Let your mouth speak archive

Dennis Rodman is at it again. The former basketball star's foray into international affairs continues this week as he returns to North Korea under the somewhat dubious and self-appointed moniker of "basketball diplomat." There are obvious drawbacks to having a reportedly unstable former basketball star serve as the primary point-man in one of the most idiosyncratic international relationships of the day. But Rodman's second trip has a decidedly less academic feel than his first, sponsored by Vice Media. Instead, Rodman has donned a black baseball cap from a new sponsor, Irish bookmaker Paddy Power (PDYPF), and has renounced all speculation that the trip has any political implications.

We could easily spend all day analyzing this story. Just from a business perspective, it represents an important phenomenon playing out in international markets - the globalization of online gambling. The fact that North Korea is being used by Paddy Power for a bit of publicity is particularly inane. The communist dictatorship is hardly known for displays of wealth outside of official government pageantry, and life is so hard there for many that as recently as the 1990s roughly a tenth of the country's population starved to death each year. Regardless of the delicacy (or lack thereof) in their advertising practices, purveyors of online gambling have had an amazing year. Net revenue for Paddy Power for instance, went up 22% this year. Earnings in the UK and Europe are more robust than in the United States, where online gambling has only been legalized in a handful of states. Online gambling is more established in Europe, although some are speculating that many of the largest firms, including GVC (GMVHF) and William Hill (WIMHF) - are likely to see profits dip as their governments institute new taxes. However, others see even more growth prospects in this sector, pointing to what will likely be a highly lucrative partnership between Paddy Power and Facebook (F😎 - the most explicit partnership between social networking and online gambling to date. Paddy Power and Facebook's alliance has got to be troubling to American firms like Zynga (ZNGA) and SHFL Entertainment (SHFL) – both of which have made huge investments by buying up patents and mobile gaming technology. Paddy Power, which allows its users to bet on anything from football matches to the sex of the royal baby, is not really a gaming concern. However, it's not hard to see the potential growth in combining bookies with social networking, as geographically isolated fans will soon be able to bet on their favorite sports against users from across the world. This could possibly explain the allure of a Dennis Rodman sponsorship, whose fame and tabloid-readiness will give the Irish firm new American visibility.

Online gambling is estimated to raise over $400 million for New Jersey alone in its first year, a cash-cow that other states will find difficult to ignore. New laws are already being introduced in California and Mississippi. The question of whether online gambling will take off is not a matter of "if" but simply "when?" And an even more fascinating question arises – who will get the biggest slice of the pie, the companies with the biggest names, the most social media customers, or the best hardware?

Will American firms start to cash in on online gambling? Use the interactive list below to begin your own analysis.



Online Gambling Stocks: Will the US Cash In? | Kapitall Wire

The market for the services to make online gambling a reality in the USA are in high demand, so when a high profile player in the internet wagering world chooses a service provider investors take notice.

The bwin.party digital entertainment firm is decidedly one of the players in the new online gambling market being established in Nevada New Jersey and Delaware. The firm is the world's largest publicly traded online gambling firm, and it is best known for its online poker room PartyPoker-com and its sports betting brand bwin. It is headquartered in Gibraltar and quoted on the London Stock Exchange. Bwin.party digital managed a net income of € 24.9 million in 2012.

Bwin has chosen CAMS,LLC headquartered in Los Angeles, California to provide age verification & identification services for them in America. CAMS is a multi-tenant Software as a Service solution powered by Verifi, Inc. which offers gambling operators the ability to collect and manage player information, and assist with monitoring and complying with regulation policies. The company also facilitates player account limit disbursement and payout management along with taxation all within a white label solution customizable for each site.

CAMS Chief Executive Officer, Matthew Katz commented, "This partnership is another significant step in the global advancement of Internet Gambling. CAMS supports the creation of a safe & secure payment environment for casinos, lotteries, regulators, & players & helps meet or exceed regulatory & compliance requirements," added Katz continued, "We are excited & honored at the opportunity to assist one of the world's largest online gaming companies, bwin.party, to help streamline their highly regulated & complex operation with customer age & identification services."

