Showing results for: ""
The credit-crunch has kicked in and online casinos are already feeling the pinch. Ordinary folks simply have less disposable income with which to gamble, but online casinos are targeting technology and convenience as a way to lure and retain their customers. On the move Online casinos realize that industry profits are declining, but they're not ready to take it lying down. An exciting and innovative strategy aimed at drawing more customers into online gambling is already in the works. The 5th Annual Mobile Gambling Summit recently held in London concluded that it is possible to increase revenues from blackjack, poker, roulette and other games through use of handheld devices, within a calendar year. Mfuse arrives Britain is eager to kick things off with new casino and bingo mobile phone applications and Mfuse is one such gaming developer. The project has been given tremendous momentum by the extraordinary volumes of mobile betting - something that has investors excited at tapping this market even further. The clock is ticking for the techno-gurus to deliver. Whereas other forecasts went sour in days gone by, a new generation of tech-minded adults will likely give added value to the innovative concepts. Mobile gambling is set to soar through use of these applications. With 3rd quarter earnings lagging behind 2007 levels by a margin of almost 5%, online casino operators are looking forward to this bright prospect to draw people back.
Everest Gaming has grown a lot with the industry, since it was first established in 1997. Today it operates 8 online gambling brands, no less, the most famous of which is Everest Poker. Everest's VP for Online Marketing Bill Yucatonis was a guest lecturer at Affilicon, which provided us with the chance to talk to him about Everest's products, marketing strategies and the industry at large. One key element for Everest Gaming's success, as Bill tells us in the interview, is localization, i.e. designing and refining online casinos and poker rooms (and bingo and others too) for different countries, languages and preferences. Other topics addressed in the interview include: the Affilicon event and its significance to the online gambling industry, hurdles and challenges the industry needs to prepare in the coming year or two, and the different Everest brands.
Cathy Wilkes' "Mannequin on a toilet seat" is officially the Turner Prize's least popular betting option ever, according to UK bookmaker William Hill. The Glasgow-based artist's entry in the Turner Prize, a competition for visual artists under 50 that is probably Britain's most publicized art award, failed to attract even a tenner before betting closed Monday. "The biggest bet we have taken on Cathy is just £7.99, she is the worst backed artist in Turner Prize history. If she wins we will have our best ever result," said William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams. Other odds Film Studies professor Mark Leckey closed into evens before the close of betting, following by Runa Islam, 5/2, and Goskha Macuga, 4/1. Wilkes was 4/1, but obviously this was not enough to attract any interest. This year is one of the few occasions in the prize's 20-year history that three of the four nominees for the £25,000 award have been women. The winner of the prize was set to be announced live on Monday night on Britain's Channel 4. Jury chair Stephen Deuchar said "the prize is there not to award the most competent artist at work today, but to draw attention to what the jury considers new developments."
Mobile gambling enables users to play all the traditional and not-so-traditional gambling games via their mobile phones. If online gambling made the world of gambling wake up from its slumber, then mobile gambling is likely to set the gambling world alight. Online gambling enabled gaming fans to participate in their favourite games, but gambling from your mobile phone is about to take the market by storm. In the good old days, gamblers had to gain memberships to exclusive casinos, or else they had to trek out to the horse or greyhound track. Advances in Internet technology brought the gambling experience to everyone's living room. Now, through the wonders of the mobile telephone, everyone has access to the world of gambling, anywhere and any time. With virtually every adult in the Western world owning a mobile handset, the potential marketplace is quite enormous. With mobile technology advancing in leaps and bounds, linking into the gambling game of your choice is only a few simple keystrokes away. There are even some visionaries who foresee the day when physical casinos and racetracks will become a thing of the past, with all gambling being performed electronically. Mobile gambling offers users ease of use and the luxury of gambling on a 24-7 basis. Without the restrictions of attending brick and mortar gambling establishments, punters will now be freer to experiment and enjoy a far broader gambling experience than they had been exposed to before.
"The 60 Minutes and Washington Post stories demonstrate unambiguously that the existing government prohibition on Internet gambling is a failure and a mistake," says Jeffrey Sandman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative in an official statement. The recent coverage on CBS News flagship news program 60 Minutes and in The Washington Post on the state of online gambling in the US, where the market is left unregulated and the players left unprotected, has drawn some comments in the industry. Plenty to gain "It is clear that a different approach is necessary to protect consumers," said Sandman. He then mentioned another reason the market should be regulated, invoking "the billions of tax dollars currently lost to offshore gambling operators and out of the US economy." The Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative is a supporter of the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007, introduced by Rep. Barney Frank. Sandman regrets that the consumer protections and other safeguards, addressed in the IGREA bill, were left out of the 60 Minutes article.
