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With the regulatory environment easing in Europe, online betting and gaming operator 32Red looks to enter licensed markets, particularly Italy, and expects to surpass market estimates for 2011, its chief executive said.

32Red expects to post another set of record results for 2011, boosted by increased investment in marketing activities that has consistently yielded new casino customers.

"The business is definitely on a roll. We are investing more money in marketing at the topline and we are being more aggressive with our promotions, which are bringing in new players," Chief Executive Ed Ware told Reuters.

The company's marketing activities include broadcasting television advertising and sponsoring the Football League Championship team Swansea City.

Analysts on average were expecting it to post a full-year pretax profit of 2.1 million pounds ($3.3 million), on revenue of 22.1 million pounds, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company, which is licensed by the government of Gibraltar, said it would seek to become a licensed operator in the Italian market and prefer to be on the inside, lobbying governments rather than on the outside.

"We're only interested in regulated markets, which is why we're looking at Italy closely now because we think that could be an opportunity," said Ware, who owns a race horse and goes to UK during the racing season.

Several online gambling companies have been seeking to break national monopolies in a number of EU countries -- a lucrative market with revenues of 80 billion euros in 2010.

Ware said he would also be interested in obtaining a license in Spain, but was wary of the economic situation in the region.

Since mid-August the European central bank has buttressed debt management efforts in both Spain and Italy by buying roughly 70 billion euros of the countries' bonds.

CEO Ware, who started his career with bookmaker Ladbrokes', said he wouldn't rule out making acquisitions if the right opportunity came along.

"Ideally we would look for companies that would be on par with ourselves or slightly small," Ware said, adding that the online gaming industry would see more deals done in the future.

The company, whose biggest client base is in the UK, settled an infringement dispute in January with Britain's biggest operator of high street betting shops William Hill.

There have been news items from some East European countries this week. It is evident that like the bigger European Union Countries these smaller countries are keen on going their individual ways.

The Budapest Business Journal from Hungary reports that the cash starved government is proposing to increase the tax on online gambling and gambling in general from 2012. This intention to levy heavier taxes was announced in a parliamentary committee on Tuesday by National Economy Ministry Gyargy Matolcsy. In response to a question raised by a committee member, Matolcsy said the proposal for taxing online gambling was under preparation. He did not reveal any information on the amount of the increase but added that there could be some technical difficulties in levying the tax. Matolcsy also commented on the proposal to increase the tax on gambling in general. This would be given effect from November 1, 2011, the bill for which is already before Parliament.

The news from the Ukraine is positive for gambling. In 2009 a sudden and draconian ban on all gambling was imposed in the Ukraine. There are efforts to lift this ban. A Member of Parliament Oleg Tsarev has recently introduced Parliament Bill No. 9098, which proposes to legalize gambling again in the Eastern European country. However the good news will be restricted only to land casino gambling. Land casinos will be allowed in five-star hotels with at least sixty-three rooms, and four star hotels with a minimum of sixty rooms located in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea if the bill is passed. According to Tsarev this proposal will not cost the state anything, because the implementation will be carried out by the applicant operators. On the other hand the state will get increased revenues through investment and taxation. The supporters of this bill claim that the 2009 blanket ban on gambling has not served to diminish problem gambling. The state has lost revenue because the ban has driven gambling underground in the unregulated domain.

A spokesman from the Latvian Gaming Business Association stated that the unlicensed online gambling market in Latvia was worth €17.4 million in 2010 according to the Vostok Report. This statement was made by Arnis Marcinkaviaks in an interview with business information service provider Nozare. Using the casino and gambling codes applied to the payments an estimate was made of the payments made to online gambling sites by the residents of Latvia. The Latvian Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspection and the Ministry of Finance have reportedly drafted proposed changes to introduce an online gambling licensing regime in 2012 to take advantage of the prevalent online gambling.

