May 2005 Archives

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao, May 31 /PRNewswire/ -- With Lance Armstrong announcing that this year's Tour de France will be his final race, expectations are that he'll retire as the only seven time winner of the event. Although many believe that he'll continue his reign in the world's most grueling cycling event, PinnacleSports.com has listed Lance Armstrong as an underdog to win the 2005 Tour de France.

The Internet's largest sports betting site, PinnacleSports.com believes that Armstrong's historic career will end with disappointment, listing the six-time champion at 4/5 odds to lose his final race.

Officials wait for owner of ticket bought in Idaho to come forward

BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Someone who bought a Powerball lottery ticket here over the weekend has won a $220.3 million jackpot, the 10th largest jackpot ever awarded by the multistate lottery, officials said Sunday.

Nobody stepped forward to claim the prize as of late Sunday afternoon, and the Lottery office will be closed Monday in observance of Memorial Day, Idaho Lottery spokeswoman Patricia Wellman said.

One of the biggest issues in the history of online gambling was reported by the Jill Salinger, editor in chief at www.worlds-best-online-casinos.com recently, and it promises to make waves in the entire online gambling industry. The online casino business is worth a lot of money, and more and more companies are getting into the gambling business in order to make a ton of money!

(PRWEB) May 27, 2005 -- Empire On-line recently announced that it was considering going public in the London stock exchange, by the advice of the investment bank. As fantastic as it may sound, the company is expected to be issued to the tune of one billion dollars, and profits are expected to rise accordingly.

Bodog.com, one of the most popular online casino and betting sites in the US, has big plans for the Indy 500. The main event sponsored by Bodog.com will be the “Miss 500 Hawaiian Tropic Pageant” which will include a Pre-race VIP party. VIPs at the May 28th event will include celebrities, models, and top drivers.

CEO and Founder of Bodog.com, Calvin Ayre, said that the company is concerned with increasing its visibility. He said that online casino gamblers would feel more secure after having the opportunity to see managers and operators in real life.

By John Walters -

"The Internet is for porn."
--Lyrics from the eponymous song featured in the Broadway play Avenue Q

For college-aged men, the most popular clandestine pastime on their PCs may no longer involve Danni Ashe or Cindy Margolis. No, if Trekkie and the rest of the inhabitants of Avenue Q were to reprise their tune, the lyrics might read, "The Internet is for poker."

by Tom LaMarra -

The pari-mutuel industry, which has hired legal specialists to deal with the ramifications of a recent World Trade Organization ruling, must now deal with the reincarnation of legislation to effectively ban Internet gambling by making financial transactions illegal.

The effort to ban Internet gambling began on Capitol Hill in the late 1990s but has repeatedly stalled in Congress. The pari-mutuel industry has been able to get language included that protects account wagering, but the latest bill, again being pushed by Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, doesn't exempt the industry from the ban.

By Norm Frauenheim -

When the horses reach the gate Saturday for the Preakness Stakes, there will be only one sure thing: Online gambling sites will handle a lot of the wagering.

For the horse tracks, Internet gambling is both a frustration and a threat.

"It's illegal and not everybody knows that," Turf Paradise General Manager Randy Fozzard said.

Gamblers, who normally struggle to keep their heads above water in Macau, could soon be able to gamble at the island's first underwater casino.

The 'City of Dreams' complex, consisting of 450 gaming tables and 3,000 slot machines, will open in 2008.

The former Portuguese colony is cultivating a reputation as the Asian Las Vegas with a welter of new casinos and hotels under development.

By Herbert Lowe -

A major illegal sports-gambling ring based in Queens and Costa Rica and controlled by the Bonanno organized-crime family has been busted, authorities announced Wednesday.

The operation allegedly handled each day up to 2,000 bets, totaling nearly $500,000 -- and more than $360 million over more than two years, officials said.

SHANGHAI, China (UPI) -- Shanghai police detained 1,300 people in raids on nightclubs, Internet cafes and homes in a crackdown on illegal gambling, the Shanghai Daily said Wednesday.

More than 1,000 police officers took part in Tuesday`s raids, the newspaper said. They arrested at least two people on a national wanted list, accused of organizing gambling on the Internet. They also seized 17 vehicles and eight gambling machines.

