PartyGaming still in M&A talks: Eyes return to United States - March 2010
Online gambling group PartyGaming, the firm behind PartyCasino.com, PartyPoker.com, PartyBingo.com, PartyBets.com, Cashcade and World Poker Tour, said it remained in talks over potential deal opportunities and was optimistic about a possible return to the United States as its 2009 earnings beat expectations.
"We are certainly in discussions with a few parties on a number of different opportunities," Chief Executive Jim Ryan told reporters.
However, he stressed that talks remained at a preliminary stage and declined to comment on the size or identity of the companies PartyGaming is talking to.
Analysts say the online gaming industry is fragmented and rife for consolidation and PartyGaming has been linked to a possible merger with Austria's bwin.
"There are a list of suspects who one would expect us to be talking to given that our focus is consolidating the online gaming sector," Ryan said.
PartyGaming said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) from continuing operations fell to $135 million from $144.2 million the year before, reflecting a decline in poker revenues.
That was ahead of the consensus forecast of $133.3 million, according to a poll of analysts supplied by the company.
PartyGaming's poker revenues have been hit by competition from online gaming businesses which continue to offer services to U.S. based players despite the industry being made illegal in that country in 2006.
Ryan said he was encouraged by recent moves in the U.S. to overturn the legislation. U.S. congressmen Barney Frank and Jim McDermott are attempting to push through a new bill to regulate the industry. They argue that, if it was introduced, it would generate tax revenues of about $42 billion over ten years.
PartyGaming has already reached agreement with U.S. authorities which will protect it from being prosecuted over its past activities there.
Ryan said the settlement will make it easier for PartyGaming to re-enter the U.S. market and also clears the way for it to engage in M&A activity.
"We are talking to a number of U.S. entities about doing business with them when the U.S. market regulates. It's positioned us for growth from an M&A perspective and, from an operational perspective, I think it's our ticket back into the United States."
Other operators such as 888 and Sportingbet have yet to reach a deal with the Department of Justice.
Ryan said he thinks the U.S. is moving closer to re-opening to online gaming companies.
"We're hearing rumors that we're going to get support from the land-based operators for online gaming so it seems like momentum is building," he said, adding it was "not impossible" new legislation could be introduced this year.
Shares in PartyGaming, which have risen by 17 percent in the last 3 months, were up 0.13 percent to 303.4 pence at time of publication.
"PartyGaming is remarkably well prepared for a whole variety of changes. Although there is no new information on a possible game-changing acquisition, we believe it is more likely than not," said Numis analyst Wyn Ellis.
An insider said "PartyGaming is also said to be in a leading position to secure the Canadian Poker Tour, which could be another strategic way into the U.S market and beyond. Party also own and operate the World Poker Tour which has the strong potential to become bigger than the World Series of Poker and European Poker Tour put together. Poker and online poker generally remain more government and media friendly than pure casino and online casino products, so Party has an edge in that department also".
More news as it come to light.
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Saturday, March 20, 2010
Australian Casino And Poker News: Overseas Passenger Terminal And Burswood Casino Packs Em In, by Greg Tingle - 19th March 2010
It's been a huge 24 hours in the Australian casino, employment, poker, media and social and community entrepreneur sectors.
Billionaire Inc Connection...
James Packer's Burswood Casino aka Burswood Entertainment Complex, based in Perth, Western Australia, is on a roll. Poker and online poker continue to do massive numbers, and Crown Limited (Crown Casino and Burswood Casino etc al), PartyGaming's PartyPoker, Media Man and Gambling911 are in the thick of the action.
Must be magic that Packer and Perth mining magnate, Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest are weaving. "Twiggy" have brought his infectious can-do attitude, work ethic and Aussie humour in spades to Sydney. Yep, the Billionaire, understood to now be Australia's Richest Man, still has the common touch.
Packer and Forrest were in Sydney last night, at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, joined by 500 power players in the Australian business, political and entertainment arena to officially welcome in GenerationOne. For the record, Media Man had to report from the sidelines as the event was jam packed, but did have the pleasure to speaking to some execs very close to the powers that be...and they were pleased to hear of our assistance to groups such as Githabul people, Yuggera tribe, Deadly Awards, Friends of Malabar Headland and Virgin Unite, and mentioning that we owned shares in Crown Casino didn't seem to hurt the cause!
Movie stars Cate Blanchett and Russell Crowe attended last night, where movers and shakers exchanged ideas (plus gossip) and saw their palms projected onto the sails of the Opera House in a show of support. Us Aussies are likely giving the Las Vegas Strip and Atlantic City a few free ideas!
The story that Media Man and Gambling911 collaborated on and broke worldwide, has dominated Google and Google News for the past 24 hours or so, and shows no sign on slowing down for the weekend... a favorite time for punters, both in Australia and around the globe.
The GenerationOne movement has also triggered us to open up negotiations with the state and federal government to see how we here at Media Man may qualify to take on a couple of suitable indigenous peoples as contract staff to assist our business endeavors... could be for photography, video, graphic arts or internet portal development.
Australia New Zealand Poker Tour
The event is the toast of the town in Perth, ok, that may be talking it up a notch, but you get the idea.
Burswood Casino, PokerStars and the online poker community, not to mention bars,
restaurants, taxis and limousines are sure doing well out of it. All the action also means that Burswood will need to keep staff numbers high, which is good news for GenerationOne, but fortunately those infamous plastic handcuffs have yet been witnessed on site.
Insiders advise over 60 players got through day 1b at the PokerStars ANZPT Perth Main Event. Mr Yu-chang Cheng leads as the only player from the flight with over 100,000 in chips.
Many of Australia’s best poker players attended with PokerStars pros Tony Hachem, Eric Assadourian and Grant Levy all surviving with pretty average chips.
Joel "Strong Play" Dodds who continues his roll with ANZPT to sit in third chip position with 97,600 and APPT Sydney champion Aaron Benton returned strongly from a short stack to concluded with 74,900 chips. ANZPT Adelaide champ Rennie Carnevale gets to Day 2 with 47,550.
The ANZPT Perth Main Event attracted 222 players, beating the previous record for a Perth event - 142 players. The top prize is $132,750.
Here's the numbers as of time to publication
Top ten chip counts:
Nik Lackovic – 104,625
Yu-chang Cheng – 101,425
Joel Dodds – 97,600
Dominic Sinagra – 93,350
Aaron Wilson – 90,950
Kelvin Beattie – 90,125
Christopher Evans - 87,600
Tu Le – 84,425
Jimmy Wong – 77,925
Aaron Benton - 74,900
So punters, be casino, poker or community assistance being your passion or poison, as you can see its been a massive period for casino, poker and entertainment news down under.
Wait, there's more!
GenerationOne - The Numbers Build
In the next report we expect to be able to give more updates on the amount of jobs GenerationOne is generating. New South Wales premier Kristina Keneally, already has 2229 jobs earmarked for indigenous people, Packer has approx 100, "Twiggy" with multiple thousands, and Media Man has put aside 2 contract jobs for locals. It's more paperwork, but the end result is worth the effort.
Mr Packer has employed 60 indigenous workers and is looking for 50 more. Like many, he had always wanted to do more in the area and Mr Forrest had shown him how.
"It's not about rich people can do more, or poor people should get off their backsides, or government should get out there … It's about all Australians", Mr Forrest said.
"People tell me, 'This is just another campaign.' I say show me the 20,000 (promised jobs so far) in any other campaign."
Readers, have fun playing your games of preference, and be assured that we will continue to support the readership and community who support us.
Let's hear it again for the Australian - American connection... Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi Aussie Aussie Aussie USA USA Aussie Oi Aussie Oi USA Oi Oi Oi!
* Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
* The writer owns shares in Crown Limited
* Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company, operating in over a bakers dozen vertical markets
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Global Gaming Directory.net
It's been a huge 24 hours in the Australian casino, employment, poker, media and social and community entrepreneur sectors.
Billionaire Inc Connection...
James Packer's Burswood Casino aka Burswood Entertainment Complex, based in Perth, Western Australia, is on a roll. Poker and online poker continue to do massive numbers, and Crown Limited (Crown Casino and Burswood Casino etc al), PartyGaming's PartyPoker, Media Man and Gambling911 are in the thick of the action.
Must be magic that Packer and Perth mining magnate, Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest are weaving. "Twiggy" have brought his infectious can-do attitude, work ethic and Aussie humour in spades to Sydney. Yep, the Billionaire, understood to now be Australia's Richest Man, still has the common touch.
Packer and Forrest were in Sydney last night, at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, joined by 500 power players in the Australian business, political and entertainment arena to officially welcome in GenerationOne. For the record, Media Man had to report from the sidelines as the event was jam packed, but did have the pleasure to speaking to some execs very close to the powers that be...and they were pleased to hear of our assistance to groups such as Githabul people, Yuggera tribe, Deadly Awards, Friends of Malabar Headland and Virgin Unite, and mentioning that we owned shares in Crown Casino didn't seem to hurt the cause!
Movie stars Cate Blanchett and Russell Crowe attended last night, where movers and shakers exchanged ideas (plus gossip) and saw their palms projected onto the sails of the Opera House in a show of support. Us Aussies are likely giving the Las Vegas Strip and Atlantic City a few free ideas!
The story that Media Man and Gambling911 collaborated on and broke worldwide, has dominated Google and Google News for the past 24 hours or so, and shows no sign on slowing down for the weekend... a favorite time for punters, both in Australia and around the globe.
The GenerationOne movement has also triggered us to open up negotiations with the state and federal government to see how we here at Media Man may qualify to take on a couple of suitable indigenous peoples as contract staff to assist our business endeavors... could be for photography, video, graphic arts or internet portal development.
Australia New Zealand Poker Tour
The event is the toast of the town in Perth, ok, that may be talking it up a notch, but you get the idea.
Burswood Casino, PokerStars and the online poker community, not to mention bars,
restaurants, taxis and limousines are sure doing well out of it. All the action also means that Burswood will need to keep staff numbers high, which is good news for GenerationOne, but fortunately those infamous plastic handcuffs have yet been witnessed on site.
Insiders advise over 60 players got through day 1b at the PokerStars ANZPT Perth Main Event. Mr Yu-chang Cheng leads as the only player from the flight with over 100,000 in chips.
Many of Australia’s best poker players attended with PokerStars pros Tony Hachem, Eric Assadourian and Grant Levy all surviving with pretty average chips.
Joel "Strong Play" Dodds who continues his roll with ANZPT to sit in third chip position with 97,600 and APPT Sydney champion Aaron Benton returned strongly from a short stack to concluded with 74,900 chips. ANZPT Adelaide champ Rennie Carnevale gets to Day 2 with 47,550.
The ANZPT Perth Main Event attracted 222 players, beating the previous record for a Perth event - 142 players. The top prize is $132,750.
Here's the numbers as of time to publication
Top ten chip counts:
Nik Lackovic – 104,625
Yu-chang Cheng – 101,425
Joel Dodds – 97,600
Dominic Sinagra – 93,350
Aaron Wilson – 90,950
Kelvin Beattie – 90,125
Christopher Evans - 87,600
Tu Le – 84,425
Jimmy Wong – 77,925
Aaron Benton - 74,900
So punters, be casino, poker or community assistance being your passion or poison, as you can see its been a massive period for casino, poker and entertainment news down under.
Wait, there's more!
GenerationOne - The Numbers Build
In the next report we expect to be able to give more updates on the amount of jobs GenerationOne is generating. New South Wales premier Kristina Keneally, already has 2229 jobs earmarked for indigenous people, Packer has approx 100, "Twiggy" with multiple thousands, and Media Man has put aside 2 contract jobs for locals. It's more paperwork, but the end result is worth the effort.
Mr Packer has employed 60 indigenous workers and is looking for 50 more. Like many, he had always wanted to do more in the area and Mr Forrest had shown him how.
"It's not about rich people can do more, or poor people should get off their backsides, or government should get out there … It's about all Australians", Mr Forrest said.
"People tell me, 'This is just another campaign.' I say show me the 20,000 (promised jobs so far) in any other campaign."
Readers, have fun playing your games of preference, and be assured that we will continue to support the readership and community who support us.
Let's hear it again for the Australian - American connection... Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi Aussie Aussie Aussie USA USA Aussie Oi Aussie Oi USA Oi Oi Oi!
* Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
* The writer owns shares in Crown Limited
* Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company, operating in over a bakers dozen vertical markets
Website Network
Media Man International
Media Man Australia
Media Man Asia
Casino News Media
Casino News Media.net
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Casino Travel Media
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Global Gaming Directory
Global Gaming Directory.net
Friday, March 19, 2010
PartyCasino Brings Back The Porsche Promotion! - March 2010
PartyCasino Brings Back The Porsche Promotion!
Get Out Of My Dreams! Get Into My Car!
Gibraltar – 16th March 2010 – PartyCasino.com, the world’s largest online casino, is pleased to announce the return of its Porsche Promotion! If the Gold Mega Jackpot is won between 18th – 31st March 2010 the player who earns the most PartyPoints by playing the Gold Mega Jackpot games: The Godfather, Mega Fortune Wheel, Super Joker, Super Mystic, Super Fortune Wheel and Super Star wins the sports car!
There is a leaderboard running through PartyAccount and if the jackpot is won within two weeks one of PartyGaming’s Palladium Lounge VIP hosts will call with the news that the Porsche has been won. If the Gold Mega Jackpot is not won between 18th – 31st March cash prizes will be awarded to players 1st – 600th on the leaderboard with a total value of $80,000.* For more details and terms and conditions please see your individual PartyAccount.
Players ranked 1st – 5th will be rewarded as follows: 1st - $15,000, 2nd - $12,500, 3rd - $10,000, 4th - $7,500, 5th – 9th - $1,000. Hotspots for every 10 ranks between 10th and 300th pays $750 cash bonus. Hotspots for every 10 ranks between 310th and 600th pays $250 cash bonus.
A PartyCasino.com spokesman said: "The Porsche promotion is back and if someone doesn’t win a flashy car there is still going to be real cash rewards for customers! If the Gold Mega Jackpot doesn’t take your fancy then Colossal Cash, the biggest online jackpot seed in the industry, currently stands at over $2.5 million – it really is a big one!"
At the start of 2010, PartyCasino.com launched the largest progressive seeded jackpot in the online gaming industry in the form of ‘The Big One’ and introduced classic slot Melon Madness. The Big One is structured as a five tiered pool. The highest tier - Colossal Cash - seeds at $1.5m, the biggest online jackpot seed in the industry. Melon Madness is designed to be a classic 30 line video slot. Play is fast and the free spin feature is played in-reel.
PartyCasino.com now offers over 140 games, including 100 slots, and pays out easily over $10 million EVERY DAY to players. The world’s largest online casino continues to expand rapidly. The record Gold Mega Jackpot was hit with a fateful spin at 20.42ET on December 2nd 2009. The stake was $45 on popular PartyCasino.com Gold Mega Jackpot game, the Mega Fortune Wheel. The screen exploded with congratulations and colour as ‘gamago’ turned $45 into a record busting $4,978,336.62!
PartyGaming Plc is the world’s leading listed online gaming company. The Group is a constituent of the FTSE 250 share index and the FTSE4Good Index Series, which measures the performance of companies that meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards. PartyGaming’s shares are listed on The London Stock Exchange under the ticker: PRTY
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PartyCasino Brings Back The Porsche Promotion!
Get Out Of My Dreams! Get Into My Car!
Gibraltar – 16th March 2010 – PartyCasino.com, the world’s largest online casino, is pleased to announce the return of its Porsche Promotion! If the Gold Mega Jackpot is won between 18th – 31st March 2010 the player who earns the most PartyPoints by playing the Gold Mega Jackpot games: The Godfather, Mega Fortune Wheel, Super Joker, Super Mystic, Super Fortune Wheel and Super Star wins the sports car!
There is a leaderboard running through PartyAccount and if the jackpot is won within two weeks one of PartyGaming’s Palladium Lounge VIP hosts will call with the news that the Porsche has been won. If the Gold Mega Jackpot is not won between 18th – 31st March cash prizes will be awarded to players 1st – 600th on the leaderboard with a total value of $80,000.* For more details and terms and conditions please see your individual PartyAccount.
Players ranked 1st – 5th will be rewarded as follows: 1st - $15,000, 2nd - $12,500, 3rd - $10,000, 4th - $7,500, 5th – 9th - $1,000. Hotspots for every 10 ranks between 10th and 300th pays $750 cash bonus. Hotspots for every 10 ranks between 310th and 600th pays $250 cash bonus.