It’s a damn funny show and boy did Modern Family clean up at the 2011 Emmy Awards show last night, after winning 5 top awards including “Outstanding Comedy Series” as well as “Best Supporting Actor” and “Best Supporting Actress.” While Modern Family did dominate the scene, it was this year’s host Glee’s Jane Lynch who kicked off the festivities and seemed to get a positive nod from critics and fans.

Another favorite of the evening was Mad Men who won another top award for, “Best Outstanding Drama Series,” for the fourth year in a row, beating out Dexter, Game of Thrones, The Good Wife and Friday Night Lights. There was no surprise there and not to say it wasn’t deserved but sometimes it’s good to see fresh faces taking over for the big dogs.

There were some surprises during the evening including actress Molly Flynn from Mike & Molly who walked away with the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series beating out comedy titans, Tina Fey from 30 Rock and Amy Poehler from Parks and Recreation as well as Edie Falco from Nurse Jackie and Laura Linney from The Big C.

No bigtime shocking moments, just Charlie Sheen’s controversial appearance since he was almost banned from appearing due to objections from his former bosses at Two and Half Men, but in the end he made a very low key appearance, even giving props to his ex-crew and the show’s producers.

Other winners for the evening favorites included The Daily Show, who walked away with two awards including Outstanding Comedy Series as well as a very special award which went out to Martin Scorsese for Outstanding Director for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire.

With the federal crackdown on Full Tilt Poker entering a new chapter today as prosecutors allege a massive Ponzi scheme, the scrutiny has already turned on the United States' own policy as a possible culprit in the alleged nine-digit scam. But as the pressure ramps back up to legalize and regulate online gambling at home, more and more nations abroad have recently started adopting legalized online gaming of their own, and the United States risks getting left behind.

At Reuters, Felix Salmon wrote on Tuesday, "in a weird way, strict anti-gambling regulations in the US are responsible for this fiasco. If poker sites were legal and regulated, we could trust the regulator — an arm of the US government — to protect gamblers’ funds." It's not for lack of effort on the part of the gambling lobby that there isn't such an enforcement arm. Back in May, a panel at the East Coast Gaming Congress decided that the Internet was definitely the future for their industry, estimating that "the potential annual revenue from legalized Internet gambling in the U.S. at nearly $80 billion," according to the Associated Press. That report pointed to legislation in the works to legalize online gambling, which Gov. Chris Christie vetoed earlier in May. In Nevada, the state gaming commission has already drawn up regulations for online gambling in anticipation of a federal law allowing it. When that law might come along is still anyone's guess, though lobbyists are pushing hard for it.

Meanwhile, jurisdictions outside the United States are increasingly saying yes to online gaming. On Tuesday, Denmark legalized it, in a decision the Financial Times suggested may be a bellweather for European Union nations hoping to regulate the practice. The Danish rule specifies a 20 percent tax on online gaming, as opposed to a 75 percent tax on land-based casinos. According to a Reuters story from Monday, the Gibralter-based online casino 32Red is looking to expand into newly open markets, in particular Italy, which legalized the practice in 2006.

On Monday, the American Gaming Association released a promotional video to accompany its lobbying push, comparing online gambling in the United States to the wild west. But Salmon and others say the latest allegations have probably made a U.S. law regulating online gambling even more unlikely, despite the wisdom in having one. Meanwhile, as the Wall Street Journal points out, Full Tilt's former players say they're owed some $160 million, and outside their online petition seeking payment, they don't have much recourse to retrieve the funds, at least until after the U.S. completes its case. That's a lot of money lost, and a lot of customers probably too burned to risk it again, in the United States or elsewhere.

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email]ftsales-support@ft-com[/email] to buy additional rights. EU ruling opens up Danish gambling online - FT-com

Denmark has been given the green light to establish a market for online gambling by the European Commission in a ruling that, operators say, points the way to how other European countries should regulate the activity.

