Monthly Archives: June 2015

Golden Nugget adds more KGM/Spin Games; NetEnt inks Caesars Interactive NJ deal

Online gambling operators in New Jersey’s regulated market have bolstered their offering for both desktop and mobile play.

Last September, software developers KGM Gaming and Spin Games struck a games content deal with Atlantic City casino Golden Nugget’s online casino site, which ranked second on the state’s most recent monthly online revenue chart. This week, the pair of developers announced the release of 10 new HTML5 games on GoldenNugget.com.

The announcement came after the successful completion of the integration of KGM’s ROC remote gaming server into the Bally RGS. The Golden Nugget site now features titles such as 25 Diamonds, Triple Treasures and a suite of video poker games.

Spin Games president Kent Young celebrated the KGM/Spin partnership’s “steadily progressing and expanding” footprint in New Jersey, where it is making its mark as a “proven content provider” with the ability to integrate with multiple platforms. In addition to the Nugget site, KGM/Spin have struck New Jersey deals with Betfair and Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE).

Brian Hastings Allegedly Used VPN To Play On PokerStars In America

  Brian Hastings, the high-stakes US poker pro who took down two WSOP bracelets this month, has allegedly been playing on PokerStars in the US. Hastings is accused of playing on an account under the name “NoelHayes” (an actual living player, from Ireland), with several big-name online pros verifying that Hastings did indeed play on ‘Stars. […]

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UK gambling report offers last snapshot of pre-point-of-consumption tax market

UK-licensed online gambling operators accounted for 19% of the UK market’s overall gambling revenue prior to last December’s introduction of the 15% online point of consumption tax (POCT).

Figures released on Thursday by the UK Gambling Commission covering the 12 months ending September 2014 include only those operators holding a UKGC-issued license, the number of which has dramatically increased since the UK introduced its new online regime on November 1. The UKGC estimates that UK-licensed operators represented only around 15% of the total online market during the period covered in the report.

Excluding the National Lottery, the UK’s total gambling market was worth £7.1b during the reporting period, up 5% from the previous report covering the 12 months ending March 2014. Land-based betting claimed 46% of this pie, followed by online betting (19%), casinos (16%), bingo (9%), arcades (5%) and large society lotteries (5%). All sectors were up save for bingo and arcades. Fixed-odds betting terminals in betting shops reported GGY up 3% to £1.62b.

The report says gross gambling yield (GGY) by UK-licensed online operators rose 27% to £1.35b. That’s more than twice the sum reported in the 12 months ending May 2011. The 19% market share is up three points from the UKGC’s prior report, the single largest gain of any UK gambling sector.

Gran wins A 4m on first ever lottery lucky dip – and splashes out on new pair of slippers

Gran-of-eleven Jane Lewis decided to treat herself to a new pair of 18 M&S slippers as news sunk in that she had become an overnight millionaire A gran who scooped over 4 million on her first ever lottery lucky dip has decided to treat herself with her new-found riches treated herself – to a 18 pair of M&S slippers. Gran-of-eleven Jane Lewis became an overnight multi-millionaire last week and as news of the big win sunk in, she caught the bus the to spoil herself with a pair of her favourite footwear.

Bryan Micon Plea Deal Could Mean Probation and $25K Fine Only for Former Seals with Clubs Chairman

Many might have wondered why Bryan Micon, whose Bitcoin-only poker site Seals with Clubs (SwC) had been under legal scrutiny along with the man himself, would voluntarily return to the US this week to face the court on his sole legal charge. The answer came yesterday, as an extremely lenient sentence now hovers over the […]

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Rep. Joe Barton Makes Another Push for US Online Poker Freedom

Online poker players in the US received a mini-boost this week courtesy of Texan Republican and House of Representatives member, Joe Barton. The pro-online poker politician has long been an advocate of the game and has fought to have a number of bills accepted by his peers over the last few years. Unfortunately, as it […]

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PokerStars.it adds slots content; Italian gaming reforms bog down

Amaya Gaming’s PokerStars brand has livened up its Italian-facing site with the addition of new slots content.

PokerStars.it launched blackjack and roulette games last month and has now expanded its casino options to include slots play. Stars’ new slots titles include content developed in-house as well as games provided by third-party providers such as Leander Games and Quickspin.

Stars’ Italian country manager Marco Trucco told eGaming Review that May’s introduction of table games hadn’t resulted in any “significant negative impact” to the site’s core poker business. Trucco offered no timeline on when PokerStars.it might follow the lead of its Spanish counterpart and add sports betting to the product mix, saying only that a sports launch would depend on the product being ready and regulators giving their okay.

Italian news agency AGIMEG recently claimed that Stars had captured over three-quarters of the Italian market’s tournament poker revenue. Stars’ tournament take is roughly ten times higher than second-ranked Lottomatica and Stars’ share of Italy’s cash-games market is believed to be only slightly less dominant at 54%. But the overall online poker pie is shrinking, falling 20% last year, according to a Milan Polytechnic report.

Jamaican lottery scammer sentenced, more arrests expected

The first Jamaican citizen extradited to the U.S. to face lottery fraud charges was sentenced Friday morning in federal court. Damion Bryan Barrett helped run a sweepstake scam that used middlemen in South Florida to collect cash from victims all over the U.S. He tricked seniors into believing they had won millions of dollars and needed to pay advance fees to claim their winnings.

Mayweather v. Pacquiao, blackjack push Nevada gaming revenue over $1b in May

Nevada casino gaming revenue topped the $1b mark in May, as customers flooded Las Vegas for the boxing tilt between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao and the Rock In Rio music festival.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board reported May’s statewide casino gaming revenue hit $$1.003b, up 3.3% from the same month last year. Revenue on the Las Vegas Strip rose 1.4% to $601.2m. For Nevada’s fiscal year to date, which concludes at the end of June, gaming revenue is down 1%.

For a change, Nevada’s gains came despite a significant decline in baccarat winnings. Baccarat revenue was down 36.4% to $109.8m on a hold of 11.5% as handle fell 7.4% year-on-year. It should be noted that May 2014’s $172m baccarat win and 16.5% win rate was something of an outlier.

Blackjack was the month’s top table game earner, rising 27.4% to $122.7m. Craps was well back at $43.7m (+33.8%) while roulette earned $33.1m (+0.6%). The rest of the table tallies are as follows: three-card poker ($13.3m, +3.3%), mini-baccarat ($9.8m, +1.1%), pai gow poker ($8.9m, +9.9%), let it ride ($3.4m, +4.9%), keno ($2.3m, -5.9%), bingo ($1.6m, +67%) and ‘other’ games contributed $16m (+20.6%).

WSOP Day 31: Mike Gorodinsky Takes Poker Players Championship Gold

Mike Gorodinsky had come close to winning a bracelet twice this year at the World Series of Poker, first losing to Phil Hellmuth heads up in the $10,000 Razz Championship, then taking third last week in the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event. But on Thursday night, Gorodinsky broke through in the one event that […]

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