Although the online casino or poker room has yet to be identified, Cape Breton University (Nova Scotia, Canada) is offering free tuition as the grand prize in an online poker tournament, stirring much controversy within the ranks.
Matt Stewart, president of the Students Union at the University expressed his assent of the tournament, saying, “There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain. It’s like a free competition to me. If you are good at it, may the best person win.”
The tournament has been advertised throughout the campus and via messages on Facebook, but the name of the internet gambling establishment has not yet been released. The promotional campaign offers a $5,660 tuition fee to one online gamer per week, among other prizes. Because the students do not have to buy-in to the tournament, Stewart feels that the tournament is as innocent as a raffle or bursary.
“There are so many other resources out there to get people gambling; I don’t think a free tournament is going to do it,” he opined.
There have been several arguments opposing the tournament, however, labeling it problem gambling as the potential outcome. “I would suggest the university not encourage this behavior because it could lead to excessive problems,” claims Jeffrey Devrensky, a psychology professor at McGill University. “I put it in the same realm as drinking on campus; doing drugs on campus.”
The professor’s argument is that because the human brain does not reach its full maturity until the age of 24, the demographic that this tournament is aimed toward is at high risk for developing gaming addictions.
It has not been announced whether the online poker tournaments will continue, or whether the Video Online Lottery Terminators Society will shut the operation down.
The Washington Post has been following the controversial domain seizure case in Kentucky all of this week, providing an in-depth report of the proceedings. Staff writer Brian Krebs has kept the online casino community with all of the need-to-know info.
Spokesperson for the Kentucky Justice Department Jennifer Brislin told the Post that the regional government, seeking to extend its jurisdiction to the physical locations of “digital property,” wants recompense for the damage that online casinos have caused. That is to say, because the U.S. does not allow internet casino gambling to be regulated, some $170 million in gaming revenue was not taxed by the state. The protectionist argument is that the unlawful online casino gambling profits should have been spent on legal horse racing bets.
A handful of website domains have already been seized without notification or endorsement from state legislators, and the ruling of Judge Thomas Wingate to allow this has left a bad taste in the community’s mouths – some going so far as to say that the state is holding these domains for ransom.
The state wishes to deliver a more devastating blow to the online gambling industry in forcing domain holders to effectively ban Kentucky residents, after paying a hefty fine to the state. According to Brislin, “We think it creates a tremendous disadvantage for our legitimate, licensed and taxed gaming interests, and there are some damages that are due to the commonwealth as a result.”
It seems Brislin has not done her research, however, because most internet casino earnings are reported to the IRS and taxed by the U.S. government. Krebs shows both sides of the story, reporting the expert opinion of domain specialist and attorney Bret Fausett, who believes that Kentucky has no legal right to seize websites located and operated outside of the state.
“This is a little bit like if the Home Shopping TV network was accused of fraud, and Kentucky decided to seize the show’s cameras and set even though HSN’s real location is nowhere near the state, he opined.
Christine Jones of registrar GoDaddy.com, explains their stance on the issue, after 20 of their domains were confiscated.
“We issued a registrar certificate to the state that says the court has jurisdiction over the issue, but it doesn’t have control over the domains, other than the ability to exercise judgement so that when there is a final adjudication on the merits of the case or a settlement by the parties, we will honor that outcome.”
John Levine, author of “The Internet for Dummies,” told his opinion to the Washington Post as well. “The state’s legal arguments fail on so many levels that it’s truly bizarre that the court didn’t reject this case in the first place,” he said, noting that the UIGEA prohibits only the financial transactions of online casino gambling, and not the activity itself. In fact, Washington is the only U.S. state that specifically bans gambling online.
A decision to either dismiss the case or allow it to proceed to a forfeiture hearing will be made in seven days.
A popular e-wallet with the online casino gambling industry, NETeller Plc, has announced an identity change that many surmise is an effort to distance itself from the recent encounter with the US Department of Justice. The litigation ended with NETeller having to pay a substantial fee of $185.7 million, after it had been catering to US internet casino transactions.
Ron Martin, Chief Executive to NETeller cites an attempt to rebuild the processor’s credibility with merchants, customers, partners and regulators as the reason for the name change. “An element of strategy is moving beyond the US situation,” says Martin.
Whatever the reason, the London-based payment processor will officially be known as Neovia Financial as of November 17th this year. Even with the identity change, the three main financial services, used mostly by online casino gamblers will maintain their titles – NETeller, Netbanx and Net+.
