Online Casino and Gambling News: December 2009

The Attorney General of South Carolina, Henry McMaster, has launched an appeal against a circuit court decision overturning a conviction of five poker players earlier this year for illegal gambling.

A 20-year-old student from Vancouver, Canada, who still lives with his parents and took the last semester off to play poker, has been creating waves of interest at Ultimatebet and in the online poker media and on message boards this month.

The Italian business media are reporting an unsuccessful attempt to acquire control of the major Italian online sportsbetting firm Sindacato Nazionale Agenzie Ippiche SpA (SNAI) by private equity firms Bridgepoint and Axa Private Equity, who reportedly offered €600 million.

Six days after a Powerball lottery draw in Australia, a thirty-something single mother has claimed the mother of all Christmas presents - a Powerball lottery win worth A$12 million. The young woman became an instant multi-millionaire in the Christmas Eve draw, although it took her six days to claim the prize following a reminder from the Powerball administrators to players to check their tickets as the prize had not been claimed.

The French investment house Louis Dreyfus is preparing to buy a stake in Mangas Gaming, a 50-50, Paris-based Internet betting joint venture between Bains de Mer de Monaco and the holding company of French TV producer Stephane Courbit.

Some superstitious South African gamblers intent on winning millions on the country's national lottery have apparently been indulging in a little 'chemical' assistance that gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "what have you been smoking?"

In Sweden an unidentified online gambling company has voluntarily paid back 4.9 million kronor (around $673,000) stolen by a gambling addict from her employer and wagered at its website.

An as yet unidentified online player enjoyed a very merry Christmas this year thanks to the Playtech progressive slot Wall Street Fever, which coughed up a very nice $220,335 jackpot on Christmas Day.

The government bans that shut down thousands of casinos and gambling parlours in Russia earlier this year spawned an exodus to the Internet, but also to lands both more climate and state-friendly, like Latin America. This week the news magazine Time examined the phenomenon, reporting that some Russian casino owners are content to stay in the motherland and relocate to four geographically remote regions to re-start their businesses, but that others have sought pastures that may be greener and friendlier.

British bookies who offered odds on a white Christmas in London on December 25th heaved a sigh of relief as Christmas Day passed without it happening, despite icy temperatures and heavy snowfalls elsewhere in the British Isles.