The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has granted Amaya Gaming the right to offer online poker in the state with its brands PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker after some two years of trying to enter the fledgling internet business in New Jersey.
Amaya which will link up with Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City to offer online poker to state residents is seen as a positive to boost the sector there.
With PokerStars entering the US again with its 95 million registered users many observers say it will reshape the state’s fledgling online betting industry which has 17 websites currently offering online gambling.
Now with the world’s largest online poker operator allowed back it is expected to boost revenues in the state which had $122 million in revenues last year, and for the first eight months of this year brought in $96.7 million, an increase of 15.6% over the same period a year ago.
Amaya’s chairman, David Baazov, said he was pleased to add New Jersey to the list of regulated markets that have found PokerStars and Full Tilt suitable to offer real-money online gambling.
“We look forward to bringing our popular brands, innovative technology, marketing prowess and world-class security and game integrity to the growing New Jersey online gaming market,” he said.
The Division of Gaming Enforcement confirmed Wednesday it had issued waivers to six Amaya subsidiaries to operate PokerStars, the world’s biggest poker website, and Full Tilt in New Jersey through a partnership with Resorts Digital. Resorts president Mark Giannantonio said he didn’t know when the sites planned to go live.
PokerStars left the US online gambling sector back in 2011 and with the entry back into New Jersey many expect the company to apply for any state that legalises online gaming in the future.
October 01, 2015
September 26, 2015
Eldery Japanese in Kobe banned from playing pachinko
Elderly residents at day care centres in Kobe Japan have been banned from playing cards, Pachinko and other forms of gambling as the city’s Municipal Assembly voted to ban those forms of activities as they foster a self-reliance on the part of the elderly.
This week the Kobe Municipal Assembly unanimously adopted a local ordinance as the country’s first municipality to ban day-care centers operating under the public nursing-care insurance system from letting elderly people play such games.
Under the ordinance, day-care centers cannot regularly provide activities such as pachinko and mah-jongg that may “stir up the passion for gambling.”
Also companies offering those activities will be banned from advertising to the elderly there.
Kobe city officials said day-care centers pitching these “casino type” activities are springing up nationwide, running counter to the spirit of the public nursing-care insurance system, which is partly funded by taxpayers’ money.
This week the Kobe Municipal Assembly unanimously adopted a local ordinance as the country’s first municipality to ban day-care centers operating under the public nursing-care insurance system from letting elderly people play such games.
Under the ordinance, day-care centers cannot regularly provide activities such as pachinko and mah-jongg that may “stir up the passion for gambling.”
Also companies offering those activities will be banned from advertising to the elderly there.
Kobe city officials said day-care centers pitching these “casino type” activities are springing up nationwide, running counter to the spirit of the public nursing-care insurance system, which is partly funded by taxpayers’ money.
September 25, 2015
Sport betting spawns Kenya’s newest brand of millionaires
George Mwangi, who earlier this week won the Sh29.5 million Sportpesa jackpot prize is a living testimony that sports betting is alive and well in Kenya.
Mwangi became the newest millionaire in town after placing a bet and rightly predicted the outcome of a series of football games. He spent a sum of about Sh16,00 before hitting the jackpot, having started placing bets in May.
“I do not consider this gambling otherwise I would not have wasted my money on it. I take it as a game of fortune where you combine luck and commitment to succeed,’’ said an elated Mwangi during the unveiling on Tuesday.
“I recall the starter was 2/13 and the most games I won were 8/13 in multiple bets. I deployed computation skills and analysed every game for three hours beforehand. There was no guesswork.”
He is just one of a growing crop of middle-class Kenyans who are taking up sports betting as a hobby and while at it making money. Besides Sportpesa, other recognisable betting sites in the country include Elite Bet, Kenya Gold Bet, Just Bet, Bet Yety, Royal Kenya Bets and Go-Bet.
The industry has grown in leaps and bounds overtime to become a money-spinner, attracting the attention of authorities with the National Treasury recently imposing tax on winnings.
Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich in his budget statement in June announced that there would be between five per cent and 12 per cent tax on gross earnings by every 20th day of the following month from participating bet firms.
The betting industry drives its business mostly through online platforms and the mobile telephony networks. Sportpesa, that has been in operation for just under a year, was established by Pewans East Africa at a cost of Sh300 million and commands around 800,000 registered users on its online platform.
It focuses on soccer only and has a variety of markets to choose from. One of its unique features is that unlike other Kenyan bookies, Sportpesa alongside Royal Kenya Bets has a jackpot. The Jackpot value keeps on increasing on weekly basis until there is a winner.
