La corte più alta d’ Europa, la Corte di Giustizia Europea, ha rimosso una barriera usata dall’Italia per tenere i competitori stranieri fuori. L’italia ha le ditte di gambling statali e la decisione potrebbe essere interpretata come una minaccia al suo monopolio.

La Corte di Giustizia Europeana in Lussemburgo ha decretato che l’Italia non può usare leggi criminali per impedire alle ditte di gambling che sono concessionarie di licenza in altri paesi europeani come il Regno Unito di accettare scommesse.

I monopoli statali della Francia, La Germania e altri paesi sono stati citicati da ditte come Ladbrokes Plc per aver bloccatp I loro affari di gaming online all’estero. “Questa è un’ ulteriore mossa verso la liberalizazzione dei mercati di gambling europei” ha detto Lode Van Den Hende, un avvocato negli uffici di Herbert Smith a Bruxells. “In genrale, questo decreto è molto buono per gli operatori di gaming. Se questo fosse stato contro di loro avrebbero dovuto chiudere le loro operazioni.”

Massimiliano Placanica e due altri che operavano sale di scomesse in Italia da dove si poteva scommettere online con la ditta del Regno Unito, Stanley’s che ha la sede a Liverpool, sono stati confrontati con accuse criminali sotto la legge italiana perché Stanley non ha una licenza di gaming locale.

La corte ha proibito l’uso della legge penale per casi particolari dove alle ditte delle scommesse straniere sono state rifutate le licenze del paese, come era il caso di Stanley. “Le penalità criminali italiane per la raccolta di scommesse da parte di terzi per conto di ditte straniere sono contrarie alle regole dell’ UE” ha detto un gruppo di 11 giudici.

Stanley ha detto che il decreto è una “pietra miliare” che metterà sotto pressione I governi e La commissione Europea, il ramo esecutivo a Bruxelles, per terminare il protezionismo nazionale.
Dopo queste notizie, il valore azioniario di alcune ditte di gambling più famose nel Regno Unito è aumentato.

Il sito slot del Regno Unito Cyberslotz.co.uk, ha un nuovo, rifatto sito web. Il sito ha una nuova configurazione, una nuova combinazione di colori e un nuovo gioco di slot ‘The Great Race’.

Il nuovo ‘The Great Race’ è il secondo gioco da Cyberslotz’s a 25-linee, con un bonus misterioso che si rimette a punto subito dopo che è stato vinto. Il bonus è stato vinto in una maniera completamente casuale, quindi una linea che sembra essere perdente può divenatare vincente.

Quando appare un’emblema di vittoria sulle ruote 2, 3, e 4, potete vincere fino a 15 giri gratis – Questa caratteristica può essere ri-attivata durante i giochi gratis.

‘Cyberslotz è un marchio eccitante e amichevole e siamo sicuri che il nostro ri-marchiato, attrente sito web sarà un sucesso con I nostri clienti ,’ ha detto Brian Morgan, il direttore d’amministrazione del Cyberslotz.

‘Facciamo il meglio possible per rendere I nostri giochi interessanti e divertenti e se possiamo, aggiungiamo un sapore attuale, come il nostro gioco sul agente segreto ‘Rich Pickings’, che è stato lanciato l’anno scorso ed è collegato al nuovo film di James Bond.

Il nostro nuovo gioco ‘The Great Race’ colleziona diversi mezzi di trasporto per portarvi fino al jackpot.’ Per gli ultimi cinque anni, I giocatori di Cyberslotz hanno vinto più di £150 milioni in contanti sulle slot machines online e con il lancio del sito di bingo online nel 2006, Cyberslotz è conosciuto attualmente come uno dei dieci siti web più popolari per il gambling online nel Regno Unito.

L’ attore comico e commediografo Arthur Smith ha puntato audacemente e si è trovato vittorioso nella gara di ‘Celebrity Punts’ organizzata dal giornale Guardian,per raccogliere più di £650 per una associazione di beneficenza nazionale la national disability charity Vitalise.

L’allibratore e operatore di casinò online, Ladbrokes, che ha gestito la gara in associazione con il Guardian, ha generosamente radoppiato la vincita di Arthur è ha donato una somma di £1.322 a Vitalise.

