Monthly Archives: May 2017

Vietnam busts online betting ring, seizes 1.5 tons of gaming gear

Vietnamese authorities have arrested 10 individuals after breaking up a major online gambling ring.

On Monday, local media reported that police in Thanh Hoa province had detained 10 individuals connected to an illegal online football betting ring. Based on data from some of the seized computers, the ring is believed to have handled wagers worth VND 1.4t (US $62m) since the start of this year alone.

Police have yet to confirm whether the ring was associated with any well-known international online gambling operators. Vietnam is preparing to introduce its own system for legal betting on international football matches but continues to struggle to combat international gambling sites who cater to the needs of Vietnamese punters.

The Tuoi Tre news outlet recently profiled Vietnamese gamblers’ growing interest in online cockfighting sites. Punters congregate in local establishments to view the sites, which beam signals from cockfighting dens in Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and other Asia-Pacific jurisdictions.

Philippines-licensed gambling sites face new casino games tax

Philippines-licensed online gambling operators are facing a change in their online casino tax obligations.

When the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) initially announced its new Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) licensing regime last year, it was accompanied by a flat tax system for online casino products, which PAGCOR said would likely hold sway until the regulator had a better sense of the scope of its online market.

Under the initial plan, POGO licensees were to pay US $10k per month for each live dealer casino table they operated, while random number generated (RNG) games would be charged at a monthly rate of $5k per game for the first 100 games, and $2k per month for each game in excess of the first 100.

Under a revised scheme announced on May 25, POGO licensees will continue to pay $10k per month for each live table. But RNG games will now be charged 2% of the gross gaming revenue they produce each month. POGO licensees will be required to submit declaration forms indicating their GGR from RNG games on the first day of each month. PAGCOR said the change will take effect on June 1, 2017.

CASEXE became an official sponsor of RGW 2017

Developer of iGaming software CASEXE became an official sponsor of one of the major specialized events of the industry – Russian Gaming Week 2017 held in Moscow on June 7-8.

In terms of RGW, CASEXE is going to present its products at the exposition stand В1. At the same event the representatives of the company are going to organize a draw for prizes including a discount on development of an individual project. You may check the details of this special offer with the managers of the company right at the stand.

Note, please: anyone willing to set an appointment with representatives of CASEXE has the possibility to do it by visiting our official webpage and clicking the necessary button.

The post CASEXE became an official sponsor of RGW 2017 appeared first on CalvinAyre.com.

Prague Gaming Summit – Early Bird Rate extended until June 2 and round table session planned for up to 25 delegates

Monday  – 28th  of May, 2017 – Prague – The organizers of Prague Gaming Summit are pleased to announce that they have extended the Early Bird Rate which includes a 50% discount on the regular price, until the 2nd of June.

The inaugural Prague Gaming Summit will be held on the 8th of June at Andel’s by Vienna House Prague and promises to be a crown event for the industry in the Czech Republic.

The recent news is completed with the announcement of a round table session with the Czech regulators that will be present at the event.

For the inaugural edition of the Prague Gaming Summit, the organizers have put together a great opportunity for 25 delegates to attend an exclusive session with the regulators in order to discuss burning questions about the Czech Republic regulatory framework.

SlotsRoom relaunches with new ux design

Slotsroom.com has relaunched and features a fresh design that’s focused around the user experience first. The website has been created by adventures.io which created the design and customized backend. Every page was carefully crafted and designed in Sketch which included all page elements and mobile version. The end result is a slots portal has a unique way of listing the slots and casinos with minimal information to make it easier to navigate.

“Working on slotsroom.com was a fun but challenging project. As the designer, the biggest challenge was finding a balance between having an innovative and fresh design versus standard designs we are all used to whether in igaming or another industry. The biggest risk here is doing something new without knowing for sure if it’s going to be effective or not. There are some design elements that are experimental to test if it helps or hurts the conversion rate or keeping the users engaged on the site. The homepage is a landing page with slots cascading, without trying it we won’t know if players will like it or not without collecting data and feedback through analytics. That’s the risks and rewards of testing, you assume every experiment will be successful but it’s dangerous to not look at the feedback, you’ll want to know when something isn’t working. Overall the site has a long way to go to become a good slots website as there are thousands of slot games to write about with a constant stream of new games launching every week.“

The design of the slots filter was all about trying to keep it simple for users while letting them find exactly what they want. The main set of filters focus on the type of slot such as classic, 5 reel video slots, progressive jackpots and 3D slots. The Software filter lets users find slots based on the casino software maker where some players actively seek popular games like NetEnt or new and trending games like QuickSpin and Thunderkick. Other filters include New, Popular and by alphabetical order or of course users can search the slot by name or keyword.

