5P has influence arising from principal shareholder Hun Sun Ny, the sister of Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen.

“The Cambodian joint venture is consistent with PhilWeb’s focus on an international expansion strategy,” read a statement from the Manila-based firm.

“PhilWeb is also working to obtain gaming licenses in other countries including Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Guam, Saipan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, Nepal and others.”

Eighty percent of the joint venture is owned by PhilWeb Cambodia Limited, a subsidiary of PhilWeb, which estimated that total capital investment over a five-year period would reach five million US dollars.

PhilWeb acts as the enabler of the State-run Philippine Amusement And Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and revealed that its latest venture had already secured a Cambodian gaming licence in order to operate lotteries and online casino cafes.

The Philippines government recently indicated that it was considering the privatisation of PAGCOR.

Instead, the company announced that it would focus on its other Louisiana properties, including its Boomtown casino in Shreveport. Pinnacle also announced that it would continue with plans to develop a casino resort complex in Baton Rouge, which would include more than a thousand slot machines, fifty table games and more than a hundred hotel rooms.

A spokesman for Pinnacle Chief Executive Officer Anthony Sanfilippo said that the decision was part of the company’s new policy of “disciplined capital spending and expansion”. Mr. Sanfilippo took over as Pinnacle CEO in March and replaced interim CEO John Giovenco, who in turn replaced Daniel Lee after Mr. Lee resigned his position last November. Mr. Lee also engaged in a heated argument with St. Louis County officials over a proposed new casino in the area.

Recent decreases in revenue, including a dismal fourth quarter report, may have led to the decision to halt the Sugarcane Bay project. The company reportedly lost more than US$240 million in 4Q09 and announced that they would trim costs to make up for the revenue shortfalls. Although the company’s stock closed lower after the news, industry experts expect it to pick up value as executives focus on more conservative growth estimates.

The cancellation of the Sugarcane Bay project is the latest symptom of the overall decline in the gaming industry since the economic downturn started in late 2008. Shares of casino giants Harrah’s Entertainment, MGM Mirage and Wynn Resorts have all suffered major losses in the last eighteen months. Las Vegas, long considered the mecca of legalized gambling, has an unemployment rate at nearly fourteen percent.

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TOKYO (AFP) – One of Japan’s top sumo tournaments began in Nagoya Sunday without live TV coverage and with fans staying away in disgust at a scandal over illegal gambling.

The 15-day event opened only days after police raided 13 sumo stables and dozens of offices and houses for evidence linking wrestlers and stablemasters to gambling on baseball organised by yakuza mobsters.

In Japan, betting is permitted only on horse racing, bicycle races and some motor sports.

Hundreds of would-be spectators cancelled their tickets to the Nagoya tournament, one of the six competitions held every year in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka city in the west and Fukuoka city in the southwest.

Major corporate sponsors have withdrawn from the tournament along with public network Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), which for the first time in half a century has not offered live coverage of the event.

Instead of its usual three-hour live broadcasts of the tournament, NHK will air only a daily 20-minute roundup of the event.

To clean up the sport, Japan Sumo Association has fired, demoted and suspended dozens of wrestlers and stablemasters who routinely bet in the illegal gambling ring or failed to supervise wrestlers. The association also banned 18 wrestlers from the Nagoya tournament.

In a show of remorse, the association has declined to award the coveted Emperor’s Cup, Prime Minister’s prize and other awards regularly given to tournament winners.

Japan’s 2,000-year-old national sport has rapidly fallen from grace with recent revelations of drug use, extortion and the 2007 death of a trainee tortured during hazing.

The gambling scandal followed news that top members of the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate had been given ringside seats at recent sumo tournaments, apparently to send silent messages to jailed gangsters watching in prisons.

The scandals and the failure of the secretive sumo authority to deal with them have angered the public, with many people demanding the Nagoya tournament to be cancelled altogether.

