Internet Gambling World in Chaos After Port Security Bill Passes

Internet Gambling World in Chaos After Port Security Bill Passes

Italy regulating online gambling

IS ITALY ABOUT TO REGULATE ONLINE GAMBLING?

From website blockades to a regulatory regime - how things can change

One of the more encouraging news items this week was reported by Poker News, which carried an article claiming that Italy has apparently done a radical about-turn in its approach to online gambling. It appears that the Italian authorities are going from website blockades instituted with local ISPs through the AAMS, to a UK style regulatory and taxation regime.

The Poker News report says that Italy has had an interesting relationship with online gaming. In February, the country attempted to ban all IP addresses of online gaming sites - well over 600 in all - and then a few days later reportedly tried to set up an 'exclusive' relationship with an online poker room, allegedly for a slice of the pie.

Now, Italy is moving toward regulation of the industry. As of January 1, 2007, it will be legal for Italian citizens to gamble online. The new law also clears the way for things like public sports betting and bingo parlours.

This piece of legislation regulates all 'ability based and fixed betting activities'. The Italian plan is apparently informed by the U.K. initiative when it comes to how the entities that do business in Italy are regulated. If a company does business with Italian customers, the government will stand to make a 3 percent tax on any gaming based revenues acquired by the company.

Such a radical change of direction begs the question, "Will operators be flocking to set up in Italy?" There are certainly worse places to be in the world!

Whether this promising move will in time influence the approach of U.S. legislators who seem determined to ban online gambling has yet to be seen.

In recent days, it has become increasingly clear that the U.S. Senate is unlikely to pass the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act in any form, whether as a stand-alone bill, or attached to other legislation before the Senate takes its election recess starting at the end of this week. History has shown that post-election 'lame duck' sessions of Congress are reluctant to discuss any proposed legislation that has heated opposition, or especially complex issues attached to it.

As things stand now, it appears that come January 1st, 2007 Italian online gamblers will be able to legally play poker and other online games in front of their computers.

Die Presse.com - Alles schneller www.issen

Die Presse.com - Alles schneller www.issen

EU wants open gambling

Tuesday, September 19, 2006
EU wants open gambling

The European Commission said on Monday that it was prepared to target more
members states deemed to be stifling free competition in the sports gambling
sector. The move came after the arrest in France last week of two heads of
the Bwin internet gambling group over alleged contravention of French
gambling monopolies. The Austro-German gambling group announced on Saturday
that it would sue the French state for human rights restrictions and not
respecting European law. "We will perhaps add to the number of countries
involved in infringement procedures," during a meeting of the European
Commission on October 18 dedicated to the topic, said the EU's executive
arm's internal markets spokesperson Oliver Drewes.

Practices examined

In April, the commission named seven member states whose practices it was
examining in the sports gambling sector; Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary,
Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden.

EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy wants to ensure that laws
in member states banning gambling services are "necessary and not
discriminatory".

McCreevy has said that he is not seeking the unfettered liberalisation of
the market but "to be assured that the measures put in place by the member
states are fully compatible with community law", on the freedom of services.

Since April the commission, which is also the EU's top competition
regulator, has received several fresh complaints, some 50 in total plus 50
more potential cases, according to Drewes.

Gambling in Europe | Stacking the deck | Economist.com

Gambling in Europe | Stacking the deck | Economist.com

Why Does Google Treat "www" & "no-www" As Different?

Why Does Google Treat "www" & "no-www" As Different?: "site:www.domain.com - should show only www results. You want as many of these as you can to be fully indexed and not supplemental.

site:domain.com -inurl:www - should show only non-www results, but sometimes it also shows 'historical' www supplemental results too (see above for what I mean hy 'historical' - that's the May vs. September example).

site:domain.com - shows both www and non-www URLs and it can be difficult to untangle exactly what you are looking at.

site:www.domain.com -inurl:www - this is a 'feature', but it usually shows only pages with a problem!

That site:www.domain.com -inurl:www search logically says 'show me all pages from www.domain.com that do NOT have a www in the URL'. This returns ZERO results from the normal index, but does proceed to return some www URLs only from the Supplemental Index.

It is an interesting test. I used it last week on a big site to find the last 20 problem URLs. Ten were old URLs that just return 404 and Google is hanging on to them for the one year. The other ten were pages that had duplicate meta descriptions, which are now all fixed.

