Online Casino News and Information

NewswireToday - /newswire/ - London, United Kingdom, 01/30/2007 - Shortly after Neteller announced its decision to pull out of the US gaming market on January 18, the London-based technology company Seed Capital Ltd. introduced a new payment processing service ‘YouTeller.com’.

“We will start in March with a revolution in simplicity of worldwide online payments. Everybody who can download songs or play online games will now be able to pay for that instantly,” said Johannes Knierzinger, CEO and co-founder.

On Monday the British Financial Services Authority (FSA) granted YouTeller the “Small E-Money Issuer Certificate”, therefore making it possible to operate as an e-wallet. “The FSA has already given us the green light. We will begin services after the server-security testing period is completed,” said Florian Schweitzer, company spokesman and co-founder. It took three month to develop the new online payment framework.

“We have no overseas branch in a NAFTA-country like Neteller or Citadel, so we are not affected by US legislation,” underlined Schweitzer. YouTeller is part of an international lobbying task force that works on the issue ‘worldwide online payments’ with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the European Union.

The WTO has again ruled against the United States in favor of Antigua and Barbuda, this time for not taking “the necessary steps to comply” with the April 2005 WTO ruling to correct discrimination against foreign internet gambling operators, Reuters reported late last week.

Earlier this month, federal officials arrested the founders of Neteller, an Isle of Man-based online payment processor, while they were in the US to switch planes. John Lefebvre and Stephen Lawrence are set to fight the charges laid against them when they appear in court in February.

eGaming Review

DoJ denies imminent indictment rumours

Rumours suggesting further online gaming arrests planned for this week have been denied by the Department of Justice (DoJ) in New York and Washington DC this afternoon.

A spokesperson said: “Nothing would be made public until an individual or company was charged.”

According to sources in Washington DC who have spoken to eGaming Review, the US authorities are on the verge of unsealing another set of indictments against a high-profile US-facing betting and gaming operator.

A move against the rumoured target in Superbowl week would be bound to be grab the headlines. It would also follow on from the arrests earlier in January of the two founders of Neteller, Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre.

REUTERS
Tue Jan 30, 2007 1:01 PM GMT143
By Pete Harrison

LONDON (Reuters) - Manchester unexpectedly won the fight to host the first Las Vegas-style supercasino on Tuesday, beating challengers including nearby Blackpool and London’s Millennium Dome.

Most industry analysts had predicted that either Blackpool, the Dome in London or Glasgow would win.

Parliament must now rubber-stamp the decision by the independent Casino Advisory Panel before companies start bidding to develop and operate the Manchester casino, and 16 smaller venues.

“Manchester represents a good place to test social impact,” said panel Chairman Stephen Crow. He emphasised the importance of the casino fuelling regeneration in the region.

“Manchester … is an area in need of regeneration at least as much as any of the others we observed,” he added.

Local MP Graham Stringer said he was “astonished” but delighted that Manchester had won the bid.

“It’s going to bring a lot of jobs and regeneration to a part of the city that really needs it,” he told BBC television.

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT REUTERS

REUTERS
Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:41 AM GMT143

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. restrictions on online gambling may be challenged by the European Union, the bloc’s top financial regulator said on Tuesday.

“In my view it is probably a restrictive practice and we might take it up in another fora,” EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy told the European Parliament.

The United States was protecting its own gambling industry by stopping foreign companies from entering the online betting sector, McCreevy said.

“It’s not my intention to bring forward a harmonised piece of legislation on gambling in the European Union,” McCreevy added.

The United States has introduced rules to stop card companies from dealing with foreigners for online bets, McCreevy said.

He has launched legal actions against several EU countries to tackle obstacles to foreign competition.

READ THIS ARTICLE AT REUTERS

Strow Introduces Bill 1243 into Washington State Legislature

Press Release - Washington House Republicans

10th District legislator introduces bill to provide an affirmative defense to the Class C Felony created by 2006 internet gambling bill

Rep. Chris Strow, R-Whidbey Island, today announced his legislation, House Bill 1243, to quash the felony charge language in last year’s legislation addressing in-home internet gambling. “My goal with this legislation is to correct an element from last year’s online gambling bill, Senate Bill 6613, that made it a Class C Felony to gamble recreationally in one’s own home if it is done online,” said Strow.

“While I do see the need for protecting our citizens from online gaming that may be scamming innocent victims, I do think that there is also a level of accountability, as an adult, to do as he or she chooses in his or her own home,” said Strow. “Most certainly choosing to gamble, or play a game of skill such as poker, should not have been made a crime equivalent to possessing child pornography or threatening the Governor.”

House Bill 1243 is awaiting a hearing in the House Commerce and Labor Committee.

“While I have requested a hearing on the bill, people need to call and write the chairman of the House Commerce and Labor Committee, Representative Steve Conway, and ask him to schedule a hearing for House Bill 1243,” said Strow. Rep. Conway can be reached at (360) 786-7906 or Conway.steve@leg.wa.gov.

“There’s a certain point at which policy can be perceived as ‘nanny-stateish.’ I think we reached that point with last year’s legislation and I’m aiming to make amends,” said Strow.

Join the Fight and J Todd as he presents the weekly video Perspectives Weekly - January 26th, 2007

This week’s video was shot in London where J Todd is attending the ICE and CAP Euro Conventions and covers the hot topics in Online Gambling:

An Update on Neteller Arrests
DOJ’s demand for information from Banks in US and UK
WTO Upholds Recent Ruling - US loses
New York state filtering (censoring) internet?
Rumor and Fact

A huge plus for me in this week’s video… in keeping with the location, APCW featured music from the ultimate English Icons Monty Python and is used to brilliant advantage… althogether another great video from APCW.

