These negative conditions of the industry are so negative that it might sideline the positive industrial effects of the London Olympic Games. As in a healthy environment, such event would benefit the industry to a large extent. Any industry can withstand a number of negative conditions and events, but in the case of the United Kingdom, these negative conditions occurred in a row, which formed some kind of a negative combination that affected the economy and the industry greatly, in a negative way.

These conditions that have the negative effect on the business & the industry are expected to ease up in the following 5 years. This dissolving of such conditions is expected to be accompanied by a recovery in the whole economy which will result in the increase of incomes. Also it is expected that a lot of investments in the gambling technology will happen, accompanied by a great growth in the domestic gambling operations with the upcoming Rugby World Cup in 2015 and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014.

The current situation is that different casinos in Detroit such as Greektown, MGM and MotorCity Casino depend greatly on the people who come from a radius of 150 miles around Detroit; this includes Central and Northern Ohio. More than 80% of the revenue of these casinos comes from such visitors. Once the new casinos open up in Cleveland and Toldeo, these Detroit casinos will lose this upper hand and will no longer get the daily visitors who come from these parts as they will be supplied with gambling services in their own town.

Commenting on this, an ex-city budget analyst, Bettie Buss stated that despite that the officials of Detroit are well aware of the hit that the budget is going to suffer as a result of this, but the officials must realize how hard this hit can be. Then she adds that it is a very hard challenge, as the city will have to undergo some deep cuts.

FanDuel provides its clients with fantasy games that allows for betting to be done online. Despite the fact that it involves online wagering, but it is exempted from the strict rules, regulations and laws of the United States that are concerned with online gambling. This is due to the fact that this fantasy sport game is considered a game of skill rather than a game of chance, so it is basically not gambling, thus exempted from the online gambling laws. FanDuel doesn’t only offer its clients football fantasy games, but it offers other sports as well such as ice hockey, basketball and baseball.

The company was first established in order to facilitate bets on the outcome of different news; this was back in 2008 and it was branded HubDub. The whole fantasy sport betting concept was added to the business in 2010. The company takes 10% of the entry fees, these entry fees usually vary between 1 dollar and 500 dollars for each player.

Playtech Software

These numbers are considered great numbers for Playtech, despite the fact that internet poker revenue numbers are not that good. As the poker revenue for the first ¼ of this year has decreased by 6 % if compared with the same period in 2011 which accumulated about 5.3 million Euros. Of course, one of the most notable achievements for Playtech Ltd these last 3 months was its internet casino category.

Videobet

As the revenues increased by 35 % to reach an outstanding 34.5 million Euros, similarly, the revenue from bingo also increase by 26 % if compared with the same period of time last year to 4.4 million Euros. Lastly, it has been announced by Playtech Ltd. That the profits coming from its services section also increased by 7,145 % year to year to 25.6 million Euros with having the operations of Videobet participating with an additional 2.4 million Euros.

Baldwin Spencer, the Antigua & Barbuda prime minister stated that he has proposed numerous solutions to the dispute between Antigua & Barbuda and the United States. He added that until this date, the United States hasn’t made any fair or reasonable offers. He said that the online gaming and gaming sector of Antigua & Barbuda has been totally destroyed by the United States through its actions. He continued that Antigua & Barbuda has to be compensated fairly in order to cover the losses of what happened. The prime minister also asked the trade representative of the U.S to look more into the proposal made by Antigua & Barbuda and to accept it. This proposal included the approval of mediation efforts done by the director general of the WTO.

The United States trade representative said that he agrees that this solution is a very good and an innovative one.  Despite that, he told the prime minister to rest assured as the United States is still obligated to work with Antigua & Barbuda and to co operate with it in any way in order to find a mutual agreement. He also said that his office will review and study the proposal by Antigua & Barbuda and that he will hold any discussions or talks with the Ambassador of Antigua & Barbuda in Washington until they review the proposal.

After the meeting between them, the legal representatives of Antigua & Barbuda stated that the recent change of heart of the United States’ Dept. of Justice regarding  its’ statement about the Wire Act. As the DoJ has announced that the Wire Act was meant to illegalize sports betting, hence, legalizing all other forms of internet gambling. They said that this sudden change should make the US Trade officials rethink their position and their opinions regarding the WTO.

