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The move was made in order to appease concerns of the company's newest client, the NCAA. The NCAA ( National Collegiate Athletic Association) is the governing body for U.S. collegiate sports. The organization opposes gambling on its events because of fears they can be tainted by organized crime and other illegal gamblers who prey on the impressionable students who compete in the games. Sportsline is also planning to sell its Las Vegas Sports Consultants in a move to unload the unit by the end of the year, a spokesman said. SportsLine, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, plans to turn its focus to managing the Web sites for the NFL and its 32 teams, the PGA Tour and the NCAA, with whom it announced a three-year deal in February. In its deal with the NCAA, SportsLine will consolidate the league's information about collegiate sports and championships onto one Web site. SportsLine also has exclusive rights to broadcast NCAA championships over the Internet. London-based Sports Information Ltd., which sells online sports gaming information in Europe and Asia, said VegasInsider.com, with its 60,000 daily unique visitors, has the highest traffic in the industry.
Huie, 31, of Oakland was sitting inside the Legendary Palace at 708 Franklin St. when someone outside the restaurant opened fire at about 11:50 p. m. Tuesday, police said. Huie was pronounced dead at Highland Hospital at 12:19 a.m. Wednesday. The assailant escaped. No one else inside the restaurant was injured. Huey was convicted two years ago for running a bookmaking operation from his home. He probably was not killed at random- "He was definitely the intended target," said Oakland homicide Lt. Jim Emery. Huie was on probation following a no-contest plea in 2001 for felony bookmaking as a result of an Oakland police investigation. He was also convicted in 1997 in federal court of conspiracy to assist in the illegal entry of aliens. In that case, federal prosecutors accused him of participating in a "large-scale international alien smuggling operation" after two boatloads of Chinese citizens came ashore on the West Coast. Oakland police arrested Huie in October 2001 after officers seized $35,000 from his bedroom closet and evidence of bookmaking, including audiotapes, sports journals and horse racing betting slips, according to court records. Also, $9,000 more was recovered at a parlor for mah-jongg and 13-card poker located above a bakery on the 300 block of Ninth Street in Oakland's Chinatown, When he was arrested, Huie claimed he was a self-employed construction worker. He blurted to an officer, "You never told me I couldn't keep the gambling parlor open. I'm only a small-time bookie," according to a report written by Officer Robert Chan of the gang unit. Records seized from Huie's home on East 25th Street showed that people bet anywhere from $100 to $5,000 per game on whatever sports were in season. "It's obvious that Chris Huie is involved in a large-scale and well-organized illegal bookmaking operation," Chan wrote.
The grand opening is set for Thursday this week. The Borgata will be the first new casino resort in Atlantic City in over a decade and the largest hotel in the area. The hotel will comprise 2010 guest rooms, 135,000 square feet of gaming, 11 restaurants, a 35,000 square foot spa, lounges, bars, shopping and entertainment facilities and 70,000 square feet of conference space. The Borgata's 135,000ft² gaming area will hold 145 gaming tables and 3,650 slot machines. Bally Gaming and Systems are supplying 30% of the slot machines as well as the ACSC (Advanced Casino Systems Corporation) integrated slot marketing and casino management system. The slot machines will include a variety of ProSlot® 6000 reel-spinning slots as well as both EVO VIDEO and EVO HYBRID games. More than 100 wide-area progressive and daily fee games will also include aggressive marketing programs designed to capitalize on the high-profile slot titles offered to Borgata. Being located in the US, Internet gambling is off the menu at the Borgata, despite the high-speed Internet access in each of the 2,002 rooms. There's also a wireless Internet system, which will be handy for laptop-wielding conventioneers.
Aspinalls Casino offered more than 40 games including more than 20 slot machines, and 8 video poker variations. The Jackpot Madness slot machines (Aspinalls participated in this jackpot-linked slots net) held the undisputed title for largest progressive jackpot payouts in the online gambling industry. With the software Aspinalls Casino used, they were one of the pioneers in internet gambling and their product was viewed as reliable and easy to use. They had an excellent reputation for strong customer service, honesty and satisfaction records. Aspinalls also have about forty years of brick and mortar experience behind it but that doesn't seem to have helped it move into the world of online gambling. Aspinalls have blamed the rise of the number of American banks and credit card companies rejecting transactions with online casinos. As a result they've had what they term a sharp deterioration in trading. Aspinalls online lost £1.5 million after sales plummeted. Aspinalls quickly decided that overheads needed to be reduced so they kept the shareholders happy by whipping out the accountant's axe. The online casino side of the business has been sold to Golden Palace, who are presumably managing to do a lot better.