The commission investigated Denmark’s plans to introduce lower taxes for online gambling than for land-based casinos after complaints from some existing gambling operators that the proposals amounted to state aid. High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email]ftsales-support@ft-com[/email] to buy additional rights. EU ruling opens up Danish gambling online - FT-com

Denmark’s Gaming Duties Act proposes that operators offering online casino and gaming machines be subject to a 20 per cent tax on gross gaming revenues – the amount they retain after paying out winnings – compared with the 75 per cent duty imposed on some land-based casinos.

The commission said while the lower rate did constitute state aid, it was compatible with European Union rules “because the positive effects of the liberalisation of the market outweigh the distortions of competition brought about by the measure”.

The Remote Gambling Association, which represents online operators, said there were clear and justifiable reasons to have different tax rates between the land-based and online forms of gambling.

Clive Hawkswood of the RGA said: “In essence, land-based operations compete within physical national boundaries, whereas online companies are part of a highly-competitive international environment, and fiscal policy should be set accordingly.

“Obviously, this has implications for other jurisdictions and their fiscal policies, both those that have opened their markets and those that are planning to do so in the near future.”

Betfair, the UK-based exchange operator, which plans to apply for a Danish market, welcomed the commission’s ruling.

“Denmark’s new regulation is a great example of what modern-day gambling legislation should look like across Europe,” said Martin Cruddace of Betfair.

“It is structured in a manner that will provide the Danish government, consumers and international operators with the benefits that only a transparent, safe and competitive online gambling market can bring.”

But the European Lotteries, the umbrella body on the continent for national lotteries, said it deplored the commission’s ruling, saying the commission appeared to view liberalisation of online gambling as more important than “the substantial risk for gambling addiction”.

It said comparable taxation for online and offline gambling operations in Denmark would have been a preferable way to make online gambling legal while at the same preventing addiction.

Two councilmembers want to repeal a law that would allow internet gambling in the District, kicking off what may be a contentious battle over a controversial initiative.

Councilmembers Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) and Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) will introduce legislation at a D.C. Council session today that would repeal and prohibit the iGaming measure surreptitiously slipped into a budget bill late last year, provoking complaints over the security and wisdom of the idea. Concerns related to how the measure was introduced and the lack of public debate forced the D.C. Lottery Commission to postpone public hearings that were scheduled for August and caused Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) to ask the D.C. Inspector General to look into the measure.

Councilmember Michael Brown (I-At-Large), who introduced the proposal and has been under fire since, defended himself and the idea in a four-page letter to his colleagues late last week, reports the Post. In the letter, Brown argued that legislation was introduced normally, that it would be safe from hackers, that it wouldn't prey upon poor residents, that the terminals wouldn't be located in libraries and recreation centers, and that no conflicts of interest existed between him and his former employer, a lobbying firm that works with online gambling clients.

Brown defended iGaming as a "viable revenue enhancing vehicle to secure our social safety net and balance our budget during a time of fiscal crisis."

If you've always had a thing for those sexy PETA ads, you're just about to get uber excited. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is planning to launch a porn website, peta.xxx, to promote its animal rights campaign, a move that could mean the end of their mainstream audience. The group has had huge success in the past getting celebrity endorsements including Alicia Silverstone, Kim Kardashian, Bethenny Frankel and more.

The site will feature pornographic video and images that will take viewers to a message about being ethical to animals – something everyone wants to hear during the heat of passion. PETA spokesperson Lindsay Rajt says this way, PETA will reach a more perverted broader audience.

"I think the bottom line is we live a in a 24-hour news cycle where over the years we've found our racier actions are kind of a fast track way to get people to stand up and pay attention about the plight of animals," Rajt added.

Rajt said PETA would be tracking the site to determine whether people are viewing the animal rights messages and not just the nudity. Umm we're gonna take a wild guess and say that after watching girl-on-girl action, porn viewers won't be sticking around for the message about chicken decapitation. Just a thought.

This isn't exactly new territory for PETA, however. They have been using sexy marketing campaigns to garner attention for years now and have even drawn criticism from women's rights groups. Their use of naked women to sell their message gets racier each year.