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UK Court of Appeals affirms Gambling Commission’s veto power

The UK Court of Appeals (CA) has affirmed the power of the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) to reject license applications of operators even if they satisfy the criteria set by the commission.

In a decision dated May 25, the UK Court of Appeal’s Civil Division threw out the appeal of pub retailer and brewer Greene King challenging the upper tribunal’s ruling in favor of the UKGC.

It would be recalled that the UKGC in 2014 refused Greene King’s application for bingo licenses despite being satisfied “to the suitability and competence of [Greene King], and persons relevant to the applications, to offer the proposed licensed gambling activities.”

The Upper Tribunal Judge Howard Levenson earlier ruled that the UKGC was correct in interpreting the provisions of the Gambling Act when it thumbed down the application of Greene King for bingo licenses despite stating it was satisfied with the requirements of the pub.

Cotai’s soon-to-open Macau Roosevelt hotel to host satellite casino

A new satellite casino focusing on table games is coming to Cotai.

Located at the western edge of the Macau Jockey Club, the soon-to-open Macau Roosevelt Hotel will include a new satellite casino, named the Macau Jockey Club Casino, according to Union Gaming Securities Asia.

New exterior signage erected outside the hotel confirmed the rumors that the five-star hotel will host a gaming facility, the brokerage said in a note.

The Macau Jockey Club is already home to the Casino Macau Jockey Club, which is one of the three satellite casinos under Paradise Entertainment, but it is understood that the new casino will be located on the same parcel of land. According to Union Gaming analyst Grant Govertsen, a company filing stated that “as of 1 January 2017 the casino was changed from casino management services to a revenue sharing agreement on LMG games (LT Game stadium ETGs),” which indicates that “the license can be moved rather than require obtaining a from-scratch new license.”

POGO licenses drive Philippine office space demand

International property services firm Pronove Tai paints a rosy picture for the Philippine office spaces on the back of vibrant online gambling business in the country.

BusinessWorld reported that the demand for office space has surged after the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) move to issue licenses for Philippine Offshore Gambling Operators, making the Philippines the first and only country in Asia to do so.

Pronove said in its report that these companies accounted for 20% or 56,000 square meters (sq.m.) of the pre-leased office space set to be completed in the second quarter of 2017.

“With the advent of offshore gaming, all countries generally allow their citizens to engage in betting and gaming activities online in the privacy of their homes. The Philippines, however, has taken the bold lead in legalizing and licensing offshore online gaming in the country,” the property consultant said.

Scalability issues force Xapo to pass transaction fees to bitcoin users

Switzerland-based bitcoin wallet provider Xapo has told its customers that they will have to pay the transaction fees themselves when moving funds from their accounts.

Digital currency users often attach a fee to any cryptocurrency-related transaction as an incentive for miners to include that transaction in their next block. While transaction fees are voluntary on the part of the person making the transaction, it’s worth noting that transactions with higher fees have better chances of being included by a miner.

In an email, Xapo told its clients that they are now responsible for the said fee, although transfers between Xapo accounts will not be charged, The Merkle reported. The bitcoin wallet provider said none of the fees will go to it directly—rather, think of it as “simply the fee that needs to be paid to miners in order for an outgoing transaction to be processed via the bitcoin network.”

Xapo said the fee will be calculated “in a dynamic manner,” based on the current bitcoin network conditions.

Melco’s Ho punting big on Osaka than Tokyo

If the Macau billionaire will have it his way, Lawrence Ho would want to build a casino in Osaka than in Tokyo.

Ho, who owns Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd., believes that smaller Japanese cities like Osaka is packed with lots of opportunities as entertainment destination over Tokyo.

Japan has not yet decided where to put its own entertainment city months after it legalized casinos in their country but, so far, Tokyo, Osaka, and Yokohama are emerging as likely candidates for casino resorts under the Japanese government’s new bidding framework.

Bloomberg reported that Ho is looking for an area in Japan where “fun” is located and he apparently sees this more in Osaka and the surrounding Kansai region, home to attractions such as Universal Studios Japan and the city of Kyoto, famed for its Buddhist temples.

FirstBlood releases Alpha to presale participants, joins the ESIC. Will join a panel at the Ethereal Summit

FirstBlood Alpha

Last month FirstBlood announced the alpha version of their platform and opened it for trial and testing by their presale participants. The barebones alpha version of FirstBlood’s product has

now undergone rigorous testing, with a variety of bugs and edge cases being fixed/improved.