However, a radical decision by Sky last month could bring a premature end to the gaming boom. British Sky Broadcasting is the operator of the UK's largest digital television platform and a leading broadcaster of sports, movies, entertainment and news. Sky digital offers movies, news, entertainment, sport and interactive services. The platform, which launched in October 1998, allows viewers to send emails, shop on screen, play games, select their own camera angles, vote, bookmark their favorite channels, place bets and manage their finances, and until today- gamble. Broadcasters, bookmakers, gaming operators and new digital TV companies have so far benefited from the success of interactive gaming, with one company, Avago, becoming an over-night success story simply by offering a pools-based numbers game with viewers able to play along and win just by pressing the red button on their remote and interacting with the presenter. Avago became profitable within three months from launch and has built up a loyal following of more than 100,000 paying viewers nationwide in less than a year. As well as offering its main numbers game, it has now expanded its red button interactive services to enable its viewers to play a range of games. However, it is the rise of channels such as Avago and the games that it and some of the other operators offer which forced Sky at the end of last month to issue a new policy statement, which effectively outlawed all casino-type games from the Sky platform. Last month in a letter to every operator on the platform, Sky company SSSL, which enables broadcasters and companies to run interactive services, made it clear that any games on the platform which could be considered gaming under the 1968 Gaming Act would not be allowed from July 21. This effectively prevents operators from running the lucrative roulette-based services, dice games, card games and any game which has been classified as a banker's game by the 1968 legislation. "Our intention with this decision is to ensure that SSSL remains within the law. At present SSSL risks committing a criminal offense if an illegal gaming service is made available through the Sky digiboxes, says a Sky spokesman. Even though the past 12 months have witnessed the emergence of pay-to-play gaming on digital television in a variety of forms including traditional betting, fixed odds numbers games, pools and casino-type dice and slot services, the growth of the sector has not been matched with new regulation. One of the main bones of contention across the industry is the difference between gambling and gaming and where the boundaries of each start. Under the 30-year-old laws, gaming is only permitted in a licensed premises such as a casino. So operators running online gaming services on the web have been forced to go offshore, while operators wanting to launch similar services on interactive television have relied on these grey areas by labeling them as fixed odds betting services. This move has caught the attention of the gaming regulators. According to the British Gaming Board secretary, Tom Kavanagh, some unnamed operators have been running what are essentially traditional gaming services "using bookmakers' permits". Amanda McCrystal is head of inter active TV for Littlewoods Gaming and is responsible for developing a number of betting and gaming services for ITV. She says that it is interesting that SSSL has acted when there is such a "lack of regulatory clarity in the market" and she warns that there will be some fall-out from the operators. There have also been questions asked about whether it is the place of a Sky company (SSSL) to enforce the law, especially as Sky itself offers its own soft-gaming services through its bookmaker, Sky Bet, which it insists will not be affected by the new policy. Interactive TV has become part of mainstream TV but so far the government has not introduced new legislation that will bring the regulation of this burgeoning sector into the 21st century. Interactive gaming and gambling was meant to be addressed in the gambling bill, which was launched with much fanfare last year. However, the government has now admitted that this bill is being split up so the much-needed legislation is expected to be delayed by up to a year. Kavanagh admits that any further delay will be bad for the industry, particularly with broadcasters and bookmakers launching gaming and gambling services almost on a daily basis on the Sky digital platform. The fact that there is so much uncertainty about what is and isn't allowed, means that this issue isn't going to go away until the much-needed new laws are introduced. Until then operators of gaming and gambling services on the Sky platform will continue to try to push both the technology and regulatory boundaries. Until it is challenged in a court it looks as if Sky will enforce its hard line stance - a move that will have an impact not only on the industry but also on the hundreds of thousands of TV viewers.
In a survey of 1,162 students on two- and four-year campuses across the nation, most students said the time spent with video games doesn't hurt their schoolwork or their relationships with friends. The study also found that, in keeping with current trends in social gaming technology, games are much more of a social activity than previously suspected. 65 percent of college students reported playing games regularly or occasionally. Perhaps one reason that gaming is, according to the Pew study, so integrated into college students' lives is that, as a group, college students are extremely digitally connected. In addition, this generation and the video game industry virtually grew up together; therefore the pervasiveness of game playing was no shock to researchers. A high percentage of respondents to the Pew study - 48 percent - admitted that gaming keeps them from studying "some" or "a lot." The Pew study also found that students take time between classes to play games, or play games as a very brief distraction from studying. Although 32 percent of student gamers admitted playing games on cell phones, hand-held devices or laptops during class, students reported no consequences on their grades. About two-thirds (66 percent) felt that gaming had no influence on their academic performance, according to the report, yet nearly half (48 percent) agreed that gaming keeps them from studying "some" or "a lot." The Pew study also smashes a few gender stereotypes about avid gamers, finding that slightly more women (60 percent) than men (40 percent) reported playing computer and online games. About the same number of men and women play video games.
