Gambling in India is a restricted activity. At present, the land-based gambling operations of horse racing, trackside at meetings and casino gambling are only permitted in the states of Goa and Sikkim. With regards to online gambling, neither the Public Gambling Act nor the IT Act of India specifically prohibit online gambling but it is considered to be illegal nonetheless.

It seems that the province of Sikkim is keen to licence online gambling in order to make the most of the huge revenues which the industry could proffer. Though Sikkim only has around 600,000 inhabitants, the rest of the population of India is enormous at around 1.2 billion people. Therefore, despite Sikkim not hosting such a great target audience, there is the likelihood that companies operating with licences in Sikkim would be able to accept bets from the other provinces of India.

Sikkim is looking to open the market to at least 3 companies from September 2010 – granting only a few licences to Indian and / or European companies, despite around 13 online gaming companies applying for a licence. Betfair and William Hill Online have recently submitted their applications for online gambling licenses to the province and there is word that Ladbrokes and 888.com are also interested.

Decisions on who should win these licences are due within the next couple of weeks.

Check out online pokies club in a couple of weeks for an update on the story, or even if you’re just interested in simply learning more about online gambling games like progressive slot machines

Back at the end of August 2009, we ran a news article on the situation with BetOnSports.com founder Gary Kaplan. Kaplan was extradited from Dominica back in March 2007 on charges of violating the RICO Statute and violating the Wire Wager Act of 1961, during the course of running his company, BetOnSports.com, which ceased trading in 2006, owing its customers over $16 million.

Since March 2007 Kaplan has been in prison and back in August 2009 agreed to plead guilty to charges of federal racketeering and other charges and forfeit $43.6 million. The sentencing of Kaplan was to be done on 27 October and would be between 41 and 51 months, minus the time already served.

The Justice Department announced the sentence on Tuesday of last week and it seems that Kaplan was given the maximum sentence of 51 months. Obviously, he’s already served much of this sentence and just under 2 years of it remains to be served. You have to give it to Kaplan’s attorneys for arguing for leniency and “home confinement” (!), but Acting US Attorney Michael Reap prosecuting the case, put forward an incontestable case to District Judge Carol Jackson. Judge Jackson said that Kaplan’s previous felonies of bookmaking and forgery and a “misdemeanour” demonstrated that he “continued to disrespect” the law. Despite the knowledge that his company’s actions of soliciting U.S. citizens to place sports wagers by phone and over the Internet directly from their accounts were illegal, he continued to break the law. She went on to say that;

“Mr. Kaplan made an educated decision, a gamble if you will. Now, here’s the payoff.”

In addition to Kaplan, 3 other top tier executives of BetOnSports.com have pleaded guilty to charges and will soon be sentenced. A fourth will be sentenced later.

In a somewhat dramatic statement, the Acting U.S. attorney in St. Louis, Michael Reap, said;

“Kaplan’s business model itself was built on a wager that the U.S. could not and would not enforce its anti-sports book laws to reach Kaplan. Today, Kaplan lost that wager.”

In addition to serving 51 months in jail, Kaplan was also ordered to; take substance and mental health counselling, gain his high school diploma and he was also told that he would never again be allowed to run his own company again without prior permission from the probation office.

For more news and information on the 10 best online casinos have a look at onlinepokiesclub.com

Bwin and the LPFP brought the case to the ECJ in response to the Portuguese government’s attempts to prosecute and fine both parties for “offering and advertising “games of chance” on the internet”. Had the case have been successful, it would have forced an opening up of the online gambling industry accross Europe, with an end result of preventing state governments from operating a monopoly in the online gambling industry.  Unfortunately for bwin and the rest of the online gaming industry however, the response of the European Union’s on Tuesday 8 September 2009 didn’t further the cause of the online gambling industry.  In a rather non-commital ruling, the European Court of Justice stated that “a member state could be allowed to ban gambling websites if its intention was to stop crime”.

Please see online pokies club website for an in depth analysis of the case and what the ruling means for the future of the online gaming industry within Europe.

CTXM are also planning on bringing 2 more 3d slots to the market later this Autumn.  These 3d slots - Gangster Slots and Vampire Slots - will complement their Movie Slots family and CTXM are promising that they are ultra-exciting and that their graphics and audio will greatly enhance the player experience.

CTXM have also just announced that they have developed 2 new casual slots (gambling is not currently available to iPhone users) games for the iPhone.  These slots; Freaky Fruit Slots and Totem Quest are based on the 3d online pokies games of Freaky Fruits Slots and Totem Quest which can be played at many online casinos.  CTXM will this week launch both the full version of the Totem Quest puzzle game as well as a Safari-based version of FreakyFruits Slots.