The approximate growth rate of the Sportpesa Jackpot is Sh2 million. Sportpesa Jackpot is played at a cost of Sh100 per jackpot pick. The sports betting industry arguably continues to earn hugely as a result of exceptionally well researched interest points.
In Kenya, the focus is mainly on football which has a large following, especially the English Premier League. According to Kiko Dewal, an industry expert, betting firms are shrewd in calculations and understand the market dynamics.
“The business has liquidity and is very fluid. Money is always moving in and out seven days a week and like traders in the stock market, firms understand the intricacies involved to detail,’’ he said.
From soccer to Formula One and even horse-racing, all punters and betting organisations know how to strike the right chord by offering such incentives such as a consolation prize to losers.
Mwangi became the newest millionaire in town after placing a bet and rightly predicted the outcome of a series of football games. He spent a sum of about Sh16,00 before hitting the jackpot, having started placing bets in May.
“I do not consider this gambling otherwise I would not have wasted my money on it. I take it as a game of fortune where you combine luck and commitment to succeed,’’ said an elated Mwangi during the unveiling on Tuesday.
“I recall the starter was 2/13 and the most games I won were 8/13 in multiple bets. I deployed computation skills and analysed every game for three hours beforehand. There was no guesswork.”
He is just one of a growing crop of middle-class Kenyans who are taking up sports betting as a hobby and while at it making money. Besides Sportpesa, other recognisable betting sites in the country include Elite Bet, Kenya Gold Bet, Just Bet, Bet Yety, Royal Kenya Bets and Go-Bet.
The industry has grown in leaps and bounds overtime to become a money-spinner, attracting the attention of authorities with the National Treasury recently imposing tax on winnings.
Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich in his budget statement in June announced that there would be between five per cent and 12 per cent tax on gross earnings by every 20th day of the following month from participating bet firms.
The betting industry drives its business mostly through online platforms and the mobile telephony networks. Sportpesa, that has been in operation for just under a year, was established by Pewans East Africa at a cost of Sh300 million and commands around 800,000 registered users on its online platform.
It focuses on soccer only and has a variety of markets to choose from. One of its unique features is that unlike other Kenyan bookies, Sportpesa alongside Royal Kenya Bets has a jackpot. The Jackpot value keeps on increasing on weekly basis until there is a winner.
The approximate growth rate of the Sportpesa Jackpot is Sh2 million. Sportpesa Jackpot is played at a cost of Sh100 per jackpot pick. The sports betting industry arguably continues to earn hugely as a result of exceptionally well researched interest points.
In Kenya, the focus is mainly on football which has a large following, especially the English Premier League. According to Kiko Dewal, an industry expert, betting firms are shrewd in calculations and understand the market dynamics.
“The business has liquidity and is very fluid. Money is always moving in and out seven days a week and like traders in the stock market, firms understand the intricacies involved to detail,’’ he said.
From soccer to Formula One and even horse-racing, all punters and betting organisations know how to strike the right chord by offering such incentives such as a consolation prize to losers.
Skrill – from Online Payment Processor to Gambling Affiliate
Recently, online payment solution provider Skrill was acquired by Optimal Payments. The €1.1 billion acquisition deal will see two of the most preferred payment processors by online gambling customers – Skrill itself and NETELLER – being managed by one and the same parent company.
It could be said that both providers of payment services rely quite a lot on Internet gambling operations, as a substantial amount of their revenues is contributed by those same operations. Upon the transaction’s completion, executives for Skrill and Optimal Payments said that they intend to further increase proceeds from online gambling, as the market is known to be growing at an extremely rapid pace.
Since it was founded back in 2001, Skrill has undergone a number of changes in order to turn into what it is now. Although the company started as an online payment processor, it gradually became much larger and is now involved in other activities as well. The following paragraphs represent a somewhat brief overview of Skrill’s establishment, development and relations to one particular industry – online gambling, which, as already mentioned, has been gaining a lot of popularity over the past several years and is expected to further increase its influence and to attract the attention of more and more gambling customers of different nationalities and social status.
A Brief History of Skrill
Skrill, or Moneybookers as it was initially named, was founded back in 2001 by Daniel Klein and Benjamin Kullmann. Although registered that year, the online payment and money transfer website moneybookers.com officially commenced operations in April 2002. Over the first year and a half of operations, Moneybookers had about 2 million registered users. In other words, it seems that the company gained popularity and customers’ trust quite quickly.