A PartyCasino.com spokesman said: "The Porsche promotion is back and if someone doesn’t win a flashy car there is still going to be real cash rewards for customers! If the Gold Mega Jackpot doesn’t take your fancy then Colossal Cash, the biggest online jackpot seed in the industry, currently stands at over $2.5 million – it really is a big one!"
At the start of 2010, PartyCasino.com launched the largest progressive seeded jackpot in the online gaming industry in the form of ‘The Big One’ and introduced classic slot Melon Madness. The Big One is structured as a five tiered pool. The highest tier - Colossal Cash - seeds at $1.5m, the biggest online jackpot seed in the industry. Melon Madness is designed to be a classic 30 line video slot. Play is fast and the free spin feature is played in-reel.
PartyCasino.com now offers over 140 games, including 100 slots, and pays out easily over $10 million EVERY DAY to players. The world’s largest online casino continues to expand rapidly. The record Gold Mega Jackpot was hit with a fateful spin at 20.42ET on December 2nd 2009. The stake was $45 on popular PartyCasino.com Gold Mega Jackpot game, the Mega Fortune Wheel. The screen exploded with congratulations and colour as ‘gamago’ turned $45 into a record busting $4,978,336.62!
PartyGaming Plc is the world’s leading listed online gaming company. The Group is a constituent of the FTSE 250 share index and the FTSE4Good Index Series, which measures the performance of companies that meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards. PartyGaming’s shares are listed on The London Stock Exchange under the ticker: PRTY
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Thursday, March 18, 2010
Potential Deal in the Works for Canadian Poker Tour Purchase by Online Poker Company - 17th March 2010
According to CNN Money, there is a potential deal being offered for sponsorship of the Canadian Poker Tour or an outright purchase of the organization by an unnamed online poker company. Poker News Daily has been in contact with Kelly Kellner, Chief Executive Officer of Heads Up Entertainment International, which owns the tour and other poker-related entities, and has been able to confirm that there is an offer on the table.
In the CNN Money article, Kellner was quoted as saying, “For competitive reasons, the online poker company wishes to go unnamed at this time. As the online poker market becomes more competitive, our brand name and our market become more and more valuable. As a result of these negotiations, the numbers here can get very large, very quickly.” Heads Up Entertainment has built the Canadian Poker Tour to encompass over 50 casinos across Canada and also reached into the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and cruise ships on the high seas of the Caribbean. In total, Heads Up Entertainment provides over 600 casino-based poker events through its partnerships.
In a discussion with Poker News Daily, Kellner stated that the offer was something that he knew would be coming. “Was it out of the blue? Yes and no,” Kellner said in an exclusive interview with Poker News Daily. “We have always figured that the Canadian Poker Tour would be an attractive candidate for acquisition by someone. The management here at Heads Up Entertainment has realized that, with our development of our relationships with casinos and our building of the CPT brand and our other poker outlets such as Canadian Poker Player Magazine and Canadian Poker Player Television, we might be on track for something like this in 18 months to two years.”
“When we started discussing the idea in more depth on Friday with this online poker outlet,” Kellner continued, “we realized that it was happening way before we thought it would.” The CNN Money article states that Heads Up Entertainment, through the ownership of the Canadian Poker Tour, Canadian Poker Player Magazine, and the recently launched Canadian Poker Player Television, has the ability to reach over 40 million people across the North American landscape.
Last year, the former ownership of the World Poker Tour (WPT), World Poker Tour Enterprises, sold the eight year old company to the online gaming giant Party Gaming for $12.3 million. While that was a sizeable amount, WPT management turned down a reported $36.5 million offer from Mandalay Media prior to accepting the Party Gaming offer. The potential discussions by Heads Up Entertainment and the unnamed online poker outlet could lead to another such battle.
Kellner, while not disclosing the online company who could become the potential sponsor or new owner of the Canadian Poker Tour, stated that the deal being discussed was “well into the seven-figure range.” He offered no timetable for the Tour regarding this proposal and indicated that, at this moment, the company was preparing for the next installment of the Canadian Open Poker Championships this fall. In the past, the tournament has featured such popular Canadian players as Gavin Smith and Brad “Yukon” Booth and other top professionals such as Phil Hellmuth, Joe Hachem, Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly and Antonio Esfandiari. Kellner also stated that the popular Canadian Heads Up Championship (an event won in 2008 by former World Champion and 2009 National Heads Up Poker Championship winner Huck Seed), will be back on the schedule this year.
As of press time, there have been no details released regarding the potential deal for the Tour. “We have built the CPT and other parts of the company through offering the best of everything to our players, from tournament structures to other tournaments and cash games to entertainment outside of our events,” Kellner stated. “We certainly hope that is maintained by the entity that has made the offer to us if,” Kellner emphasized, “we decide to accept the offer.” (Credit: Poker News Daily)
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According to CNN Money, there is a potential deal being offered for sponsorship of the Canadian Poker Tour or an outright purchase of the organization by an unnamed online poker company. Poker News Daily has been in contact with Kelly Kellner, Chief Executive Officer of Heads Up Entertainment International, which owns the tour and other poker-related entities, and has been able to confirm that there is an offer on the table.
In the CNN Money article, Kellner was quoted as saying, “For competitive reasons, the online poker company wishes to go unnamed at this time. As the online poker market becomes more competitive, our brand name and our market become more and more valuable. As a result of these negotiations, the numbers here can get very large, very quickly.” Heads Up Entertainment has built the Canadian Poker Tour to encompass over 50 casinos across Canada and also reached into the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and cruise ships on the high seas of the Caribbean. In total, Heads Up Entertainment provides over 600 casino-based poker events through its partnerships.
In a discussion with Poker News Daily, Kellner stated that the offer was something that he knew would be coming. “Was it out of the blue? Yes and no,” Kellner said in an exclusive interview with Poker News Daily. “We have always figured that the Canadian Poker Tour would be an attractive candidate for acquisition by someone. The management here at Heads Up Entertainment has realized that, with our development of our relationships with casinos and our building of the CPT brand and our other poker outlets such as Canadian Poker Player Magazine and Canadian Poker Player Television, we might be on track for something like this in 18 months to two years.”
“When we started discussing the idea in more depth on Friday with this online poker outlet,” Kellner continued, “we realized that it was happening way before we thought it would.” The CNN Money article states that Heads Up Entertainment, through the ownership of the Canadian Poker Tour, Canadian Poker Player Magazine, and the recently launched Canadian Poker Player Television, has the ability to reach over 40 million people across the North American landscape.
Last year, the former ownership of the World Poker Tour (WPT), World Poker Tour Enterprises, sold the eight year old company to the online gaming giant Party Gaming for $12.3 million. While that was a sizeable amount, WPT management turned down a reported $36.5 million offer from Mandalay Media prior to accepting the Party Gaming offer. The potential discussions by Heads Up Entertainment and the unnamed online poker outlet could lead to another such battle.
Kellner, while not disclosing the online company who could become the potential sponsor or new owner of the Canadian Poker Tour, stated that the deal being discussed was “well into the seven-figure range.” He offered no timetable for the Tour regarding this proposal and indicated that, at this moment, the company was preparing for the next installment of the Canadian Open Poker Championships this fall. In the past, the tournament has featured such popular Canadian players as Gavin Smith and Brad “Yukon” Booth and other top professionals such as Phil Hellmuth, Joe Hachem, Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly and Antonio Esfandiari. Kellner also stated that the popular Canadian Heads Up Championship (an event won in 2008 by former World Champion and 2009 National Heads Up Poker Championship winner Huck Seed), will be back on the schedule this year.
As of press time, there have been no details released regarding the potential deal for the Tour. “We have built the CPT and other parts of the company through offering the best of everything to our players, from tournament structures to other tournaments and cash games to entertainment outside of our events,” Kellner stated. “We certainly hope that is maintained by the entity that has made the offer to us if,” Kellner emphasized, “we decide to accept the offer.” (Credit: Poker News Daily)
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PartyCasino News: PartyCasino and WPT Casino Get New Online Slot Games: Rubiks Slot, Slotbox, Sands Of Fortune, Beat the Bank and more - March 2010
PartyCasino.com and WPTCasino.com, both owned and operated by PartyGaming, have just released some great new online slot games.
New players can get up to $500 bonus.
Play for free or play for money. Multi language and multi currency. The casinos offer the exclusive PartyGaming PartyPoints rewards system providing players with world class rewards and bonuses.
Rubiks Slot
Rubiks game is a fixed odds game based on the popular Rubik’s Cube® Puzzle. The player selects the stake and then presses the Play button and gets wins based on how many lines and/or sides get completed on the 3 visible sides after the cube is automatically rotated several times. All wins are paid as per the paytable. Rubik's game also introduces Free Plays. Free Plays is triggered when all six letters in the Rubik's logo are highlighted, in which the player is awarded free plays and extra cubes.
Slotbox
Line up a fortune in Slotblox. Take a classic, line-building puzzle game, remove the stress and add plenty of chances to win lots of cash. That’s Slotblox.
Slotblox couldn’t be simpler. When you start playing different shaped blocks fall down the screen into your game grid. Don’t worry about controlling the blocks, the game does that for you.
You can build your way to big money when these blocks create cash-winning lines. Winning lines then disappear, creating more space in the grid and giving your further chances to win.
Get a winning line with the special ‘magic’ blocks and you’ll trigger the free plays feature where’s there’s double money to be won.
See if a fortune’s about to fall your way.
Sands Of Fortune
Sands of Fortune is a five-reel, nine-paylines slot game with a bonus feature game that gives you the chance to win extra prizes. Random number of picks of up to 5 is awarded. You get to select any 1 door in each pick to reveal a prize. 3 or more BONUS symbols appear anywhere in view triggers the bonus feature.
Beat the Bank
Beat the bank is a five-reel, twenty-paylines slot game with a 'free game' and a ‘Beat The Bank’ feature. The Free Games Feature is triggered when Thief appears any where on reels 2, 3 and 4 at the same time. 15 free games are awarded, during which all prizes are tripled, except for Beat The Bank feature win, even though it is triggered during Free Spins. The feature can be retriggered when Thief appears any where on reels 2, 3 and 4 at the same time. The Beat The Bank Feature is awarded when 3 or more Scattered Safe occur anywhere.
Thief appears on Reels 2, 3 and 4 only and substitutes for all other symbols except Scattered Safe.
PartyCasino.com is a multi time Casino News Media - Media Man - Global Gaming Directory Online Casino Of The Month winner and WPTCasino.com is a Casino News Media - Media Man - Global Gaming Directory Online Casino finalist.
PartyGaming is widely regarded as the world's leading igaming company. They are listed on the London Stock Exchange and were established in 1997.
Websites
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PartyCasino.com and WPTCasino.com, both owned and operated by PartyGaming, have just released some great new online slot games.
New players can get up to $500 bonus.
Play for free or play for money. Multi language and multi currency. The casinos offer the exclusive PartyGaming PartyPoints rewards system providing players with world class rewards and bonuses.
Rubiks Slot
Rubiks game is a fixed odds game based on the popular Rubik’s Cube® Puzzle. The player selects the stake and then presses the Play button and gets wins based on how many lines and/or sides get completed on the 3 visible sides after the cube is automatically rotated several times. All wins are paid as per the paytable. Rubik's game also introduces Free Plays. Free Plays is triggered when all six letters in the Rubik's logo are highlighted, in which the player is awarded free plays and extra cubes.
Slotbox
Line up a fortune in Slotblox. Take a classic, line-building puzzle game, remove the stress and add plenty of chances to win lots of cash. That’s Slotblox.
Slotblox couldn’t be simpler. When you start playing different shaped blocks fall down the screen into your game grid. Don’t worry about controlling the blocks, the game does that for you.
You can build your way to big money when these blocks create cash-winning lines. Winning lines then disappear, creating more space in the grid and giving your further chances to win.
Get a winning line with the special ‘magic’ blocks and you’ll trigger the free plays feature where’s there’s double money to be won.
See if a fortune’s about to fall your way.
Sands Of Fortune
Sands of Fortune is a five-reel, nine-paylines slot game with a bonus feature game that gives you the chance to win extra prizes. Random number of picks of up to 5 is awarded. You get to select any 1 door in each pick to reveal a prize. 3 or more BONUS symbols appear anywhere in view triggers the bonus feature.
Beat the Bank
Beat the bank is a five-reel, twenty-paylines slot game with a 'free game' and a ‘Beat The Bank’ feature. The Free Games Feature is triggered when Thief appears any where on reels 2, 3 and 4 at the same time. 15 free games are awarded, during which all prizes are tripled, except for Beat The Bank feature win, even though it is triggered during Free Spins. The feature can be retriggered when Thief appears any where on reels 2, 3 and 4 at the same time. The Beat The Bank Feature is awarded when 3 or more Scattered Safe occur anywhere.
Thief appears on Reels 2, 3 and 4 only and substitutes for all other symbols except Scattered Safe.
PartyCasino.com is a multi time Casino News Media - Media Man - Global Gaming Directory Online Casino Of The Month winner and WPTCasino.com is a Casino News Media - Media Man - Global Gaming Directory Online Casino finalist.
PartyGaming is widely regarded as the world's leading igaming company. They are listed on the London Stock Exchange and were established in 1997.
Websites
PartyCasino.com
WPTCasino.com
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Aussie Internet Filter Draft Legislation Delayed; Media, Gamers And Entrepreneurs Rejoice, by Greg Tingle - 17th March 2010
Readers, you've heard and read about it for over a year now...
Media Man and Gambling911 give you the update of what is the ongoing saga that is the proposed Aussie internet filter, in this filter and censorship-free report.
The Rudd Government's controversial internet filter legislation, with add on "blacklist" on the side, is still being drafted and is unlikely to be debated in parliament until at the middle of June and might be pushed back even further.
Internet lovers, gamers, media - journalists, entrerpreneurs and lovers or freedom of expression have been rejoicing and see the latest development as a victory of sorts in the internet control "war". Fortunately the rumor of a riot in protect never occured (but there's always tomorrow... satire).
Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy had originally planned for the filter to be debated this week, but his office confirmed the drafting of the legislation was still not finalised and discussions with ISPs and other stakeholders on outstanding issues were still taking place. Perhaps some words of wisdom were picked up by media and new media kings Rupert Murdoch and James Packer. News Corp including News Limited and Crown Limited (and Melco-Crown) are certainly interested, as are Fairfax, and these firms will be looking to adapt to the legal aspects that follow the legislation.
The (current) Government has a backlog business with quite a few headaches and fires to put out, so its likely the matter of the darn filter will be sorted circa June - July... Christmas is coming.
"The Government will take the time to ensure that it gets the legislative framework right," advised a spokeswoman for Senator Conroy.
"Discussions with ISPs and owners of high traffic sites on the implementation of ISP filtering are ongoing. The Government is also considering the responses to the consultation paper on improved transparency and accountability measures which will feed into the legislative framework."
Media Man suspects that quite a few companies and individuals will have more of their websites hosted overseas - offshore, so they don't come under Australian law. A Media Man insider was overheard saying "This is great, it gives us more time up our sleeves to get sorted. Pity the delay in the legals is costing many Australian ISP's money and stress, but the internet is a global medium after all. No one country owns the net. We're more than happy to support ethical and quality ISP's and business partners in the U.S, Canada, Europe and beyond. Gibratar, Alderney, Malta, Guernsey, Costa Rica, the Virgin Islands and those kind of places are looking like better options all the time. Still, in the early days we got rooted in Australia so let's hope the Aussie government finally gets the right solution in place so we can still support the little Aussie battler".
Spin or news?...
"The Bill will be introduced when these processes are completed," the spokeswoman said.
It is currently unclear whether the internet filtering plan has a hope in hell of getting through the Senate. The Greens are opposed to the scheme, and the opposition says while it supports in principle measures to protect children online, it has reservations about mandatory ISP level filtering.
Shadow communications spokesman Tony Smith said the coalition will wait until the draft legislation is tabled before it formalises a policy on the issue.
Media Man thinks its quite likely that Senator Conroy and his team have been reading the news media reports, including our beloved Gambling911, and realise that quick fixes won't work and that an intelligent, well thought out solution is required... one that the majority of Aussies (journos, poker players, igamers, business entrepreneurs and adult consumers included) will accept. Australian casino king James Packer himself said "Internet is like electricity" and Gambling911 and Media Man have made true believers out of the Labour government if they we not already convinced.
