Tag: Online gambling

Mobile Gambling Hit $10 Billion Last Year

As more video game publishers focus on the large smartphone and tablet install base, monetization schemes on mobile platforms has begun to evolve grow. Microtransactions are now normal for new mobile game releases, encouraging players to pay small amounts of money constantly to keep the action going.

Of course, casinos and other gambling establishments have been taking small cuts of everything for centuries now and the gambling industry is poised to make an even larger impact in the mobile space. Market research firm Juniper Research this week released a new report showing that the mobile gambling industry took in $10 million in 2013. The firm predicts that global mobile gambling revenues will hit $62 billion by the year 2018.

Though U.S. gambling bans are currently one of the only things holding the industry back from allowing almost everyone to gamble on-the-go, Juniper believes that this situation may change in the coming years. As companies in gambling states such as Nevada and New Jersey set up mobile casinos, other states will be forced to legislate mobile gambling.

Even if mobile gambling is outlawed in much of the U.S., game developers may still be able to monetize casino games through existing microtransaction schemes. Juniper points out that several classic casino games such as slots and Poker (most notably Zynga‘s poker app) are some of the highest-grossing mobile apps on iOS. These free-to-play apps could put pressure on real money gambling apps to provide higher-quality experiences than they otherwise would.

Image via Zynga

February 12, 2014
Zynga Launches Real-Money Online Gambling In The UK

Zynga Poker is one of the game developers’ most popular titles, but it still doesn’t provide players with the ability to play with real money. That won’t change for players in the U.S., as online gambling is illegal, but it will be possible for our friends in the UK starting today.

Zynga announced that ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino will be launching as downloadable and Web versions today. The games, powered by bwin.party, will give of age UK citizens the chance to blow all their money on simulated gambling. The games will also be available on mobile and Facebook later in the year.

Here’s what interested players can look forward to:
ZyngaPlusPoker is an online poker room that offers UK players a wide variety of games and tournaments with buy-ins at every level.
ZyngaPlusCasino brings players more than 160 slots games and a variety of table games to choose from including Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat and Video Poker as well as the first-ever FarmVille themed slots game.
Both ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino will offer players a host of welcome packages including real money bonuses and free cash on deposit.
No matter whether players choose to play using the download or on the web, they will use a single wallet shared across both versions.

If you want to start playing the games, you’ll need to vist Web sites for either ZyngaPlusPoker or ZyngaPlusCasino. Once again, these games are only available in the UK for now.

It will be interesting to see if Zynga’s new real-money gaming initiative will pay off as it works towards a profit after a year of monumental losses. If it does work out, we might start seeing more real money online games pop up in more countries. The games maker might also start lobbying countries, most notably the U.S., to repeal anti-online gambling laws.

April 3, 2013

Online Gambling Legalization Getting Closer To Reality

It looks as though the proverbial floodgates are about to be opened in the online gambling debate. Nevada has already passed a law and New Jersey is likely to follow soon, according to Pillsbury lawyer Jim Gatto. He adds that Hawaii and California are also considering bills to legalize online gambling.

Up until last year, online betting was considered illegal. Then the Department of Justice issued a memo green lighting it with some restrictions. The state has to allow it, the betting takes place within state borders, and no sports betting is involved. If all 3 of those criteria are met, then it is A-OK!

This is huge news for the economy because as the New York Times reported, online gambling in America could be worth anywhere from $6 billion to $100 billion. That is a potentially huge cash influx in these hard times for any state that chooses to legalize it.

Some states like Utah have already made strides and have made it illegal to gamble in the state. But Utah isn’t historically a state with huge fiscal problems like say, California. It will probably become legal there, but the Indian casinos have a lot of power so we will have to see what becomes of this situation.

May 17, 2012

Which Sites Drive the Most Referral Traffic?

John Pozadzides of the Web analytics company Woopra wrote a guest post for ReadWriteWeb looking at the web’s top sources of referral traffic. He breaks it down in to the following categories: social network, social bookmark, search, and media.

Six versions of Google top the list for search before Bing makes an appearance. Facebook takes the cake in social networks, followed by Twitter and LinkedIn. In the social bookmark category, StumbleUpon leads, and in media, it’s YouTube.

Mashable’s Jolie O’Dell reports that a court in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia has demanded a Russian ISP block access to YouTube because it hosted what it says is an extremist video. The Internet Archive and three online libraries were also reportedly blocked. As O’Dell points out, a number of other countries have also blocked access to YouTube at different times.

The New York Times reports that the House Financial Services Committee approved a bill that would effectively legalize online poker and other nonsports betting, overturning a 2006 federal ban.