One more thing. When doing the site search, do it with 100 results per page to get a better view. Additionally, always try it both with and without &filter=0 on the end of the Google search url,enlighyning!

online gambling bill 26-09-06

ONLINE GAMBLING BILL NOW BACK ALIVE - online poker and online casino news
Onlinecasino.org News | 26.09.2006 | 07:04:37 | Views: 523 | Casino News

Could be bad news for the over 20 million online poker players According to thehill.com yesterday the online gambling poker bill is back and alive.

Internet gambling bill revived in DoD measure

Controversial language to curb illegal gambling on the Internet snuck back into the defense authorization bill over the weekend.

While the language in the bill was not finalized as of press time last night, the insertion of the Internet gaming language could be a big win for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).

But that potential victory hung in the balance on Monday as House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) continued his threats to postpone a vote on the overarching bill until negotiators from both chambers include unrelated measures on immigration and court security.

"The Speaker will not move this bill until these critical security measures are included in it," Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said yesterday.

Conferees were still ironing out defense-related issues yesterday, but lawmakers are now fighting to include a number of non-defense items in the must-pass bill that has become a regular vehicle for pet projects.

The Internet gaming language would create an additional enforcement mechanism for federal officials to crack down on money transferred from banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions to gambling outfits overseas.

Internet gambling is already illegal in most of the country, with the major exceptions of Nevada, Indian reservations and other smaller locales where residents have voted to change the law.

The fight in Congress to enact further enforcement methods has persisted since former GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff fought to defeat a bill offered by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) in the summer of 2000.

Goodlatte combined his language with a bill introduced by Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) that passed the House earlier this year.

The language included in the defense reauthorization bill appeared to mirror Leach's language, numerous outside lobbyists said over the weekend. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) has been pushing a companion to the Leach bill, which is far narrower than Goodlatte's legislation that would, among other things, revamp the 1961 Wire Act.

Frist has been working hard to include some version of the Internet gaming language in the defense reauthorization bill in what a number of outside lobbyists see as a push to ingratiate himself with social conservatives and, more specifically, Leach, whose endorsement would be a big boost during the Iowa primary.

Frist co-hosted a field hearing on Internet gaming with Leach earlier this fall in Iow.

The Internet gaming issue is far from settled because conference negotiations do not end until all the negotiators have signed off on an agreement.

This move to include an Internet gambling curb comes after Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the committee's ranking Democrat, rebuffed Frist's attempts to include it in the bill because it is not related to defense policy.

K Street has been watching the back-and-forth on Internet gambling intently. Wall Street, in particular, has already priced Internet gambling stocks to reflect some of the possibility that Congress will approve the legislation.

A unit of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co, an Arlington, Va.-based investment firm, has been tracking the legislation closely as it related to various Internet gambling companies. In a report last week, the firm wrote that "failure to attach a gaming provision to the DOD authorization bill likely means that proponents have missed their last best chance to pass anti-gaming provisions…before senators head home for the final campaign stretch run."

Hastert has told negotiators that he will not move the bill unless there is authorizing language to boost the security of judges in and out of courtrooms, eases the process of deporting convicted gang members, and bars their indefinite detention.

Senate leaders promised to include the courtroom language, which was part of a larger child safety that passed the House earlier this year, on must-pass bill some time this year, a House GOP leadership aide said yesterday.

Hastert has made a bill political issue of this push following the brutal murder of the family of a federal judge in Chicago earlier this year. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) has also pressed for the legislation.

On the immigration language, House leaders said they have borrowed language included in the Senate's own comprehensive immigration bill that was approved this past spring.

Senate Democrats are critical of the gang-related measure, and the American Civil Liberties Union said the measure is too broad and could negatively impact legal immigrants. A spokesman for Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) refused to comment on the issue.

House leaders hope to include other border security provisions in a spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security. At least one Republican conferee has criticized that move.

At a National Press Club briefing yesterday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) Senate Judiciary Committee chairman and a member of the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, criticized the House's decision to enact its some immigration measures by including them in the 2007 homeland security defense appropriations bill.

"The House of Representatives doesn't think much of the bicameral system," Specter said. "The Senate and House passed bills, but somehow we can't go to conference on them. Now the House wants to take their key provisions and enact them, which would take all the leverage away from the Senate bill."