We thank our loyal readership for your support, and we promise to keep up the good fight to keep the internet a place for everyone who supports freedom of expression and human rights. Party time! The games has only just begun. Let's hear it for our passionate campaigners the world over... Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi Aussie Aussie Aussie USA USA USA Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet
portal development company. Founded in Australia in 2001, and now with a global audience and focus with over 20 niche website portals. iGaming and gaming is just one of a bakers dozen of sectors covered by the company.
*The writer owns shares in Crown Limited
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Readers, you've heard and read about it for over a year now...
Media Man and Gambling911 give you the update of what is the ongoing saga that is the proposed Aussie internet filter, in this filter and censorship-free report.
The Rudd Government's controversial internet filter legislation, with add on "blacklist" on the side, is still being drafted and is unlikely to be debated in parliament until at the middle of June and might be pushed back even further.
Internet lovers, gamers, media - journalists, entrerpreneurs and lovers or freedom of expression have been rejoicing and see the latest development as a victory of sorts in the internet control "war". Fortunately the rumor of a riot in protect never occured (but there's always tomorrow... satire).
Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy had originally planned for the filter to be debated this week, but his office confirmed the drafting of the legislation was still not finalised and discussions with ISPs and other stakeholders on outstanding issues were still taking place. Perhaps some words of wisdom were picked up by media and new media kings Rupert Murdoch and James Packer. News Corp including News Limited and Crown Limited (and Melco-Crown) are certainly interested, as are Fairfax, and these firms will be looking to adapt to the legal aspects that follow the legislation.
The (current) Government has a backlog business with quite a few headaches and fires to put out, so its likely the matter of the darn filter will be sorted circa June - July... Christmas is coming.
"The Government will take the time to ensure that it gets the legislative framework right," advised a spokeswoman for Senator Conroy.
"Discussions with ISPs and owners of high traffic sites on the implementation of ISP filtering are ongoing. The Government is also considering the responses to the consultation paper on improved transparency and accountability measures which will feed into the legislative framework."
Media Man suspects that quite a few companies and individuals will have more of their websites hosted overseas - offshore, so they don't come under Australian law. A Media Man insider was overheard saying "This is great, it gives us more time up our sleeves to get sorted. Pity the delay in the legals is costing many Australian ISP's money and stress, but the internet is a global medium after all. No one country owns the net. We're more than happy to support ethical and quality ISP's and business partners in the U.S, Canada, Europe and beyond. Gibratar, Alderney, Malta, Guernsey, Costa Rica, the Virgin Islands and those kind of places are looking like better options all the time. Still, in the early days we got rooted in Australia so let's hope the Aussie government finally gets the right solution in place so we can still support the little Aussie battler".
Spin or news?...
"The Bill will be introduced when these processes are completed," the spokeswoman said.
It is currently unclear whether the internet filtering plan has a hope in hell of getting through the Senate. The Greens are opposed to the scheme, and the opposition says while it supports in principle measures to protect children online, it has reservations about mandatory ISP level filtering.
Shadow communications spokesman Tony Smith said the coalition will wait until the draft legislation is tabled before it formalises a policy on the issue.
Media Man thinks its quite likely that Senator Conroy and his team have been reading the news media reports, including our beloved Gambling911, and realise that quick fixes won't work and that an intelligent, well thought out solution is required... one that the majority of Aussies (journos, poker players, igamers, business entrepreneurs and adult consumers included) will accept. Australian casino king James Packer himself said "Internet is like electricity" and Gambling911 and Media Man have made true believers out of the Labour government if they we not already convinced.
We thank our loyal readership for your support, and we promise to keep up the good fight to keep the internet a place for everyone who supports freedom of expression and human rights. Party time! The games has only just begun. Let's hear it for our passionate campaigners the world over... Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi Aussie Aussie Aussie USA USA USA Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet
portal development company. Founded in Australia in 2001, and now with a global audience and focus with over 20 niche website portals. iGaming and gaming is just one of a bakers dozen of sectors covered by the company.
*The writer owns shares in Crown Limited
Website Network
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Global Gaming Directory
Global Gaming Directory.net
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PartyCasino Brings Back The Porsche Promotion!
PartyCasino Brings Back The Porsche Promotion!
Get Out Of My Dreams! Get Into My Car!
Gibraltar – 16th March 2010 – PartyCasino.com, the world’s largest online casino, is pleased to announce the return of its Porsche Promotion! If the Gold Mega Jackpot is won between 18th – 31st March 2010 the player who earns the most PartyPoints by playing the Gold Mega Jackpot games: The Godfather, Mega Fortune Wheel, Super Joker, Super Mystic, Super Fortune Wheel and Super Star wins the sports car!
There is a leaderboard running through PartyAccount and if the jackpot is won within two weeks one of PartyGaming’s Palladium Lounge VIP hosts will call with the news that the Porsche has been won. If the Gold Mega Jackpot is not won between 18th – 31st March cash prizes will be awarded to players 1st – 600th on the leaderboard with a total value of $80,000.* For more details and terms and conditions please see your individual PartyAccount.
Players ranked 1st – 5th will be rewarded as follows: 1st - $15,000, 2nd - $12,500, 3rd - $10,000, 4th - $7,500, 5th – 9th - $1,000. Hotspots for every 10 ranks between 10th and 300th pays $750 cash bonus. Hotspots for every 10 ranks between 310th and 600th pays $250 cash bonus.
A PartyCasino.com spokesman said: "The Porsche promotion is back and if someone doesn’t win a flashy car there is still going to be real cash rewards for customers! If the Gold Mega Jackpot doesn’t take your fancy then Colossal Cash, the biggest online jackpot seed in the industry, currently stands at over $2.5 million – it really is a big one!"
At the start of 2010, PartyCasino.com launched the largest progressive seeded jackpot in the online gaming industry in the form of ‘The Big One’ and introduced classic slot Melon Madness. The Big One is structured as a five tiered pool. The highest tier - Colossal Cash - seeds at $1.5m, the biggest online jackpot seed in the industry. Melon Madness is designed to be a classic 30 line video slot. Play is fast and the free spin feature is played in-reel.
PartyCasino.com now offers over 140 games, including 100 slots, and pays out easily over $10 million EVERY DAY to players. The world’s largest online casino continues to expand rapidly. The record Gold Mega Jackpot was hit with a fateful spin at 20.42ET on December 2nd 2009. The stake was $45 on popular PartyCasino.com Gold Mega Jackpot game, the Mega Fortune Wheel. The screen exploded with congratulations and colour as ‘gamago’ turned $45 into a record busting $4,978,336.62!
PartyGaming Plc is the world’s leading listed online gaming company. The Group is a constituent of the FTSE 250 share index and the FTSE4Good Index Series, which measures the performance of companies that meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards. PartyGaming’s shares are listed on The London Stock Exchange under the ticker: PRTY
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PartyCasino Brings Back The Porsche Promotion!
Get Out Of My Dreams! Get Into My Car!
Gibraltar – 16th March 2010 – PartyCasino.com, the world’s largest online casino, is pleased to announce the return of its Porsche Promotion! If the Gold Mega Jackpot is won between 18th – 31st March 2010 the player who earns the most PartyPoints by playing the Gold Mega Jackpot games: The Godfather, Mega Fortune Wheel, Super Joker, Super Mystic, Super Fortune Wheel and Super Star wins the sports car!
There is a leaderboard running through PartyAccount and if the jackpot is won within two weeks one of PartyGaming’s Palladium Lounge VIP hosts will call with the news that the Porsche has been won. If the Gold Mega Jackpot is not won between 18th – 31st March cash prizes will be awarded to players 1st – 600th on the leaderboard with a total value of $80,000.* For more details and terms and conditions please see your individual PartyAccount.
Players ranked 1st – 5th will be rewarded as follows: 1st - $15,000, 2nd - $12,500, 3rd - $10,000, 4th - $7,500, 5th – 9th - $1,000. Hotspots for every 10 ranks between 10th and 300th pays $750 cash bonus. Hotspots for every 10 ranks between 310th and 600th pays $250 cash bonus.
A PartyCasino.com spokesman said: "The Porsche promotion is back and if someone doesn’t win a flashy car there is still going to be real cash rewards for customers! If the Gold Mega Jackpot doesn’t take your fancy then Colossal Cash, the biggest online jackpot seed in the industry, currently stands at over $2.5 million – it really is a big one!"
At the start of 2010, PartyCasino.com launched the largest progressive seeded jackpot in the online gaming industry in the form of ‘The Big One’ and introduced classic slot Melon Madness. The Big One is structured as a five tiered pool. The highest tier - Colossal Cash - seeds at $1.5m, the biggest online jackpot seed in the industry. Melon Madness is designed to be a classic 30 line video slot. Play is fast and the free spin feature is played in-reel.
PartyCasino.com now offers over 140 games, including 100 slots, and pays out easily over $10 million EVERY DAY to players. The world’s largest online casino continues to expand rapidly. The record Gold Mega Jackpot was hit with a fateful spin at 20.42ET on December 2nd 2009. The stake was $45 on popular PartyCasino.com Gold Mega Jackpot game, the Mega Fortune Wheel. The screen exploded with congratulations and colour as ‘gamago’ turned $45 into a record busting $4,978,336.62!
PartyGaming Plc is the world’s leading listed online gaming company. The Group is a constituent of the FTSE 250 share index and the FTSE4Good Index Series, which measures the performance of companies that meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards. PartyGaming’s shares are listed on The London Stock Exchange under the ticker: PRTY
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Tuesday, March 16, 2010
PartyCasino News: PartyCasino and WPT Casino Get New Online Slot Games: Rubiks Slot, Slotbox, Sands Of Fortune, Beat the Bank and more - March 2010
PartyCasino.com and WPTCasino.com, both owned and operated by PartyGaming, have just released some great new online slot games.
New players can get up to $500 bonus.
Play for free or play for money. Multi language and multi currency. The casinos offer the exclusive PartyGaming PartyPoints rewards system providing players with world class rewards and bonuses.
Rubiks Slot
Rubiks game is a fixed odds game based on the popular Rubik’s Cube® Puzzle. The player selects the stake and then presses the Play button and gets wins based on how many lines and/or sides get completed on the 3 visible sides after the cube is automatically rotated several times. All wins are paid as per the paytable. Rubik's game also introduces Free Plays. Free Plays is triggered when all six letters in the Rubik's logo are highlighted, in which the player is awarded free plays and extra cubes.
Slotbox
Line up a fortune in Slotblox. Take a classic, line-building puzzle game, remove the stress and add plenty of chances to win lots of cash. That’s Slotblox.
Slotblox couldn’t be simpler. When you start playing different shaped blocks fall down the screen into your game grid. Don’t worry about controlling the blocks, the game does that for you.
You can build your way to big money when these blocks create cash-winning lines. Winning lines then disappear, creating more space in the grid and giving your further chances to win.
Get a winning line with the special ‘magic’ blocks and you’ll trigger the free plays feature where’s there’s double money to be won.
See if a fortune’s about to fall your way.
Sands Of Fortune
Sands of Fortune is a five-reel, nine-paylines slot game with a bonus feature game that gives you the chance to win extra prizes. Random number of picks of up to 5 is awarded. You get to select any 1 door in each pick to reveal a prize. 3 or more BONUS symbols appear anywhere in view triggers the bonus feature.
Beat the Bank
Beat the bank is a five-reel, twenty-paylines slot game with a 'free game' and a ‘Beat The Bank’ feature. The Free Games Feature is triggered when Thief appears any where on reels 2, 3 and 4 at the same time. 15 free games are awarded, during which all prizes are tripled, except for Beat The Bank feature win, even though it is triggered during Free Spins. The feature can be retriggered when Thief appears any where on reels 2, 3 and 4 at the same time. The Beat The Bank Feature is awarded when 3 or more Scattered Safe occur anywhere.
Thief appears on Reels 2, 3 and 4 only and substitutes for all other symbols except Scattered Safe.
PartyCasino.com is a multi time Casino News Media - Media Man - Global Gaming Directory Online Casino Of The Month winner and WPTCasino.com is a Casino News Media - Media Man - Global Gaming Directory Online Casino finalist.
PartyGaming is widely regarded as the world's leading igaming company. They are listed on the London Stock Exchange and were established in 1997.
Websites
PartyCasino.com
WPTCasino.com
PartyCasino.com and WPTCasino.com, both owned and operated by PartyGaming, have just released some great new online slot games.
New players can get up to $500 bonus.
Play for free or play for money. Multi language and multi currency. The casinos offer the exclusive PartyGaming PartyPoints rewards system providing players with world class rewards and bonuses.
Rubiks Slot
Rubiks game is a fixed odds game based on the popular Rubik’s Cube® Puzzle. The player selects the stake and then presses the Play button and gets wins based on how many lines and/or sides get completed on the 3 visible sides after the cube is automatically rotated several times. All wins are paid as per the paytable. Rubik's game also introduces Free Plays. Free Plays is triggered when all six letters in the Rubik's logo are highlighted, in which the player is awarded free plays and extra cubes.
Slotbox
Line up a fortune in Slotblox. Take a classic, line-building puzzle game, remove the stress and add plenty of chances to win lots of cash. That’s Slotblox.
Slotblox couldn’t be simpler. When you start playing different shaped blocks fall down the screen into your game grid. Don’t worry about controlling the blocks, the game does that for you.
You can build your way to big money when these blocks create cash-winning lines. Winning lines then disappear, creating more space in the grid and giving your further chances to win.
Get a winning line with the special ‘magic’ blocks and you’ll trigger the free plays feature where’s there’s double money to be won.
See if a fortune’s about to fall your way.
Sands Of Fortune
Sands of Fortune is a five-reel, nine-paylines slot game with a bonus feature game that gives you the chance to win extra prizes. Random number of picks of up to 5 is awarded. You get to select any 1 door in each pick to reveal a prize. 3 or more BONUS symbols appear anywhere in view triggers the bonus feature.
Beat the Bank
Beat the bank is a five-reel, twenty-paylines slot game with a 'free game' and a ‘Beat The Bank’ feature. The Free Games Feature is triggered when Thief appears any where on reels 2, 3 and 4 at the same time. 15 free games are awarded, during which all prizes are tripled, except for Beat The Bank feature win, even though it is triggered during Free Spins. The feature can be retriggered when Thief appears any where on reels 2, 3 and 4 at the same time. The Beat The Bank Feature is awarded when 3 or more Scattered Safe occur anywhere.
Thief appears on Reels 2, 3 and 4 only and substitutes for all other symbols except Scattered Safe.
PartyCasino.com is a multi time Casino News Media - Media Man - Global Gaming Directory Online Casino Of The Month winner and WPTCasino.com is a Casino News Media - Media Man - Global Gaming Directory Online Casino finalist.
PartyGaming is widely regarded as the world's leading igaming company. They are listed on the London Stock Exchange and were established in 1997.
Websites
PartyCasino.com
WPTCasino.com
Monday, March 15, 2010
Australia's Jupiters Casino On The Gold Coast Opens World Class Poker Room, by Greg Tingle - 15th March 2010
Not one to be bias, despite owning shares in Packer's Crown Limited (and none in Tabcorp), we have a look at what's news with our "friends" up Surfers Paradise way at Conrad Jupiters (soon to be dropping the "Conrad" tag)... maybe something to do with Conrad Black...
The poker room at Jupiters Hotel and Casino on the Gold Coast opened for business this past Wednesday night. We hear it was quite the cocktail party, apparently with a few cocks and tails doing the rounds ala Las Vegas Strip, or Macau for that matter.
The VIP's - A, B and C listers were invited to try lady luck on the greens and bet heavy thanks to the advent of "pretend" money, which is even better than "Lucky Money" for those following the Harry K Owes Owes Crown Casino 1 Million Bucks story.
Back to positive PR, Robbie Vail, GM of tables that the rooms was part of Jupiters multi-million dollar make over where the likes of Kerry Packer, Mel Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Greg Norman and many more whales and dolphins tried their luck. No mention of Harry K or James Packer however.
We wish em good luck in the true spirit of competition. If they go well enough Bondi's James' might even have another go at scooping up Tabcorp, if The Price Is Right.
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*The writer owns shares in Crown Limited
*Media Man is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company
Website Network
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Australian Casino News
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Poker News Media
Not one to be bias, despite owning shares in Packer's Crown Limited (and none in Tabcorp), we have a look at what's news with our "friends" up Surfers Paradise way at Conrad Jupiters (soon to be dropping the "Conrad" tag)... maybe something to do with Conrad Black...
The poker room at Jupiters Hotel and Casino on the Gold Coast opened for business this past Wednesday night. We hear it was quite the cocktail party, apparently with a few cocks and tails doing the rounds ala Las Vegas Strip, or Macau for that matter.
