Online Betting News

Tessa Jowell was been warned that she faces considerable opposition in Parliament to placing Britain’s first super-casino in Manchester.With numbers of Labour MPs already expected to rebel against the contentious choice, the Culture Secretary was put on notice about the level of opposition in the Lords as well.

The Government needs the support of both Houses after Ms Jowell announced on Thursday she would put proposals on the location of 17 new casinos to Parliament.

Manchester was shock choice for the location after hot favourites Greenwich and Blackpool where both snubbed.

A 16-year-old girl will get to keep the £51,000 she won at a Macau casino, despite being underage.The territory’s gaming authority has ruled that the Las Vegas Sands must pay the teenager from Hong Kong her winnings.

Macau’s gaming laws ban those under 18’s from entering a casino, however they do not specify a minimum age for gambling once inside.

The watchdog has decided to close the loophole in response to this case.

The girl was given a present of £6 to play on the slot machines.

She went to the Sands casino with her mother and grandmother and put all of it into one slot machine.

It came up with the winning combination but staff refused to pay out when they discovered the girl was under age.

“We have decided that the money must be paid, not to the child, but to her mother,” Gambling Authority Director Manuel Joaquim das Neves told the South China Morning Post.

The casino has not responded to the ruling but has the option to appeal.

The girl’s mother has been barred from Macau’s casinos as punishment for bringing a minor inside.

According to Reuters - Ladbrokes could announce an interest in running Britain’s first supercasino when it unveils its 2006 results this week.Last month, Manchester was announced as the surprise winner of a competition to host the supercasino, fending off favourites Blackpool and Greenwich (home to the millennium dome)

“One of the reasons Ladbrokes took full ownership of the Paddington casino earlier this year was to get operationally ready for the new licences,” said the source, referring to Ladbrokes’ first recent casino venture, adding that nothing was certain until the government has clarified bidding criteria.

The group is also likely to outline plans for 16 other UK casino licences the government will soon make available, said the source. Ladbrokes refused to comment.

Profit before tax for 2006 will be around £235m - £240m, according to a company poll of 10 investment banks.

Analysts at Numis Securities said the shares could be buoyed by any news of Ladbrokes’ expansion plans in Italy and Spain and details of either a deal to buy online gaming group 888 or of a return of cash to shareholders.

“We estimate that if Ladbrokes fails to acquire 888.com, the company could return about 663 million pounds … to shareholders over the next three years,” they said in a research note.

Ladbrokes said in November it was considering a bid for the 888 group, and last week 888 Chief Executive Gigi Levy said that there was “desire on both sides to continue talks”.

Ladbrokes could be the only UK company bidding for the licence to run the Manchester supercasino, after privately owned Gala Coral ruled itself out this month, and with Rank keeping its plans under wrap.

Former UK rivals London Clubs and Stanley Leisure are now under foreign ownership. Harrah’s, owners of Stanley Leisure, the world’s largest casino operator, does plan to bid for the Manchester supercasino licence, a source said on Friday.

The National poker League (NPL), announced today their 2007 Global Circuit Tour beginning with The Paris Open in France on May 13th at the Cercle Gaillon casino in the heart of Paris.

As a sports brand focused on servicing the global poker playing community, NPL www.npltv.com has partnered with international host casinos and online sites to promote and establish qualifying satellite tournaments throughout the year. NPL’s comprehensive series will lead to four televised World Cups: Paris Open (May), UK Open (August); Asia Open (October) and the 2nd annual “Vegas Open” in November. “NPL is not an American or European tour, it’s a true worldwide poker circuit open to everyone,” says NPL VP of poker Operations, Edna Dalton. NPL is the newest and most aggressive poker organization in the world.

The NPL circuit kicks off with The Paris Open, a 4,000 (euros) buy-in event from May 13 - 22nd and expected to reach Europe’s highest attendance and prize pool. For The Paris Open, NPL has created the ultimate poker experience, offering players six one hour episodes from each tour stop that will be aired on international markets. Players will enjoy 100,000 (euros) of ADDED MONEY, a welcoming VIP gala party, as well as travel discounts.