After being forced from the US market and having cut half of their workforce, NETeller left Canada and went into Europe and Asia. From there it was determined that NETeller could not rely on just online casino gambling for its total revenue. As a response to the litigation with the US, the payment processor, NETeller released its card, Net+.
Net+ generated revenue of $1.15 million just last month, and as Martin reports, the organization exceeded its targeted non-gaming revenue of 30 percent by 2010. Rather, NETeller has already seen 18.5 percent in non-gaming profits.
“Gaming will continue to be an important part of the business, but on the other hand we have built a payment capability much beyond gaming and many products have an application outside of gaming,” said Martin.
Bodog(life) users will remember the domain name change earlier this year as the result of a dispute over a patent between the online casino and sportsbook and 1st Technology LLC. Unfortunately for Bodog, whose management has struggled through a slew of attacks recently, the appeal to the Federal Circuit this week did not work in their favor.
The litigation follows claims in June of last year that Bodog has infringed on a 1st Technology domain name patent, the result of which was a $46,597,849 fee and the confiscation of Bodog domains. Bodog’s appeal had worse results, however, as according to 1st Tech CEO Dr. Scott Lewis the fines now exceed $50 million.
“We cannot be more pleased,” says Lewis. “Bodog has consistently tried to circumvent the United States justice system, and disregarded the legitimacy of our claims against it. We now have the certaintly we need to accelerate our seizure of any and all global assets to satisfy the judgement, and bring fairness and respect back to Bodog’s commercial dealings.”
1st Tech had previously celebrated a victory against Bodog in the District of Western Washington last week where the court granted 1st Tech the right to halt any transactions in or out of Bodog’s trademarks.
More online casinos are working to ensure the safety of their website users, and many are turning to an eCOGRA accreditation to gain the trust of online casino gamblers. eCOGRA is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to serve the internet gambling community with fair and safe gaming through rigorous inspection and strict regulations as well as user arbitration. 32Red Plc is the newest among the ranks, having just received an accreditation.
32Red may now proudly display the eCOGRA “Safe and Fair” seal, showing all users and visitors that they are committed to “high standards of business practice, player service, gaming fairness and integrity.”
32Red CEO Ed Ware explained how thorough the process had been to obtain the seal, as in order to do so, eCOGRA must visit the physical operating location and examine and analyze every element in the website’s management. This is how eCOGRA ensures compliance with their regulations and detailed requirements on systems and policies.
“It was an exhaustive inspection, and I am pleased that our systems were found to be professionally sound and of integrity,” states Ware. “The eCOGRA regime insists on continuous monitoring of our transactions to ensure fairness, and periodic reviews which keep eCGORA ‘Safe and Fair’ accredited operators on track at all times.”
eCOGRA CEO Andrew Beveridge commended 32Red online casino on their openness to the inspection and having successfully achieved all of the requirements. “32Red has a fine reputation for management transparency, player sensitivity and professional conduct, and this was proved in the report from the inspection teams,” said Beveridge. “We are delighted to welcome them aboard as a truly tier one online gambling organization.”
eCOGRA will release a set of standards and policies for online bingo and online sportsbooks in the near future after research and development is completed.
Las Vegas attorney Anthony Cabot, specializing in internet casino gambling, told the public the likelihood that either US presidential candidate will have on the industry , with Barack Obama more apt to allow internet gambling than John McCain.
Cabot of course referred to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, saying that the election could have an effect on its repeal or continuation. According to the Las Vegas Business Press, Cabot’s expert opinion is that a vote for McCain is a vote for the UIGEA.
“If McCain is elected, the Internet gaming ban would never be repealed,” he said. “I think if Senator Obama was elected, it would be more likely to be repealed.” Cabot mentioned that many Democratic representatives like Barney Frank oppose the ban.
He mostly cited the vagueness of the UIGEA as the reason for the problems that the new administration is going to face in continuing to enforce the ban. “It’s very hard for a bank to identify what is a legal or illegal transaction,” he said.
Cabot is notorious for his extensive knowledge in the field of internet casino gambling, sweepstakes and contests. He had worked for Lionel Sawyer and Collins’ gaming law firm as chairman before moving to Las Vegas-based practice, Lewis and Roca.
Cabot has received praise from such industry experts as former Nevada Governor and attorney Bob Faiss for having worked with the state’s most prestigious law firm. His move from Arizona to Las Vegas to practice gaming law prompted him to work further in the internet casino community. Cabot is one of the co-founders of the Internation Masters of Gaming Law Foundation.