Cominciando la gara con una puntata perdente- otto espulsioni per la Premiership di quella settimana- Arthur, che è uno dei vice presidenti di Vitalise, è emerso vittorioso alla fine, grazie alle puntate audaci, inclusa quella di appoggiare l’italia a vincere la coppa mondiale con i calci di rigore.

“Sono lieto di essere il ré delle dritte. Il mio trucco è di non far caso ad alcun motivo di forma e logica per creare un contesto di ignoranza. Da questa condizione di zen ho seguito i miei istinti e qualche volta sono venuti su a 10 a 1″ ha riflettuto Arthur.

David Williams, il portavoce per Ladbrokes ha detto: “Se per caso Arthur si trovasse senza lavoro, può venire a lavorare con noi a Ladbrokes come uno operatore commerciale- Abbiamo il massimo rispetto per la sua destrezza come scommettitore. Siamo lieti di essere in grado di dare l’assegno a Vitalise – un’associazione meravigliosa e un vincitore mertitevole.”

Non si sa ancora se Smith considererà l’offerta di Ladbrokes.

The Gordon Moody Association (GMA), one of the UK’s largest gambling support charities, has announced the launch of the first ever live multi-lingual service on its Gambling Therapy e-helpline www.gamblingtherapy.org.

Launched ahead of the Government’s new gambling licensing laws due in September this year, the service, which goes live on Monday March 12 2007, will be manned by a highly trained team of counsellors and advisors, who will be able to translate and offer help and advice to emails in 13 different languages.

Kevin Farrell-Roberts, Chief Executive of the GMA, formerly the Gordon House Association, explained, “Problem gambling is a widespread issue that unfortunately suffers from a lack of internationally-accessible support. The launch of our multi-lingual service, brings the GMA to the forefront in providing help to cultural groups that have previously had no access to gambling support.”

As part of this initiative, the GMA, together with existing supporters such as Betfair and William Hill, is calling for widespread international adoption of responsible gambling measures. Through the inclusion of the GMA’s ‘STOP!’ sign, an online link to the Gambling Therapy e-helpline, online operators can help showcase their support for the cause.

Kate Stewart, Social Responsibility Manager at Betfair added, ‘ We are extremely proud to be the first operator to show our dedication by displaying the STOP! sign on our website, and hope the rest of the industry joins us in taking such steps to tackle problem gambling.’

The charity has recently re-named itself in honour of its celebrated founder, the Rev. Gordon Moody, M.B.E. (1912–1994), who first established Gamblers Anonymous in the UK before later founding The Gordon House Association.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) – Washington state gambling regulators on Friday approved new compacts with 27 tribes that will allow thousands more slot-style machines in reservation casinos.

Although the deal now seems certain, state House Republicans decried what they called the largest expansion of gambling in state history and urged the Bush administration to reject the compacts.

The state Gambling Commission voted 5-3 to approve the new pacts, which include a major expansion of the machines and the gambling income to the tribes, but also place a limit on the number of casinos and require tribes to help finance problem-gambling and smoking-cessation programs.

After the compacts are signed by the tribes, they go to Gov. Chris Gregoire, whose office helped negotiate on behalf of the state. After she signs them, the tribes will send them to the U.S. Interior Department for approval.

The full process is expected to take about four to six months.

“On balance, we think this is a good place for the state to operate for a period of years,” said Tom Fitzsimmons, the governor’s chief of staff and a central figure in the negotiations. “The governor has signaled that she will sign them.”

The new compacts, dubbed X2 because they are amendments to the original compacts, expand the number of electronic slot machines from 18,225 to a maximum of 27,300. They cap the number of casinos, but give tribes authority to stay open around the clock and to offer higher stakes games.

Tribes now are allowed to operate 675 gambling machines, although the Muckleshoot, Tulalip and Puyallup tribes are allowed to lease or purchase as many as 3,000 terminals. The new compacts allow most tribes to have as many as 975 machines. The other three tribes will able to expand to 3,500 and, after three years, to 4,000.

