Online Casino and Gambling News: April 2010

Suggestions by problem gambling researchers that the federal government in Australia appoint a national gambling regulator in place of state regulators are currently achieving wide coverage in the mainstream media Downunder. Academics Linda Hancock and Michael O'Neil appear to have the support of anti-gambling campaigner Senator Nick Xenophon in their suggestion that individual states and territories have failed to curtail problem gambling, because they rely on the industry for revenue.

In what it described as a landmark announcement for poker around the world, the International Mind Sport Association has officially recognised the game of poker as a mind sport and a game of skill, on a par with chess and bridge.

The Baltic state of Estonia, which legalised online gambling subject to strict conditions in January this year has issued its second licence. The successful applicant is Alands Penningautomatforening (PAF), which holds an online gambling monopoly in Finland's semi-autonomous Aland Islands but has subsidiary firms on the Finnish mainland and in Sweden.

The internet operations of UK gambling group William Hill plc have once again provided a boost to group revenues against a backdrop of a 4% decline in land-based betting shop net revenues.

Daniel Tzvetkoff, the disgraced and bankrupt former head the defunct Australian e-processing company Intabill is to remain in custody after all. The high-living 28-year-old financial whiz, who left a multi-million dollar trail of debts in his wake after his Brisbane-based company folded, was arrested whilst attending a conference in Las Vegas recently and subsequently released on bail by Las Vegas judge Peggy A Leen despite prosecutorial objections that the defendant was a flight risk.

Radio New Zealand reports that the government's Ministry of Health has posted a 25% rise in the number of problem gamblers using its counselling services over the period 2008 - 2009. The ministry reports that the majority of gambling problems are related to land gaming machines in pubs and clubs, of which there are 19,000 in the country.

The Gaming Summit in Calgary, Canada and its preoccupation with "the elephant in the room" - online gambling - has continued to attract media reportage. The Calgary Herald reported that online gambling industry officials emphasized that they would like to see provincial governments move to protect players from unscrupulous sites, as has been mooted by several provinces.

The Kansas City grand jury probe into illegal online sports betting produced another guilty plea Wednesday. Gerlarmo Cammisano (56), who federal prosecutors described as "master agent" of the enterprise, pleaded guilty to operating an illegal gambling business. He also agreed to forfeit more than $200,000 and two laptop computers seized during the investigation, reports the Kansas City Star.

The Calgary-based online gambling software developer Chartwell Technology Inc. has launched its new "The Italian Job" slot at Bwin, the largest publicly listed Internet betting group in Europe. The new slot is an eye-catching nine-line game inspired by the cult Paramount film of 1969. "The Italian Job", and celebrates the 40th anniversary of the film's release with a nine-line pick-a-prize tribute.

The influential Californian newspaper Capitol Weekly, which serves an audience made up mainly of government and political readers, says it's time for online poker to be regulated in the state.