Under pressure, the association fired one wrestler and one stablemaster and punished other sumo elders after learning that at least 27 wrestlers, masters and others have admitted to gambling on baseball.

Manila-based PhilWeb is the first and largest listed internet company in the Philippines by market capitalisation, and the dominant technology-based gaming firm.

The company recently released excellent first quarter results for 2010 which showed a 52% growth in net income. Its latest venture in bringing the Vibrant Vegas online casino to market is a vital part of its ambitious development plans for 2010 and beyond.

The partnership allows PhilWeb access to Microgaming’s catalogue of over 450 graphics and feature-rich games, the support of a dedicated Account Management team and quality back-office services. For Microgaming, the deal with PhilWeb represents the addition of yet another successful Asian operator to its international network, further cementing its stronghold in the developing Asian gaming market.

Dennis Valdes, CEO, PhilWeb said: “Our gaming operations are currently going from strength to strength and we are delighted to be delivering a new casino platform to market. We are currently undergoing rapid growth, and Microgaming is the obvious partner for us, due to its ability to deliver the highest quality tailored software at an unrivalled speed to market. We firmly believe that no other provider comes close when it comes to games content.”.

“The partnership with PhilWeb represents a real coup for Microgaming,” said Fredrik Lonnqvist of Microgaming. “We are proud to have been selected by such a dynamic company with such a strong reputation in its market.”

PlayNowNH will offer customers the opportunity to buy $100 worth of credit at lottery retailers. The gamblers may then take that credit and go online to pick which of the games they would like to play. The games all play out similar to scratch off tickets.

The determination of a win or a loss is made when the credit is bought. That allows New Hampshire to circumvent the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that took effect on June 1st. The UIGEA calls for financial institutions to block transactions to and from online gambling sites.

If a gambler chooses to do so, they may find out if they won on the lottery tickets when they purchase them. They do not need to go online to play the games to find out if their tickets are winners. Even with the state lottery running the online gambling, some lawmakers are miffed that this type of gambling is allowed.

“I’m sure you can say it’s no different (than scratch tickets), but we know from the research that’s been done there is nothing more addictive than being able to play games on the computer,” said House Finance Chair Marjorie Smith, as reported by The Associated Press.

Other states in the Northeast are seeking a much larger version of Internet gambling in the future. New Jersey lawmakers are considering regulating online poker. Florida and California also have legislators pushing for regulated online gambling.

BEIJING (Xinhua) — China’s Ministry of Public Security has vowed to crack down on domestic and foreign online gambling organizations as a number of football gambling web sites were discovered online following the start of the World Cup in South Africa.

"Currently, police departments at all levels should focus on the World Cup and keep close watch on domestic and foreign online gambling groups. Dig deep for the violators behind them, seize evidence and give a hard blow to online football gambling," urged vice minister Huang Ming at a meeting Tuesday.

Figures from the ministry show that Chinese police shut down 1,461 foreign gambling web sites in less than one week after the start of the 2010 World Cup.

"Gambling, drugs and prostitution are still rampant in some areas, causing civilians to issue strong complaints… In some places, these wrongdoings have even been conducted in board daylight." Huang added.

According to Huang, law enforcement agencies at all levels will focus on entertainment venues that host prostitution, obscene performances, group gambling and drug trafficking, and violators will be severely punished.

The ministry also ordered law enforcement agencies to strictly monitor local police and punish those who are slack in stopping these illegal activities in their own regions.

Also at the meeting, the ministry announced a nationwide campaign on the control of guns, scheduled to end this September, in a bid to prevent gun-related crimes. E

Other symbols such as the tropical island award between 10 and 100 Free Spins in which rewards are doubled for the player.

Five Orca symbols in an active pay-line pay a jackpot of 10,000 coins, quadrupled when the Orcas are gold and the bet is at the maximum of $5, making an achievable return on the game of some $200,000.

The game also has a randomly triggered two level progressive jackpot component, and the RTG win-win feature, in which bonuses are given to players whose free spins return in a particular round are overall less than ten times the triggering bet.

