Online casino guide

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.

The state of Florida is investigating a gambling operation that is trying to set up shop in Lake County.

News 13 was the first to report about the charity gambling concept that one company is pitching to the city of Minneola, and now News 13’s Heather Sorentrue has uncovered some serious questions about that proposal.

The concept of card games that bring in thousands of dollars for local non-profits in a stumbling economy sounds almost too good to be true. But that is the pitch a company called Florida Charity Gaming made to the city of Minneola this week.

“I just don’t want to slam the door on anything that could be such a potential for our city,” said Vice Mayor Sue Cordova.

City leaders in Minneola have been trying to get a pari-mutuel gambling facility into the area with cards, slots, and a horse track. It was the media attention from that story that led James Abel, of Florida Charity Gaming, to pitch his own gambling idea to Minneola’s city council.

“There’s a business model that we have that I thought might be a unique fit for them,” Abel said.

News 13 found problems in the proposal Abel gave to the city, including his saying that a gaming agent with the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco gave the OK for the project. News 13 checked and she turned out to be an administrative assistant.

When News 13 showed the documents to an ABT supervisor, he said he had serious concerns.

Card games have a considerable following in Lake County, and the city of Minneola wants to capitalize on the demand, especially if it can help non-profits in the area. But it still remains to be seen if this plan is legal.

“Basically, you have three elements to gambling — which is prize, consideration and chance and I believe all three elements are present. What they try to do is to take away the prize consideration by using what they say are non-valued gaming chips. However, at the end of the night it is my understanding that these chips can be cashed in for some sort of cash prize or gift certificate that has a value,” said Lt. John Szabo, of the ABT.

Szabo said that is against Florida’s gambling laws.

“All we’re doing is creating a dedicated facility that brings the public to the fundraiser, rather than the fundraiser to the public. That’s the crux of the operation. I have no intention of skirting Florida law so delicately that I will have gaming agents or law enforcement agents knocking on our door or looking for every possible code violation to shut it down,” Abel said.

But it could be a big hurdle just to get a facility like that opened up.

Abel is also trying to get a facility up and running in Brevard County and he is tied to one in Daytona Beach. He said the State Attorney’s office in Brevard gave the go ahead on their plans.

News 13 checked on that statement and the attorney Abel said gave the OK said he has questions about its legality.

Abel is slated to go before Minneola’s City Council for a second time on April 22. City leaders say they expect a lot more information.

A BANK is suing Crown casino to recoup $3.5 million of stolen money gambled by one of its former loan officers.

The Bendigo and Adelaide Bank claims Crown ignored the fact the pokies addict could not afford to put millions of dollars into the machines.

Kate Leanne Jamieson, who is serving four years’ jail for fraud, told her court trial she was courted by the casino as a VIP, with free meals and accommodation, limousines and tickets to major events.

She told the judge who sentenced her to seven years: “I was totally seduced by (VIP rewards) because this was a side of life I have never seen before.”

Jamieson’s defence lawyer, Bernie Balmer, believed it was the first time a bank had tried to recover money stolen and gambled away by an employee in Victoria.

“If successful, it will open the floodgates for more actions (against the casino and gaming venues),” he said.

In a Supreme Court writ lodged on April 1, the bank alleged the casino:

“WILFULLY shut its eyes to the obvious fact” Jamieson had stolen all or most of the money she bet at Crown.

“WILFULLY and recklessly failed to make such inquiries as an honest and reasonable person” would make as to the source of the funds wagered.

KNEW of circumstances that would have indicated Jamieson was gambling with stolen money.

The writ said the bank wanted to recover the $3.5 million Jamieson stole from July 2001 to May 2004.

Michael McNamara, of the Law Institute of Victoria, said the bank would force Crown to reveal what it knew about Jamieson.

That could include that she was a bank loans officer, lived in the northern suburbs and survived on her income.

“There are only several suburbs in Melbourne where houses are worth $3.5 million, let alone people who have $3.5 million in cash to gamble,” Mr McNamara said.

He said if it was revealed Crown was aware of her circumstances, the question would be whether that knowledge should have started “alarm bells ringing”.

He said Crown might claim it did not suspect the money was stolen because it assumed a bank would have a system in place to stop fraud.

Jamieson, a mother of two from Lalor, told the County Court in 2006 she took up to $20,000 cash to each gambling session during the height of her addiction.

The court heard Crown made a $1.5 million profit on the $3.5 million she gambled.

Crown declined to comment yesterday.

In a statement to the court, Jamieson said she accepted Crown’s VIP status and received free meals, accommodation and tickets to events such as the Australian Tennis Open and Grand Prix.

She shifted $22 million between accounts over four years to hide her thefts.