The VIP's - A, B and C listers were invited to try lady luck on the greens and bet heavy thanks to the advent of "pretend" money, which is even better than "Lucky Money" for those following the Harry K Owes Owes Crown Casino 1 Million Bucks story.
Back to positive PR, Robbie Vail, GM of tables that the rooms was part of Jupiters multi-million dollar make over where the likes of Kerry Packer, Mel Gibson, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Greg Norman and many more whales and dolphins tried their luck. No mention of Harry K or James Packer however.
We wish em good luck in the true spirit of competition. If they go well enough Bondi's James' might even have another go at scooping up Tabcorp, if The Price Is Right.
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*The writer owns shares in Crown Limited
*Media Man is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company
Website Network
Media Man International
Casino News Media
Casino News Media.net
Australian Casino News
Australian Casinos
Global Gaming Directory
Global Gaming Directory.net
Poker News Media
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Poker News Media: Police: Suspect in poker heist released
BERLIN — Berlin police said Saturday they had released a man previously suspected of taking part in the storming last weekend of a poker tournament in which armed robbers made off with euro240,000 ($328,000) in jackpot money.
A spokeswoman for Berlin police — who did not give her name in keeping with department policy — said the suspect had been set free due to a lack of evidence. The suspect, who was detained late Friday, denied throughout several hours in questioning having taken part in the heist at the Grand Hyatt hotel in the capital.
Police declined to identify the man or give any further details, citing the ongoing investigation.
German authorities have been hunting for four suspects who, armed with guns and machetes, stormed the poker tournament in broad daylight last Saturday in downtown Berlin, stunning the participants and the audience.
Images of the masked men were captured on surveillance cameras.
According to the European Poker tour, the jackpot for the tournament stood at euro1 million ($1.36 million).
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Media Man International
BERLIN — Berlin police said Saturday they had released a man previously suspected of taking part in the storming last weekend of a poker tournament in which armed robbers made off with euro240,000 ($328,000) in jackpot money.
A spokeswoman for Berlin police — who did not give her name in keeping with department policy — said the suspect had been set free due to a lack of evidence. The suspect, who was detained late Friday, denied throughout several hours in questioning having taken part in the heist at the Grand Hyatt hotel in the capital.
Police declined to identify the man or give any further details, citing the ongoing investigation.
German authorities have been hunting for four suspects who, armed with guns and machetes, stormed the poker tournament in broad daylight last Saturday in downtown Berlin, stunning the participants and the audience.
Images of the masked men were captured on surveillance cameras.
According to the European Poker tour, the jackpot for the tournament stood at euro1 million ($1.36 million).
Website Network
Poker News Media
Casino News Media
Casino News Media.net
Global Gaming Directory
Global Gaming Directory.net
Media Man International
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Australia: Internet In Peril as Big Brother Is Still Watching, by Greg Tingle - 13th March 2010
Gaming, news media, entertainment and freedom of expression fans, your Internet is in danger, at least if you're one of our Australian readers.
The folks down under in Australia have spoken loud and clear...for almost a year now... they don't want their internet (or coffee as a general rule), filtered by the powers that be in the Australian government.
This most important of news stories has been covered in considerable detail by Media Man, Gambling911, and many of the world's leading news outlets.
What's at stake? Human rights and censorship, and that's just the tip of the iceberg folks.
Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders has now listed Australia along with Iran and North Korea in a report on countries that pose a threat regarding internet censorship.
Paris-based RWB (Reporters Without Borders) put Australia and South Korea on its list of countries "under surveillance" in its "Internet Enemies" report delivered last Thursday.
Australia was listed for the government's plan to block access to websites featuring material such as rape, drug use, bestiality and child sex abuse. Gambling911 and Media Man do not support those vices, however we do believe that if people want to enjoy online poker, casino games and even a bit of regular porn, they should be able to! You're beloved Maxim, FHM, Penthouse and Playboy Poker Babes could even be in danger of becoming "illegal"!
Detractors are saying that the plan is a seriously misguided measure that will harm civil liberties by blocking a broader range of content than just "net nasty" content.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has advised he plans to introduce legislation by the end of next week that would require ISPs to block a blacklist of "refused classification" websites for all Australians.
It is not currently certain if the government will meet this deadline; a spokeswoman for Senator Conroy said the legislation would be introduced "after it has been considered by caucus and cabinet".
The inclusion on "Internet Enemies" follows the naming of Senator Conroy as the "Internet Villain Of The Year" last July at the Internet Service Providers' Association annual awards in London, a honour that Sen. Conroy shrugged off.
The latest report was of particular interest to Aussie campaigner Peter Coroneos, the MD of the IIA (Internet Industry Association), who told the press that it showed the international reception to the proposed internet filter.
"This regrettably puts Australia on notice that, despite the Rudd Government's best intentions, any mandatory filtering policy is likely to be perceived internationally in ways that will not benefit our reputation as a free and open society," he said.
"It will likely be used by less open societies as a vindication of their internet censorship regimes, despite any domestic attempts to draw distinctions. Mandatory filtering is mandatory filtering by whatever colour it is painted."
Senator Conroy's spokeswoman defended the internet filtering, advising RC content is already prohibited in physical media distributed offline.
"Under Australia's existing Classification regulations this material is not available in newsagencies, it is not on library shelves, you cannot watch it on a DVD or at the cinema and it is not shown on television," she said.
There's hope yet however...Whether the internet filtering scheme gets up will likely depend on the position of the Liberal party, as the Greens have already pledged to oppose the legislation.
The opposition has yet to come to a final position on the matter but in a speech to the Grattan Institute earlier this week shadow treasurer Joe Hockey said the policy was "likely to be unworkable in practice". He expressed concerns that the scope of blocked websites could be expanded in the future and said it was up to parents, not governments, to regulate their childrens' internet use.
A spokeswoman for Hockey said today that the shadow treasurer's comments should not be interpreted as confirmation that the opposition would oppose the filtering legislation, as a decision had not yet been made at this this time.
In South Korea, the RSF report added, "draconian laws are creating too many specific restrictions on web users by challenging their anonymity and promoting self-censorship".
"These countries are worrying us because they have measures that could have repercussions for freedom of expression on the internet," RSF secretary general Jean-Francois Julliard said at an internet rights award ceremony on Thursday.
Russia and Turkey were also added to the watchlist, which is a stage below RSF's top "Enemies of the internet", the countries it considers the 12 worst web freedom violators.
These include Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Iran and Vietnam.
"The world's largest netizen prison is in China, which is far out ahead of other countries with 72 detainees, followed by Vietnam and then by Iran, which have all launched waves of brutal attacks on websites in recent months," RSF's report said.
A senior manager of Google, David Drummond, said there was an "alarming trend" of government interference in online freedom, not only in countries that are judged to have poor human rights records.
He pointed to Australia's plans as a classic example, saying that there "the wide scope of content prohibited could include socially and politically controversial material".
The Australian case "is an example of where these benign intentions can result in the spectre of true censorship".
"Here in Europe, even in France, at this very moment, some are tempted by this slippery path of network filtering."
As recently as last month, after Senator Conroy called on YouTube to censor videos in accordance with his filtering scheme, the search giant's head of policy in Australia, Iarla Flynn, said: "The scope of RC is simply too broad and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information. RC includes the grey realms of material instructing in any crime from [painting] graffiti to politically controversial crimes such as euthanasia, and exposing these topics to public debate is vital for democracy."
Gambling911 and Media Man International are advising Aussie punters to enjoy online poker and casino games while they can at websites such as PartyPoker, PartyCasino, PKR, PokerStars and Betfair.
Management at Gambling911 is hopeful that their own website (which reports on poker, gaming, gambling, sports betting and politics) doesn't end up being banned by the Aussie government.
A little birdie has told us that the Australian government should expect more attacks on their own websites in retribution, and rumours are circulating of more protests being arranged on Australian soil, and one disturbing report of a public riot being organised. Stay tuned for more on this developing situation.
*The writer is a special contributor for Gambling911
*The writer is a member of Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance and the National Press Club
*Media Man is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company
http://www.mediamanint.com
Greg Tingle, Gambling911.com
Website Network
Media Man International
Media Man
Media Man Australia
Media Man Asia
Media Manager
Global Gaming Directory
Global Gaming Directory.net
Poker News Media
Property News Media
Australian Casino News
Casino Travel Media
Casino News Media
Casino News Media.net
Gaming, news media, entertainment and freedom of expression fans, your Internet is in danger, at least if you're one of our Australian readers.
The folks down under in Australia have spoken loud and clear...for almost a year now... they don't want their internet (or coffee as a general rule), filtered by the powers that be in the Australian government.
This most important of news stories has been covered in considerable detail by Media Man, Gambling911, and many of the world's leading news outlets.
What's at stake? Human rights and censorship, and that's just the tip of the iceberg folks.
Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders has now listed Australia along with Iran and North Korea in a report on countries that pose a threat regarding internet censorship.
Paris-based RWB (Reporters Without Borders) put Australia and South Korea on its list of countries "under surveillance" in its "Internet Enemies" report delivered last Thursday.
Australia was listed for the government's plan to block access to websites featuring material such as rape, drug use, bestiality and child sex abuse. Gambling911 and Media Man do not support those vices, however we do believe that if people want to enjoy online poker, casino games and even a bit of regular porn, they should be able to! You're beloved Maxim, FHM, Penthouse and Playboy Poker Babes could even be in danger of becoming "illegal"!
Detractors are saying that the plan is a seriously misguided measure that will harm civil liberties by blocking a broader range of content than just "net nasty" content.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has advised he plans to introduce legislation by the end of next week that would require ISPs to block a blacklist of "refused classification" websites for all Australians.
It is not currently certain if the government will meet this deadline; a spokeswoman for Senator Conroy said the legislation would be introduced "after it has been considered by caucus and cabinet".
The inclusion on "Internet Enemies" follows the naming of Senator Conroy as the "Internet Villain Of The Year" last July at the Internet Service Providers' Association annual awards in London, a honour that Sen. Conroy shrugged off.
The latest report was of particular interest to Aussie campaigner Peter Coroneos, the MD of the IIA (Internet Industry Association), who told the press that it showed the international reception to the proposed internet filter.
"This regrettably puts Australia on notice that, despite the Rudd Government's best intentions, any mandatory filtering policy is likely to be perceived internationally in ways that will not benefit our reputation as a free and open society," he said.
"It will likely be used by less open societies as a vindication of their internet censorship regimes, despite any domestic attempts to draw distinctions. Mandatory filtering is mandatory filtering by whatever colour it is painted."
Senator Conroy's spokeswoman defended the internet filtering, advising RC content is already prohibited in physical media distributed offline.
"Under Australia's existing Classification regulations this material is not available in newsagencies, it is not on library shelves, you cannot watch it on a DVD or at the cinema and it is not shown on television," she said.
There's hope yet however...Whether the internet filtering scheme gets up will likely depend on the position of the Liberal party, as the Greens have already pledged to oppose the legislation.
The opposition has yet to come to a final position on the matter but in a speech to the Grattan Institute earlier this week shadow treasurer Joe Hockey said the policy was "likely to be unworkable in practice". He expressed concerns that the scope of blocked websites could be expanded in the future and said it was up to parents, not governments, to regulate their childrens' internet use.
A spokeswoman for Hockey said today that the shadow treasurer's comments should not be interpreted as confirmation that the opposition would oppose the filtering legislation, as a decision had not yet been made at this this time.
In South Korea, the RSF report added, "draconian laws are creating too many specific restrictions on web users by challenging their anonymity and promoting self-censorship".
"These countries are worrying us because they have measures that could have repercussions for freedom of expression on the internet," RSF secretary general Jean-Francois Julliard said at an internet rights award ceremony on Thursday.
Russia and Turkey were also added to the watchlist, which is a stage below RSF's top "Enemies of the internet", the countries it considers the 12 worst web freedom violators.
These include Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Iran and Vietnam.
"The world's largest netizen prison is in China, which is far out ahead of other countries with 72 detainees, followed by Vietnam and then by Iran, which have all launched waves of brutal attacks on websites in recent months," RSF's report said.
A senior manager of Google, David Drummond, said there was an "alarming trend" of government interference in online freedom, not only in countries that are judged to have poor human rights records.
He pointed to Australia's plans as a classic example, saying that there "the wide scope of content prohibited could include socially and politically controversial material".
The Australian case "is an example of where these benign intentions can result in the spectre of true censorship".
"Here in Europe, even in France, at this very moment, some are tempted by this slippery path of network filtering."
As recently as last month, after Senator Conroy called on YouTube to censor videos in accordance with his filtering scheme, the search giant's head of policy in Australia, Iarla Flynn, said: "The scope of RC is simply too broad and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information. RC includes the grey realms of material instructing in any crime from [painting] graffiti to politically controversial crimes such as euthanasia, and exposing these topics to public debate is vital for democracy."
Gambling911 and Media Man International are advising Aussie punters to enjoy online poker and casino games while they can at websites such as PartyPoker, PartyCasino, PKR, PokerStars and Betfair.
Management at Gambling911 is hopeful that their own website (which reports on poker, gaming, gambling, sports betting and politics) doesn't end up being banned by the Aussie government.
A little birdie has told us that the Australian government should expect more attacks on their own websites in retribution, and rumours are circulating of more protests being arranged on Australian soil, and one disturbing report of a public riot being organised. Stay tuned for more on this developing situation.
*The writer is a special contributor for Gambling911
*The writer is a member of Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance and the National Press Club
*Media Man is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company
http://www.mediamanint.com
Greg Tingle, Gambling911.com
Website Network
Media Man International
Media Man
Media Man Australia
Media Man Asia
Media Manager
Global Gaming Directory
Global Gaming Directory.net
Poker News Media
Property News Media
Australian Casino News
Casino Travel Media
Casino News Media
Casino News Media.net
Friday, March 12, 2010
Australian News Media, Gaming And Human Rights Under Et Al Under Attack By Aussie Government - Australia Iran North Korea Connection, by Greg Tingle - 12th March 2010
Gaming, news media, entertainment and freedom of expression fans, your internet is in danger, at least if your one of our Australian readers.
The folks down under in Australia have spoken loud and clear...for almost a year now... they don't want their internet (or coffee as a general rule), filtered by the powers that be in the Australian government.
This most important of news stories has been covered in considerable detail by Media Man, Gambling911, and many of the world's leading news outlets.
What's at stake? Human rights and censorship, and that's just the tip of the iceberg folks.
Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders has now listed Australia along with Iran and North Korea in a report on countries that pose a threat regarding internet censorship.
Paris-based RWB (Reporters Without Borders) put Australia and South Korea on its list of countries "under surveillance" in its "Internet Enemies" report delivered last Thursday.
Australia was listed for the government's plan to block access to websites featuring material such as rape, drug use, bestiality and child sex abuse. Gambling911 and Media Man do not support those vices, however we do believed that if people want to enjoy online poker, casino games and even a bit of regular porn, they should be able to! You're beloved Maxim, FHM, Penthouse and Playboy Poker Babes could even be in danger of becoming "illegal"!
Detractors are saying that the plan is a seriously misguided measure that will harm civil liberties by blocking a broader range of content than just "net nasty" content.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has advised he plans to introduce legislation by the end of next week that would require ISPs to block a blacklist of "refused classification" websites for all Australians.
It is not currently certain if the government will meet this deadline; a spokeswoman for Senator Conroy said the legislation would be introduced "after it has been considered by caucus and cabinet".
The inclusion on "Internet Enemies" follows the naming of Senator Conroy as the "Internet Villain Of The Year" last July at the Internet Service Providers’ Association annual awards in London, a honour that Sen. Conroy shrugged off.
The latest report was of particular interest to Aussie campaigner Peter Coroneos, the MD of the IIA (Internet Industry Association), who told the press that it showed the international reception to the proposed internet filter.
"This regrettably puts Australia on notice that, despite the Rudd Government’s best intentions, any mandatory filtering policy is likely to be perceived internationally in ways that will not benefit our reputation as a free and open society," he said.
"It will likely be used by less open societies as a vindication of their internet censorship regimes, despite any domestic attempts to draw distinctions. Mandatory filtering is mandatory filtering by whatever colour it is painted."
Senator Conroy's spokeswoman defended the internet filtering, advising RC content is already prohibited in physical media distributed offline.
"Under Australia’s existing Classification regulations this material is not available in newsagencies, it is not on library shelves, you cannot watch it on a DVD or at the cinema and it is not shown on television," she said.