WORLD’S LARGEST STUDY OF THE ONLINE GAMBLER REVEALED

(Press Release and eCOGRA Global Online Gambler Report can be downloaded at eCOGRA)
The first comprehensive picture of the ‘average’ online gambler emerges today from a huge new research project involving nearly 11,000 players from 96 countries. The ‘eCOGRA Global Online Gambler Survey’ commissioned by industry self-regulatory body eCOGRA (www.ecogra.org) and undertaken by the Betting and International Gaming Research Units at Nottingham Trent University, is the largest study to date into player behaviour and attitudes to the industry.

General Information

One of the most surprising findings to emerge is that although playing for money was important in terms of making games entertaining, overall, the majority of gamblers appear to not be playing to win money long-term – it’s more about the entertainment. When players across all forms of gambling were asked why they gambled online, answers such as ‘to relax’, ‘for the entertainment and excitement’ or ‘to relieve boredom’, heavily outweighed ‘to make money’ or ‘to win’, highlighting that online gamblers view their pastime as simply another form of leisure activity.

The scale of the sample has allowed researchers to create the most reliable picture of the typical online poker and casino player to date.

THE AVERAGE ONLINE POKER PLAYER IS LIKELY TO:
• Be male (73.8%)
• Be aged 26-35 (26.9%)
• Play 2-3 times per week (26.8%)
• Have visited more than 6 poker sites in preceding 3 months (25%)
• Have played for 2-3 years (23.6%)
• Play for between 1-2 hours per session (33.3%)
• Play one (24.1%) or two (24%) tables at a time
• Play both cash games and tournaments (34%)
• Play at big-blind (minimum stake) levels of 25p to £1.00 (61.2%)
• Play with 6-10% of their bankroll at a table at any one time (23%)

THE AVERAGE ONLINE CASINO PLAYER IS LIKELY TO:
• Be female (54.8%)
• Aged 46-55 (29.5%)
• Play 2-3 times per week (37%)
• Have visited more than 6 casinos in the preceding 3 months (25%)
• Have played for 2-3 years (22.4%)
• Play for between 1-2 hours

MORE
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REUTERS
By Doug Palmer
Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:01pm

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has suffered a new setback in a four-year-old legal battle with Antigua and Barbuda over U.S. restrictions on Internet gambling, a U.S. trade official said on Thursday.

At issue is an April 2005 World Trade Organization ruling against U.S. prohibitions on online horse race betting. Since then, the U.S. Congress has passed additional legislation to ban betting over the Internet.

Gretchen Hamel, a spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, confirmed press reports that a WTO panel “did not agree with the United States that we had taken the necessary steps to comply” with that ruling.

At the same time, Hamel downplayed the decision contained in a preliminary, confidential report to the two parties.

“The panel’s findings issued today involve a narrow issue of federal law” and the United States will have opportunity to submit comments to the WTO before it issues its final, public report in March, Hamel said.

“Nothing in the panel’s interim report undermines the broad, favorable results that the United States obtained from the WTO in April 2005,” she said.

The issue is a touchy one for the Bush administration, which supports free trade but whose conservative allies in Congress pushed through a bill late last year to ban most forms of Internet gambling.

Antigua and Barbuda, with few natural resources, has sought to build up an Internet gambling industry to provide jobs to replace those in its declining tourist industry.

It argued in a case first brought to the WTO in 2003 that U.S. laws barring the placing of bets across states lines by electronic means violated WTO rules.

An April 2005 ruling by the WTO’s Appellate Body, which both sides claimed as vindication, focused on the narrower issue of horse racing, saying that foreign betting operators appeared to suffer discrimination.

Antigua and Barbuda complained the United States had not complied with the decision and the WTO agreed in July 2006 to look into the matter, resulting in the ruling on Thursday.

The United States will decide after the final panel decision ruling in March whether to appeal.

The Bush administration may not have to ask Congress to pass new legislation in any case, Hamel said.

“The panel report clarifies that compliance does not necessarily require new legislation, but could instead involve other steps, such as administrative or judicial action,” she said.

Online Gambling News:
According to eGaming’s Snapshot for 01/25/07, February 14th has been set for the preliminary hearing of Neteller Co-Founders Steven Lawrence and John Lefebvre who were arrested 1/16/07. A hearing was held yesterday in New York for Lefebvre, and bail was extended to the new court date. Vincent Marella, Lefebvre’s lawyer, said the government has to file formal charges before that date. Marella has been quoted as saying “He is going to be contesting everything we know about the charges right now” and the only comment Lefebvre had was “end global warming”

SCOTSMAN.COM
By Pete Harrison

EXCERPTS:
LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in European online gaming firms tumbled by as much as 9 percent on Monday following news U.S. prosecutors had launched a probe into Internet gambling.

Analysts said U.S. prosecutors were now probably trying to target founders and senior executives of Internet gambling companies, just as they did with the arrests of two NETeller founders last week.

“They’re trying to make the founders sweat, as well as current management,” said analyst Tejinder Randhawa at Evolution Securities.

Lawyer Clive Gringras, head of Olswang’s e-commerce unit, said the move would probably have a “chilling effect” on the industry amid fears other countries would follow the U.S. lead.

“The only way an Internet company could really avoid risk and uncertainty would be to stop doing international business,” he said.

“They seem to be on a mission,” said Evolution’s Randhawa.

“Extradition requests are unlikely, but they’re not impossible, given what happened to the NatWest Three,” he added, referring to three UK bankers extradited to the U.S. on charges linked to collapsed energy giant Enron.

“I would have thought the DoJ would have been more reticent, given that the legislation was ambiguous at best,” said Olswang’s Gringras.

MORE - READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE IN CONTEXT AT SCOTSMAN.COM