“NPL wants to redefine the tour. As a strong advocate of poker, we feel it’s no longer a game but an established sport,” says Dalton. In order to assist players attending from abroad, the NPL has established a pre-registration method on the NPL site, www.npltv.com, or directly at Cercle Gaillon www.cerclegaillon.net. Players are encouraged to sign-up early for a seat.

NPL has extensively grown its member base and media exposure since its inception two years ago. The 2007 World Opens will be entirely produced in High Definition and will be aired on the INHD Network (Time Warner, Comcast, Cox Communications and Cablevision) and in standard definition in U.S. Syndication reaching over 100 million households. International markets include Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, Italy, UK, Eastern Europe, the Philippines, South Korea and Japan.

The National poker League (NPL) is a media-focused company — creating poker tournaments and poker related content for worldwide distribution. NPL does not own or operate any online gambling sites. NPL embraces the online gambling community as advertisers and partners in some ventures — maximizing our content creation capabilities without any government interference. NPL is a division of New Vision Media Corp., a Nevada Corporation with administrative offices in Los Angeles at 404 S. Figueroa Street, Suite 500, Los Angeles, CA 90071.

The outcome had been touted as a two horse race between Blackpool and London. The decision is a blow for both, which were clear favourites with the bookmakers.

The licence will allow Manchester to build a venue for up to 1,250 unlimited-jackpot gaming machines.

Licences for smaller casinos have been granted to a number of other towns and cities.

The casino Advisory Panel also granted licences for the smallest type of casino to Bath and North East Somerset, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lindsey, Luton, Scarborough, Swansea, Torbay and Wolverhampton.

Manchester was a 16-1 outsider at the bookmakers to be selected as a test-bed for the UK’s first regional “resort” casino.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell is due to rule next Wednesday on who has won the honour of becoming home to the UK’s first super casino. In the running is Greenwich (home to the millennium dome), Cardiff, Newcastle, Sheffield, Manchester, Blackpool and Glasgow.

It is thought to be a two horse race between Greenwich and Blackpool. Tessa Jowell has defended the introduction of new casinos, saying the government had modernised and tightened the laws on gambling, which would now be “the most protective legislation in the world”.

The first comprehensive picture of the ‘average’ online gambler emerges today from a huge new research project involving nearly 11,000 players from 96 countries.

The ‘eCOGRA Global Online Gambler Survey’ commissioned by industry self-regulatory body eCOGRA and undertaken by the Betting and International Gaming Research Units at Nottingham Trent University, is the largest study to date into player behaviour and attitudes to the industry.

General Information

One of the most surprising findings to emerge is that although playing for money was important in terms of making games entertaining, overall, the majority of gamblers appear to not be playing to win money long-term - it’s more about the entertainment. When players across all forms of gambling were asked why they gambled online, answers such as ‘to relax’, ‘for the entertainment and excitement’ or ‘to relieve boredom’, heavily outweighed ‘to make money’ or ‘to win’, highlighting that online gamblers view their pastime as simply another form of leisure activity.

The scale of the sample has allowed researchers to create the most reliable picture of the typical online poker and casino player to date.

THE AVERAGE ONLINE casino PLAYER IS LIKELY TO:
• Be female (54.8%)
• Aged 46-55 (29.5%)
• Play 2-3 times per week (37%)
• Have visited more than 6 casinos in the preceding three months (25%)
• Have played for 2-3 years (22.4%)
• Play for between 1-2 hours

Player Attitudes

The best things about internet gambling are ‘convenience and accessibility’ and ‘fun and excitement’, while ‘losing’ and ‘financial implications’ came top of the worst things - as might be expected. The vast majority of players say they are ‘up’ or ‘down’ within a range plus or minus £130 a month or £32.50 per week - less than the cost of a night in the pub with your mates and a taxi home.

