Let your mouth speak archive

Social games company Zynga has released its Q3 results revealing a 36% fall in revenue to $203 million, compared to the same period last year.

During the quarter, Zynga reported bookings of $152 million for the quarter, with mobile bookings reaching $46 million compared to $51 million for Q3 2012. In addition, daily active users declined by 49% to 30 million from 60 million in 3Q 2012.

The less than spectacular result comes despite Zynga launching several new games during Q3, including Fairy Tale Twist, Ninja Kingdom and New Scramble With Friends. However, none of them proved great hits compared to the company’s most popular titles, namely FarmVille and Zynga Poker.

However, CEO Don Mattrick, who replaced Mark Pyncus a few moths back, appeared satisfied with his first quarterly results, and expressed optimism that the company would achieve profitability in 2013 and growth in 2014.

Commenting on Zynga’s Q3 figures, Don Mattrick. explained: “We are encouraged to see sightlines to growth and expect to be profitable for the full year on an adjusted EBITDA basis. Our teams are working hard to compete more aggressively on the web, move to mobile and develop new hits, and I am happy with the early progress we have made.”

The company has been in the doldrums for a while, and its stock price is currently trading down by more than 60% from its historic all-time high. Nevertheless, Zynga latest Q3 results were actually better than analysts had predicted, causing the company’s share price to soar by more than 15% in early trading.

Looking ahead, CEO Don Mattrick, said: “I am confident that Zynga is rewiring itself in a meaningful way that will strengthen the core of our business and put us back on track to achieve significant long term growth and profits.”



Zynga Revenue Falls 36% To $203m In Q3

Thanks for the great information.

Delaware lottery officials are beginning real-stakes Internet gambling in the state with a select group of preferred players whom they wouldn’t name or describe.

State lottery director Vernon Kirk said Tuesday that officials will conduct a “soft launch” of online gambling on Thursday with the group. He refused to say who those players are, how they were selected, or how many there are, saying state officials have decided to keep that information confidential. Hinting at well-publicized problems with the federal government’s new health care website, Kirk said officials want to make sure things go smoothly, including transfers between casino and player bank accounts, before a full launch of online gambling in Delaware early next month.

“We’re going to do a very soft launch,” Kirk said earlier during a brief meeting of the state Video Lottery Advisory Council.

The council, an industry group representing Delaware’s three casinos, says the casinos are suffering financially because of competition from neighboring states, and that Delaware lawmakers need to change the current models for sharing revenue with the state.

“The things we are asking for are critical, critical to our business,” council chairman and Dover Downs CEO Ed Sutor said after running through a list of recommendations the council plans to make in a report due next week.

“I don’t think there’s been a more critical time for the kinds of things we’ll be recommending,” Sutor said.

Chief among the recommendations is changing the revenue sharing structure for slot machines. Currently, vendor costs are taken from the casinos’ share after the state takes its 43.5 percent cut of slots revenue. The council recommends that vendor costs be taken off the top, before the state gets its share, and that a tiered structure for revenue sharing be reinstated. Under a tiered structure, if gambling revenue declines, the state’s percentage share also would decline.

“It gets you into a lower tax bracket until we can turn this thing around,” Sutor explained.

The council also is recommending that the state eliminate its license fee for table games, lower the tax rate, and take vendor costs off the top before the state gets its share. The council also is calling for changes to law on Internet gambling, which gives the state the first $3.75 million of revenue. The council wants to eliminate the state’s initial cut and lower the percentage of revenue going to the general fund.



Delaware officials eye launch of online gambling with select group of initial players - The Washington Post

Today, Delaware becomes the first state to launch what officials call a “full suite’’ of internet gambling, an effort the Markell administration and casino operators hope will revive revenues from an industry hit hard by competition from border states.

About 25 to 75 players who have registered online at sites maintained by Delaware’s three racetrack casinos will be permitted to play during about a week of live testing of the system.

By Nov. 8, anybody registered and physically in Delaware will be able to play poker, blackjack, roulette and slots games for money, officials said. In recent weeks, people have been allowed to play for fun, with no money exchanged, and can continue doing so.

While government leaders and casino executives don’t expect a major financial windfall this fiscal year – just $5 million –they do expect online gambling to attract adults ages 28 to 35 who don’t normally go to the casinos, where the average gambler is in his or her late 50s.

Any revenues also will add to the $176 million the casinos are expected to bring in to the state treasury in the fiscal year that ends June 30. That figure, however, has dropped in recent years from a high of $241 million in 2010.

“This is another chapter in Delaware’s history of staying competitive in the gaming industry,” said Thomas Cook, Delaware’s finance secretary. “It is something that has to grow but we’re in a fiercely competitive environment here. This is just one more opportunity for entertainment.’’