"We're hoping to reach a whole new audience of people, some of whom will be shocked by graphic images that maybe they didn't anticipate seeing when they went to the PETA triple-X site," Rajt said.

What do you think? Does sex sell enough that you'll stop eating steak? Do you want to see some naked action spliced in with animal suffering? Sound off in our comments section!

Federal charges that some of his online poker buddies are running a $444 million Ponzi scheme haven’t caused U.S. Rep. Barney Frank to stop his push to legalize online gambling, but the Newton Democrat said he’ll take $18,600 in campaign contributions from an indicted trio out of the pot and return it to victims if the men are found guilty.

“I was very disappointed to hear of the allegations,” said Frank, referring to accusations that campaign donors Howard Lederer, Rafael Furst and Chris Ferguson of Full Tilt Poker defrauded online players of millions of dollars.

“But it doesn’t change my views,” Frank said. “If anything, it strengthens them. Online gambling should be legal, so government can regulate it.” Critics yesterday blasted Frank and others, including Sen. Harry Reid and President Obama, for taking money associated with an illegal business. Frank also drew fire for taking donations from an industry that he would regulate.

“Frank should refund every nickel of the tens of thousands in campaign donations linked to online gambling,” said state GOP spokesman Tim Buckley. “It appears Mr. Frank is another congressman willing to associate with criminals.”

Frank, who sponsored a 2007 bill to legalize online gambling, said he would put donations from Lederer, Furst and Ferguson into a special account and donate it to a fund for victims if the Justice Department sets one up — and if the men are found guilty.

But Frank said he sees no reason to return tens of thousands in contributions from others affiliated with Full Tilt or the online gambling industry — even though the offshore Web sites have been illegal here since 2006.

Frank compared it to the Prohibition era, calling the Full Tilt probe a waste of law enforcement resources: “The U.S. attorneys haven’t done enough about mortgage fraud. They should be spending less time on full houses and more time on empty houses.”

Sheila Krumholz of the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics said, “There’s certainly the potential for conflict of interest here, and this is an illegal industry.”

She noted Frank was the top recipient of campaign cash from the Poker Players Alliance Political Action Committee, which received hefty contributions from the three accused men, in the past two election cycles. “He’s clearly on their radar screen as someone they need to befriend.”

“Rep. Frank may be taking contributions from backers of an ‘illegal industry,’ but he’s not alone,” Krumholz said. “Other such industries — casinos, liquor and gun manufacturers — also play the Washington influence game, but this one is still illegal. And Frank’s donors associated with Full Tilt Poker’s alleged Ponzi scheme certainly doesn’t help matters.”

Ireland will publish new gambling laws early next year to bring online operators into the tax net and cap the size and number of casinos, the Minister for Justice said.

Gambling on horse-racing and sporting fixtures is hugely popular in Ireland, and punters are increasingly using the Internet to place their bets. But current gambling laws date from 1931 and 1956.

"The shortcomings in the current law, for example, the absence of any regulation of on-line gambling, are exposing young people and other vulnerable persons to unacceptable risks," Justice Minister Alan Shatter said in a statement.

"The exchequer is also being short-changed because of the absence of a taxation regime for on-line and other forms of remote gambling."

The new law, which will be presented to government next spring, will provide for the licensing of online operators, ensuring they are brought into the tax code.

Currently, Irish bookmaker Paddy Power pays tax on its online operations in the Isle of Man, where its servers are based.

A spokesman for the company, which made almost as much profit through its website and mobile phone applications in the first half of this year as it did overall in the first half of 2010, said it was happy to pay additional taxes as long as they were applied fairly.

"It's the policing of the legislation that is the most important thing. Irish and international players need to be taxed equally," he said.

The law will give the minister for justice full supervisory, inspection and enforcement powers over betting shops and gaming arcades, replacing the current system, which splits the licensing and supervision between the minister for justice and the minister for finance.