Guy Duncan , Group Director of Product & Technology for bwin.party digital entertainment also commented on the arrangement, "Working with CAMS enables bwin.party to realize a significant reduction in player verification costs," Duncan added, "This level of efficiency & innovation is fast becoming the industry standard. We look forward to developing a long-term relationship with CAMS."


Verifier CAMS Online Gambling's bwin.party's Choice in America

The British gambling industry traditionally made a point of being there with bells on when ever there was a need for a punt. In the U.K. the big operators are William Hill and of course Ladbrokes along with about thirty or more gambling firms in the U.K.so it’s no wonder why these firms are looking to expand to other jurisdictions.
The USA is experiencing the British invasion of experienced online gambling operators.
While America is coming around as a destination to grow to there are so many other new locals that the regulated online gambling industry is entering.
The way the William Hill organization is going about expanding is by acquiring properties in faraway places such as Australia that already have the infrastructure and client base necessary to build a new market. The recent purchase of the home grown Tom Waterhouse online gambling company for an estimated $110m Australian dollars is a significant start after its acquisition of the Sportingbet Australian sector for $670m AUS.

The Ladbrokes gambling operator has followed a similar road by buying the parent firm of bookmaker Bookmaker-com.au and the Brisbane based sports and racing marketing company Panda Gaming. Panda for example is building over 2,500 highly targeted sports and racing focused websites. Their portfolio of successful portals cover every Australian sporting event from weekly football matches to the Melbourne Cup.

Ladbrokes did well for itself in 2012 it made £190.3 million with its 1400 employees making the well oiled betting machine work well. Ladbrokes has to keep up with other operators that are already well entrenched in the Australian such as Sportingbet, Ireland's Paddy Power and Australia's Tabcorp. The Australian online gambling market is estimated to be worth around $6 billion AUS. annually.

Richard Glynn, CEO of Ladbrokes said the move was in keeping with the firm’s chosen strategy to extend its geographic reach to other key regulated markets.



Australian Online Gambling Welcomes Ladbrokes

The doors have been officially shuttered at Planet Hollywood’s Gallery Nightclub. Rumors ran rampant during Labor Day Weekend, and a Caesars Entertainment official told me this afternoon: “Planet Hollywood can confirm that Gallery Nightclub has closed. We are currently evaluating exciting options for what will replace this space and will be in touch soon regarding plans.”

Joe Vargas of KingofNightclubs-com was the first to break the story as I started receiving emails from employees that they’d been told not to report to work. (Our Editor at Large John Katsilometes also tweeted the news Sunday after verifying the closing with a hotel official.) Joe told me: “Some employees showed up to work to find out the club was closed with no warning. Systems and alcohol were pulled out from the club after Saturday’s final night, and everything was gone by Monday morning. Employees were shocked it was so sudden. They had no idea it was closing.”

Joe told me that he’d spoken to employees who reported that Gaming Control Board officials were there five times before the shutdown. My request for a statement from Billy Richardson’s Block 16 Hospitality, which ran Gallery, has gone unanswered. Employees say they’ve been promised their final paychecks Wednesday.

It’s rumored that there were major disagreements between the hotel and the club over its hard-core hip-hop entertainment attractions and patrons who lined up in the casino. “They wanted a more diverse demographic that was more in keeping with the hotel guests rather than in conflict with them,” I was told.

On Joe’s nightclub site, you can read more on that war between the club operators and hotel execs. He tells me he’s heard that the attached, one-time Pussycat Dolls Burlesque Saloon with its mezzanine entrance will be used for banquets and hotel functions for now.

By mid-afternoon today, all references to Gallery as a nightlife attraction had been removed from Planet Hollywood’s website. Nightlife insiders note that this is the first club to fold since the opening of Hakkasan at MGM Grand and Daylight and Light at Mandalay Bay, and they ask which two others mid-Strip are struggling.



