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Australia
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Australian gambler sues casino
A gambler
in Australia
sued the casino where he had gambled away more than AUS $ 30 million
dollars. One time he even lost 1,5 million dollars
in 45 minutes!
The man
who was already banned from another casino in Sydney because of his addiction found it
inadmissible that he was allowed to play in a casino in another state.
He’s
demanding
20,5 million dollars compensation.
The
addicted Harry Kakavas had already been banned
for 10 years from the Star City Casino
in Sydney.
His lawyers are trying to extend the ban throughout the rest of the
country.
Kakavas filed a complaint Tuesday morning at the High
Court in Victoria.
He argued
that the Crown Casino in Melbourne
knew he was a pathological gambler and still let him play.
In 2005
and 2006 Kakavas flew back and forth about 14
times to Melbourne
in his private jet to gamble.
The
casinos lawyer states that it was never their intention to take advantage
of his addiction.
If the
casino is found guilty of violating the law, the casino will have to pay a
fine of about 400 million euro to the state of Victoria.
De
Telegraaf (The Netherlands), 19 May 2009
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Belgium
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Belgian liberalization not without sticking points
Although a good deal of attention has been focused
on the controlled opening in France,
similar liberalization in Belgium
is also on the way.
However, the proposals for legalizing Internet
betting in France's smaller but no less affluent neighbor
have proven to be more controversial.
Betting in retail outlets has been legal since the
1990s and established operators like Ladbrokes and Stanleybet
-- as well as Pari Mutuel
Urbain, the French monopolist -- all have a
foothold there.
Belgium's 1999 Gaming Act did not include online betting
and gaming in the range of legal products, and over the last two years, the
government has been studying new proposals for allowing operators to offer
those services.
Back in October 2007 when the French held their
first conference to discuss market liberalization, Etienne Marique,
who is president of Belgium's
Gaming Commission, was also present and cut a more combative figure than
many on the podium.
In the last 12 months, Mr. Marique
made clear that Belgium
was likely to follow a similar timetable as France, meaning licenses for
online gaming would be available at the end of 2009 or beginning of 2010.
He has also shown support for a closed Virtual Private Network -- similar
to that adopted by the AAMS and Sogei authorities
in Italy
-- in order to control operators more closely.
However, in March of this year, it became clear
that the Belgians were also considering a more controversial route -- one
that was certain to fall afoul of the European Union.
It was then that Secretary of State Carl Devlies, the man in charge of introducing gambling
reform in the country, revealed he was considering allowing only existing
casino and betting operators to apply for online licenses.
As in the case of all European countries seeking
to amend their legislation, the Belgian proposals have to be sent for
approval by the European Commission. There is now a standstill period until
June 29.
The less controversial aspects of the proposals
include site blocking (similar to that adopted by the Italians), a
21-or-over age-limit restriction and a requirement that servers be located
in the country.
However, of interest to many operators is the
suggestion that online casino games may also be regulated. If the proposals
are approved, this would make Belgium the first country, of
those adopting newly liberalized regimes, to allow games of chance online. France and Italy, recall, opted to allow
only betting and card games.
The new proposals, in line with the
recommendations put forward by the Senate last year, still need to be
approved by the Council of State, Belgium's supreme administrative court.
But with other countries in the region opting for
change, and tens of thousands of Belgians playing on offshore Web sites, it
is only a matter of time before a new regulatory environment is in place in
the country.
iGaming News, 1 June 2009
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Canada -
Ontario
gaming officials have their eye on you
The
Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission is preparing
to install facial-recognition technology in all its gaming sites, including
Flamborough, to keep out problem gamblers,
possibly later this year.
Kelly McDougald, chief executive officer for OLG, said the
commission will be examining the results of a pilot program currently being
conducted at a charity casino in Sault Ste. Marie at the end of the
summer. Officials will study the information and technology until they are
“comfortable,” she said.
“Then
we will make a deployment to all of our facilities across the
province,” said Ms. McDougald, in an
interview.
The OLG
teamed up with two University
of Toronto professors
who had developed an enhanced facial recognition technology with
encryption.
Researchers
had discovered it might be possible to recognize and also protect a
person’s identity through biometric encryption.
Ms. McDougald said the technology would only be used for OLG’s self-exclusion program for problem
gamblers. The program involves people who know they have a gambling problem
to sign an agreement asking the casinos to ban them from entering all of
its Ontario
gaming sites.
To assist
in enforcing the program, security guards now have to remember the
persons’ faces and names from a data base. Ms. McDougald
said there are about 10,000 people who have signed up for the program.
“It’s
really to respond to our customers desire for assistance,” said Ms.
Mc Dougald.
The
Ontario Provincial Police, which oversees enforcement at OLG facilities,
“are aware of (the program),” said Ms. Dougald.
But she
emphasized the facial-recognition program will not be used to catch
cheaters, or criminals.
“We
are not working with the OPP from a criminal perspective,” she said.
“It is not an area we have explored.”
The
program will cost about $4 million.
Dundas Star News, 22 June 2009
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Croatia
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Youth gambling problem warnings
Health experts have
warned of gambling problems among young Croatians as new figures show the
extent of gambling problems in the country.
Officials at the Institute of Public
Health in Primorsko-Goranska County said 15 per cent of high school
students’ monthly income was being spent on betting while around 15
to 20 per cent of teenagers spent approximately 54 Euros a month on bets.
They said many kids
used betting shops located close to schools during breaks between lessons.
Mirjana Graovac, a psychiatrist from Rijeka hospital, said
young students see gambling as an easy way of earning money.
Groavac said: "It is a paradox that today we have campaigns against
almost everything but not against children gambling and betting. Children
believe gambling is acceptable behaviour and that is dangerous thinking.