Overall, players felt that there was some need for improvement across a range of areas - 55% wanted to see an increase in the number sites submitting themselves to effective self regulation e.g. eCOGRA, while operator transparency (55%), clarity of regulations (54%), uniformity of code of conduct (51%), responsiveness to complaints (49%) and better responsible gambling features (48%) all featured highly on the list. In addition to the 55% who supported effective self regulation, a further one in four players (25%) felt ‘very strongly’ about the need for sites to sign up to a common code of conduct.

When it comes to customer service, it appears that online gambling companies do well when compared to other industries. The majority of players felt they received either the same level or significantly better levels of customer service, even when they’d had a dispute with a site.

Approximately half of all respondents had confidence in the integrity of the software, although disturbingly, one in three people thought that the sites had an on/off switch that allowed them to turn the software in their favour - something that an eCOGRA member site would find it impossible to implement thanks to the organisation’s standards for software development and independent testing procedures.

When it came to minimising the risk of being cheated, 64% of players ‘often’ or ‘always’ played on the biggest named sites, with 40% saying they ‘never’ played on smaller sites because of this fear. In addition, 70% of players said they sought out well known software providers or other assurances such as the eCOGRA ‘Play it Safe’ seal (61%).

Player Behaviour

Location - Play takes place mainly at home (89.7%) in the evening; however one in ten women preferred playing in the workplace.

Message boards - Nearly 40% of respondents said they visited message boards or forums, contradicting previous perceptions of online gambling as a rather solitary activity. Message forums are visited to get information about sites (53% say they visit for this purpose), to have a general read and catch up on news (40% and 37% respectively), as well as find out about promotional offers (the most popular of all, cited by 65% of respondents).

Wagers and winning - The typical wager is between £15-30 a session in casino games and poker players said they typically played with 2-10% of their bankroll at any one time. In a further sign of realism about their chances, a third of poker players say that the game required more skill than luck, yet most say they were simply ‘averagely’ skilled.

Reasons for playing at specific casino sites - The most important single motivator for playing at a particular casino site is its bonuses (75%), followed by game variety (62%), deposit method and reputation (both 56%) and then promptness of payouts (54%).

poker specific - The poker results provide a fascinating snapshot into the area of multi-table play. The majority of players play one (24%), or two (also 24%) tables at a time, however researchers were able to ascertain that after four tables, concentration drifts significantly and leads to dramatic drop off in success. Likewise, the optimum amount of the bankroll that a player should use is 2-10% at any one table to maximise winnings.

Losses - Both casino and poker players were more likely to do well financially if they refrained from chasing losses and were unbiased in their approach i.e. not influenced by previous hands/game outcomes - all players might do well to take note here.

Andrew Beveridge, CEO, eCOGRA comments on the findings: “These findings are a salutary reminder about the vast majority of players who enjoy this form of entertainment responsibly. Our job is to signpost players towards those operators who are meeting the majority’s expectations regarding fair play, responsible operator conduct and provisions to address problem gambling. We are encouraged by much of the feedback, but also recognise that we still have some way to go.

“This report provides invaluable information that will shape our approach for the next year as we continue to provide players with a ‘gold standard’ level of protection. We are delighted that the vast majority of players who responded were supportive of eCOGRA’s efforts and we hope this endorsement will encourage those within the industry that have yet to apply for our ‘Play it Safe’ seal, to do so over the coming year.”

Jonathan Parke, International Gaming Research Unit, says, “This is exciting research in many ways. Not only does it mark the first significant research collaboration between academia and the Internet gambling industry to date, but it is also the largest research initiative ever carried out in this area. There are many interesting findings: some of which reinforce previous assumptions; some of which provide a fresh understanding of player behaviour and attitudes.”

Professor Leighton Vaughan Williams, Director of the Betting Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University, comments, “The importance of this research for our understanding of the online gambling phenomenon cannot be overstated. The findings of this groundbreaking collaboration between academics and practitioners will have a significant, positive role in influencing the thinking of policy-makers, regulators and operators alike”.