Gallery Nightclub closes at Planet Hollywood; Caesars Entertainment evaluating options for Strip space - Las Vegas Sun News

Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ:WYNN) recently applied for an online gambling license in the state of New Jersey, which legalized online gambling in February this year. [1] Online gambling accounts for only 3.3% of overall gambling profits in the U.S. and can offer tremendous growth for the operators in the coming years.

In the recent quarterly earnings, the company saw muted growth in Macau while its domestic operations surged 16%, including some signs of recovery on the Las Vegas Strip. (Read – Wynn Q2 2013 Numbers Disappoint As Growth In Macau Stalls) While we continue to believe in the Macau growth story, online gambling can boost Wynn’s overall revenues. An economic recovery and higher consumer spending will also aid overall gambling growth in the U.S


Online Gambling In New Jersey

New Jersey legalized online gambling and the regulators plan to go live with the legal intrastate betting sites by the end of this year. Apart from New Jersey, Delaware has fully regulated online gambling while Nevada had legalized online poker since the end of last year. Unlike Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware legalized most of the Internet casino games. While Delaware intends to only allow residents in the state’s jurisdiction to bet on the online sites, New Jersey wants to authorize intrastate betting with other states that legalized online gambling. The New Jersey law requires online casino operators to partner with an Atlantic City casino, and share revenues generated online with the brick and mortar establishments. [1] Interestingly, Wynn had built the Boardwalk’s southernmost hotel-casino, which opened as the Golden Nugget Atlantic City in 1980, and was sold for $440 million in 1987. Since then, the property has had six different ownership groups and six different names. Given the state requirement of a local partner, Wynn may try to negotiate with the Atlantic Club and diversify out of the Las Vegas Strip.

How Big Is The Market?

The global gambling market is worth around $417 billion this year and online gaming accounts for a fraction of it. [2] Online gambling is slowly but steadily growing in the U.S. According to research by H2 Gambling Capital with the exception of lottery and skill-based games, regulated real-money online gambling already generates up to $30 billion in gross wins globally. [3] If things go according to current expectations, the U.S. is poised to earn gross winnings of over $7.4 billion by 2017, representing around 30% of the global online gaming market with continuous growth expected annually. Clearly, Wynn sees tremendous growth opportunity in this arena and wants to capitalize on it.

The Growth In New Jersey

Online gaming revenue forecasts for New Jersey range from $225 million to $1.2 billion in the first year. The average estimate is around $412 million. [4] The growth opportunity is huge for online gambling. Given Wynn’s size and cash balance, it would be easy for Wynn to purchase an existing casino in the Atlantic City that has many struggling casinos. This wold not only give Wynn a casino outside the Las Vegas Strip, but it could also offer online gambling that could bring in millions of dollars in the coming years. While there is still a lot of speculation around Wynn’s plans, it will be interesting to see if Wynn manages to get a license in the state and if it decides to partner with anyone in Atlantic City.


Wynn Eyes Online Gambling Growth Potential -- Trefis

Actor Mikael Daez on portraying a gay role in a future project: “We’re (Filipinos) among those who are very open and accepting of gays and lesbians. I’ve always accepted this as a way of life. For me, a role—be it heterosexual or homosexual—is still something that needs to be given justice to. I don’t mind doing a gay role.”

Read more: Mikael Daez open to gay roles | Inquirer Entertainment
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Let's just jump right in, shall we?

How do you solve a problem like Syria?

If you are the POTUS, the answer to that question seems to involve off-shore surface-to-air Tomahawk missiles. Some people prefer that the U.S. would step up humanitarian aid. The Senate foreign relations committee, in a 10-7 vote (with one "present vote), passed authorization for the limited use of force in Syria following an alleged chemical weapon attack on civilians (including children) delivered from the Assad regime. See Bryan Cones' comments on that whole situation here.

Of course, during these serious conversations about serious things, Senator McCain was caught playing poker on his phone! Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.

Pope Francis has weighed in on the escalating global Syrian conflict. Last week Thursday, Pope Francis and King Abdullah II of Jordan said that the only solution to end the conflict in Syria was to engage in dialogue. Then again this Thursday, Pope Francis reiterated his position for peace, stating that military intervention in Syria would be futile.