The raids are part of a crackdown on city crime launched at the beginning of May, and also of a nationwide crackdown on gambling begun early this year.

As Internet gambling grows, two companies consider IPOs on the London market. But some U.S. institutions are still a bit wary.

By Matthew Garrahan, Financial Times -

LONDON — With its red telephone boxes, British bobbies on the beat and quaint period charm, Gibraltar is the last place you would expect to find a fast-expanding Internet industry.

Gibraltar, after all, is where Nelson launched his campaign to defeat the Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in 1805.

By Amit Asaravala -

Drew Black, director of marketing for online casino GoldenPalace.com, doesn't care what you think about his company's decision to spend $28,000 on a grilled-cheese sandwich bearing the likeness of the Virgin Mary.

He's just glad that you're thinking about it.

Black is one of the masterminds behind the unorthodox marketing campaign that has transformed GoldenPalace.com from a little-known casino into a household name.

Kenneth P. Vogel -

The state Horse Racing Commission agreed Thursday to license an Internet gambling company that for years had been illegally accepting millions of dollars in bets from Washington residents.

The license allows California-based Youbet.com to accept online bets on horse races around the country from Washingtonians and requires the company to give the state’s horse racing industry a cut of each bet. The company had been illegally taking roughly $12 million a year in bets from state residents, according to the commission.

By James Bennett -

Betting exchange could move operations offshore if 'punitive' tax laws are enforced by the UK Treasury

One of Britain's leading online betting exchanges, Betfair, is considering relocating its operations from the UK to Malta in anticipation of new tax laws being introduced on its revenues.

An online casino that bought Pope Benedict XVI's old Volkswagen Golf automobile for €189 000 ($242 000) in an online auction has said it intended to take the car on the road "allowing people to enjoy the experience of sitting in the divine car" to raise money for charity.

Vatican sources said the pope does not have a driver's permit and probably never drove the car, which was sold to a German citizen for €9900 in January, and shot up in value after the pope's election last month.

By Roger Petterson -

You'd hardly know it to look at the place, but Las Vegas claims to be 100 years old this year. Why not plan a little vacation trip to help celebrate?

The big day is May 15, and you can learn more by going to the city's official Web site -- www.visitlasvegas.com -- and clicking on the red Centennial button. Next, go back to the main page and hit "Special Offers" to see what sort of hotel deal you can put together for the dates of your stay. If nothing grabs your fancy there, go to "Stay" for links to all the hotels, and check the maps to see where everything is located.

Online games group Gaming Corporation has bought Gambling.com, the search portal for online gaming sites.

Gaming Corp said it would pay $20m for Newbold, owner of Gambling.com, through $15.3m in cash and $4.7m in new shares.

Formed in 1997, Gambling.com provides a search portal for users looking for casino, poker, and sports betting sites.

US online casino Golden Palace has paid for Britney Spears’ alleged home pregnancy test.

“It’s hard to put a price on Britney Spears’ urine,” Golden Palace spokesman Drew Black said.

Golden Palace says it bought the test from Ottawa radio station Hot 89.9, which insisted the test was retrieved from the rubbish outside Spears’ Los Angeles hotel room months ago.

(PRWEB) May 3, 2005 -- With so many amendments to the Gambling Bill prior to Prime Minister Blair announcing the election you could be forgiven for not being completely up to speed with the changes that have taken place.

This conference has been designed not only to ensure that your business in compliant but to make sure that you can take advantage of the business opportunities that the new law allows.

We have assembled the brightest people in the UK to advise you.

With the burgeoning popularity of online gambling, many online casino and gambling companies are reporting record growth rates. Although some naysayers have predicted that the online gambling market will begin to slow in the coming years, Global Betting and Gaming Consultants (GBGC) expects just the opposite trend.

Warwick Bartlett, GBGC’s Lead Partner attributed this surefire continued growth to "the advent of 3G cell phones, faster cheap broadband, plus the forthcoming developments in Interactive Television where the TV will become the computer." With these new developments increasing players' online gambling options, "betting will be so easy from your own home that future growth is assured,” he continued.