Udy Yosha, CEO of CTXM, is obviously looking to secure enthusiasm in the casual slots market on the iPhone, should the process of iPhone gambling become legalised;

“Currently, gambling is not available to iPhone users. However, to take an emerging market opportunity, we used our game mechanics and rich graphics to appeal to casual players among iPhone users. In addition, we linked the games to our social applications, where they can share their achievements.”

Disney have issued a press release on the acquisition and you can read the full thing by clicking here.  Marvel (the celebrated producers of such comic heros as The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spiderman, Thor, Captain America and hundreds more world-famous characters) have posted a very similar press release on their website, which you can read here.

Back on 24 June of this year, onlinepokiesclub posted a news article on their site about the extension of the exclusive licencing deal between CryptoLogic Ltd. and Marvel Entertainment Inc., whereby CryptoLogic  extended the contract yet again, this time until 2013.  This deal allowed CryptoLogic to turn Marvel’s comic book heros into online  pokie games, available at online gaming sites all over the world.

This was CryptoLogic’s response to enquiries made by onlinepokiesclub as to whether this exclusive licencing deal would be honoured should the acquisition go ahead;

“We recently renewed our agreement with Marvel to continue to offer the games through 2013.  We do not anticipate the potential purchase of Marvel by Disney to impact our ability to continue to offer these games as per our current contract”.

- This seems to us to imply that the contract between Marvel and CryptoLogic is a steadfast deal which is contractually binding.  So even if Disney didn’t want to promote or be associated with online pokies or online gambling subsequent to the acquisition of Marvel, the CryptoLogic contract would lock them into the process, at least until 2013.

PartyGaming have this morning released their interim results for the six months of 2009 leading up to 30th June.  Net revenue is down from $254.8 million in the first half of 2008 to $201.3  million during the same period for 2009.  The net revenues for each arm of PartyGaming show where the losses specifically occurred; with PartyPoker taking the biggest hit and $51.3 million dividing last years net revenues of $153.9 million and this years of $102.6 million.  PartyBingo is down this year by $0.8 million, Sports Betting is down by $1.2 million and PartyCasino is down by a barely noticable $0.2 million.

PartyGaming’s Chief Executive Officer, Jim Ryan, has put the reduction in net revenue down to “currency movements, competetive pressures and the impact of the macroeconomic downturn”.  In his comments this morning, he obviously focused on the relative stability of PartyCasino, stating that;

“With second quarter average daily revenue up 17% on the previous quarter, casino has been our star performer and continues to go from strength-to-strength, consolidating our position as the world’s leading online casino.  During the period, over 60 new games were added in addition to the launch of our dedicated casino affiliate and marketing programmes, all of which were contributors to the strong performance of casino”.

Of the “un-sweepable-under-the-carpet” PartyPoker results, he obviously tries to focus on the positives, rather than get stuck in the negative quagmire of being a third down on figures from this time last year.  He comments on the new Italian poker network, the improvements to the customer loyalty and retention schemes and the fact that during the second quarter this year, poker revenues have begun to stabilise.

Additionally, Ryan is right to point out a few other initiatives, which have not yet had a chance to impact on the bottom line  and have been in the long-term interest of the company;

• In April of this year PartyGaming entered into a “Non-Prosecution Agreement” with the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, whereby, for a “fee” of $105 million (payable in semi-annual instalments up until September 2012), the USAO would not prosecute PartyGaming or any of its subsidiary companies for online gaming services provided to US residents prior to the enactment of UIGEA on 13th September 2006.  This agreement is the sign of mature, “anti-ostrich” (head in the sand) planning from the directors of PartyGaming, showing its desire to be taken seriously by the US Authorities, and furthering the “good name” of online gaming, by taking responsibility for it’s actions and taking US laws seriously.
• This year PartyGaming has made several enormous investments to secure and further its reach and reputation as a global leader in its field.  The exclusive agreement with Channel 5, the acquisition of Cashcade Ltd. and the agreement to buy the World Poker Tour are all long-term manouvres which will either take a while to come to any financial fruition or were deals that were finalised after the first half of the financial year  (ie; the interim report) came about.

Ryan also says that the the clean EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) results are encouraging - $60.0 million this year versus last years $60.9 million - and are greatly a result of the implementation of a cost reduction programme put in place in 2008 and currency movements beneficial to PartyGaming’s cost base.

All in all, it would be fair to say that PartyGaming have been hit in the pocket so far this year, but are positively and proactively looking towards the future.  So far this year they have put in place several costly building blocks in order that at the end of the Global Economic Crisis they will be streets ahead of other online gaming businesses.  In essence, they are embodying the idea that investment today means not forcing a rebuild tomorrow.

