Financial

The current World Series of Poker champion Peter Eastgate (22) apparently stands to lose much of his $9.1 million first prize to Denmark's taxman, according to the well informed poker writer Thomas Somach on Poker Helper.com.

One of the most frequently rolled out justifications for state gambling monopolies - that these are good for sports funding - has been put under the comparative spotlight by a new survey commissioned by the European Gaming and Betting Association and published this week.

Mangas Capital Gaming, which owns 75 percent of the UK online betting firm Betclick, will be half owned by Monaco hotel and land casino group Société des Bains de Mer soon following a deal involving Euro 100 million

Online gambling group Sportingbet's belt-tightening has started to deliver results, with a brighter first quarter report that shows a pretax profit of GBP 4.9 million

Interest in the Isle of Man as an online gambling jurisdiction has resulted in the Treasury launching the Gambling Supervision Bill 2008

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan report that six arrests were made Monday in the Bronx in connection with online sports betting offences. The New York Daily News said prosecutors associated the arrests with organised crime.

Colorado's gambling regulatory body has released depressing revenue figures for the state's land gambling operations reflecting the international trend to lower gambling revenues already reported from Las Vegas and Macau.

Starting the week off with a resounding bang is the news that two major listed companies on the London stock exchange, UK gambling group William Hill and online gambling software provider Playtech, are to combine in a new venture branded William Hill Online headed by ex- Leisure and Gaming CEO Henry Birch.

London-listed land and online gambling group Rank plc revealed in a trading update this week that its revenues declined by 8 percent for the 41 weeks to 12 October compared to the same period last year.

In a trading update this week, the Dublin-based online gambling software developer Cryptologic Online Casinos reports that it expects a third-quarter operating loss of between $1.0 and $1.5 million, a modest improvement from the previous quarter, but cautioned that it additionally anticipates a significant $3.6 million hit from adverse dollar rate movement.