Pocket-lint reports that Amazon claims ebook sales will overtake paperbacks next year. It’s a pretty astonishing notion, but not too hard to believe considering that Amazon recently announced that ebook sales have overtaken hardback sales.

Mobile Crunch has pointed out that RIM has purchased the domain BlackPad.com, speculating that a long-rumored BlackBerry tablet could be called the BlackPad.

News surfaced yesterday that a directory containing personal details of over 100 million Facebook users has surfaced on a file-sharing site. BBC News spoke to the man responsible who says he harvested the info for a security tool.

Back in early May, it was discovered that Google had invested in something called Recorded Future. Now Wired reports that the CIA is involved as well, in the company that monitors the web predicts the future.

Facebook launched the long-awaited Questions feature yesterday (in beta). Search Engine Land has a detailed walkthrough of the feature.

According to Ben Patterson at Yahoo News, citing information from Courant.com, U.S. libraries are loaning more DVDs on a daily basis than Netflix and Redbox are renting them. This make sense given that many libraries offer free DVD loans, and cheap prices on new releases.

July 29, 2010

House Panel Approves Bill To Legalize Online Gambling

A House committee yesterday voted on legislation that would legalize and regulate online gambling in the United States.

The Internet Gambling Regulation and Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act (H.R. 2267), legislation introduced by Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, passed by a 41-22 vote.

Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, told WebProNews "This historic vote clears the way for Chairman Frank’s online gambling regulatory bill to move forward."

"With Congress bitterly divided and only a handful of bi-partisan bills coming out of the Financial Services Committee, we’re pleased Committee members from both sides of the aisle were able to come together to advance this important legislation," said Waxman.

Rep. John Campbell (R-CA) offered, and the Committee approved, an amendment that would further strengthen the legislation’s already strict consumer protections, including a requirement for licensed operators to have each customer choose his or her loss limits before being able to play on-line. Rep. Campbell’s amendment also requires licensees to protect customers by ensuring the customer privacy and security and protecting against fraud and money laundering.

The legislation reinforces the rights of each state to determine whether or not to allow Internet gambling activity for people accessing the Internet within the state and to apply other restrictions on the activity as determined necessary.

According to a Joint Committee on Taxation tax revenue analysis, regulated Internet gambling is expected to generate as much as $42 billion in federal government revenue over its first 10 years. Additionally, a recent analysis by H2 Gambling Capital predicts that Internet gambling regulation would create as many as 32,000 jobs over its first five years.

"The momentum of today’s vote and growing bi-partisan support for online gambling regulation demonstrates to congressional leaders in the House and Senate that this issue is a priority and should be addressed," said Waxman.

"Leaving in place a failed prohibition should no longer be the government’s misguided policy approach, leaving millions of Americans vulnerable as they continue to find a way to gamble online in a thriving underground marketplace."

The legislation has the support of 69 bi-partisan co-sponsors. Support for the legislation was also announced last week by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Financial Services Roundtable and the National Association of Federal Credit Unions.

July 29, 2010

Hearing Highlights Benefits Of Internet Gambling Regulation

The Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative said today it strongly supports testimony by Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Jim McDermott (D-WA) on the ability to regulate online gambling to protect consumers, collect billions in new government revenue and create thousands of new jobs in the U.S.

"Today’s witnesses clearly articulated why Congress should give fair consideration to regulating online gambling activity as a way to protect Americans, stimulate the economy by creating tens of thousands of new jobs and profit from the collection of tens of billions of otherwise lost revenue," said
Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative.

"Upon hearing today’s testimony and acknowledgment that current attempts to prohibit online gambling have failed, it simply makes sense for Congress to address this issue and take control of the thriving underground marketplace."

The main focus of the hearing was Rep.McDermott’s Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2010, which would generate as much as $72 billion in new revenue over ten years for federal and state governments. The legislation would also allocate 25 percent of federal revenue, estimated by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation at nearly $42 billion over 10 years, to provide assistance for those in foster care.

"With our national unemployment rate at more than 10 percent and all but six states anticipating budget shortfalls for the 2011 fiscal year, this legislation is a win-win," said Waxman.

"It’s not everyday that the opportunity to generate billions of dollars and creates tens of thousands of jobs comes along. Congress should seize the opportunity that this legislation presents and move forward in regulating Internet gambling."

May 19, 2010

Kentucky Sues Full Tilt Poker To Recover Gamblers

The Common Wealth of Kentucky is once again going after the online gambling industry and has filed a lawsuit in Franklin Circuit Court against a number of online gambling operations seeking to recover losses incurred by Kentuckians who placed wagers via websites.

John-Pappas-PPA WebProNews spoke to the Poker Players Alliance about Kentucky’s latest move. "We are in the process of full review of this new action, however, at first blush we seriously questions its merits," said John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance.

