Let your mouth speak archive

An anti-drug driving ad featuring three Maori children arguing over which of their dads drives best while "blazed" has become an online hit.

Oscar-nominated director Taika Waititi is behind the ad, titled Blazed - Drug-Driving in Aotearoa.

It has been called an "instant Advertising Hall of Fame Drugs PSA classic" by advertising blog Copyranter.

The ad outclassed those shown in the US, which are "laughably ineffective" and "preachy", the respected blog said.

Blazed was launched on Maori TV.

It has been viewed more than 500,000 times on YouTube since being put up on September 13.

The station's blurb says the situation the three children find themselves in is one "familiar to most kids growing up in New Zealand".

"Sitting outside in the car, waiting for one of their dads to come out and drive one of them home. The only thing is, the dad has been blazing, and the kids know it.

We watch them change from comical to contemplative, as they examine their own awareness of their dads' behaviour in the raucous, imaginative way only young boys can."

Clemenger BBDO, which also produced the viral hit Legend ad in 2011, is behind Blazed.

One of Europe’s leading Internet gambling companies says it will be ready to launch online betting in partnership with Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa as soon as New Jersey gives the go-ahead this fall.

“Our aim is to be there on Day 1,” said John Shepherd, director of corporate communications for Bwin.party.

The Gibraltar-based Bwin.party is best known for its pokerparty-com brand and the World Poker Tour franchise. It has entered into an Internet partnership with Boyd Gaming Corp. and MGM Resorts International, the co-owners of Borgata.

Casino companies are lining up technology providers in advance of New Jersey’s foray into the emerging world of online betting, which is expected to grow into a multibillion-dollar enterprise in the next few years.

“Everybody is going to be jockeying for position,” Shepherd said of what is expected to be intense competition for the online market.

Online gambling will become an $8.5 billion business in the U.S. within five years, according to estimates by Linwood-based casino consulting company Spectrum Gaming Group. Spectrum estimated Atlantic City casinos will initially reap $400 million in annual revenue from New Jersey’s online gambling operations.

Casinos are still waiting for the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement to announce the official “go live” date for Internet gambling. Nov. 26 is the statutory deadline, but the date could be pushed back if regulators believe more time is needed to implement Atlantic City’s new era of gambling.

Borgata’s online slot wagering and table games will be offered through the borgatapoker-com and borgatacasino-com websites, said Joe Lupo, the casino’s senior vice president of operations. Bwin.party will also have its own website for New Jersey called nj-partypoker-com.

Lupo predicted the partnership with Bwin.party will help Borgata maintain its status as Atlantic City’s top-grossing casino.

“Borgata has aligned ourselves with Europe’s premier Internet provider for online poker,” Lupo said. “We couldn’t be happier. We think it will be a success. We have the full intention of leading the online market, as we do with the brick-and mortar business. Bwin.party’s support, experience and partnership are primary reasons why it will work so successfully here in New Jersey.”

So far, 10 of Atlantic City’s 12 casino hotels have announced their online partners. Revel Casino-Hotel and the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel still have not disclosed their plans.

Bwin.party and World Poker Tour executives gave a preview of their plans Wednesday during an interview with The Press of Atlantic City. Shepherd said the company will offer New Jersey gamblers an array of online wagering for slots and table games through a totally refurbished website.

“We’ve spent the last two years rebuilding it from top to bottom,” he said. “It has been changed to keep up with I-gaming technologies. It is faster, cleaner and integrates social media.”

Although some fear Internet gambling may cannibalize business from land-based casinos, Bwin.party views online wagering as an ideal complement to the brick-and-mortar operations.

“In a way, it’s a business feeder to the poker rooms at the casinos,” Shepherd said.

Borgata is in the midst of holding the World Poker Tour championship, a nearly $4 million event that has attracted close to 1,200 players. The tour has announced that it has moved its championship tournament from Las Vegas to Borgata, including television coverage on the Fox Sports Network.

Adam Pliska, president of the World Poker Tour, pointed to the Borgata poker tournament as one of the most obvious examples of how land-based gambling and online betting can be melded.

“The promotion of I-gaming has always been a great complement to the promotion of the poker event,” Pliska said. “Also, Internet gaming is an incentive to have players come to the brick-and-mortar poker tournaments.”

Hollywood star-turned-poker player James Woods, who competed in Borgata’s World Poker Tour tournament, also believes online wagering creates synergies with the regular casino operations. Woods, whose movie career included a role in “Casino,” said online gambling can introduce poker to players who will eventually sharpen their skills and enter real-life tournaments.

“I feel you could never really have one without the other,” Woods said.

Woods noted that in addition to his competition in live poker tournaments, “I was very successful online.” His experience with online gambling included serving as a celebrity spokesman for the website Hollywood Poker.