The tally, while larger than the current level, is substantially below the 39,000 machines tribes originally expected in the 1990s, Fitzsimmons said.

The deal largely reflects the groundwork done in a sweeping new compact with the Spokane Tribe of Indians.

The Legislature, which has four voting members on the nine-member commission, has no veto over the pacts, but took generally favorable testimony at a joint House-Senate hearing on Thursday.

Lawmakers took no formal position.

Late Friday, House Republicans renewed their call for a legislative veto over expansion of tribal gambling. Rep. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, the deputy leader, asked the government to block the deal.

“The U.S. Department of Interior is our last chance to prevent the largest expansion of gambling in state history. The process has been moving like a freight train and we want to slow it down so we can fully weigh the social implications of the governor’s decision.

“We don’t think people fully understand what is coming down the track, and when they do, it is going to be a big surprise unfortunately.”

The Republicans also questioned whether campaign contributions from the tribes to the Democrats have affected the state’s position. Fitzsimmons flatly rejected that, saying neither he nor the Gambling Commission staff have considered tribes’ contributions when deciding gambling policy.

“Reasonable views differ on whether this is an expansion of gambling or not, but I really don’t think it’s right to politicize a delicate and complex set of negotiations,” he said in an interview.

Republican King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng, a frequent critic of gambling, has endorsed the deal because of the limits that are included in the negotiated compacts.

The commission’s vote came at the earliest possible date, and reflected little dissent. Two of the three opponents, state Rep. Richard Curtis, R-Battle Ground, and former Sen. Janice Niemi, D-Seattle, complained that the compacts don’t require the tribes to share profits with the state. Gregoire previously said she doesn’t want to rely on expansion of gambling balance the state budget.

Ron Allen, chairman of the Washington Indian Gaming Association, recently called the agreement a fair compromise.

Tribal machines have more than tripled in the past 15 years and tribal gambling accounts for an estimated $1.2 billion of the $1.8 billion gambling industry in the state.

Everest Casino has announced that a Swiss player has scooped a huge online jackpot while playing the casino’s Space Ace video slot machine. The player, only known as R.L., won $101,999.84 on a $9 bet placed on March 4.
‘We’ve had a number of remarkable jackpot strikes of late and I couldn’t be happier about it,’ said Eduardo Santos, Everest Casino’s property manager. ‘Not only do our players walk away with a great cash prize, but people can see that Everest Casino players win big.’
Space Ace is just one of over a dozen online video slots games offered by Everest Casino. Featuring state-of-the-art graphics and sound, Space Ace offers players the real casino experience of a top-flight video slot machine without the player leaving their home.
Familiar science fictions symbols such as galaxies, planets, stars, and comets are used in this online video slot machine. Bonus rounds in Space Ace allow players to plunder planets and scatters give you free spins with doubled prizes. Space Ace also offers an Everest Casino exclusive that lets players gamble their winnings to double or even quadruple the received prize.
‘Players respond to our online video slot machines for a reason,’ Santos added. ‘They offer one of the most exciting gaming experiences online. There are many online casinos, but Everest provides the best, most authentic experience to its players.’