Speaking of Pope Francis, he's been getting on the phone lately with people you would not necessarily expect a pope to call. A teenage boy. A victim of rape. This week, he called a woman who was dumped by her fiance after she became pregnant. She told the pope that she would like to have her child baptized, but did not know if any pastor would agree to do it, because she had already been divorced once and became pregnant out of wedlock. Francis assured her that she would find someone, and continued, "But if not, you know there's always me."

Pope Francis is so beloved that there is already a biopic in the works.

After a two-week hiatus, the Colbert Report is back on the air, and this week, Cardinal Dolan made an appearance. He and Colbert talked about Pope Francis, the papal conclave, and the name that Cardinal Dolan would choose if he were elected pope. The response? Stephen.

Speaking of Cardinal Dolan, he recently told a group of Catholics in Milwaukee that the reason people are leaving the church is because people are nauseated by the sinful behavior of some of the clergy.

Speaking of nauseated, Dennis Rodman is back in North Korea, visiting his good friend Kim Jong-un. He is not going to lobby for the release of Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American Christian missionary who has been jailed there since late last year after being detained on North Korean soil. He's just going there to... hang out?

In New Mexico, the state's 33 counties have asked the highest court in the state to make a formal ruling as to whether the counties should/can be issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. After the Supreme Court decision to strike down DOMA, eight counties in New Mexico decided to start issuing licenses, as there is nothing in state law that either prohibits or allows same-sex couples to marry in the state.

In the art world, Stephanie Gonot has created a series called "Fad diets" which illustrates exactly what you think it does. The Master Cleanse, the Hollywood grapefruit diet, and the baby food diet are all portrayed in this series.

Be sure to check out our new feature, "Better know a parish." Fill out the form and you might find your parish featured on our website!

That's it for now. Have a great weekend!
- See more at: Weekly roundup: Dennis Rodman, Tomahawk missiles, and online poker | USCatholic.org

In Hugh Jackman’s family, they stood on the couch and cheered for the accountants who tallied the Oscar ballots as they appeared on stage, he revealed Saturday.

Jackman was speaking about being asked to host the Oscars back in 2009, while at the Toronto film festival for the world premiere of Denis Villeneuve’s thriller “Prisoners,” about the abduction of children.

“I kinda hoped to be able to pay my rent as an actor and that was about as far as my goals went,” he said.

“When they asked me to host the Oscars, I honestly thought they were on drugs and I was really honored.”

“I’m a kid who grew up in Australia. My father was an accountant for Price Waterhouse.”

“Do you remember when they used to bring out the three accountants at the Oscars (onstage), we used to stand up on our couch and cheer when the accountants with their briefcases came out. That was the big moment for us.”

“I remember saying to my dad, ‘One day you’re going to be there.’”

Recalling being onstage actually hosting the Oscars, he added: “I looked out at my dad (in the audience) and saw that he wasn’t paying attention at all because Sophia Loren was sitting next to him (and he was entirely focused on her).”

Read more: For Hugh Jackman, it all added up at Oscars | Inquirer Entertainment
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Welcome Welcome:

A recent article translated in Worldcrunch from a news source the Calcalist in Israel indicates there are those out in the world that believe there are people taking advantage of the common desire to gamble.
The headline reads ‘High-stakes gambling machines involve billions of pounds, and prey on the destitute and unemployed. Most of the technology comes courtesy of Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi.’
The article suggests that the larger gambling operators are strategically locating the video poker and gaming parlours in poor hoods where there is little to do but put money into the machines and watch it disappear.

Gambling has been an integral part of British culture and since horse races in the 17th century, also of part of the British economy. It is a 6 billion pound industry in the UK and is responsible today for roughly 0.5 percent of the country’s economy. It also generates 700 million pounds in taxes a year. This is not something to be sneezed at with the hard financial times still coming at the economy without abatement.

