William Hill goes all Italian

According to the Italian state betting agency AAMS, British based gambling company the UKs number 1 Bookies, William Hill were among several bookmakers to be awarded licences for sports and horse betting over the Internet and the phone in Italy along with Ladbrokes.

The two companies also won new licences for horseracing and sports betting at betting centres throughout Italiy, as well as franchises in new venues such as cafes, bars, and newsagents.

Ladbrokes also said that it would continue to acquire new licences in Italy. 'Ladbrokes' strategy is to establish an Italian retail estate through both new licences awarded in the tender process and the acquisition of existing centres.

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Empire Poker Sells Up

Noam Lanir, an online poker and gambling entrepreneur and marketing expert from Israel has sold his remaining stake in Empire Online to Party Gaming for around GBP 21 million, according to a online news souce.
Mr Lanir is pulling out of the online gambling business altogether, after revealing that he will use his GBP160 million revenues from the sale of Empire, to invest in real estate.
The deal with PartyGaming is expected to be finalised by the end of the week.

Some gaming experts interpreted the move as a signal that the two remaining Israeli online gambling companies traded on the LSE, 888.com and Playtech, may be making similar moves following the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

Empire was worth $928 million when first traded on the LSE and before the US gambling ban, but its shares have fallen a drastically 80 percent in recent months.

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PartyGaming on the Up

It was only 2 months ago, when the title heading said, "PartyGaming on the Rocks" but now it seems like business is on the uo for troubled online operator PartyGaming.
As one of the leading online poker rooms, PartyPoker was hit and hit hard over the UIGEA back in October 2006, So hard that they were forced by stock market rules to pull out of the US market.
This forsed move was devastating for PartyGaming and drastically reduced revenues, But despairing PartyGaming shareholders had some good news today, when PartyGaming released a statement saying that poker revenues have significantly increased since the worst post-UIGEA days, At their lowest, daily poker revenues dropped over 50% to under USD640,000, But in less than two months average daily revenues have already risen by 12% to USD721,000, proving that PartyGaming marketing and new business acquisitions are paying dividends.

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BSkyB to buy up 365 Media

BSkyB is reportedly in advanced talks with online casino and bookmakers, 365 Media over a possiable GBP94 million takeover, as the satellite broadcaster looks to broaden its portfolio.

BSkyB, which is 39.1 percent owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times, is prepared to offer 68p a share which equates to a premium of just 4p to last night’s share price, but a 22.5 percent premium to the 55½p the stock was trading at when news of takeover approaches first emerged in October.

The 365 Media Group, which was used to be called ukbetting, operates other websites, including the Ritz Club Casino and football365, and reaches a population of over 9 million web users a month.

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The Begining of the End for Gibraltat

Can this be the begining for the end for online casinos based on Gibraltar, only just after announcing its offical withdrawal from the US market, Bowmans International has announced it will be closing its Gibraltar's office and making redundancies at its headquarters in Mauritius.

Bowmans had confirmed at the end of November that all of its US business was transferred to Bodog.com, and started to refocused its strategic development towards Canada, Europe and Asia.
However, Bowmans have struggled to find a replacement to their existing poker and casino software providers ever since the approval by the US Congress of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act on September 30.

This is another blow for the gaming sector of Gibraltar, when 888.com made 140 staff redundant the other week, what will the future hold for the gambling sector in Gibraltar!
it doesn't look good from my eyes

Israeli Police close in on online Casinos

Legality of internet gambling in Israel is causing heated legal debate between the police and AG, the Israeli state run lottery and legal advisers to online gambling operators with in Israel.

Israel appeared to be cracking down on online gambling this week when the Haaretz publication claimed that operators and credit card processors had been warned by Israeli police that their activities were illegal.
It is reported that Major General Yohanan Danino, head of the Police Investigations and Intelligence Unit, had notified Interlogic, which operates the Play 65 internet site, that both the police and the attorney general consider the operation of a gambling site for backgammon games a criminal offence.

This situation is similar to the US Department of Justice’s activities against BetOnSports and Sportingbet back in sunner 2006.
It is reported that the Israeli police have issued written notices to credit companies, warning them against there continued handling of money deposits for online gambling.

Ladbrokes set to buy 888

The news on the wires is that the top UK Bookmakers, Ladbrokes is proposed a GBP490 million takeover bid for the 888 online casino group, this news comes after more than a month of talks between the two firms.
Casino888 has also seen interest from rivals PartyGaming and William Hill Casino, The 888 owners, Aaron and Avi Shaked and Shay and Ron Ben-Yitzhak still own about two-thirds the shares thought to be worth over GBP300m.
Ladbrokes shows there interest to buy 888 following the gambling collapse in the USA because of the new Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, that banned online gambling.

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Intercasino 10th year

The multi award winning InterCasino is celebrating its tenth birthday this week, it was back in 1996 when InterCasino first opened its virtual Casino doors to gamblers, long before the internet became the norm in peoples homes in the western world and they can looking back on a very successful ten years in the online casino business.
So its ten years old and Intercasino is still going strong and they have firmly established themselves as one of the top online casinos worldwide.
Five times Intercasino was voted the best online casino by Online Gambling Magazine from 2001 to 2005, a true must have casino downloads for any online gambler.

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David Guest is Out

The bookies favorite to win I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here is out,David Guest was was voted out from the hit TV show that's hosted by Ant and Dec, we think David was by far the most entertaining celebrity on the show, It just goes to show that you can not judge the UK voting public
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