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It was recommended by the newly formed Ireland Casino committee to reform the outdated gambling laws to benefit from a lack of competition from other countries where online gambling is illegal, most notably the United States with the UIGEA bill in place. Formed in 2006, the Ireland Casino committee says that a "window of opportunity is present with the passing of recent United States prohibition of online gambling". They support regulating gaming sites in an effort to curtail minors accessing the games as well as possible criminal activities from taking place. Ireland's Minister of Finance, Brian Cowen is in favor, mentioning generous tax breaks and the ability to boost the country's financial standing in the European Union. Meanwhile, the Minister of Justice, Michael McDowell argued that not all Irish citizens are comfortable with the idea of legalizing online casinos. Reminding constituents that online casinos are far harder to regulate and control then land based casinos, he is staunchly against the reform. In 2007, it was formally declared that Dublin had become the top choice of location for North American companies to relocate, with the Irish capital proclaiming that in the first year, over 300 new jobs had been created. Scheduled for October 13 - 14th of this year, a conference to discuss the options set forth by the Committee will take place. Mainly, the discussion will center on the outdated laws stemming from 1956, which perhaps discourages future investors, and where to go from this point on. This conference will be attended by gaming industry chiefs, EU regulators, operators and gaming law experts. The Ireland Casino Committee has been lobbying for a change in the law following the release of an official report on the matter in July.
Not so long ago PartyGaming was the largest online poker room on the Internet. They were racking up record figures in number of players and dollars that were turning every one else green with envy. They seemed to be immune from collapsing economies and gambling bans. Now they too, are feeling the bite. Founded in 1997, PartyGaming is the world's leading listed online gaming company. In 2004, PartyGaming was the largest IPO on the London Stock Exchange. The group includes a number of secondary brands such as PartyPoker.com and PartyCasino.com, PartyBingo.com, PartyGammon.com, PartyBets.com and financial spread betting through PartyMarkets. But hard times, when they come, can put a damper on even the most thriving of companies. Betting, gaming and gambling are no exception. Following reports of disappointing financial results, PartyGaming, which has its head offices in Gibraltar, has announced it will be laying off up to a third of their Gibraltan staff. The news follows hot on the heels of an announcement by Bodog, another large gaming company which has just let go some 300 employees in North America. It seems that both companies are having a hard time recruiting new customers. The number of existing players has also dropped. Despite UIGEA which became law in 2006, some gaming companies are still active in the US. It was UIGEA that initially forced PartyGaming out of the American market where 80 percent of their customers were located. PartyGaming remains upbeat saying that they are already planning to introduce new posts in their Gibraltar office. The company currently employs around 320 in the European online gaming hub.
Gambling could bring the Philippines more foreign investments on a level similar to those of Singapore and Malaysia, Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila stated Monday. The Philippine Daily Enquirer has reported that Favila told the national House of Representatives of his support for plans to set up a gambling complex in the Philippines, saying that its two Asian neighbors have boosted foreign investment through similar projects. He pointed to statistics showing the advantage Singapore and Malaysia have over the Philippines in foreign investments. In 2007 the Philippines brought in around $2 billion in foreign investment, compared to Singapore and Malaysia with between $8-10 billion each, he said. Favila added that Singapore and Malaysia's success was a result of their decisions to engage in "new project activity, which is now more popularly referred to as entertainment and private gaming". The Arroyo government is currently working on the $15 billion Bagong Nayong Pilipino-Manila Bay Integrated City gambling project, the reincarnation of the now-failed $20 billion Pagcor Entertainment City. Gambling in the Philippines is a controversial issue, given the large Catholic population in the south Asian archipelago. Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz has been one of the main voices from the clergy speaking out against the project. "The Philippine Government is the official gambling lord -- a living reality that makes all upright and decent Filipinos wallow in disgust and shame", Cruz wrote in his blog. "To promote gambling for charity and humanitarian purposes, to build a $15-billion gambling city for the progress and development of the country...are but signs of desperation to deodorize and sanitize the downright vice of gambling -- with the present administration as its over-all boss." Favila acknowledged the Church's concerns, but said it was important not to miss out on the opportunity the project has presented.