Cook stressed that the goal is to generate new customers, not to see people who patronize the casinos gamble from their homes. “Then we have taken a step back because it’s taking away business from the bricks and mortar where people are employed,’’ he said.

Ed Sutor, chief executive at Dover Downs Hotel and Casino, said Delaware was smart to be first with Internet gaming.

“Its gonna happen no matter what. The Internet is part of everyday life. Some people do all their banking and stock transactions online,’’ Sutor said. “You are either going to get on the train or be left behind. We are going to get on the train.’’



www-delawareonline-com/article/20131031/NEWS02/310310049/Delaware-ups-ante-online-gambling

Wednesday night, it seemed like The Q got a little smaller with the full house who filled the arena for the Cavaliers' home opener. The Cavs faced the Brooklyn Nets and team pride was everywhere. Everyone was geared up in Cavs attire, from T-shirts, jerseys, to even temporary tattoos of the "C" symbol.

Fans were excited to see the action on the court, but there was plenty happening off the floor as well. The Q was Halloween themed, with candy available to guests. A few even stepped it up a notch with their faces painted or dressed up in costumes.

Hungry fans were able to grab a bite at the many restaurants found inside The Q. The B Spot and Bar Symon have tables set up where people could enjoy burgers and fries. Guests tell me if you get a chance to stop by Rocco's, be sure to order the crispy chicken and chips nachos for a twist to an American snack. However, the go-to spot for many seemed to be Quaker Steak & Lube. There were raves over their chicken wings.

Washarion Kimaer, a season-ticket holder, always stops in for drinks and wings. "Tonight's service was a little slow, but there were also a lot of people inside," said Kimaer. "After all it is their home game opener. They always have good food though and I even missed the beginning of the game so I could finish my meal."

Along with these restaurants, there are also traditional concession stands with pretzels, hotdogs and much more. So when you visit The Q, what's your go-to spot? What's the must-have snack every time you go to a game? Leave me a comment below, email me at [email]KHartshorn@cleveland-com[/email], or tweet me @Kristel_KLE. Check back later for a recap of tonight along with a video!



Cavaliers action on the court and entertainment behind scenes: Kristel's CLE | cleveland-com

Delaware became the first state Thursday to launch what officials call a full suite of Internet gambling, an effort the governor and casino operators hope will revive revenues from an industry hit hard because of competition from border states.

Twenty-five to 75 players who have registered online at sites maintained by Delaware's three racetrack casinos will be permitted to play during a week of testing of the system. By Nov. 8, anybody registered and physically in Delaware will be able to play blackjack, poker, roulette and slots for money, officials said. In recent weeks, people have been allowed to play for fun, with no money exchanged, and can continue doing so.

While government leaders and casino executives don't expect a major financial windfall this fiscal year — just $5 million — they do expect online gambling to attract adults ages 28 to 35 who don't normally go to the casinos, where the average gambler is in his or her late 50s.

Any revenues will add to the $176 million the casinos are expected to bring in to the state treasury in the fiscal year that ends June 30. That figure has dropped in recent years from a high of $241 million in 2010.

"This is another chapter in Delaware's history of staying competitive in the gaming industry," said Thomas Cook, Delaware's finance secretary. "It is something that has to grow, but we're in a fiercely competitive environment here. This is just one more opportunity for entertainment."

Cook stressed that the goal is to generate new customers, not to see people who patronize the casinos gamble from their homes.

If that happens, "then we have taken a step back because it's taking away business from the bricks and mortar where people are employed," he said. Ed Sutor, chief executive at Dover Downs Hotel and Casino here, said Delaware was smart to be first with Internet gaming.

"It's gonna happen no matter what. The Internet is part of everyday life. Some people do all their banking and stock transactions online," Sutor said. "You are either going to get on the train or be left behind. We are going to get on the train."

Sutor, who also is chairman of Delaware's Video Lottery Commission and Advisory Council, said his casino, along with Delaware Park and Harrington Raceway and Casino, are aiming for adults around age 30.

"They do a lot of things with their iPad and smartphone'' and are unlikely to drive to a casino, said Sutor, who added that casinos also will try to entice them to come in by offering promotions such as free play or meals.

While the financial benefits of virtual gaming might not be huge, Sutor said, "It's just another source of income to an industry that has been knocked on its heels by the competition by neighboring states and the sour economy.''

Sutor and Cook both said a goal is to enter a compact with other states to pool revenues and players, much like states have done with Powerball and Mega Millions lottery games. Such a deal could be years away, though.

Legalized gambling in Delaware initially was restricted to slot machines when it began in 1995, but in recent years it has added parlay bets on professional football games and table games. Internet gambling is the latest, giving Delaware another offering now available only in Nevada, where it is restricted to poker. New Jersey will begin offering Internet gaming similar to Delaware in late November. Pennsylvania and other states also are considering it. The federal government shut down the three largest online poker companies in 2011, saying that a 2006 law made processing payments for Internet gambling illegal.

