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Cambodia -
Cambodia
outlaws online gambling
The
Government of Cambodia has suddenly outlawed online gambling following a
directive from Prime Minister Hun Sen in order to
‘make social reform, strengthen public order and improve social
morality’.
According to a report from The Phnom Penh Post newspaper, the
nation’s Minister of Finance, Keat Chhon, has terminated all previously valid licenses
covering electronic gaming, slot machines and sportsbetting
activities.
'We will punish, in accordance with the law, any business licensee who
disrespects this declaration,' said Chhon.
The newspaper reported that Sporting Live Group, an Internet sportsbetting chain set up in 2006, had been forced to
close alongside licensed operator Cambo Six.
'We agreed to close our business in accordance with the Government's
decision,' an anonymous employee of Sporting Live told the newspaper.
Both Sporting Live and Cambo Six stated that they
had not been able to pay out all of the winnings owed to customers due to
the speed of the crackdown despite assurances from Chhon.
Both firms have foreign backers and Nancy Chau, Manager
for Cambo Six's head office, said that she had
sent a letter to the Prime Minister requesting a compromise in order to
save the considerable investment in the company.
'We told the Prime Minister we have an agreement,” said Chau.
“We cannot immediately end the agreement.'
Chau revealed that Cambo
Six’s license had been valid until the end of January 2011 and stated
that she had not yet received a reply from the Prime Minister.
'We do not know [the response]; we are lost right now,' said Chau.
iGaming Business, 10 March 2009
- Canada
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Parkinson’s
sufferers lack addictive personality
Researchers at the
Montreal Neurological Institute have gained fresh insight into the brain
chemistry behind addiction by studying the least likely of addicts –
Parkinson’s disease patients.
Typically, those
suffering from the neurodegenerative disorder are the polar opposite of an
addictive personality. Most patients with Parkinson’s tend to be
introverted, rigid and slow to anger – not the excitable, impulsive
temperament that’s necessary for addiction, said Alain Dagher, lead author of the MNI study.
Yet paradoxically,
some patients who are treated for the tremors associated with
Parkinson’s disease (PD) do develop addictive behaviours.
For example, the incidence
of pathological gambling in treated PD patients is eight per cent, compared
with one per cent in the general public.
What Dagher and his colleagues discovered is that some of
these patients might have been given too much medication to stimulate dopamine,
a neurotransmitter in the brain. People with Parkinson’s lack
dopamine.
“In some
instances, Parkinson’s disease patients become addicted to their own
medication, or develop addictions such as pathological gambling, compulsive
shopping or hypersexuality,” said Dagher, a neurologist.
So what does
Parkinson’s have to do with addiction? Dagher
has found that people suffering from addiction have elevated levels of
dopamine in their brains.
Thus, the link
between some Parkinsonian patients under treatment
and addicts is higher-than-normal levels of dopamine in their brains.
The
Gazette, 25 February 2009
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European Union -
Online gambling safe from EU regulation
The European
Parliament has rejected calls for community-wide regulation of online
gambling saying it is a job for individual countries.
The Parliament
accepted that online gambling: "is easier to access than traditional
gambling, increases the risk of fraud, crime, gambling addiction, dangers
to children and threats to the integrity of sports events." However it
still believes, under the subsidiarity principle,
that regulating the business is the job of national governments.
But it does see room
for universal standards on issues like age limits, protection of children
and problem gamblers and also sees the need to regulate gambling
advertising.
MEPs noted that gambling is now the primary income source for many
sports.
A minority opinion
which was rejected argued that online gambling was an economic activity
like any other and therefore should be regulated by internal market rules.
They argued that recent action by the European Court of Justice supported
this view.
European regulators
are also looking at the US
which banned foreign companies from offering US citizens online gambling
services. The US
agreed to pay compensation for this breach of international free trade
rules.
The report was
adopted by 544 votes in favour, 36 against and 66 abstentions.