Internet gambling is regarded as key to reinvigorating the Atlantic City casino market, which is mired in a seven-year revenue decline. Under New Jersey’s Internet gambling law, casinos must have a physical presence in Atlantic City to offer Web bets.

Gamblers will be able to use their home computers, smartphones and other electronic devices to wager online as long as they are within New Jersey’s borders.


Borgata's Internet gambling partner says it's eager to start - pressofAtlanticCity-com: Atlantic City | Pleasantville | Brigantine

Despite the risks – statistical and criminal – online gambling holds innumerable attractions. In today's post-economic-meltdown world, young people have fewer job options than ever before. But that hasn't done anything to affect their desire to get-rich-quickly. This generation – consumers from early childhood – is used to getting what they want, when they want it, with the click of a mouse.

“Runner Runner” depicts the risks of this reality starring Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake and Gemma Arterton where Timberlake plays Princeton grad and former Wall Street star Richie Furst, who believes he’s been swindled by an online poker organization based in Costa Rica. He decides to head to Central America to confront the owner, Affleck’s Ivan Block, and is soon seduced by the promise of immense wealth. As Block’s right-hand man he uncovers more than he bargains for, and is soon juggling loyalties and trying to stay alive.

The lavish life of “Runner Runner’s” gambling kingpin Ivan Block is what director Brad Furman calls, “the new American dream.” He elaborates: “Technology has led us to a world where everything comes very quickly, which has expedited this concept of the American dream. Young people today want everything faster – especially money.”

Affleck agrees, “Underneath this allure of fast and easy money is something inherently fraudulent, crooked, broken and wrong.” Everything now is about getting rich quickly, by any means necessary. The new corporate ethos is to cut the other guy’s throat. In some circles, it’s even considered healthy and to be prized.”

Ivan Block’s own journey down the rabbit hole has yielded untold riches, which is all the enticement Richie needs for what ultimately becomes a rite of passage. “Ivan Block is the unapologetic mentor who says, ‘Get what you can get and don’t think twice about it,’” says Affleck. “Block wants to manipulate Richie, to get him to be part of his team. His mission is to groom Richie so he won’t object to some of the darker things he sees.”

Affleck notes that reading people is one of Block’s chief strengths in distracting Richie from the tycoon’s less savory aspects: “Block knows what buttons to press on people, and his most impressive trick is to distract them from his true motives. To Block, people are insecure and almost desperate to succeed. He knows people feel they’ve been kicked around and that we’re taught to chase the dollar and to equate wealth with status, honor, success, and manliness. So he holds up that wealth, which blinds Richie to what’s really going on.”

“The movie hopefully will show how complicated Ivan Block is. We like to stand apart and look at people in this binary way and say you're bad and you’re good, and I think that makes really an interesting drama. What I hoped was that people would understand and identify with this guy on some levels, and maybe some people would find him and what he's proselytizing appealing. Justin's character does early on, and then given time he's revealed to be a guy who makes very bad choices and does things we recognize as immoral. What I think is interesting is that hopefully, if we've done our job right, you see at the root of those choices was a guy who wasn't necessarily bad to begin with, but chose a road. Once he made that choice he did what he had to do in order to be successful on that road,” Affleck explains of his character.

Before stepping into the caped crusader’s realm, Affleck says he immensely enjoyed the opportunity to “chew the scenery” of “Runner Runner” and, after the enormous success he had as director of last year’s “Argo,” relished the chance to “just be an actor again”. Which may come as a surprise to those who have adjusted to thinking of him as a world-class director – before the groundbreaking “Argo,” Affleck helmed the kidnapping drama “Gone Baby Gone” and Boston heist thriller “The Town.”

Included in Affleck’s journey as one of Hollywood’s A-list actors are unforgettable and blockbuster films such as “Good Will Hunting,” “Chasing Amy,” “Jay and Silent Bob,” “Mallrats,” “Dogma,” “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor,” “Daredevil,” “Gigli,” “Hollywoodland,” “Smokin’ Aces” and “The Company Men.”

“Runner Runner” opens September 26 in theaters from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.



Ben Affleck plays online gambling kingpin in 'Runner Runner' | Movies, Special Reports, Home | philstar-com

Poker is a game that requires a considerable amount of patience to succeed, but players don't exhibit that same type of patience when it comes to ID verification at online gaming sites.

A recent study conducted by Experian found that those who access Internet gambling sites and are subjected to an identity verification check that lasts more than four minutes tend to abandon the process, clicking their mouse and moving elsewhere on the World Wide Web. This may come as a surprise to online gaming operators, who may want to take note and pare down that verification process for those online gamers whose attention span and/or patience wears thin easily.

“It comes as no surprise that online consumers are not prepared to wait for verification processes to complete – though it does come as quite a shock that four minutes is the threshold of their patience," said Rob Meakin, the market development manager at Callcredit Information Group.

