Online Casino News and Information

USA TODAY
By Diana Marrero, Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON — Casinos, Indian tribes and other groups spent millions lobbying Congress last year as lawmakers considered bills to ban wagering online and off Indian reservations…

The $25 million the gaming industry spent on lobbying in 2006 was a slight increase over the previous year’s total, but down from the $28.5 million spent four years ago…

The spending came amid controversy over public corruption scandals involving convicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who admitted to bilking wealthy American Indian gaming tribes…

…Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., president of the American Gaming Association, which spent $900,000 last year lobbying on behalf of commercial casinos….Still, the gambling industry fared pretty well in Washington, he said. And he expects casinos will do even better this year because of a new cast of leaders in Congress who understand the industry.

They include Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who has been a strong casino advocate; Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee; and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the House Judiciary Committee chairman…

…Republican allies in powerful posts, including Sen. John Ensign, a Nevada Republican, who now heads the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Much of the gambling industry’s 2006 lobbying centered on legislation to ban online betting. The measure became law after former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., inserted it into an unrelated bill passed late last year.

Internet gaming supporters want lawmakers to reverse the ban before some of the regulations go into effect this summer.

MORE - READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT USA TODAY

Bloomberg
By Warren Giles

March 30 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. ban on offshore Internet gambling payments is illegal, the World Trade Organization said today, upholding a previous decision that allowed for possible sanctions…

Antigua and Barbuda, a Caribbean nation of 80,000 people, has challenged Bush administration efforts to close the estimated $12 billion global business to U.S. residents, who account for half of the market. The U.S. banned credit card companies from processing payments to betting sites such as SportingBet, Leisure & Gaming Plc, PartyGaming and Empire Online Ltd., which then ceased U.S. operations or sold them for nominal amounts…

Today’s ruling “ vindicates all that we have been saying for years about the discriminatory trade practices of the United States,” Antiguan Finance Minister Errol Cort said in an e-mailed statement…

Antigua, the smallest government ever to lodge a WTO complaint, scored an initial victory against U.S. online gambling restrictions when the WTO found in April 2005 that the U.S. had pledged to open the industry to competition 10 years earlier. Today’s ruling rejects a U.S. appeal against that…

The U.S. agreed that today’s ruling finds it failed to comply with the two-year-old decision…

Still, the U.S. says the report allows it to maintain a ban on Internet gambling to “protect public order and public morals” as long as it doesn’t discriminate against foreign companies…

The U.S. “had an opportunity to remove the ambiguity” between legalized betting on horse racing across state borders and bans on other forms of gambling, the WTO judges wrote in today’s 41-page decision. “Instead, rather than take that opportunity, the U.S. enacted legislation that confirmed that the ambiguity at the heart of this dispute remains,” today’s report concludes…

The U.S. says that its latest law isn’t covered by the WTO ruling and said that its 1995 commitment to open gambling to foreign companies was an oversight by the Clinton administration…

MORE - READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT Bloomberg

Online-Casinos.com reports that The Warsaw Voice had some good news for online gamblers in Poland this week as the Polish government is prepares to license online gambling.

Apparently taking a cue from the European Commission’s recent ruling that went against Italy’s attempts to ban foreign bookmakers, the Polish government is planning to introduce regulations in line with the EU ruling. The court ruling stated that ‘National regulations that prohibit the acceptance of bets unless one has a license issued by the relevant member state restrict the freedom of services’.

NY1
March 29, 2007

Two former city police officer were among the 17 people busted in what prosecutors say was a multi-million dollar online gambling ring.

Investigators say the head of the sports betting operation was John Kinahan, a former NYPD officer. Former detective Phillip Buckles was also arrested.

Authorities say the sports ring placed bets through an offshore internet service. The operation brought in more than $30-million in wagers in the past year.

Information Week
By Alice LaPlante

March 29, 2007 04:00 AM

Far from slowing its growth, a government crackdown on online gambling has sent many sites offshore, and many others underground. But it’s a good bet that Internet poker will remain a booming industry.

“…But not everyone was so easily spooked. A large numbers of online gambling companies chose to keep their casinos open. Although now operating illegally according to U.S. Justice Department rules, they’re reporting that business is pretty much as usual. Although there are fewer dollars overall, there are less gambling houses vying for those dollars, and the ones who agreed to talk concur that after a dip in the second half of 2006, revenues are already on their way back up.

“We were growing 300 percent last year, and although we lost some ground last summer, things have since rebounded, and we expect to be back up to our summer 2006 levels within the next month or so,” said a senior executive at one of the top online gambling sites that has chosen to still accept U.S. customers, who declined to be identified for fear of prosecution.

Another executive who asked for anonymity said that revenues had already shot past mid-2006 levels and showed no sign of abating. “U.S. citizens still want to gamble, and we intend to keep allowing them to,” he said. Indeed, a host of new online gambling establishments are expected to quickly fill the void left by the ones that decided to bow out.

“Some sites have no downward loss of patrons at all. Even those that have lost customers are still making money–more than last year. It’s a major blip, but still just a blip, and people will find ways of getting around it,” said I. Nelson Rose, a professor of law at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, California, an expert on online gaming laws, Joseph Kelly, a professor of business law at State University of New York (SUNY) College in Buffalo, and co-editor of the Gaming Law Review agreed: “This is just a hiccup.”

Along with many others, Kelly believes that online gambling will eventually be legal in the United States. “The panic created by the DOJ’s actions will eventually subside, new legislation will be passed, and we’ll see a regulated industry emerge,” Kelly said. When that will happen is anyone’s guess. But “the notion that you can put a definitive stop to online gambling is a ludicrous one,” he said.”

