The proactive monitoring of individual gamblers through big data analytics – motivated by the need to identify and protect problem gamblers – has been questioned by Sweden’s Data Inspection Board, even where such surveillance is conducted with players’ implied consent. Focusing on the anti-problem gambling Playscan software developed and deployed by state gambling monopoly Svenska …
Swedish online games developer Quickspin has wound up a busy year with the release of Second Strike, a ten pay-line online slot with a theme inspired by the classic fruit machines of old, but with an up-to-the-minute bonus feature. The feature, from which the game derives its name, adds symbols to the reels if the …
Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment and GVC Holdings issued simultaneous statements Tuesday advising the public that their respective shareholders have at separate extraordinary general meetings approved the agreement for the two groups to merge under GVC management. The statement notes that completion of the acquisition remains subject to satisfaction or waiver of certain other conditions set out …
Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s Restoration of America’s Wire Act came in for yet another media panning this week when the Washington Times ran an article by Bruce Fein of the Liberty Perspective. Attacking Chaffetz’s claim that the commerce clause in the US Constitution justifies federal interference in states’ rights to control gambling activity within their borders, …
Pennsylvania House staffers working for Representative John Payne have advised the online publication Card Player that Payne’s HB649 online gambling legalisation proposal, held up by state budget disagreements and late amendments will not be voted on this year despite having successfully progressed through the committee stage (see previous reports). The bill is now on the …
The big money flowing in fantasy football competitions was again much in evidence this week when the FanDuel World Fantasy Football Championships concluded at a luxury hotel in San Diego, with the winner taking home $3 million and two runners-up rewarded a million dollars apiece. To compete in the finals players won one of 120 …
A new study commissioned by the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation in Australia and covering the convergence of gambling and gaming in digital media has been published by an academic team led by Dr. Sally Gainsbury of Southern Cross University. The project explored implications for young people flowing from the growing convergence between digital gaming and …
The UK Gambling Commission has announced that beginning February 15 2016 there will be a European Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform, which will allow consumers, traders and Accredited Dispute Resolution providers to file, respond to, and handle disputes (including disputes where the trader and consumer are in different countries within the EU) online. The launch …
Figures released Monday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement show that Atlantic City casino win was $204.3 million in November, a disappointing year-on-year increase of 0.9 percent that could have seen a decline if it were not for revenues generated by the internet gambling operations of the casino companies. The eight remaining operators …
Back in July this year Ladbrokes Australia felt sufficiently threatened by the authorities on its interpretation of laws against in-play betting that it withdrew its “click to call” in-play betting facility, but the company has now resumed the service after reviewing failed enforcement activity by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Our readers will recall …
A 57-year-old divorced grandmother and book keeper lived the high life as a VIP online gambler but in reality obtained her money through defrauding her employers, and earned just GBP 3,000 a month, a UK court in Maidstone was told this week. Caroline Dumont was convicted of stealing almost a million pounds from the companies …
According to the Spanish national gambling regulator Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), the introduction of online slots has contributed to encouraging third quarter improvement for the internet gambling sector. Online gambling revenues were up 36 percent y-o-y to Euro 84.2 million, the regulator said, acknowledging that the introduction of slots to 20 licensees …
For the second time in the last few months the progressive jackpot on Yggdrasil’s Joker Millions has been hit, this time by a German player who was awarded Euro 460,052 in a lucky early Christmas present. The first progressive jackpot game launched by Yggdrasil, Joker Millions was won just eight days after it was launched …
British online games supplier Realistic Games has launched what it claims are the world’s two most popular blackjack side bet games. Perfect Pairs and 21+3, which are both licenced by table games specialist Games Marketing, are proven performers in land-based and online casinos around the world, a company spokesman said Monday, claiming that as well …
Online gambling games developer ELK Studios has announced the imminent launch (on December 16) of its latest slot, titled DJ Wild and featuring a disc jockey theme with attendant music over the sound effects. DJ Wild is a classic 5 reel, 3 row DJ video slot featuring Respins, Sticky Wilds, Expanding Wilds and a Jackpot …
The games development studio of online gambling software provider Playtech plc has launched a premium branded online slot game inspired by the smash-hit Jim Carrey comedy, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. The game has a dynamic 243 Ways-to-Win format where players uncover missing animals which, when collected and combined, unlock bonus rounds including ‘Animal Modifiers’ and …
Robbie Cooke, the CEO of gambling group Tatts in Australia started the week by assuring local media that there is very little support among Aussie punters for online in-play betting, and criticised international gambling groups pushing for the genre to be legalised. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Cooke said there was little evidence that …
Spicing up the weekend was a speculative report in the Huffington Post claiming that Las Vegas Sands billionaire owner Sheldon Adelson – renowned for his fanatical opposition to online gambling – may be the power and the money behind the recent acquisition of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and its sister publications. The sale of the …
Malaysian police continued a round of renewed anti-online gambling raids (see previous reports) over the weekend, arresting over two hundred people and seizing computers and other evidence. A police spokesman in Kuching revealed to local media outlets that provincial and district Criminal Investigation Departments have intensified action against cyber gambling throughout the province of Sarawak. …
Moves to beef up supervision of the use of China UnionPay cards in Macau pawn shops – long believed to be a workaround on China’s stringent currency controls by gamblers – could prove to be another blow to the struggling gambling island, say industry observers. The Macau Monetary Authority has just confirmed that it is …
Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands land casino group in the USA is on another purge of online casinos illegally using its trademarks and titles, it appears from filings in the US District Court for Nevada. Following the filings, U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon ordered web-hosting company GoDaddy.com and internet registrar Domains by Proxy LLC to …
The UK Responsible Gambling Trust (RGT) has announced that it has commissioned independent research company Sophro Ltd to complete a study of online gambling behaviour which will investigate the causes of harm in online gambling. The research is the third strand to be announced from the independent gambling charity’s £750,000 eighteen-month programme of research into …
The national police in China have reported the successful conclusion of a major anti-online gambling operation that has included raids in the Hunan and Guangdong provinces to break up major online gambling networks which spokesmen claim handled around US$78 billion in wagers. Police reported the arrests of 98 individuals in the raids, which shut down …
The ink was barely dry on New York judge Manuel Mendez’s order restraining daily fantasy sports firms DraftKings and FanDuel from operating in New York state (see previous report) when the two companies launched appeals…and they were successful, with an appeals court lifting the temporary Mendez injunction until the legality of DFS can be properly …