Ten sectors were studied by the worldwide information services provider and online gambling patrons showed the lowest level of tolerance, eGR reported. Individuals dealing with insurance and mortgage matters tended to wait longer that punters at Internet gambling sites, with tolerance levels of nine and ten minutes, respectively.

In this day and age when people have grown accustomed to taking care of many necessary functions online quickly, waiting too long can certainly make the most patient web surfers grow weary. Some of the delay may not be the fault of the gaming sites, but instead the speed of Internet connections. Those speeds are known to vary widely among worldwide jurisdictions.

“Identity verification is becoming an increasingly important part of egaming operations, particularly as the online industry for this sector grows," said Nick Mothershaw, Experian's director of identity and fraud. “Our research shows that egaming businesses are at risk of losing out on trade as thousands of consumers are taking their custom elsewhere. It is therefore vital for online gaming outlets to make sure the transaction process is as fast and simple as possible."

What many online poker grinders have also found quite annoying are the sites that readily accept credit cards for deposits in no time flat. However, when it's time to cashout, a drawn-out verification process is often required before a withdrawal is processed. While that is somewhat different than ID verification prior to accessing Internet gambling sites, it is equally as perturbing.


Players Have Low Tolerance for Lengthy ID Checks at Online Gaming Sites | PokerUpdate

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

At 9.19am Pacific Daylight Time on Thursday, somewhere in Nevada, a resident or visitor to the state logged on to a computer or a tablet to play World Series of Poker online for the first time for real money.

For Caesars, the operator of the WSOP brand – which in the land-based world of gambling has been an annual Las Vegas tournament since 1970 – the money to be made from this particular player and others in the months following the launch is of trifling concern. High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email]ftsales-support@ft-com[/email] to buy additional rights. Caesars bets on online gambling market - FT-com

Of more relevance is the symbolism of the moment. Caesars has become the first large Las Vegas casino operator to take a dime out of online gambling.

Outlawed by Congress seven years ago, online gambling is finally gaining a legal foothold in the US, albeit in limited form. State by state, legislators are passing regulations allowing for online poker, casino and bingo. Sports betting remains off the table.

Nevada has led the way, followed by Delaware, though their small populations make it tough for online operators to make money. But New Jersey is set to go online in the next few months, and New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and California are actively planning for regulation.

The US online gambling market could be worth $7.4bn in gross winnings by 2017, according to consultants H2 Gaming Capital, on the assumption that 17 states will have regulated online gambling.

It is not just the politicians who have been slow to come round to its acceptance, and only then because of the tax revenue benefits.

Some of the big casino moguls have proved ambivalent at best, hostile at worst, regarding online gambling as an errant, untrustworthy offspring that would damage the revenues of their casino palaces.

To Sheldon Adelson, online gambling represents nothing less than a threat to society – “a toxin which all good people ought to resist” – as the chief executive of Las Vegas Sands wrote in Forbes magazine in June.

Steve Wynn, in a hurry to expand his mega-casino Wynn Resorts empire across North America and Macau, has an ambivalent attitude to online gambling. High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email]ftsales-support@ft-com[/email] to buy additional rights. Caesars bets on online gambling market - FT-com

“I don’t know how to make the experience on a computer screen 17 inches in diameter particularly unforgettable,” he said on a typically colourful analysts’ call in April. He quickly added that his company would some day have to find the formula.

But Caesars, under chief executive Gary Loveman, is throwing itself at the task, and Nevada’s 2.8m population is about to bombarded with a publicity onslaught.

“It’s going to look like a tsunami in a bath tub,” said Mitch Garber, the former chief executive of PartyGaming recruited by Mr Loveman six years ago to set up and run the group’s online strategy.

A potentially bigger market is the 39m visitors who descend on Las Vegas each year. Airport advertising, billboards on the Strip, wraparound posters at Caesars’ hotels, hotel room keys and Do Not Disturb signs will all aim to persuade visitors about the attractions of WSOP online. High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email]ftsales-support@ft-com[/email] to buy additional rights. Caesars bets on online gambling market - FT-com

Their online gambling experience may only be limited to the length of their Vegas holiday, but lobbyists for online gambling think this will still be worthwhile.

“It will get more Americans exposed to playing online and maybe they will put pressure on their own state legislators,” said John Pappas of the Poker Players’ Alliance.

The launch of WSOP online is a moment to savour, too, for the European industry. Congress’s decisive ban in 2006 led to the exodus of European operators from the US, among them London-listed 888 Holdings.

Now, 888, founded by the Israeli brothers Avi and Aaron Shaken, is back in the US. 888 technology is powering the WSOP website for Caesars, which like other US land-based casino groups lacks the back-end online gambling knowhow developed by the Europeans.