Poker Stars was very smart, as after what happened, it instantly separated all of its operations outside the United States away from the effects of Black Friday. Then it started to plan to reenter the American market by settling with the U.S Department of Justice through paying a very huge fee, it also paid its American players who lost their accounts and money due to Black Friday. It seems that PokerStars is going to be a part of the regulated and soon to be legalized online gambling market in the United States. As for the smallest one out of the three poker sites, Absolute Poker, it seems to have disappeared from the internet as if it never existed. No mention of it in any websites or forums. It seems like no one cares about what happened to Absolute Poker.

Now it is time to talk about the biggest room of them all, Full Tilt Poker (FTP), which seems to be an ongoing saga between FTP and the Department of Justice. There has been a problem with paying its players’ their money back because the accounts got frozen, and FTP didn’t ring the balances and already used them in its  gambling operations. Good news in the horizon thought, as there have been talks between the DoJ, Groupe Bernard Tapie from France and Full Tilt Poker, and they seem to have reached an understanding that would settle things. Even though it is good news, but the players have been waiting for their money for a year now.

These were not all the consequences of Black Friday, as there were numerous online casinos and poker websites that closed by itself fearing similar fates as the three poker rooms. Although it was a very black day in the history of online gambling, but there are a few positive results. The major good result has to be the announcement by the DoJ right before Christmas. As the Dept. of Justice has released a statement saying that the Wire Act issued in December of 2011 only meant to illegalize sport wagering. Hence, it legalized all kinds of online gambling. This has caused quite a stir in the world of online gambling in the U.S as many states are now racing to enter the legalized and regulated world of internet gambling.

Important news from the online gambling community of Canada, as it seems that there is a fourth Canadian province to issue laws to regulate and legalize online gambling. This Canadian province is Manitoba. Manitoba chose to become partners with Quebec and British Columbia which already supplies internet gambling services through provincial lotteries. It is a very smart move for Manitoba as it chose a service provider with good experience to help Manitoba take its first steps into the world of the legalized and regulated online gambling.

British Columbia Lottery Corporation

It has been stated by a spokesman on the behalf of Manitoba that the province has chosen the BCLC, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation, business model. As they have made the required research and found this model to be the best model for regulating their newly legalized and regulated online gambling market in the province of Manitoba. On the other hand, the Minister of the BCLB, Honorable Rich Coleman stated that they are more than glad to become partners with Manitoba. He also added that the BCLB is so glad to share its experience and resources in order to help Manitoba establish its newly regulated market of online gambling.

As for the contract and agreement between the two sides, the BCLB is obligated to supply the design of the site and all developing and testing services needed. The BCLB will also manage the online gambling site of Manitoba. Speaking of which, the online gambling site is predicted to go live next year. It is also predicted that it will have poker alongside other casino games. There are also some rumors going around concerning the possibility of adding bingo and sports wagering to the online site, but it is not confirmed yet, it is still in the works. All of the operations will be regulated and monitored by the Manitoba Gaming Control Commission.

Online Gambling

Steve Ashton, the Manitoba Lotteries Minister commented on the step that the province of Manitoba is taking by saying that online gambling has already been existent in Canada. He also added that all that Manitoba is doing is keeping up with the rest of the provinces by finally deciding to regulate and legalize online gambling like other provinces. The main reason for such move was due to the amazing revenue that online gambling can bring to the province of Manitoba once the market is regulated. It is estimated that the residents of Manitoba spend over 35 million Canadian dollars playing on more than 2000 online casinos, and the province doesn’t get any revenue. Lastly he added that 5% of the net revenue from the online gambling profits will be directed to gambling addiction programs. This is in fact more than the percent taken form the land casinos, which is equal 2% of the net revenue.

As usual, InterCasino always presents new promotions and games for different seasons. The recent promotion that was announced by InterCasino was named “Spin to Win in Spring”. This promotion gives the players the chance to win up to 3,450 dollars per week through the slots tournaments that includes all the popular slot online games. As was announced by InterCasino, for a player to become eligible to take part in the “Spin to Win in Spring” promotion, one has to type in the bonus code before making a minimum deposit of 25 dollars per week.

