Online casino guide

Congressman Barney Frank’s bill HR 2267 aiming to regulate and license online gambling in the United States has acquired two more sponsors, bringing to 42 the number of politicians now on board.

The latest supporters to sign up for the bill are Representative Paul Hodes from New Hampshire and Representative Edolphus Towns from New York.

The bill is currently on hold in the House Financial Services Committee until September this year due to pressure of more urgent work connected with the global economic crisis, but as recently as last weekend Congressman Frank, addressing players at the World Series of Poker, urged all interested parties to maintain pressure on their representatives by writing to them in support of the bill.

Rank plc subsidiary Mecca Bingo has a new boss. The UK online and land gambling group announced early this week that it has appointed Mark Jones (48) as the new md of Mecca Bingo, replacing Simon Wykes who left the company last month (see previous InfoPowa report).

Jones has previously held a number of senior management posts in the leisure industry, including Chief Executive of Pizza Hut UK (while at Whitbread plc), Chief Executive of Yates Group plc and most recently as Executive Chairman of Premium Bars and Restaurants plc.

Mecca Bingo runs 103 clubs and employs 3 000 people. Jones left Premium Bars and Restaurants in October 2008 after three years running the company.

“Mecca Bingo has faced a number of challenges in recent years but, having stabilised performance we are now seeking to move forward, broadening our customer reach through product and service innovation,” said Ian Burke, CEO of Rank Group. “Mark’s extensive experience in the leisure retail sector will be invaluable to us as he leads Mecca Bingo into this new phase in its development.”

State Rep. Dean Kaufert (R-Neenah) says that if every other business, like it or not, has to tell smokers to bug off, casinos should, too,

I get the part about fairness. If bars, at least the smoky-dive kind, justly complain that having to leave to have a cig will likely depress their trade, why shouldn’t casinos, which already get an immensely valuable special privilege (being able to offer legalized gambling) on no more basis than that their owners are of a favored ethnicity, be exempted? Said Kaufert to the Appleton Post Crescent:

“ ‘It’s a fairness issue,’ said Kaufert, a Neenah Republican who has been contacted by constituents regarding the reach of the ban. ‘A statewide ban should truly be a statewide ban. There shouldn’t be pockets where people don’t have to comply with the state.’”

Though my question would be: If the smoking ban is an unthinkingly stupid law (and it is), aren’t pockets of legal immunity better no chance at all to defy the prohibitionists?

Look, some people like to smoke, even if you and I don’t, and smoking is legal. The ban is predicated on a number of faulty ideas, one of them that in no place should there be an expectation of smoky air. That’s why the law bans any new cigar bars – if you’d think there was a place you’d expect to find smoky air, it would be a cigar bar, yes? – and the calculation is plainly that there should be nowhere in the state that people bothered by smoke say, “I like that place, but the trade-off is that it’s smoky, so maybe I won’t go.”

Every Wisconsin casino I’ve been in – about a half-dozen, though I don’t gamble – has been at least a little smoky. Tribes say they install big-time ventilation, and I’m sure they do, but in places dedicated to the vices of gambling, drinking, staying up too late and, at the buffet, gluttony, that the scent of yet another vice lingers in the air is no surprise.

Tribes, plainly, think the majority of their gamblers are OK with this. If they thought there was any advantage in it, they’d be smokeless in an instant, but they are obviously attuned to the fullest kind of democracy: the preferences of the majority of their paying customers. Why impose on them what shouldn’t have been imposed on bars and hookah lounges in the first place?

Hoping for Black Jack and slot machines to provide a much-needed cash infusion into the city’s shrinking revenues?

Don’t bet on it for this fiscal year.

Casino revenues have dipped 33 percent since last year, according to the latest figures provided to the Greenville City Council by council financial consultant Steve Osso.

The average monthly gaming revenue for the city has been $136,196 for this fiscal which ends Oct. 1.

The average for last fiscal year was $203,877, according to Osso’s report that was presented at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

And it’s not just the economy that’s causing the decline. A big chunk of the city’s gaming revenue has been lost to the county.

Harlow’s Casino Resort and Hotel, the newest casino kid on the block — located outside city limits — has sucked market share from Jubilee and Lighthouse Point casinos, said Tom Dashiell, Harlow’s assistant general manager.