Australia enjoys a largely positive history with our Greek friends. But, in recent years Intralot has impacted Australia’s gaming sector in a less than stellar fashion. Media Man and Gambling911 investigate and probe seeking answers …..sounds like Greek or not…

Intralot Australia in quite a pickle, has borrowed multiple millions of dollars to attempt to care card of business down under in Australia.

It’s still weathering the storm from its ill fated entry into the Australian instant lottery market circa 2008 with machines that "spoke" (read) in Greek tongue.

The roots go back in history to Athens… its birthplace.  Maybe they should have stayed there, as much as we love the Greeks and their world famous cuisine, hospitality and goddess like sexy women.

It’s now understood they lost $15 million in 2009. Their 2 year loss is in the region of $28.4 million. It’s loans from what insiders call "related parties" were $21.5 million in 2009, compared with "only" $6.5 million circa 2008. Detractors who are choosing to remain nameless at present are starting to question if "loan sharks" or "dodgy deals" are part of the problem.

We understand that Intralot Australia had borrowed an additional $1.65 million from Intralot UK Finance.

The company GM, Leo Watling, is tight lipped about if more loans will be in order.

Before things soured with the Greek salad, going pear shaped, the outfit was hopeful of winning a  New South Wales licence, recently awarded to Tatts.  There was controversy over the inclusion element re unclaimed prizes.  A number of other bidders state they were not given an opportunity to bid. Intralot has consulted with legal eagles and ‘Do We Cheat Em & How’ (just kidding) and is still considering suing the NSW government over it. Mama and Papa know the government has enough problems to deal with at the moment, without a legal situation mixing it up with convicts and Greek gods and goddesses.

For the uninitiated our learned friends Intralot entered the Victorian gambling sector in the middle of 2008. The company offers scratch cards in Tasmania and look after information technology support services for Western Australia’s Lotterywest brand.

Its Victorian entry was not god or goddess like.  Even "Osiris magic" tactics were not going to save it, never mind a resurrection.

Of course the "the blame game" started and newsagents claimed they lost 15% of their lotteries income through a range of issues including faulty technology, complex scratch games and piss poor sales, marketing, branding and the like. It was a bad comedy, being compared to ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’. Punters, would you believe the machines installed to check tickets gave instructions in Greek tongue!

Intralot is arguing with passion that its sales have been hampered by Tatts’ refusal to permit the firm to place their branded products (scratchies etc) on shop counters where Tatts scratchies were previously sold to the punting public.

"We continue to explain to the Victorian government that the existence of the Tattersall’s dedicated area is not only unfair but anti-competitive," Mr Watling spoke.

Tatts remains unwilling to negote on this point. Intralot Australia’s financial statement for 2009 shows its Victorian lottery sales: $56 million. Total revenue: $66 million, however it paid $31 million in prizes, good news for punters…almost $18.8 million in lottery tax and licence fees, and millions more on a fruit basket of miscellaneous expenses.

"We had always anticipated that the first few years would be loss-making due to the substantial investment required to develop this current licence and others opportunities in the region," Mr Watling explained.

"Sales are trending upwards and our relationships with our vendors … have never been better. They have appreciated the recent efforts we have made with the introduction of new scratch ticket dispensers and the relaunched Keno game."

The jury is out re Intralot soon to be ancient (Greek) history, or will they get the power of Isis with ‘Assimilation of Mut’?