“This is a magic moment for 888,” said chief executive Brian Mattingley. “We have a control room in Tel Aviv where people are watching the first deposits from the US coming in live.” High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email]ftsales-support@ft-com[/email] to buy additional rights. Caesars bets on online gambling market - FT-com

The United Kingdom's plan to tax online gaming companies will likely fail to achieve its aims unless gross profits are taxed at less than 10 percent and companies are given leeway to offset costs associated with bonuses and incentives, according to a study commissioned by the Remote Gambling Association and carried out by global auditing firm KPMG.

The UK government said in its 2012 Budget that it intends to apply a 15 percent tax on online gambling on a point of consumption basis.

"Rather than undertake a comprehensive review of the tax regime, the Treasury has made minor changes to the current regime and has merely focused instead on extending its application to operators in other jurisdictions who transact with British residents," KPMG said.

The study found that the 15 percent tax could put companies out of business or force them to operate in the grey market. It could also drive "a very large number of UK customers" to offshore duty-avoiding gaming firms as these would offer lower priced products.

Clive Hawkswood, Chief Executive of the RGA commented: "It is vitally important that the Government does not repeat past mistakes. It needs instead to set rates of remote gaming and betting taxation that give operators a realistic chance of being competitive in what is an inherently international market.

"This is a challenging time for the industry and we will continue to engage with Treasury to ensure the impact of any tax changes is fully understood by the Government. The online gambling industry is a UK success story and already contributes significantly to UK Plc in terms of jobs, marketing spend and corporate taxes. We do not want to see the Government's plans put these companies and their investments in jeopardy.

"We argue strongly that any rate above 10 percent GPT is not sustainable in what is a very mature market where consumers already know what level of value and choice to expect.

"In two reports, Parliament's Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee has already urged the government to get the tax regime right and it is in the interests of all concerned that HM Treasury takes note of that and all of the evidence which points to a sustainable rate being no higher than 10 percent," he concluded.



KPMG Proposes Changes to UK Online Gambling Tax

Internet giant Google was rumored to be considering bid for bwin.party. The online gambling world has been stunned by rumors that Google is considering to make a foray into the industry, following reports of an offer for European gaming giant bwin.party.

Google-Bwin Rumors

According to a report in the Daily Mail last week, rumors of a 200p a share cash offer form Google have been doing the rounds of late. The report said the Internet giant could "pounce" before Bwin's online poker and casino games are up and running in the state of New Jersey before the end of the year.

Industry sources quickly dismiss the rumors the following day, while bwin.party and Google both refused to respond to request for comment from various news sites. However, given the old adage that there is truth to every rumor, the news has kept circulating around the Internet in the days since.

Will Google Dominate eGaming?

Google is well-placed to play a major role in the growing US online gambling scene. IT is the world's second largest tech company by market capitalization, behind only Apple. It controls the world's most popular mobile platform (Android, with 750 million users), largest search site and video site (YouTube).

With such dominance of the online an mobile sphere, it is easy to see how Google could be interested in reshaping the online gambling. It is especially easy when one considers that American online gambling is in its infant stages, and the struggles of bwin.party, one of the largest gaming operators, have been well-documented.



Is Google Preparing Move Into Online Gambling? - Industry Coverage - Onlinecasinoreports-com

Four months ago, Star Trek Into Darkness hit theaters. By any objective concrete metric, it was a perfectly respectable Hollywood product. The critics generally liked it. It cost around $200 million and made $465 million worldwide, a financial showing that is neither impressive nor unimpressive. (It wasn’t Man of Steel, but it also wasn’t The Lone Ranger.) It had some funny jokes and it had things exploding in interesting ways. The title was dumb and it had third-act problems and nobody can really explain why they kept the Khan reveal a secret, but if you asked the average person in mid-June what they thought about Into Darkness, opinions would have been neutral-positive.

But resentment can build slowly in the geekosphere … and when resentment boils over, a movie’s whole reputation can radically change. Last month, the annual Star Trek convention in Las Vegas declared Star Trek Into Darkness the worst film of the franchise. And the film’s creators have taken fan criticism to heart in a host of curious ways that rarely happens in our PR-heavy modern era. In the comment boards of a post critical of Into Darkness at TrekMovie, co-writer Roberto Orci piped in with comments that ran the gamut from defensive (“I listened [to the fans] more than any other person behind the Trek franchise has EVER listened”) to the outrageous (at one point he complains that Into Darkness has infinitely more social commentary than Raiders of the Lost Ark, adding the immortal addendum, “And I say that with Harrison Ford being a friend”). Orci shut down his Twitter account after the scuffle, possibly because he needed to buckle down and focus on disappointing people with screenplays for Mummy reboots and Spider-Man sequels.