To read a detailed report with the PartyGaming Interim results 2009 click here .

Source; online pokies club; the top online site for up-to-date news.

PartyGaming

It will then be essentially owned by PartyGaming, though the purchase is to be made by Peerless Media Ltd., who are part of ElectraWorks Ltd., who are in turn owned by PartyGaming.

The price to be paid is $12.3 million - a snip for a company that was once valued at around $500 million and the deal should complete in the latter stages of the year, subject to formal shareholder approval.

If the US’s anti-gambling law UIGEA were to be overturned, as the industry hopes it will be, PartyGaming would then be in the strongest position of all the European online gambling providers to compete in the American online poker market, alongside the likes of Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars.  

888 Holdings Plc have held their hands up to some poor results for the first half of 2009 in comparison to 2008.  According to their statistics released today, the following are the financial figures obtained over the first half of  2009 held up against the first half of 2008s.

Revenue 2008 $135.4 million                                                v’s Revenue 2009 $117.9 million

Operating Profit 2008 $19.1 million                                     v’s Operating Profit 2009 $9.6 million

Pretax Profit 2008 $26.3 million                                           v’s Pretax Profit 2009 $14.9 million

Net Profit attributable to shareholders 2008 $18.9 million v’s Net Profit attributable to shareholders 2009 $8 million

Dividends are to be awarded to shareholders  at a rate of $0.01 per share for the first half of the year and at a rate of $0.036 payable on 8th October.  The CEO of 888 Holdings Plc attributes the poor first half of 2009 to the global economic recession and predicts a “broadly flat 3rd quarter and growth in the 4th quarter”.  By midday 27th August however, the LSE’s AIM shares in the company had fallen by 7.5%.

Victor Chandler Holdings, currently based out in Gibraltar, but soon to move to the Isle of Man, have slightly better news to report.  Shares in Gaming Victor Chandler Holdings rose by 5.2% in the first half of the year.  Whilst they report that the margins and the sports book revenues have risen, they note a fall in the casino revenues.

PartyGaming are providing their Interim Results for 2009 on a live audio webcast tomorrow morning.

Prosecutor, Acting US Attorney Michael W. Reap, accused BetonSports of falseley advertising itself to be a legal entreprise to its US customers, where they could deposit and withdraw money at their own discression.  Prosecutors claimed, however, that deposits were used to expand the company and when the company was forced to shut down in 2006, its customers lost over $16 million.  Kaplan, four other main players within the company and the company itself, was indited in 2006 by a federal grand jury.

In March 2007, Gary Kaplan was extradited from Dominica to the USA on charges of conspiracy to violate the RICO statute, conspiring to violate the Wire Wager Act and violating the Wire Wager Act.  He has been in prison ever since and has just recently agreed to plead guilty to federal racketeering conspiracy and other charges.  In an accord arranged with the federal authorities, he has agreed to forfeit $43.6 million from his Swiss bank accounts. The money was transferred a week before he pleaded guilty and was sourced from the funds totalling around $100 million which Kaplan received in 2004, as a result of BetonSports being floated on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market. Kaplan will also be sentenced to between 41 and 51 months in prison on 27 October (minus the time already served).

Specifically, allegations have been made by the US Justice Department that between 2007 and mid 2009, Rennick opened numerous US bank accounts under the guise that they would be issuing rebate cheques, sponsorship cheques, refunding cheques, affiliate cheques and processing employee cheques.  One of these accounts, in the name of Account Services Corporation, is alleged to have issued cheques from the Wells Fargo Bank and Union Bank to US residents gambling on the Absolute Poker, Ultimate Bet, Poker Stars and Full Tilt websites.  The indictment claims that Rennick and his cohorts moved over $350 million from their bank account in Cyprus into their various US bank accounts and from there, they paid out cheques to the various US resident online gambling winners.

Interestingly, the indictment of Rennick comes from the same US court that froze millions of dollars worth of assets from poker sites such as Full Tilt and Poker Stars.  Maybe the same individuals are once again using the fine-print of UIGEA (persecution of the payment processing bodies) to boost federal coffers??

30 years in prison, fines exceeding $1 million, forfeiture of over $500 billion dollars is the sort of penalties that Rennick will be faced with should he be found guilty of the charges of bank fraud, money laundering etc.
… Of course, dollar amounts like these would make Rennick tantalising prey for any Justice Department, especially in current financial times, with the US facing around $11.7 billion dolloars worth of National Debt at time of writing…!

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