When one reads on in the article it becomes apparent that maybe there are a few too many gambling opportunities for the under paid working class who make the world go round.

Adrian Parkinson, formerly a betting industry insider and now a member of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling commented on the changes from the 2001 reforms in the betting tax, “Shops with our machines moved from profits of 400 pounds a week to 15,000 a week. The industry started embracing them, and this is when things got me worried. We started marketing them more and more aggressively, and this was accompanied with total disregard to the risk and influence of these machines.”

The question remains as to how the new proposed tax platform will affect the economy of Britain. Perhaps the empire will make the operators who exploit move on to other locations such as Mexico and Brazil.



Taxes Keep Online Gambling Fair

As more and more countries legislate around the issue of online gaming, Australians are increasingly sending their gambling dollars overseas while Government sits on the quiet side of the virtual fence.

The borderless nature of the internet means that while it is prohibited for Australian-based interactive gaming services to operate from this country, people online here are free to access these sites based in other countries.

TheShout spoke with the Gaming Technologies Association (GTA) about the divergence between harm-minimising regulation and reality in internet gambling.

“Australia had the chance to set up a harm-free, licensed and properly regulated online casino gaming industry when Queensland passed the Interactive Gambling (Player Protection) Act 1998,” explains GTA CEO Ross Ferrar.

“Licences were issued, probity and security checks were made, processes and procedures were established, staff were recruited and operations had begun.

“Then the Federal Government passed the Interactive Gambling Act in June 2001, which made it an offence to provide an interactive gambling service to customers in Australia or to provide an Australian-based interactive gambling service to customers in designated countries.

“However, accessing and using the interactive gambling services is not an offence, and increasingly, Australians are doing just that with overseas-based operations – thereby seeing jobs and Government revenue go out of Australia.”

Well-established online bookmakers such as Bet365 and Unibet offer incentives such as easy money transfers and content translation and more interactive services than ever previously available.

Mirroring the on- versus off-premise debate around alcohol sales, the growing gaming sites impact directly on the local gaming products – both in venues and on legal Australian betting sites.

“As technology becomes more capable and the world becomes more connected, geographical boundaries are more meaningless and the online casino gaming industry started beck in the 1990s is now a reality,” furthers Ferrar.

“It could have been a world-leading example of Australian ingenuity, but those Australians involved in providing online casino gaming now must live elsewhere.

“It could have been beneficial to Australia’s economy, but it’s not.


Barriers to interactive gaming increasingly irrelevant - The Shout, Hotel News, Liquor News, Bar + Club News

Charlie Hunnam will likely have to bare all and engage in some very graphic sex scenes as the leading man in “50 Shades of Grey,” but he says it’s not a new dimension for him.

“You know what, I had such a baptism of fire with regards to sexuality on camera at the beginning of my career,” explained Huunam. “I starred in the British Channel Four miniseries ‘Queer As Folk’ where I played a young, gay character and there were some incredible, explicit sex scenes on that show. … Now I am 16 years older and more mature so I don’t anticipate them being too much of a problem. It’s like anything else, just an exciting challenge.”

After months of speculation, the 33-year-old Hunnam was chosen to play Christian Grey and Dakota Johnson was cast as Anastasia Steele, the main characters in the erotic, best-selling novel “50 Shades of Grey,” by E. L. James. Hunnam talked about his hotly anticipated role on Saturday night as he attended the premiere of the sixth season of “Sons of Anarchy,” on which he plays the character Jax.

One of the directors for the FX cable TV show revealed that Hunnam initially turned down the role of Grey.

“One week ago or two weeks ago, he was on my set when they came back to him and they wanted him to do it because he passed on it once, you know,” said Peter Weller. “They came back to him and I said, ‘Charlie, Charlie, Charlie, what do you think, this is too pulpy or something?’ He said, ‘Ah.’ ‘Well, let me give you the list of actors who did matinee idol style stuff, beginning with Cary Grant let’s go there. If you don’t do this, I’ll burn your house down.’”

