Gaming firms in freefall as US bans online betting
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War-on-terror's poker face Shares in online gambling companies like Partygaming are in freefall this morning after the US Congress unexpectedly passed anti-online gambling laws late on Friday.â¦
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'Incompatible with community principles' Italy cannot use criminal law to stop gaming companies licensed in another EU nation from taking bets in the country, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Tuesday. Italian restrictions are incompatible with Community principles, the court said.â¦
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The World Trade Organization explained yesterday why it had ruled that the United States violated its international trade obligations by prohibiting Americans from gambling over the Internet.
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LONDON/NEW YORK  - The United States has arrested   a second Internet gaming executive, adding to fears it is   cracking down on the lucrative industry and sparking share   price falls on Thursday that wiped over $1.5 billion off the   market value of the sector.
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A World Trade Organization panel said Wednesday the US government should drop prohibitions on Americans placing bets in online casinos - a ruling that could open the United States to offshore Internet gambling.
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Most forms of Internet gambling  would be banned under a tentative agreement reached on Friday  by U.S. congressional negotiators.
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EU bone thrown Unwilling to allow foreign countries into the stateside internet gambling market, the US has struck a compensation deal with the European Union, Canada, and Japan.â¦
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In a ruling that could open the United States to offshore Internet gambling, a World Trade Organization panel Wednesday said Washington should drop prohibitions on Americans placing bets in online casinos.
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Britain's online gambling firms switched   their sights away from the United States to look for new growth   areas on Tuesday after the U.S. Congress passed legislation to   end Internet gaming in their biggest market.
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The European Commission dealt a blow to European online gaming companies on Monday when it accepted a U.S. offer of openings in other sectors to compensate for closing the U.S. gambling market to foreign firms.
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US gambling ban reverberates through sector Party Gaming, the world's biggest online gambling business, is axing its interim dividend, worth $115m, previously due to be paid on 31 October.â¦
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Online bookmaker Sportingbet said its   chairman faced charges in the United States for providing   "gambling by computer," sparking fears no executive in the   $12-billion-a-year industry was safe from prosecution.
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You're just not 'trying hard enough' to stick to the law The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has ruled against the US in an online gambling dispute with the Caribbean island of Antigua and Barbuda. The US is breaking international trade rules, it is expected to say.â¦
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The chairman of on-line gambling website Sportingbet has resigned following his recent arrest in the United States, the group announced.
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Shares in British online gambling companies, including Sportingbet PLC and PartyGaming PLC, dived yesterday after the Congress passed legislation prohibiting the use of credit cards, checks, and electronic fund transfers for online gaming.
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(InfoWorld) - A law prohibiting U.S. financial institutions from processing payments to online gambling sites hasn't stopped U.S. employees from visiting sports betting sites, according to cybersecurity vendor ScanSafe. Attempted visits to online gambling Web sites by employees of ScanSafe's U.S. customers were up 77 percent in the week between Jan. 23 and 31. The Super Bowl, the National Football League's championship game, is Sunday. ScanSafe provides a Web-blocking service to large businesses, and it examines 6 billion Web requests a month. In October, President George Bush signed into law a measure prohibiting financial institutions from processing payments to gambling sites. The government has until mid-July to develop the processing regulations for financial institutions. But some online gambling sites have begun telling U.S. customers that financial institutions are already distancing themselves. On Wednesday, PokerRoom.com told U.S. customers to cash out. "The remaining companies that process cashouts from PokerRoom.com to our players in the United States have contacted us to say that in the near future they will no longer facilitate these transactions," said a message on PokerRoom's home page. "As such, we would advise all American players who have not cashed out already to do so immediately." The gambling provision, amended by Congress onto a ports security bill in late September, has had no impact on the number of people visiting gambling Web sites, said Dan Nadir, vice president for product strategy at ScanSafe. ScanSafe doesn't track whether those people completed bets, he said. "We suspected [the law] wouldn't have much of an impact," Nadir said. Some gambling sites will develop alternative payment mechanisms, he said. ScanSafe didn't provide the raw numbers of visits to gambling sites this past week, but gambling represented about 3.4 percent of the content it blocked for clients in 2006. By comparison, 15.1 percent of the blocked content was chat or instant messaging, 14.6 percent was advertising, 7.2 percent was Web mail, and 3.9 percent was pornography. Visits to sports betting sites such as Bodog.com were common this past week, Nadir said. About 53 percent of the U.S. visits to gambling sites ScanSafe observed this past week were to sports betting sites as opposed to casino or lottery sites. Bodog didn't immediately respond to an e-mail asking if its business has been hurt by the U.S. law. About 84 percent of ScanSafe's customers blocked employee access to gambling sites. Companies block employees from gambling sites for a couple of reasons: because they don't trust that gambling sites are safe, and because they don't want employees playing games on company time, Nadir said.
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Half-year profits at online gambling firm Partygaming are wiped out, after it was forced to stop trading in the US.