Gamblers who do it online in Delaware can access the system through the websites of the three casinos. They must register to be eligible and physically be in Delaware to play. Software that tracks a computer's IP address also will send a text to the person's cellphone, tracking its location, to ensure the player is within Delaware's borders, Sutor said.

Jennifer Leigh, 30, a professional poker player from Delaware, said online poker can be a big draw only if an interstate compact is created.

"If you are only playing against people in one state, such as Delaware itself, I can guarantee that in three or four months it will look like a ghost town,'' Leigh said Tuesday from Portland, Ore., where she was visiting a casino.

Leigh, who grew up in Gwinhurst, Del., but now travels the globe playing poker, said she prefers online to live play and was devastated when the government shut down online sites in 2011. When she returns to Delaware later in November, she said she plans to try out virtual poker here.

"I'm actually looking forward to checking it out,'' she said. "I am curious to see how it will be facilitated and marketed. Now, after work, people at home can just log in and play like they did before the government took it away in 2011.''

Not everyone is a fan, though. William N. Thompson, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who studies the gaming industry said the advent of virtual gaming poses problems for gambling addicts.

"There's a danger of being at home and waking up in the middle of the night and going to your slot machine,'' he said. "It's at home, and it's not an entertainment product. It gets away from what I consider the essential casino product, which is a social experience. There's nothing social about Internet gambling.''



Del. begins online blackjack, poker, roulette, slots

What does it means to be the biggest pop star on the planet in 2013?

In this week’s cover story, Katy Perry gave EW an all-access pass to her crazy world (spoiler alert: we saw her boobs), as we spent a week criss-crossing the globe with her from L.A. to London, Berlin, and New York.

“You’re gonna see all different kinds of things,” Perry warned in L.A. at the outset of our trip. And she wasn’t kidding: Closing out the mammoth iTunes Festival. Sipping champagne with a giant German gentleman with bedazzled eyebrows named Bubbles (he’s a member of the superfan contingent known as Katycats). Late-night tea in a London hotel lobby with a rock icon. Twitter accounts named after her breasts. Near-constant jet lag. Being Katy Perry (or even just being her plus-one) is an exhausting, exhilarating ride.

Perry’s openness extended to our multiple interviews with the singer where she talks about everything from God to falling in love to what she thinks of her pop-star contemporaries:

On current boyfriend John Mayer, the inspiration for the Prism track “Legendary Lovers”: “I actually wrote it in an email one time, and after I wrote it I looked — we had a long courtship before anything was [public], just writing letters to each other — and seeing ‘legendary lovers,’ it sounded so nice. Some things float into my mind, and I process them, and [then] I make songs about them.”


On headline-grabber Miley Cyrus: “She’s what, 19 or 20? She’s just living her life. She’s super young, and there’s no directing book on how to do this. Each of us find our own way, and some of us make it out alive and some of us don’t. I mean, Madonna was naked [too]. The thing is, people come to me and ask me, out of default, what I think about all these girls, but at the end of it all I shouldn’t be considered the behavior police, because I’m not always going to be on my best behavior!”

On her perceived rivalry with Lady Gaga: “Gaga and I like to publicly dismiss it because it’s not healthy. You want to feel music. You want it to resonate and relate to you. You can’t look at it like a competition because you ruin the reason why you love music. But I think that sometimes our fan groups are so big and strong, they use it as ammunition.”


This Week's Cover: Inside the Wild World of Katy Perry | PopWatch | EW-com

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Tap Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's entertainment website, received a 2013 Eppy for best entertainment website with 1 million or more unique monthly visitors from Editor & Publisher magazine, the longtime journalism industry journal.

"Tap has given us a perfect vehicle to bring smart and engaging content to readers through words, photography, music and video," said Jill Williams, deputy managing editor for features, entertainment and new products.

Launched in April 2011, Tap Milwaukee incorporates the entertainment coverage available in print in the daily and Sunday Journal Sentinel as well as loads of additional content, including music and nightlife videos, photo galleries, interactive features, blogs by Journal Sentinel critics and contributors, and more.

The Eppy Awards annually honor the best media-affiliated websites in a range of categories. The Journal Sentinel's Craig Gilbert's Wisconsin Voter blog also won a 2013 Eppy for best news/political blog with 1 million or more unique monthly visitors.

Read more from Journal Sentinel: Tap Milwaukee wins award for best entertainment website
Follow us: @NewsHub on Twitter

Recommended winning site: Slots lv Casino and Downtown Bingo

On Nov. 26, New Jersey will unleash full-scale internet betting, expanding the boundaries of gambling in a way likely to have some of the most profound social and economic impacts yet caused by the new online world. To take part, you will have to be within the state and at least 21 years old.