During his 27 year long career, Cabot has had a hand in legislation that has allowed foreign ownership of Las Vegas casinos.
A group of organizations in opposition to the Kentucky court proceedings in which 141 online casino gambling websites may be confiscated, participated in a discussion and press conference hosted by the personal freedoms body, the Bluegrass Institute.
A plethora of industry media and legal representatives attended, some of which were the Associated Press, iMEGA, the Poker Players Alliance, Americans for Tax Reform and the Media Freedom Project, Lexington television outs WTVQ and WAVE 3 TV, the Internet Commerce Association and local CBS, NBC and ABC representatives.
Among the arguments against the seizure, legal representatives have added that the US domain registrar GoDaddy had fully complied with an order previously made by the Frankfort Circuit Court to release a handful of domains while the case was pending. It has also been brought to light that the Kentucky Governor Beshear is practicing commercial protectionism in his attempt to hi-jack international internet gambling domains.
Edward James Leyden, an attorney representing iMEGA states, “Nobody has been as reckless as Kentucky has on this. Here’s how I react to it: Governor Beshear needs to read the Constitution.” Leyden noted the Kentucky lottery (sometimes played online) and the Kentucky state Internet-based horse race betting operation,TwinSpires.com.
“I guess the perception is it’s just out of staters and it’s just people who aren’t here in Kentucky, and then it’s a free ride,” added Leyden.
The Poker Players Alliance, one of the strongest and most active pressure groups in the industry, has sent some 1,800 letters from its members. The organization argues that poker should not be considered illegal gambling because it requires more skill than it does chance. The PPA has recommended that its members, when writing to State officials, maintain that “Poker is not gambling, nor is it a crime. Poker is a game of skill that was unfairly and improperly included in this action, and I request the immediate removal of the poker-only sites from your list of domains to seize.”
iMEGA is not satisfied with just the removal of online poker sites, however. Its website has posted a statement that reads, “Should the actions of Kentucky’s chief executive stand, the harm to Internet freedom would be immense. What a powerful weapon would be placed in the hands of government: to arbitrarily seize politically, religiously, or culturally-based Internet domains that may run contrary to the views of those in power.”
Derek Hunter of the Media Freedom Project told WTVQ, “This is a dangerous step in regulating what people can and cannot access on the Internet. Who is to guarantee it will stop here?”
Jim Waters of the Bluegrass Institute added, “What happens is being watched across the world. People in Kentucky haven’t even had the opportunity to express their views to elected officials.”
The proceedings will continue on Tuesday. Should the court rule in favor of the domain seizures, online casinos will sustain a crushing blow; not only in the loss of the US market, and the temporary closure to its overseas users, but also in the outrageous fines that Kentucky is demanding for the websites to begin operating again.
The multitude of defendants in the court proceedings against Kentucky has seized the opportunity to file briefs with the court, explaining their position on the attempt to seize 141 international online casino gambling domains.
One Lexington Attorney, William C. Hurt Jr. has filed his claim, stating however that the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet has the legal right to seize these domain names on grounds that they are “illegal gambling devices” and are therefore subject to Kentucky law. This presumptuous statement would imply that Kentucky law has jurisdiction even over domains that are licensed and operated out of foreign countries where online casino gambling is legal.
Defense attorneys have prepared rebuttals, saying that the use of the word device pertains to a “piece of equipment or a mechanism designed to serve a special purpose or perform a special function,” and that a domain name does not fall under this category.
Additionally, the super team contesting that the seizure is unconstitutional, have made efforts to gather and discuss the matter on Monday at the Capital Plaza Hotel in Frankfort. The group is headed by the Bluegrass Institute whose purpose is to research whether or not policy issues contribute to its ideals of limited government, economic prosperity and personal responsibility as defined by the founding fathers.
A Bluesgrass spokesperson told the Associated Press, “This is certainly moving in the wrong direction. This is unsound public policy. The Governor is trying to curb Internet gambling, but I don’t think he knows that the Kentucky Lottery allows second chance tickets to be played online. How hypocritical and inconsistent is that? In total, this is going to set a really bad precedent for other states and even other countries.”
The Poker Players Alliance has been more active than perhaps any other pressure group in the hearing, having already filed its briefs with the court.PPA members have challenged that online poker domains should be included in the list of potential domain seizures, as they contend that poker is a game of skill more than it is a game of chance.