There's hope yet however...Whether the internet filtering scheme gets up will likely depend on the position of the Liberal party, as the Greens have already pledged to oppose the legislation.
The opposition has yet to come to a final position on the matter but in a speech to the Grattan Institute earlier this week shadow treasurer Joe Hockey said the policy was "likely to be unworkable in practice". He expressed concerns that the scope of blocked websites could be expanded in the future and said it was up to parents, not governments, to regulate their childrens' internet use.
A spokeswoman for Hockey said today that the shadow treasurer's comments should not be interpreted as confirmation that the opposition would oppose the filtering legislation, as a decision had not yet been made at this this time.
In South Korea, the RSF report added, "draconian laws are creating too many specific restrictions on web users by challenging their anonymity and promoting self-censorship".
"These countries are worrying us because they have measures that could have repercussions for freedom of expression on the internet," RSF secretary general Jean-Francois Julliard said at an internet rights award ceremony on Thursday.
Russia and Turkey were also added to the watchlist, which is a stage below RSF's top "Enemies of the internet", the countries it considers the 12 worst web freedom violators.
These include Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Iran and Vietnam.
"The world's largest netizen prison is in China, which is far out ahead of other countries with 72 detainees, followed by Vietnam and then by Iran, which have all launched waves of brutal attacks on websites in recent months," RSF's report said.
A senior manager of Google, David Drummond, said there was an "alarming trend" of government interference in online freedom, not only in countries that are judged to have poor human rights records.
He pointed to Australia's plans as a classic example, saying that there "the wide scope of content prohibited could include socially and politically controversial material".
The Australian case "is an example of where these benign intentions can result in the spectre of true censorship".
"Here in Europe, even in France, at this very moment, some are tempted by this slippery path of network filtering."
As recently as last month, after Senator Conroy called on YouTube to censor videos in accordance with his filtering scheme, the search giant's head of policy in Australia, Iarla Flynn, said: "The scope of RC is simply too broad and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information. RC includes the grey realms of material instructing in any crime from [painting] graffiti to politically controversial crimes such as euthanasia, and exposing these topics to public debate is vital for democracy."
Gambling911 and Media Man International are advising Aussie punters to enjoy online poker and casino games while they can at websites such as PartyPoker, PartyCasino, PKR, PokerStars and Betfair.
Management at Gambling911 is hopeful that their own website (which reports on poker, gaming, gambling, sports betting and politics) doesn't end up being banned by the Aussie government.
A little birdie has told us that the Australian government should expect more attacks on their own websites in retribution, and rumours are circulating of more protests being arranged on Australian soil, and one disturbing report of a public riot being organised. Stay tuned for more on this developing situation.
*The writer is a special contributor for Gambling911
*The writer is a member of Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance and the National Press Club
*Media Man is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company
http://www.mediamanint.com
Gaming, news media, entertainment and freedom of expression fans, your internet is in danger, at least if your one of our Australian readers.
The folks down under in Australia have spoken loud and clear...for almost a year now... they don't want their internet (or coffee as a general rule), filtered by the powers that be in the Australian government.
This most important of news stories has been covered in considerable detail by Media Man, Gambling911, and many of the world's leading news outlets.
What's at stake? Human rights and censorship, and that's just the tip of the iceberg folks.
Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders has now listed Australia along with Iran and North Korea in a report on countries that pose a threat regarding internet censorship.
Paris-based RWB (Reporters Without Borders) put Australia and South Korea on its list of countries "under surveillance" in its "Internet Enemies" report delivered last Thursday.
Australia was listed for the government's plan to block access to websites featuring material such as rape, drug use, bestiality and child sex abuse. Gambling911 and Media Man do not support those vices, however we do believed that if people want to enjoy online poker, casino games and even a bit of regular porn, they should be able to! You're beloved Maxim, FHM, Penthouse and Playboy Poker Babes could even be in danger of becoming "illegal"!
Detractors are saying that the plan is a seriously misguided measure that will harm civil liberties by blocking a broader range of content than just "net nasty" content.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has advised he plans to introduce legislation by the end of next week that would require ISPs to block a blacklist of "refused classification" websites for all Australians.
It is not currently certain if the government will meet this deadline; a spokeswoman for Senator Conroy said the legislation would be introduced "after it has been considered by caucus and cabinet".
The inclusion on "Internet Enemies" follows the naming of Senator Conroy as the "Internet Villain Of The Year" last July at the Internet Service Providers’ Association annual awards in London, a honour that Sen. Conroy shrugged off.
The latest report was of particular interest to Aussie campaigner Peter Coroneos, the MD of the IIA (Internet Industry Association), who told the press that it showed the international reception to the proposed internet filter.
"This regrettably puts Australia on notice that, despite the Rudd Government’s best intentions, any mandatory filtering policy is likely to be perceived internationally in ways that will not benefit our reputation as a free and open society," he said.
"It will likely be used by less open societies as a vindication of their internet censorship regimes, despite any domestic attempts to draw distinctions. Mandatory filtering is mandatory filtering by whatever colour it is painted."
Senator Conroy's spokeswoman defended the internet filtering, advising RC content is already prohibited in physical media distributed offline.
"Under Australia’s existing Classification regulations this material is not available in newsagencies, it is not on library shelves, you cannot watch it on a DVD or at the cinema and it is not shown on television," she said.
There's hope yet however...Whether the internet filtering scheme gets up will likely depend on the position of the Liberal party, as the Greens have already pledged to oppose the legislation.
The opposition has yet to come to a final position on the matter but in a speech to the Grattan Institute earlier this week shadow treasurer Joe Hockey said the policy was "likely to be unworkable in practice". He expressed concerns that the scope of blocked websites could be expanded in the future and said it was up to parents, not governments, to regulate their childrens' internet use.
A spokeswoman for Hockey said today that the shadow treasurer's comments should not be interpreted as confirmation that the opposition would oppose the filtering legislation, as a decision had not yet been made at this this time.
In South Korea, the RSF report added, "draconian laws are creating too many specific restrictions on web users by challenging their anonymity and promoting self-censorship".
"These countries are worrying us because they have measures that could have repercussions for freedom of expression on the internet," RSF secretary general Jean-Francois Julliard said at an internet rights award ceremony on Thursday.
Russia and Turkey were also added to the watchlist, which is a stage below RSF's top "Enemies of the internet", the countries it considers the 12 worst web freedom violators.
These include Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Iran and Vietnam.
"The world's largest netizen prison is in China, which is far out ahead of other countries with 72 detainees, followed by Vietnam and then by Iran, which have all launched waves of brutal attacks on websites in recent months," RSF's report said.
A senior manager of Google, David Drummond, said there was an "alarming trend" of government interference in online freedom, not only in countries that are judged to have poor human rights records.
He pointed to Australia's plans as a classic example, saying that there "the wide scope of content prohibited could include socially and politically controversial material".
The Australian case "is an example of where these benign intentions can result in the spectre of true censorship".
"Here in Europe, even in France, at this very moment, some are tempted by this slippery path of network filtering."
As recently as last month, after Senator Conroy called on YouTube to censor videos in accordance with his filtering scheme, the search giant's head of policy in Australia, Iarla Flynn, said: "The scope of RC is simply too broad and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information. RC includes the grey realms of material instructing in any crime from [painting] graffiti to politically controversial crimes such as euthanasia, and exposing these topics to public debate is vital for democracy."
Gambling911 and Media Man International are advising Aussie punters to enjoy online poker and casino games while they can at websites such as PartyPoker, PartyCasino, PKR, PokerStars and Betfair.
Management at Gambling911 is hopeful that their own website (which reports on poker, gaming, gambling, sports betting and politics) doesn't end up being banned by the Aussie government.
A little birdie has told us that the Australian government should expect more attacks on their own websites in retribution, and rumours are circulating of more protests being arranged on Australian soil, and one disturbing report of a public riot being organised. Stay tuned for more on this developing situation.
*The writer is a special contributor for Gambling911
*The writer is a member of Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance and the National Press Club
*Media Man is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company
http://www.mediamanint.com
Poker Babes: Maxim Men's Magazine Top 20 For 2010
Men's magazine Maxim have released their 20 hottest poker babes.
The list mainly consists of Hollywood celebs who have had minor poker involvement such as charity tournaments, however there are a handful of poker babes who can also play well, and even a couple of champions!
Vanessa Rousso enjoyed a win at the EPT Grand Final High Rollers and was runner-up at the NBC National HU Championship and has made 11 final table appearances. Her total tournament cashes are 2.5 million dollars.
Jennifer Tilly and Shannon Elizabeth are two celebrities known also as passionate players. Jenn has a WSOP bracelet and both have made the semifinals at the NBC National HU Championship.
Tiffany Michelle's biggest brag is 17th place and $334,000 at the World Series of Poker 2008 Main Event.
Us, we like Kara Scott from PartyPoker.com and remain very high on Paris Hilton, Jenny McCarthy and Pam Anderson.
Cameron Diaz
Heather Graham
Jenna Fischer
Jennie Garth
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Jennifer Tilly
Jenny McCarthy
Joanna Krupa
Lacey Chabert
Laura Prepon
Mena Suvari
Odette Yustman
Pamela Anderson
Rosario Dawson
Sarah Silverman
Serinda Swan
Shannon Elizabeth
Tiffany Michelle
Traci Bingham
Vanessa Rousso
Profiles
Poker Babes
Casino Babes
Babes
Poker
Website Network
Poker News Media
Casino News Media
Global Gaming Directory
Australian Sports Entertainment
Sports Entertainment News
Media Man
Media Man International
Men's magazine Maxim have released their 20 hottest poker babes.
The list mainly consists of Hollywood celebs who have had minor poker involvement such as charity tournaments, however there are a handful of poker babes who can also play well, and even a couple of champions!
Vanessa Rousso enjoyed a win at the EPT Grand Final High Rollers and was runner-up at the NBC National HU Championship and has made 11 final table appearances. Her total tournament cashes are 2.5 million dollars.
Jennifer Tilly and Shannon Elizabeth are two celebrities known also as passionate players. Jenn has a WSOP bracelet and both have made the semifinals at the NBC National HU Championship.
Tiffany Michelle's biggest brag is 17th place and $334,000 at the World Series of Poker 2008 Main Event.
Us, we like Kara Scott from PartyPoker.com and remain very high on Paris Hilton, Jenny McCarthy and Pam Anderson.
Cameron Diaz
Heather Graham
Jenna Fischer
Jennie Garth
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Jennifer Tilly
Jenny McCarthy
Joanna Krupa
Lacey Chabert
Laura Prepon
Mena Suvari
Odette Yustman
Pamela Anderson
Rosario Dawson
Sarah Silverman
Serinda Swan
Shannon Elizabeth
Tiffany Michelle
Traci Bingham
Vanessa Rousso
Profiles
Poker Babes
Casino Babes
Babes
Poker
Website Network
Poker News Media
Casino News Media
Global Gaming Directory
Australian Sports Entertainment
Sports Entertainment News
Media Man
Media Man International
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
PartyGaming News: PartyCasino and WPT Casino Get New Online Slot Games: Rubiks Slot, Slotbox, Sands Of Fortune, Beat the Bank and more - March 2010
PartyCasino.com and WPTCasino.com, both owned and operated by PartyGaming, have just released some great new online slot games.
New players can get up to $500 bonus.
Play for free or play for money. Multi language and multi currency. The casinos offer the exclusive PartyGaming PartyPoints rewards system providing players with world class rewards and bonuses.
Rubiks Slot
Rubiks game is a fixed odds game based on the popular Rubik’s Cube® Puzzle. The player selects the stake and then presses the Play button and gets wins based on how many lines and/or sides get completed on the 3 visible sides after the cube is automatically rotated several times. All wins are paid as per the paytable. Rubik's game also introduces Free Plays. Free Plays is triggered when all six letters in the Rubik's logo are highlighted, in which the player is awarded free plays and extra cubes.
Slotbox
Line up a fortune in Slotblox. Take a classic, line-building puzzle game, remove the stress and add plenty of chances to win lots of cash. That’s Slotblox.
Slotblox couldn’t be simpler. When you start playing different shaped blocks fall down the screen into your game grid. Don’t worry about controlling the blocks, the game does that for you.
You can build your way to big money when these blocks create cash-winning lines. Winning lines then disappear, creating more space in the grid and giving your further chances to win.
Get a winning line with the special ‘magic’ blocks and you’ll trigger the free plays feature where’s there’s double money to be won.
See if a fortune’s about to fall your way.
Sands Of Fortune
Sands of Fortune is a five-reel, nine-paylines slot game with a bonus feature game that gives you the chance to win extra prizes. Random number of picks of up to 5 is awarded. You get to select any 1 door in each pick to reveal a prize. 3 or more BONUS symbols appear anywhere in view triggers the bonus feature.
Beat the Bank
Beat the bank is a five-reel, twenty-paylines slot game with a 'free game' and a ‘Beat The Bank’ feature. The Free Games Feature is triggered when Thief appears any where on reels 2, 3 and 4 at the same time. 15 free games are awarded, during which all prizes are tripled, except for Beat The Bank feature win, even though it is triggered during Free Spins. The feature can be retriggered when Thief appears any where on reels 2, 3 and 4 at the same time. The Beat The Bank Feature is awarded when 3 or more Scattered Safe occur anywhere.
Thief appears on Reels 2, 3 and 4 only and substitutes for all other symbols except Scattered Safe.
PartyCasino.com is a multi time Casino News Media - Media Man - Global Gaming Directory Online Casino Of The Month winner and WPTCasino.com is a Casino News Media - Media Man - Global Gaming Directory Online Casino finalist.
PartyGaming is widely regarded as the world's leading igaming company. They are listed on the London Stock Exchange and were established in 1997.
Websites
PartyCasino.com
WPTCasino.com
PartyCasino.com and WPTCasino.com, both owned and operated by PartyGaming, have just released some great new online slot games.
New players can get up to $500 bonus.
Play for free or play for money. Multi language and multi currency. The casinos offer the exclusive PartyGaming PartyPoints rewards system providing players with world class rewards and bonuses.
Rubiks Slot
Rubiks game is a fixed odds game based on the popular Rubik’s Cube® Puzzle. The player selects the stake and then presses the Play button and gets wins based on how many lines and/or sides get completed on the 3 visible sides after the cube is automatically rotated several times. All wins are paid as per the paytable. Rubik's game also introduces Free Plays. Free Plays is triggered when all six letters in the Rubik's logo are highlighted, in which the player is awarded free plays and extra cubes.
Slotbox
Line up a fortune in Slotblox. Take a classic, line-building puzzle game, remove the stress and add plenty of chances to win lots of cash. That’s Slotblox.
Slotblox couldn’t be simpler. When you start playing different shaped blocks fall down the screen into your game grid. Don’t worry about controlling the blocks, the game does that for you.
You can build your way to big money when these blocks create cash-winning lines. Winning lines then disappear, creating more space in the grid and giving your further chances to win.
Get a winning line with the special ‘magic’ blocks and you’ll trigger the free plays feature where’s there’s double money to be won.
See if a fortune’s about to fall your way.
Sands Of Fortune
Sands of Fortune is a five-reel, nine-paylines slot game with a bonus feature game that gives you the chance to win extra prizes. Random number of picks of up to 5 is awarded. You get to select any 1 door in each pick to reveal a prize. 3 or more BONUS symbols appear anywhere in view triggers the bonus feature.
Beat the Bank
Beat the bank is a five-reel, twenty-paylines slot game with a 'free game' and a ‘Beat The Bank’ feature. The Free Games Feature is triggered when Thief appears any where on reels 2, 3 and 4 at the same time. 15 free games are awarded, during which all prizes are tripled, except for Beat The Bank feature win, even though it is triggered during Free Spins. The feature can be retriggered when Thief appears any where on reels 2, 3 and 4 at the same time. The Beat The Bank Feature is awarded when 3 or more Scattered Safe occur anywhere.
Thief appears on Reels 2, 3 and 4 only and substitutes for all other symbols except Scattered Safe.
PartyCasino.com is a multi time Casino News Media - Media Man - Global Gaming Directory Online Casino Of The Month winner and WPTCasino.com is a Casino News Media - Media Man - Global Gaming Directory Online Casino finalist.
PartyGaming is widely regarded as the world's leading igaming company. They are listed on the London Stock Exchange and were established in 1997.
Websites
PartyCasino.com
WPTCasino.com
Tiger Airways (Not Woods) Offers Private Flights To Singapore New Casino, by Greg Tingle - 10th March 2010
Singapore budget air carrier Tiger Airways will provide a chartered aircraft that will exclusively fly foreign guests visiting the city's first casino resort. Perfect to fly casino whales and would be's... dolphins, into gambling heaven... or hell.
