Earlier this month, the casino review board of the U.S. state of Kansas selected Peninsula Gaming to construct and operate a casino in southern Kansas, near Mulvane. Peninsula was competing with Global Gaming for the contract, but the board voted 6-1 in favor of Peninsula. Peninsula Gaming plans to erect a $260 million casino called the Kansas Star. The casino would take four years to reach its final phase. They would open an interim casino in February 2012 in a building that will include casino games, horse racing, a convention center and more. That interim casino would include 32 table [ Read More ]
Archive for December, 2010
The industry remained abuzz with speculation on the weekend news that Ladbrokes was making a £240 million bid for online gambling software developer 888. At 70p a share, the reported deal represents a premium of some 40%, Reuters reported. Both companies confirmed that they were in negotiations as the new week commenced, with 888′s share price soaring by 24% on the news that it may be acquired by the major UK online and land gambling group. It provided 888 investors, who have seen their shares lose around two-thirds in value since January 2010, with some welcome and positive momentum, although [ Read More ]
Norman Steinberg, described by the St. Louis press as a “key player” in the historic prosecution of the erstwhile BetonSports online gambling group some years ago came home to the U.S. briefly this week to plead guilty to conspiracy in the illegal online gambling affair. His appearance before U.S. District Judge Carol E. Jackson was brief and his sentence was a year on probation, with permission to serve it at his home in Costa Rica. The quid pro quo for this was that Steinberg agreed to drop a “mysterious civil lawsuit” naming the U.S. government and filed under seal in [ Read More ]
Senator Ray Lesniak’s bill proposing the intrastate legalisation of online gambling in New Jersey moves another step forward this week with the news that it was among a dozen bills passed late Thursday by the state House of Assembly’s Regulatory Oversight and Gaming Committee. The bill has already survived several committees and a Senate vote. Local media reported that the bills, mostly designed to revive the state horse racing and Atlantic City casino industries, drew bipartisan support in a 3 hour session as legislators raced to send many of the bills to Governor Christie’s desk before the end of the [ Read More ]
Spain’s second-largest newspaper, El Mundo reports that Austrian online gaming company Bwin is a frontrunner in a bid to purchase a 30% stake in Spain’s State Lottery. Other companies interested in the purchase of the stake include Spanish companies Codere, Cirsa and Recreativos Franco as well as Italy’s Lottomatica. The Spanish Government announced plans this week to partially privatise the lottery in order to cut debt and expects to raise €5 billion from its sale. The State lottery has an estimated €2.6 billion ($3.5 billion) revenue for 2010 and is renowned for its considerable El Gordo and El Nino draws. [ Read More ]
The Stockholm-based Tain business-to-business online gambling provider extended its product offering this week following an agreement with software developer Playtech which will see that company’s online casino offering included in the Tain portfolio. Tain offers a wide range of software and infrastructure services to small and medium sized gaming operators and for the past five years has provided its licensees with access to Playtech’s iPoker network. The new agreement significantly expands this arrangement through the provision of Playtech’s online casino product, encompassing a games library that includes slots, table and card games, video poker and a wide range of branded [ Read More ]
Dinesh Enoka Abeysuriya, a 29-year-old finance clerk for an Australian charity who embezzled A$1.53 million and gambled part of it away in online gambling casinos was sentenced in a Brisbane court this week. Judge Kerry O’Brien, who last week adjourned the case for sentencing after Abeysuriya pleaded guilty, handed down a sentence of seven years imprisonment for stealing from the Uniting Church’s Blue Care organisation, reports the Courier-Mail newspaper. After money found in his accounts was frozen, the value of the shortfall was about A$900,000. Abeysuriya was also found guilty of a second charge based on his use of his [ Read More ]