In 2008, or six years after Moneybookers started offering its services, it reported to be handling more than 6 million customer accounts and to be operating in a total of 200 countries around the globe.
In 2010, the company was ranked UK’s fastest growing private equity business entity based on its profits. In 2011, it announced that its customer base has reached a total of 25 million. As of 2015, Skrill employs more than 560 people from as many as 30 nationalities. Those work in the company’s London-based headquarters as well as in its offices across Europe and the USA.
Skrill currently handles more than 36 million accounts. Its customers are able to both receive and send money to and from 200 different countries and as many as 40 currencies. The website also provides its services to 156,000 businesses around the world.
Customers of Skrill are able to send and receive money, deposit funds on various international gambling sites, own and use Skrill’s prepaid MasterCard in a number of locations around the world, etc. Speaking of online gaming, the e-wallet was given the green light by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement to go live with its services in the state, which is only one of three to offer Internet gambling options. This happened in 2013, when six poker operators were allowed to launch such operations within the state’s borders. Thus, Skrill turned into an indispensable part of the gaming experience of New Jersey-located gambling customers.
As it could be seen, the online payments processor grew quite quickly and became one of the leaders in this constantly expanding niche. Over the course of its development, Skrill or Moneybookers went through a number of alterations and important changes that contributed and are to contribute to the company’s popularization and expansion. Two of those significant changes were the e-wallet’s re-branding announced in 2010 and its acquisition by rival Isle of Man-based online payments company Optimal Payments, which was finalized in August 2015.
Change of Name
As mentioned above, Moneybookers announced its planned re-branding in 2010. Back then, the company explained its move with the fact that everything in life changed and it considered it was the right time for such a major change. Its new name – Skrill – has a number of definitions in different slang dictionaries. However, it seems that it has been gradually coined as another term for money.
Moneybookers explained that it had chosen that particular name as a means to best introduce what it has always strived to offer to its customers – innovative and safe ways to pay for their online purchases and to send/receive money, flexibility, choice, “reliability and peace of mind.”
Back then, some assumed that the re-branding from Moneybookers to Skrill could be seen as the company’s attempt to further expand its services within the online retail sector and to limit its operations related to online gambling. Yet, it turned out that this was not the case at all. At the time of the changeover, Moneybookers was among the preferred payment methods on the websites of some of the world’s biggest gambling operators. Now, five years later, Skrill is among the preferred payment methods listed on the websites of even more online bookmakers and card rooms. What is more, it is generally considered by gambling customers among the most efficient providers of ways to transfer money for the purposes of Internet gambling.
Here it is important to note that being founded and headquartered in London, Skrill is administered through UK’s Financial Services Authority and is subject to the country’s financial laws. It also could be said that over the past several years, the site has been a direct competitor to giant PayPal and NETELLER.
In August 2015, Skrill’s competition with the latter e-wallet provider was put to an end after the completion of a key acquisition deal.
Optimal Payments’ Takeover
In March 2015, Optimal Payments, owner of renowned providers of various payment services, such as NETELLER, NETBANX, Net+, etc., proposed to buy Skrill for the amount of €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion). The deal was not finalized until August, as it has been subject to both shareholder and regulatory approval. The FCA gave the green light to the transaction as it considered Optimal Payments had met all the necessary takeover obligations. CVC Capital Partners, which bought a majority stake in Skrill Group for the total amount of €600 million back in 2013, also gave the nod to the acquisition.
Executives of the two business entities pointed out that the merger marked the beginning of “a global fintech champion” and “a powerful force” in “the fast growing digital payments space.” They also noted that deal is transformational not only because it creates a leader in the digital wallet services but also because it gives Optimal Payments the chance to further expand its presence in the constantly growing online gambling market.
Prior to acquiring Skrill, the company had said that revenue from services related to online gambling operations accounted for almost 46% of its overall revenue. Adding yet another leader in the provision of payment options for this swiftly and constantly growing market to its portfolio means that this figure has every chance to go up in future.
Analysts predicted that the acquisition deal will be quite profitable for Optimal Payments. The combined entity is expected to post annual EBITDA of about £117 million. The figure is expected to increase to £160 million in 2017. In comparison, Optimal Payments’ standalone EBITDA was £58 million.
The Many-Faced Skrill
Apart from the traditional services that every self-respecting e-wallet platform offers, the options offered by Skrill are not just limited to that. Being one of the most preferred providers of payment solutions for the online gambling industry, it is not a surprise that the company has made its foray into the world of gambling affiliate marketing, offering exclusive gaming and betting options and bonuses for some of the world’s biggest gaming sites.