However, Hunnam, who also starred in in this summer’s robot-monster battle “Pacific Rim,” said he wasn’t hesitant to accept the role — rather, he just wasn’t sure the timing was right.

“There was a bit of a timing issue where I just wanted to insure that I was going to have enough time to really do the preparation so I can bring this guy to life and do him justice and when they decided to push the schedule to accommodate that then I was a no-brainer and I was in,” he said.

While Hunnam is excited to play Grey, his girlfriend, Morgana McNelis, isn’t particularly excited about him filming explicit love scenes with Johnson, the daughter of actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith.

“Of course, it’s difficult being with an actor, you know?” said Hunnam. “She is required to share certain parts of me with the world that she wouldn’t necessarily choose to do, but we have a great relationship and she loves me and wants to be with me and we’ve been together a long time now, and I think she understands and has come to terms with the fact that there are certain elements of me that she is going to have to share. This is an extreme example of that, but thankfully we do have seven and a half years of history together, so it won’t be a big problem.”

Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, the film is to be released next August.

Read more: Charlie Hunnam talks about ’50 Shades’ role | Inquirer Entertainment
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A company that offers online gambling in the Netherlands, must pay a fine of 100,000 euros because it has no license for online gambling. According to the authorities, it is the first time that the Gaming Authority imposes a fine on such a company.

The company Global Stars is located in Curacao, but focuses on Dutch internet users who would like to play for example, bingo, roulette or just a lottery. Permits cannot be requested at this moment for the provision of online gambling. Authorities are working on a law that makes that possible. Until then gambling via internet is banned in the Netherlands.



Online gambling company in Curaçao hit with fine of 100,000 euro - Curaçao Chronicle

We're pretty sure some people are going to have their panties in a bunch over this one. While we're all for humor and making light of serious topics, there are some things that are sacred. In advertising, it's never a good idea to touch on topics like Hitler or 9/11. Or the JFK assassination. But French online betting site, PMU, seems to have no problem sharing an alternative scenario of the fateful day in Dealey Plaza back in 1963. Is the ad funny? Sort of. Has it been long enough to poke fun? That's an individual decision. Is it ever a good idea to poke fun at tragedy? Not usually but, then again, humor has a funny way of making certain things OK. What do you think?





French Online Gambling Site Pokes Fun At JFK Assasination

Competition is constant in the online gambling industry and those operators who don’t refresh their product offering can see diminishing returns. The vital innovations needed to keep customers happy are costly but a necessary part of the business.
The online gambling firm bwin.party digital entertainment has been doing its level best to stay ahead of the pack in its upgrade of programs and offerings. One recent move to engage their audience better involves the new and improved version of its classic PartyPoker online poker brand.

Norbert Teufelberger, Chief Executive Officer of Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment has conceded that his company has not kept up with the trends or improvements as well as he would like. Teufelberger did mention that the integration process from the merger between PartyGaming and Bwin has been taking up the time but now was the moment to move forward on upgrades. The CEO Teufelberger commented that next generation PartyPoker will go live "in two or so weeks", with emphasis placed on casual and entertaining gaming on the new platform.

Some of the new features of the PartyPoker offering will include integration with social networks. Those connected to social network platforms such as Facebook will be informed when friends on their list sign in and they will be able to play with each other in places all over the world.

Jeffrey Haas will take charge of the new PartyPoker platform. The executive was formerly with PokerStars.
Other new Bwin.Party products were announced by CEO Norbert Teufelberger some of which included, the launch of a real money casino and poker brand for Zynga on Facebook as well as the expansion of its social gaming division Win Interactive.
PartyBingo is also on the schedule for a revamp and will offer several new features through a simple access lobby and a number of bingo variant games, as well as side-games and slots.



Online Gambling Firm bwin.party Revamps Its Offerings

Daniel Radcliffe has charted an ambitious course ever further from his Harry Potter days, taking on very different roles in no less than three films premiered at the Toronto film festival this week.