"
Official figures
have also shown that while in 2007 Croatia had 50,000 pathological
gamblers the number had doubled by this year.
Croatian
Times, 7 May 2009
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China
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Former billionaire runs from gambling debts
A former multibillionaire in Nan'an, Fujian
province, decided to run away and leave his wife, his mother, and two
children behind after he became nearly penniless.
Wu Xiongmeng,
36, used to be the president of a lucrative oil company. He owned a luxury
seaside villa and lots of luxury cars.
But he became addicted to
gambling in 2006 and owes more than 35 million yuan
($5,123,175) to different people.
The court plans to auction off
his belongings.
China Daily,1 July 2009
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Finland -
Veikkaus among the first companies in Europe to fulfil the requirements for the EL
Responsible Gaming Standard
Veikkaus signed the EL responsible Gaming standard in
2007. By doing so, we commited to compliance with
the Responsible Gaming Network. One of the requirements of the Framework is
that the responsibility of our activities is audited. This year we carried
out the
Audit at Veikkaus and it was assured by an external operator. Veikkaus was among the first members of the EL
(European Lotteries) to carry out a responsibility audit. The audit aims at
ensuring that Veikkaus’ work for the
promotion of responsible gaming is sufficient. This means that we shall pay
attention to responsibility in all our activities, including marketing,
sales, and game development.
Journal
des Casinos, 1 July 2009
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International Airspace -
Ryanair to launch online gambling (…again)
Budget airline Ryanair has resurrected plans for an in-flight online
gambling system.
Announcing
the new plans this week, a Ryanair spokesman told
the Wall Street Journal:
“Ryanair's onboard gaming systems are
still in the development-and-research phase with the focus on launching the
service in three to five years.”
The
budget airline first announced plans for an onboard gambling system back in
2005, when Ryanair chief executive Michael
O’Leary said he believed revenue from gaming and gambling could
eventually do away with the need for air fares, although the scheme never
transpired.
In the
event of the system being implemented, all gambling activity on Ryanair planes would need to take place in
international airspace, as the UK Gambling Commission does not issue premises
licences for aircraft. This would make any gambling activity on Ryanair planes within the UK an offence under the UK
Gambling Act 2005.
However O’Leary said he
did not anticipate any licensing problems.
E
Gaming Review, 25 June 2009
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Switzerland
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Swiss to offer online gambling licenses
In Switzerland,
the Government has announced plans to liberalise its online gambling market
by offering operators a limited number of licenses while keeping a ban on
wagers placed through telephone and interactive television.
The proposals are the idea of the Justice Ministry in response to the
increasing number of illegal online money games but any changes would be
subject to the approval of the Swiss Parliament.
The plan would also tighten measures against other forms of illegal
gambling, which could see the Swiss run afoul of
the European Commission for seeming to give preferential treatment to
locally licensed providers over those based in other Member States.
According to an article from news portal SwissInfo.ch, new forms of
gambling in Switzerland
could see the Government generate tax revenues of up to $22 million a year.
The Swiss decision comes hard on the heels of Denmark’s announcement
last week that it would be presenting proposals that would, if passed, end
the 60-year gaming monopoly of the State-owned Danske
Spil organisation.
iGaming Business, 5 May 2009
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United Kingdom
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Betting shops to do more to prevent underage gambling
Bookmakers
are to review their policies on checking the age of customers after a
watchdog review found that many were accepting bets from minors.
The Gambling Commission surveyed
100 betting shops and found that 98 of them had allowed under
18’s to place bets.
The Association of British
Bookmakers (ABB) has already moved to impose tighter checking procedures in
betting shops, with a designated member of staff to monitor and check ages.
"We need to establish a
culture where all betting shop staff feel obliged
to challenge young adults who look under 21," ABB senior executive Andrew
Lyman told BBC Radio 5.
"In turn this will lead to
a culture where young adults expect to be challenged when they enter a
betting shop."
The new plans will be unveiled
by the association in the next few days in response to the commission's
report. They are expected to unveil disciplinary procedures for staff who don’t make checks on young adults who
don’t look 21.
Newscan, 8 June 2009
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United States -
Minnesota
drops action to make ISPs block gambling sites
The US state of Minnesota has dropped action to force internet service providers
(ISPs) including AT&T, Comcast and Verizon to block state
residents’ access to a 'blacklist’ of 200 gambling websites.
As
reported on EGRmagazine.com,
the action by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) faced
opposition from bodies including America’s Interactive Media
Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA)
lobby group, which wrote to the 11 ISPs last month telling them to ignore
the order, as well asking the District Court in Minneapolis, Minnesota’s
biggest city, to prevent the DPS from enforcing the order.
Representative
Pat Garafolo, who submitted the original bill
seeking to block state residents’ access, issued the announcement,
which he said occurred after “the legal position was reconsidered.”
Garafolo said in a statement: “This is a great day
for internet freedom. In the spirit of cooperation and in recognition of
the rescission of these notices, I am more than happy to withdraw my bill
and in its place sponsor a discussion aimed at establishing a framework for
regulating and licensing the online gaming industry.”
The bill
was also opposed by America’s
Poker Players Alliance (PPA). PPA Minnseota State
Director Matthew Werden said: “Minnesota poker players made our voices heard, the state listened and ended its ill-advised and
improper attempt to circumvent the rights of Minnesota poker players.”
In other US egaming
regulation news, the state of Illinois is
close to passing a bill to legalise online horse betting (more), while California is
debating a bill to legalise intra-state poker.
At
federal level, a bill to overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling
Enforcement Act was submitted by Representative Barney Frank last month.
E
Gaming Review, 5 June 2009
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