But what exactly is affiliate marketing and how does it work?
Affiliate Marketing in a Nutshell
Generally speaking, affiliate marketing is a rapidly growing market and it is quite a useful means for retailers and other types of businesses to popularize their services and product offering through their affiliates or in other words, companies that advertise them on the Internet by means of various approaches. Those approaches could vary broadly – from the orthodox ones, such as organic SEO, e-mail and content marketing, etc. to less traditional ones.
This particular industry has four main players – the retailer, which offers certain services or products and seeks proper advertising for those, the network, which features a wide variety of affiliates to choose from, the publisher, also known as the affiliate itself, and the customer, whom affiliate marketing addresses. The affiliates’ purpose is to bring visitors to the retailer’s website and typically, they get rewarded for this.
Skrill as a Gambling Affiliate
A quick tour around Skrill’s website makes it quite clear that the company has not been involved only in the provision of payment solutions for individuals and business organizations. Yes, it is true that it gives customers the opportunity to quickly and conveniently send and receive money, pay what they need to pay via a 1-Tap mobile optimized payment solution, and many more. Yet, apparently, the company has also decided to delve into the world of affiliate marketing.
Skrill itself features its own affiliate program, which many consider quite alluring. The company promises money rewards to websites that have brought new customers to its own website. But Skrill’s involvement is not limited to this. Its recently introduced Promotional Centre or Exclusive Offers, as the section has been named after the website’s latest update, is just what a typical affiliate offers to customers.
Skrill’s Exclusive Offers is particularly oriented towards two groups of people – gambling customers and traders. For the purposes of this article, we will pay more attention to the gambling customer and what he or she could find in the section.
As a gambling affiliate, Skrill has resorted to a number of marketing approaches in order to draw the attention of people who are already into online gambling as well as of potential gambling customers. In the first place, the website features banners of some of the world’s biggest and most popular gambling operators that provide their services on the major regulated online gaming markets.
Skrill also provides comprehensive reviews on what they offer. Gambling customers as well as potential ones can choose from several gaming options, including sports betting, casino games, poker, and bingo.
Being an affiliate of some of the major online gambling companies on a global scale is quite indicative of Skrill’s involvement in an industry that is expected to further grow in the years to come. With operators constantly expanding their presence and introducing their services to new regulated markets, it seems that the future of the popular online payment processor and its new parent company Optimal Payments is to be even more closely related to the gambling industry. And as it turns out, this involvement is to be related not only to the provision of reliable payment solutions but also of securing operators with successful affiliate marketing activities.
It could be said that both providers of payment services rely quite a lot on Internet gambling operations, as a substantial amount of their revenues is contributed by those same operations. Upon the transaction’s completion, executives for Skrill and Optimal Payments said that they intend to further increase proceeds from online gambling, as the market is known to be growing at an extremely rapid pace.
Since it was founded back in 2001, Skrill has undergone a number of changes in order to turn into what it is now. Although the company started as an online payment processor, it gradually became much larger and is now involved in other activities as well. The following paragraphs represent a somewhat brief overview of Skrill’s establishment, development and relations to one particular industry – online gambling, which, as already mentioned, has been gaining a lot of popularity over the past several years and is expected to further increase its influence and to attract the attention of more and more gambling customers of different nationalities and social status.
A Brief History of Skrill
Skrill, or Moneybookers as it was initially named, was founded back in 2001 by Daniel Klein and Benjamin Kullmann. Although registered that year, the online payment and money transfer website moneybookers.com officially commenced operations in April 2002. Over the first year and a half of operations, Moneybookers had about 2 million registered users. In other words, it seems that the company gained popularity and customers’ trust quite quickly.
In 2008, or six years after Moneybookers started offering its services, it reported to be handling more than 6 million customer accounts and to be operating in a total of 200 countries around the globe.
In 2010, the company was ranked UK’s fastest growing private equity business entity based on its profits. In 2011, it announced that its customer base has reached a total of 25 million. As of 2015, Skrill employs more than 560 people from as many as 30 nationalities. Those work in the company’s London-based headquarters as well as in its offices across Europe and the USA.
Skrill currently handles more than 36 million accounts. Its customers are able to both receive and send money to and from 200 different countries and as many as 40 currencies. The website also provides its services to 156,000 businesses around the world.
