Regional casino operator Penn National Gaming has decided to get into the online gambling business. The company, which operates 26 facilities in 16 US states and one Canadian province, has appointed Chris Sheffield (pictured) to the newly created position of Senior Vice President Managing Director I-Gaming.

Sheffield, a former managing director of digital at UK bookies Betfred, will help Penn prepare for “the launch of online gaming initiatives across its portfolio.” Sheffield joined Betfred in March 2011 following a seven-year stint as CEO of Million-2-1 Limited, a mobile gaming outfit Sheffield founded and which was acquired by gaming device maker International Game Technology in June 2008.

Sheffield will report directly to Penn CEO Timothy Wilmott, who praised Sheffield’s “technical background, extensive executive and operational management experience and broad knowledge of the online and mobile gaming world.” Wilmott put no timeline on when Penn’s online efforts might appear, saying only that the company would make its move into the digital realm “over the coming years.”

Of the 16 US states in which Penn operates, only two – Nevada and New Jersey – currently allow some form of regulated online gambling. Of the other states in which Penn has a presence, Pennsylvania and Illinois have done the most flirting with the notion of instituting some kind of regulated online gambling regime, but neither state has yet to move a bill past the informational hearing stage.

Penn is set to release its annual revenue report card on Jan. 29. In its Q3 results, the company reported revenue of $645.9m and adjusted earnings of $65.7m for the three months ending Sept. 30.

The American Gaming Association (AGA) says it welcomes plans by the US Treasury Department’s financial watchdog to more closely monitor transactions at Nevada sportsbooks. Shortly before Christmas, Reuters reported that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) would require sportsbooks to report transactions that raised certain ‘red flags.’

In a Dec. 24 letter to AGA CEO Geoff Freeman, FinCEN Policy Division Associate Director Jamel El-Hindi made it clear that that the focus was on so-called ‘messenger’ bets, in which a bettor places a wager with a sportsbook on behalf of a third party. El-Hindi claimed such bets were “facilitating criminal activity and posing a money laundering risk to the US financial system.”

El-Hindi said FinCEN believed casinos were “under the impression that unless specifically directed to do so, a casino never has to ask a patron whether he or she is betting on his or her own behalf or on behalf of another party.” FinCEN had reached out to the AGA ‘to correct any such misperception.”

In response, Freeman released a statement saying the AGA “welcomes continued guidance from FinCEN to guard against attempts to use casinos for money laundering and illicit financing.” Freeman said AGA casinos “routinely look for suspicious bets at sports books,” with the possible exception of all those times that they didn’t.

MONTREAL COP PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO BOOKMAKING

On Friday, Montreal police Sgt. André Thibodeau appeared in court to address the 11 charges he’s facing as a result of Thursday’s takedown of a Mafia-linked illegal sports betting operation. Thibodeau, a 25-year veteran of the force who has been suspended without pay, pled not guilty to charges of bookmaking, breach of trust, obstruction of justice, gangsterism and knowingly making people commit (directly or indirectly) a criminal offence.

ADAM MEYER’S ‘VICTIM A’ UNVEILED

California Assemblyman Mike Gatto has offered a few amendments to his AB 9 online poker legislation. Gatto has proposed making it a felony to offer online poker to California residents without a state-issued license and suggested the scrapping of a requirement for in-person account registrations at state casinos and card clubs.

This latter requirement, originally intended to offer smaller establishments the opportunity to participate in the state’s regulated online poker market and also as a way of ensuring no underage individuals could open accounts, was widely criticized from the start as both unwieldy and unnecessary.

Gatto told CaliforniaOnlinePoker.com that he’d decided to make in-person registration “an option rather than a requirement.” Gatto said the change came following discussions with security experts and the poker community. Gatto acknowledged that technology currently in operation in states like New Jersey had proven more than capable of verifying the identity of registrants.

ALLEGED CORRUPTION IN CASINO M8TRIX PROBE WORRIES POKER PROPONENTS

Meanwhile, the ongoing probe into alleged profit skimming at the Casino M8trix card club may make California’s passage of online poker legislation even more of an uphill climb. Last spring, the Bureau of Gambling Control (BGC) accused M8trix owners Eric Swallow and Peter and Jeanine Lunardi of cooking the books to make it appear that the San Jose gaming joint wasn’t making any money, depriving the state of tax revenue while diverting tens of millions of dollars into the owners’ pockets.

In December, state Attorney General Kamala Harris formally accused Bob Lytle – the former head of the BGC who subsequently took a job as M8trix’s compliance officer – of receiving confidential information on the BGC’s M8trix investigation from a BGC agent. (Harris didn’t identify the agent but tribal gaming writer Dave Palermo identified him as James Parker.) Prior to leaving the BGC, Lytle also allegedly pressured agents to scale back investigations into M8trix.

Harris claimed Lytle’s receipt of this confidential info had “potentially compromised the effectiveness and undermined the integrity” of the BGC’s investigation. Harris wants to fine Lytle and revoke his ability to serve as a key employee and partner in two Sacramento card clubs, the Tavern at Stones Gambling Hall and Saloon at Stones Gambling Hall. Lytle told Gambling Compliance that he’s looking forward to a hearing on the matter in order to prove that he “didn’t do anything wrong.”

South Africa‘s government has poured a great big bucket of ice water on a member of the opposition’s plan to promote the legalization of online gambling.

Earlier this week, Democratic Alliance shadow minister for trade and industry Geordin Hill-Lewis announced plans to reintroduce the Remote Gambling Bill he debuted last year. Hill-Lewis said he hoped the bill – which would expand the scope of legal online gambling beyond sports betting – would force the government “to engage properly around this argument.”

Well, sod that nonsense, says the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). On Friday, the DTI issued a statement saying it wanted to make it “publicly clear that there is no intention on the part of the government to propose the legislation of online gambling.”

The DTI insists that online gambling was “not desirable” due to “a number of social ills associated with gambling, especially online gambling.” The DTI believes “no amount of control will adequately curb the harm that may be caused” by online casino and poker games and thus “it must remain a banned activity.”

The DTI underscored its position by reminding everyone that offering anything online other than sports betting was against the law and “law enforcement agencies will act on this illegal activity with immediate effect.” The penalties for any operator offering illegal services or anyone “participating as individuals” include fines of up to R10m (US $865k) and prison sentences of up to 10 years. The DTI even offered a hotline number for finking on suspected illegal gambling.

South Africa has been flirting with the idea of an expanded online gambling market for years now but analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers sounded an extremely pessimistic note in November on the prospects of the government acting anytime soon. Seems about right.