February 2005 Archives

ISRAEL – As reported by Haaretz: "Israelis really like playing casino games, they're quite hooked on it," said Ira Gladnikoff, vice president of Swedish online gambling company OnGame. She added that Israelis are particularly prevalent visitors on online gambling sites. "That's why we will be running a site specially in Hebrew, despite it being such a small country."

"OnGame runs the online site www.pokerroom.com, considered the fifth-largest online poker web site in the world. Some 3.5 million surfing punters a day place around $13 million on bets.

By Rachel Stevenson -

LADBROKES, THE bookmaker owned by the Hilton Group, unveiled record profits yesterday, up 28 per cent to £273m, as it continues to rake in money from internet gambling and virtual roulette machines.

The Hilton group also announced it was returning up to £400m to shareholders by selling as many as 18 hotels.

By Beth Wilson -

Gamblers could get their game right here in Texas and save a trip across state lines if bills before legislators make it to law.

Current law prohibits gambling, including video terminals that give cash or prizes and some organized poker games.

Area law enforcement has cracked down on video terminals known as eight-liners, seizing machines and money and crippling the businesses.

By David Kesmodel -

In the 1980s, Alex Czajkowski penned a weekly computer column for his college newspaper at Carnegie Mellon University dubbed "Beating the System."

Today, that title neatly describes his job. As a marketing executive for an offshore Internet gambling company, he and his business rivals are drawing from an ever-expanding bag of tricks to promote online betting in the U.S. -- where the casinos and the advertising of them are considered illegal by the government.

By Jodi Wilgoren -

ST. CLOUD, Minn., Feb. 19 - Not 20 minutes into a No Limit Texas Hold'em poker tournament at the Granite Bowl bar and grill here, State Senator Mike McGinn pushed his entire pile of chips into the pot. State Senator Dave Kleis hardly hesitated before following suit, and State Representative Tom Hackbarth quickly joined the "all in" chorus.

"No wonder we've got budget problems at the state," cracked their colleague, State Senator Brian LeClair, who had folded his own cards long before.

CARSON CITY, Nevada (AP) -- Linda C. finally sought help for her compulsive gambling after she came home from a devastating night at a Las Vegas casino and, staring at two handguns on her kitchen counter, contemplated suicide.

Nine years later, she's a peer counselor for compulsive gamblers in Las Vegas. But she's only somewhat hopeful about a proposal from Gov. Kenny Guinn to use $200,000 in state money over the next two years to help create a program for other problem gamblers.

By Sallie Owen -

MONTGOMERY -- Montgomery gambling executive Milton McGregor is among a group of American businessmen bankrolling a national lottery in Russia.

The All Russian Electronic Lottery System is projected to become the world's largest lottery.

"It's been a long time since I've been any more excited about a business project," McGregor said Friday.

By Jerry W. Jackson -

Hard Rock Cafe hires a Vegas veteran as part of a strategy to expand its global reach in casinos.

Hard Rock Cafe International Inc. took another major step on the road to becoming a global player in casino gambling this week with the appointment of an industry expert from Las Vegas to the newly created position of vice president of casinos.

By David Segal -

Jimmy O'Brien Turned Scratch Lottery Tickets Into a $22 Billion-a-Year Itch

ALPHARETTA, Ga.- The headquarters of Scientific Games looks like any other office building on this green stretch of industrial-park suburbia, 20 minutes outside Atlanta. It's basically a parking lot, five flagpoles and room for 900 employees. But with a security pass and a chaperon, you can get a tour of the place, and eventually that will lead to a noisy, bustling factory that you can't see from the street.

Nearly 80 percent of Europe's online gamblers are British, with women and young people making up an increasingly significant portion of the market, according to the latest research.

A survey conducted by online casino 888.com, a subsidiary of Gibraltar-based Cassava Enterprises, concluded that the numbers of UK residents gambling on the Web has risen more than 560 percent since 2003, with participation likely to increase with passage of the Gambling Bill, which will make online casinos a legal business in Britain, and the explosive growth of Web-based live poker.

Back in 1996, when Congress made its first feeble attempts to put the federal reins on Internet gambling, a mere 30 gambling Web sites pulled in $30 million, industry researcher Christiansen Capital Advisors told USA Today.

This year, however, the pot will grow to an astounding $10 billion, up by 40 percent over the take in 2004. Not bad when you consider that the whole Internet gambling business is operating outside the law.

