August 2004 Archives

By Sam Diaz -

For generations, the poker room has been portrayed as a smoke-filled parlor where whiskey-drinking, tobacco-chewing gamblers would rather shoot you than let you take the pot with a pair of fives.

But recently, the Internet - and a guy aptly named Chris Moneymaker - brought new life to one of the oldest card games around.

Moneymaker, an accountant from Tennessee, qualified for the May 2003 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas - after honing his poker skills on the Internet. With only three years' experience in the game, he bested a lineup of professional players in the Las Vegas tournament, walking away with the $2.5 million jackpot.

By Lizette Alvarez -

LONDON, Aug. 30 - It took just 69 seconds for John Motson, the well-known BBC soccer commentator, to utter one of his notorious clichés - "these are nervous moments" - during the start of the England vs. Portugal match back in July.

With those words, bookmakers got walloped, paying out at least $36,000 to the 50 people who correctly wagered on the first cliché Mr. Motson would speak that evening on national television. The odds on that phrase started high at 40 to 1, behind "Captain Marvel," for the soccer star David Beckham, "dreaded penalties" and "boy wonder," a nod to Wayne Rooney, the tournament's top scorer.

Bookmaker Ladbrokes is continuing to boost profits for its parent company, hotels group Hilton.

Hilton reported pre-tax profits of £156.7m ($281.2m) for the six months to 30 June, up from £74.5m a year ago.

The rise was mainly due to strong growth in Ladbrokes' shops and internet betting, although Hilton's hotels also showed modest signs of recovery.

The hotels sector has been hit in recent years by the Sars outbreak, terrorism fears and the war in Iraq.

By Olga Nedbayeva -

MOSCOW—They’re hungry and they’re everywhere: at stands on roadsides, in entrances to apartment buildings, in food stores and on subway platforms.

And as coin-operated slot machines continue to proliferate almost by the hour in both urban and rural areas throughout Russia, so too are the numbers of small-time gambling addicts multiplying in what remains a relatively poor country.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Aug. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- BETonSPORTS plc (LSE: BSS.L - News) today announced the key drivers of its global growth strategy. The company, which operates the world's largest online wagering service, BETonSPORTS.com, listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) at 140 pence in mid-July, raising Pounds 54.6 million (USD $101 million) -- one of the largest floats the exchange has seen this year.

"We are extremely pleased with how our recent AIM listing was received and excited about the opportunities it presents. We were particularly delighted with the quality and quantity of institutional investors who are now shareholders in BETonSPORTS," said CEO, David Carruthers. "Expanding our operations to include physical locations will produce additional revenue streams, support our online business and help deliver increasing shareholder returns. Further, a publicly-traded BETonSPORTS brings added credibility to the offshore wagering industry and will help us in our effort to establish a regulated US online gambling marketplace."

From Sports Gambling Guide

Why choose sports gambling over other forms of gambling? Putting aside the entertainment factor, there is one simple reason. You have a better chance of winning consistently.

Over the long term, most casino games cannot be beat. If you play long enough, you will lose. The possible exceptions are poker, which involves elements of skill and psychology, and blackjack for those who are skilled at counting cards.

By Hugh Dellios -

TIJUANA, Mexico--In 1935, one of Mexico's national heroes, President Lazaro Cardenas, banned casinos across the country, putting a damper on the good times of Hollywood stars and mafia types who made Tijuana a playground of gambling and other vices during the Prohibition era.

Seven decades later, in a new world full of casinos, the gambling houses could return to Tijuana under a proposal before Mexico's Congress to again legalize them across the country.

By Danny Sullivan -

Yahoo, Google and several other major web sites and companies (including Search Engine Watch's publisher, Jupitermedia) have been hit with a lawsuit saying they carry online gambling ads in violation of California law. This comes after two of the major search companies earlier this year made moves that were supposed to remove online gambling ads entirely.

The suit was filed on behalf of all Californians and specifically names two. One of those used search engines to find online gambling sites and lost $100,000, it is claimed.

Michigan could soon have more ways to gamble than any other state — offering a bettor's paradise of casinos, horse tracks, keno parlors and lottery games.

But the state is quickly reaching a saturation point that could threaten plans for permanent Detroit casinos and deplete local and state gambling taxes that provide badly needed funds for education and other programs.

Michigan ranks seventh among U.S. states for gaming revenue at $2.7 billion annually. Besides the three Detroit casinos — Greektown, MGM Grand Detroit and MotorCity — Michigan has 16 Indian casinos, seven horse tracks, a state lottery, a multistate lottery and 1,500 Club Keno sites in bars and other establishments.

The operator of a gambling news site on the Internet has asked a federal judge to declare that advertisements in U.S. media for foreign online casinos and sports betting outlets are protected by free-speech rights.