At least one bingo hall official said he won't be able to operate under the new regulations. Seven bingo halls across the state are claiming that the new regulations are illegal. They have filed a lawsuit in Marion County Superior Court in Indianapolis asking it to grant a preliminary injunction to cancel the new regulations. Albert Beeks, secretary for the Eagles Fraternal Order No. 227 in Marion said his club for fiscal year 2003 had $2.1 million in income from bingo. Expenses for bingo supplies were $1.7 million. The rest goes toward utilities, food, and other bills. If they go on gross, it's going to hurt us real bad, said Beeks. According to the Marion County lawsuit, if those bingo operators did not renew their licenses, the state could lose more than $1.7 million in license fees and charities that benefit from bingo proceeds would lose more than $240 million. Also, the lawsuit alleges that the department overstepped its authority by telling bingo operators how to donate those proceeds.
Lambert Boissiere, D-New Orleans, would let Orleans Parish voters decide whether to let the Fair Grounds install the gambling machines. Similar measures have failed in other legislative sessions. Slot machines had been barred from the track because Harrah's casino was granted a monopoly on gambling in New Orleans. If approved by the full House, and then through referendum by New Orleans voters, the bill would allow the track to install up to 700 slot machines over the next two years. Slot machines already are in operation at Delta Downs in Vinton and Louisiana Downs at Bossier City. Slot machines also have been authorized for a new Evangeline Downs near Opelousas.
It will feature a 650-point local area network (LAN) area where gamers can plug in their own PCs and play against each other. The LAN will feature live commentary and other extras to help increase the profile of competitive gaming in the country, says Michael James, editor of New Age Gaming. Along with standard LAN games like Counter-Strike and Warcraft III, the event will also feature a retro-gaming arena. With this, we will offer players a fun area to play against each other with such classic games as Starcraft and Quake I. For those not interested in playing games, there will also be an anime theatre, pen-and-paper role-playing games and a gaming auction. According to James, the organiser is also negotiating with various student theatre companies to come up with plays that revolve around gaming. On the auction side, things are still evolving. We are in discussions with Vivendi Universal, Electronic Arts and MegaRom to get exclusive overseas items like autographed game posters and collector's edition titles for auction. The aim is to promote gaming in the country. We also need to show people what competitive gaming is all about. With the expo, we want to portray gaming as a spectator sport.
Many business owners were relieved when they found out that the gross receipts tax wasn't part of the Legislature's new $836 million tax plan signed into law last week by Gov. Kenny Guinn. But gaming industry officials said the new structure still asks their industry to pay the lion's share of the new tax package. The plan calls for a 0.5 percentage point increase in the gaming tax rate and a 33 percent tax increase in slot license fees. During a conference call with analysts last week, MGM Mirage Chairman Terry Lanni said the entire state Legislature should be recalled because of its handling of the tax issue. Like Lanni, Mike Sloan, senior vice president of Mandalay Resort Group and a member of the governor's tax task force, said the casino industry is disappointed the tax burden wasn't spread more fairly among Silver State businesses. Roger Buehrer, a spokesman for Southwest Gas Corp., said the company is analyzing the legislation to determine how much the company may incur in additional taxes. Taxes are considered operating expenses and are included in calculating rate changes, he said. Officials from Sprint Corp., the dominant local telephone service operation in Las Vegas, and Nevada Power Co., the dominant local electricity provider, said they were studying the legislation. Jeremy Aguero, principal of Applied Analysis and a member of the governor's task force, said small businesses will actually pay more now than with the tax package the task force had proposed. "It's an $80 million loss (in gross receipts), but the modified tax generates more, so it's a net gain," he said. "Does it have what the governor's task force had? No, absolutely not." Kevin Higgins, president of the Southern Nevada chapter of National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, said he was glad that the governor listened to his group's presentation of alternative tax proposals. "The increases across the board are going to affect everyone," Higgins said, "but there won't be a heavy burden on any one industry. By and large, I think we and other groups were pretty successful in defeating that (gross receipts)." The plan also increases taxes for cigarettes (45 cents per pack) and liquor (75 percent).
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