Online Casino and Gambling News: April 2010

Further details are emerging on the recent shock news that Gaming VC has commenced litigation in Malta seeking damages from Boss Media and parent GTechG2, and it appears that a question of Italian licensing is a key element in the dispute between the companies.

Gibraltar-based online gambling operator Party Gaming is still apparently intent on entering the US market, should it become accessible legally, with its multi-million dollar settlement with the US Justice Department last July forming a springboard from which it may be able to develop partnerships with US companies.

NetPlayTV plc, the UK interactive gambling company, has signed a significant airtime deal for the new ITV1 night time teleshopping trial window, 'The Zone'. The six month "teleshopping" airtime trial agreement with ITV Broadcasting Limited will lead to the broadcast of fully interactive transactional TV gaming formats on ITV1 starting during May 2010.

With the football World Cup in South Africa only weeks away, the Vienna-listed online gambling group Bwin has launched World Cup Solitaire, a skill game in which players pair cards to reach the sum thirteen and follow colour or suit to boost the score.

An article on internet gambling prepared by the Medill News Service (a Washington program of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University) was widely published by US mainstream media this week. The article gave a balanced perspective on the status quo of the various efforts underway to legalise online gambling in the United States, and pointed to the looming deadline for the June 1st implementation of the UIGEA regulations, which enjoin US financial institutions to enforce a law that has been widely criticised for its lack of precision.

You could say that the online gambling site JackpotJoy was very appropriately named for one lucky player recently - it dished out a £543,627 jackpot on the five-reel and 20-payline slot Deal or No Deal (note our Deal or No Deal jackpot tracker detected this win on March 29).

The Canadian province of Manitoba is mulling the pros and cons of regulating online gambling, reports the publication Canoe, which quotes no less an authority than Manitoba Lotteries Minister Steve Ashton.

Malta-based online gaming operator Unibet Group has released its unaudited financial results for 2009 showing an impressive 67% year-on-year increase in profits after tax to £26.8 million. The results featured a 20% year-on-year rise in the number of active customers while after tax Q4 results for the fourth quarter grew from a deficit of £900,000 in Q4,2008 to the surplus of £8.4 million currently posted.

Online gambling software provider CTXM has launched two new online slots branded World-Cup Soccer Spins and Battleground Spins. World-Cup Soccer Spins engages players in the atmosphere and growing excitement of this year's football World-Cup, placing the player on the field of a soccer match soccer match, backed by a range of topical features such as realistic "penalty shootout" bonus games.

The new UK Internet Service Provider Tibboh is creating a stir with its initiative aimed at introducing a system to categorise around three billion web addresses, including poker rooms, online casinos and social networking sites with a view to imposing age limits similar to those used by the British Board of Film Classification.