The suit, filed by Louisiana-based Casino City Inc. in Baton Rouge federal court, challenges subpoenas sent by the Justice Department to media outlets for records dealing with the purchase of ads for offshore gambling sites.

Online casinos and sports betting books are not legal in the United States, but operations in locales such as the Caribbean have sprung up widely in recent years with U.S. residents making bets through credit card transactions.

Associated Press -

Ivy walls and ivory towers now have back rooms and they're churning out blackjack dealers and casino managers.

Public colleges in upstate New York and nationwide are increasingly offering casino and gambling majors and courses. At least three New York colleges have degree and certificate programs in casino-related management.

By Liz Benston -

Regulators still not sold on 'Net betting

The Internet gambling debate continues to percolate in Nevada as entrepreneurs press regulators to open the state to a form of betting that continues to expand aggressively in its illegal form nationwide. But regulators say they aren't yet moved by arguments that new technology can assure that bettors are of age and are located in states where gambling is legal.

By Jack Markowitz -

There may be a grim lesson in the coming bankruptcy of Donald Trump's casino businesses. Legalized gambling is spreading so fast that one of its leaders -- actually its only real "personality" -- hasn't been able of late to make money in it. Even such a phenomenon of self-promotion as The Donald is running into The Competition.

What an alarm bell for Pennsylvania's soon-to-be casino proprietors and the banks that might lend to them. They are green and new at this racket; Trump is old and look at the hole he got into.

European Game & Entertainment Technology Ltd Ab (EGET), a Finnish-based provider of online and mobile gaming solutions and INTRALOT have joined forces to deliver new online games for Polla Chilena de Beneficencia, the state lottery operator of Chile.

INTRALOT, as the supplier of online game technology to Polla Chilena, decided to enter into cooperation with EGET, in order to deliver new Internet games. EGET was ready to respond this challenge and delivered the required 4 casino and instant games in just 8 weeks after signing the contract. With this successful delivery EGET once again proves that it is a major force to be reckoned within the demanding environment of digital gaming.

Special Report from IGamingNews.com -

An American media company has raised a formal challenge to the legality of the U.S. Justice Department's attempt to suppress advertising for Internet gambling services.

Casino City, Inc., a Louisiana-based company that provides a directory of both Internet and land-based casinos as well as several other informational services on its web-sites, has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. The company seeks a declaratory judgment stating that the Department of Justice's application of aiding and abetting charges to advertising for legal overseas companies violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

If successful, Casino City's case would eventually put an end to what many consider a chilling effect that has left many advertisers in the U.S. afraid to place ads for online gambling.

By Melissa Kite -

Bookmakers will be hit by unlimited fines and the removal of their licences if they allow children to gamble online, the Government warned yesterday.

Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, said that the new Gambling Commission, to be unveiled in the Queen's Speech this autumn, will conduct spot checks on gambling websites to crack down on the growing problem of under-age betting.

Bookmakers will be expected to conduct rigorous age verification checks or face fines of many tens of thousands of pounds.

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 4, 2004--GWIN Inc. (OTCBB: GWNI), America's only publicly traded sports handicapping firm, announced today a blockbuster book deal for its chairman & CEO, Wayne Allyn Root. Root's new book, "The Zen of Gambling," will be released on Sept. 23 by Penguin Group (USA), the second largest trade publisher in the world through its Jeremy P. Tarcher imprint. Penguin is mounting a major promotional campaign around the book's release. The timing is fortuitous as Las Vegas and gambling are hot topics! Poker is topping the charts on television with Travel Channel's "World Poker Tour," Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown," and ESPN's "World Series of Poker" all enjoying record ratings. Casinos in Las Vegas are reporting record revenues, and TV shows such as "Las Vegas" on NBC, "CSI" on CBS, "The Casino" on Fox, and "American Casino" on Discovery Channel are dominating the TV dial.

By Julia Angwin - Wall Street Journal -

David Carruthers, a 46-year-old executive with thinning gray hair, is an unlikely outlaw. Recently, a wild moment for him was drinking a champagne toast in his banker's office after his company went public on the Alternative Investment Market, a London stock exchange.

Nonetheless, many U.S. lawmakers and regulators would like to shut down Mr. Carruthers's London-based BetonSports, along with other operations that run Web gambling sites catering to Americans. Under the 1961 Federal Wire Act, betting on sports via telephone or the Internet is illegal in the U.S.

PHOENIX - Bet you didn't know that Arizona gamblers are really helping out the state.

The Arizona Department of Gaming has distributed more than 18 (m) million dollars in funding from tribal casinos to various state funds.

Tribes agreed to give the money to the state as part of an initiative approved in 2002 allowing them to expand casinos.

The money is contributed on a sliding scale ranging from one-percent to eight-percent depending on annual casino revenues.