As the team continues development toward the beta version of the product, the focus will be on usability, with the aim of having a flawless user experience when real money is introduced and

Betsoft’s Cash Splash Network promotion raffle a broad success

3D innovator Betsoft Gaming have announced a successful run of their first Cash Splash Network promotion. The Cash Splash Network promotion was a raffle ticket prize contest, operated jointly between Betsoft and several popular operators that serve Betsoft games, including Interwetten, Mr. Green, WildSultan, Vera & John, InterCasino, Guts.com, Happyhugo.com, Muchovegas.com and Eatsleepbet.com. Players participated in the promotion by playing a minimum of 25 spins with a minimum value of €0.20 per spin while playing one of three Betsoft Slots3™ titles – THE SLOTFATHER: PART II, SUGARPOP! and ROOK’S REVENGE – at participating sites. Playing the minimum of 25 spins in these games granted each player one raffle ticket for the contest, and there was no cap on the amount of tickets a player could earn.

The three top winners of Betsoft’s Cash Splash Network Promotion were Nathalie R. on Wildsultan with a prize of €6,000, Heikki H. on Guts.com with a prize of €3,000 and Jeroen J. on Mr. Green with a prize of €1,000.

“We had a fantastic time rolling out our inaugural Cash Splash network promotion,” said Annamaria Anastasi, Betsoft’s Marketing Director. “We were excited to plan this event with several of our operators, with the end result being some very happy players who won great prizes, just from enjoying our games. You can be sure that Betsoft will be scheduling additional promotions in the future.”

Betsoft is also proud to announce two lucky players who won big while playing their industry-leading games. On Tuesday, 9 May 2017, player Barry V. at Omnislots won €47,662.50 in a single spin while playing Betsoft’s GREEDY GOBLINS. Another big winner from Stravanger, Norway, won 218,750.00 NOK at Mr. Green on Wednesday, 17 May 2017 while playing ALKEMOR’S TOWER. These are just two examples of winners who encountered the frequently occurring bonus features in Betsoft games.

Global Daily Fantasy Sports Inc. acquires Mondogoal Italy’s largest dfs service provider, renews agreement with operators Lottomatica & Sisal

Vancouver, B.C. – May 2017 – Global Daily Fantasy Sports Inc. (TSX-V: DFS)

Global Daily Fantasy Sports Inc, (“Global” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has closed the purchase of Mondogoal Limited’s (“Mondogoal”) operating assets consisting of intellectual property, trademarks and client contracts (the ‘Purchased Assets’) for its Daily Fantasy Sports B2B operations in Italy.

Mondogoal is currently the largest B2B daily fantasy sports network in Italy. Mondogoal’s blue chip client base includes Lottomatica Scommesse S.r.l. (Lottomatica) and Sisal Entertainment S.p.a. (Sisal) two of the largest gaming brands in Italy. Global is also pleased to announce as part of the transaction it has secured new agreements with both Italian operators for an additional two-year term. These new agreements will strengthen Global’s distribution network, as both Lottomatica and Sisal in 2016 represented 14% of the Italian online sports betting market. Lottomatica is the market leader in the Italian gaming industry with a network of about 100.000 points of sale, distributing games and services through one of the world’s largest network of connections. Through its parent company, International Game Technology PLC (IGT), has a presence in more than 100 countries. IGT is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange and the world’s leading provider of gaming solutions. IGT has significant global market share and a broad portfolio of technology, services, and content solutions.

Sisal has been in business more than 70 years and has more than 14 million customers in Italy. Sisal operates in the gaming and betting market with a full spectrum of products in retail and online channels. Sisal has a network of more than 45,000 points of sale.

Partypoker launches new Diamond Club with Patrick Leonard at the helm

Partypoker buck the trend by launching a new VIP program that promises 50% Rakeback and a host of other bonuses, while at the same time deterring predatory players.

It’s interesting, with so many Rakeback based Loyalty Programs lying in the morgue that partypoker decide to launch one.

Very often, in the online poker world, everyone likes to zig when everyone else is zigging, so it’s a pretty picture to see someone zag.

There is a beautiful perfume filled aroma coming from the morgue, and it smells like a party.

888Poker’s Bruno Kawauti on solidarity, startups, and service

Lee Davy spends 20-minutes bending the ear of 888Poker’s Brazilian ambassador Bruno Kawauti and the pair cover topics such as solidarity, startups and service.

Whenever I look at Bruno Kawauti, I always picture a humble man dressed in goatskin drapes, crook in hand, following a big bright star – and when I sat down to chew the fat with him, his mannerisms didn’t fracture that picture one bit.

888Poker‘s Brazilian ambassador abhors insolence and covets universal love. He is an entrepreneur who invents things, not for the money, but because it brings him joy.

While some poker players like to spend their winnings visiting the great pyramids of Egypt or purchasing a Rolls-Royce Sweptail, you are more likely to find Kawauti spending his money buying toys for children who have leukaemia.