Ireland’s repeatedly stalled online gambling tax has suffered another delay, taking it into the new year, according to a Reuters news agency report. The country’s minister of finance, Michael Noonan, updated parliamentarians in a statement published Sunday, reporting that a standstill period the tax legislation is currently subject to has been extended into January after …
Warwick Bartlett, a 40-year gambling industry veteran and respected gambling consultant with the Isle of Man-based Global Betting and Gaming Consultancy, has published his thoughts on what might lie ahead in 2015 for the online sector and developments that impact it. Bartlett likes the concept of cybercurrencies as a transaction medium that cannot be abused …
The Malaysian Home Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, reiterated this week the government’s intention to send its officials to China for training in anti-online gambling techniques (see previous reports). The minister recently visited his counterpart in China to cement relationships with the goal of better stamping out criminal activity. Malaysia and China have …
Canadian online punters have one less internet casino venue to visit following an advisory from the Vera&John Casino Friday, informing them that the company, recently acquired by the Toronto-based Intertain group as part of its acquisition deal with Dumarca Gaming, is withdrawing from the Canadian market. The advisory assured Canadian players that despite the short …
Online gambling banning attempts in the US through the Adelson-inspired Restoration of America’s Wire Act may have failed in this year’s Congressional session, but they will be back on the agenda in a Republican-controlled federal legislature next year…and the influential and veteran Nevada Senator Harry Reid will support the attempt in the hope that he …
The Committee of Advertising Practice, a UK body that specialises in advertising guidance and works closely with the Advertising Standards Association, has published a review of the evidence on gambling advertising and its impact on young people and problem gambling behaviour, advising operators to take all reasonable steps to avoid targeting the under-aged. CAP says …
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement released the state’s gambling statistics for November 2014 Friday, presenting a set of figures that show another sizeable decline in year-on-year revenue. Total gaming win from the Atlantic City casino resorts – including discontinued operators – came in at $202.5 million in November 2014 compared to $225.7 million …
Shares in the Montreal-based online gambling group Amaya Gaming Inc. plummeted 18 percent Friday after the company confirmed that Quebec’s securities regulator has launched an investigation into trading activity surrounding the $4.9 billion acquisition of PokerStars parent The Rational Group. Amaya’s offices were visited by members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and officials from …
Online gambling industry observers interested in the sudden disappearance of e-processor Liberty Reserve last year now know what happened to the company following a media statement from the US Justice Department. The Department advised Friday that Mark Marmilev (35), the chief technical officer at Liberty Reserve, had been jailed for five years for conspiring to …
Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management may be ruing the day it won an auction for Atlantic City casino firm Revel Entertainment on a bid of $110 million. The company subsequently issued a statement that it was walking away from the deal after a dispute with bondholders over debt from the construction of the casino’s costly power …
A Bloomberg business news story this week has revealed the expensive consequences of a politically-charged comment made in 2013 by land casino multi-billionaire and Las Vegas Sands owner Sheldon Adelson. Bloomberg takes its readers back to February 2014, when it says a sophisticated hacking attack crippled thousands of servers across the Las Vegas Sands’ network, …
Kenilworth Systems, a low value stock, technology company that industry veterans will recall has been dabbling with online and live dealer gambling projects for years without achieving too much success (see previous reports) has announced the sale of its patents-holding company to Interactive Systems Worldwide, Inc. Dan W. Snyder III, president and CEO of Kenilworth …
Out readers may recall that in March this year, Swedish online gambling software provider Net Entertainment signed an agreement with platform supplier GameAccount Network, which enables NetEnt to offer its PC and mobile content to a number of well-established operators in Italy. Friday saw the latest benefit to flow from that agreement as the software …
The Czech Republic-based online gambling games developer Endorphina has released its first games to established online casinos and sportsbooks, and says that more content deals are lined up, including with Bitcoin denominated operations. The young Prague start-up revealed this week that its games are now available on www.parasino.com , www.90dakika.com and www.playfrank.com. The company is …
SafeCharge, the e-processing company brought to the London market earlier this year by Israeli online gambling and property billionaire Teddy Sagi, continued its relentless growth this week with the $8 million acquisition of payment service provider CreditGuard. The acquisition is expected to complete in January 2015. David Avgi, the CEO at SafeCharge, said Friday: “CreditGuard …
Internet payment company Optimal Payments plc (parent group of Neteller) announced directorate changes Friday, including the departure of group CFO Keith Butcher. Brian McArthur-Muscroft (51) will succeed Butcher as CFO and director of the company, with effect from 1 January 2015. He has over 25 years’ experience of dealing with financial strategy, with the last …
An Austrian punter who ran up debts of Euro 800,000 over a four year period at land-based slot machines operated by the Novomatic company has exploited his addiction to gambling to win a court case. The compulsive gambler won a Euro 440,000 judgment in a Viennese court this week after a psychiatric evaluation was presented …
Swedish officials are playing their cards close to their chests on the identity of a major Swedish online gambling site that was the subject of massive Distributed Denial of Service attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. The attacks were so powerful that much of Sweden’s fixed-line broadband became collateral damage, impacting the broadband connections …
The ComeOn internet casino group, comprising ComeOn, Mobilbet, Suomikasino, Casinostugan and Folkeautomaten have all benefitted from a larger selection of games following the group’s deal this week with online gambling software provider BetSoft. The games now available include BetSoft’s Slots3 collection of 3D video slots and the ToGo line of mobile games, featuring favourites like …
Reports in the respected publication Forbes indicate that a posse of Canadian police and financial investigators made “unannounced” visits this week to the Montreal head office of the Amaya Gaming company, which recently paid $4.9 billion to acquire Pokerstars parent Rational Group (see previous reports). Entities involved in the visits included the Royal Canadian Mounted …
Scientific Games Corporation has announced the election of two new members to its Board of Directors. Richard M. Haddrill, former CEO of Bally Technologies, Inc. was elected as Executive Vice Chairman of the Board on December 4, 2014, and Judge Gabrielle K. McDonald was elected as a Director on October 30, 2014. “Scientific Games is …
The High Court in London has given the green light for the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association to proceed with a further judicial review against the UK government’s point-of-consumption tax legislation on internet gambling operators. Our readers will recall that earlier this year Mr Justice Green ruled against the trade association when it challenged the …
Legally operating online betting websites in Poland are pressing the Finance Ministry to beef up enforcement against unlicensed operators in the Polish market, claiming that nine out of ten online gambling transactions take place on the sites of unlicensed operators. Reporting on the issue, the publication Rzeczpospolita noted that over Euro 1.2 billion is wagered …
The complaint by a senior Hindu religious spokesman against the Merkur slot machine featuring a theme based on the six-armed Hindu god Lord Shiva has been supported by spokespersons from other religious groups. Earlier this week Rajan Zed, the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, called on Merkur’s parent Gausselmann Group to apologise for …