Customers of Skrill are able to send and receive money, deposit funds on various international gambling sites, own and use Skrill’s prepaid MasterCard in a number of locations around the world, etc. Speaking of online gaming, the e-wallet was given the green light by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement to go live with its services in the state, which is only one of three to offer Internet gambling options. This happened in 2013, when six poker operators were allowed to launch such operations within the state’s borders. Thus, Skrill turned into an indispensable part of the gaming experience of New Jersey-located gambling customers.
As it could be seen, the online payments processor grew quite quickly and became one of the leaders in this constantly expanding niche. Over the course of its development, Skrill or Moneybookers went through a number of alterations and important changes that contributed and are to contribute to the company’s popularization and expansion. Two of those significant changes were the e-wallet’s re-branding announced in 2010 and its acquisition by rival Isle of Man-based online payments company Optimal Payments, which was finalized in August 2015.
Change of Name
As mentioned above, Moneybookers announced its planned re-branding in 2010. Back then, the company explained its move with the fact that everything in life changed and it considered it was the right time for such a major change. Its new name – Skrill – has a number of definitions in different slang dictionaries. However, it seems that it has been gradually coined as another term for money.
Moneybookers explained that it had chosen that particular name as a means to best introduce what it has always strived to offer to its customers – innovative and safe ways to pay for their online purchases and to send/receive money, flexibility, choice, “reliability and peace of mind.”
Back then, some assumed that the re-branding from Moneybookers to Skrill could be seen as the company’s attempt to further expand its services within the online retail sector and to limit its operations related to online gambling. Yet, it turned out that this was not the case at all. At the time of the changeover, Moneybookers was among the preferred payment methods on the websites of some of the world’s biggest gambling operators. Now, five years later, Skrill is among the preferred payment methods listed on the websites of even more online bookmakers and card rooms. What is more, it is generally considered by gambling customers among the most efficient providers of ways to transfer money for the purposes of Internet gambling.
Here it is important to note that being founded and headquartered in London, Skrill is administered through UK’s Financial Services Authority and is subject to the country’s financial laws. It also could be said that over the past several years, the site has been a direct competitor to giant PayPal and NETELLER.
In August 2015, Skrill’s competition with the latter e-wallet provider was put to an end after the completion of a key acquisition deal.
Optimal Payments’ Takeover
In March 2015, Optimal Payments, owner of renowned providers of various payment services, such as NETELLER, NETBANX, Net+, etc., proposed to buy Skrill for the amount of €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion). The deal was not finalized until August, as it has been subject to both shareholder and regulatory approval. The FCA gave the green light to the transaction as it considered Optimal Payments had met all the necessary takeover obligations. CVC Capital Partners, which bought a majority stake in Skrill Group for the total amount of €600 million back in 2013, also gave the nod to the acquisition.
Executives of the two business entities pointed out that the merger marked the beginning of “a global fintech champion” and “a powerful force” in “the fast growing digital payments space.” They also noted that deal is transformational not only because it creates a leader in the digital wallet services but also because it gives Optimal Payments the chance to further expand its presence in the constantly growing online gambling market.
Prior to acquiring Skrill, the company had said that revenue from services related to online gambling operations accounted for almost 46% of its overall revenue. Adding yet another leader in the provision of payment options for this swiftly and constantly growing market to its portfolio means that this figure has every chance to go up in future.
Analysts predicted that the acquisition deal will be quite profitable for Optimal Payments. The combined entity is expected to post annual EBITDA of about £117 million. The figure is expected to increase to £160 million in 2017. In comparison, Optimal Payments’ standalone EBITDA was £58 million.
The Many-Faced Skrill
Apart from the traditional services that every self-respecting e-wallet platform offers, the options offered by Skrill are not just limited to that. Being one of the most preferred providers of payment solutions for the online gambling industry, it is not a surprise that the company has made its foray into the world of gambling affiliate marketing, offering exclusive gaming and betting options and bonuses for some of the world’s biggest gaming sites.
But what exactly is affiliate marketing and how does it work?
Affiliate Marketing in a Nutshell
Generally speaking, affiliate marketing is a rapidly growing market and it is quite a useful means for retailers and other types of businesses to popularize their services and product offering through their affiliates or in other words, companies that advertise them on the Internet by means of various approaches. Those approaches could vary broadly – from the orthodox ones, such as organic SEO, e-mail and content marketing, etc. to less traditional ones.
This particular industry has four main players – the retailer, which offers certain services or products and seeks proper advertising for those, the network, which features a wide variety of affiliates to choose from, the publisher, also known as the affiliate itself, and the customer, whom affiliate marketing addresses. The affiliates’ purpose is to bring visitors to the retailer’s website and typically, they get rewarded for this.