Scientists in Geneva are attempting an underground experiment to re-enact the original Big Bang thought to have occurred at the dawn of creation. Many fear that the experiment will create a black hole which will suck up our entire planet. Christian, Islamic and Jewish leaders have all pleaded with the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) not to go through with the experiment after revealing that ancient scrolls have predicted the end of the world on the same day as the experiment is planned. The scrolls claim that on Wednesday September 10th 2008 - 'The Oceans will boil and the sky will turn black - from within the bowels of the earth will come a terrible fury - Armageddon comes and the doomsday arrives for all.' The bookies, meanwhile, are not letting a fear of the end of days interfere with business. Bookmakers Ladbrokes are offering odds on whether the world will end or not - for odds of 2-1 you can bet the world will end - one punter from Portsmouth is said to have placed a bet worth thousands. Bookies William Hill are offering punters a once in a lifetime opportunity to set their own odds for what many believe will be Doomsday Wednesday. They have already given one punter odds of 666,666,666/1 that there will be no Thursday.
When Sandra Preston, 42, walks out of jail in four to six months time, depending on her behavior, there will be quite a few people eager to talk to her. Among them will be her online bingo buddies, her boss from the Total petrol station in Driffield, England, who she stole from, the security people from Paypoint, the money transfer system she used to transfer £62,000 into her online Bingo accounts and perhaps a few family members. The operators of the Mecca Bingo and Foxy Bingo websites may be there as well, to implore her to come back to the bingo games. A regular loser, she was a valued customer. Preston has jailed for six months at the Hull Crown Court, after admitting the fraud at a previous hearing. She had told the court how she started gambling after her marriage failed. She had moved in with a friend whose mother was an online bingo aficionado. Preston too began playing bingo online and her debts soon spiraled out of control. The court was told how Preston started off by paying for her bingo activities herself, but lost heavily and got into debt. She then switched to using her credit cards. Finally, deep in money-trouble, she used PayPoint, a money transfer system to transfer money from the garage where she worked to online bingo websites. As she gambled her account would either be debited or credited with funds as she won or lost. Her plot fell apart when the garage owner sold the business and discovered the missing sums as he prepared the company accounts for the prospective buyer.
This week's online gambling news headlines brought to you by OCR Live! Poker jobs on the line Things have been going from bad to worse for the online poker firm PartyGaming since the UIGEA ban was passed in the US. They lost a staggering 80% of their online players and have this week announced their plans to cut up to a third of their staff from their Gibraltar office. Bingo player turned company thief A British woman became so hooked on online bingo that she stole a total of £62,000 from her employer. Sandra Preston, Manageress of a petrol station in the north of England, used the garage's payment system to transfer money to the Foxy Bingo and Mecca Bingo websites. Ms. Preston has now been sentenced to a six month prison term which should keep her well away from the online bingo hall. Poker star to address CAP Jamie Gold, winner of the biggest pot ever in World Series of Poker history, will be the keynote speaker at CAP Euro 2008. The online gambling conference is due to take place in Barcelona from the 25th - 28th September. Online Casino Reports will be reporting from the conference to bring you all the latest news and action from this high profile industry event.
Online casinos are predicted to be amongst the few beneficiaries of Hurricane Ike as it travels through the Gulf of Mexico towards the US. Forecasters are predicting that the hurricane will be hitting the Texas coast late Friday or early Saturday with the potential to cause large-scale damage. As most businesses brace themselves to cope with the threat of widespread destruction, online casinos are likely to benefit from the forced closures of land-based gambling establishments. Even if the casinos remain open the majority of players are unlikely to venture out in the face of serious weather conditions. "With online gambling as popular as it is, people don't need to come to the casinos anymore. When the weather is bad they just stay home and gamble online," comments Jim Forrester, a dealer at a large Louisiana casino. Casinos across Mississippi and Louisiana were shut for several days at the beginning of September due to the threat of Hurricane Gustav. More than a dozen casinos were destroyed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which devastated the two southern states.