Americans today owe about $850 billion on credit cards, with New Jersey at $5,484 per borrower — ranked second after only Alaska for average credit card debt. What will the figure be a year after internet gambling goes live? Will tens of thousands of people who don’t gamble be gambling, mesmerized as they play slot machines, craps, blackjack and roulette on tablets and phones? The answers are probably yes.

With the inevitable spread to many other states — and potentially all states when, one assumes, federal interstate gambling restrictions are lifted — will a resulting consumer debt explosion be the next bubble in the American economy, with the potential to damage the economic stability of many and create new problem gamblers? It’s one thing to travel to Atlantic City or to a nearby convenience casino such as Parx in Pennsylvania or Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct Racetrack. It’s going to be quite another thing to carry a casino in your pocket or sit at home gambling on a laptop.

When he conditionally vetoed the internet gambling act and sent it to the Legislature for amendment before signing it, Gov. Chris Christie acknowledged the perils by declaring: “The bill should be revised to do more to prevent the documented harms that can accompany excessive gambling. Our state cannot carelessly create a new generation of addicted gamers, sitting in their homes, using laptops or iPads, gambling away their salaries and their futures.”

The governor’s recommendation, adopted in the final law, increased an annual social assessment from each internet gambling licensee to $250,000 for the New Jersey Council on Compulsive Gambling and the Department of Human Services for compulsive gambling prevention.

Is this a real solution for the havoc to come if havoc it turns out to be, or a gesture to salve the conscience? While the potential societal risk cannot be calculated in dollars, at least not yet, individual risk can be.

Under the internet gambling regulations, it is at least conceivable a gambler could open betting accounts to the initial allowed limit of $2,500 with each of the 12 Atlantic City casinos and quickly gamble into $30,000 worth of debt. Likely? No, not necessarily. Possible? Yes. But how many such accounts will it take to cause personal financial distress even to the point of ruin?

If you choose to use the internet to gamble in New Jersey, will anyone know if you are really in New Jersey and not gambling from outside its boundaries? They’ll know because, as the National Security Agency can attest, satellites, cell towers and technology tell servers where we are or at least where our devices are every minute they are on.

Of course you have to be 21 years old to bet in a casino or soon online. If you are skeptical that computers and casinos taking remote applications can really stop a 16-year-old from creating an identity and getting access to credit cards to gamble online, well, so am I.

Under the law, internet gambling can be offered by Atlantic City casinos alone or with operating partners, provided all such gambling operates from within a casino in Atlantic City.

The policy impetus for the law is to give the Atlantic City casinos a big competitive boost after seven years of getting hammered by competition from casinos and slot operations in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York — especially Pennsylvania’s neighborhood casinos — a period in which annual New Jersey casino revenue dropped from $5.2 billion to a barely $3 billion pace this year.

And with polls pointing to approval Tuesday of a New York state ballot question to allow up to seven commercial casinos in the Catskills and other upstate areas, there is likely to be still more competition for Atlantic City in the near future.

IMPACT ON JOBS

There are a couple of very big ifs. First, will the ability to gamble online seriously depress real visits to actual casinos to the point of stranding a lot of invested capital in a capital-intensive industry? Will it cause the loss of more jobs after 15,000 Atlantic City jobs have already disappeared? Amazon, after all, has not exactly been helpful to bookstores, and online shopping has seriously cut into big retailers.

The other big “if” is the idea that New Jersey will have an internet gambling lock by going all in early. Currently it’s legal in Nevada, but only for poker, and in a small way in Delaware. New Jersey will allow every game permitted in Atlantic City casinos to be offered, plus any other games the Division of Gaming Enforcement allows. (There will be a “soft” opening Nov. 21, by invitation only, to make sure all the systems work properly).

Atlantic City had a nearly 15-year monopoly on legal casinos east of the Mississippi River. Not this time. If New Jersey succeeds, bordering states and probably most if not every state with casinos will legalize it within 18 months, while tribes will press to have Indian casino compacts amended. It may take even less time to proliferate because other states can adapt and adopt the New Jersey law and regulations.

The DGE is to control this immense expansion of gambling with regulations that seem to leave many unanswered questions.

How big will this be? No one can know. One knowledgeable industry analysis in September predicted $400 million annually immediately, leveling to $350 million a year as other states with legal gambling get into it. The same analysis estimated an $8.5 billion U.S. internet gambling market in 18 states within five years. Christie’s budget projects a state tax share of $160 million in the first seven months, which translates into internet gambling revenue of $1 billion in that same

The cost of doing business sometimes includes unforeseen expenses and even deals that fall through at the last minute. The race for a license to operate an online gambling offering in New Jersey was a short one that left little time ofr operators to find partners and comply with the licensing application process.
More than forty companies applied for the possibly lucrative contract licenses to offer internet betting services in New Jersey’s Atlantic City. The Press of Atlantic City recently reported that two shareholders each owning around seven percent of bwin.party digital entertainment, a firm that has partnered with Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa's for an internet betting offering in Nevada and New Jersey.