Skrill as a Gambling Affiliate
A quick tour around Skrill’s website makes it quite clear that the company has not been involved only in the provision of payment solutions for individuals and business organizations. Yes, it is true that it gives customers the opportunity to quickly and conveniently send and receive money, pay what they need to pay via a 1-Tap mobile optimized payment solution, and many more. Yet, apparently, the company has also decided to delve into the world of affiliate marketing.
Skrill itself features its own affiliate program, which many consider quite alluring. The company promises money rewards to websites that have brought new customers to its own website. But Skrill’s involvement is not limited to this. Its recently introduced Promotional Centre or Exclusive Offers, as the section has been named after the website’s latest update, is just what a typical affiliate offers to customers.
Skrill’s Exclusive Offers is particularly oriented towards two groups of people – gambling customers and traders. For the purposes of this article, we will pay more attention to the gambling customer and what he or she could find in the section.
As a gambling affiliate, Skrill has resorted to a number of marketing approaches in order to draw the attention of people who are already into online gambling as well as of potential gambling customers. In the first place, the website features banners of some of the world’s biggest and most popular gambling operators that provide their services on the major regulated online gaming markets.
Skrill also provides comprehensive reviews on what they offer. Gambling customers as well as potential ones can choose from several gaming options, including sports betting, casino games, poker, and bingo.
Being an affiliate of some of the major online gambling companies on a global scale is quite indicative of Skrill’s involvement in an industry that is expected to further grow in the years to come. With operators constantly expanding their presence and introducing their services to new regulated markets, it seems that the future of the popular online payment processor and its new parent company Optimal Payments is to be even more closely related to the gambling industry. And as it turns out, this involvement is to be related not only to the provision of reliable payment solutions but also of securing operators with successful affiliate marketing activities.
Israel to open a casino in Eilat
Eilat in Israel could be the first to have a land based casino as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has started discussions on opening a casino in the southern resort city.
Netanyahu during his campaign election promised that he would look at the possibility of legalizing casinos to check the effects it would possibly have on the socioeconomic impact to the country and at the same time helping to boost the economy along with creating jobs.
The city of Eilat has for many years been the location where Israeli’s go to gamble on ships as they go out to neutral waters and offer gambling on board, so for a casino to be located there would make sense. Also with the continued accusations that these ships offer money laundering and rigged games would remove that problem with a legalised casino resort.
A casino did open in Jericho back in 1998 for some six years before closing in 2004, the casino was allowed as it stood on Palestinian Authority-controlled territory, however with the onslaught of the Second Intifada it never really was the success it had been hoped for.
Building a casino on Israeli land would cause opposition from orthodox Jewish sections of the community, whether it will be a reality is some way off thou.
Netanyahu during his campaign election promised that he would look at the possibility of legalizing casinos to check the effects it would possibly have on the socioeconomic impact to the country and at the same time helping to boost the economy along with creating jobs.
The city of Eilat has for many years been the location where Israeli’s go to gamble on ships as they go out to neutral waters and offer gambling on board, so for a casino to be located there would make sense. Also with the continued accusations that these ships offer money laundering and rigged games would remove that problem with a legalised casino resort.
A casino did open in Jericho back in 1998 for some six years before closing in 2004, the casino was allowed as it stood on Palestinian Authority-controlled territory, however with the onslaught of the Second Intifada it never really was the success it had been hoped for.
Building a casino on Israeli land would cause opposition from orthodox Jewish sections of the community, whether it will be a reality is some way off thou.
Pentagon expenses scandal on casino & strip club visits
A major scandal could be ready to erupt in Washington after the Pentagon’s Inspector General was called in to investigate whether US military staff had used their official expenses account to pay for casino visits and strip club bills amounting to almost $1 million.
In May of this year, the Pentagon watchdog issued a report that Defence Department employees spent $952,258 at casinos and another $96,576 at “adult entertainment establishments.”
In September the Senate Armed Services Committee asked the Inspector General’s Office to make a full investigation into those expenses.
“Our objective is to determine whether (Defence Department) cardholders who used government travel cards at casinos and adult entertainment establishments for personal use sought or received reimbursement for the charges,” the Senate Armed Services Committee said in a memo to the Inspector General.
In May of this year, the Pentagon watchdog issued a report that Defence Department employees spent $952,258 at casinos and another $96,576 at “adult entertainment establishments.”
In September the Senate Armed Services Committee asked the Inspector General’s Office to make a full investigation into those expenses.
