CasinoMan Blog - Archives February 2012

Which USA companies are poised to take advantage when online gambling gets regulated in the States

17 February 2012

When online gambling becomes fully regulated in the US, there will be a variety of companies that will seek to take advantage of this lucrative industry. These businesses will be comprised of both small and large organisations, as well as the longstanding companies that have been in the industry for years and those that will launch in the wake of online gambling becoming fully legal.

The regulation of online gambling in the US will see a rise in new companies who will be looking to claim their stake in the estimated $4 billion that is spent by US players on a yearly basis.  It will be like a modern day gold rush and as usual, it will inevitably be the player that gets exploited.

New Jersey (which is already a major gambling state), along with Iowa, Illinois, New York and California are all now rushing to propel themselves into that elite group of states that hope to be recognised as the leaders in online gambling.  

It appears as though Washington and Nevada will be the first to start online gambling and to begin with, poker will be the main form of gambling in these states.

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Whatever happened to David Carruthers CEO of BETonSPORTS plc

16 February 2012

For those of you who know of David Carruthers, you should be aware that he was the former CEO of BetOnSports plc who in 2006 was held by US authorities in Texas as he was flying from London to Costa Rica.

This was part of a clamp down by US law who were tackling major offshore organisations that had been offering illegal online gambling activities and services to players within the US.

He was therefore charged for violating US federal laws that directly related to illegal gambling in the US. The indictment of BetOnSports reported that there had been a minimum of nine violations of the law. Carruthers was put under house arrest and the bail bond was placed at $1,000,000. Carruthers actual charge was violating the US Wire Act of 1961.

Three years later in April of 2009, David Carruthers then went on to plead guilty to charges relating to racketeering. He also agreed to assist the authorities during the federal investigation of the founder of BetOnSports, Gary Kaplan.

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A future perspective on online slot machines

04 February 2012

Slots have come a long way in the past few years alone. The gameplay and graphics have improved dramatically with both Classic Slots and Video Slots and the recent introduction of i-Slots has given us a glimpse of what the not-too-distant future may hold for online slots.

As more and more software companies continue churning out their latest creations, some try to be more elaborate and unique than the last, whereas others have a winning formula and simply mass produce slots that are very similar, and only have minor differences in the themes they offer.

Classic Slots will always be around and there is very little that you can do with these. Then we take a step up to the more advanced Video Slots. These games included scatter symbols, wild symbols, free spins and bonus rounds. These slots really excited the players when they hit the scene and became widely available, instantly attracting a huge fan base.

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Is Rival Casinos going to fall over and die?

03 February 2012

In online terms, Rival Casinos haven’t been around for a great length of time. They first launched in 2006. They provided a unique approach to how online casinos were to operate and little did they know they there would be tough times ahead, many tough times.

The company are very resilient, but there is only so much a company can take before they admit defeat and cannot take any more blows.

The introduction of the highly innovative i-Slots looked to be a huge success but the idea came at just the wrong time. The Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIEGA) was passed and threatened the entire operations of online gambling in the US, including Rival Casinos.

Cracks then started to appear when in 2008, T2, a marketing company whom Rival had entered into a marketing agreement with claimed that Rival’s four owners had breached this agreement, which the lead to a lawsuit and they incurred a huge payout of approximately C$500,000 to T2 Marketing.

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Legal update of regulation in Online Gambling in Denmark

01 February 2012

Denmark has become the latest European nation to open up to online gambling. They have joined an ever growing collection of EU countries to pass legislation, which allows them to regulate online gambling.

So far, there have been 38 leading operators that have managed to gain a total of 55 Danish Online Gaming licenses including bwin.party, PKR, 888, UniBet, PokerStars, Betfair, Betsson, Cryptologic, Red Club Poker and Danske Spil. Denmark has followed in the footsteps of countries such as Spain and France who have realised the potential revenue there is to be made from this multibillion dollar industry.

More than half (20) of the companies that acquired an online gambling license from Denmark are in fact Malta-based operators. This new legislation was given the green light by both the European Commission and the Danish Parliament.

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