bwin.party, announced a few days ago that Emerald Bay Limited, owned by Ruth Parasol DeLeon, and Stinson Ridge Limited, owned by James Russell DeLeon, will divest of themselves of holdings in the firm. Bwin.party and it shareholders applied to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement for a license on July 29. The application process required that certain substantial shareholders submit individual licensing applications something which these shareholder did not want to go through.
According to a statement released by bwin.party, the DeLeons are going through a divorce and for "reasons of privacy" made the decision to relinquish their shares rather than submit applications to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.
Borgata was issued the newly regulated jurisdiction the first online gambling permit. When bwin.party is granted permission to operate online gambling in New Jersey, the DeLeons will place their holdings into a trust, and their shares will be divested over a period of 36 months. Bwin.party has been running fast to catch up with the rest of the pack when it comes to offering their brand in America. Things haven`t gone smooth for the company which is well known for the Party Poker brand in Europe.


Bwin.party Looses Investors in US Online Gambling Venture

When millions of Americans tuned in to Breaking Bad, the most talked-about television drama for years, they were beguiled by the stunning desert landscapes near Albuquerque, New Mexico, home of the show's main character, crystal meth magnate Walter White.

But White was not supposed to live in Albuquerque. His creators originally envisioned his story unfolding in a suburb just outside Los Angeles. When New Mexico offered a massive tax break the fictional White was relocated there, along with the very real production jobs created by filming.

Breaking Bad is just one of dozens of high-profile TV shows and big screen blockbusters that have snubbed Los Angeles after being offered financial incentives elsewhere. In Hollywood, tour buses that used to ferry star-struck visitors past busy filming locations now search desperately for some action. The exodus has left the self-styled "entertainment capital of the world" reeling and in danger of losing its crown.

Eric Garcetti, the new mayor of Los Angeles elected this summer, has declared a "state of emergency" and vowed to fight "like a dog with a bone" to get back the so-called "runaway production", which he says is vital to the city's economy. He has just appointed a film tzar and waived fees for TV pilot episodes that agree to shoot in the city.

Yousef Robb, Mr Garcetti's spokesman, told The Sunday Telegraph: "This is top priority. The entertainment industry represents 500,000 jobs in the Los Angeles area and we are not going to let this city suffer like Detroit did when its motor industry fell.

If LA's film industry decamps permanently for somewhere like New York, Michigan or London that hurts us all." Around 40 other US states and countries including Britain, Australia, Canada and Hungary are currently involved in what has been described as an "arms race" of tax breaks offered to film productions.

As a result, recent and forthcoming blockbusters, which previously employed tens of thousands of production workers in Los Angeles, are being filmed hundreds or thousands of miles away. That is hurting the local economy. The biggest box office hit of 2013, Iron Man 3, was filmed in North Carolina; Oz: The Great and Powerful went to Michigan; The Lone Ranger to New Mexico and Utah; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to Louisiana, and The Amazing Spiderman 2 to New York.

Particularly galling for Hollywood workers was Battle: Los Angeles, which was filmed in Louisiana. Next year's Godzilla, which has a plot unfolding in California, will be filmed in Vancouver. The next instalment of one of the most famous Hollywood film franchises, Star Wars, will be shot at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.

One Hollywood insider told The Sunday Telegraph: "Britain is doing a great job of stealing work from here." The Golden State offers $100?million in film tax breaks annually in a lottery. In the latest round only 31 projects, around one in 10 of those that applied, were successful.

California's incentives are dwarfed by the annual $420?million offered by New York. In Louisiana, which has unlimited tax breaks, film and TV production companies spent $700?million last year, up 800 per cent in a decade.

They spent $880?million in Georgia, up 600 per cent in eight years. Mr Garcetti is determined to bring production back to its traditional home. He has Hollywood in his blood and, before being elected, appeared as the mayor of Los Angeles in the TV series The Closer.

But he has to convince California's state legislators, and the current financially cautious governor Jerry Brown, to increase incentives for the film industry at a time when funding is being cut for groups including school teachers. Mr Robb said: "People say why would you want to give Tom Cruise a tax break? But it's not about him. It's about those hundreds of names that scroll down in the credits at the end of the film. Middle-class people, carpenters who build film sets, electricians who wire the lights. People can think this is about giving more money to Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt and it's not."

In a recent report, the California Film Commission concluded that "many film industry workers report devastating income losses due to the large number of feature films and TV series relocating". It added: "Once the epicentre for entertainment production, California can no longer assume this leadership position."


Tinseltown loses its allure for film-makers - Entertainment - DNA

Young people already acquainted with lotteries, fantasy sports leagues and poker websites often have only one place in mind to celebrate that rite of passage into adulthood.

