Online casino guide

A plan to establish three new gaming centres on the Island with up to 25 video lottery terminals has the Opposition betting the province is planning to establish four “mini casinos” across Prince Edward Island.
Opposition finance critic Jim Bagnall says if the provincial government is serious about reducing the number of video lottery terminals (VLTs), there should only be two gaming centres on the Island, the existing Charlottetown Driving Park Entertainment Centre and a second centre at the track in Summerside.
But the provincial government is only reducing the number of VLT sites from 84 to 42. It is reducing the number of machines from 384 to 308 or a reduction of about 20 per cent.
To reach its goal, the province, through the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, has called for a request for proposals to create three new gaming centres in the province with up to 25 VLTs. This would be in addition to the Charlottetown racino.
But the province contends it will only initially allow up to 15 machines.
“I asked if you were going to be establishing mini casinos in the province and you came out and you told me ‘no, no, no’ you weren’t. Do you still stand by that statement?” Bagnall said during question period Tuesday.
“How can Islanders trust you when you change your story time and time again?”
Provincial Treasurer Wes Sheridan defended his government’s decision to set up the new gaming centres, saying it falls within the province’s gaming strategy. He said it brings down the number of sites that house VLTs.
“It’s been proven that the less sites that are available to those that are challenged with the problem of gambling the better,” said Sheridan.
“If the government wasn’t in charge of these VLTs, somebody else would be standing on this ground.
“It’s not that we’re looking for this money. This is less than one per cent of our revenues and we would clearly give it away in an instant if we could make this go away.”
Bagnall believes the new centres will be located in Dooly’s pool halls in Charlottetown, Summerside and Montague.
Dooly’s was a trial site for the gaming centre in Summerside.
It was given five additional VLTs for a total of 10 but they have since been reduced back to five machines, which is the maximum number of machines now allowed in a single site.
Bagnall said Dooly’s has already expanded in Montague and he expects that will also be chosen as a new gaming centre.
Dooly’s is owned by the Murphy family, which has ties to the governing Liberal party.
Storeowners who have their VLTs pulled will receive compensation, a one-time payment of about 75 per cent of their annual sales.
In an interview, Sheridan said there is no foregone conclusion as to who is going to control the three new proposed gaming houses. He said that decision will lie with Atlantic Lottery.
“Certainly no one has been allocated these machines.”

Township Supervisor Gene Adkins said today that he and representatives from Calhoun County will next week visit other Michigan casino towns to ask questions about how those governments formed their revenue sharing boards.

Compacts between the state and Michigan tribes allowing casinos require 2 percent of all electronic gaming revenue go to a board representing the town and county where the casino is and a third entity decided by the other two. This board decides how to steer the 2 percent.

The Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi’s FireKeepers Casino is set to open this summer in Emmett Township.

Adkins said he and the county are visiting casino towns Tuesday, Wednesday and May 4.

He also reported that the county and township are hearing from candidates for the third member of the board, such as the Calhoun Intermediate School District, on concerns they have with the casino’s coming.

New Jersey casinos’ operating profits down by 46% in Q4 alone
No doubt that the financial crisis and economic recession in the U.S. Wrecks havoc in the 11 casinos and resorts within Atlantic City. The Q4 report by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission released this week confirmed that the city’s casinos are suffering from reduced revenues derived mainly from food, lodging and other amenities aggravated by significant reductions in gambling revenue as well.
Gross revenues for the last quarter were down almost 15% to US$951.60 million only compared with the 2007 comparable quarter. Worse, gross operating profits reached US$131.90 million only which is 54.20% off the US$243.50 million the casinos generated during 2007 last quarter.
The 2008 full-year operating profits reach US$941 only which off by nearly 25% from the previous year while gross revenues slid by 7% to only US$4.48 billion. This is certainly bad considering that the fourth quarter is usually the best quarter of any year given the Christmas and New Year holidays.
The gaming industry considers gross operating profits a better measure than casino net income because accounting for interest, taxes, depreciation and other one-time or recurring charges distorts results of income among casino properties.
Gross operating profits, which represent earnings before accounting for interest, taxes, depreciation and other charges, is considered a better comparison among casino properties than net income. Overall, the resort city gave up more than US$900 for the last quarter alone and US$1.50 billion for the entire year.
The chairwoman of the commission, Ms. Linda M. Kassekert, said a confluence of the negative effects of the recession and increased competition from newer casinos and slot machine parlours in nearby states contributed to the decline. Efforts to attract more customers with a combination of exciting night life and high-end dining digs did not produce the expected results either.
Linda M. Kassekert, chairwoman of the commission, said the industry’s problems come from a combination of the recession and ramped-up competition from casinos and slot parlours in neighboring states….and the state’s push to attract more customers with nightlife and high-end dining did not deliver the results hoped for.