Barry Kaufkins of the BG Daily News has had much to say on the issue as well, claiming that the Governor has supported other forms of gambling in the past, including his lobbying for more land casinos to be erected in Kentucky.
“Contrary to the governor’s claims, online poker is not illegal under Kentucky state law, and internet poker is fully regulated,” said Kaufkins. “Nor is it true that online poker is untaxed – poker income [as well as casino income] is taxed at the state and federal levels. The industry itself is not taxed because Kentucky chose to not levy a tax.
“The industry is not regulated by the Commonwealth only because Kentucky has chosen not to license and regulate [gambling] sites. Were Kentucky to do so, I believe the poker sites would jump at the opportunity and I fully support legislation to implement this.
“I am outraged that our governor feels he has the right to censor my online activities, to invade my privacy by regulating what I do in the sanctity of my own home. This kind of mommy government censorship is the kind of public policy I would expect in China, not in the United States.”
iMEGA (Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association) is far from finished with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, as the internet freedom pressure group has taken further legal action against the bill. Following the last hearing in which iMEGA was gained a good deal of political clout, the organization has filed its brief with the US Court of Appeal, 3rd Circuit, in the case of iMEGA vs. Keisler, et al. iMEGA intends to illustrate the unconstitutionality of the UIGEA by arguing the inability of banking institutions to enforce the bill, the unclear definition of illegal gambling, and the hypocrisy of the actual bill itself.
As has been said time and again, the UIGEA has prohibited financial systems from processing transactions between U.S. players and the online casinos gambling websites they use. The bill puts the unnecessary burden of enforcing the law on banking institutions that have no legal standing, training or capacity for.
“This is a very simple argument on which we ask the Court to overturn this law,” reports Joe Brennan Jr., CEO and chairman to iMEGA. “The UIGEA should be ‘void for vagueness,” in that Congress has not defined what an “unlawful internet gambling transaction” is, as they are required. Congress cannot delegate that necessary determination as to what is ‘lawful’ or ‘unlawful’ to US banks and credit card companies.
“The Department of Treasury, which has been tasked with drafting the regulations for UIGEA, has testified before Congress that they themselves cannot make that determination. Because Congress refused to draft necessary standards, the law is so inherently flawed as to make it totally vague and unenforceable, and we are confident that the Court will overturn it.”
iMEGA’s appeal is crucial to the industry, which has faced substantial losses from the US market following the UIGEA’s implementation. If the bill is overturned, the revenue that the US could generate from online casino gambling would equal around 6 billion per year; let alone the billions that would be saved in international trade disputes that the US is currently involved with.
The litigation follows a ruling by Judge Mary Cooper who gave iMEGA legal standing to fight the UIGEA on behalf of its members and the online gambling industry, although having previously dismissed their case.
The pressure group has enlisted the representation of lead counsel Eric M. Bernstien of Bernstien and Associates, Stephen A. Saltzburg of George Washington University School of Law and Edward J Leyden, iMEGA president and general counsel.
IGT in conjunction with WagerWorks has released a new slot game that it claims will offer online casino players 243 ways to win. The name of the game is Triple Fortune Dragon with 243 winning combinations over five reels.
For a wager of 25 Wagerworks credits, the internet casino gambling provider says its”MultiWay” betting platform provides for these impressive odds, according to a spokesperson for Wagerworks. Multiway has caught on in the land casino industry where it was initially introduced by IGT, and its popularity is growing quickly. Using this feature, gamers may wager on reel combinations instead of paylines. This is a rather novel concept to the market, and greatly increases a gamers odds in the game, as well as the skill level involved.
Following the Fortune Dragon theme, the slot game implements an Asian look and sound in order to add to the gaming experience. There is a 3×5 reel format which puts the maximum bet at 125 credits. Players stand to win a final prize pool of 250,000 GBP.
A Free Spin bonus is awarded to any player who scores at least three Golden Coins. The more Golden Coins that a player accumulates, the most the scatter pay award, and the greater the number of free spins. Any player lucky enough to achieve Five Golden Coins after investing the maximum bet of 125 credits will receive 6,000 credits and 25 free spins instantly.
Finally, if a player gets the Golden Dragon wild symbol in a free spin, a 3x multiplier will be added to the pot. If a player gets two Golden Dragon wild symbols, a 9x multiplier will be added. Using the free spins, players can accumulate more free spins and scatter pays. The maximum amount of free spins is 360.
