“As of 2010, Estonians will be legally authorised to play only on nation-based gaming platforms [such as] the one set up by Olympic Casino group and developed by one of the most famous software companies of the industry, Playtech,” the publication disclosed.

The report quotes Playtech CEO Mor Weizer as saying: “We are truly glad of this opportunity to start our partnership with Olympic as the leading casino entertainment provider in Central and Eastern Europe.”

Weizer added that the chosen strategy of Playtech to concentrate its attention on well regulated markets and provide the premium technological solutions to the companies operating on those markets has once again proved successful in Estonia, where it is believed that Playtech has development interests.

International gambling operators are increasingly targeting Estonia with advertising campaigns, and there are rumours of impressive investments already planned for the whole Baltic region, the Estonian Free Press claims.

Kosowski’s victory will be screened on Fox network television at 5pm on the 27th December, providing some great holiday entertainment.

Speaking to the New York Post after his triumph, said he and his wife still found it hard to believe. “We’re still on an emotional high every day. Every day I wonder, ‘Am I living a dream,’” he said.

Kosowski said he was able to live out a real life David vs. Goliath story and beat pro Negreanu by using a combination of good cards and the ability to read people, which he learned on the police force.

“I said this guy’s a pro, if he gets a chance to read me he’s going to pick me off,” he said. “So, being a detective sergeant, I knew I couldn’t let that happen.

“Playing against a pro is difficult,” he added. “Because you know he knows the game inside and out. You can’t take as many risks as you would against some guy in Atlantic City.”

Kosowski, who lives on Staten Island, retired in 2004 and took up poker to stave off boredom after watching a televised match involving Negreanu. He joined some 16 000 applicants for the PokerStars.net spectacular and finished in 4th place, entitling him to submit a video to the show’s producers explaining why he would make a good TV contestant.

He was successful and was flown with other finalists to Los Angeles where the action took place and Fox taped the game for later screening.

The ex-detective won two consecutive 4-person qualifier games and then faced Negreanu. Kosowski had already done his homework, reading a book written by Negreanu and studying his television performances to figure out his ‘tell’.

“The only read I picked up on him was . . . you knew he didn’t have the best hand because he puts his hand behind the back of his head.”

The lucky and talented poker fan plans to pay off his mortgage and donate some money to charity.

Betfair’s Right2Bet campaign to open up European gambling markets is supporting the Stanleybet initiative by re-publishing its material.
Stanleybet’s first myth under the microscope is Problem Gambling in Europe, a topic often misused by state-owned gambling monopolies to exclude other nations from their markets on grounds that state regulated monopolies can better protect gamblers.

The Stanleybet examination goes so far as to suggest that a majority of European governments base gambling policy on myths and not facts in this area, and that there has been a serious lack of professional and credible research into problem gambling prevalence and where it can most be found.

The result is that decisions about gambling policy are informed by little or no quality data, and new research highlights the need for a more evidence-based approach to gambling policy formulation.

Stanleybet points to recent news stories regarding research by a British university that has included a country-by-country analysis of all existing evidence about the prevalence of gambling and problem gambling in 31 countries across Europe… and only one third have carried out rigorous research into gambling and problem gambling.

The report discusses the countries involved and rates of gambling, and makes informative and interesting reading on an important industry subject.

In the last three weeks, all player balances have been transferred to Bingogala, a site is owned by Bingo Entertainment which has an 11 year reputation in the United States for operating a network of gambling sites such as Bingoplex.

Apparently the unknown Swedish group that purchased the software intends to build a European online casinos operation.

Reports of problems at Interactive Playnet surfaced mid-November when the Cyprus-based company advised players that it had been forced by processor problems to cease taking deposits and would have to restrict bingo pots.

“Due to the size of the funds and the seriousness of how this affects us operationally, we are forced to suspend online bingo operations,” a spokesperson for Interactive Playnet said.

“This is very unfortunate and totally beyond our control. We feel it would be wrong for us to continue at this time without the firm guarantee of payment.

“We have not shut down the network at the moment, however, we have suspended the deposit page and cut bingo pots.”

But it appears that the real reason was the impending sale of the software to the Swedish purchaser, and the need to find a new home for the network’s American players.

The new owners of the software had grave legal concerns in continuing the practice of accepting American depositors. Due to the heavy dependency upon USA traffic, the withdrawal of the software meant the closure of the network was on sudden, but unavoidable notice.