In all fairness, that may have just been an homage to William Shatner’s “Get a Life” SNL sketch. Far weirder — and perhaps more telling — was director J.J. Abrams’ recent statements about the Into Darkness tie-in videogame. When Abrams was asked a softball question about the game at a recent DVD release party, he launched into a surprisingly intense and totally non sequitur recrimination, ultimately claiming that the bad response to the game might have hurt Into Darkness: This is a weird statement for all kinds of reasons. Tie-in videogames are always terrible; nobody blames the filmmakers for that. I can’t imagine that the average person even knew there was a Star Trek tie-in game. More to the point, it’s weird that Abrams takes the game so personally. The director has always been clear about how much of a Star Trek fan he was growing up: Not at all. Paramount essentially hired him as an outside consultant for the Star Trek franchise, someone who could come in with fresh eyes and rinse off decades of detritus and mirror universes and holodeck melodramas.

Heck, part of the reason Into Darkness disappeared from the cultural conversation so quickly is because Abrams has already moved onto his next job; to a certain extent, the release of Star Trek Into Darkness was a minor promotional event in the long lead-up to Star Wars Episode VII, an opportunity for every journalist/talk show host to get Abrams in front of the microphone and ask him whether John Williams would be back. (He will!)

The creators of Star Trek Into Darkness seem a little bit shaken, is what I’m getting at. And hardcore Star Trek fans are retroactively deciding that maybe this whole reboot thing was never a good idea. This is one of those situations where it’s possible to agree with everyone while also acknowledging that no one is being particularly honest. Speaking as someone who grew up with Star Trek — watching Deep Space Nine, renting the first six movies, reading a truly shocking amount of Star Trek books — I can understand the fans who feel like their precious mythology has become twisted into a movie about hot people running places. (I’m still shocked — shocked! — that Kirk broke the Prime Directive at the start of Into Darkness. There was a whole book about about how you shouldn’t break the Prime Directive! It was called Prime Directive!)

At the same time, it takes a serious amount of angry amnesia to declare Into Darkness the worst Star Trek movie ever. Worse than The Final Frontier, a mesmerizingly narcissistic vanity project about William Shatner going mountain-climbing and killing a god using the power of his oratory? Worse than Insurrection, a movie-length away mission to a grade-Z planet? I understand people who feel like Into Darkness wastes decades of franchise mythology one empty spectacle…but I’m hard-pressed to say that it’s a bigger waste than the climax of Star Trek: Generations, which unites the two most iconic characters in Star Trek history so they can punch Malcolm McDowell.

Likewise, it’s possible to empathize with the filmmakers — who are attempting to please newcomers and generations of fandom — while also admitting that the film had a whole host of basic structural problems. Why was it still an origin story? Why bring in the Klingons if you’re just going to punch them? Why spend two hundred million dollars on a movie if the vast majority of the non-animated action is set in various undifferentiated spaceship corridors? Why does Old Spock literally phone in his cameo via Space-Skype? Why does Khan have magic resurrection blood? These were creative choices that just didn’t work out, and refusing to admit that is just a dodge. (It’s true that Into Darkness had social commentary, insofar as it seems to be about terrorism and it seems to be arguing that terrorism sure is a complicated topic.)

To me, there’s a central misconception at the core of Star Trek Into Darkness — a miscommunication, really — which helps to explain the film’s current reputation. Although Abrams wasn’t a Star Trek guy, the collective writing team behind the reboot series has a great respect for the franchise: They want please the fans. At the same time, they want to do something new, to push the franchise into a

Then again there are many things that can make Willy Hutton look a little foolish, starting with the man himself and moving on to most of his economic and social pronouncements. It’s just especially gratifying to find his latest one being disproved quite so quickly by the incredible sales of Grand Theft Auto V. Which is, as of this moment, the fastest selling entertainment property ever and most certainly the first to reach a billion dollars in sales in only three days.

Well done indeed and congratulations.

And those of you who are not au fait with the prognosticators of London will need to know who Will Hutton is. He’s an ex-newspaper editor (The Observer) and he took over The Industrial Society which he renamed The Work Foundation. They liked to pontificate on how companies should take care of the wider stakeholding community rather than just shareholders: which was all most amusing until The Work Foundation went horribly bankrupt under that particular set of management.

He’s also been a Governor of my old Alma Mater, the LSE, which has always rather grated with me. Hutton is fond of stating that companies must be more than just a network of contracts, they must regard themselves as much more than this too. He’s seemingly ignorant of a Nobel Prize winning piece of research that was done at the LSE on why companies aren’t just a network of contracts. Indeed, firms and companies only exist when not being a simple network of contracts is more efficient than merely being a network of contracts. For if being just that network was more efficient then we’d just have the network not the company. I refer, of course, to Ronald Coase and his paper “The Theory of the Firm”.

Now I don’t insist that a Governor of an educational institution should read all Nobel winning papers from that institution. An economist doesn’t have to read physics papers for example. But when you set yourself up as a guru on the particular subject that the paper addresses I do rather think that it’s wise that you at least attempt to absorb the lessons of such papers.