AUSTIN — Big resorts with full casinos, shops and restaurants could be built in up to a dozen Texas cities under legislation proposed Thursday by two high-profile senators and backed by major gambling interests.
Voters ultimately would have the say on the proposed constitutional amendment legalizing casino gambling.
A main selling point of the plan, the legislators contend, is a provision that would dedicate $1 billion per year to a fund to pay for eligible Texans to attend a community college or public university.
Sen. John Carona, a Dallas Republican, and Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat, sponsors of the legislation, both said they aren’t gamblers themselves. But they said casinos in Texas would slow the flow of gambling money leaving the state. They also said “destination resort casinos” will attract tourism money for related activities, like high-end entertainment.
“Texans are already voting with their feet and going out of state,” Ellis said. “It’s time for Texas to reap the economic benefits and use that revenue to help Texas students go to college.”
It hasn’t been determined which cities would get the casinos. A gaming commission appointed by state leaders would decide which developers receive permits to operate them.
The Ellis-Carona proposal would provide $1 billion per year for a trust fund to pay for college tuition covering about 240,000 students once the program is fully running. Details on who would qualify would be worked out by state officials, but roughly it would cover scholarships for the students who had a combined SAT score of 1,000 or above, said economist Ray Perryman, who conducted studies for the proposal.
Perryman said casino gambling would create up to 400,000 new jobs and generate $3 billion to $4.5 billion in state and local revenue.
Proponents say Texans already spend about $10 billion per year gambling, some of it in other states and some of it illegally in Texas through eight-liners and on the Internet.
The proposed constitutional amendment, if approved by Texas voters, would allow for 12 casino gambling sites _ seven in urban areas, two along the Gulf coast and three on Indian reservations. It also would legalize video slot machines at horse and dog race tracks.
Opponents predict the casino legislation will go the same place similar bills have gone before _ nowhere.
“They just warm this baby up and roll it out every session,” said Suzii Paynter, director of the Baptist lobby’s Christian Life Commission. “Why would we go for such a bad deal?”
Paynter said the state would get a far lower return on casino gambling than it does on the state lottery and that, despite talk of tourism, casinos depend heavily on addicted gamblers and a large percentage of gamblers who come from within a 50-mile radius.
There’s a stronger public relations effort associated with this gambling proposal and a new promise of college scholarships, said Paynter, but she expects there will be the same firm opposition in the Legislature seen in recent sessions.
“Texas doesn’t need this. We have great economic development in our state, and we bring businesses to our state that are built on a family friendly business model,” she said.
Ellis and Carona, along with the powerful Texas Gaming Association that backs their plan, said this is an opportunity to enhance Texas tourism and boost the state and local economies.
If the constitutional amendment is approved by statewide voters, local voters would also have to approve any casino project.
The key to success of casino gambling in Texas is doing it in a comprehensive fashion, said Jack Pratt of Dallas, a former hotel and casino developer who chairs the Texas Gaming Association.
“There’s only one way to develop this business, and that is with large destination resorts,” Pratt said. Those casinos would pull business away from neighboring states’ casinos, he said.
Other gambling bills are also pending at the Capitol.
Legislation by Rep. Ismael “Kino” Flores, a Palmview Democrat, would allow video slots at Texas race tracks and on Indian reservations.
Ellis and Carona said they would be working closely with Flores. They said they would oppose a gambling measure that allows only video slot machines at tracks without establishing full resort casinos.
On Thursday, Rep. Jose Menendez, a San Antonio Democrat, filed legislation seeking to regulate poker in Texas. It would allow up to four live or electronic poker tables at establishments meeting certain requirements and would allow charitable poker.

State regulators are to some extent accepting the word of casino operators about the take from thousands of coinless slot machines on which millions of dollars in state revenue are based, a Division of Special Revenue official acknowledged.

But Michael Janusko, the assistant chief of the division’s integrity assurance unit, also said he is “comfortable” with how the state verifies the casinos’ haul, calling its methods comparable to those of regulatory agencies in other states.
“We really have a really good take on how much money is coming out of those slot machines,” he said. “We’re comfortable with the way we get the information.”

The official’s comments came in response to questions raised by some division employees concerning the newly implemented “ticket in/ticket out” system under which slot machine players who win are rewarded with a paper voucher instead of coins.

Connecticut is home to two of the world’s biggest casinos that reportedly together operate about 13,000 slot machines.

More than $5.3 billion went into “selected video facsimile/slot machines” at the Foxwoods Resorts Casinos in Ledyard between July 2006 and January 2007, when players won $472.2 million, division data show.

The state, entitled to 25 percent of that amount, took in $118 million.

Players over the same period deposited $6.3 billion in video facsimile/slot machines at the Mohegan Sun casino in Montville, winning $543.7 million, the data show.

The state’s share was $135.9 million.

The Mohegan Sun casino announced last week that all of its slot machines would be coin-free by May 1, and Foxwoods is expected to be coinless by year’s end.

The division employees, who insisted on anonymity because they fear retribution, said the ticket in/ticket out system eliminates the use of casino personnel to sell change and fill the hoppers on slot machines, but poses an accounting problem.