Arnold Nowicki, the 69-year-old Eastpointe man accused of leaving what looked like pipe bombs in the parking garage of the MotorCity Casino, was arraigned today in 36th District Court.

Nowicki faces up to five years in prison if convicted of eight felony charges that he used objects that represented explosives to “frighten or annoy.”

Authorities said Nowicki sparked a nearly six-hour panic at the Detroit casino when he scattered the packages in the casino’s garage on Sunday.

The first package was discovered about 5:20 p.m. Hundreds of casino-goers were forbidden to leave until authorities were able to detonate the objects, which turned out to be fakes.

Nowicki was identified by authorities based on casino surveillance video.

The court ordered that Nowicki wear a GPS tether and banned him from going to any of the city’s casinos.

A preliminary exam is set for April 30.

A new business concept built around the Internet’s most popular game

The respected publication Las Vegas Review-Journal has branched out into the world of online poker, launching a free-to-play site in collaboration with Zen Gaming which combines social networking and free poker to create advertising and player-base building advantages.

Stephens Media Group, which owns the Review-Journal, is one of Zen Gaming’s first partners, the company disclosed this week. Readers of the Journal can link to its free poker site from the LVRJ website.

Former marketing consultant, Mark Brown, is the founder and chief executive of Zen Gaming, and hopes to develop the online poker site, using the social networking and poker trend to enable clients to advertise online.

After buying the National League of Poker site at nlop.com Brown set about developing the marketing potential of his idea through his company Zen Gaming, using a a two-pronged business model.

The first is a table game model of proprietary games that can be played in poker rooms in Nevada. The company has a pair of patented and proprietary poker games, which are variations of Texas hold ‘em, that can be found in poker rooms at Treasure Island, Hard Rock Hotel and O’Sheas.

The second prong, and Brown’s primary focus now, is called “advergaming,” a free online poker platform and software that will be used to sell online advertising.

“Advergaming is a new approach to online advertising,” Zen Gaming President Vincent Zaldivar said. “It utilizes gaming as the means to generate additional online traffic, which increases impressions, the length of our user sessions and, most importantly, increases revenues.”

Partners will be able to sell ad space in the poker room, such as on the poker tables, in the background, or across the bottom of the users’ screens.

Zen Gaming will partner with businesses to develop site-specific content that will link to nlop.com’s online poker site.

Al Gibes, executive director of Stephens Media Interactive, said the LVRJ will use the poker room to develop a database of customers. “We’ll be able to grow this customer,” Gibes said. “Their track record [shows that] people spend a lot of time playing this application. So we’ll have the opportunity to get our content in front of them during breaks in the game, or if they’re waiting for a new game to start.”

Nearly 275 players registered through the newspaper’s Web site in early April, Brown revealed.

Brown said players stay in the online poker rooms for just over an hour, on average.

One idea that Stephens Media is considering is placing a news ticker in the Internet poker room. Players will be able to link to news stories from the ticker. He added that poker players using the site also could choose to participate in surveys or contests that will earn them more playing points when they’re not playing poker.

Zen Gaming has reached out to other media and gaming companies to build online partnerships that will link to the National League of Poker Web site.

Some of Zen Gaming’s other partners include Treasure Island, Hard Rock Hotel and tavern owner Golden Gaming. It also has partnership deals with Lotus Broadcasting, a radio company that owns the local affiliates for ESPN Radio and Fox Sports Radio, and a pair of local rock and Spanish-language stations.

Brown said his company is close to announcing national partnerships, one with a national media company and the other with an international sports league.

