Legal

The repeated and unequivocal use by the recent 60 Minutes television program of the claim that online gambling, and specifically poker, is illegal in the United States was made despite the producers receiving advice to the contrary from legal expert Professor I. Nelson Rose of Whittier College

Two California gamblers who sued the Google and Yahoo search engines in 2004 for carrying gambling ads after they lost $100000 at the tables were defeated in a California court last week.

The feisty move by Swedish online gambling company Betsson to challenge Swedish monopolistic practice by opening a land betting shop in Stockholm as reported previously continues to generate headlines.

A long running Irish civil dispute over shares in a lotto syndicate is currently playing out in the courts, and may serve as a warning to the many informal syndicates that share decisions should be documented and reviewed regularly.

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

Jacksonville's Lottery Post reports that two local men are facing felony charges over a stolen lottery ticket that was redeemed for $20 000, according to a police report.

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.

The South Korean newspaper Korea Times claims in an editorial this week that online gambling sites are "mushrooming" in the region despite the illegal nature of the practice...and it's at least in part due to insufficient official surveillance.

American Gaming Association CEO Frank Fahrenkopf's recent comments on the possible regulation of online gambling have ignited renewed and widespread US media interest in the idea of major land gambling groups supporting the legalisation of Internet gambling in the tough economic conditions currently presenting so many problems to the industry.

The Reuters news agency reports that European Union member nations are to consider the possibilitities for harmonised egaming regulation within the trade bloc in meetings scheduled for December 1st 2008.