6th Annual sbobet88 Gambling Industry Conference At Barcelona
At the Barcelona Diagonal Conference Centre, the sixth annual
European i-Gaming Congress and Expo took place on Tuesday. The online gambling
industry gathering was attended by some impressive attendance. 80 online
gambling expert speakers, 60 top online gambling industry exhibitors and over
1000 pre-registered delegates standing in line to register until Tuesday
morning.
The internet gambling industry had rightly been identified as the
most successful of the online sbobet88 businesses to come out
of the Internet, with good levels of expertise developed in marketing and
technology, but there had been missed opportunities to capitalize early on
trends that could have added even more impetus to development and business
success.
US Online Gambling On The Brink Of Extinction?
Two United States agencies are working in conjunction with the US
Department of Justice, have begun a process that will implement the Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that was passed by Congress of 2006. The US
Treasury and Federal Reserve are taking final steps to ensure that internet
gambling is banned once and for all.
Title VIII of the Act is also known as the Unlawful Internet
Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 prohibits the transfer of funds from a
financial institution to an internet gambling site, with the notable exceptions
of fantasy sports, online lotteries, and thoroughbred/harness racing.
Many banks and credit card companies have not taken and action to
stop making payments to illegal sites, awaiting the rules to determine what
procedures they need to have in place.
Yesterday’s announcement details those ules, calling on all
banks, credit card companies and automated payment system companies to have
“policies and procedures that are reasonably designed to prevent payments being
made to gambling businesses.”
The Fed and the Treasury have kick-started a three-month
consultation process on these proposed rules, with comments from affected
parties to be filed by December 12.
Once in place, the rules will provide a clear black and white
policy for all companies involved in the gambling arena.
In the past many banks have turned a blind eye to individual
state laws banning gambling.
However in the past 18 months the industry has been at the top of
the agenda, following a series of high-profile prosecutions of senior such as
BetonSports chief executive David Carruthers and Neteller’s Stephen Lawrence.
The clamp-down saw billions of pounds wiped off the value of
British-quoted gaming companies such as PartyGaming, which had previously
relied heavily on US citizens.
888, Running Good As Always Despite 2006 UIGEA
Gigi Levy, chief executive of 888, has praised the company’s
foresight after interim results saw pre-tax profits soaring 298% to US$19m
(£9m) in the first six months of the year.
Levy said 888 had been steadfast in the wake of the Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in October 2006, as it kept hold of
much of its workforce to focus on improving its products and generating
revenues to meet forecasts.
Other 888 operational highlights included a white-label agreement
with South American-focused online poker company Tower Torneos that will see
888 provide it with the technological platform to offer poker, casino, backgammon
and bingo to its customers. Tower Torneos is particularly strong in Brazil. The
agreement with Tower Torneos would be one of the key growth drivers for the
company in a promising market.
888 will be launching an Italian sports betting products in the
next few weeks, however, Levy was keen not to overstate the impact of a
sportsbook offering.
Levy added that despite losing the majority of its customers and
55% of revenues after UIGEA, the turnaround that 888 had begun to achieve at
the full year (2006) has been successful and the company have maintained their
track record of profitability.
With the company active for the past 10 years, Levy said it had
based its success on the same strategic principles that had made it successful
in the past, “acquiring and retaining customers by delivering a compelling,
localised, innovative, unique and entertaining customer experience while being
mindful of the complex regulatory environment in which we operate and the
necessary social responsibilities that come with our industry”.
Net gaming revenue (NGR) was up 24% to US$97m and pre-tax margin
increased to 19%, from 6% in the first half of 2006. Casino NGR grew 22% to
US$54m, compared with the same period in 2006, while poker NGR increased 19% to
US$41m for the six-month period to the end of June.
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