He said that the Senate has pending provision for a fence running along the southwest border, but that he is not for the "fence piecemeal.

The proposed Frist, Senator Jon Kyl bill to the Senate the online casino anti-internet gaming bill leaves out horse racing, and lotteries so the bill will that way be supporting online horse racing, and lotteries ALLOT - so it would be total okay to gamble online on horse racing but online poker will get banned - what an insane bill!.

A huge scientific poll conducted in March 2006 of over 30,000 likely voters establishes that Americans overwhelmingly DO NOT want the federal government enacting laws that restrict a recreational activity such as online gambling, an activity that many adult Americans have decided to do from their own homes. Almost 80 percent of Americans are opposed to the pending bills in Congress to ban online gambling.

A recent CNBC poll showed also that over 90 percent of Americans would like to see online gambling poker regulated in the U.S. and NOT prohibited! Studies have shown that regulation and taxation of online poker could net the federal government over $3.3 billion in revenue annually and another $1 billion for the states on internet gambling.

OVER 80 countries worldwide including the UK, are right now starting to legalized and regulated online gambling and online poker gambling.

Senate should use its litle time left this year on other importen things instead of banning online poker.
Telling American adults how to use their hard-earned money, whether on e-bay, horse racing or on playing online poker after a hard days work, should simply not be the federal government's job.

Over 20 Million peaple in USA enjoy online poker- that's 20 miilion votes.

What will be next from Frist and the Senate? banning movies/budweiser's/newspapers?

More cookie transparency needed?

32Red:
When a customer lands on the 32Red splash pages through your link, a cookie is placed onto their machine. This customer will credited to the affiliate if they cross into either the Poker Room or the Casino. This cookie is valid for 30 days.

VegasMagic:
When do cookies expire?
Cookies are written to expire after 90 days.
Do you reward the First Affiliate or Last Affiliate for referring a Customer?
When a customer is referred, the cookies are overwritten to benefit the Last Affiliate.

IncomeAccess:
CWC sets 30 day expiring cookies whereby a cookie expires if a visitor has not registered a player account within this time frame. If a person does not register a player account within 30 days of coming to CWC then the cookie will expire For example, a visitor clicks through from affiliate “A” but does not register a player account. Four days later the same visitor clicks through from affiliate “B's” link and registers a “player account” at Casino Webcam.com. In this case affiliate “A” will get the credit for the registration and will earn commission on all subsequent revenue generated by that player.

PartyPoker:
This type of cookie will remain on your computer for a period of time set for each cookie.

Vegas Parners:
Vegas Partner does assign a cookie to all referrals to the Vegas Partner website, but these cookies are only assigned once the visitor joins the program. The tracking of a referral is effected by the Affiliate ID that is present in your link and the visitor ID that is attached to the visitor when accessing the website.


Coral/Eurobet:
In the event that there are multiple cookies on a customers computer, then the latest version of the cookie will take precedence, i.e. the player will be allocated to the last affiliate that referred them to the Coral/Eurobet website.

Brightshare:
We keep ten-year cookies

from a website:
" Ever wondered why some portals have a pop up that shows the whole casino site rather than just a banner? It is their way of getting the cookie on to the visitor's computer. "

another website:
"Many affiliate networks use cookies to track conversions. This was a great method to track conversions in the past, but recently it has become an issue for the affiliate marketing world. Many consumers are turning cookies off, which will cause conversions to not track. I have heard estimates as little as 50% and as high as 90% of conversions being tracked through cookies. If your affiliate network is using cookies you can assume some conversions are lost. Many networks attempt to make this up by increasing the payout. Some networks don't bother and keep the additional conversions."

a prevoius thread: [url]http://www.casinoaffiliateprograms.com/bb/about-cookies-serious-thread.12247.html?&highlight=cookies[/url]

and quoting TheGooner:"Basically the whole process is deliberately shrouded in mist, seems purposely designed to fail to record cookies ... in order to maximise uncertainty and increase the chance of affiliate free players." :[url]http://www.casinoaffiliateprograms.com/bb/who-gets-the-commissions.12004.html?&highlight=cookies[/url]

Cookie-Stuffing Targeting Major Affiliate Merchants

Cookie-Stuffing Targeting Major Affiliate Merchants

International climate tightens, arrests threatened

International climate tightens, arrests threatened
http://www.thebusinessonline.com/Sto...E-D07EB5AA1CEE

Quote:
German crackdown raises the stakes for internet gambling
By Eric Culp In Frankfurt And Pierre Tran In Paris
24 September 2006


BRITISH executives of online gambling companies could be arrested on criminal charges in Germany if they set foot in the country.

