Taiwan police have announced the arrest of 45 individuals for operating an illegal online and mobile betting ring that allegedly generated revenues in excess of $40 million. The Agence France Presse news agency reports that wagering included bets on the outcome of local elections as well as sports and lottery activity. The arrests followed police …
The international appeal of UK Premier League football has again been illustrated by a Mail on Sunday report that sales of overseas television rights are set to jump by 50 percent for 2016-2019. Much of that revenue will be generated in Asia, the newspaper reports, noting that the League is in the closing stages of …
After two months on the run from multi-million dollar online gambling charges in New York, Andres Arriaga (41), a resident of Valencia (an affluent neighbourhood of Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County) surrendered to New York police, a spokesman confirmed this week. Radio station KHTS reports that Arriaga was able to escape arrest after an …
Mark Cuban, shrewd multi-billionaire investor and owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks franchise, offered some interesting predictions in an exclusive interview with Fortune this week, revealing that he is an eSports fan, believes the legalisation of gambling in the United States is inevitable, and has invested in virtual reality. His investments in these fields include …
The $46 million acquisition of eSports company Major League Gaming last year by Call of Duty and Hearthstone developer Activision Blizzard (see previous reports) is in the headlines again as stakeholders bridle at the lack of consultation. The publication eSports Observer reports that MLG co-founder and CEO Sundance DiGiovanni has stepped down and departed, leaving …
In California, the legislature’s Government Oversight Committee has given priority to a January 6 hearing on three bills proposing the intrastate legalisation of online poker, daily fantasy sports and sports betting. Assembly committee chairman Adam Gray’s AB1437, titled the Internet Fantasy Sports Game Protection Act will be among the bills up for discussion and was …
The Massachusetts state lottery has wasted no time getting its online gambling plans into gear, issuing a request for information from interested companies Tuesday. The public notification invites organisations to “…submit proposals for the development, implementation, operational support, and maintenance of a Massachusetts Lottery iLottery System … and the development and integration of digital versions …
If the New York Attorney General’s court action against daily fantasy firms FanDuel and DraftKings goes his way it could prove an expensive loss for the two companies. AG Eric Schneiderman upped the ante this week by filing amendments to his charges which additionally ask the courts to order the DFS companies to refund all …
Florida media reports indicate that FanDuel and DraftKings have boosted their lobbying and political donations program in the state in an effort to legalise the pastime. In 1991 a Florida attorney general opined that fantasy sports leagues in which participants pay an entry fee and potentially win cash are illegal, and state Senate President Andy …
Figures for December 2015 released Friday by the Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau show that revenue for the last month of 2015 dropped 21.2 percent from a year earlier to 18.3 billion patacas, the 19th straight month of decline. The dismal December also meant that on an annual basis Macau fell for the second …
In what must be among the worst tough luck gambling stories this year an elderly UK couple claim that they missed out on a GBP 35 million lottery jackpot just before Christmas due to a faulty app. Edwina (55) and David Nylan (60) have had a Camelot lottery online account and have been buying their …
Global Betting and Gaming Consultant’s Warren Bartlett has developed a reputation for accuracy in his annual predictions for the online gambling industry, and this year he has published his crystal ball findings on a wide range of likely developments which include: 1. The UK point-of-consumption tax was forecast to raise £280 million in its first …
Betfair CEO Breon Corcoran’s remarkable success in turning the Betfair online gambling group around and negotiating its merge with Paddy Power has been acknowledged by the UK Sunday Times, which has named him “Business Person of the Year 2015”. In an interview with Corcoran, Times writer Peter Evans notes his success in halting the decline …
According to the Boston Herald, the Massachusetts State Lottery is hoping to add fantasy sports and other online games in a drive to remain competitive with land and online casinos. Lottery executive director Michael Sweeney told the newspaper Wednesday: “I have a business that is not allowed to be online and can only accept cash. …
The usually well-informed and reliable Online Poker Report writer Chris Grove has tweeted that the California Assembly’s Government Organisation Committee has scheduled a meeting on the legalisation of online poker, sports betting and daily fantasy sports for January 6 2016, getting the year’s gambling initiatives off to a fast start in California. The tweet links …
Gaming regulators in Nevada and Pennsylvania, where multi-billionaire casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson has gambling interests, will be monitoring his family’s $140 million acquisition of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the publication reported this week. Nevada Gaming Control Board chairman A.G. Burnett told Journal reporter Howard Stutz that Nevada gaming regulations and the state’s public policy covering …
Latest figures for November 2015 released by the Nevada Gaming Control Board Wednesday show that casino win was up 7.8 percent year-on-year. Nevada casinos kept $944.3 million of gamblers’ wagers in November thanks to slot machines, the calendar and a record month for sports betting, the regulator advised. NGCB analyst Mike Lawton told Associated Press …
It’s been the busiest year for gaming-industry consolidation since 2005, and the wave of mergers and acquisitions isn’t over yet, Bloomberg business news reported Wednesday. In an assessment of the coming year, the publication notes that governments are pushing taxes and regulatory costs upward at a time when companies are competing for new customers, and …
According to a report Wednesday in the Toronto Star, the Canadian government’s IT division Shared Services Canada is shopping around for a new “unified threat management” program to combat civil servants accessing inappropriate websites – including online gambling operations – during working hours. The specifications for the new platform include “…everything from pinpointing individual Internet …
Malaysian police detained 20 men and seized 127 computers during an operation on seven gambling premises in the capital Kuala Lumpur and Selangor regions Tuesday, a police spokesman has confirmed. The operation was part of the massive and ongoing Operation Dadu, and seven different locales were raided between late afternoon and late at night. Police …
28-year-old Northern Irish woman Stephanie Harkin has won GBP 100,000 on a scratch card bought whilst shopping for presents for a school festive season celebration. The Northern Irish woman told reporters this week that her she struck it rich just before Christmas. Describing the circumstances that brought her such good fortune, Stephanie told local reporters …
It may be awhile before Ohio follows states like New York and Illinois in deciding whether daily fantasy sports are illegal or not…state lawmakers revealed in their annual report this week that they have not yet completed a detailed consideration of the issue but plan to mull it further in the new year. The State …
In an announcement by its chairman, Bobby Walkup, the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma has advised its intention – subject to legality – to enter the online gambling sector in collaboration with Florida-based technology firm Universal Entertainment Group. Our readers may recall that Universal Entertainment Group was also involved in the abortive Pokertribes.com initiative launched unsuccessfully …
Another would-be US president with anti-online gambling positions has dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination in next year’s presidential election. The Reuters news agency reports that former New York governor George Pataki (70) on Tuesday ended his long-shot bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination saying: “While tonight is the end of …