"They look at a casino as the most exciting and most appropriate place to commemorate their 21st birthday," said Thomas Broffman, a social work professor at Eastern Connecticut State University and researcher of gambling disorders.

With more young people heading to casinos, there are fears that their casual enjoyment of slot machines and table games could turn into something far more insidious - gambling addiction.

But a new development in the medical world is being hailed by compulsive-gambling experts as a dramatic advance in the prevention and treatment of what was once considered a "personality disorder."

The so-called diagnostic bible of the American Psychiatric Association has reclassified compulsive gambling as an addiction. Experts say that could make it easier for pathological gamblers to get help, including funding from their insurance providers for treatment programs.

"This is really groundbreaking," said Donald Weinbaum, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey. "Looking at it as an addiction opens the door to consider different types of responses and approaches."

Jody Bechtold, a nationally recognized expert on gambling and substance abuse, believes more national attention will be focused on prevention and treatment programs now that compulsive gambling is considered an addiction.

"The whole nation will have to reorganize around this issue," Bechtold said. "It will definitely change medical reimbursements for compulsive gambling."

The reclassification of compulsive gambling was made in the American Psychiatric Association's newest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a compendium of more than 300 medical maladies. Weinbaum said compulsive gambling is now the only nonchemical-related addiction recognized by the diagnostic manual.

"This is a big step forward," he said. "Our hope is that it reduces the stigma attached to compulsive gambling and makes people realize there is help."

Weinbaum estimated there are 350,000 problem gamblers in New Jersey. The start of Internet gambling in New Jersey on Nov. 26 has Weinbaum and other compulsive-gambling experts worried that figure could go higher, particularly among younger people.

Speaking at a New Jersey conference on compulsive gambling in September, Broffman warned that tech-savvy college students seem the most vulnerable because of the proliferation of online betting through such outlets as fantasy sports leagues and offshore poker websites.

"Online gambling is very popular," Broffman said. "It's ubiquitous. It's everywhere."

Broffman said he finds it scary that young people "know the winners of the World Series of Poker like we knew baseball stars when we were kids."

New Jersey has joined Delaware and Nevada as the only states so far to legalize online gambling. Internet gambling is already popular overseas. Some of Europe's top names of online gambling - PokerStars, Betfair and Bwin.party among them - are partnering with Atlantic City's casinos to capitalize on the arrival of Internet wagering in New Jersey.

Internet gambling will allow players to bet on casino-style slots and table games using their home computers, smartphones and other electronic devices as long as they are within New Jersey's borders. They will now have the choice of staying at home to gamble instead of physically going to a casino.

"When you have it on the computer, people are going to get addicted to it," said Bill Kearney, a reformed compulsive gambler from Philadelphia who serves as an outspoken casino critic. "Now, you're going to be able to stay at home to gamble, because people don't want to waste $3.50 or $4 for a gallon of gas to travel to the casinos."

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, the state regulatory agency overseeing Internet gambling, said a series of safeguards have been built into the regulations to prevent children and compulsive gamblers from playing online. The division worked with the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey and other groups to incorporate strict controls into the regulations.

Among them, New Jersey will automatically extend its list of "self-excluded" gamblers to casino websites. Compulsive gamblers are already allowed to voluntarily ban themselves from brick-and-mortar casinos by signing up for an exclusion list.

Online players will be able to set betting limits on their Web accounts as a way to curtail their gambling. They will also be told about New Jersey's 1-800-GAMBLER hot line for compulsive gambling.

Weinbaum noted that each Atlantic City casino that has Internet gambling will pay a $250,000 annual fee to fund prevention, education and treatment programs offered by the Council on Compulsive Gambling. New Jersey law also calls for an annual study of online betting's impact on compulsive gambling.

"We have an estimated 350,000 problem and compulsive gamblers. That's a sizable starting point," Weinbaum said.



Experts: Compulsive gambling could increase with online betting - pressofAtlanticCity-com: Atlantic City News

Last week, Delaware became the second state in the U. S. to open the doors to its intrastate online casino gaming network and, from all apparent reports, the “soft” opening has been a success that will lead to the full rollout next week.

The “soft” opening, which occurred on Halloween, allowed a limited number of people to access online casino gaming (including poker) offered through the sites that are maintained by Delaware’s three racetrack casinos (Dover Downs, Delaware Park and Harrington Raceway). Approximately 75 people have been allowed to play on the site over its first few days and that “test” phase is expected to last until Friday (November 8). On that day, the gates will truly open up as Delaware’s system officially goes live.

Delaware’s regulations for online gaming are much like those for those in the other state that offers some sort of online gaming, Nevada. Players must be registered with one of the three sites offering Delaware’s gaming and, through geo-location of their computers and smartphones, have to be located physically in the First State. Once a player has cleared the regulatory issues, they will have online poker, blackjack, roulette and slots available for real money play (unlike Nevada, which currently only offers online poker).