The legislation will permit moderately sized casinos but not large, resort-style operations.

"The government feels it would not be acting in the public interest if through the forthcoming legislation it encouraged or facilitated the larger developments in the face of such real and substantial doubts about their viability."

The legislation may give the government the power to impose a levy to support treatment facilities for problem gamblers but such a provision would only be activated if funds established by the operators themselves for such facilities were inadequate.

European Union regulators approved Denmark's new online gambling taxes on Tuesday, paving the way for the northern European country to continue with the liberalisation of its gaming industry.

'Complies with EU rules'

The European Commission said in a statement Tuesday that its in-depth investigation found that a law removing some restrictions on gambling in Denmark, which also means online casinos pay lower taxes than land-based casinos, complies with EU rules.

The Danish gambling laws are compatible with EU rules "because the positive effects of the liberalisation of the market outweigh the distortions of competition brought about by the measure," the regulator of the 27-nation European Union said.

Denmark sets example

Online gambling operators and interest groups were full of praise for the Danish initiative, saying that it sets an example for other European nations to follow.

A spokesman for UK-based betting company Betfair, which is planning to apply for a Danish license, said its regulation will is "a great example of what modern-day gambling legislation should look like across Europe." He added that it is structured to provide Danish consumers and international operators with the benefits of a safe, transparent and competitive online gambling market.

However, National lotteries body European Lotteries seemed not to see the benefits of the law, slamming the commission for favouring liberalisation of online gambling over what it called "the substantial risk for gambling addiction." The lotteries body said online and offline gambling operations should have been taxed equally.

Apparently slick basketball moves and ballroom dancing don’t quite mix, as L.A. Laker Ron Artest a.k.a. “Metta World Peace” found out last night during the Dancing With the Stars Season 13 opener, where his cha-cha performance didn't seem to be a hit with judges or with fans, after he and his partner Peta Murgatroyd were the first to be sent home.

It was judge Len Goodman who said that Artest’s footwork was atrocious and something along the lines of being “all sizzle and no sausage.” Artest hit the dance floor with a look reminiscent of Dennis Rodman, with bleach blonde hair and flashy satin sequins number that unfortunately didn’t help his performance.

The dancing duo were the first to perform and although they received a low score of 14 points, they seemed to remain hopeful but unfortunately it just wasn’t their night.

Others who competed during the evening included Rob Kardashian, the little brother of the Kardashian clan who brought along his own personal support group including his sisters Khloe and Kim, the two girls that wouldn’t miss a photo op for the world. Others competing during Season 13 of Dancing with the Stars includes David Arquette, Carson Kressley, Chaz Bono, Chynna Phillips, Clooney’s ex- Elizabeth Canalis and Nancy Grace among others.

Who will be next on the Dancing with the stars chopping block? Find these and other entertainment props at Bodog Sports.

Bet on the latest entertainment props at Bodog Sports anytime you feel the need to dive into the Hollywood scene. Get your celebrity kicks at Bodog Sports today!

Have you seen this site: La plus grande partie du monde au Kentucky ?

It’s a Global Incident Map, it’s updated every 310 seconds and it shows areas of concern regarding terrorism, nuclear incidents, hijackings, etc.

In America - a settlement between the US Department of Justice and certain European online gambling operators may be in sight just over two years after the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Until now - negotiations with the likes of operators *Sportingbet* and *PartyGaming* had been making painfully slow progress. This was due to the stance taken by the Department of Justice that all money made before the passage of UIGEA should be repatriated along with short spells in prison for certain company officials..........

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Congressman Barney Frank still supports legalizing online gambling despite federal indictments against three campaign donors for allegedly running a $444 million online poker Ponzi scheme, the Boston Herald reports.

Frank, a Newton Democrat whose district includes Sharon, told the Herald he'll give $18,600 from his campaign – the total donations from Howard Lederer, Rafael Furst and Chris Ferguson – to the victims if the trio is convicted.