Anyway, onto this week’s giggle about Hutton’s perspicacity. His column for The Observer last weekend was about how Silicon Valley is just wondrous:

Change is afoot in Britain. Last week, the CBI and government held a conference at Warwick University celebrating their new joint belief in industrial strategy, opened by a video clip of David Cameron giving his wholehearted backing. But while a repudiation of simple Thatcherism, this is not industrial strategy 1960s style. It is more an attempt to create an investment and innovation structure across eight technologies and 11 key sectors: the Palo Alto effect in British terms. It is hesitant and intellectually hazy, but there is no doubting the direction of travel. Public institutions and public money have to catalyse innovation together. It is the beginning of something potentially important.

There are also early signs of a startup culture. The UK Crowdfunding Association now boasts 12 members: websites such as Crowdcube and Seedrs allow wannabe entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas online to potential investors and are growing fast. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research reports that there are 270,000 firms in the digital economy – half as high again as the official estimates.

But essential ingredients are missing. As a country, we don’t get the importance of computer code or the scale of the revolution unleashed by digitisation. There is no process or institution that will not be transformed. One important reason why there is no British Twitter or Facebook FB +3.28% is because too much British business culture – operating in one of the least supportive environments in the world – has little nobility of intent or purpose, and thus ducks engaging with such immense challenges. Intellectual effort is instead expended on avoiding tax, stripping workers of rights or selling out. Instead of obsessing about leaving the EU, Britain should be exercising every sinew to enlarge the EU single market.

I quote at length so that you can get the full flavour of his pitch. Britain just cannot do this high tech stuff because the British Government and the High and Mighty (for which read Will Hutton and his friends) aren’t helping those poor little entrepreneurs enough. We must therefore have programs and systems and organisations whereby said High and Mighty can demonstrate to all those coders where they’re going wrong. And jobs and salaries, of course, for said Great and Good.

Then there’s the joy of the success of Grand Theft Auto V. Which is written and developed by Rockstar North: a British company which seems to manage to be the one of the most successful games designers on the planet without any of that “help” or intervention by the Great and the Good or indeed Will Hutton.

I’m afraid that it rather brings on a fit of the giggles in me.


Grand Theft Auto V Is Fastest Selling Entertainment Property Ever, Which Makes Willy Hutton Look Pretty Foolish - Forbes

Even the Emmy host needs to blow off some steam before the big show.

Neil Patrick Harris sipped a cocktail and bantered with friends at Entertainment Weekly’s pre-Emmy party, one of several events in Tinseltown Friday celebrating Emmy nominees. The sophomore Emmy host made an early exit from the gathering at Fig & Olive, which drew scores of stars and a small group of fans who were forced to stand across the street for a celebrity sighting.

Kristen Chenoweth, Kaley Cuoco, Amber Riley, Aasif Mandvi, Jason Mraz and Ashlee Simpson were among the party guests, along with Raquel Welch, who held court at the back of the restaurant in a form-fitting leopard-print dress and gold stiletto cage sandals.

Just around the corner, the TV academy held its annual reception for nominated performers at the Pacific Design Center. A ballroom became a quirky library setting, with books and old knick-knacks dotting antique bookshelves. A full dinner spread of steak, salmon and an array of salads covered two large buffet tables inside, and there was more food outside on the heated patio.

The patio also held a small stage, where the nominees accepted certificates and posed for a group photo. Some actors used the opportunity to geek out on their favorite stars. As soon as Michelle Dockery of “Downton Abbey” came up, Anna Chlumsky leaned in and introduced herself, saying, “I’m a big, big fan of yours.”

Lily Tomlin, who helps lead the acting branch of the TV academy, praised her colleagues on stage.

“I’m so awed to look at you guys,” she said. “You have such great hair and everything else.”

Alfre Woodard, Scott Baklula, Elizabeth Moss and “Modern Family” stars Ty Burrell and Julie Bowen were among the night’s party-hoppers (show sponsor Audi provided car service to make it easier). Women in Film also held a nominees’ gathering, while “Mad Men” had its own affair at Chateau Marmont.

The Emmy Awards will be presented Sunday at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theater.

Read more: Emmy celebrations under way with multiple parties | Inquirer Entertainment
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Jeff Daniels has won the Emmy Award for best drama actor for his role as self-righteous news anchor Will McAvoy in the HBO drama “Newsroom.”

It was Daniels’ first Emmy, indeed his first nomination. The television news industry drama was created by veteran TV writer Aaron Sorkin.

Daniels’ win was considered an upset in a category where his competition included Bryan Cranston, Damian Lewis, Kevin Spacey and Jon Hamm. It was the third major acting award given out Sunday to an actor on an HBO series.