Out-law.com,
11 March 2009
- The Netherlands -
First Prize
This week a man from Franeker (80) won the first
prize of € 25000.00 in the scratch card lottery! The man had never
bought a ticket in his life. He asked the shop assistant of Primera Haitsma how a scratch
card ticket works.
“I
was curious and wanted to know how it worked. I bought a ticket and won a
free ticket!
And with
that ticket I won € 25.000! says the lottery winner.
He’s
not sure yet what he’s going to do with the money.
“We
have three children, so obviously they will also get some of the
money”.
Haarlems Dagblad, 17 January 2009
- The Netherlands -
Tax return internet poker player
Last
year, in the fall, the inland revenue found dozens of people who are
playing poker with illegal foreign
providers on the internet and have made a profit. They have received tax return
forms. People who are playing
poker using a foreign provider have to pay tax over their profit.
Haarlems Dagblad, 17 January 2009
- The Netherlands -
We gamble € 450
million on the internet per year.
Illegal
gambling on the internet is growing rapidly, especially among the youth
which the addiction institutes find very concerning.
New
research shows that since 2005, spending has doubled to around 450 million
euro per year.
To
compare: the current turnover on the internet is now the same as the total
earnings from the state casino’s in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Scheveningen, Utrecht and Zandvoort
put together.
Holland
Casino asked research company Motivaction to set
a new amount on the average spending per player, per month, now on the
internet: 82 euro. There are in total 485,000 paying internet gamblers.
Addiction
Jellinek
Consultancy, an addiction treatment institute, wants the government to
launch government regulated gambling sites to get insight on the addiction
problems.
There are
more young people coming in who have spent all their money and are socially
isolated, often because of internet poker.
The exact
numbers are not known yet says Pieter Remmers from
Jellinek Consultancy.
The
institute now gives trainings to foreign based websites on better
prevention against addiction.
The ban
on gambling on the internet for players and providers is not working! Young
people think they can become rich. But only 1 or 2 out of 10 players win, 3
win their money back and the rest will lose, says Remmers.
The
percentage of Dutch people who gamble with credits on poker sites on the
internet with fake money has barely risen since 2005.
While the
percentage of players for real money has risen from 37 percent to a total
of 64 percent.
Yesterday
Minister Hirsch Ballin (Justice Department) let
the members of the lower house know that he will be submitting a report
against any companies that are illegally providing gambling and betting
sites.
According
to him the gambling sites are ignoring the warnings.
De
Telegraaf, 29 January 2009
- United Kingdom
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UK to develop national responsible gambling programme
The UK
Gambling Commission has named members to a new independent Strategy Board
which will advise the Commission - and in turn the Department for Culture,
Media and Sport - on research, education and treatment programmes to
support a national responsible gambling strategy.
The new Strategy
Board, led by Baroness Neuberger, will consist of Neil Goulden, Paul Bellringer,
Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, Dr Sian
Griffiths, David Guy, Richard Ives, Alan Jamieson, David Miers and Dr Gerda Reith.
The members have been chosen
to the board based on their knowledge and expertise
in a number of fields including the gambling industry, socially responsible gambling
services, preventative education, public health, addiction and counselling
services, epidemiological research and social research programme
management.
In addition, Professor Peter Collins from the Centre for the Study of Gambling, University of Salford, has
been invited by Baroness Neuberger to consult
and provide advice to the Board in its first year.
“I am very pleased to be able to bring together so many talented
and experienced individuals,"
said Baroness Neuberger. "Their collective expertise is extraordinary
and, while our remit is challenging, I am confident that, together, we will deliver a robust British strategic framework for research, education
and treatment.”
The recommendation for the appointment and setting up of the strategy
board came in a recently
published Gambling Commission
review of research, education
and treatment. The Strategy
Board will develop and determine a national programme, highlighting priorities for research education
and treatment in relation
to minimizing risks from problem gambling. The Board will also advise on the amount of funding required to meet
these objectives on a three year rolling basis.
In line with
its strategy of better protecting problem gamblers, the
Gambling Commission has also
confirmed the appointment
of NatCen - The National Centre for Social Research, to carry out
the British Gambling
Prevalence Survey
(BGPS) 2010.