Officials from the interior ministries of the German states of Hesse and Bavaria told The Business that executives of foreign companies who let German residents place sports bets online are committing “criminal” acts that could lead to prosecution in Germany.

Germany’s threat to foreign managers follows the recent arrests in the US and France of executives from offshore gambling firms.

French state gambling officials also plan to adopt a tougher stand: officials told The Business that they will continue to report offences by foreign betting operators to the government, raising the possibility of more arrests of executives at offshore gambling firms.

Attempting to enforce their monopoly on sports gambling, Hesse, Bavaria and Saxony ordered Austrian online betting company Bwin to stop advertising and offering betting services in their states. The ban “goes for everyone else, too,” a spokesman for the Hesse interior ministry in Wiesbaden told The Business.

Bwin has become the highest profile target in the German crackdown on gambling which has also seen the forced closure of privately run betting shops around the country.

But executives from any company offering online sports betting in Germany should be concerned about prosecution.

“I would take these threats seriously,” says Michael Adams from Hamburg University, an expert on gambling in Germany. He advised such managers to steer clear of the country. “I wouldn’t take a layover in Frankfurt.”

In France, Bwin’s co-chief executives were released on bonds of E300,000 ($370,000, £205,000) apiece last week after their arrests as part of an investigation into the company’s French operations. The executives are expected to return to France for more questioning in November.

The arrests stemmed from complaints filed last year by French state-run betting agencies Francaise des Jeux (FdJ) and and Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU). Under French law, FdJ holds the monopoly for lotteries; PMU controls off-track gambling and casinos for slot machines

FdJ says that as a public operator working under a state mandate, it is obligated to report illegal activities to the authorities. It contends that the debate is not over monopolies, but about public policy and the future of gambling.

Paris shows little willingness to engage in a policy debate and is pushing forward with a crackdown on internet gambling. French Budget Minister Jean-Francois Coppé says the government will hand out hefty fines against illegal bookmakers.

A number of UK-based online betting companies allow German residents to make wagers.

The Business opened an account and placed a bet from a German address last Thursday with BetFred.com in Warrington. A BetFred spokesman said he was unaware of the situation, but if German authorities were planning to prosecute British online sports betting companies, “then we’d have to stop”.

Sportingbet, whose chairman Peter Dicks was arrested in the US earlier this month, takes bets from Germany and even offers clients there a toll-free service line. When asked if the company had many German customers, a worker said: “We sure do.”

Ladbrokes says it has not accepted wagers from Germany since 2003 due to legal concerns, and the website of bookie William Hill also refuses to serve German-based punters.

Ladbrokes spokesman Robin Hutchison said the German stance on online betting is against European Union free trade provisions, and the current row could help clarify the legality of state-run monopolies. “The Bwin situation will force the EU’s hand,” he said.

One Ladbrokes customer told The Business that Ladbrokes was well aware that his bets originated from Germany. “They know where I’m calling from,” said the punter, adding that all his betting transactions are done via a British-based bank.

Gambling is excluded from the Bolkestein directive on free circulation of services in the EU and is also absent from the e-commerce directive drafted in 2000.

French and German government officials claim they need oversight for all forms of gaming to minimise gambling addiction and money laundering as well collect taxes on betting profits.

Netkwesties - magazine over internet en samenleving

Netkwesties - magazine over internet en samenleving

Bwin Vice-Presidents Arrested in France - Softpedia

Bwin Vice-Presidents Arrested in France - Softpedia: "AS Monaco is not only lacking good results inside the French League, but the club is also on the verge of losing its main
investor, Bwin. The company - mainly specialized in sports betting - has been targeted by the French police during the past few weeks and its bosses were arrested this weekend.

Manfred Bodner and Norbert Teufelberger – the vice-presidents of the Austrian company – were arrested earlier last weekend, right in the middle of AS Monaco’s press conference, announced Belga press agency. The French club was just about to announce its new investors, when the police entered the conference room and took the 2 men officials away.

