Ambassadors’ reception: Betfair welcomes its new sporting experts
BETTING NEWS 14
Totally iGaming Week: Milan will host the 10th EiG Congress & Expo
ESSENTIAL GUIDE 20
Place your bets: New brokerage service Bet Butler launches
B2B SPORTSBOOK 33
£5.20 (€8.30) • ISSUE:84 • SEPTEMBER 2011 •
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Bwin.party says US regulation inevitable
BWIN.PARTY HAS EXTENDED ITS DEAL WITH FIBA - THE WORLD GOVERNING ASSOCIATION OF BASKETBALL
The gambling industry is keeping a watching brief on regulatory developments in the US, and with good reason according to
Bwin.party.
LEGISLATION B
win.party co-CEO Jim Ryan claims that it’s not a question of if the US regulates online gambling, it’s
just a question of when. In the merged firm’s first interim results as a joint entity, Ryan said that the increasing number of bills being introduced at both state and federal levels in the US, combined with this year’s earlier action against the big three poker operators, suggests positive movement for the industry. He explained: “We’ve got some real meaningful political momentum and we’ve got some law enforcement with regards to those that are operating con- trary to the law, there are some key drivers at work here.” Ryan added that it was even
better news that the key drivers to legislate, first and foremost, are being driven by US compa- nies, something he describes as a ‘material change’. He added: “That change was initiated last year, but now we’ve got compa- nies that employ Americans, pay US taxes, driving for US regula- tion of online poker. Why now? First and foremost, the law enforcement aspect. For a number of years foreign compa- nies have taken billions of dollars of profits out of that mar- ketplace.
“Secondly, we have player pro- tection needs. We’ve seen in the most recent circumstance a number of consumers not being able to get their funds back from one of the operators, or a couple of the operators, that closed in
that market. We’ve got job cre- ation, which is a huge driver in the current macroeconomic times and last but not least, we’ve got the ability to generate taxes. All of these factors have created a perfect storm, hopefully, for the regulation of online poker.” PartyGaming has previous form in the US, where it was one of the many chased out by the passing of UIGEA and ended up paying the government millions of dollars in a ‘non-prosecution agreement’. It would under- standably like to have another go at the world’s largest poker market.
Co-CEO Norbert Teufelberger believes that deregulation is just part of a wider trend and that the US will be one of many territo- ries embracing the industry for
one reason or another,
“There is huge demand for online gaming products across the globe and governments will be looking for new forms of income to fill their empty tax coffers,” he said. “It may take a little bit longer in those regions, especially Asia and South America than we expected, so we definitely believe that any regulatory push will be driven by Europe and potentially North America in the short-term.” The newly merged organisa- tion also announced that it has found an extra 10m euro (£8.8m) in synergies between the two companies. It expects to deliver 40m euro (£35.4m) in synergies next year and have the figure reaching 65m euro (£57.5m) by 2013.
Rioters trash high street betting shops
CRIME L
ast month’s riots in England took their toll on the bookmaking industry with 50 betting shops attacked and looted in London alone. Shops in Man- chester, Birmingham, Liverpool, West Bromwich and even Gloucester were all targeted by rioters and video footage of the looting of a Ladbrokes shop in Clapham Junction became a worldwide phenomenon, partly because of the rioters’ inability to remove a plasma screen from its wall fixing. Even betting shops based in areas
where there was no civil unrest were affected as broadcaster SIS had to evac- uate its central London HQ, leading to a slightly reduced service, and Coral was forced to close its Barking call centre one evening.
Several bookmakers also took the understandably cautious move of closing early during the days of rioting to ensure staff safety as betting shops became easy targets for the criminals because of their high street locations, tendency for glass facades and the per- ception of a cash-rich environment. A resident who lives above one of the Coral betting shops in Gloucester summed up the chaos to the BBC: “I woke up with the room moving and that shows how hard they were kicking the glass. They were only interested in smashing up the glass. I didn’t see their faces because they were all wearing bal- aclavas or scarves over their faces. It’s just unbelievable. It was like a war zone down here.”
Police have been quick to act after the end of the civil unrest and around 3,100 people have been arrested, with more than 1,000 charged. The Associa- tion of British Insurers has said it expects the industry to make more than £200m in insurance payments as a result of the riots.
www.spinpalace.com www.microgaming.com/GSSII
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