“Our objective is to determine whether (Defence Department) cardholders who used government travel cards at casinos and adult entertainment establishments for personal use sought or received reimbursement for the charges,” the Senate Armed Services Committee said in a memo to the Inspector General.
Paddy Power hires new ad agency “Brand Mischief”
Irish bookmaker Paddy Power have continued in the same vein with its mischief making advertising ways by hiring Amsterdam’s We Are Pi as its “brand mischief” agency for the Rugby World Cup.
Paddy Power CMO Gav Thompson says: “We Are Pi are our kind of agency; creative, restless and non-conformists. We went looking for a partner in mischief and they were the stand-out choice. Their ideas were clever and naughty in equal measure, and I am very excited about our future together.”
So of course Paddy Power wanted to make a statement with controversial “trigger happy American dentist.”
If the dentist pots a country’s animal ‘icon’ (which in New Zealand’s case seems to be a sheep) then they’re predicted to lose.
Paddy Power CMO Gav Thompson says: “We Are Pi are our kind of agency; creative, restless and non-conformists. We went looking for a partner in mischief and they were the stand-out choice. Their ideas were clever and naughty in equal measure, and I am very excited about our future together.”
So of course Paddy Power wanted to make a statement with controversial “trigger happy American dentist.”
If the dentist pots a country’s animal ‘icon’ (which in New Zealand’s case seems to be a sheep) then they’re predicted to lose.
September 24, 2015
Brazil considers legalizing gambling
Brazil could legalise gambling to help stop increasing taxes on residents and to bring in revenues through gambling.
Presidnet Dilma Rousseff wants to raise personal taxes but lawmakers and congress want to look at re-establishing gambling in the country as an alternative revenue stream. The presidents chief of staff, Aloizio Mercadante, put the idea to lawmakers last week after they said the government will struggle to pass a controversial tax on financial transactions.
It has been nearly 70 years since Brazil allowed casino gambling back in 1946 and 8 years since bingo halls were also outlawed amid fears from the government that they encouraged money laundering. The only forms of gambling allowed is lotteries and horse racing.
Supporters of gambling say that Brazil could generate nearly $6 billion in gambling taxes a year and could have been much larger if the country had allowed gambling before the 2014 World Cup.
“When Brazilians want to gamble, they go to Paraguay, Montevideo, Las Vegas… and they leave all the money there,” said Mauricio Quintella, leader of the small, center-right Party of the Republic in the lower house of Congress and one of the lawmakers tasked with leading consultations on the idea.
However Brazil has a long way to go before any casinos are built, the country has seen major corruption scandals over the years and many Brazilians think that casinos and corruption go hand in hand. Convincing them that this will not be the case this time around will be an uphill task, but one many lawmakers believe is worth it for the taxes they can gain from casinos.
Presidnet Dilma Rousseff wants to raise personal taxes but lawmakers and congress want to look at re-establishing gambling in the country as an alternative revenue stream. The presidents chief of staff, Aloizio Mercadante, put the idea to lawmakers last week after they said the government will struggle to pass a controversial tax on financial transactions.
It has been nearly 70 years since Brazil allowed casino gambling back in 1946 and 8 years since bingo halls were also outlawed amid fears from the government that they encouraged money laundering. The only forms of gambling allowed is lotteries and horse racing.
Supporters of gambling say that Brazil could generate nearly $6 billion in gambling taxes a year and could have been much larger if the country had allowed gambling before the 2014 World Cup.
“When Brazilians want to gamble, they go to Paraguay, Montevideo, Las Vegas… and they leave all the money there,” said Mauricio Quintella, leader of the small, center-right Party of the Republic in the lower house of Congress and one of the lawmakers tasked with leading consultations on the idea.
However Brazil has a long way to go before any casinos are built, the country has seen major corruption scandals over the years and many Brazilians think that casinos and corruption go hand in hand. Convincing them that this will not be the case this time around will be an uphill task, but one many lawmakers believe is worth it for the taxes they can gain from casinos.
New poker malware sees your cards
According to findings from ESET security research a new malware program is infecting online poker players game time on PokerStars & Full Tilt Poker and taking images of their hands and then sending them back to the user so they have a huge advantage when playing against them.
The virus called Win32/Spy.Odlanor, or just Odlanor focuses solely on poker players online and allows the author of the virus to take screenshots of the unsuspecting opposing players hands.
Many players download the virus without knowing as it can hide itself in programs such as Tournament Shark, Poker Calculator Pro, Smart Buddy, and Poker Office, which many online poker players download.
