Stephen Carter

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided against attaching his poker legislation to the tax cut bill introduced late yesterday, US newspaper Politico has reported.
Reid could still, however, insert the poker legislation into the bill if additional amendments are made before a final vote on the measures next week. House Democrats are reportedly unhappy with the tax cut bill in its current form and are demanding modifications. Reid
could also attach the plan to a huge UStn spending bill that is needed to keep the government funded until Septembernext year. However, either option is certain to generate backlash from the
Republicans, said the paper.

Former Ladbrokes chief executive Chris Bell is heading up a team preparing to bid up to £200m for the Tote, The Times newspaper hasreported today.
Bell’s financial backers include private equity firm GI Partners and the Royal Bank of Scotland, while his team includes racehorse owner and deputy chairman of Chime Communications Piers
Pottinger and former Ladbrokes colleagues.

Racing NSW has sent two letters to Betfair Australasia chief executive Andrew Twaits claiming defamation and demanding retractions and apologies in relation to
comments he made following the Federal Court’s ruling against Betfair in the race
fields legislation case last month. Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’Landy’s told Racing and Sports that the action is in response to comments Twaits made following the Federal Court
judgement and to a website blog he wrote on 19 November where he questioned race field payment arrangements between Racing NSW, Tabcorp and members of the Tabcorp group including the Victorian TAB,
Luxbet and TAB Sportsbet. V’Landys said: “We are taking action to stop him making wild accusations and to accept the Federal Court decision that has twice gone against Betfair.” Twaits
has refused to respond to the lawyers’ demands and has challenged Racing NSW to sue him. “They can either sue me and have the facts tested under oath and cross-examination or publicly
state which of my comments are wrong and why,” Twaits said.

GTECH G2 and Loto-Québec have launched the first regulated poker network in North America, the company has said. The Canadian Poker Network (CPN) is
available on Loto-Québec’s new English and French language Espacejeux.com site and will only be open to residents of the province of Quebec. GTECH G2 will host its CPN
operations in Canada with the system housed in its Montreal data centre. It will provide eight poker variants including Texas Hold’em and Canadian Stud (or Soko). Espacejeux.com began
registering players on the 19 November and accepted its first real money wagers 1 December. OpenBet has provided Loto-Québec with customer customer account management
software and more than 20 table games.

Microgaming has added Back2School Bingo to its bingo network.

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Posted: 10/12/2010

Attorneys representing the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) have filed a motion in the Franklin Circuit Court to prevent the Commonwealth of Kentucky from
seizing the rights to 141 gambling-related domain names. This is the second time iMEGA has moved to block Kentucky’s efforts to have the rights to each domain frozen, under threat of seizure
by the Commonwealth, with the purpose of forcing sites that used the domains to pay financial settlements to reacquire rights of use. iMEGA managed successfully last January to block the Commonwealth’s first attempt to seize the domain names, when the Court of
Appeals issued a writ prohibiting the Franklin Circuit Court from proceeding with the seizures. Kentucky has also issued another lawsuit pursuing Full
Tilt owner Pocket Kings, Microgaming and PartyGaming for monies allegedly lost on the site by state residents. PartyGaming last month
issued a motion dismissing the lawsuit.

Sports rights and marketing agency the Sportsman Media Group has signed a deal to provide its live streaming portfolio to Betfair. The agreement includes Spain’s La Liga and
German Bundesliga football, the volleyball and handball champions’ leagues, and other events in world sport including tennis, basketball, beach volleyball and table tennis. UK director
at Betfair Lee Cowles said: “The sportsman’s streaming package perfectly complements our existing video streams with additional top sporting events. We are now able to offer video
streaming for almost every sport.”

The Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) has upgraded its sit & go offering, including the introduction of Bounty Single Table Tournaments (STT) and a new Survivor format in STT form. There
will also be a trial fee cap of €3 across all sit & go tournaments, with the aim of making the high stakes STTs on
the network “the most competitive in the marketplace”, according to the company. The latest sit & go changes
are now available at all Microgaming-powered poker rooms.

Bwin has added popular single-player dice game Farkle to its portfolio of skill games. Tomer Katz, director of casino and games at Bwin, said:
“Farkle is a popular casual game among offline gamers. Bwin is now taking the game to the next level by bringing the challenge to the virtual world.”

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Posted: 07/12/2010