"The one thing that we can be sure of is that a continued assault on poker and attempts to restrict the rights of Commonwealth residents to play online poker is a clear waste of state government’s scarce resources."

Specifically the lawsuit names as defendants the Ireland-based Pocket Kings LTD., which operates the popular Full Tilt Poker website, and unknown entities that operate a number of other online gambling sites.

The 14-page filing by the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown invokes state statute 454.210 and calls for Pocket Kings to refund Kentucky "the amount of money lost between March 25, 2005 and September 25, 2009 by persons located within the borders of Kentucky." Under the law the suit seeks to recover three times the amounts lost by Kentuckians who gambled online.

"The Full Tilt Defendants have done, or have caused to be done, tortuous acts in the Commonwealth for which the Commonwealth has a substantial and compelling interest in exercising personal jurisdiction," the complaint continues.

This is the second suit filed by Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration against online gambling sites. The first involved Kentucky’s attempt to seize 141 international online gambling domains. That case is still ongoing.

April 8, 2010

Kentucky Supreme Court Favors State In Online Gambling Case

The Kentucky Supreme court issued a ruling Thursday that it will not lift the freeze by registrars of 141 Internet gambling domain names unless an owner of the names comes forward.

The ruling by the Court is not final, but the decision is being viewed as a temporary setback by the affected parties.

Joe Brennan Jr.
IMEGA’s chairman

"In the written decision, the Court clearly indicates they agree with our arguments, and are inviting us to refile, so that the technicality of the standing issue can be resolved," said Joe Brennan, Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA) chairman.

"It’s unfortunate, but I can’t imagine that Kentucky’s lawyers will celebrate a ruling that says ‘bring us an owner, so we can rule in your favor’".

iMEGA and the other affected parties, Interactive Gaming Concil and Sportsbook.com, have up to 20 days to file a motion for reconsideration. In the ruling, the Kentucky Supreme Court indicated that no additional briefs or oral arguments were necessary for them to consider the case, and that a petition could be made to the Appeals Court to move the case immediately back to the state Supreme Court.

"All along, it seemed the Court wanted to go our way, and this decision today indicates that is still the case," Brennan said.

"The Court is telling us that all that is necessary is for one domain owner to come forward, and we likely win."

Brennan indicated iMEGA would immediately work with other parties to resolve the Court’s issue, and would quickly file a motion to satisfy the Court.

"We obviously would have preferred a complete, clean victory today, but reading the decision, it seems this is a technicality that is only delaying the inevitable," Brennan sai

March 22, 2010

New Legislation Aims To Regulate Internet Gambling

The Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, an advocacy group, said today it supports the introduction of legislation by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Judd Gregg (R-NH) that includes provisions to legalize and regulate Internet gambling under the "Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2010.

"With so much media focus on the differences between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, this bipartisan initiative highlights the growing support on both ends of Capitol Hill for replacing the failed prohibition on Internet gambling with a system to regulate the industry, protect consumers and generate billions in new revenue," said Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative.

"We applaud Senators Wyden and Gregg for taking the initiative to address and drive this issue."

Provisions to regulate Internet gambling are similar to those included in the "Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act" introduced last year by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA). Chairman Frank’s bill has the support of a group of 65 bipartisan co-sponsors.

A Joint Committee on Taxation analysis found that regulating Internet gambling would generate nearly $42 billion over 10 years for the U.S. Treasury. The analysis is based on the provision of federal license for operators that would allow them to offer online gambling in the U.S., while still prohibiting sports betting.

February 23, 2010

New Jersey Considers Legalizing Online Gambling

A newly proposed law in New Jersey would allow residents there to gamble online via websites run by the state’s casinos in Atlantic City.

The bill was introduced into the New Jersey senate by Senator Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), who also introduced a separate bill which calls for New Jersey residents to vote on a constitutional amendment that would allow state-regulated sports wagering in Atlantic City casinos, and to state residents via an intra-state Internet gambling system.

New Jersey currently offers gambling on horse races to state residents through the 4NJbets.com website. The state would expand the law to permit online versions of games currently allowed in Atlantic City casinos, such as Poker, Blackjack and Baccarat. The Internet gambling system would be regulated by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, which would establish a Division of Internet Wagering to manage operations and licensing.

Joe Brennan Jr.
IMEGA’s chairman

"We’re happy that New Jersey has taken this issue into their own hands," said iMEGA chairman Joe Brennan Jr.

"New Jersey is recognized as having the toughest gaming regulators in the US, but as a leading gaming state with a long track record of doing things the right way, Internet gambling will have a great home here and the opportunity to begin normalizing the industry."