The men's Full Tilt Poker allegedly "defrauded online players of millions of dollars," the Herald reports.

"I was very disappointed to hear of the allegations," Frank told the Herald.

"But it doesn't change my views. If anything, it strengthens them. Online gambling should be legal, so government can regulate it."

The D.C. Council will not consider a bill that would repeal first-in-the-nation efforts to implement online gambling in the District until the completion of community meetings on the controversial program.

Council member Jack Evans, Ward 2 Democrat and chairman of the Committee on Finance and Revenue, said he will not call a hearing to approve i-Gaming — or consider the newly introduced legislation to get rid of it — until the public has a chance to weigh in on the initiative this fall.

“The whole shebang, that’s how we’re going to deal with it,” Mr. Evans said.

The D.C. Lottery committed to meetings in all eight wards of the city after a hearing in Mr. Evans' committee in June, when a citizens group and other critics testified the measure was not properly vetted before it was placed in a supplemental budget bill in December. Initial meetings were scheduled and then postponed over complaints about the late-summer dates.

Mr. Evans said his eventual hearing will include any input from the D.C. inspector general about i-Gaming and how the council awarded the underlying lottery contract about two years ago. The council member himself is subject to a subpoena in a lawsuit over the contract, but he believes the council’s attorney will be able to quash it.

“I don’t have much to say, anyway,” Mr. Evans said, noting it would set a bad precedent for calling government officials to depositions. He said the issue will not cloud his ability to preside over hearings on i-Gaming.

The lottery initially planned to introduce six games, including poker and blackjack, in September. Although it has legal authority to implement the program, it has pledged not to move forward until community interests are satisfied.

Council members Tommy Wells, Ward 6 Democrat, and Phil Mendelson, at-large Democrat, introduced a bill on Tuesday to repeal the part of the law that authorizes i-Gaming. Council member David A. Catania, at-large independent, signaled from the dais that he would co-sponsor the bill.

“This legislation will allow us, the public, to have the conversation that we didn’t have last year, and give us the chance to weigh the pros and cons in full daylight before making a decision about whether or not this makes sense for the residents of the District of Columbia,” Mr. Wells said.

Mr. Wells said he is not sure how the rest of his colleagues at City Hall feel about the issue.

“I haven’t walked the building yet,” he said.

D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown told The Washington Times this month he must thoroughly review the bill before commenting on it. However, his overall stance on games of chance is clear.

“Any form of gambling, I oppose it,” he said.

At least one council member, Michael A. Brown, is a clear proponent of the measure. Mr. Brown, at-large independent, introduced the i-Gaming legislation into the budget bill and defended it in a “Dear Colleagues” letter last week that sought to clear up any misconceptions about the program.

Mr. Brown reiterated that the program has, in fact, been passed into law, and his colleagues have not jumped to strike it down. “One person raised their hand,” he said of co-sponsors for the repeal.

Mr. Brown has touted the program as a “win-win” way to generate revenue for the District while regulating a hobby that goes on, illegally, on offshore websites.

Critics say the program was sneaked into the budget bill last year. They are also concerned about the effect of online gambling addiction on city residents who do not have disposable income.

Either way, D.C. residents will not be opening their wallets until the lottery schedules its town-hall-style meetings.

“If they don’t,” Mr. Evans said, “we’re not going to have a hearing until they do.”

It's this blogger's humble opinion that everyone needs to get over the fact that Jennifer Aniston is Brad Pitt's jilted ex-wife. Yeah, so he cheated on her with Angelina Jolie. It happens. In fact, it happens a lot in Hollywood but after a certain number of years, it's time to move on. Despite tabloid rumors constantly raving that they're on the brink of a common-law split, Brad and Angelina seem happy and in love.

Aniston, on the other hand, can't seem to let it go. In every single interview she's done – even years later – she brings up the Brad and Angelina debacle. After Pitt talked to Parade magazine, the media was up in arms about a quote of Pitt's where he said that he wasn't "living an interesting life" during his marriage to Aniston.