The former boy wizard flexed his acting chops in Michael Dowse’s romantic comedy “The F Word,” Alexandre Aja’s fantastical murder mystery “Horns” and as Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg in “Kill Your Darlings.”

“I’m excited that people will finally get a chance to see me do different stuff,” he said.

He chose these far more mature roles, based on scripts about murder and homosexuality, that he loved and responded to, he said.

“It certainly wasn’t a strategy that they’d all be at TIFF (the Toronto International Film Festival).”

In “Horns,” based on Joe Hill’s dark novel of the same name, Radcliffe plays a young man who grows horns after being accused of killing his girlfriend and embarks to solve her murder, while as Ginsberg he is thrown into New York’s wild jazz scene and parties.

The latter includes a steamy sex scene with Radcliffe and another man.

“F-Word” meanwhile pairs Radcliffe as hopeless romantic Wallace with Chantry, played by Zoe Kazan, and takes them into a complicated world of modern relationships laced with memorable secondary characters such Chantry’s sister (Megan Park) and Wallace’s former college roommate (Adam Driver) and his partner (Mackenzie Davis).

Pressed repeatedly about his Potter years, and whether he has kept up friendships with his former Hogwarts classmates, Radcliffe confides that he has not spoken with Emma Watson in some time.

“I’m sure I’ll bump into her at one point,” he said. “But we were all together for 10 years so we’re excited to be going off and working with new people now.”

He said he doesn’t particularly miss Harry Potter, though is grateful for the memories and the doors it has opened for him.

“We had a fantastic time. But it’s really exciting to move on and doing other things.”

“I’ll always be incredibly proud of it. I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you all if it weren’t for Harry Potter. I have no illusions about that. But I don’t particularly miss it. I’m very happy doing other things now.”

Read more: Harry who? Radcliffe leaves Potter days far behind | Inquirer Entertainment
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Increased cooperation between member states on issues of consumer protection and money laundering are two of the main aspects of a resolution on online gambling, approved by the European Parliament today.

The resolution, approved by 572 votes to 79, with 61 abstentions, is Parliament's reply to a roadmap entitled 'Towards a comprehensive European framework for online gambling', which the European Commission adopted last October.

The report, by MEP Ashley Fox, acknowledges that gambling is an activity of a special nature and must be accompanied by strong consumer protection measures as well as improved cooperation among member states to combat fraud, money laundering and match-fixing in sports, while respecting the subsidiarity principle.

MEPs call on the Commission and the member states to look into the possibility of setting up EU-wide 'self-exclusion registers', personal loss or time limits, so that any customer who wishes to exclude him or herself from gambling or who surpasses his gambling limits at one gambling operator, will have the opportunity to be automatically self-excluded from other licensed gambling operators.

They also recommend the introduction of uniform common systems for electronic identification to prevent minors from accessing online gambling websites and prevent multiple accounts per player. To make it easy for players to distinguish safe and legal sites, MEPs invite member states to oblige operators to carry a visible 'trust mark' or logo of the regulatory authority.

George Debrincat, chairman of the online gambling section at the Chamber of Commerce, said the report underlined what existing regulators and the EU-licensed industry had acknowledged for years, including the need to ensure fair gaming and betting products, high responsible gaming standards and consumer protection, prevention of money laundering and other criminal activity, the right to privacy, as well as the need to keep up to speed with technical developments."

The online gambling industry provides a significant contribution to Malta's GDP, with more than 7,000 people employed directly or indirectly, 240 registered companies and more than 400 operating licences.

The European Parliament Information Office in Malta and the Malta Business Bureau are holding a public dialogue on the subject at Europe House in Valletta on September 20. The event will include an expert overview of the European Parliament's position, a panel debate with the industry and interventions by MEPs.



European Parliament adopts resolution on online gambling - timesofmalta-com

Philip Townshend has an advantage over many of his peers in addiction services - he is able to try out the source of his patients' addiction himself.

The first and only time he has had a go on a pokie machine, Dr Townshend was working as a psychologist for Alcohol and Drug Services at Nelson Hospital during the late 1990s.

