Online Casino and Gambling News: August 2008

Party Gaming plc's much anticipated half yearly results were released this week, showing revenue growth in all areas as the online gambling firm continues to rebuild following the depredations of UIGEA and its exit from the US market.

Michael Phelps, the Olympic legend who this year alone took 8 personal gold medals back to the States from Beijing has apparently been besieged by as many as 50 endorsement proposals a day, according to media reports. And at least two of those came from poker related outfits.

For seventy years the Swedish welfare state has imposed monopolies on gambling, alcohol and pharmacy products, but its membership of the European Union, and that body's policy of free movement of trade and services, has enabled entrepreneurs to chip away at the monolithic structure, reports an interesting article in the Financial Times Deutschland this week.

The state-owned gambling system at Irish race courses is linking up with the world's biggest online betting exchange, Betfair. The Tote system, traditionally only available at track-sides, will now be available to more than two million customers around the globe via Internet through the Betfair site.

The Gibraltar-based online gambling group 888.com released its H1 2008 numbers this week, basking in the achievement of record half year results and its seventh consecutive period of quarter-on-quarter growth.

The controversial Bodog group remained in the headlines this week following allegations that the company was in trouble and cutting hundreds of jobs in Canada.

Dublin based online gambling software provider Cryptologic's involvement in Mahjong Time is opening doors in Asia, the latest a Mahjong Time deal which gives access to a remarkable 50 percent of the Internet cafes in China, the company claims in a statement this week.

The Isle of Man e-cash processor Neteller plc is to offer customers a new prepaid card service in October this year following an agreement with the Conister Financial Group plc subsidiary, TransSend Payment Services.

The London-listed Party Gaming plc subsidiary Party Casino has a busy month ahead, making new movie-themed slots available to its players and implementing improved multilingual Support facilities to enhance its offering to European punters.

One of those interesting online gambler political initiatives took place over the last few days when the Poker Players Alliance suggested to US fans that the Republican Party Platform Committee might be a good place to make their views known. The Platform Committee is responsible for presenting the party's platform or manifesto, and runs a website where suggestions and comments on what should or should not be on the platform can be posted.