As it seems, several complaints from European clubs & players have been issued towards Bwin. According to media reports in France, PSV Eindhoven, FC Porto, Real Madrid, Raul, Beckam, Zidane and Ronaldo have all accused the Austrian officials of having used their names to promote the company’s on-line image.

Therefore, the parties mentioned above also called Bwin into justice. As far as the Austrians are concerned, they themselves called the French authorities into justice for breaking the human rights and the Europeans laws. For the moment, Bwin is not authorized to function in Germany.
"

France Arrests Two Online Bookmaker Executives

France Arrests Two Online Bookmaker Executives
France has now joined the United States in the pursuit of online gaming companies after their law enforcement authorities took two executives of a prominent company into custody on Friday.

Manfred Bodner and Norbert Teufelberger, the two leaders of Austrian online bookmaker Bwin, were arrested during a press conference unveiling their sponsorship of a soccer team from Monaco. The two were arrested for "organizing illegal bets online" and "advertising online betting" which are against the law in France. Against the law, that is, unless the companies are French in origin.

While the French authorities have said that "online bets are forbidden in France", there are legally accepted companies, French in origin, that are allowed to operate. The French Lottery is allowed to wager online as are two French bookmaking operations, Francaise des Jeux and Pari Mutuel Urbain, which have faced no action and are actually state sponsored by the government. In a pending case in front of the European Union trade organization, France is one of the seven countries that have faced scrutiny over prevention of outside foreign competition in the online gaming industry.

When asked if there would be more arrests of online executives in the future, a French intelligence official said, "If we have evidence, we will look at them." This has helped to cause a fall in the stock prices of many of the online firms that trade on the London Stock Market.

The French arrests follow on the heels of two online executives being arrested in the United States over the past two months. Peter Carruthers, former CEO of BetOnSports, was taken into custody in July and Peter Dicks, former chairman of SportingBet, was arrested earlier this month, both for their companies acceptance of wagers from Americans. The major difference between these arrests is, in Europe, online bookmaking is a regulated and recognized industry, something that was pointed out vehemently by Bwin officials.

In responding to the arrests of Bodner and Teufelberger, a Bwin spokesman stated, "Our operations are based on a European-wide licenses. We will sue the French authorities because all of this is violating European laws. There will be a number of lawsuits. This is really outrageous." It remains to be seen what will occur with this latest round of arrests and PokerNews will continue to keep an eye on this ever-growing battle on the electronic front in the judicial system.

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2006/9...-bookmaker.htm

Fears Prove Unfounded at Casino Affiliate Convention in Vegas

Fears Prove Unfounded at Casino Affiliate Convention in Vegas: "Fears Prove Unfounded at Casino Affiliate Convention in Vegas
By Bradley Vallerius
18 September 2006

'The biggest threat to this industry is not the United States government,' said an obviously annoyed Marc Lesnick, organizer of the fourth annual Casino Affiliate Convention during the opening remarks of his program last week. 'The biggest threat to this industry is the little boys who were afraid to come here today.'

Lesnick was alluding to the fact that several affiliate programs had withdrawn as attendees, sponsors, and exhibitors over fears that U.S. law enforcement officials would raid the event, and his speech was marked by colorful phrasings, such as, 'You're smoking crack if you think Stardust was going to let anything happen.'

Fears of a massive government investigation into online gambling were sparked three weeks ago when Peter Dicks, a British non-executive chairman of juggernaut gambling company Sportingbet, was arrested upon arriving at the JFK airport in New York. Only a month earlier the CEO of a different online gambling company had been arrested at the airport in Dallas. Rumors abounded that a massive investigation into online gambling was underway in the U.S., and many conference-goers at the Stardust Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas feared that they too could be in its scope.

The nervous anticipation of the event was palpable beforehand. Rumors of a possible raid circulated Wednesday morning at the Gambling Portal Webmasters Association conference and at exhibition booth setup for the Casino Affiliate Conference Wednesday evening. One specific rumor that everyone seemed to be aware of was that the U.S. government had issued 400 indictments and planned to exercise some of them at the conference. There was of course no truth to the rumor.