This week, Nigel Simmons, chief operating officer of Interactive Playnet, said: “The American market is currently unpredictable and turbulent in nature. With the added complicated legal issues surrounding this area of online gaming, it is unfortunate, but wholly understandable, that the new software operators do not wish to continue accepting American depositors.

“The new software owners are well respected internationally. They have built a reputation upon delivering high quality software gaming solutions to a predominantly European based market. In light of this, we are grateful to Bingo Entertainment for stepping in and welcoming all Interactive Playnet Network player accounts to their networks.”
Lars Gundersen, CTO, of Interactive Playnet commented: “We have thoroughly enjoyed our experience in the industry and have enjoyed providing an unrivalled gaming platform to our playing community. We are sad to say goodbye to our loyal roomies and staff, but felt the necessity to exit the USA market at this time.”

Early last (November) month, Cellectivity inked a deal with Plus-Five for mobile and web games under its Bet2Go brand, allowing Bet2Go to offer users a range of poker, bingo, casino games to supplement its sportsbetting service.

In terms of the agreement, Cellectivity was to launch a real-cash multi-player mobile poker service alongside casino and roulette games for several of the UK’s top mobile networks as soon as practicable.

“We have been planning to expand the Bet2Go brand, which is now firmly established in the UK, for a long time now and to finally be in a position to do so is very exciting indeed,” said chief exec Marcel Puyk at the time.

“Bet2Go customers will no longer have to register with multiple suppliers to get the full gaming experience as they can now get everything direct from Bet2Go.

“The launch of a new mobile poker application for real-money play is particularly exciting as there is no comparable service operating at this time.”

“We are delighted to be working together with AliQuantum to offer these services and expect to announce further deals in the future.“

The existing Bet2Go sportsbetting application allows punters to compare prices and place bets across a range of the UK’s leading bookmakers including Ladbrokes, Blue Square, Paddy Power, SkyBet, BoyleSports, Victor Chandler, William Hill and SportingBet, and customers are able to place bets on a combination of outcomes since the launch of the application’s multiple betting service in June.

“The relationship between Cellectivity and Plus-Five/AliQuantum will enable us to further expand our service with an increase in ‘white-labelling’,” said Andy Jones, CEO for AliQuantum.

“This creates a greater potential for not only Bet2Go to grow to a much wider and more diverse audience but also to offer these services to the online gambling market and enable any online casino or bookmaker to add a mobile channel effectively, quickly and economically in order to benefit from the expected growth in mobile wagering.”

The casino games will be carried on the iPhone product early in the new year.

“With this achievement, we shall continue to develop of our company; we believe that the range of online gambling products and platforms are critical to success, but more importantly, we have to maintain our service standards to world-class standards,” said Jason Chan, the CEO of Entertasia, adding that the company’s aim is to establish an excellent global telecommunication network in order to widen the international market and to fulfill diverse demands from world-wide operators.

“We believe that the achievement of this milestone in our development as a business will further enhance our position [in the market],” he said.

Based in Macau, and founded in 2005 Entertasia is a comprehensive gaming software company that offers a variety of software for both land-based and Internet gaming operators. Its flagship product is live dealer gambling over the Internet.

Unfortunately for the man the whole poker sector is talking about, the break did little to change his luck, and the Swede remained in the red after having a go on several tables involved in six-max $50/$100 Pot-Limit Omaha and heads up $100/$200 NLHE action against the likes of Rafi ‘howisitfeelike’ Amit that saw him go down a further $90 000.

Then he started a $200/$400 PLO session head to head with Brian Hastings, quickly going down another $256 000 but despite this challenging Hastings to up to 300/600, a sally that Hastings was happy to meet. Rafi Amit tried to crash the game about 2 hours in and levels were switched again before the duo ended up in real nosebleed action on the $500/1 000 tables.

When we went to press Isildur1 was down well over $300 000 to Hastings, and by late evening the duo had again switched to 300/600 NLHE, a game where Isildur1 is reported to be particularly strong.

Elsewhere on the site, MarketPulse reported that Tom Dwan had better luck, mainly on the 7-Game tables, and finally left the session up $484 744 on the night.

