Online Casino and Gambling News: April 2010

Last week's news from Canada that the province of Manitoba is actively considering following other Canadian provinces into the online gambling business has been followed by reports that First Nation bands are also examining their options.

The legal team at major online poker firm Full Tilt Poker will be celebrating a successful week in which the company prevailed in two US courtrooms. In the first case, two California players who were banned and had winnings confiscated failed in their civil case against the giant poker site.

The Victorian Commission for Gambling could find itself in court this week after confiscating a touch screen computer kiosk which it claimed was a "gambling device" and holding it for eight months without instituting charges. The owners of the machine, VenueNet, say that the machine was seized in a Melbourne pub in August last year as a suspected betting device, and after 8 months with no prosecution they want a court order returning their equipment, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

Australian anti-gambling politician Senator Nick Xenophone has won himself a truckload of publicity in the media this weekend with his thoughts on banning free iPhone apps related to gambling. The senator feels that such applications are irresponsible and should be outlawed, claiming that numerous slot machine applications, some backed by gaming giants like Harrah's Entertainment, can be downloaded for free and are identical in payouts and features to machines in casinos.

The ongoing and bitter row over Australian federal government attempts to censor the internet, which recently saw US intervention and meetings in Washington DC with Australian politicians is generating growing pressure on the Rudd government.

The honesty services of the Australian wing of the giant betting exchange Betfair are again being used by a major sports body, this time the National Rugby League in Australia. Betfair uses its sophisticated tracking and monitoring capabilities to flag any suspicious betting patterns in the interests of curtailing corruption in sports, and has in the past interacted with many international sports bodies.

The huge popularity of the Indian Premier League's Twenty20 tournament has created a storm of betting by cricket-mad fans, but because betting is technically illegal in India, at least some of the action has gone to offshore websites. The Economic Times in London investigated the phenomenon this week, reporting that major UK-licensed bookmakers like William Hill and Paddy Power are accepting online bets from India.

Despite approving in principle the idea of online gambling legalisation and regulation, the South African government continues to dither on actual implementation, leaving the pastime technically illegal. That hasn't stopped online gambling companies from openly advertising their offerings in the country, but it has presented the Reserve Bank with a problem on international transactions that might involve 'illegal' internet gambling.

It's an all-too-common occurrence in online gambling - players hitting the message boards to complain about no or slow payments by online casinos, and the frustration and anger that this inevitably triggers.

Tough economic conditions, restructuring and industry consolidation moves that impacted licensees meant that online bingo software provider Parlay Entertainment "generated very little return from this significant investment in 2009, resulting in a substantial loss and cash burn."