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT Information Week

The Register
Thursday 29th March 2007

House of Cards The online payment processing industry took it in the chops again this week, as the Electronic Clearinghouse, Inc (ECHO) settled with the US government over allegations that it profited from online gaming transactions by supplying Neteller with payment processing services prior to the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) last October.

Of course, since the UIGEA won’t take effect until June 2007, that would appear to be self-evident.

Nevertheless, the action is something of a letdown for the DOJ. ECHO noted that the only reason it settled was to benefit its own shareholders by sparing them the costs of expensive litigation. It established that the DOJ does indeed have the political leverage to extort money out of legitimate enterprises - a fact that most Reg readers are already well aware of.

The $2.3m settlement represents all the profits the company supposedly made off Neteller transactions prior to the date the UIGEA was signed into law. The company caught flak from the DOJ for not “winding down” its operations quickly enough after the legislation was passed - though, of course, the UIGEA still has not even gone into effect.

The main effect of the DOJ’s actions was to scuttle a planned merger between ECHO and financial software powerhouse Intuit, which clearly did not want to buy into a potential lawsuit.

Online gamblers, however, are not dismayed, as American retail monster Walmart is providing a safe and secure alternative to shady payment processing options.

Moneygram is widely available at your local Walmart, and is currently accepted by Pokerstars.com, though it does require a very unWalmart-like hefty processing fee of $9.95 per transaction.

Nevertheless, for those who want to play, Walmart is clearly the convenient place to go. Thanks, Sam. ®

Telegraph
By Harry Wallop
Last Updated: 1:22am BST 30/03/2007

The casino industry never had a particularly high opinion of the Government but, after the events of the past 10 days, Labour ministers are being viewed with as much relish as a card-counter at a blackjack table.

“The UK is the laughing stock of the world, it really is,” said one senior casino executive.

First there was the Budget, when Gordon Brown announced - without warning or consultation - a significant increase in gaming duties. He also, in effect, shut down the country to online gambling companies by setting a new Remote Gaming Duty at a level that everyone says is too high.

Then came the bombshell of Wednesday night when the House of Lords voted against the Casino Advisory Panel’s choice of locations for the 17 new casinos.

This was only the second time that the Lords have voted against a piece of secondary legislation in the past 40 years. It showed how strongly many people on the political spectrum feel about the new casinos - both their proposed locations and their ethics.

The Government’s policy of liberalising the UK gambling industry - for decades, so heavily regulated that casinos couldn’t even list in the telephone directory - is now in a busted flush.

Mark Reed, leisure analyst at Teather & Greenwood, said: “It’s not really a policy. It seems [to be] made up on the hoof. Personally, I think it’s incredibly disappointing and a real missed opportunity”…

…But for many casino executives the lack of political support from both Labour and the Conservatives means they are seriously reconsidering their investment plans. One Las Vegas operator said: “Sane minds have not prevailed. We are expanding overseas, but not in the UK.”

MORE - READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT Telegraph

REUTERS
Thu Mar 29, 2007

LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - Online gaming group 888 Holdings said on Thursday it was buying the online Bingo business of Globalcom Limited for up to $43.4 million in cash, adding that the deal would enhance earnings immediately.

888 said it would pay $32.4 million, less amounts payable to customers, over a year following completion of the deal.

It will pay an extra $11 million depending on performance of the unit which includes twofatladies.com and bingofabulous.com.

The move comes as consolidation in the sector starts to pick up as firms hit by a U.S. move last year to effectively ban online gaming look to bulk up scale and rebuild their businesses.

“Bingo will be a valuable addition to our entertainment services, which we expect to provide excellent cross-selling opportunities.” Chief Executive Gigi Levy said in a statement.

Internet bingo has been touted as a potential money spinner for online firms reeling from the U.S. blow last year as well as for traditional, brick-and-mortar bingo firms. However experts and academics warn that bingo is one of the most addictive forms of gambling.

REUTERS
March 28, 2007

U.S. prosecutors said on Wednesday they had reached an agreement to not file charges against payment processor Electronic Clearing House Inc. (ECHO.O: Quote, Profile , Research), saying the company is cooperating with the government’s probe into Internet gambling.

The company was involved in the transfer of money on behalf of online payment services known as “e-wallets,” which mostly handled illegal transactions with online gambling Web sites, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan said.

The company has been cooperating with prosecutors since January and has agreed to disgorge $2.3 million, representing the net proceeds from the services it provided to e-wallets since 2001, the government said.

ECH shares were off 37 cents, or 3 percent, at $11.86 in midday trading on Nasdaq.

The company could not immediately be reached for comment, but it said on Tuesday that it was a witness in a federal investigation and expected a non-prosecution agreement with the government.

It also said on Tuesday that a deal to be acquired by financial software maker Intuit Inc. (INTU.O: Quote, Profile , Research) had been called off. The companies entered into a merger agreement on Dec. 14.

ECH provided payment processing and collection services to e-wallets from 2001 until the beginning of 2007, prosecutors said.

Last October, it began shutting down processing and collection services for e-wallets and froze about $21 million in funds belonging to such companies, prosecutors said.

A criminal prosecution of the company “would not serve the public interest,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

The legality of Internet gambling in the United States was ambiguous for many years, but it was effectively banned last October when U.S. President George W. Bush signed legislation outlawing online gaming financial transactions.

Earlier this year, federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre, founders of NETeller (NLR.L: Quote, Profile , Research), with money laundering in connection with services the British payment processor provided to Internet gambling sites.

Gambling911 reports a bookmaking operation run by police officers has been broken by New York State Police. 18 individuals are on the list to be announced later today in a press conference. The offshore company is 50Ksports, based out of Costa Rica.