Online Casino and Gambling News: December 2008

This week's $300 million settlement and Wire Act guilty plea by the co-founder of Party Gaming, Anurag Dikshit, has resulted in a blizzard of high-visibility coverage for the industry in the world's mainstream media, and much of it has been positive - highlighting the confusing and often discriminatory nature of US laws on Internet gambling and its application by the Department of Justice.

Online gambling software developer Microgaming has just released its December game releases, featuring three new slots to occupy players over the holiday season.

In keeping with the generous spirit of the festive season, Microgaming’s latest video slot release Deck the Halls offers a sleigh-load of winning opportunities through Wilds, Stacked Wilds, Scatters, Multipliers, Free Spins and Free Games in a truly entertaining 5 reel, 30 pay-line game.

The debate on the findings of the Swedish Inquiry on Gambling entered a new phase today when four major online gambling companies called a press conference to challenge the Swedish government findings with a study of their own.

The Remote Gaming Association, a body that represents the interests of most of Europe's major Internet gambling companies, this week ramped up the pressure on US representatives at the World Trade Organisation, calling on the European Commission to take the "necessary next steps" to protect European Union interests from WTO-violating, retroactive and discriminatory enforcement by US authorities in the area of Internet gambling.

The Financial Times speculation earlier this week that Party Gaming co-founder Anurag Dikshit (37) had made a $300 million deal with the US Department of Justice was proved correct when the billionaire gambling IT whiz appeared in the Southern District of New York court Tuesday afternoon, pleading guilty to a single charge under the 1961 Wire Act. Earlier, the Internet gambling billionaire had flown into New York after negotiating the settlement details for the past 18 months with the DoJ.

The major Vienna-listed online gambling group Bwin and the Division on Addictions at the Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School Teaching Affiliate, have signed an agreement for research collaboration for five years.

Two years ago, Mount Pleasant police in the Charleston area raided a home poker game, busting a number of players and making newspaper headlines. Whilst some of those charged accepted the penalties, 5 players have consistently fought the prosecution and will soon have their day in court, having secured a court order allowing them to argue the contentious skill vs. luck defence by asserting that poker, as a game of skill rather than luck, is not illegal gambling.

The Dublin-based Internet gambling software developer CryptoLogic Limited has inked a strategic partnership deal with Orbis Technology Limited, a provider of interactive gaming and betting solutions. The agreement makes CryptoLogic's top performing games available to the gaming brands in Orbis' portfolio of customers through Orbis' Fixed Odds Games (FOG) platform.

Sweden's state-owned Svenska Spel gambling monopoly may find itself at the centre of some dramatic policy changes if the authorities accept the recommendations of a public commission appointed to study and report back on the subject.

The popular publication Techdirt weighed in on the regulation of online gambling in the USA this week, calling the American Gaming Association's support for a study of online gambling "about as wishy-washy as could be" in an editorial.