However, based on the new allocation scheme, Haidian District will be able to receive 94 additional licences, the largest increase in the number of recreation centres for a district or county. This will bring the total number of recreation centres in Haidian District to 105, again the highest figure for any district or county.

The Bureau of Culture said the recreation centres will be classified at different levels and governed by a newly-established rating system.

GERMANY

Regulatory events and marketing agency Awedacity, Gaming Laboratories International and law firm Melchers hosted a symposium in Frankfurt on the regulation of Internet gaming in both Germany and the rest of Europe. Speakers included regulators from seven jurisdictions, covering issues such as taxation, social responsibility and technical aspects of regulation. “This event was designed to provide unbiased opinions on the effective regulation of Internet gaming to German policy-makers,” said Phil Barow, managing director of GLI Europe.

GREECE

Greece’s government is reconsidering its proposed legislation to liberalise gaming, after members of parliament said it could lead to too much gambling. The government wants to raise around €700m from gaming licences and royalties this year to support its ailing economy. “We should not go towards full deregulation of gaming and gambling,” MP Dimitris Papoutsis told Reuters. “There were objections that Greece would become a vast casino,” another MP said.

RUSSIA

North Korea’s embassy in Moscow is housing an illegal casino, according to a report in Russian newspaper Izvestia. It said that a building alongside the main embassy premises has been rented out to the operator of a casino with 14 tables and 30 slots across three storeys. A similar illegal operation has also reportedly been running at the embassy of Belarus.

TAIWAN

Taiwan’s Ministry of Transportation and Communications has completed a draft law for the establishment of casinos. Thirty-year licences will be granted

Casinos will not be permitted to to install ATMs; players will be allowed to set a stop-loss level for their gambling; and both family members and creditors of gambling addicts will be able to apply for gaming bans on those individuals. Not only those under-age, but also public officials and individuals on state financial benefit will be forbidden to enter the casinos.

It is expected that Taiwan’s gambling tax rate will be in the five-to-15-percent bracket, as in Singapore and much lower than in Macao.

UK

The Gambling Commission has reminded the amusements and gaming sector that licensed bingo premises must offer bingo as their primary gambling activity.

It says it is concerned by former arcade operators now offering gaming machines as the primary gambling activity on premises licensed for bingo.

Director of strategy, research and analysis Matthew Hill said: “You cannot expect to use a bingo licence to run a business that isn’t bingo just to take advantage of the gaming machines entitlement.”

The Gambling Commission has also used its 2005 Gambling Act powers to void bets for the first time, following an investigation into more than £16,000 staked by employees of Virgin Media on The X Factor. “The investigation established that individuals employed by phone-line operator Virgin Media were misusing their access to Virgin’s data on voting patterns to place unfair bets on which contestants would be eliminated from The X Factor,” said the Commission, adding that “there is no evidence that the integrity of the public voting or the TV shows involved were compromised”.

U.S.

Fear, uncertainty and doubt were surging through the online poker world as we went to press, following the U.S. government’s sensational filing of bank fraud and illegal-gambling charges against personnel from three of the biggest operators.

Eleven executives from Absolute Poker, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars – all of which are based overseas but, until this crackdown, allowed American residents to play on their sites – were charged in New York City and three of them arrested before being released on bail.

The government also issued restraining orders against more than 75 bank accounts in 14 separate countries used by the operators, and said it would seek $3bn in penalties and forfeited funds.

“As charged, these defendants concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits,” said prosecutor Preet Bharara. “Moreover, in their zeal to circumvent the gambling law, the defendants also engaged in massive money laundering and bank fraud.”

The prosecutions highlight the anomalous legal status of Internet poker in the U.S. after the 2006 passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Although there is not a clear-cut ban at the federal level on online gambling as such, UIGEA makes it effectively impossible for operators to legally bank their takings or conduct other financial transactions with players.

Thus, prosecutors say, the three companies had to abuse loopholes in the banking system, and it is this alleged chicanery rather than the actual operation of poker games that has landed them in court.

For example, according to the prosecutors, gaming payments were disguised as transactions with online merchants, and the SunFirst bank was induced to illegally process gambling transactions with the promise of a $10m investment from poker entrepreneurs as well as a $20,000 payment to a bank executive.

As we went to press, all three operators had closed their doors to U.S. gamblers, although they emphasised that money held by American residents in player accounts would be returned. Negotiations with the authorities over the practicalities were continuing, and it seemed likely that the three firms would continue to operate as normal for non-American players. All are based outside of the U.S. – Full Tilt in Ireland, PokerStars in the Isle of Man, and Absolute Poker in Costa Rica.

It is expected that the companies will defend themselves in part by arguing that poker is a game of skill, not chance, and is therefore not covered by gambling laws.

Separately, in Nevada, legislators have rejected a proposed change to casino rules that would have allowed gambling to take place in the venues’ hotel bedrooms, after regulators warned that it would be impossible to police under-age participation. They also introduced a new rule specifying that winnings from ticket-issuing slot machines will, if uncollected within 30 days, be split between the state and the operator.

The state will take 75 percent.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---