The other two gambling houses are located at the Cityfront on Lake Ferguson.

According to state and county tax structure, Greenville and Washington County share a four percent tax on casinos within Greenville and outside of it.

Of that four percent of casino profits, Greenville gets two thirds from casinos within the city, while the county gets one third. For those casinos outside the city, Greenville gets one third of the four percent and the county gets two thirds.

Because Harlow’s is locate outside the county, Greenville only makes revenue on one third of four percent of its profits.

Unfortunately for Greenville, but to the county’s benefit, Harlow’s, which opened in 2007, now has 60 percent of the casino market share within the county, Dashiell said.

Harlow’s, however, may likely have new competition, as plans for a downtown Delta Blues Casino are underway.

“They say more casinos are coming down,” Dashiell said, “which means our slice of the apple may be getting thinner.”

As of April, casino revenues had decreased in Mississippi by 7.9 percent.

Representatives of Jubilee an Lighthouse Point did not return calls from the DDT.

Online casino gambling may not be legal in the United States, but it’s one step closer to being that way. The State of Illinois has passed a measure that allows online wagering on horse races. Following an approval by the State Senate, Illinois’ House passed the new law by a vote of 87 to 27 - a major show of support for any legislation, albeit of the highly controversial gambling sort. And let’s not forget we’re talking about wagering on animals - an entire separate topic of concern.

There wasn’t a great showing of support, however, for online casinos. Another bill calling for the legalization of this growing pastime was voted down. Goes to show just how much interests there are in the land-based casino gambling industry in Illinois. It makes one wonder why online horserace betting was even passed at all. But then again, the horseracing industry in Illinois has been needing a boost for a good while, and frankly, is on the edge of becoming a dying breed.

As mentioned, while online gambling would appear to be one step closer to being legalized in Illinois, there’s a bit of a catch. The only reason why online horserace betting could be legalized in the first place is due to carve outs written into the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) - and hence the reason why online casino gambling could not be passed.

Protectionism has long been a major motivator in key legislation, however, it would seem that Illinois is being presses by even greater stakes - a state deficit that could reach in excess of $11 billion by the end of this fiscal year. Of course, the legislation still needs to be approved by Illinois Governor, Patrick Quinn. Considering the wide margin of support in the Senate and House, Governor Quinn is expected to give it a green light, thus allowing eight thoroughbred and harness racing tracks in Illinois to offer online betting through their very own websites.

June brings good news for poker fans in certain European markets as The Poker Channel has just announced plans to expand their audience to 17 million homes across the continent. Starting at the beginning of this month, residents of Croatia and Cyprus will have new access to the channel, and existing markets like Poland, Portugal and Germany will be expanded.

Not only is The Poker Channel projecting new viewers, it’s also promising new programming in the form of a nightly segment on live American horse racing. In addition to live race coverage from a number of prestigious East Coast tracks, this one-hour program will include professional commentary, betting guidance, and horse selection advice from industry insiders, including the very trainers and jockeys whose horses will be competing.

The Poker Channel’s Managing Director, Chris White, claims that this development came in response to viewer requests for more sports betting content. While the new stations and many other existing ones will be privy to the time slot change, the UK and Irish channels will retain their poker-centered programming.

The French media are reporting that Mangas Gaming, which owns important European Internet gambling operations such as Betclick, Bet-at-Home and Expekt has appointed Nicolas Béraud as chief operating officer of the group, and Juliette de la Noue as head of corporate and social responsibility.

Mangas Gaming is owned by a well-heeled investment fund run by the highly respected former chief of Endemol, Stephane Courbit, who sold the [Endemol] TV production company to Spain’s Telefonica in 2006, accruing around Euro 450 million on the deal. According to the French media, Mangas is strongly cashed and able to deploy serious capital by the business-savvy Courbit.

Beraud was previously CEO of Mangas Gaming subsidiary Betclick, a successful sports betting enterprise that was launched in 2005 by Béraud and is licensed in Malta and the UK.

Béraud’s responsibilities will be focused on building Mangas Gaming into one of Europe’s top gambling groups, and he will report to Isabelle Parize, who recently completed the acquisition of Expekt and Bet-at-home.

Béraud hinted at the group’s future direction when he said this week: “We are very strong on bookmaking and that is our key expertise. Going into a highly competitive sector like [online] poker would require a re-focus of much of the staff and a level of investment that we are not prepared to contemplate at the moment.”