The airline advised it signed an agreement with Resorts World Sentosa under which the casino operator will take over the lease of the aircraft.
The plane will be staffed by pilots and cabin crew from Tiger Airways, and we understand no gambling (or sex in the washroom ala Australia's "Mile High Hostie") will be permitted mid flight.
"Yet to be named, the private flight service, operated by Tiger Airways, will have an aircraft operating as a dedicated charter service for Resorts World Sentosa, transporting guests between Singapore and other cities around the region," it says.
The service is scheduled to start late this year.
Resorts World Sentosa has opened Singapore's first casino, which is part of a $US4.4 billion ($A4.9 billion) complex that also includes a Universal Studios movie theme park, premium hotels, restaurants and convention facilities.
Media Man and Gambling911 understands that by law the casino has to provide a range of services, thus becomes a "hotel - resort - theme park" scenario, but the lions share of the income comes straight from the casinos, and the whales and dolphins that visit. Aw well, we all have to make a dollar, and we wish punters good luck at Resorts World Sentosa.
*The writer is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company. The Media Man group includes Media Man, Media Man Australia and Media Man Asia
http://www.mediamanint.com http://www.mediamanaustralia.com http://www.mediaman.asia
Singapore budget air carrier Tiger Airways will provide a chartered aircraft that will exclusively fly foreign guests visiting the city's first casino resort. Perfect to fly casino whales and would be's... dolphins, into gambling heaven... or hell.
The airline advised it signed an agreement with Resorts World Sentosa under which the casino operator will take over the lease of the aircraft.
The plane will be staffed by pilots and cabin crew from Tiger Airways, and we understand no gambling (or sex in the washroom ala Australia's "Mile High Hostie") will be permitted mid flight.
"Yet to be named, the private flight service, operated by Tiger Airways, will have an aircraft operating as a dedicated charter service for Resorts World Sentosa, transporting guests between Singapore and other cities around the region," it says.
The service is scheduled to start late this year.
Resorts World Sentosa has opened Singapore's first casino, which is part of a $US4.4 billion ($A4.9 billion) complex that also includes a Universal Studios movie theme park, premium hotels, restaurants and convention facilities.
Media Man and Gambling911 understands that by law the casino has to provide a range of services, thus becomes a "hotel - resort - theme park" scenario, but the lions share of the income comes straight from the casinos, and the whales and dolphins that visit. Aw well, we all have to make a dollar, and we wish punters good luck at Resorts World Sentosa.
*The writer is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company. The Media Man group includes Media Man, Media Man Australia and Media Man Asia
http://www.mediamanint.com http://www.mediamanaustralia.com http://www.mediaman.asia
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
PartyGaming - PartyCasino, PartyPoker, WPT News - CEO Jim Ryan Interview
Websites
PartyCasino.com PartyPoker.com PartyBingo.com PartyBets.com World Poker Tour WTP Casino Noble Casino
Financial Performance
Total revenue and clean EBITDA are down. So how would you characterise 2009 performance?
Q. 2009 was a challenging year. It was a pretty tough economic backdrop for the sector. In fact, the sector has not worked through, or lived through a recession before that. That being said, I think PartyGaming's performance as well as the sector's was resilient but not immune. In 2009, we focused on operations and improving our operations.
In doing so, we actually returned the business to growth. And if you take a look at our fourth quarter, all four product verticals grew in that quarter, and grew dramatically. It was a 17% quarter-over-quarter growth.
So, if I take a look at the year as a whole, I would say our trading was robust, slightly ahead of analysts' consensus, so we feel good about that, and we're positioned very nicely moving into 2010.
Q. You mentioned Q4. How much of that was down to seasonality? And how much is sustainable growth?
A. Well, it's interesting. Q4, Q1 are typically the two strongest quarters in a year. That being said, focusing on our core operations, focusing on the customer, making a number of product, pricing, promotional-based improvements have actually improved the trading of the company. We saw the growth, as I mentioned, 17% quarter-over-quarter growth in Q4. We've seen that growth continue into the first quarter. So we're moving into the year very optimistic about our prospects.
Q. And what's behind the decline in new player signups in the Americas and in Asia-Pacific?
A. There are two factors. First and foremost, you have operators who have continued to operate in the United States, taking their profits and investing into countries like Canada. So that has made those environments far more competitive. That being said, PartyGaming is principally a European business. That's where our focus is. That's where we see our growth in the ensuing years. New, regulated markets coming - Italy, France, Denmark, hopefully Spain in the not-too-distant future. So that's where we're directing our attention at this point.
Business performance and development
Q. Looking first at Poker, you lost third place last year, but have regained it since. What was behind this, and how will you retain your position?
A. Interestingly enough, it was fairly simple - focusing on core Poker operations. What does that involve? It involved rewriting our products, soup to nuts. We actually re-launched Poker in September of 2008, but on the back of that re-launch, we did some very, very important things. We focused on the consumer. We changed our VIP and loyalty points programme in July of 2009. Since we've done that, we've experienced month-over-month growth in our Poker product.
In addition to that, we modified our pricing. The market has become more competitive and we've changed our pricing policy to ensure that we were as competitively priced as the other leaders in the sector.
In addition to that, promotions. There is always a reason to come and play at Party, 24/7. We have month-long promotions that stimulate VIPs, novices and mid-level players.
And last but not least, increasing the size and the capabilities of our Poker management team. I have been with four online gaming companies now, four different Poker networks, and I've never seen a team who is more passionate about the Poker product, worked as hard to make sure that we are a leader in the sector. And yes, we're number three today, but if you take out the US operators, we're actually number one.
Q. We also saw you buy World Poker Tour Enterprises. What's your strategy for that business? And have there been any regulatory issues with the US?
A. I'm going to answer the question in reverse order. First and foremost, there have been no regulatory issues. The World Poker Tour and its business is legal within the United States, and within the European community. The strategy for the World Poker Tour is fairly simple. If you take a look at the US as a case in point, and take a look at the most popular Poker brands in the United States, certainly Party would be top five. And also, World Poker Tour would be top five.
The World Poker Tour has 12 land-based events in the US. We will continue to operate those land-based events. They'll be standalone, branded World Poker Tour and their sponsors only. You will not see PartyPoker all over them. We're quite proud to have probably the best land-based tour events in the world, and we want to preserve that and grow it. We'll be growing it into Europe, with the addition of 10 land-based events.
Now, some of the European events will be sponsored by PartyPoker, and again, our focus is growing our Poker network throughout Europe. But we will also have third parties, online operators sponsor some of those events. So we are embracing our competition. We want them to participate in the land-based sponsorship, the TV sponsorship of the World Poker Tour events. So it is going to be, in one respect, business as usual for the World Poker Tour.
There is an online element that we're quite keen about in the United States, and that is the second aspect of the strategy. Subscription Poker is legal in 37 states in the US. The World Poker Tour operates in those states under the Club WPT brand. PartyPoker has a database of 12 million registered users. Our desire is to cross-pollinate the World Poker Tour subscription product into our 12 million person database. And remind those 12 million consumers that PartyPoker still exists, hopefully get them educated and interested in Poker again by getting them playing a legal subscription model, and positioning the brand for the long term - hopefully the short term, when the US market reopens.
Q. And you launched 80 games in Casino last year, which have shown strong growth. But what's your strategy there to ensure that level of growth?
A. We're excited about our Casino business. What did we have? 12% year-over-year growth and we had quarter-over-quarter growth all the way through the year. The strategy is threefold.
New content. 80 new games last year. We'll have 50 new games this year. The content will be exciting. It will be branded content. Some of the branded content will be those trusted Hollywood brands that you saw come from us last year - Terminator, Sinatra, Rambo to name a few. There will also be some internally developed brands from the PartyGaming game studio.
The second aspect of the strategy is focused on having life-changing events. It's a jackpot-based strategy. Last year, we had one of the largest jackpot wins in online gaming history. The jackpot was just shy of US$5 million. Today we have the largest reset value in our Melon Madness Jackpot. It resets or starts at US$1.5 million. Nobody else can match that in the sector. So we will continue to bring those life-changing events to the consumer.
And the last aspect of the strategy - and this is what excites me most - is dedicated Casino marketing. Now, here is why this is important. Historically, we've acquired all of our Casino players from our Poker database. That's been great, because our cost of acquisitions hasn't been particularly high, but it hasn't been particularly good for our Poker liquidity in a challenged competitive environment where we need to grow that liquidity. What we've now started to do is go and acquire pure-play Casino players. The magic of a pure-play Casino player? Their lifetime value is twice that of a Poker consumer who moves over to Casino.
So our Casino offering will grow in 2010 and beyond.
Q. Bingo performance has been transformed by the acquisition of Cashcade, but how international is Bingo? And what's the growth opportunity there?
A. Very exciting acquisition for us. We're now a market leader in the online Bingo space. We're arguably the largest network in the United Kingdom. The UK market is probably about US$400m in 2009. Now, what's fascinating about this: the worldwide online Bingo market is US$1.7bn.
So strategically, where are we going with this business? Well, we definitely want to capture more share in the United Kingdom, and we will this year. But we're going to take that business into other European markets, so you'll likely see us go into the Nordic territories and perhaps Spain in 2010.
Q. You've talked a lot about expanding your position in Sports Betting, and last year speculation was rife about a possible merger with bwin. What happened on that?
A. In fact, we've talked to a number of participants in the marketplace and continue to do so. There have been rumours about bwin and many others. The reality of it is where we stand today we have a number of discussions that are ongoing. Everything is at a preliminary stage. So, M&A continues to be a material part of our strategy moving forward, but we need the right set of circumstances for a deal to happen. So stay tuned.
B2B and B2G
Q. You say you’ve done five B2B deals in 2009, excluding those that came with the acquisition of Cashcade. How significant are they?
A. If I may, just for a moment, just state that we’re particularly proud of our B2B business vertical. Why? Because it was part of our new strategy that we announced in August of 2008. And here we are, a year and a half later, and we set that strategy up by saying we wanted to do five meaningful deals in the first year. And we did them.
You’ll never see us do double digits in terms of the number of new partners we’re bringing into our B2B business. The objective in 2009 was five deals, and that’s exactly what we did. The objective in 2010 is five deals. Our mission is to find five B2B partners who are ready and willing to invest in their online brand and drive a successful business. It is a situation where, in fact, less is more.
All of this, the five that we have, the five that we’ll do in 2010, will contribute as a foundation to our plan to achieve in excess of US$30m revenue from our B2B business in 2012.
Q. Turning to your B2G vertical, some commentators believe signing agreements with governments is restricting your potential earnings in a free market, and restricting your liquidity pool. What’s your view on this? And do you intend to continue a strategy of B2G as your preferred entry into a market?
A. I’m going to take you back to our strategy session in 2008. The executive team sat down and we took at look at the competitive environment and we said, “Let’s move five years out in trying to understand what this marketplace looks like.” The first thing we agreed on was the marketplace within Europe would regulate, and potentially within the United States and the rest of the world. In a regulated market, who are we going to have to compete against? We’re going to have to compete against media organisations, trusted brands like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo - and governments - including state lottery operators and government operators for online gaming services.
So we won’t get to dictate what is the best way to enter into these markets. They’re going to regulate. And the regulations, as they are in Europe today, vary from country to country. Is it a preferred approach? Our preferred approach is in fact to operate in regulated marketplaces because there is certainty. But there’s something also more valuable in a regulated market – the ability to freely advertise.
So our strategy right now is without question to focus on our B2B offering. So we’ll tackle those trusted brands and those media channels that want to get into the online sector. But also our B2G. It’s a natural. We’ve positioned our business beautifully for it for 2010. And what we will do, with both the B2B and the B2G, is marry them up with our liquidity pool that we generate from B2C. And hence, as we’re doing in Italy today, provide the consumer with the best possible experience.
Regulation and industry consolidation
Q. How much time are you devoting to the US at the moment? You’ve got your non-prosecution deal now agreed. You’ve got the World Poker Tour deal under your belt. The Barney Frank bill is in motion, for instance. You’re well-placed for a comeback, aren’t you?
A. We are still very much a European-focused business. That is how we’ll pay the bills throughout 2010 and beyond. That being said, we can’t ignore the opportunity in the United States. Truth be told, if I take you back to 2006, on a run rate basis, our business would have done US$1.2b worth of revenue and generated three-quarters of a billion dollars (US$750m) of EBITDA. The PartyPoker brand is still one of the most popular – if not the most popular – Poker brand in that marketplace.
So what have we done? We now have an office in Los Angeles. We have 38 employees. We’ve moved one of our executives, in fact an individual who used to run PartyPoker when we were in the US, over to our LA office. We’re propagating Poker through our subscription model right now in the WTP. We’re actively talking to land-based operators and others who are potentially interested in getting into this marketplace when it regulates.
So we’re sowing the seeds, if you will, right now and planting trees, preparing ourselves for re-entry. If and when it regulates, we’ll be there.
Q. And what further opportunities are you seeing in Europe?
A. Europe is an exciting place from a regulatory perspective right now. We have got Italy – and Italy is without question the fastest-growing poker market within the European Union. What you have to realise is, it is a regulated market now only for tournament poker. Tournament poker is 25 per cent of our core Poker business. Cash game poker makes up the balance. Cash game poker is in the process of being regulated, and hopefully will be so in the first half of 2010. Also with that, Casino games in the first half of 2010. And, hopefully in the second half, Bingo. So the Italian market is very exciting. We should expect to see some very nice growth coming from that country.
France? Hopefully mid-year will regulate online poker and sports betting. And Denmark, beginning of 2011. We also have the Spanish government, at a federal level, considering how best to manage online poker and regulation. So we’re excited about some of the developments that we’re seeing in the European marketplace.
Management focus and outlook
Q. You now have a COO, Per Widerström. So how are you focused to strategically develop the business in 2010?
A. It’s wonderful having Per. I was happy over 2009 to get actively involved in the operations, dig a little deeper and understand the business and perhaps put “Jim Ryan’s” thumbprint on the few areas that I felt I could contribute. Per, an experienced online gaming executive joining the team, taking over the day-to-day operations, will free me up to do a couple of important things. First and foremost, make sure that we monetise the synergies from the deals that we’ve done in 2009. Secondly, focus on new M&A opportunities. And lastly, contribute to the growth of our B2B and B2G efforts, not only in Europe but hopefully in the United States.
Q. Are you happy with the way the year has started? And what’s your outlook for the business in 2010?
A. We have started this year very positively, and we’re quite confident and optimistic about our growth prospects for the balance of the year.
2009 Full Year Results
Martin Weigold, Group Finance Director
Financial Performance
Q. You've reported above consensus for 2009, but isn't it all really down to cost-cutting? Talk me through the financials.
A. We're very pleased with our performance in 2009. Revenues dropped by 6% and clean EBITDA also dropped by 6%. Operating profit was up by 4%. But, given the economic climate, I think that that's a very solid result. Our Casino vertical had another outstanding year, driven by growth in new player sign-ups, the addition of 80 new games, which really saw the performance of that particular vertical take off.
Bingo was obviously transformed by the acquisition of Cashcade. In Sports we made a lot of progress, mainly in the second half. We started to reap some of the benefits of operational changes that we made earlier in the year. Poker was more difficult. We saw player numbers go backwards until we made changes to the loyalty programme around the middle of the year. And since that point, Poker has returned to growth. So, as I say, overall we're very pleased with the result.
Q. You've also reduced administrative expenses. What have you had to cut? And in order to grow, aren't you going to have to add some of that back in?
A. We're always looking to be more efficient on costs wherever we can, but around the middle part of 2008, we undertook a significant cost reduction programme in anticipation of a worsening economic climate. We looked to take out staff costs, overheads, trying not to touch any areas that were associated with revenue generation within the business. Obviously, with the benefit of hindsight, we're very glad that we did that now because we think that it set us up well in terms of the 2009 performance. Foreign exchange was also a factor I should note though. Foreign exchange actually reduced our costs by around US$17m in the period, so that shouldn't be overlooked either.
Q. You mention foreign exchange. Take us through the currency fluctuations and how they affected the numbers that you are reporting today?
A. Well, around the end of 2008 we saw a substantial strengthening in the value of the dollar. It was almost 25% in the space of one quarter. Because we report our results in dollars that basically meant that the reported revenue figure was around US$30m lower than it would otherwise have been but, having said that, that wasn't the impact at the bottom line because, as I just mentioned, we had a corresponding benefit of the cost line which mitigated some of the impact.