Patients had started to come in complaining of problems with the machines, so he went across the road to the Rising Sun Tavern to find out more.

"I put in $5 of my own money and walked away with $30 . . . I'm not a gambler or a particularly addictive personality but my heart was just beating really fast and I couldn't think of anything else for the whole rest of the afternoon.

"That made me think ‘Uh huh, there's something going on here."

This experience spurred Dr Townshend to start a support group for problem gamblers in Nelson, which led to him being hired by the Problem Gambling Foundation as research director in 1998.

The position was nationally relevant, although he has continued to be based in Nelson.

"The PGF director came down to Nelson and he had a very seductive recruitment spiel. It was, ‘I want to have a workforce which is the best, and I want to pay you really well.' It's something a bit like that which I'm moving on to now."

At the end of this month, he will leave Nelson for a Melbourne position as manager of the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation's professional development centre.

His current job has him spending about a third of his time doing clinical work with patients, but the new position means he will be training other health professionals.

He said he would miss the experience and wisdom patients were able to share with him, and the personalities he had grown to know through his work with the community.

Dr Townshend said the overall outlook for pokie gambling in New Zealand was positive. The number of people using pokie machines and the amount they spent had been dropping since 2005.

However, he was concerned that computer and online gaming may replace gambling addiction for young people.

He said he commonly heard tales from parents about how they had brought their child a computer at a very young age thinking the skills would serve them well in their future careers, but the child then became addicted to online games.

By the time parents grew concerned, Dr Townshend said children had often become adept at fooling them into purchasing more powerful computers and allowing more time online. He said online games had also begun to resemble gambling in the way they subtly encouraged money to be spent within the game. "I think what parents really need to be doing is thinking, ‘We have to tell our kids about drugs, we have to tell them about alcohol and cigarettes, we have to tell them about sex and teach our kids about money, and actually we have to teach them how to control their internet use as well.' It's another thing like that."

He said addiction treatments had now advanced to such a degree that there were drugs available for gambling addicts, but they were not often used as other therapies were more effective.

"Everything in addiction has changed over the last 15 years since we've been able to look at somebody's brain while they are alive."

Addiction specialist Matthew McMillan will take over Dr Townshend's job until a permanent replacement can be found.



Online gaming addiction could be new menace | Stuff.co.nz

OpenBet has provided Ladbrokes with its award winning online sports book and games products in a relationship that has been going for fifteen years.

It was recently announced that Ladbrokes and OpenBet, have extended their existing relationship until 2016.
The press released posted by Ladbrokes said, "as part of the agreement Ladbrokes will receive the full benefit of OpenBet's roadmap of technology developments and will also have access to world class games content available on OpenBet's gaming platform."
Richard Glynn the Chief Executive Officer of Ladbrokes, commented on the extended agreement, "We are pleased to extend our long-standing relationship with OpenBet with this agreement, which offers revenue opportunities to both parties and enhances all of Ladbrokes' existing (and future) product and technology partnerships." Glynn continued to say, "Ladbrokes has been working with OpenBet since 1998 and this agreement will mean OpenBet will support us in continually enhancing both our sports book and games products,"

The expansion into the Australian market by Ladbrokes has been helped by the acquisition of sports book provider Bookmaker-com.au. The online offering at Ladbrokes includes 13 different sites in nine different languages and seventeen currencies.

OpenBet was launched in 1996 and powers many of the online betting offerings in legal gambling jurisdictions.
Jeremy Thompson-Hill, the Chief Executive Officer of OpenBet, also commented on the extended relationship saying that Ladbrokes has been with OpenBet since it was created, "This new extension agreement is good for OpenBet, good for Ladbrokes and ultimately good for their customers," Thompson-Hill continued to add, "Over the next three years, we are sure that Ladbrokes' sports book and games products will go from strength to strength, rightfully cementing its place in the online gaming space."

OpenBet is well established as a software provider to other online gambling companies such as William Hill, Paddy Power, Skybet, and Betfair.


Online Gambling Firm Ladbrokes Stays With OpenBet