Those who braved the conference were greeted Thursday morning with a sign at the registration desk that read "GUTS" in large bold letters. Lesnick elaborated on this theme in his opening address, telling attendees that they were pioneers who exemplified the resolve of the industry. On a large screen projector he displayed the famous photo of American soldiers planting their flag at Iwo Jima as he said, "That's you guys. That character, that spirit is you guys."

The conference logged about 500 attendees, but the figure is still noticeably below last year's peak of 700.

Nine of the event's 18 main sponsors withdrew from attending, and 21 of the registered 49 exhibitors declined to set up their booths. Representatives from two of these companies are known to have been in attendance, while representatives from a third had just finished setting up their booth when they received an order from higher management to strike it and leave the event.

Lesnick revealed that many individuals in the online gambling industry had been exerting pressure on him to cancel the conference. "The amount of pressure I received internally-- from within the industry-- was tremendous. There was no pressure externally," he said.

Still the show went on, and no raid ever came. In fact, Lesnick interrupted Thursday morning conference sessions to deliver the good news that Governor Pataki of New York had withdrawn a warrant approving Dicks' extradition to Louisiana.

General perceptions of the two-day conference and exhibition are that it was quieter than the previous year and that there was not much traffic or excitement in the expo hall. Yet it was still a success in many ways. A majority of the attendees present at the closing session-- a 90-minute panel in which casual open discussion was encouraged and mugs of beer were widely distributed-- raised their hands to agree that they believe the knowledge and connections they obtained at the conference would increase their revenue in the next few months.

All in all, the show ended on a cheery note. The release of Peter Dicks on Thursday seemed to ease some fears, and spirits seemed lifted even further at sponsored party events. Lesnick also had a surprise to unveil-- he awarded every brave soul in attendance a complimentary pass to his Casino Affiliate Convention in Amsterdam in May 2007.

The annual conference in Amsterdam is the largest online gambling affiliate conference in the world and was host to over 900 attendees in 2006.

SPORTINGBET EXEC'S RELEASE (update) - Real Casinos Discussion Forums

SPORTINGBET EXEC'S RELEASE (update) - Real Casinos Discussion Forums: "Hopes that Louisiana warrant will be quashed on September 28, but what about the other 49?

With ex-Sportingbet chairman (he resigned Thursday) Peter Dicks safely on a 'plane out of America on Friday, details on his surprise release continued to come to light.

Dicks was arrested September 6 as he arrived on US soil to attend board meetings at a major New York company. Apparently a Louisiana warrant about which neither he nor Sportingbet knew was used to deprive him of his liberty for 'gambling on computers' unspecified offences in a small parish in a state that Dicks has not visited in 20 years. After two nights in detention, reason prevailed at a bail hearing and he was released on a relatively low bail with a requirement to remain in New York, surrendering his passport.

A hearing to rule on an application to extradite the British executive to Louisiana was set for last Thursday after he gave notice that he would be vigorously opposing any such transfer.

However, Dicks's U.S. legal team headed by Barry Slotnick were clearly not letting the grass grow under its feet, approaching the New York governor's office on Wednesday with a formal request that Governor George Pataki withdraw a warrant that he had signed allowing Dicks' extradition to Louisiana.

Slotnick has subsequently revealed that he and h"

bwin.ag

bwin.ag: "Whilst announcing the cooperation with the AS Monaco, Mr. Manfred Bodner and Mr. Norbert Teufelberger, Co Chief Executive Officers of bwin International Entertainment AG, were detained for questioning by French Authorities because of alleged violation of French gaming laws this afternoon, Friday 15th of September 2006.

A hearing is scheduled before a court in Nice for tomorrow morning.

Further information will be issued in due course.


Further information

Press:
Karin Klein, Corporate Communications
bwin Interactive Entertainment AG
Börsegasse 11, 1010 Vienna, Austria
Tel.: +43 (0)50 858-2200
E-mail: press@bwin.com
www.bwin.ag


Investors:
Konrad Sveceny, Investor Relations
bwin Interactive Entertainment AG
Börsegasse 11, 1010 Vienna, Austria
Tel.: +43 (0)50 858-2208
E-mail: investorrelations@bwin.ag
www.bwin.ag"

Online gambling: BetandWin executives detained in France

Online gambling: BetandWin executives detained in France

Casino Belge 2006

Anonyme mais très rentable, le casino en ligne fait des envieux du côté des bonnes vieilles salles de jeu. Il ne semble cependant pas menacer leur survie... pour l’instant.