According to Chris Barrish of the Wilmington News Journal, Delaware officials aren’t looking for a windfall from their online operations. During the current fiscal year, Barrish reports that officials are looking to only make around $5 million, a drop in the bucket compared to the $176 million that the “brick and mortar” casinos are expected to bring in by June 30 of next year. What the state is truly looking to tap into are players between the ages of 28 and 35 that don’t normally frequent casinos in the state.

“This is another chapter in Delaware’s history of staying competitive in the gaming industry,” Thomas Cook, the state of Delaware’s Finance Secretary, stated to Barrish. “It is something that has to grow, but we’re in a fiercely competitive environment here. This is just one more opportunity for entertainment.”

Cook is also aware of some potential pitfalls that may come with the new offering. The state will monitor the numbers closely to make sure that online gaming isn’t sacrificing traffic to the three Delaware casinos and, if that happens, Cook indicates that the state will “step back” and reanalyze the situation.

One top poker professional is anxiously looking forward to seeing what Delaware has to offer. Jennifer ‘Jennicide’ Leigh, long one of the top online and live poker players in the business, said to Barrish she was “devastated” when the April 2011 crackdown of the three major online poker sites in the industry (now known as “Black Friday”) took away internet play from Americans. “I am actually looking forward to checking it out” when she returns home to Delaware in November, Barrish quotes Leigh as saying. “I am curious to see how it will be facilitated and marketed,” Leigh said.

Leigh also points out the significant issue that is facing the Delaware online gaming industry, however. “If you’re only playing against people in one state, I can guarantee that in three to four months it will look like a ghost town,” Leigh said to Barrish. Thus, it will be important for not only Delaware but other states offering online gaming to join forces in “compacts” that will expand the marketplace.

At this point, there isn’t much availability for those compacts. The only other state currently active in online gaming, Nevada, doesn’t offer the entire casino gaming experience (the Silver State only offers online poker) that Delaware does. In addition, Nevada only has two online operations currently active, Ultimate Poker and WSOP-com, and they are well down the online poker industry rankings with maximum player numbers reaching into the mid-200s for a 24-hour period (information from PokerScout-com) and average player numbers for a seven day period only in low to mid-100s.

The true test of the potential for online gaming and poker’s rebirth in the United States could come with the opening of the New Jersey online gaming market later this month. Offering full casino gaming, much like Delaware offers, New Jersey’s 9 million residents will provide a sizeable potential market to determine if intrastate gaming can survive. Delaware would be a good partner for New Jersey, as both offer full gaming rather than just online poker, but there has been no public discussion about any of the three states moving forward with compacts at this time.


Delaware Starts Online Casino Gaming, Full Access Next Week

Pamela Anderson considered running the New York City Marathon in her iconic red 'Baywatch' swimsuit.

The 46-year-old actress completed the gruelling 26-mile race with her brother, Gerry, on Sunday, and raised $75,864 for actor Sean Penn's charity, the J/P Haitian Relief Organization.

The former Playboy Playmate told ESPN: "For a second I did entertain the thought. I had friends ask me to [wear it]. They think it would be really funny. The bad thing was, I did think twice about it!"

Anderson, who walked and ran, was elated after completing the marathon and tweeted a picture of her and Gerry at the finish line with the message: "So proud of my brother Gerry. Thank G. For running next to me today - love you lots (sic)."

The actress announced her plan to run the race in September after being approached by her close friend Sean to help raise $500,000 for his charity, which aims to save lives and bring sustainable programs to Haiti as it continues to recover from the 2010 earthquake.

Anderson confessed she is in the best shape of her life after training for the race.

She said: "I never worked out in the 'Baywatch' days. Now it feels so good, I'm like, 'Why wasn't I doing this for the last 20 years of my life?' But everything happens for a reason and I'm actually glad that, at this time and this age, I'm exercising. I'm not sure what else would have gotten me to exercise."

Read more: Pamela Anderson finishes NYC Marathon, raising funds for Haiti charity | Entertainment & Showbiz from CTV News

The first state to ratify the Constitution is now leading the way in Internet gambling. Starting this week, Delaware gamblers will be able to play poker, roulette, blackjack and slots from the comfort of their own homes - or at a Starbucks somewhere - as long as they're registered through one of the state's three casinos and are physically in Delaware. If you're in Delaware, you can gamble online.

Officials do not expect a huge revenue windfall - about $5 million in taxes this fiscal year. But they do hope to attract younger gamblers who are less likely to make trips to the state's brick-and-mortar casinos, and to get ahead of New Jersey and Pennsylvania which are also looking to legalize online gambling.

A new plan proposed by the United Kingdom’s Gambling Commission will require some online gambling operators to file their returns over the internet. The proposal has raised some concerns about the security of the process.
Firms with remote bingo, sports betting, and casino licenses, as well as those with a gambling software operating license will be required to submit regulatory returns electronically in order to save costs to the industry.

