March 2005 Archives

By Fox Butterfield -

DOVER, Del. - Gambling revenues, once a mere trickle, have become a critical stream of income in a number of states, in some cases surpassing traditional sources like the corporate income tax and helping states lower personal income or property taxes.

The sums are so alluring that some officials are concerned that their states are becoming as addicted as problem gamblers. "We're drunk on gambling revenue," said Representative Wayne A. Smith, the Republican who is House majority leader in the Delaware Legislature. "Gambling revenues are like free money."

SAINT LOUIS, MO, March 30 /PRNewswire/ - Record breaking performances, double overtimes and upsets have made the 2005 Final Four tournament one of the most exciting in recent memory. But for the millions of people who gamble on March Madness every year, online gambling has pushed the excitement level to a new high.

Sportsbook.com attributes the growing popularity in online gambling to the endless betting options that exist, beyond just predicting who will win the game.

by Margaret Ransom -

Jockey Patrick Valenzuela, who offered advertising on his jockey pants legs and his collar for sale on the auction Web site eBay, received one winning bid for $15,000 from an offshore casino and will begin wearing the ads during Wednesday's card at Santa Anita.

Winning bidder Betcris.com is an online sports/race book, casino and poker website that offers wagering on everything from horses and sports to entertainment and politics.

SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 28, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- iMedia International, Inc. (OTC BB:IMNL.OB - News) (http://www.imedia-intl.com) announced today that it has begun creation of the first interactive marketing disc for DoylesRoom.com, a premier online poker room endorsed by World Poker Champion and bestselling author Doyle Brunson.

In a pilot program, DoylesRoom.com will begin a large distribution of interactive promotional CD-ROM discs to targeted audiences of poker players and gamers in selected geographic areas.

By Bambi Francisco -

Card room sites are the Net's fastest-growing business

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- It's a Thursday afternoon and Tyler Jewell is looking for some poker action. But he's not heading over to a casino or to a friendly gathering at his buddy's place. Rather, he's firing up his computer, the newest gateway to the world's largest poker party, open 24 hours a day. And on this day, he says, the virtual casinos are hopping.

A constitutional amendment to require the Legislature to license Internet poker companies got a lukewarm reception from North Dakota senators, who have already defeated a bill to regulate online card rooms.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, which reviewed the amendment Wednesday, forwarded it to the full Senate without making a recommendation on whether it should be approved.

The panel had a similar deadlock on a separate bill to license and tax Internet poker sites, which went on to get a pummeling in the Senate. Only three of the 47 senators voted for it.

(PRWEB) March 21, 2005 -- The site, www.londonscasino.com , is one of the first in the market to exclusively offer a state of the art, live dealer casino. It will take advantage of speedier broadband connections and stream enhanced video and audio over the internet from a live supervised gaming floor. Site members are able to log in and play with live dealers, real cards and real tables. The move will mark a significant shift away from the use of RNG software.

Set to challenge the larger gaming sites, Londonscasino will use CWC Gaming’s proprietary Flash based software – a second generation live gaming platform - throughout its whole site, offering a superior user experience. The new and improved flash software is the only of its kind to boast audio capabilities and its flash based content means that players do not have to download a set of controls before they start playing.

Recent murmurs about online casino operations opening up in the US indicate that the impossible may just become possible. Up until now there has been a stringent anti online casinos policy in the US. Technically people are not even supposed to play online casino games on the internet if they are situated in the US. But the winds of change are blowing. There have been a few recent change that may in fact allow online casinos to operate out of the US in the near future. One development that is being closely watched by the online gambling industry is a proposal to run online casinos out of North Dakota.

By Paul Hales -

PLENTY OF ISRAELIS love a gamble. Trouble is, it's banned in the country - which means gamblers have to go to some lengths to indulge their passion.

Some jet off on gamblers-only flights to any number of Israeli-run hotels scattered around the Mediterranean, where they can bet away on roulette wheels and blackjack tables while munching on kosher snacks. Others hop on aboard boats embarking from the southern resort of Eilat where the tables open up 'offshore' over the clear waters of the Red Sea.

March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Portugal's 222-year-old national lottery, which last suspended business during the French army's 1807 invasion of Lisbon, faces a new threat from northern Europe: Internet sports betting.

