”

Rob Hartnett, Managing Director of BETDAQ who has already secured a $10M bond to act as extra protection of client funds, said “We have always operated with the security of a bond, despite the fact that client funds are held in a separate company anyway. It proves our commitment to player confidence. We believe that financial security is paramount in the growing area of remote gaming.”

New York to get new casinos

The State of New York will get two new Native American casinos, after Empire Resorts, Inc. announced ambitious plans to develop in the Catskills area yesterday.

An agreement between the Cayuga Nation and the State of New York secured land title claims dating back to 1700, allowing the parties to enter into a class III gaming contract, to last 18 years.

Empire executive Robert Berman welcomed the agreement: “These historic events have provided Empire with the unique opportunity to partner with these tribes to develop two Native American casinos just 90 miles from New York City.”

The contract permits the operation of slot machines but not video lottery gaming devices, and gives the Cayuga Nation and other approved Indian tribes exclusive rights to much of the New York state area, in return for 25 per cent of the net revenue surrendered to New York State.

Empire President Morad Tahbaz said they hoped to have both projects open by the end of 2006.

Mickey mayhem

Mickey’s casino club has just released its new promotion onto the gaming world. In a bid to attract new players, the casino is offering $15 or euros to anyone who downloads games from its site.

The online casino is also offering an additional bonus of 50 per cent on a players first deposit of up to $400, so the player will have half again to play with.

Mickey McLennan, Marketing Director of Mickey’s Club Casino said, “Every effort was made to give the new online gaming software an authentic Las Vegas feel.”

The Casino can be played in 15 different languages including Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Greek, Arabic and Japanese and is an approved Gambling Federation member casino.

Click2Pay’s expansion into China.

The German based company Click2Pay GmbH has expanded its services in to China and Hong Kong. Online gamblers in both Hong Kong and mainland China will finally be able to pay by direct debit through the service as soon as it is up and running, which is expected to be in operation as early as December.

Click2Pay is the first alternative payment solution that has offered this amount of usability, and was developed by Wire Card AG. The next expansion for Clck2Pay will hopefully see them into Ireland, Belgium, Hungary and even turkey in the near future.

Chartwell Technology releases new financial reports

Chartwell Technology has re-released its financial statements from 2001 to 2003 after the company changed its revenue recognition policy.

The policy change has not affected the outcome of the financial statements, although it has affected the timing of the set-up fee revenue and the allocation of revenue to reporting periods. It does not affect cumulative revenue or gross margins from software licensing contracts which from 92 per cent of the company’s revenue.

The change in policy will not impact cash flow or future business plans that Chartwell has.

The financial Statements can be seen on SEDAR.

Russian Tennis player retires to play poker

Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the Russian tennis champion has retired and is now earning his cash as a professional poker player.

He is going about it in much the same way as he pursued his tennis career- with a certain amount of aggression. He has hired poker buff Kiril Gerasimov, Professional Poker’s Rookie of the Year 2002, to coach him in the ways of playing poker.

Five years ago he was the top male tennis player on the planet, with an Olympic gold medal from Sydney under his belt as well as two grand slam titles, but now he is competing in 888.com’s pacific poker open.

He has already won a big championship, after he knocked out Dave Colclough, the European poker champion at a tournament in Moscow.

The 888.com pacific poker open 2004 runs on challenge TV nightly from 20th November to 12th December this year.

Stanley Ho and Kerry Packer Team Up

Hong Kong gambling tycoon Stanley Ho has increased his holdings on the Chinese gambling haven of Macau with a joint casino venture.

Mr Ho will be partnered by PBL, run by Australian media boss Kerry Packer, who has pledged $163m (£88m) of investment in the Park Hyatt Hotel, not scheduled to open until 2007.

Fast-developing into a Pacific gambling hotspot, Macau is benefiting from relaxed gambling laws introduced after being returned to China by Portugal in 1999. The territory has since enjoyed an increase in revenue, to $4.4bn (£2.4bn) last year.

PBL’s agreement with Melco, Mr Ho’s group, benefits the Hong Kong company for any future operations in China, while the deal is reversed for interests elsewhere in Asia and the Pacific.

Cut and Deal Secures Three Major Contracts

Exclusive new gambling image agent Cut and Deal has secured three major contracts to supply leading gaming institutions.

Although only three months old, the British firm will now provide gaming and sports pictures for worldwide publishers Thomson Gale, British business quarterly iGaming Business magazine, and US consumer title Bluff Magazine.

Glen Conybeare, director and co-founder of Cut and Deal, said: “We planned for gentle start but business is really taking off. We’ve had some wonderful feedback – it seems like the industry has been waiting for a resource like ours and it’s great to get three big names on board early on.”

A Christmas Hill to climb

British bookmakers William Hill have called time on bets for the Christmas No.1 single, already believing the race for the top spot will be won by Band Aid, just one day after the song was recorded.

The re-release of the charity song has sparked a huge public interest, fueling massive orders for the single, which will not be released until 29 November. Hills have now opened a book on how long the track will remain at No.1, including a generous 25/1 if the collaboration beats the 17-week record currently held by Bryan Adams, but also offer odds of 10/1 on the song failing to reach the summit of the charts.

A William Hill spokesman said: “The Christmas number one is a very popular bet with our customers and Band Aid is a virtual certainty to take the number one spot.

“Were we to include Band Aid in the betting it would be a red-hot favourite and would decimate the market. Therefore, if as expected Band Aid goes to number one we will for the first time be paying out on the Christmas number two.”

Ladbrokes have also been inundated with requests to bet on the single, one punter even trying to place a single bet of £10,000 on the song being successful.