A clearly frustrated Pitt went on the Today show to clear the air and noted, "there should be a statue of limitations on this stuff."

"All I know is that my point was, the best thing I'd done as a father is be sure that my kids have a good mother," Pitt told Matt Lauer. "That's all I was, or am, trying to say. It has no reference to the past. And I think it's a shame that I can't say something nice about Angie without Jen being drug in. You know, she doesn't deserve it

When Lauer offered to read a section of the article, Pitt threw up his hands.

"Please don't!" he said. He added that he doesn't read that stuff and it's a much healthier place to be.

What do you think? Was Brad taken out of context? Do you want to put the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie-Jennifer Aniston triangle to bed? Feel like betting on entertainment? Bet on our Dancing with the Stars odds in the Bodog Sportsbook today.

Denmark has gained approval for their plan to regulate online gambling, despite the fact that it would give online casinos some competitive advantages over their land-based counterparts.

The European Commission investigated the Danish law, called the Gaming Duties Act. Under the legislation, online gambling sites would owe 20% of their gross revenues (after paying out winnings) in taxes; meanwhile, some brick-and-mortar establishments in Denmark pay 75% in taxes.

According to casino operators, this would amount to state aid, as it means that some casinos (namely, the online casinos) would be receiving significantly lower tax rates than others.

Interestingly, the European Commission actually agreed with the casino operators on this point – while still giving approval to the legislations.

“The positive effects of the liberalization of the market outweigh the distortions of competition brought about by the measure,” the commission said.

The ruling was praised by the Remote Gambling Association, which represents operators of online gambling sites. They argued that while land-based casinos were tied to a geographic area, online casinos had to compete with competitors around the world, thus making the market much more competitive, and requiring lower tax rates.

Meanwhile, other groups such as European Lotteries found fault with the ruling, suggesting that the liberalization of the online gambling market would lead to more harm than good due to likely increases in gambling addiction.

Denmark will now be the latest European nation to offer licenses to online gambling operators who wish to market themselves to players in their country. This is the same plan that has been implemented in France, Italy, and several other European markets. At least one German state is also looking to license and regulate online gambling, with others expected to follow suit.

There are two news items on online gambling that will have a negative impact. One deals with law and the other with taxation.

In Romania, the government has announced a new anti online gambling regulation that will lead to the censorship of the Internet. Under this law the regulatory body nominated to control online gambling in Romania will have the power to identify and blacklist web sites that are allegedly providing unauthorized gambling activities to the citizens. The blacklisted web sites will also include those that provide links as a marketing, advertising or promotional activity to unauthorized gambling. The regulatory body will send the blacklists to the Ministry of Communication, which will issue blocking orders to Romanian Internet Service Providers, who will have to take the required action within 12 hours on pain of heavy fines. The even more controversial aspect of this regulation is that it does not require the Internet Service Providers to inform targeted websites that they have been, or are about to be, blocked. There is no provision for judicial oversight. The regulation was promulgated at the end of August 2011. However, legal experts point out that under current Romanian legislation, there is no specific obligation for Internet Service Providers to comply with such regulation.

That Ireland has been contemplating taxation of online gambling has been in the news for some time. This week the minister for justice, Alan Shatter, announced that new gambling laws scheduled for publication early 2012 will bring online operators into the tax net. This move has been initiated taking into account the growing numbers of online gambling players. Explaining the reasons for the new gambling laws, Shatter said that because of the absence of regulation of online gambling, young people and vulnerable persons are being exposed to unacceptable risks. He added, "The Exchequer is also being short-changed because of the absence of a taxation regime for online and other forms of remote gambling." Shatter did not reveal any details on the new tax. The speculation within the online gambling industry is that the proposals will empower the government to include a levy to support treatment facilities for problem gamblers. This provision would only be activated if funds established by the online gambling operators themselves for such facilities were insufficient.