Find Out Firsthand About the New InterCasino Bonus

After the player makes the deposit with the bonus code, he can start to collect cash back points by betting on any of the many slot games available at InterCasino. Betting on the slot games that are featured will double the normal cash back points. Then the players with the most amounts of cash back points will split the cash pool prize amongst them. This promotion is announced to last for 21 days starting from the 3 of April to the 23 of April. This promotion consists of three parts, or three colors. These colors are used to present the spring season. The Green week is the first week, which starts from the 3 of April up till the 9 of April. The first place winner will win 800 dollars. The second place will win 400 dollars. The second week is the red week that offers a red carpet treatment to the players. It starts from the 10 of April up till the 16 of April. The first place winner will win a total of 1,000 dollars, and the second place will win 500 dollars.  And InterCasino saves the best for last, as the last week is the Golden week which will start from the 17 of April to the 23 of April. The first place winner will win an outstanding 1,200 dollars and the second place will win 600 dollars. That doesn’t mean that not everyone is a winner, as 3 place will win 300 dollars, the 4 up to the 10 place will win 100 dollar each. As for the 11 to the 40 place, each player will win 40 dollars.

InterCasino also announced the slot games that are featured in this promotion. Of course, as predicted, the slot games will represent the color for each week. For Example, Green Lantern, Emerald Isle and Cash n’ Clovers slot games will be the featured games of the first week, the Green week. The second week, the Red week featured games are Savannah Sunrise and The Flash: Velocity. Lasxtly, for the Golden week, the featured games are Golden Jaguar, Cleo Queen of Egypt and Millionaires Club 3.

Unibet PLC, the online gambling group has taken a major market move as it has bought Bet25, the Nordic Betting subsidiary for a stunning 13.5 million Euros. Unibet gambling group which is based in Malta has been planning to take similar steps on order to invade and strengthen its operations and activities within the Danish Market.

Danish Gambling Market

This acquisition over Bet24 is considered a very bold move that would help Unibet PLC’s goal to achieve greatness in the Danish Market. This acquisition is not the first one of its kind; this is the 3^rd major acquisition that has been done by Unibet. These 3 major transactions have one thing in common, as they all targeted newly legalized and regulated markets.

It has been announced by Unibet through a statement saying that this acquisition will indeed strengthen the group’s position in the newly regulated market of Denmark. The group also announced through the statement that this move will supply the group with ability to support more investments in order to increase the market share of Unibet in the Danish market and that it will also provide support to Unibet growth and presence in various Nordic areas. Speaking of which, Nordic Betting Ltd gambling has grossed total profit revenue of a total of 10.5 million Euros during last year that ended on the 31^st of December.

Unibet Purchases Bet25

Unibet’s plan from the acquisition was also addressed in the statement. It has been stated that Unibet is planning to transfer the clientele base from Bet24 to Unibet. It will also merge all business operations and activities from Bet24 to Unibet.

Not only that, but the group is intending to migrate employees as well, as It was stated by the group that it will be transferring about 45 employees who work at Nordic Betting Ltd into their Maltese operations in accordance with the Maltese regulations and laws when a business transfer occurs. This deal is expected to be completed and done with by the end of the second ¼ of the year 2012.

15 German states back the gambling laws back in December and now the British titans of gambling are looking to enter the market.  As the months have passed since Decemeber, Bwin Party Casinos and Betfair have been the most interested, but there is still much work to accomplish.  The liberal licensing policies in Schleswig-Holstein already met with the approval of the European Commission and other states should eventually fall in line with the new and hopefully better gambling system.  Several improvements have been made over the past decade in online gambling software.  Much of the software from the reputable nations of licensing have checks and balances in place to keep the gaming fair and much of that technology will either be adopted by Germany or will be in place from online gambling companies.  This very fact nullifies any argument by those states that online gambling is unfair.

Even though the European Commission seemed very positive about the changes being made, they are currently denying action for even twenty licenses to be issued to gambling companies.  This is still good news for the online gambling companies, but it would seem that it is a stall tactic by those states that do not wish to comply and break up the monopoly.  This same tactic was used in Greece for many years, but if something is inevitability, no amount of stalling will prevent it from happening.  Some have even stated that it could be two years for the market to open and become a free market for gambling.

If the proposal is modified, the European Commission may change its views on the current situation with German online gambling.  In any good negotiation there will be give and take and this current proposal being rejected is only another step towards compliance with the EU.  As with Denmark and other EU nations, getting in line with the free market and especially with gambling is a requirement.  While a country may drag its feet in that compliance, eventually it will happen.  The last proposal is so close to compliance, that it will probably only take a few more bouts of negotiation before the market is truly fair and in accordance with the Commission.