Read more: Jeff Daniels wins best actor Emmy for drama | Inquirer Entertainment
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According to Malta Today, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on Monday that it is against the law for EU member states to restrict national gambling markets in order to favor the economic of incumbents over operators licensed in other member states. The preliminary ruling came in the case of Biasci et al against Italy, and it confirms the EU's principles of freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services in terms of cross-border gambling.

The following is from the case:

"Articles 43 EC and 49 EC must be interpreted as meaning that, under the current state of EU law, the fact that an operator holds, in the Member State in which it is established, an authorization permitting it to offer betting and gaming does not prevent another Member State, while complying with the requirements of EU law, from making such a provider offering such services to consumers in its territory subject to the holding of an authorization issued by its own authorities.

Articles 43 EC and 49 EC must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which requires companies wishing to pursue activities linked to gaming and betting to obtain a police authorization in addition to a license issued by the State in order to pursue such activities and which restricts the grant of such authorization inter alia to applicants who already hold such a license."

In addition, the CJEU emphasized that no sanctions may be applied on the basis of provisions which are contrary to EU law.

In 2006, Italy blocked roughly 684 gaming sites registered in Malta from Italian Internet. The government then blocked all foreign gaming sites from the UK to Malta, claiming they were protecting Italian gamers from fraud. Critics disagree, claiming that the country was simply protecting its €2 billion gambling monopoly.


European Union Rules That Italy Can't Block Online Gambling | PokerNews

New Jersey says it remains on track to start offering Internet gambling by the end of November, although a final launch date has not yet been determined.

The state Division of Gaming Enforcement says it is trying to meet a state deadline of Nov. 26.

The division said Monday that casinos submitted additional information it requested by last Friday’s deadline so that regulators can evaluate their applications to begin online betting.

“The division can confirm that it has received a significant amount of additional materials from the casino licensees on behalf of their Internet gaming applicants,” spokeswoman Lisa Spengler said. “The Division remains committed to meeting the statutory deadline of November 26.”

Director David Rebuck has not yet announced a go-live date; by law he has to give notice 45 days before Internet gambling begins.

Should the state not be ready to start Internet gambling by Nov. 26, the law allows Rebuck to ask the New Jersey Casino Control Commission for an extension, Spengler said.

Nine of the city’s 12 casinos have acknowledged lining up partners for Internet gambling, and a 10th is widely rumored to have selected a partner, as well.

The Tropicana Casino and Resort has joined with Gamesys Limited, which runs the jackpotjoy-com website. The four casinos owned by Caesars Entertainment — Caesars Atlantic City, Bally’s Atlantic City, Harrah’s Resorts Atlantic City and the Showboat Casino Hotel — are partnering with 888 Holdings.

The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa is partnering with bwin.party for online gambling.

Resorts Casino Hotel has joined with PokerStars, the world’s largest poker website that had tried to buy the Atlantic Club earlier this year before the deal fell apart.

The Taj Mahal Casino Resort chose Ultimate Gaming, which began offering Internet gambling in Nevada earlier this year. Trump Plaza is widely reported to have chosen Betfair, the British online gambling firm, although neither the casino nor the company would comment.

The Golden Nugget Atlantic City is offering its own brand of Internet gambling using Bally Technologies.

Revel Casino Hotel and The Atlantic Club casino Hotel have not divulged their online gambling plans

Online gambling is designed to give the struggling casinos new revenue, though some worry some of the in-person business will simply migrate to computers, leading to casino job losses.



N.J. on track for Nov. 26 online gambling start | Courier-Post | courierpostonline-com

Zac Efron is a "hero" for going to rehab.

His Parklife co-star Marcia Gay Harden has praised the "brave" actor - who has reportedly sought treatment for supposed cocaine and alcohol addictions earlier this year - and insisted he will motivate people to seek help in the future.

She said: "In my opinion, Zac Efron is a total hero. Him seeking help encourages other people with addictive issues to seek help. It's brave of him."

"I think only a coward lives in denial, and he is not a coward. He's a hardworking go-getter and I love him."

Meanwhile, Zac's friend Rob Lowe recently defended his decision to go to rehab, noting that he must be "serious about [his] recovery" if his issues were kept quiet until after he'd left the treatment centre.

He previously wrote on Twitter: "A thought: if you only find out a person has been to rehab weeks or months after they got out, they're probably serious about recovery."

It has also been reported the star was "happy" and in good health, choosing to focus on his career.

A source had claimed: "He's healthy, happy and not drinking. He's taking time to focus on working."



Zac Efron a "hero" for going to rehab - Entertainment News | TVNZ

I can believe that.

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Americans spent $2.6 billion on gambling websites in 2012, according to a study released Tuesday by the casino industry as it renewed a push for Congress to regulate online betting.