Keith Furlong has gone to the so-called dark side. After working for five years as the legislative liaison for the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement -- the arm of the New Jersey Attorney General's office that regulates the state's casinos -- he joined a consulting firm and became deputy director of the Interactive Gaming Council. A Canadian-based nonprofit founded in 1996, the IGC is the foremost trade group representing the interests of the booming online gambling industry.

BusinessWeek Computers Editor Spencer E. Ante recently spoke with Furlong about the state of online gambling and efforts to regulate the industry. Edited excerpts from their conversation follow:

By Leigh Phillips -

Online casino regulator Ecogra has teamed with the Global Gambling Guidance Group (G4) to provide more cohesive formal precautions against underage and problem gambling.

"The top online casinos regulated by Ecogra have all made in-house responsible gambling provision as part of their operational structures, and we will beef up this vital function through a partnership with the respected and professional G4 organisation," said Andrew Beveridge, CEO of Ecogra.

Nevada reports 12% increase in betting to new record; casinos on the winning side by some $15M.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Super Bowl betting hit a record of nearly $90.8 million in Nevada this year, up 12 percent from 2004, the state's Gaming Control Board said Tuesday.

Casinos came out on top to the tune of $15.4 million on the Feb. 6 contest between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles, won by the Patriots 24-21. Last year, the casinos posted $12.4 million in winnings.

By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY -

SAN FRANCISCO — Online gambling has hit the jackpot.

After years of escalating growth, it's poised for its biggest year. That reflects a growing obsession with poker, advances in broadband and wireless technology, and the temptation to strike it rich from a PC.

More than 2,000 gambling Web sites this year will rake in nearly $10 billion in revenue, most from U.S. consumers.

Twelve people were arrested Saturday in an investigation of illegal gambling operations, including Super Bowl wagering, that brought in more than $100 million a year, the authorities said yesterday.

The arrests, part of an investigation known as Kings Flush, were made in a series of raids of betting locations, including private homes and at least one social club - in Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn.

Landry's Restaurants Inc., whose operations include Rainforest Cafe and the Crab House, is buying the Golden Nugget hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas, a first step in a strategy to get a slice of the lucrative gambling business and expand its profit pipeline. Landry's shares rose 13% on the news.

Houston-based Landry's announced Friday that it struck a deal with Poster Financial Group Inc., owners of the Golden Nugget, under which it would pay $140 million in cash and assume $155 million in debt for the Golden Nugget.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- With all the bared flesh and Las Vegas-style flash, Brazilian carnival seems like the kind of fun that just might be illegal -- and in some ways it is.

The annual pre-Lenten bash that got under way Friday owes much of its splendor to illegal gambling.

It's long been an open secret that Rio's annual samba parade -- the centerpiece of carnival celebrations -- is largely funded by the kingpins of an illegal numbers game known here as the "jogo do bicho," Portuguese for animal game.

By Declan McCullagh -

Placing an Internet bet on the Super Bowl may not exactly be legal, but that hasn't stopped tens of thousands of U.S. gamblers from venturing online to try to beat the odds.

Their destinations tend to be offshore Web sites that go by names like BetBug of Toronto; BetWWTS.com of Antigua; Bodog Sportsbook, Casino and Poker of Costa Rica; and Betfair, which has offices in London.

Super Bowl 'hard time for folks in recovery from sports betting'

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, New Jersey (AP) -- One by one, they filed in for a Tuesday night meeting of Gamblers Anonymous.

One man wore an Eagles sweat shirt. One remembered the Super Bowl Sunday he spent babysitting his granddaughter, only to find himself with an uncontrollable urge to bet $10,000 on the game, 10 years after his last bet.

Reuters, London. The amount Britons are gambling over the Internet has increased more than six times in the last year, according to a survey on Tuesday by online casino 888.com.

Ten per cent of British women and 16 percent of men said they would consider gambling all of their worldly possessions for a $5 million jackpot, said 888.com, which analysts say may be the next online casino to list on the London Stock Exchange.

BRITAIN has become a nation of online gamblers, with women increasingly betting on the internet. Research shows that the number of Britons betting online has risen 566 per cent since 2003 - figures that will alarm anti-gambling lobbyists.

By David Randall -

Parents and church leaders may not always approve, but poker, popularized in recent years with televised tournaments, seems to be sweeping the country, reaching all the way into the nooks and conservative crannies of Utah County.

A week and a half ago, Utah Valley State College held a No Limit Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament in connection with the school's all-night party, and on Friday, The Flophouse, a Texas Hold 'Em tournament club, reopened in Orem, providing action from 6 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.