The new COO said that each of the three Mangas brands would remain autonomous in their core markets.

Six of the state of Kentucky’s racetracks showed an unprecedented united front this week at a joint press conference focused on the precarious state of racing in the heartland of US horseracing and to appeal for the legalisation of slot machines.

Kentucky’s state government infamously - and unsuccessfully - tried to highjack international Internet gambling domain names last year in moves to protect its extensive land gambling industry interests.

The Racing Post reports that eleven of the 12 racing states nearest to Kentucky allow other gaming at their racetracks, resulting in bigger and more competitive purses and more generous breeders’ prizes.

And apparently Kentucky, which describes itself as the horse capital of the world, is struggling to compete.

At the press conference this week, Nick Nicholson, Keeneland’s chief executive, said: “We are in serious jeopardy and, if no action takes place and we lose our racing circuit and the prominence of our breeding industry, we do not want anyone to be surprised.”

Churchill Downs chief executive Bob Evans pointed out that, normally, on a Wednesday, there would be racing but a shortage of runners had led to the scrapping of Wednesday fixtures. Evans warned: “If you think it is bad now, it is only going to get worse. As time goes on, slot subsidised purses are going to pull more horsemen out of Kentucky.

“We can’t wait any longer,” he added. “Even after legislation is passed it will take time to get slots operating; meanwhile the barn door has been left open and we are finding our horses in other states.”

The Racing Post report goes on to detail the adverse impact which additional gambling at neighbouring state racetracks is having on Kentucky, with Kentucky racing execs underlining the dangers that this represents.

Bob Elliston, chief executive of Turfway Park, said: “In the ten years I have been at Turfway Park we have invested over $10 million and we’ve lost money every year.

“There was a time when, day in, day out, we had strong field sizes. That is no longer the case. At our spring meet we were unable to fill races on multiple occasions.

“The reason is the opportunities for horsemen to earn more money at Presque Isle Downs (a racino in Pennsylvania that opened in 2007) that, overnight, offered $30 million in purses, and at Indiana Downs and Hoosier Park.

“Thirteen of the top 15 trainers at Indiana Downs are based in Kentucky, but they are now racing outside Kentucky. Between now and September we will have to sit down with the horsemen and look at dramatic purse cuts and look at reduced days.”

Joe Costa, chief executive of The Red Mile, a harness racing track, described a situation of “absolute devastation,” and Corey Johnson, president of Kentucky Downs, an exclusively turf track, explained that they had been forced to reduce their live racing programme from six days to four.

Rick Hiles, speaking on behalf of owners and trainers, warned:”If we lose two or three of our tracks it will affect Churchill Downs enormously. Without year-round racing in Kentucky, horsemen will not stay here. I already know of big owners talking of relocating. Mares are already leaving for states with big breeding incentives.”

The businessmen urged the state government to legalise the operation of slot machines at Kentucky’s racetracks to boost revenues and enable the state to again become competitive in its horserace prizes and events.

Dramatic news over the weekend is that the Microgaming Progressive Network’s over $6.3 million jackpot for Mega Moolah has been won.

Details of the big win, which sets a new Internet gambling jackpot record, were still awaited as InfoPowa went to press Sunday morning, but a Microgaming spokesman confirmed the full jackpot had been hit, which eclipses the previous record win of $5.5 million in 2008.

Microgaming pays out its progressive jackots in one tranche and in full.

Following the inevitable growing popularity of movie and television themes, mobile gambling provider Probability plc signed a licensing agreement with Fremantle Media Enterprises that will give it access to these themed mobile device games.

This multi-year contract basically deals with using several highly-popular entertainment shows such as The X Factor, The Price is Right, Play your Cards Right, Blankety Blank, Sale of the Century and Hole in the Wall. All these branded shows will be used in creating slot games designed for the mobile phone.

Probability plc as content provider will develop and then distribute these mobile slot games to its cell phone subscribers. The CEO of Probability plc, Charles Cohen, is extremely delighted to acquire the TV brands from FME as slots games are the most saleable and profitable product segments in their line up. He adds that Probability plc looks forward to these TV brands significantly increasing customer loyalty as the said brands are instantly recognisable and inspire great affection from the gaming public.