Depuis ce jeudi 19 janvier, les fanas bruxellois de la roulette, les aficionados du black-jack, les accros de la machine à sous peuvent assouvir leur passion du jeu dans le cadre prestigieux de la salle de la Madeleine. Le battage médiatique qui entoure l’ouverture du casino de Bruxelles met la mystérieuse industrie du jeu sous les feux des projecteurs. Chaque année, elle réalise un chiffre d’affaires de € 1,6 milliard et donne du travail à 15.000 personnes. Les casinos sont loin de se tailler la part du lion de ce secteur. L’activité ne génère que € 54 millions par an. Ces dernières années, les affaires ont un peu faibli, notamment parce que la réglementation qui régit ces temples de la tentation est très stricte.

Les jeux d’argent gardent cependant la faveur des Belges. La démocratisation de l’Internet à large bande a provoqué l’émergence du jeu en ligne. Tant et si bien que l’on estime qu’environ 90.000 Belges sont aujourd’hui adeptes de cette nouvelle façon de jouer. En 5 ans, ce chiffre aurait quintuplé. Le marché belge du jeu en ligne (casino, loto, pronostics de football) pèse actuellement € 27 millions.

Faible concurrence

Une concurrence pour les casinos en dur ? «Pas tout à fait», répond Thibaut Verbiest, avocat spécialisé dans le domaine des nouvelles technologies au cabinet ULYS. «Le casino en ligne n’est pas comparable à son modèle en briques. Il s’agit uniquement d’un logiciel. Les entrepreneurs qui se sont lancés dans ce segment sont d’ailleurs des spécialistes des technologies de l’information, plus que du casino». Et la procédure d’enregistrement des joueurs en ligne est quasi-anonyme ; le contrôle de l’identité et celui de l’âge sont loin d’être infaillibles. La rigueur est plus de mise dans les casinos réels. Disponibles 24 heures sur 24, les sites Internet permettent aux cyberjoueurs de régler leur note par carte de crédit. Alertées par ce phénomène peu contrôlable, certaines banques (dont la CitiBank) interdisent pourtant cette pratique.

Il reste difficile de contrôler le jeu virtuel. Contrairement aux casinos, les sites web n’empêchent pas les personnes souffrant d’une dépendance pathologique au jeu de s’inscrire et de miser des sommes. «Les accros du casino sur Internet ne recherchent ni le glamour ni l’ambiance survoltée des salles de jeux réelles, poursuit Thibault Verbiest. Le joueur en ligne ressent plutôt une excitation similaire à celle des jeux vidéo. Même si le phénomène prend encore de l’ampleur, la concurrence sera à mon sens marginale face aux casinos réels.»

Cela ne veut pas dire que les opérateurs classiques du jeu ne lorgnent pas avec envie du côté de l’Internet. «On peut même dire qu’ils sont agacés par le succès phénoménal du casino en ligne. C’est que les investissements des opérateurs virtuels sont entre 9 et 20 fois moins élevés que pour les casinos en dur. Leurs ratios de rentabilité sont sidérants», reprend Thibault Verbiest.

Les rares acteurs de l’industrie du casino en ligne qui ont emprunté la voie de la transparence comme le britannique PartyGaming - tout de même basé à... Gibraltar - touchent le jackpot. Coté en Bourse, valant 10 fois plus que le groupe français Partouche qui détient 100 casinos réels, PartyGaming contrôle 50 % du marché du poker en ligne. Il vient de s’attaquer avec succès au black-jack. Ayant bâti sa réputation sur une certaine fiabilité et un marketing efficace, il fait aujourd’hui figure de modèle de réussite dans le monde du jeu : son rythme de croissance est 10 fois supérieur à celui d’un opérateur classique.

Les bons vieux casinos ne sont pas menacés pour autant. Même s’il grandit à la vitesse grand V, le casino en ligne ne représente que 4 % à 6 % du marché mondial du jeu, qui pèserait € 250 milliards dans le monde, soit l’équivalent du PIB belge.

(source : trends.be/Pierre-Yves Warnotte)

Casino Affiliate Convention (CAC) Sponsors Cancelling Appearances

Casino Affiliate Convention (CAC) Sponsors Cancelling Appearances