Based on the report of Business Week, AsianLogic, an online gambling operator P115-million investment in Philippines listed Leisure & Resorts World Corp. (LRWC) due to weak market conditions. With this suspension, there has been a recall of LRWC resolution requiring the issuance of 37 million shares priced at P3.10 per share from the unissued portion of its authorized capital stock to AsianLogic.
According to the LRWC spokesman, the recall of the resolution is to accommodate the AsianLogic’s preference to defer indefinitely the subscription to said shares in view of the worldwide adverse market conditions. It is also said that both the corporation and AsianLogic agreed to revisit this planned subscription until such time that market conditions are more stable.
President of LRWC Alfredo Abelardo Benitez stated that the company had earlier projected to gain net revenues of $18.3 million for the first three years of sports betting operations with Asian Logic. Asian Logic suggests suggested that the first year of operations would deliver $5 million, to be followed by $6 million on the second year and $7.2 million on the third year.
Benitez during his interview said, ““This is a good start to enter the regional market by having a strategic partner who is a leader in this kind of business”. This partnership will penetrate the multibillion-peso gaming industry in the Asia-Pacific region. And this is seen to have the highest overall projection spending on gaming with notionally reaching $18.8 billion in 2011.
Core management and advisory team of AsianLOgic is based in Hongkong, while the interactive gambling operations are located in the Philippines.

Citadel Commerce - a longtime provider of eWallet payment solutions to online gamblers and internet casinos, has announced they will be integrating newly developed instant internet banking solutions for online gambling mogul, Party Gaming. A subsidiary of the Canada-based ESI Entertainment Systems Inc., Citadel Commerce is no doubt very excited to have secured the high-profile contract.

The same could also be said for Party Gaming, who since dropping out of the U.S. market, has been hit with a major drop in business. On a larger scale, the deal represents a milestone for online gambling payment solutions. More than just an eWallet, Citadel’s new internet banking solution allows online gamblers to make deposits directly from their personal bank account.

Cited as a low-cost, alternative payment solution supporting an international base of banks without relying on traditional banking structures, Citadel’s internet banking solution has the potential of becoming a new standard for online casinos seeking to give their players more convenient banking options.

Party Gaming, who has been a longtime client of Citadel, definitely makes for an excellent platform to launch the new system. According to Party Gaming’s CEO, Gigi Levy, the system has already been tested with select VIP customers who have found the system quite user-friendly and effective. Efforts are currently underway to integrate the system into their main cashier platform for all account holders to use.

The way it works is that user’s log into their own internet banking account to issue direct payments to a Citadel-owned account that is tied directly to the casino cashier via Citadel’s Payment Assistant. Once it’s set up, it only takes a few mouse clicks to get a deposit made into one’s online gambling account for placing real money wagers.

An excellent alternative to using credit and debit cards, Citadel’s instant internet banking solution is yet another testament to how safety and security can be ensured during online gambling activities.

The UK interactive television gambling company NetPlayTV plc has signed an exclusive TV distribution deal with Channel Five Broadcasting and the launch of its new service EuroTeleMillions.com on Monday, 9 March 2009.

EuroTeleMillions.com features five fixed odds draws every week: Monday to Thursday for a GBP1 million guaranteed jackpot, and each Friday with a guaranteed jackpot of Euro10 million. All the EuroTeleMillions.com draws pay out down to just one matched ball, increasing the odds of winning. The new game is an evolution of the ‘Play Monday’ charity draw acquired by NetPlay TV in early 2008 that has undergone extensive re-development. The televised draws will be aired daily as a two and half minute commercial on Five.

NetPlay TV has also signed a new partnership agreement with Trinity Mirror Group whereby the EuroTeleMillions.com service will be promoted in all of the Mirror newspaper titles. This includes the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, The Daily Record, Sunday Mail, and The People. The new game will also be promoted in a range of Trinity regional press titles. Readers of these titles will be given five additional free plays when they purchase their first five tickets, giving the players five extra chances to win.

Martin Higginson, Chairman and Chief Executive of NetPlay TV plc, said: “The draw will be broadcast daily in an exclusive deal with Five. In the first of its kind, our presenters will reveal the numbers for the day’s big draw in a two and half minute TV commercial. In partnership with Trinity Mirror, we’re giving their readers GBP5 worth of additional EuroTeleMillions.com tickets when they purchase their first five, giving them five extra chances to win the jackpot.

“We’re pleased to be working exclusively with both Five and Trinity Mirror Group. This is an exciting launch for the company and another key milestone in our evolution.”

The Asian Internet gambling software provider Enterasia has obtained a Technical Systems Testing certification for its Live Dealer Interactive Gaming System platform as a step in its move to expand use of the software in the West.

TST completed the independent evaluation of the Live Dealer IGS in January 2009 and certified it for use within the United Kingdom, as regulated by the Gambling Commission. Enterasia has announced that 2009 is the year it intends to expand operations in Europe in a program at present leading up to 2011.

Isle of Man-based online gambling software provider Microgaming used the ICE(i) exhibition this week to announce that the top European bookmaker Interwetten has gone live with its online casino games and system.

Interwetten is now offering the full Microgaming suite of over 400 quality games and multilingual games including the popular new multiplayer blackjack tournaments and tried and tested backend management tools. In addition, Interwetten has also installed more than 160 Flash technology no-download games.

Roger Raatgever, CEO of Microgaming said: We are thrilled to welcome such an esteemed and successful business to our customer base and look forward to a long and successful partnership with Interwetten. 2008 saw Microgaming go from strength to strength having driven a number of major initiatives that are significantly benefiting our operators.”

Interwetten CEO Thomas Daubek commented: “We are pleased to partner with a market leader like Microgaming. By relaunching the casino site we are reacting to an increasing development trend and are making the best offer on the market available to our customers.”