William Hill latest Christmas No.1 odds: 7/4 Ronan Keating & Cat Stevens; 12/1 Robbie Williams, Madonna, Paul Holt; 14/1 Tony Christie; 16/1 U2, Take That, Ice Cube; 20/1 Westlife, Kylie Minogue, Girls Aloud, Joss Stone, Rowetta Statchell; 25/1 Sugababes, Busted, Razorlight; 33/1 Bruce Forsyth, Will Young, Darius Danesh, Duran Duran; 40/1 Daniel Beddingfield.

The Luck of the Irish

Irish bookmakers are lining up to get their hands on share of multi-billion dollar US gambling industry after last week's World Trade Organisation decision.

The dispute between Antigua and Barbuda and the US ended in the WTO ruling that America had infringed trade regulations by banning overseas internet betting. America is planning to appeal the decision, but meanwhile Irish bookies are planning their take of the US revenue.

If the American appeal fails, the implications are clear for the world’s online betting community. The US will become a free-for-all and online gambling will suffer from few restrictions.

WPT Inaugural Professional Poker Tour Gets Underway

The World Poker Tour’s first ever Professional Poker Tour (open only to pro players) got underway at Foxwood’s November 9-10. The tournament is the first of five free-rolls offering a total sponsored prize pool of $2.5 million over the 2004-2005 Season. While many of the world’s top players were competing, only six made it through to the final: Chris Bigler, Jennifer Harman, Daniel Harrington, John Juanda, Casey Kastle, and Ron Rose will compete on November 19th for $200,000 and a $25,000 seat to the WPT World Championship.

According to a WPT spokesperson, winning will be like ‘saying you won the first PGA tournament in history, or ensnared the first Wimbledon title.’
The next stops on the tour will be the Commerce Casino, the Bellagio, and The Mirage. To be eligible to play on the PPT, players must have proven themselves in past poker competition by ‘winning or making a Final Table at a WPT event or a WPT Championship, by scoring as a top 10 point leader in WPT Player-of-the-Year rankings, by winning or placing highly in the $10K buy-in event at the World Series of Poker, by securing a spot on either CardPlayer Magazine's Card Player of the Year Top 10 list or Poker Europa's Top 10, or by being a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.’

A gambling Virgin?

Just ten weeks ago Richard Branson set up his own online casino and now the Virgin Airline owner is said to be in talks with major casino operators in getting the Virgin brand to have an appearance in the new super-casinos, if the controversial Gambling Proposal is passed.

The Proposal which is to legalise large-scale Vegas type casinos in the UK which will enable Richard Branson to expand the Virgin Empire further into the gambling world. There is some conjecture that he could set up a joint-venture company, like to the one he has with Singapore Airlines which owns 49 per cent of Virgin Atlantic, or Virgin could take some royalty for lending its name to a casino run by an approved operator.

New betting trend to hit US

Peer-to-peer betting has long been popular in Europe, and it is now swinging its way to the States through sites like Betbug.com, however, it is unclear whether the trend is legal under America’s stringent gambling laws.

Peer-to-peer betting lets you wager directly with another person via the internet, bypassing the bookie or casino. And this is where it gets complicated. Some believe the practice is legal because of the lack of a mediator, but legal analysts claim this is irrelevant; a bet is still a bet.

A Betbug spokesman said, “We feel that Betbug is no different to two guys putting money down on a Lakers' game.” But the Department of Justice is just begging to look into the operations at Betbug to see if it is in violation of gambling laws.

The gambling trend is modelled after music and movie file-sharing sites, which have also had their fair share of controversy. Punters see if anyone wants to bet on a subject, which can be anything from politics to fashion trends. They then place their money in an account on the site. After the event the winner collects, minus a small commission that goes to the host. It is a cheaper way to gambling, taking the middleman out of the equation, meaning you can make more from your bets.

Betbug.com is going to start taking bets in the Summer of next year.

Fortune spreads its luck

Fortune Lounge Group has announced the addition of three casinos to its already large portfolio of online gaming portals. To celebrate the new additions, all Fortune casinos are offering a 300 per cent sign-up bonus to new players.

The expansion increases its number to nine online casinos, making the company one of the largest networks in the online gambling market. The new casinos means the Fortune Group has increased the number of games available to its customers.

The Group expect to profit from the expansion as players spend more time on their games within the network of Fortune casinos.

New CFO for digital pay-TV company

NDS, a news corporation company and leading provider of technology solutions for Digital pay-TV, welcomed a new chief financial officer (CFO) to its ranks this week.

Alexander Gersh will take up the role at the beginning of January 2005, leaving his current position as CFO with Flag Telecom. He graduated from City University, New York and has also worked at BT and Motorola.

The company is planning an expansion into the US market this year, and Mr Gersh’s experience in the US will be invaluable.

Five new casinos get the seal from eCogra.

The board of directors at the eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCogra) chose the European Interactive Gaming 2004 conference in Barcelona to announce the five new online casinos to get its seal of approval.

All the casinos were subjected to inspection and independent testing by teams which were all from international audit group PriceWaterhouseCoopers. The tests that casinos endured were stringent requirements of fair gaming, player protection and operational efficiency.

The five casinos are: www.alljackpots.com, www.allslots.com, www.casinouk.com, www.firstwebcasino.com and www.wildjack.com.

Andrew Beveridge (eCogra director), said; “'The latest seal awards bring to 49 the top-class casinos that have committed to genuine and enforced regulation.' He added, 'Further online gambling operators are currently being considered, and interest in the eCogra standards is growing from players, casinos, leading poker rooms and software providers alike”.