Once downloaded it will search for the PC users poker software and send a screenshot of the players ID online so allowing the author to search for them online and sit against them on the same poker tables.
ESET say that at present they only know of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker that is being infected by this new virus that was first spotted in March 2015.
Currently the virus is most active in Eastern European countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Kazahstan, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. There are no known cases in the UK and western countries but ESET says this does not mean it is not there.
The virus called Win32/Spy.Odlanor, or just Odlanor focuses solely on poker players online and allows the author of the virus to take screenshots of the unsuspecting opposing players hands.
Many players download the virus without knowing as it can hide itself in programs such as Tournament Shark, Poker Calculator Pro, Smart Buddy, and Poker Office, which many online poker players download.
Once downloaded it will search for the PC users poker software and send a screenshot of the players ID online so allowing the author to search for them online and sit against them on the same poker tables.
ESET say that at present they only know of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker that is being infected by this new virus that was first spotted in March 2015.
Currently the virus is most active in Eastern European countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Kazahstan, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. There are no known cases in the UK and western countries but ESET says this does not mean it is not there.
September 16, 2015
William Hill is left chasing the field as tie-ups reshape sector
William Hill began the year as Britain's biggest bookmaker but a series of mergers is pushing it down the pecking order and putting it under pressure to react.
Driven by tighter regulation and tax pressures that are taking chunks out of profits, big betting names Ladbrokes and Gala Coral are combining, as are Betfair and Ireland's Paddy Power.
Online gambling firm GVC also agreed a £1.1bn (€1.5bn) deal for larger rival Bwin.Party this month - with the same factors fuelling consolidation.
The larger companies can divert savings into higher marketing spend and potentially offer a wider array of improved products to gamblers on smart phones and tablets. Smaller rivals are then squeezed out and these new groups' lower costs, enhanced market share and larger revenues all help to soften bigger tax charges.
High street shops where gamblers can bet on horse or greyhound racing have been a feature of British and Irish towns since the 1960s. Betting "in play" on televised football matches has also attracted a younger generation of tech-savy sports fans as the gambling scene has moved online.
William Hill grasped these trends before rivals but now appears to have ground to make up.
"William Hill could benefit from a potential partnering up with another operator, now it has more credible competition coming. But it's hard to see exactly who," HSBC analysts said.
Led by CEO James Henderson, a 30-year company insider who replaced veteran Ralph Topping last year, it was William Hill who made one of the first moves of 2015, tabling a £720m bid for online gambling firm 888.
That deal collapsed but the M&A wave since has narrowed the field, including the removal of Betfair, which analysts had tipped as a fit.
For William Hill, 888 remains the obvious choice. The firm has a market capitalisation five times smaller than William Hill's and would add leading technology, strong casino and bingo positions and a lot of cost synergies to its arsenal, analysts say.
The only other big player is Bet365, it is likely too expensive and has an exposure to unregulated markets William Hill wants to avoid.
Driven by tighter regulation and tax pressures that are taking chunks out of profits, big betting names Ladbrokes and Gala Coral are combining, as are Betfair and Ireland's Paddy Power.
Online gambling firm GVC also agreed a £1.1bn (€1.5bn) deal for larger rival Bwin.Party this month - with the same factors fuelling consolidation.
The larger companies can divert savings into higher marketing spend and potentially offer a wider array of improved products to gamblers on smart phones and tablets. Smaller rivals are then squeezed out and these new groups' lower costs, enhanced market share and larger revenues all help to soften bigger tax charges.
High street shops where gamblers can bet on horse or greyhound racing have been a feature of British and Irish towns since the 1960s. Betting "in play" on televised football matches has also attracted a younger generation of tech-savy sports fans as the gambling scene has moved online.
William Hill grasped these trends before rivals but now appears to have ground to make up.
"William Hill could benefit from a potential partnering up with another operator, now it has more credible competition coming. But it's hard to see exactly who," HSBC analysts said.
Led by CEO James Henderson, a 30-year company insider who replaced veteran Ralph Topping last year, it was William Hill who made one of the first moves of 2015, tabling a £720m bid for online gambling firm 888.
That deal collapsed but the M&A wave since has narrowed the field, including the removal of Betfair, which analysts had tipped as a fit.
For William Hill, 888 remains the obvious choice. The firm has a market capitalisation five times smaller than William Hill's and would add leading technology, strong casino and bingo positions and a lot of cost synergies to its arsenal, analysts say.
The only other big player is Bet365, it is likely too expensive and has an exposure to unregulated markets William Hill wants to avoid.
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