They said that while the division can review computer tapes of those transactions, there is only occasional audit testing, which is done “after the fact.”

The employees also charged that the division has not assigned accountants on a regular basis to either Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun and that there are no routine, daily checks on the system. Division accountants do conduct random audits, they said, but only after the fact.

Finally, the employees questioned why the division doesn’t have 24-hour staffing at the casinos, saying the Mohegan Sun sometimes does “drops and buys” – in which money is emptied from machines and added up in the counting room – when no division “liaison officers” are present.

Janusko confirmed that no division accountants are assigned to either casino on a regular basis, saying that instead there are “liaison officers up there close to 24/7.”

He said some of those officers may have financial backgrounds or experience, but that they were regular personnel and “not accountants.”

Asked if some were present at the casinos at all times, Janusko demurred, saying he couldn’t “speak to that” because the liaison officers came from a different unit than his.

“They try to keep everyone on, but with the staff they have it is not always a possibility,” he said.

Janusko said division auditors, on the other hand, “go out in the field on a monthly basis, for three or four days a month,” and that they “randomly sample days” at the casinos.

“It might be anywhere from five to 10 days of activity,” he said. “They look at some reports on the tickets that have been redeemed or issued, making sure the information on those reports is matching up with what’s on their ledgers.”

Janusko said it was “maybe partially fair” to say that the state was taking the casinos’ word about how much money was generated by their slot machines.

“We have access to the system reports on how much the ‘tickets in/tickets out’ are,” he said. “We’re certainly not looking at anything in real time, but we’re probably auditing a couple of months after the fact.

“We’re verifying what they have reported – the initial amounts are reported by the casinos and we verify.

“We’re happy doing it this way,” he added. “I guess from an auditing perspective I think it’s pretty consistent with the way other regulatory bodies do it, as far as I know.”

Angry Philadelphia residents pushing City Council to approve an anti-casino ballot initiative got a sympathetic hearing yesterday from a member of the state legislature – the same body that gave them slots gambling.
Rep. Paul Clymer (R., Bucks), the leading anti-gambling advocate in the legislature, convened a meeting of the House Republican Policy Committee at City Hall to hear anti-casino activists tell him that slots parlors should not be built near their neighborhoods.
“The state of Pennsylvania is about to embark on an experiment never attempted before – putting a slots parlor in the middle of a historic residential neighborhood,” said Catherine M. Recker, who lives six blocks from the proposed SugarHouse Casino site on Delaware Avenue.
Recker and others, through a group called Casino Free Philadelphia, want Council to place a referendum question on the May 15 primary ballot asking voters to ban casinos within 1,500 feet of any home, school, or house of worship.
Those criteria would eliminate from casino use all but an untenable parcel around the Betsy Ross Bridge and an undesirable site at the Navy Yard, according to the City Planning Department.
Litigation would likely result, but such a change to the city’s Home Rule Charter could void the Dec. 20 state Gaming Control Board decision to license the SugarHouse and Foxwoods casinos at sites in Fishtown and South Philadelphia.
City Council is to vote on the measure Thursday. A supermajority of 12 out of 17 council members is necessary. The chief sponsor, Councilman Frank DiCicco, has said he has the support to pass it.
Yesterday, residents said that the casinos would cause their communities to be overrun with traffic and crime.
Representatives of SugarHouse and Foxwoods said they were not invited to the hearing.
“We wish that we had the opportunity to explain the strength of our project and the benefits to the greater Philadelphia community,” SugarHouse spokesman Dan Fee said.
Clymer said he wanted to give residents – who have complained that the Gaming Control Board had marginalized their input – their own time to address the legislature.
Only two legislators attended, Clymer and State Rep. Mike O’Brien (D., Phila.). Harrisburg approved 14 slots licenses in 2004. The first casinos in Philadelphia are expected to open next year.
On result of the hearing was that a meeting between warring Democratic fractions was scheduled for Thursday, after the Council vote.
O’Brien said he and State Rep. Bill Keller (D., Phila.), long at odds with DiCicco and his political mentor, State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, would meet with DiCicco and Fumo “to open honest, fact-to-face conversations on the most pressing issue to face the Delaware waterfront in a long time.”