The survey will
build on the two previous prevalence surveys published in 2000 and 2007 and will
measure the prevalence
of participation in all forms
of commercial and private gambling and estimate the prevalence of problem gambling. It will, where
appropriate, provide comparisons
between pre and post implementation
of the Gambling Act 2005, and will provide a
range of useful data for the Commission
and its stakeholders. It also aims
to identify a population
of gamblers who could be invited
to participate in future
research.
"We're very pleased to have NatCen on board for this project," said Jenny Williams, Chief Executive of the
Gambling Commission. "They
have over thirty years experience of large-scale surveys of this nature, a
proven track record of working with a range of public sector bodies
and a sound understanding of gambling
related issues. Their experience in researching
sensitive issues and complex stakeholder
management is extensive.”
The Commission aims to publish results of the BGPS before
the end of 2010.
Gaming
Intelligence, 20 February 2009
- United Kingdom
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Online
gambling shows resilience in face of recession, GBGC says
Global
Betting and Gaming Consultants said that with the gross gambling yield
surpassing $20 billion globally in 2008, the I-gaming industry is proving
to be resilient in hard times.
Global
Betting and Gaming Consultants said that with the gross gambling yield
surpassing $20 billion globally in 2008, the I-gaming industry is proving
to be resilient in hard times.
“’Staying
in’ has become the new ‘going out’ as consumers look to
save money on their entertainment,” the United Kingdom gambling
consultancy said in a prepared statement.
In GBGC’s latest “Interactive Gambling
Report,” the consultancy said it believes that online gambling is
well placed to take advantage of the staying-home trend.
“There
is certainly good reason for the sector to be optimistic about the
future,” the consultancy added in regards to new legislation in France as well as possibilities in the United States.
Warwick
Bartlett, the agency’s owner, talked about this trend at the
International Gaming Expo in late January. Click here to listen Mr. Bartlett’s thoughts.
iGaming Insider, 11 March 2009
- United Kingdom -
Conservative
Party claim
The Conservative Party has claimed
gambling addiction has soared since the government relaxed the rules on
advertising for internet gaming sites, and has called on the government to
crack down on gambling sites based overseas. According to Conservatives,
250,000 more people gambled online last year compared to 2007, and they
have suggested there could be an additional 17,760 people with a problem.
Based on Gambling Commission estimates that 7.4% of online gamers go on to
develop betting addiction. A spokesman for the Department for Culture
rejected the Conservatives’ calculations, however, saying:
“There is no basis in fact for this claim and the reality is that levels
of problem gambling have not risen since 1997.”
E
Gaming Review, 20 March 2009
- United States
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Stock
market gamblers have some characteristics as lottery
players
People who invest in
high-risk stocks that offer a meager chance of
high return have the same socio-economic characteristics as lottery
players, according to new research from The University of Texas at Austin.
Alok Kumar, assistant professor of finance at the McCombs School of
Business at The University of Texas at Austin, came to this conclusion after
studying the demographics and financial transactions of 70,000 anonymous
investors.
“We found that
people who took risks with lottery-type stock typically earned 2 to 3
percent less than other investors,” he said in the study paper, to be
published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Finance.
Kumar describes
lottery-type stocks as those that are inexpensive and come with a high
chance of losing, but which also offer the small potential of a big payoff.
His study indicated
that people with household income below average for their area were more
likely to buy lottery-type stocks.
The researcher also
observed that such stocks were purchased in areas with high unemployment
and during economic downturns.
Besides that, the
study also showed that regions with higher concentrations of Catholics like
in Massachusetts and Rhode Island had a stronger preference
for lottery-type stocks.
On the other hand,
people in Protestant regions like areas in the South were less drawn to
such stocks, according to the study.
Kumar says that this
pattern mirrors ticket-purchasing trends in state lotteries by the two
groups.
“It is
particularly important to be aware of our gambling tendencies now because
the urge to gamble is greater during difficult economic times,” he
said.
Thaindian News, 27 February 2009
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