Q. Now in Q4 we saw an uplift in Poker revenue and the business also signalled a return to growth in each of its verticals, but isn't this mostly down to seasonality and one punter's big loss?
A. Certainly in the fourth quarter you would expect to see a seasonal pickup, and there's no doubt about that, but the pickup we saw was much stronger than just seasonality. If you look at the performance of each of the verticals in turn - in Poker, revenues were up by 9% which we're very pleased about, given that we had probably six or seven sequential quarters where Poker has actually gone backwards, so we felt that that was a very important turning point.
Casino had a great performance - it was up by 17% on the third quarter. And even if you strip out the exceptional result that you refer to, where we had the mega jackpot win and part of that reinvested in December, Casino still grew by 13% quarter on quarter, which I think, you'll agree, is a reasonable result. Sports we were up by 69% Q4 over Q3, driven by operational improvements, reducing our bonus costs and taking steps to improve the margin, particularly on our live book, in line with what we said that we would do earlier in the year. And then, of course, we had huge growth in Bingo on the back of the Cashcade acquisition in July.
Q. So where do you see margins going from here, given the likelihood of increased marketing support for Casino and the need to improve Poker liquidity?
A. Well, margins in the short term will be impacted by the Cashcade acquisition. At the time of the acquisition I did point out that distribution costs were likely to move from around the 40% level, where they were prior to the acquisition, by around 200 basis points to around 42% in 2009. Going forward into 2010, when you've got a full year of Cashcade on board, we would expect distribution expenses to move to the 43% to 45% mark of revenue with a corresponding impact on clean EBITDA margins. So clean EBITDA margins are likely to be around 28%, I would say, in 2010.
Q. And, do you envisage, in order to compete with US-facing sites, having to offer higher bonuses for some time still?
A. Right now we think that our loyalty programme and our VIP incentives are competitive, even with the US-facing sites. I think that that's one of the reasons why we've seen player numbers and revenues pick up in Poker, not just in Q4, but it's continued into the current trading period in January and February. Are they going to increase from their current level? Right now we don't expect that to be the case, but I think it's we need to watch what the competition do and we need to ensure that we remain competitive.
M&A
Q. You made two major acquisitions in 2009 - Cashcade and World Poker Tour Enterprises. Are you happy with the ROI on these?
A. Yes, we're very happy. The acquisition of Cashcade will work out to be on a multiple of between 5 and 5.9 times EBITDA, which we think is a very good price for a business which is a market leader and is also a high growth business. It's contributed around US$15m to our EBITDA this year and, of course, we bought it part way through the year, in July. So, very, very pleased with that.
World Poker Tour we acquired for strategic reasons. It's not really going to materially contribute to EBITDA, but we're using it to promote the Poker business very successfully at the moment and it's also coming in handy in discussions with US land-based operators. And we expect it to position us very well for a possible re-entry to the US market.
Q. So are you comfortable you have the capacity to fund similar sized, or even larger acquisitions in 2010?
A. Yes, absolutely. The business is very cash generative. This year we generated over US$120m of operating cash flow. In fact, right now we have the capacity to make another acquisition around the size of Cashcade simply from using our existing cash resources. For more sizeable transactions, then we'd also look to use our equity which, of course, is no longer an issue now that we have the DoJ settlement behind us.
Dividend, current trading and outlook
Q. So no dividend again. What circumstances do you think could make you a dividend stock, not simply a growth stock, and when would that be?
A. Well, right now our shareholders are very clear in that they want to see us consolidate the sector. So whilst the opportunities exist to do that and generate higher returns from consolidating competitors, as opposed to other activities -paying it back to our shareholders by way of a dividend or a share buyback - so we're going to continue to do that. But we do anticipate paying a dividend at some point in the future.
Q. And give us a sense of trading in January and February.
A. Current trading, we're very happy with that performance. It's in line with our expectations. At Poker we've seen further growth. Poker revenues are up around 3%. Player numbers are actually up by 9%. Casino is off a little from the fourth quarter, but that's because the fourth quarter last year was exceptionally strong, as we discussed. Bingo has continued to show strong growth - it's up 9% on the fourth quarter. And Sports Betting, even though the fourth quarter was very strong in its own right, has actually continued to grow and grow by further improvements in the margin. So, we're very happy with performance right now.
Q. So what are your expectations for 2010?
A. For 2010 we expect to see growth across all verticals. Obviously Bingo will grow very strongly because of the acquisition of Cashcade part way through the year. Casino we expect to see strong growth. Poker we expect to grow again, but at more modest rates. And further progression in margins on our Sports book.
Website Network
Media Man International
Global Gaming Directory
Casino News Media
Poker News Media
Bingo News Media
Websites
PartyCasino.com PartyPoker.com PartyBingo.com PartyBets.com World Poker Tour WTP Casino Noble Casino
Financial Performance
Total revenue and clean EBITDA are down. So how would you characterise 2009 performance?
Q. 2009 was a challenging year. It was a pretty tough economic backdrop for the sector. In fact, the sector has not worked through, or lived through a recession before that. That being said, I think PartyGaming's performance as well as the sector's was resilient but not immune. In 2009, we focused on operations and improving our operations.
In doing so, we actually returned the business to growth. And if you take a look at our fourth quarter, all four product verticals grew in that quarter, and grew dramatically. It was a 17% quarter-over-quarter growth.
So, if I take a look at the year as a whole, I would say our trading was robust, slightly ahead of analysts' consensus, so we feel good about that, and we're positioned very nicely moving into 2010.
Q. You mentioned Q4. How much of that was down to seasonality? And how much is sustainable growth?
A. Well, it's interesting. Q4, Q1 are typically the two strongest quarters in a year. That being said, focusing on our core operations, focusing on the customer, making a number of product, pricing, promotional-based improvements have actually improved the trading of the company. We saw the growth, as I mentioned, 17% quarter-over-quarter growth in Q4. We've seen that growth continue into the first quarter. So we're moving into the year very optimistic about our prospects.
Q. And what's behind the decline in new player signups in the Americas and in Asia-Pacific?
A. There are two factors. First and foremost, you have operators who have continued to operate in the United States, taking their profits and investing into countries like Canada. So that has made those environments far more competitive. That being said, PartyGaming is principally a European business. That's where our focus is. That's where we see our growth in the ensuing years. New, regulated markets coming - Italy, France, Denmark, hopefully Spain in the not-too-distant future. So that's where we're directing our attention at this point.
Business performance and development
Q. Looking first at Poker, you lost third place last year, but have regained it since. What was behind this, and how will you retain your position?
A. Interestingly enough, it was fairly simple - focusing on core Poker operations. What does that involve? It involved rewriting our products, soup to nuts. We actually re-launched Poker in September of 2008, but on the back of that re-launch, we did some very, very important things. We focused on the consumer. We changed our VIP and loyalty points programme in July of 2009. Since we've done that, we've experienced month-over-month growth in our Poker product.
In addition to that, we modified our pricing. The market has become more competitive and we've changed our pricing policy to ensure that we were as competitively priced as the other leaders in the sector.
In addition to that, promotions. There is always a reason to come and play at Party, 24/7. We have month-long promotions that stimulate VIPs, novices and mid-level players.
And last but not least, increasing the size and the capabilities of our Poker management team. I have been with four online gaming companies now, four different Poker networks, and I've never seen a team who is more passionate about the Poker product, worked as hard to make sure that we are a leader in the sector. And yes, we're number three today, but if you take out the US operators, we're actually number one.
Q. We also saw you buy World Poker Tour Enterprises. What's your strategy for that business? And have there been any regulatory issues with the US?
A. I'm going to answer the question in reverse order. First and foremost, there have been no regulatory issues. The World Poker Tour and its business is legal within the United States, and within the European community. The strategy for the World Poker Tour is fairly simple. If you take a look at the US as a case in point, and take a look at the most popular Poker brands in the United States, certainly Party would be top five. And also, World Poker Tour would be top five.
The World Poker Tour has 12 land-based events in the US. We will continue to operate those land-based events. They'll be standalone, branded World Poker Tour and their sponsors only. You will not see PartyPoker all over them. We're quite proud to have probably the best land-based tour events in the world, and we want to preserve that and grow it. We'll be growing it into Europe, with the addition of 10 land-based events.
Now, some of the European events will be sponsored by PartyPoker, and again, our focus is growing our Poker network throughout Europe. But we will also have third parties, online operators sponsor some of those events. So we are embracing our competition. We want them to participate in the land-based sponsorship, the TV sponsorship of the World Poker Tour events. So it is going to be, in one respect, business as usual for the World Poker Tour.
There is an online element that we're quite keen about in the United States, and that is the second aspect of the strategy. Subscription Poker is legal in 37 states in the US. The World Poker Tour operates in those states under the Club WPT brand. PartyPoker has a database of 12 million registered users. Our desire is to cross-pollinate the World Poker Tour subscription product into our 12 million person database. And remind those 12 million consumers that PartyPoker still exists, hopefully get them educated and interested in Poker again by getting them playing a legal subscription model, and positioning the brand for the long term - hopefully the short term, when the US market reopens.
Q. And you launched 80 games in Casino last year, which have shown strong growth. But what's your strategy there to ensure that level of growth?
A. We're excited about our Casino business. What did we have? 12% year-over-year growth and we had quarter-over-quarter growth all the way through the year. The strategy is threefold.
New content. 80 new games last year. We'll have 50 new games this year. The content will be exciting. It will be branded content. Some of the branded content will be those trusted Hollywood brands that you saw come from us last year - Terminator, Sinatra, Rambo to name a few. There will also be some internally developed brands from the PartyGaming game studio.
The second aspect of the strategy is focused on having life-changing events. It's a jackpot-based strategy. Last year, we had one of the largest jackpot wins in online gaming history. The jackpot was just shy of US$5 million. Today we have the largest reset value in our Melon Madness Jackpot. It resets or starts at US$1.5 million. Nobody else can match that in the sector. So we will continue to bring those life-changing events to the consumer.
And the last aspect of the strategy - and this is what excites me most - is dedicated Casino marketing. Now, here is why this is important. Historically, we've acquired all of our Casino players from our Poker database. That's been great, because our cost of acquisitions hasn't been particularly high, but it hasn't been particularly good for our Poker liquidity in a challenged competitive environment where we need to grow that liquidity. What we've now started to do is go and acquire pure-play Casino players. The magic of a pure-play Casino player? Their lifetime value is twice that of a Poker consumer who moves over to Casino.
So our Casino offering will grow in 2010 and beyond.
Q. Bingo performance has been transformed by the acquisition of Cashcade, but how international is Bingo? And what's the growth opportunity there?
A. Very exciting acquisition for us. We're now a market leader in the online Bingo space. We're arguably the largest network in the United Kingdom. The UK market is probably about US$400m in 2009. Now, what's fascinating about this: the worldwide online Bingo market is US$1.7bn.
So strategically, where are we going with this business? Well, we definitely want to capture more share in the United Kingdom, and we will this year. But we're going to take that business into other European markets, so you'll likely see us go into the Nordic territories and perhaps Spain in 2010.
Q. You've talked a lot about expanding your position in Sports Betting, and last year speculation was rife about a possible merger with bwin. What happened on that?
A. In fact, we've talked to a number of participants in the marketplace and continue to do so. There have been rumours about bwin and many others. The reality of it is where we stand today we have a number of discussions that are ongoing. Everything is at a preliminary stage. So, M&A continues to be a material part of our strategy moving forward, but we need the right set of circumstances for a deal to happen. So stay tuned.
B2B and B2G
Q. You say you’ve done five B2B deals in 2009, excluding those that came with the acquisition of Cashcade. How significant are they?
A. If I may, just for a moment, just state that we’re particularly proud of our B2B business vertical. Why? Because it was part of our new strategy that we announced in August of 2008. And here we are, a year and a half later, and we set that strategy up by saying we wanted to do five meaningful deals in the first year. And we did them.
You’ll never see us do double digits in terms of the number of new partners we’re bringing into our B2B business. The objective in 2009 was five deals, and that’s exactly what we did. The objective in 2010 is five deals. Our mission is to find five B2B partners who are ready and willing to invest in their online brand and drive a successful business. It is a situation where, in fact, less is more.
All of this, the five that we have, the five that we’ll do in 2010, will contribute as a foundation to our plan to achieve in excess of US$30m revenue from our B2B business in 2012.
Q. Turning to your B2G vertical, some commentators believe signing agreements with governments is restricting your potential earnings in a free market, and restricting your liquidity pool. What’s your view on this? And do you intend to continue a strategy of B2G as your preferred entry into a market?
A. I’m going to take you back to our strategy session in 2008. The executive team sat down and we took at look at the competitive environment and we said, “Let’s move five years out in trying to understand what this marketplace looks like.” The first thing we agreed on was the marketplace within Europe would regulate, and potentially within the United States and the rest of the world. In a regulated market, who are we going to have to compete against? We’re going to have to compete against media organisations, trusted brands like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo - and governments - including state lottery operators and government operators for online gaming services.
So we won’t get to dictate what is the best way to enter into these markets. They’re going to regulate. And the regulations, as they are in Europe today, vary from country to country. Is it a preferred approach? Our preferred approach is in fact to operate in regulated marketplaces because there is certainty. But there’s something also more valuable in a regulated market – the ability to freely advertise.
So our strategy right now is without question to focus on our B2B offering. So we’ll tackle those trusted brands and those media channels that want to get into the online sector. But also our B2G. It’s a natural. We’ve positioned our business beautifully for it for 2010. And what we will do, with both the B2B and the B2G, is marry them up with our liquidity pool that we generate from B2C. And hence, as we’re doing in Italy today, provide the consumer with the best possible experience.
Regulation and industry consolidation
Q. How much time are you devoting to the US at the moment? You’ve got your non-prosecution deal now agreed. You’ve got the World Poker Tour deal under your belt. The Barney Frank bill is in motion, for instance. You’re well-placed for a comeback, aren’t you?
A. We are still very much a European-focused business. That is how we’ll pay the bills throughout 2010 and beyond. That being said, we can’t ignore the opportunity in the United States. Truth be told, if I take you back to 2006, on a run rate basis, our business would have done US$1.2b worth of revenue and generated three-quarters of a billion dollars (US$750m) of EBITDA. The PartyPoker brand is still one of the most popular – if not the most popular – Poker brand in that marketplace.
So what have we done? We now have an office in Los Angeles. We have 38 employees. We’ve moved one of our executives, in fact an individual who used to run PartyPoker when we were in the US, over to our LA office. We’re propagating Poker through our subscription model right now in the WTP. We’re actively talking to land-based operators and others who are potentially interested in getting into this marketplace when it regulates.
So we’re sowing the seeds, if you will, right now and planting trees, preparing ourselves for re-entry. If and when it regulates, we’ll be there.
Q. And what further opportunities are you seeing in Europe?
A. Europe is an exciting place from a regulatory perspective right now. We have got Italy – and Italy is without question the fastest-growing poker market within the European Union. What you have to realise is, it is a regulated market now only for tournament poker. Tournament poker is 25 per cent of our core Poker business. Cash game poker makes up the balance. Cash game poker is in the process of being regulated, and hopefully will be so in the first half of 2010. Also with that, Casino games in the first half of 2010. And, hopefully in the second half, Bingo. So the Italian market is very exciting. We should expect to see some very nice growth coming from that country.
France? Hopefully mid-year will regulate online poker and sports betting. And Denmark, beginning of 2011. We also have the Spanish government, at a federal level, considering how best to manage online poker and regulation. So we’re excited about some of the developments that we’re seeing in the European marketplace.
Management focus and outlook
Q. You now have a COO, Per Widerström. So how are you focused to strategically develop the business in 2010?
A. It’s wonderful having Per. I was happy over 2009 to get actively involved in the operations, dig a little deeper and understand the business and perhaps put “Jim Ryan’s” thumbprint on the few areas that I felt I could contribute. Per, an experienced online gaming executive joining the team, taking over the day-to-day operations, will free me up to do a couple of important things. First and foremost, make sure that we monetise the synergies from the deals that we’ve done in 2009. Secondly, focus on new M&A opportunities. And lastly, contribute to the growth of our B2B and B2G efforts, not only in Europe but hopefully in the United States.
Q. Are you happy with the way the year has started? And what’s your outlook for the business in 2010?
A. We have started this year very positively, and we’re quite confident and optimistic about our growth prospects for the balance of the year.