Tony G Poker is promoting the weekly Sunday Bike Ride on December 7th at 18:00 GMT and you're all invited to take part. Tony G will be there, playing live with other players With a whopping $1,000 prize-pool and a freeroll can it get any better? $250 Bonus Poker players - you will be thrilled to know that if you are one of the lucky ones able to knock Tony G out of the poker tournament, you'll be credited with a chunky $250! That reward is the value of the 'On Ya Bike' bounty that TonyGPoker is offering in addition to that fat $1,000 prize-pool. What else? All you got to do is to make your First Deposit to be able to join in the action. To enjoy the Sunday Bike Ride tournament you have to be a depositing player. If you happen to be the skilled person to knock the G out of the tournament, you'll be credited with your $250 the day after it's all done and dusted. But Tony G will have a little something special sent to your home address - an autographed Tony G t-shirt! On Ya Bikes!
Rwanda's push to shrug off its traumatic past has been aided by opening of its first casino, which began operating on a trial basis on November 12. The Kigali Casino, located at Top Tower Hotel in Kacyiru, a suburb of the capital Kigali, will employ 150 people in total. It was originally meant to open on October 21st but that was postponed due to the late arrival of some key equipment. The casino is operated by Lotto Rwanda and is certified by a reputable international accounting and consultation firm. It features seven gaming tables, including roulette, blackjack and poker, in addition to 30 slot machines. It will also offer a prize of 3 million Rwanda francs (US$5,460) in a weekly competition to all people who buy a 300 Rwandan franc (55c) ticket. Known for the wrong reasons A small landlocked country of 10 million people in east-central Africa, Rwanda has received considerable international attention because of its 1994 genocide, which claimed the lives of between 800,000 to one million ethnic minority Tutsis at the hands of Hutu militias. This was preceded by a three-year civil war at the beginning of the 1990s. Rwanda has been quickly rebuilding since the cessation of hostilities in the Congo Wars, which followed the genocide. The government has made moves in the last few years to transform the country from an agricultural-based economy to a knowledge-based economy, including plans to provide nationwide high-speed broadband. Break from troubled past The casino is yet another example of this rapid development that hopefully ensures Rwanda never returns to the horrors of its past.
A Pennsylvania casino could lose up to $7 million after it mistakenly mailed an offer of $500 in slot-machine playing credits to 55,000 customers. Hollywood Casino, situated at the Penn National Race Course in Grantville, Pennsylvania, announced Monday it would partially honor the mistaken offer. The mistake had already been reported by local broadcaster WGAL-TV. Coupons The mailing offered $100 a week in free credits from December 1 through to January 4, plus two free visits to the casino's buffet, said a Penn National spokesperson. The casino has said it will honor one $100 credit for each mistaken recipient, as well as the two buffet passes, if they are redeemed by Christmas Day on December 25. The offer was only supposed to have been received by the casino's 1,000 most active customers, but the mistake was made with the direct mailing business used by the casino. Millions If all 55,000 customers claim their one week of credit and the buffet voucher, the casino will lose around $7 million, a big improvement on the $29 million the casino stood to lose if it honored the entire mistaken offer of five weekly $100 credits. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said Penn National notified it of the error on Saturday, and that its investigators would also look into whether the casino breached any regulations in its handling of the matter.
Olympic swimming champion and well-known poker player Michael Phelps has been spotted at the poker tables once again, this time over the Thanksgiving weekend. The record holding 14-time gold medalist lost thousands of dollars on 10-20, no-limit holdem at Atlantic City's Borgata Casino. He was back at the same casino the next day, where he was seen spending time with poker legend Doyle Brunson, reported the New York Post. Eat, swim, and play poker Phelps has fast become one of the most recognizable faces in the poker world. He has reportedly spent time in Las Vegas learning the tricks of the trade from Brunson with an eye to participating in the 2009 World Series of Poker. He also competed in the final table of this year's Caesars Palace Poker Classic. Brunson even wrote about Phelps in his blog in September, saying "Michael said all he wanted to do in life was to eat, swim and play poker." Phelps has even been dating an employee of Vegas' Palms Casino Resort for the last couple of months - 26-year-old Las Vegas cocktail waitress Caroline Pal. Pool shark, poker shark After being spotted playing at a London casino following his record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in August, we reported that Phelps was offered a place in the World Series of Poker Europe tournament.
We sat with a representative of leading casino affiliate program ReferBack a couple of months ago at CAP Euro Barcelona. Last week we had the chance to meet with another representative, this time at Affilicon, a new and exciting affiliate marketing event held in Israel. Lloyd Samassa, the Head of Acquisition for Carmen Media, here representing ReferBack, told us about the decision to travel to Israel for this event and meet many strong affiliates, which otherwise he would not have the chance to do. In following up on the previous interview we've held with ReferBack, Lloyd updated us on the success of Cool Hand Poker, a brand recently launched which is aimed at beginner and intermediate players. Also in the interview, Lloyd addresses the localization efforts that ReferBack is managing these days, to translate and market their brands into different languages and to different crowds.
Blackjack
Slots
Roulette
Baccarat
Craps
Poker