Ireland's largest and extremely profitable online gambling operator, Paddy Power, has based its online operations in the Isle of Man jurisdiction, where a moderate tax regime prevails. A spokesman for the company said it was happy to pay additional taxes as long as they were applied fairly. "It's the policing of the legislation that is the most important thing. Irish and international players need to be taxed equally," he said.

Hugh Jackman involved in a WWE smackdown? Yeah, that’s right, the Hollywood star was a guest host on WWE’s Monday Night Raw, where things seemed to get a bit out of hand leading to Hugh jumping into the right and knocking out top wrestler Dolph Ziggler. According to sources he caused some serious damage, a hairline fracture to be exact. We know how wrestling works, it was all staged but has Hugh developed a new talent?

Jackman was hosting Monday Night Raw out in Cleveland, Ohio, in an effort to promote his upcoming robot boxing flick “Real Steel” and it was while he stood in the ring welcoming fans that superstar wrestler Dolph Ziggler began talking trash and starting trouble.

According to a WWE interview with Jackman, he just wanted to be there to host the show and promote his new movie, and as he went on talking he seemed to annoy the heck out of Dolph Ziggler who then entered the ring and began trash talking. It wasn’t until later, when Jackman’s “friend,” wrestler Zach Ryder, was being brutally abused, in a WWE kind of way, that Jackman got fired up and entered the ring to punch Dolph, who claimed he received a hairline fracture.

Did this really go down? Oh yeah, it did and Dolph even tweeted about the whole thing being real but in true WWE spirit, it was all staged.

TEN bank accounts held in Irish financial insititutions have been cited in the legal action being taken by prosecutors in New York who claim that Full Tilt Poker, the global online gaming business, is not a legitimate company but a global Ponzi scheme that defrauded hundreds of millions of dollars from online card players.

The financial accounts are held in National Irish Bank (5), Allied Irish Bank (2), Irish Permanent Treasury (2), and Bank of Scotland Ireland (1), and are identified in a complaint filed in the Southern District of New York.

At the same time, there are fears for hundreds of jobs at Cherrywood in Dublin, where Pocket Kings provides IT customer services and marketing for Full Tilt Poker.

Full Tilt Poker, the owner of Pocket Kings, paid its board members more than $440m (€326m) with money that should have been held back to pay winnings to online poker players, US prosecutors have claimed. Prosecutors last week asked that the latest allegations be added to charges of illegal gambling, bank fraud, and money laundering first levelled against executives at the company in April.

Full Tilt Poker has denied the claims made by the US Justice Department on Wednesday that the online poker site was a massive "global Ponzi scheme". They claimed that the issues may have been the result of mismanagement, not malice, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

"While the government has obviously taken issue with the underlying activities of FTP, under any reasonable interpretation, the worldwide operations of the online cardroom are not a so-called Ponzi scheme," said Ian Imrich, an attorney for Full Tilt owner and board member Chris "Jesus" Ferguson.

US prosecutors have accused self-styled "Poker Professor" Howard Lederer and professional poker champion Christopher Ferguson along with other Full Tilt directors of paying themselves more than $440m (€326m), while defrauding other players.

Raymond Bitar, a Full Tilt director, also was named in the federal court motion. Bitar, a former equities trader has residency in both the US and Ireland.

He regularly worked in Cherrywood but employees who spoke to the Reuters news agency said they hadn't seen him in some time.

Manhattan attorney Preet Bharara said in legal papers filed last Tuesday that Full Tilt "cheated and abused its own players to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars", and that "insiders lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited with the company".

The US government alleges that Full Tilt executives misled the website's players, telling them that the money the company was supposed to be holding in their accounts was safe.

"In reality, Full Tilt Poker did not maintain funds sufficient to repay all players, and, in addition, the company used player funds to pay board members and other owners more than $440m since April 2007," Bharara said.

The papers include details and identity numbers of more than 70 accounts held all over the world, including the 10 in Ireland.