2009 Full Year Results
Martin Weigold, Group Finance Director
Financial Performance
Q. You've reported above consensus for 2009, but isn't it all really down to cost-cutting? Talk me through the financials.
A. We're very pleased with our performance in 2009. Revenues dropped by 6% and clean EBITDA also dropped by 6%. Operating profit was up by 4%. But, given the economic climate, I think that that's a very solid result. Our Casino vertical had another outstanding year, driven by growth in new player sign-ups, the addition of 80 new games, which really saw the performance of that particular vertical take off.
Bingo was obviously transformed by the acquisition of Cashcade. In Sports we made a lot of progress, mainly in the second half. We started to reap some of the benefits of operational changes that we made earlier in the year. Poker was more difficult. We saw player numbers go backwards until we made changes to the loyalty programme around the middle of the year. And since that point, Poker has returned to growth. So, as I say, overall we're very pleased with the result.
Q. You've also reduced administrative expenses. What have you had to cut? And in order to grow, aren't you going to have to add some of that back in?
A. We're always looking to be more efficient on costs wherever we can, but around the middle part of 2008, we undertook a significant cost reduction programme in anticipation of a worsening economic climate. We looked to take out staff costs, overheads, trying not to touch any areas that were associated with revenue generation within the business. Obviously, with the benefit of hindsight, we're very glad that we did that now because we think that it set us up well in terms of the 2009 performance. Foreign exchange was also a factor I should note though. Foreign exchange actually reduced our costs by around US$17m in the period, so that shouldn't be overlooked either.
Q. You mention foreign exchange. Take us through the currency fluctuations and how they affected the numbers that you are reporting today?
A. Well, around the end of 2008 we saw a substantial strengthening in the value of the dollar. It was almost 25% in the space of one quarter. Because we report our results in dollars that basically meant that the reported revenue figure was around US$30m lower than it would otherwise have been but, having said that, that wasn't the impact at the bottom line because, as I just mentioned, we had a corresponding benefit of the cost line which mitigated some of the impact.
Q. Now in Q4 we saw an uplift in Poker revenue and the business also signalled a return to growth in each of its verticals, but isn't this mostly down to seasonality and one punter's big loss?
A. Certainly in the fourth quarter you would expect to see a seasonal pickup, and there's no doubt about that, but the pickup we saw was much stronger than just seasonality. If you look at the performance of each of the verticals in turn - in Poker, revenues were up by 9% which we're very pleased about, given that we had probably six or seven sequential quarters where Poker has actually gone backwards, so we felt that that was a very important turning point.
Casino had a great performance - it was up by 17% on the third quarter. And even if you strip out the exceptional result that you refer to, where we had the mega jackpot win and part of that reinvested in December, Casino still grew by 13% quarter on quarter, which I think, you'll agree, is a reasonable result. Sports we were up by 69% Q4 over Q3, driven by operational improvements, reducing our bonus costs and taking steps to improve the margin, particularly on our live book, in line with what we said that we would do earlier in the year. And then, of course, we had huge growth in Bingo on the back of the Cashcade acquisition in July.
Q. So where do you see margins going from here, given the likelihood of increased marketing support for Casino and the need to improve Poker liquidity?
A. Well, margins in the short term will be impacted by the Cashcade acquisition. At the time of the acquisition I did point out that distribution costs were likely to move from around the 40% level, where they were prior to the acquisition, by around 200 basis points to around 42% in 2009. Going forward into 2010, when you've got a full year of Cashcade on board, we would expect distribution expenses to move to the 43% to 45% mark of revenue with a corresponding impact on clean EBITDA margins. So clean EBITDA margins are likely to be around 28%, I would say, in 2010.
Q. And, do you envisage, in order to compete with US-facing sites, having to offer higher bonuses for some time still?
A. Right now we think that our loyalty programme and our VIP incentives are competitive, even with the US-facing sites. I think that that's one of the reasons why we've seen player numbers and revenues pick up in Poker, not just in Q4, but it's continued into the current trading period in January and February. Are they going to increase from their current level? Right now we don't expect that to be the case, but I think it's we need to watch what the competition do and we need to ensure that we remain competitive.
M&A
Q. You made two major acquisitions in 2009 - Cashcade and World Poker Tour Enterprises. Are you happy with the ROI on these?
A. Yes, we're very happy. The acquisition of Cashcade will work out to be on a multiple of between 5 and 5.9 times EBITDA, which we think is a very good price for a business which is a market leader and is also a high growth business. It's contributed around US$15m to our EBITDA this year and, of course, we bought it part way through the year, in July. So, very, very pleased with that.
World Poker Tour we acquired for strategic reasons. It's not really going to materially contribute to EBITDA, but we're using it to promote the Poker business very successfully at the moment and it's also coming in handy in discussions with US land-based operators. And we expect it to position us very well for a possible re-entry to the US market.
Q. So are you comfortable you have the capacity to fund similar sized, or even larger acquisitions in 2010?
A. Yes, absolutely. The business is very cash generative. This year we generated over US$120m of operating cash flow. In fact, right now we have the capacity to make another acquisition around the size of Cashcade simply from using our existing cash resources. For more sizeable transactions, then we'd also look to use our equity which, of course, is no longer an issue now that we have the DoJ settlement behind us.
Dividend, current trading and outlook
Q. So no dividend again. What circumstances do you think could make you a dividend stock, not simply a growth stock, and when would that be?
A. Well, right now our shareholders are very clear in that they want to see us consolidate the sector. So whilst the opportunities exist to do that and generate higher returns from consolidating competitors, as opposed to other activities -paying it back to our shareholders by way of a dividend or a share buyback - so we're going to continue to do that. But we do anticipate paying a dividend at some point in the future.
Q. And give us a sense of trading in January and February.
A. Current trading, we're very happy with that performance. It's in line with our expectations. At Poker we've seen further growth. Poker revenues are up around 3%. Player numbers are actually up by 9%. Casino is off a little from the fourth quarter, but that's because the fourth quarter last year was exceptionally strong, as we discussed. Bingo has continued to show strong growth - it's up 9% on the fourth quarter. And Sports Betting, even though the fourth quarter was very strong in its own right, has actually continued to grow and grow by further improvements in the margin. So, we're very happy with performance right now.
Q. So what are your expectations for 2010?
A. For 2010 we expect to see growth across all verticals. Obviously Bingo will grow very strongly because of the acquisition of Cashcade part way through the year. Casino we expect to see strong growth. Poker we expect to grow again, but at more modest rates. And further progression in margins on our Sports book.
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Boyfriend of Victorian Premier daughter ejected from Australia's Crown Casino, by Greg Tingle - 9th March 2010
We can now confirm that state police have questioned the boyfriend of Elizabeth Brumby, the daughter of Victorian Premier John Brumby, over an incident at Crown Casino in Melbourne.
The 23-year-old man was ejected from a private function on Friday night after security guards accused him of being drunk. The guards had no need to use plastic handcuffs on this occasion, a unique initiative getting mixed reactions from the Australian hotel, club and casino sector.
No charges have been laid at the time of publishing.
In a brief media statement, Mr Brumby said his daughter tried to defuse the situation and described it as a "private matter".
Crown Limited shares remain strong at 8.270 (share price, not blood alcohol reading)
Media Man and Gambling911 will continue to report from the sometimes battlefield that is the Australian land based casino sector. PS: no plastic handcuffs required in online casinos.
*The writer is a special contributor for Gambling911
*The writer is the founder and director of Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com , primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company
*The writer owns shares in Crown Casino
We can now confirm that state police have questioned the boyfriend of Elizabeth Brumby, the daughter of Victorian Premier John Brumby, over an incident at Crown Casino in Melbourne.
The 23-year-old man was ejected from a private function on Friday night after security guards accused him of being drunk. The guards had no need to use plastic handcuffs on this occasion, a unique initiative getting mixed reactions from the Australian hotel, club and casino sector.
No charges have been laid at the time of publishing.
In a brief media statement, Mr Brumby said his daughter tried to defuse the situation and described it as a "private matter".
Crown Limited shares remain strong at 8.270 (share price, not blood alcohol reading)
Media Man and Gambling911 will continue to report from the sometimes battlefield that is the Australian land based casino sector. PS: no plastic handcuffs required in online casinos.
*The writer is a special contributor for Gambling911
*The writer is the founder and director of Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com , primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company
*The writer owns shares in Crown Casino
Gambling News and Findings From Australia Get Mixed Reviews, by Greg Tingle - 9th March 2010
It's been a painstaking process, but Gambling911 via the Media Man down under in Aussie Land, has got their hands on some interesting data of substance, released by our "friends" at the New South Wales government no less!
The good news is that a recent survey by the NSW government has demonstrated that rate of problem gambling in the state is declining and that it now has fewer "problem gamblers" per head of population than the southerly friends in Victoria. Yeah, The State Of Origin is on... go The Blues.
Not to any great surprises, the scientific (whaling term ala Japanese whaling) findings have been greeted with furious scepticism by an academic expert and by anti-pokies campaigner Senator Nick Xenophon, who has named the survey a ''snow job'' from a government dependent on gambling revenue. If there was one man in Australia that possibly hated the pokes more than Kevin "Bloody" Rudd, that would be Nicky X, coming out of the blue corner.
The gambling and gaming survey, which was included in the New South Wales Population Health Survey at the request of Gaming and Racing Minister Kevin Greene, found that only 0.4 per cent of the state's adult population are "problem gamblers", down from the last survey in 2006 that found the rate to be 0.8 per cent. It concluded 2.5 per cent were low-risk gamblers and 1.2 per cent were moderate-risk gamblers.
The results of the telephone based survey also found that Victoria had a "problem gambling" rate of 0.7 per cent, while South Australia and the "banana benders" in Queensland were on a par with NSW.
Minister Greene advised that the findings showed measures introduced by the NSW government to help problem gamblers were making a positive impact. Its Responsible Gambling Fund, taken from a levy on casino profits, has poured money into front-line and telephone counselling services. Measures introduced last year included further capping machine numbers and banning credit card cash withdrawals from ATMs in gaming venues.
''These findings are very encouraging and we hope it's a sign that our high-quality counselling service and strict harm minimisation laws are making a real difference,'' Mr Greene said.
However Senator Xenophon as can be expected queried how a telephone survey could accurately gauge the level of problem gambling in the community, arguing many "problem gamblers" were either in denial or already had had their landlines disconnected!
''This survey shows just how desperate the NSW Government is to cover up the extent of problem gambling, he said.
''The NSW government is hopelessly compromised when it rakes in well over $1 billion in poker machine taxes a year.''
Monash University senior lecturer in Health Social Sciences Dr Charles Livingstone, a board member of the journal International Gambling Studies, agreed that telephone surveys of problem gambling tended to contain a "selection bias". His interpretation of gambling data collected in NSW in the past decade showed a problem gambling rate about 2.5 per cent in the adult population, which had remained largely unchanged. ''Gambling continues to be very much out of control in New South Wales'' Dr Livingstone said.
The survey also interestingly contradicts the findings of a draft Productivity Commission report released last October, which found that measures introduced by state governments to limit problem gambling in the past decade had been largely ineffective.
Media Man can advise from from first hand accounts that its basically impossible to enter a venue such as a pub, hotel or casino in Australia without seeing a number of extremely visible warnings and alerts as to the potential dangers of problem gambling. Be it Bondi Icebergs Bergs Gaming, Bondi Hotel's Stardust Rooms, or the good ol Crown Casino, they all carry substantial signage. One of the signs even read something to the effect of "Generally your chances of winning a substantial prize are less than one in a million".
Trusted and highly ethical casinos such as PartyGaming's PartyCasino and Virgin Games Virgin Casino also carry quality information about harm prevention and minimization, the odds of winning, and who to contact if you think you may have a gambling problem. One in million hey...Aw well, you got to be in it to win it.
The Productivity Commission has just handed its final report on gambling to the federal government and is receiving mixed reports.
Gambling policy, health and internet censorship remain of great interest to voters for state and federal elections, and yes, you can bet on election outcomes at agencies such as Centrebet International, who are now also taking bets on the financial markets, following the lead from PartyGaming with their InterTrader deal with London Capital Group last January.
Media Man and Gambling911 remind the readership and punters to know your limits and keep it fun, be it at a land based gambling den or at any number of online casinos.
*The writer is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company http://www.mediamanint.com
*The writer owns shares in Crown Casino and is a pro active member of Richard Branson's Virgin Unite
Website Network
Media Man
Global Gaming Directory
Global Gaming Directory.net
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Casino News Media.net
It's been a painstaking process, but Gambling911 via the Media Man down under in Aussie Land, has got their hands on some interesting data of substance, released by our "friends" at the New South Wales government no less!
The good news is that a recent survey by the NSW government has demonstrated that rate of problem gambling in the state is declining and that it now has fewer "problem gamblers" per head of population than the southerly friends in Victoria. Yeah, The State Of Origin is on... go The Blues.
Not to any great surprises, the scientific (whaling term ala Japanese whaling) findings have been greeted with furious scepticism by an academic expert and by anti-pokies campaigner Senator Nick Xenophon, who has named the survey a ''snow job'' from a government dependent on gambling revenue. If there was one man in Australia that possibly hated the pokes more than Kevin "Bloody" Rudd, that would be Nicky X, coming out of the blue corner.
The gambling and gaming survey, which was included in the New South Wales Population Health Survey at the request of Gaming and Racing Minister Kevin Greene, found that only 0.4 per cent of the state's adult population are "problem gamblers", down from the last survey in 2006 that found the rate to be 0.8 per cent. It concluded 2.5 per cent were low-risk gamblers and 1.2 per cent were moderate-risk gamblers.
The results of the telephone based survey also found that Victoria had a "problem gambling" rate of 0.7 per cent, while South Australia and the "banana benders" in Queensland were on a par with NSW.
Minister Greene advised that the findings showed measures introduced by the NSW government to help problem gamblers were making a positive impact. Its Responsible Gambling Fund, taken from a levy on casino profits, has poured money into front-line and telephone counselling services. Measures introduced last year included further capping machine numbers and banning credit card cash withdrawals from ATMs in gaming venues.
''These findings are very encouraging and we hope it's a sign that our high-quality counselling service and strict harm minimisation laws are making a real difference,'' Mr Greene said.
However Senator Xenophon as can be expected queried how a telephone survey could accurately gauge the level of problem gambling in the community, arguing many "problem gamblers" were either in denial or already had had their landlines disconnected!
''This survey shows just how desperate the NSW Government is to cover up the extent of problem gambling, he said.
''The NSW government is hopelessly compromised when it rakes in well over $1 billion in poker machine taxes a year.''
Monash University senior lecturer in Health Social Sciences Dr Charles Livingstone, a board member of the journal International Gambling Studies, agreed that telephone surveys of problem gambling tended to contain a "selection bias". His interpretation of gambling data collected in NSW in the past decade showed a problem gambling rate about 2.5 per cent in the adult population, which had remained largely unchanged. ''Gambling continues to be very much out of control in New South Wales'' Dr Livingstone said.
The survey also interestingly contradicts the findings of a draft Productivity Commission report released last October, which found that measures introduced by state governments to limit problem gambling in the past decade had been largely ineffective.
Media Man can advise from from first hand accounts that its basically impossible to enter a venue such as a pub, hotel or casino in Australia without seeing a number of extremely visible warnings and alerts as to the potential dangers of problem gambling. Be it Bondi Icebergs Bergs Gaming, Bondi Hotel's Stardust Rooms, or the good ol Crown Casino, they all carry substantial signage. One of the signs even read something to the effect of "Generally your chances of winning a substantial prize are less than one in a million".
Trusted and highly ethical casinos such as PartyGaming's PartyCasino and Virgin Games Virgin Casino also carry quality information about harm prevention and minimization, the odds of winning, and who to contact if you think you may have a gambling problem. One in million hey...Aw well, you got to be in it to win it.
The Productivity Commission has just handed its final report on gambling to the federal government and is receiving mixed reports.
Gambling policy, health and internet censorship remain of great interest to voters for state and federal elections, and yes, you can bet on election outcomes at agencies such as Centrebet International, who are now also taking bets on the financial markets, following the lead from PartyGaming with their InterTrader deal with London Capital Group last January.
Media Man and Gambling911 remind the readership and punters to know your limits and keep it fun, be it at a land based gambling den or at any number of online casinos.
*The writer is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company http://www.mediamanint.com
*The writer owns shares in Crown Casino and is a pro active member of Richard Branson's Virgin Unite
Website Network
Media Man
Global Gaming Directory
Global Gaming Directory.net
Casino News Media
Casino News Media.net
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