Christopher Abraham, vice president of marketing for Golden Gaming, said his company is using the poker room to market to its customers. The company hosts poker tournaments on the site and gives away three $25 gift certificates each week. Nearly 250 players have registered through Golden Gaming’s tavern group Web site since the room launched in February.

“It’s just another way we can offer (customers) entertainment tied in with our brand,” Abraham told Las Vegas Review Journal.

Brown said competing free online poker Web sites, such as PurePlay and SpadeClub, don’t use the advergaming model adopted by his Zen Gaming.

Competing Web sites either make money by selling VIP packages or they use no-cash poker games to try to lure players to their out-of-country, money-to-play poker sites, he claimed.

“That’s not our model at all,” Brown said. “At our site you cannot bet a dime.”

Zen Gaming’s National League of Poker Web site has two levels. Players can register on a basic player site that is free, or they can register on a VIP poker subscription model that charges $19.99 per month and allows players to compete for larger prizes.

With a Boston-based staff of 16, Zen Gaming has more than 80 proprietary games as part of its intellectual-property vault, Brown said. The company is exploring relationships with a number of major casino-game developers to bring these games to market.

“There’s no doubt in my mind, in the next year we’ll be the dominate player in the free online poker space,” Brown said.

The Poker Players Alliance is betting $3 million that it can overturn an Internet gambling ban, or at least carve out an exemption that would legalize and regulate online poker.

The alliance, chaired by former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, R-N.Y., says it plans to spend that much on lobbying in this session of Congress. The group gets its money from the Interactive Gaming Council, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based trade association for online casinos, as well as from its poker player members.

The alliance is up against some tough competition. The National Football League says gambling threatens the integrity of its games and has made preserving the Internet ban a priority in Washington. Last year, the league hired a full-time lobbyist and started a political action committee to make campaign donations.

At issue is the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which Congress passed at the end of 2006. The law aimed to curb online gambling by prohibiting financial institutions from accepting payments from credit cards, checks or electronic fund transfers to settle online wagers.

At least half the $16 billion Internet gambling industry, which is largely hosted on overseas sites, is estimated to be fueled by bettors in the United States.

In the last congressional session, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee pushed unsuccessfully to repeal the ban. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., plans to try again soon, a committee spokeswoman said.

The colorful and outspoken D’Amato was a natural choice to lead the Poker Players Alliance, even though it was his former GOP colleagues who had pushed the 2006 gambling ban. As a senator, D’Amato organized poker games with staffers and lobbyists in his office.

“We’d order pizza or Chinese, and we would play until the session was over. Sometimes it would end at 10:30, 11,” he recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. “And maybe we’d play an hour or two later. It was a lot of fun. And in those days, we were even allowed to smoke cigars in federal buildings.”

D’Amato lost his re-election race to Democrat Chuck Schumer in 1998. Since then a lot of poker playing has moved to the Internet. “How dare you come into my house and tell me what I can and can’t do on the Internet!” D’Amato said, citing online activities from business transactions to Facebook, even bragging about the number of friends he has on the social network site — more than 700.

“The Republican conservatives, who basically say” — and at this point, he shifts his tone to a mock, nagging voice, “’We want less government,’ come in and intrude, and they say, ’No, you can’t do this.’”

“It’s a cause for personal choice and freedom that I’ve always thought epitomizes what this country’s about,” added D’Amato, who plays poker Monday nights at Oheka Castle, a hotel and estate on Long Island.

The NFL sees things differently.

“We are opposed to more gambling on our games which is what would occur if the 2006 law was overturned,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said in an e-mail.

“We understand that illegal gambling currently occurs but there is little we can do about that,” he said. “However, we can exercise our right to oppose Internet betting on our games. … Gambling on our games — online or off-line — threatens the integrity of our games and all the values they represent.”

Other sports backed the 2006 ban as well, including the NCAA and professional baseball, basketball and hockey, but the NFL led the effort. The Christian Coalition also reported lobbying to preserve the ban.

The NFL has opposed gambling on professional football for many years. Pete Rozelle, commissioner from 1960 to 1989, feared tampering by organized crime.

D’Amato said he had no problem with letting leagues ban betting on their games, but argued that online poker should be legal.

“What about the elderly, who have no ability to travel?” he asked. “You’re going to say to them that a form of entertainment that they have — they should be precluded from because Big Brother says no?”