It's not so easy to fix a broken reputation. That's what Nikolay Davydenko, the world's fifth-ranked tennis player is finding out. Davydenko is still under investigation by the Association of Tennis Professionals' governing body after a report from UK-based online bookmaker Betfair pointed out irregular betting patterns on a match in 2007. Heavy one-sided betting was a feature of Davydenko's early-round loss to a field player. Now Davydenko is facing tricky questions from reporters after bowing out in straight sets in the US Open to a low-rank player, Benjamin Becker. Davydenko finds himself being followed by speculation and rumor wherever he plays. He lost a match against Argentinian Martin Vassallo, Arguello in Sopot, Poland, in August 2007 and the rumors flew. Davydenko responded to this by saying that he had spoken to his wife in Russian on the center court during the match and thinks he may have said something like, "I don't want to play or I can retire". Davydenko suspects that the large Russian speaking crowd misunderstood his words. "I am physically and emotionally worn out by all this talk," he commented. No evidence has been collected against the tennis star. But will the problem go away? One of the measures that has been taken by the All England Club, which has managed Wimbledon since 1877, is the implementation of tough restrictions on access to the locker rooms. Other actions to limit or stop players from placing bets on the games will follow. Punishments too, will be jacked up to deter players from involvement in match-fixing. There is talk of life-bans and high fines for transgressors. A player who is approached by anyone in relation to match fixing is required to report the incident within 48 hours.
Holland's Senate has cleared a bill that would allow the government to place an exorbitant tax on companies offering online gambling, rather than ban them altogether. The bill, which applies to games of chance such as blackjack and craps, may also contain provisions targeting Dutch citizens who win at foreign online gaming sites. It would allow the Dutch government to tax services provided by foreign online operators, companies the government had previously deemed unlawful in order to protect the monopoly of the state-run Holland Casino. Several months ago the Dutch government asked banks to stop providing financial services to specific online casinos, such as Sweden's Unibet and the Dutch company Oranje Casino. Earlier this year the senate narrowly rejected an amendment to the Dutch Betting and Gaming Act that would have given Holland Casino a trial monopoly on online gaming. Holland, like many other European countries, has been running its state monopoly on gambling, in direct contrast to the European Union's regulations protecting free movement of trade and services. EU pressure has already led other member nations, such as Sweden, to make moves to sell of their gambling monopolies.
New Zealanders have just got their first online predictions market, which allows them to trade real money on predictions on future events such as elections. Established as a research tool by Victoria University in Wellington and the think tank ISCR, iPredict uses the predictions of its audience over the Internet to predict future outcomes. Its creators say it will also benefit companies. "iPredict is easy to use and fun but it has a serious side to it - it can really help make a difference to companies, agencies or community organizations in testing ideas and their likely take-up," said iPredict Chief Executive Matt Burgess. Burgess said iPredict works like a stock exchange, trading real money. "How it works is that contracts pay $1 if an event comes true - nothing otherwise - and the price these contracts trade for is the prediction. For example, you could have a contract that pays $1 if incumbent Helen Clark is the next Prime Minister, and pays nothing otherwise. If that contract trades for 60 cents, then the market's prediction is a 60% probability that Helen Clark will stay on as Prime Minister." Access to the iPredict website is free, but traders must be 18 years or older to set up their free account. With as little as NZ$5 (US$4), people can start trading. Similar long-term prediction markets have been operating in other countries since the 1990s. In 2007 companies from the USA, Ireland, Austria, Germany and Denmark formed the Prediction Market Industry Association, aimed at promoting prediction markets.
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