The iMEGA says it supports efforts in Washington DC by Representative Barney Frank (D) in the House and Senator Robert Menendez (D) in the Senate, to create a Federal path to regulation, the association worked with New Jersey legislators on the bill to establish continued progress toward regulate internet gambling in the U.S.

"The efforts to resolve the Internet gambling issue have stalled in Washington DC," Brennan said.

"If states assert their right to regulate gambling within their borders and take a serious look at permitting Internet gambling, one side effect may be a breaking of the deadlock in the US Congress."

Related Articles:

>U.S. Asked To Halt Online Gambling Rules

>Kentucky Supreme Court Hears Online Gambling Case

>Americans Favor Legalizing Online Poker

January 18, 2010

Controversial Gambling Domain Seizure Ruling Expected This Month

Back in 2008, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear announced that he wanted to shut down 141 Internet gambling sites in the state in an effort to stop unregulated online gaming. He filed a civil suit against the domain names and asked the court to force the sites to block access to Kentucky users or give up control of their domain names.

"Unlicensed, unregulated, illegal Internet gambling poses a tremendous threat to the citizens of the Commonwealth because of its ease, availability and anonymity," said Beshear back then. "The owners and operators of these illegal sites prey on Kentucky citizens, including our youth, and deprive the Commonwealth of millions of dollars in revenue. It’s an underworld wrought with scams and schemes."

The Kentucky Supreme Court is expected to make a decision on the case in a set of decisions on January 21.

Beshear has seen a fair amount of criticism for the move, based mostly on the fact that the state of Kentucky does not have a law in place making online gambling illegal. Furthermore, the sites in question are based overseas.

Online Casino Advisory went so far as to launch a boycotting campaign on all taxable gambling products in Kentucky:

A judge in Franklin County Kentucky court saw things Beshear’s way, but the ruling was overturned by an Appeals court before making its way to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), which has over 13,000 members in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and over a million members in the U.S. once told WebProNews that Governor Beshear’s attempt to block access to online sites in the state "is hypocritical and shortsighted."

Back in March, Attorney Clarke Walton, who owns and operates a site that is affiliated with the poker industry, talked about the case with WebProNews:

The suit is largely looked upon as a joke within the Poker community. Matthew Kredell with Poker news writes, "The lawsuit is ultimately pointless because the sites would continue to operate without their domain names. The only players who type in a domain name are the ones looking to initially download the software, and the search engines could easily be changed to recognize a new address. After the issue arose, Full Tilt Poker bought fulltilt.com as a precaution."

"By blocking online gambling sites in Kentucky, Governor Beshear is also blocking these sites for residents of other states and countries," Pappas said. "This clearly oversteps his bounds as Governor of Kentucky and likely violates several laws including the U.S. Constitution."

In December, state lawyers said they would add names of specific (but publicly unnamed) U.S. citizens to the suit. The industry is optimistic that the KY Supreme Court will reject Beshear’s mission anyway, and that the next step in the process would be the U.S. Supreme Court, which is highly unlikely to hear the case.

Everybody may be finding out the next steps later this month. If the case doesn’t come up then, the next time it may surface would be in March, according to Kredell.

Do you think the state of Kentucky has a legitimate case? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Related Articles:

> Kentucky Governor Cracks Down On Online Gambling

> A Closer Look At Kentucky’s Online Gambling Plan

> Kentucky Judge Rules: Forfeit Gambling Domains

January 11, 2010

BetOnSports CEO Sentenced To Prison

David Carruthers, the former director and CEO of online sports wagering firm BetOnSports, was sentenced to 33 months in prison on Friday, the Justice Department announced.

David-Carruthers Carruthers, a citizen of the United Kingdom, was hired by BetOnSports founder, Gary Kaplan, in 2000 as CEO of the online wagering company, which was based in Costa Rica.

"The prosecution and conviction of Carruthers is significant to the Government’s efforts at enforcement of U.S. laws against offshore Internet and telephone sports wagering businesses, because Carruthers was both a foreign national and a top executive of BetOnSports," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven E. Holtshouser.

"Previously, executives, owners and investors believed that they were immune from the reach of U.S. law enforcement; even their business plans were directly aimed at the U.S. market. Both the conviction of, and sentence handed down against Mr. Carruthers should send a message to any foreign business conducting illegal activities in the United States, that geography does not render it untouchable."

Carruthers was arrested in Texas in July 2006, and pleaded guilty to racketeering charges linked to BetOnSports operations in the U.S. Carruthers agreed to cooperate with U.S. authorities.

The sentencing concludes a lengthy investigation and prosecution effort by several law enforcement agencies, the Justice Department said.

Related Articles:

>U.S. Asked To Halt Online Gambling Rules

>Kentucky Supreme Court Hears Online Gambling Case

>Americans Favor Legalizing Online Poker

January 11, 2010