The 2006 law didn’t provide a clear definition of unlawful Internet gambling, instead referring to existing federal and state laws, which themselves provoke differing interpretations. The Justice Department maintained that Internet gambling is illegal even before the 2006 law.

Former Rep. Jim Leach, an Iowa Republican who helped write the law, told the AP he recognizes the libertarian argument for allowing gambling. “The question is, is it compelling?” he asked. “It’s not a close call.”

Leach called Internet gambling “a double-whammy for society. It is so seductively habit-forming that individuals can in short order lose their homes and jobs and, indeed, their families and futures. And the effects on individuals redound into society.”

The way D’Amato sees it, if the government were to regulate and tax online poker, it could ensure the games are fair and generate hundreds of millions of dollars to combat gambling addiction or other problems.

“How do you like that?” he said. “Raise some revenue during these difficult periods.”

Last year, the Poker Players Alliance established a political action committee, but its members had been active even before that. Leach lost his re-election race in 2006 after drawing the ire of poker players, who take credit for helping defeat him.

Leach, now a professor of public and international affairs at Princeton University, doesn’t contest that. “I realized that support for the bill jeopardized my re-election,” he said.

One online gambling software provider gets an exclusive online slot rights to Braveheart, Forrest Gump, Beowulf, Beverly Hills Cop, Ferris Bueller, Ghost.
Crptologic, a Dublin-based Internet gambling software provider rivet a movie theme deals which will features famous characters of the silver screen in an online slot themes. The company recently announced their multi-year exclusive slots agreement with Paramount Digital Entertainment. They have agreed to bring some of the most famous movie characters in history to online casino world and this project will begin in the fourth quarter of 2009.
The soon to offer online slots games will be games based on more than 20 of Paramount Pictures’ collection of feature film titles, including Braveheart, Forrest Gump, Beowulf, Beverly Hills Cop, Ferris Bueller, Ghost and many others. This is the first online slots games that will soon be launched in several international territories. Cryptologic will build a dedicated gaming site and all of its movie-themed games will be in house there.
The president and CEO of Cryptologic, Brian Hadfield stated during his speech how excited they were with their new found relationship with Paramount Digital Entertainment. This will surely be a mutually profitable relationship between the two global leaders on their own industries.
Luke Letizia, the Vice President Interactive Licensing Paramount Digital Entertainment also stated, “As the online gaming industry continues to evolve as a destination for gamers, we feel that our films are a great fit for those looking to play on this new platform. We are excited to be able to work with CryptoLogic, a leader in this space, and are confident that they will develop games that are on par with the quality and caliber of Paramount Pictures properties.”

Results impacted by weaker poker and currency movements

PartyGaming plc delivered a disappointing quarterly result this week, revealing that the significant strengthening of the US dollar and competitive pressures in its core poker division were the primary factors behind a drop in quarterly revenues.

First Quarter Key Performance Indicators included:

* Group revenue of $100.1 million (2008: $128.9m); average daily revenue up 2 percent versus the previous quarter due to growth in casino and sports betting

* Poker revenue of $53.6 million (2008: $80.7m); average daily poker revenue down 1 percent versus the previous quarter due to foreign exchange movements and competitive pressures from US-facing sites

* Casino revenue of $40.9 million (2008: $42.3m); average daily casino revenue up 5 percent versus the previous quarter due to growth in both bet volume and hold

* Sports Betting revenue of $4.5 million (2008: $4.7m); average daily sports betting revenue up 19 percent versus the previous quarter due to growth in both bet volume and gross win margin

* Bingo revenue1 of $1.0 million (2008: $1.2m); average daily bingo revenue down 27 percent versus the previous quarter primarily due to the conclusion of Bingo Night Live in Q4 2008

* Clean EBITDA margins remain in-line with full year 2008 performance

* B2B strategy well on track with agreements signed with CIRSA, DM Plc and INTRALOT

* Non-Prosecution Agreement concluded with United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (‘USAO’)

Commenting, Jim Ryan, Chief Executive Officer, said:

“Total net revenue grew by 2 percent on a daily basis to $1 111 800 versus the previous quarter despite continued competitive pressures in poker, further strengthening of the US dollar and a weak macroeconomic environment all continuing to impact performance. We are maintaining our market share in poker and our B2B strategy continues to build with the addition of INTRALOT, one of the world’s largest providers of lottery services to governments, to our Italian poker network, that is expected to launch later this quarter, as part of a long-term global agreement.