The American Gaming Association, which released the study, said it highlights the need for federal legislation to end the state of "ambiguity" on Internet wagering.



The study by the British-based research firm H2 Gambling Capital found Americans accounted for a significant share of the $33 billion worldwide online gambling market, despite the legal limbo of most Internet betting.



After years of treating online gambling as criminal, the US government quietly shifted its stand in late 2011 when the Justice Department released an opinion stating that only sports betting should be prohibited under a 1961 federal law known as the Wire Act.



This opened the door to online poker, which is hugely popular on the Internet, and possibly other casino games along with state lotteries.



With no federal legislation in place, several states have begun their own efforts, with a handful acting to legalize some forms of online betting.



The study came ahead of the release of "Runner, Runner," a film about a US university student who confronts the world of organized crime after losing his tuition money playing online poker.



"'Runner, Runner' is a fictional account of a lawless online poker world ruled by shady and unethical characters that sadly is not far from reality for millions of Americans who simply want to enjoy one of our favorite pastimes in a safe online environment," said Geoff Freeman, president and chief executive of the AGA, which represents major US casino operators.



"Americans account for nearly 10 percent of the global online gaming marketplace at a time when the business is illegal in all but three American states.



It is past time for policymakers to put necessary safeguards in place." The association supports federal legislation to regulate online poker in the United States, but calls for "strong enforcement" against most other Internet gambling that ends the "ambiguity" of US law.



Data from H2 showed that the amount Americans bet on online poker fell from a peak of $1.6 billion in 2006, when the US barred financial transactions for online betting, to $219 million last year.



Another factor was the US prosecution of executives from major poker websites in 2011. Overall spending on gambling websites by Americans fell to $2.6 billion last year from $2.8 billion in 2011, according to H2, mostly due to declines in online poker.



The report indicated online gambling spending by Americans peaked in 2006 at $5 billion, just before legislation that banned US banks and credit cards from financial transactions involving online gambling.



In order to use offshore gambling sites, most Americans need to use techniques that disguise their location, as well as financial accounts outside the United States.


www-thenews-com-pk/article-119737-Americans-spent-$2-6-bn-gambling-online-in-2012:-study--

The world's biggest gaming convention kicks off in Las Vegas this week. Thousands of people are in town to attend the Global Gaming Expo (G2E). This year, Internet gambling is expected to be the hot topic.

Hundreds of gaming manufacturers will showcase their innovative Internet gaming, or iGaming, technology this week. They say iGaming represents the future of this industry.

Governor Brian Sandoval (Nevada-R) signed historic legislation this year, clearing the way for Internet betting sites to operate in Nevada. Two sites are already running.

Two more states – New Jersey and Delaware – have also legalized online poker. Other states are considering legalizing online gaming.

Some discussion at G2E will focus on geo-location technologies that ensure no one is gambling from a place where gambling is illegal. The show will also examine age verification technologies that ensure no underage people are gambling online.

"There's a lot of best practices around the world on how you can properly roll out or regulate an online gambling environment for customers that's safe and secure," said American Gaming Association Vice President of Communications Holly Wetzel. "So, that's what our goal is. So, that's what the discussion is centering around here."

Wetzel says safeguards are crucial to online gambling's success.



Internet Gambling a Hot Topic at G2E 2013 - 8 News NOW

The nature of the internet gambling cannot be expressed in just one word but if it could it may very well be the word Bitcoin. After all the virtual currency looks like a gamble all by itself when one time it went for pennies and now floats around $130.USD.
Online gambling has caught on to the virtual money that doesn’t have anything to do with banks and converting the Bitcoin to other currencies is not that hard anymore. In just one weekend of online gambling, a high roller has taken home close to 11,000 Bitcoins or the equivalent of around $1.3 million.

Just-Dice-com, a European-based internet casino offered a set of dice games played for the highly valuable digital currency. The person online with the handle Nakowa, has turned one of Bitcoin's most popular and profitable casinos into a lost cause.

Just-Dice-com was founded in June 2013 by an anonymous developer. In only its first month of operation, 429,600 Bitcoins a value of $38 million then, and $53 million now, were wagered on the site.
The gambling at the Just-Dice web casino did not start off well in fact the losses were enormous exceeding one hundred thousand dollars before any gains were made. Then as the Bitcoin gambler continued in a streak that some witnesses called “fearless” Nakowa’s luck turned around.
The most innovative thing about Just-Dice is it also attracts investors. Anyone can put money into the site for other players to play against. Investors get to keep any profits and losses made on their Bitcoins. The site works on a one percent edge. Playing against a small1 per cent disadvantage means that once a high roller like Nakowa inevitably hits a good streak he can wield serious damage.

There is considerable discussion online regarding this win and why it happened. The suggested problems associated with this win include everything from hacking to just plain genius.


Just-Dice Online Gambling Pays Out Millions in Bitcoins