Brit Internet pro Brian Townsend, who during the week has hammered Isildur1 repeatedly, left the Swede alone but still managed to end the night over $254 747 in the black ink, bringing his profit for the year so far to almost $4.5 million in a style of play that may be unspectacular but has definitely been successful.

Update: Latest MarketPulse numbers show that Hastings ended his night against Isildur1 in profit to the tune of $264 044, with Isidur in the red over the night at -$594 454 – another serious beating.

With this week’s team draws for the World Cup next year in South Africa, the interest reached even higher levels, and experts say that illegal bookies are already preparing to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars on football’s biggest spectacular.

Every year a large percentage online gambling of the estimated $10 billion made by illegal gaming syndicates comes from bets on international football matches, and in World Cup years this amount is bound to escalate. And despite bans and police action, football bookies, in particular, have continued to flourish by offering betting odds online, apparently shrugging off the possible five years in prison and a fine of up to 200 000 ringgit ($57 150) which convicted illegal bookies face.

“In the old days, when everything was manual and they used papers and pens it was much easier to detect, but now everything is online, so it gets more challenging,” an officer from the triads, betting and vice department at the national Bukit Aman police headquarters told the German Press Agency dpa.

The officer, who leads at least three raids on gambling and betting dens every month, said the number of betting syndicates and amounts involved have been increasing in recent years. The most popular matches involve games in the English and Spanish leagues and, of course, the World Cup, where the last edition in 2006 saw hundreds of millions of dollars laid down by punters.

The officer warned that police have plans to step up their enforcement raids leading up to the World Cup finals in June 2010. He agreed that Malaysia was one of the main hubs for illegal sports betting, but said it was a problem for other Asian nations as well with a high population of ethnic Chinese, who make up the bulk of the bookies and customers.

Malaysian Chinese triad gangs have long been linked to gambling syndicates and attempts to fix football matches in Britain.

The news agency reports that in the late 1990s, Malaysian criminals plotted to disrupt games in the English premiership by sabotaging floodlights at football grounds in order to score under betting rules that say if a game is abandoned after passing half time, certain bets have to be paid. Malaysian gangs have also been implicated in attempts to bribe players in the English premiership to fix games.

“It’s a growing problem, not only in Malaysia, but in countries like Hong Kong and Singapore as well,” the officer told dpa. “A lot of these syndicates seem to be operating from Malaysia but they always have international links, so the police work very closely with our counterparts in other countries.”

One gambler probably summed up the average man-in-the-street’s reaction to the bans: “Placing a bet is so convenient and easy that you sometimes forget it’s illegal,” he said.

Hafiz Malik (62) pleaded guilty to fraud and theft for keeping a winning US$ 5.4 million lottery ticket for himself when the real winners brought it in to be validated by casino gambling.

Malik stole the ticket in June 2004 and cashed it in about six months later, but he was finally brought to book by history when the real winners checked the lottery historical records online to confirm whether they needed to change their lucky numbers.

In subsequent investigations, the police seized Malik’s assets, including his home, bank account, investment account and three vehicles.

Associated Press reports that the four real winners, co-workers at a school board, realised something was amiss after checking the lottery website a year after the draw.

“Two of them were at a party and got talking about their lottery misfortunes and they said ‘You know these darn numbers have never been lucky for us, I wonder if they ever won historically’,” Greg Harris, their lawyer, related.

“They punched in their numbers, and lo and behold they looked and said ‘My God, we won. Not only did we win but we won the jackpot about a year ago’”.

Harris said they at first suspected that somebody in their group had received the money and had not shared it. Harris said accusations flew for months. They even hired a private investigator to look into one of the group members.

“You can imagine. One of the group members is in charge of ensuring the tickets are bought on a routine basis and they use the same numbers all the time, and so suspicions started arising,” Harris said.

“Eventually they pieced together the puzzle and realised it was the retailer that defrauded them.”

They eventually got their cheque, in addition to US$741 000 in interest they would have earned had the ticket not been stolen.

Harris said his clients are looking forward to Malik’s sentencing on March 16 next year.

The case resurrects news stories in 2007 where Ontario’s ombudsman accused the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp of ignoring alleged fraud by retailers who were winning too many prizes. At least four other store owners or their employees came under investigation in Ontario for similar accusations.

Several steps have been taken to address the problem, including installing self-serve ticket checkers in Ontario and a rule that players have to sign their lottery tickets before cashing them in.

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