Greek Online Slot Games…

Call Of The Colosseum

http://www.mediamanint.com/profiles/call_of2.html

ThunderStruck

http://www.mediamanint.com/profiles/thunderstruck.html

ThunderStruck II

http://www.mediamanint.com/profiles/thunderstruck2.html

Mega Moolah Isis

http://www.mediamanint.com/profiles/mega_moolah2.html

Gladiator

http://www.mediamanint.com/profiles/gladiator.html

Words Of Wisdom…With Public Thank You To Jimmy Wales Of Wikipedia…

"It is difficult not to wonder whether that combination of elements which produces a machine for labor does not create also a soul of sorts, a dull resentful metallic will, which can rebel at times." -Pearl S. Buck

"It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day’s toil of any human being." -John Stuart Mill

"The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them." -Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand, and Stars, 1939

"Once upon a time we were just plain people. But that was before we began having relationships with mechanical systems. Get involved with a machine and sooner or later you are reduced to a factor." -Ellen Goodman, "The Human Factor," The Washington Post, January 1987

"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -Elbert Hubbard, The Roycroft Dictionary and Book of Epigrams, 1923

"The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do." B.F. Skinner, Contingencies of Reinforcement, 1969

"Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation…tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation." -Jean Arp

"We are becoming the servants in thought, as in action, of the machine we have created to serve us." -John Kenneth Galbraith

"When a machine begins to run without human aid, it is time to scrap it – whether it be a factory or a government." -Alexander Chase, Perspectives, 1966

"You cannot endow even the best machine with initiative; the jolliest steam-roller will not plant flowers." -Walter Lippmann

"The best machine is one you don’t have to turn on." – Great quote, but whose is it?

Greek Trivia Fact…

Modern Greeks can still wholly or partly understand texts written in non-archaic forms of ancient Greek shows the affinity of modern Greek language to its ancestral predecessor!

Wrap Up (In English)…

Gods and goddesses, don your mask and spin to win, scratch to hatch, or whatever is your poison. Isis tells us that a number of online casino games are awaiting your custom, and yes, they come in multi currency, and some come both in English and Greek variations, with strong security protection like eCogra. As Aussie Greek cultural icon Con The Fruitier says, "Beautiful". Bet responsibly and watch out for hot headed Greeks, unless they are hot Greek chicks or for the ladies, Mr Cleopatra ‘Bachelor of the Year’ cum Underbelly Fireass!

*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911

*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company. Gaming is just one of a bakers dozen of sectors they cover.

Bwin are known for their fearless innovation within the online gambling market, and recently have expressed this by taking out a majority shareholding in UnitedGames, the EU Massively Multiplayer Online Game developer & Publisher.

This deal follows closely the recent deal carried out with Gioco Digitale, the Italian Poker & Casino operator and is Bwin’s first entry into the MMOG industry, giving Bwin access to UnitedGames profile of 17,000,000 players in over 178 countries.

UnitedGames is based in the Netherlands and was founded in 2007 and provide marketing, translations, community support with localization services.

Chief Executive Marjin Hanrick has commented saying ‘Bwin and UnitedGames are extraordinary partners and this combination will have a huge impact on the online gaming market’

Bwin Casino are currently running some fantastic promotions, so why not head over there and grab your Free £200 Deposit bonus Today!

Closely held Gioco boasts it is Italy’s first independent online gaming site and offers mainly poker, betting and skill games, but there is clearly good potential for expansion into other genres under the Bwin banner.

A timeframe for the takeover has yet to published, and the terms of the deal have not been disclosed, although some idea of value can be deduced from a report in the Italian newspaper Finanza & Mercati, which said said last week that an investor had bought 10% of Gioco for more than €2 million. This fits with previous estimates of around €90 to 100 million.

Industry observers say that the burgeoning Italian market is ripe for the sort of consolidation that the Bwin deal represents. Gibraltar-based Party Gaming recently acquired an online poker operator, while 888 has said it is close to buying an as yet unidentified asset.

A recently passed law due to be enacted this autumn, means that poker cash games and other games of chance will be permitted in Italy in addition to sports betting and online poker tournaments, raising the profile of the market.

According to the Bwin announcement, the boards of both companies and its shareholders have agreed on principle terms for the acquisition of 100% of Gioco Digitale, but did state that although the acquisition was progressing, there could be no certainty that a final binding agreement on the transaction will be reached.