Blogs

Gambling consultant, Lorien Pilling presented an analysis of sports-betting sites in asia during the i-Gaming congress at the Ventian Macao:

"Erratic margins and strong favourite betting is eating into margins of Asian sports-betting internet sites which largely rely on football sport fans for revenue."

More info here

As poker popularity continues to grow, more people from all walks of life are being drawn to the game. Former world number one tennis star Boris Becker has begun a career as a professional poker player, according to a report in Sunday's edition of Germany daily newspaper Die Welt.

Maybe there is better money in Poker?

Source

Harold Zeitz, senior vice president for games at RealNetworks, said Friday that he was working closely with the Agarwalla brothers to bring the official Scrabble game to Facebook users.

For those of you who are not "in the know", scrabblicious, an unlicensed copy of the popular hasbro board games, is one of the most popular applications on Facebook, with hundreds of thousands of users daily.

More info available over at gigaom

A FAVOURABLE barrier draw has left trainer Anthony Cummings confident his star colt, Casino Prince, can exact revenge on glamour mare Miss Finland at Caulfield on Saturday.

Cummings has Casino Prince opposing Miss Finland and 10 others in the $700,000 Futurity Stakes.

Casino Prince and Miss Finland have crossed paths twice before and Cummings prefers to forget the first time, when his colt had a long look at Miss Finland's tail in the 2006 Golden Slipper Stakes at Rosehill.

source

Salvatore F. DiMasi stepped up his criticism of expanded gambling yesterday, telling business leaders in Western Massachusetts that casinos would do little to attract visitors and could alter the way of life in the state.

But the message was different in Boston, where Gov. Deval L. Patrick defended his bill to establish up to three casino resorts in Massachusetts, including one in the western part of the state. He told a meeting of leaders in the tourism industry that casinos could create thousands of permanent jobs paying between $45,000 and $50,000 a year.

I know I'd be pissed off if this happened to me...

"A Belleville attorney is suing a casino in the Virgin Islands after claiming they did not make good on a substantial slot machine pay out.

The machine indicated he'd won $5.15 million; but as the quarters began to pour from the machine, Paulson said a manager came over and shut off the machine.

After being offered $100 and a free meal by the casino's manager, Paulson asked if the casino would pick up the tab for his trip."

Hmmm... free meal or $5.15 million dollars - I'd have to say I'd choose the latter in his position!

Gaming group Rank has braced investors for another tough year despite signs of improved trading at its Mecca Bingo clubs.

The firm - hit by last year's smoking bans, restrictions on money-spinning games machines and a consumer slowdown - saw underlying profits fall 7% to £68.3 million in 2007.

Rank expects a "challenging" 2008 but said it saw signs of a "modest improvement" at Mecca, even though like-for-like revenues fell 13.5% in the eight weeks to February 24.