State-owned gambling monopoly Santa Casa da Misericordia, (``The Sacred House of Mercy''), says competition from online bookies Sportingbet Plc and Stanleybet Plc, and BetandWin.com Interactive Entertainment AG threatens the lottery's annual 1.1 billion-euro ($1.48 billion) revenue stream. Its entire profit of 350 million euros is donated to charity.

By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY -

SAN FRANCISCO — Undeterred by murky federal law and emboldened by a trade ruling, at least three states are edging toward legalizing online gambling, and Great Britain is on the verge of permitting its land-based casinos to take bets online from U.S. citizens.

Those are the latest assault on the federal Wire Act of 1961, which bans use of telephones to place sports bets. U.S. lawmakers have struggled for a decade to update the law, hoping to restrain the fast-growing, $10 billion-a-year Internet gambling industry.

By Jon Swartz

After years of 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. That’s up 40 percent from 2004, making gambling one of the Web’s largest moneymakers.

ST. JOHN'S, Antigua, March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- The Men's NCAA basketball tournament has become the most widely bet annual sporting event in America as office pools and sports betting gain more popularity and acceptance. Last year an NCAA survey estimated that over 10 percent of Americans participated in a "March Madness" pool, demonstrating that millions have a vested betting interest in the tournament. Now that the Internet has become the preferred means to wager on sports, leading offshore gaming company BetWWTS.com today announced that it expects betting on the NCAA tournament to be ten times that of this year's Super Bowl

By Eric Olson, Associated Press

An Antigua-based Internet casino that previously bought a partially eaten grilled cheese sandwich has won in the bidding for an intact pretzel that the St. Paul, Neb., sellers believe is shaped like the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus.

Golden Palace Casino swooped in about 30 seconds before bidding closed Wednesday evening on the Internet auction site eBay.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The rejection of slot machines in Miami-Dade County could mean more regulations on the machines in Broward County, state lawmakers said Wednesday as they assessed the political landscape after the split South Florida vote.

Broward County voters approved the slot machines at race tracks and jai-alai frontons on Tuesday, but Miami-Dade County voters rejected them.

State and gaming industry profit would be affected by taxes and regulations placed on the machines by the Legislature.

(PRWEB) March 9, 2005 -- LocalPokerTour.com announced the launch of their new online poker tournament blong for online Texas Hold'em poker players. Adding to their extensive poker resource website this Blog provides frequent and near live poker tournament results.

Michael Heindel, owner of LocalPokerTour.com says "By providing a frequently updated blog of my online poker tournament play we hope to help others quickly build practical experience."

Books teaching poker strategy can only go so far. Intuition and judgment come from actual tournament play.

By Alex Tanner -

US sports TV channel ESPN has launched its own poker website, signing up more than 30,000 users in its first week.

The company is the latest to launch into the burgeoning online poker sector, and is a natural brand extension for the channel which already screens TV programmes such as the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker.

MIAMI BEACH, Florida (AP) -- The visions could not be more different.

People who want Las Vegas-style slot machines in South Florida insist they will create jobs and pump money into schools. Opponents believe they will transform a family friendly destination into a gambling mecca with more crime and other social ills.

Voters in the state's two most-populous counties, Miami-Dade and Broward, will decide Tuesday whether to allow slot machines at the seven dog and horse racetracks and jai-alai frontons that already have pari-mutuel gambling.

By Pete Harrison -

LONDON (Reuters) - British online betting firm ukbetting Plc launched a new poker site on Friday, boosting its shares, as a new report predicted the global online poker market could double in 2005.

Technological advances have made online gambling one of the few financial success stories for Internet businesses.

"In the last year the arrival of broadband Internet connections has really made online gambling potentially a very, very big business," ukbetting Chairman Peter Dubens told Reuters.

LAS VEGAS – Harrah's Entertainment Inc. has suspended the operations of an online gambling site based in the United Kingdom after posting losses of $9.3 million last year.

The move marks the second time a major Las Vegas casino company has tried and failed to tap into the lucrative Internet gambling market.

The former site, called LuckyMe, was introduced in November 2003 for British bettors and was suspended in October 2004, the company disclosed Tuesday in its annual report to shareholders.

By Andrea Downer -

DESPITE STRONG arguments of the benefits to be derived from casino gaming in Jamaica, most Jamaicans are still staunchly opposed to the idea.

A Don Anderson poll, commissioned by The Gleaner, found that 56.7 per cent of Jamaicans are against the introduction of casino gaming while 42 per cent want the dice to start rolling.