“Whilst the business environment remains challenging, our strong poker sign-ups together with the addition of 60 new games to our casino by the end of the first half, further B2B deals in the pipeline and our strong control of costs, mean we are well-placed to capitalise on our great products, great brands and strong cashflow. Having successfully resolved our discussions with the US authorities we are actively reviewing consolidation opportunities that, if concluded successfully, are expected to provide new and additional sources of growth.”

The group also said it expects to report a charge to discontinued operations of between $100 million and $105 million when it reports its interim results after it entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the USAO in respect of its activities prior to the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in October 2006.

Actions taken on Internet gambling rank right up there.

Interesting weekend reading came from the Hawaii Reporter, which took an op-ed look at the five dumbest bans perpetrated by the US government - one of them involving online gambling.

Commenting that what the free market gives, governments too frequently take away, the newspaper used four criteria on which to base its assessment:

• No one can present a strong case for marginal social harm from the product or service banned. Consumer choice alone is good enough reason to oppose product bans, but that aside, the bans included herein cannot be argued for on even the most tenuous utilitarian grounds.

• The product should provide benefits to the general public. It should be something that almost anybody might have a theoretical interest in using.

• A government must have actually enforced the ban within the recent past. Many amusingly archaic laws remain on the books but go unenforced—but not all.

• The law in question must be statewide or national in scope. The larger the jurisdiction, the greater the harm it can cause when it bans a product. National and state bans are extremely difficult to circumvent, local bans much less so.

The Hawaii Reporter goes on to deliver its assessment, naming a ban on the use of the cancer drug Provenge; the prohibition in the states of Louisiana, South Carolina, Virginia, and Oklahoma on buying a coffin from an unlicensed dealer; the Louisiana ban on selling a flower arrangement is not a licensed florist and the Texas and nationwide ban on selling horsemeat.

Second on the list was the national restraints on Internet gambling in the United States, about which the article commented:

“Americans like to gamble. As of 2008, 48 states had legal gambling in some form, and today 38 allow the operation of casinos, slot parlors, or card rooms.6

“Nearly all Americans approve of the activity—around 90 percent in one recent poll. However, a 2006 federal law, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), places absurd restrictions on banks in an attempt to outlaw Internet gambling.

“The law, which the Bush administration attempted to implement through a “midnight” rulemaking effort in its waning days, essentially bars banks from engaging in or facilitating transactions to transfer money to online gambling providers outside of the United States.

“The absurdity of trying to curb gambling aside, UIGEA will adversely affect activities which do not constitute gambling at all, imposing tremendous costs on the rest of the economy. The regulations will impose a sizeable burden on the already struggling banking sector. The cost, the Treasury, Office of Management and Budget, and Federal Reserve agree—will come in upwards of $100 million a year.”

The history of the newpaper’s annual look at legislative absurdity has included some goodies in the past:

A Virginia ban on sangria

Several state bans on sex toys

A ban on the CardioPump

A ban on selling bottled water in Toronto.

The article concludes:

“This catalog of absurd product bans may seem amusing, but any clearly absurd product ban can have serious negative consequences for freedom and consumer welfare. Nobody can legitimately contend that a society that retracted all of the product bans discussed above would find itself less safe, secure, or moral. These bans simply intrude on the freedom of individuals to live their lives as they please. While the freedom to drink bottled water, buy wildflowers a child has picked, or play cards online might appear inconsequential in the grand context of economic and personal liberty, the sheer absurdity of these product bans makes them all the more insidious. In total, they add to a litany of such laws that, quite simply, ought to go.”

After Austrian reformed their law which is designed to protect, a legal action was halted against them by the European Commission for player discrimination. Many have complained that law is somewhat discriminatory as it only favors Austrian players only and not other European Union nation citizens. Thus, this led to EC action. The Commission spokesman informed the Reuters news service that after the reform of the Austrian law in gaming extending protection to players from all citizens of EU, they decided to close the infringement case.