Online Casino and Gambling News: January 2009

32 Red management had good cause for celebration this week; the company delivered a set of annual results that showed solid growth, and both management and casino received top awards from a major Internet gambling information portal.

A New York Times report on confirmation hearings for a member of the new US presidential team foreshadows continued Department of Justice hassles for online gambling in the United States.

The UK publication Crain's Manchester Business reports that brothers Fred and Peter Done are through with online gambling, having sold their online gambling operation, BetFred, to an undisclosed buyer, netting some £27.2 million from the sale.

Betsson A.B., the Swedish listed online gambling operator, has partnered with UK mobile gambling technology provider Mfuse to launch a mobile sports betting service in the first half of 2009.

Apparently last Friday Pennsylvania Judge Thomas A. James Jr. of Columbia County ruled that poker's most popular game, Texas Hold’em, is a contest where skill predominates, therefore removing it from the definition of illegal gambling in the state.

The news from Nevada continues to paint a bleak picture as the economic recession impacts visitor and hotel occupation rates in the gambling state.

The Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA) has announced that its legal team has been asked by the US 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals to provide notice of their availability in April 2009 for oral arguments in their challenge to a Federal law targeting the Internet gambling industry.

Cynics might say that Cryptologic's latest public update on its growth strategy was to some extent spurred by the recent challenge from ex-CEO Javaid Aziz that management's strategy needed some revision. Whatever the motivation, the company went public with its intentions this week, predicting net income of $9 - $10 million in 2009.

In a reprise of a similar incident last year, when European gamblers using laptops and mobiles were ejected from a major tennis match, an alleged mobile better was removed from a Brisbane International tennis tournament match last week.

A Mississippi gambler from Biloxi who feels she has been cheated out of a million dollar win by the land venue IP Casino has taken the fight to the Supreme Court this week, protesting that the slot machine she was playing had reflected a million dollar jackpot win way in excess of the $8000 maximum win the casino claims is posted on the equipment.