In order to reassure the operators that the process is secure the Gambling commission has issued a statement as well as hiring a legal team to explain the details. A number of measures were already in place to protect the confidentiality of files. "Concerns have previously been raised over the security of submitting data electronically," the regulator said in its consultation paper. The Commission would reiterate that procedures are in place to ensure that data is stored securely with controls to prevent access. Our online system is encrypted and requires licensees to authenticate themselves before being able to submit and access their own data."

"We have been accredited against the ISO: 27001 standard since 2010. This is an internationally recognized standard for evaluating how securely an organization manages and stores its information. As a public authority, the Commission also adheres to the Security Policy Framework and supporting guidance issued by Cabinet Office to ensure that the information we process is handled and stored in a secure manner in line with best practice and HMG requirements,"
The legal team for the commission Out-Law-com principal expert Audrey Ferrie of Pinsent Masons commented that operators have a right to expect the Commission's systems to be secure.
"Under the Commission's plans, regulatory returns to be submitted electronically could range from sensitive financial information, such as details about revenue sharing agreements with other businesses, as well as the number of active customer accounts, information about unresolved disputes and suspicious activity reports," Ferrie continued, "Gambling operators are rightly eager to avoid this information falling into the wrong hands."



U.K. Online Gambling Operators Security Concerns Explained

“Online gaming has the capacity to really change the way gaming is conducted in the U.S.,” says California Tribal Business Alliance vice chair Leslie Lohse. “We are protecting the thousands of tribal members who rely on their tribe’s brick-and-mortar casino for their livelihood. I believe California may open the door to iPoker, to gauge the market and begin to identify business partners with like-minded goals. Indian gaming in California is some of the most regulated and successful gaming in the country. It should be the model that sets the standard for developing this industry.”

Online gambling is becoming legal in states such as Delaware, New Jersey and Nevada. However, smart casino operators haven’t waited for legalization of money games before getting online. They’re testing the waters with free game apps on iPhones, Android or web-based HTML5.

“MGM International is doing a fantastic job with their myVegas social gaming platform,” says Peak Gaming Group president Rob Gallo. “The game allows players to earn rewards that can be redeemed at many of their land-based casinos. They can do this legally because the rewards they give out are not tied to winning of losing, but rather the purchasing of virtual chips. It is similar to an airline’s frequent flyer model.”

Big changes are coming in online game technology. Flash technology is on the way out, replaced by a new technology standard that will work across more platforms and doesn’t require purchasing native software through App stores. HTML5, an extension of Javascript, enables games to be played directly from web browsers whether on phones or desktops. Gaming software developers are scrambling to master this new technology.

“While it is not really state of the art per se, the use of HTML5, and using mobile as another platform which players can use to access the same games that they would on their desktop of laptop is hugely important,” says Gallo. “As more and more people use their mobile devices for the majority of their computing needs, it’s only natural that the game developers build the games for every available platform. One company in the online real money gaming space that deals exclusively on mobile is Probability out of the UK. They have never developed a desktop version of their platform, and are delivering great quality mobile gaming content for some of the big name casino brands in the European market.”

One of the biggest makers of white label mobile gaming technology is IGT, a company that’s also the biggest maker of slot machines in the United States. IGT is licensing their online gaming technology to a casino in Delaware, the first state to offer legalized online gambling, and has already licensed its games in other countries. Online gaming company Bingogodz is using IGT’s bingo games for money games. Many online gaming companies are based in the UK, where online gambling has been legal and regulated for years. Bingogodz is licensed in the British Channel Islands by the The Alderney Gambling Control Commission.

In the United States, efforts are underway to bring online gaming to the country’s most populous state. “The few states that are ready to launch online gaming really need California to activate in order for it to be viable,” says Lohse. “Otherwise the funding capacity and the number of players needed to move a strong, consistent game, just isn’t there. So it’s really incumbent upon the gaming interests in Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey to engage in discussions with California’s tribes in order to open up what has been a closed house on this coast.”

Real money online gaming went live at the end of October in Delaware. “It will be the first state to allow online casino games,” says Gallo. “Nevada was first with poker. As the president of Peak Gaming Group my focus is to act as a translator between land-based casinos and the online gaming platform providers of both real money and social casino games. It will interesting to see how the market will fare. Social casino games by their very nature attach a different type of clientele. The conversion of those player into real money gamblers is very low.”

Gallo and Lohse each spoke in September at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E), held at the Sands Convention Center, Las Vegas. “G2E is the Superbowl of the gaming industry,” says Gallo who chaired the Social Gaming Technology: Building a Winner panel there. Lohse was a speaker on the panel Pros and Cons: Indian Country Online.



Online Gambling Coming to America and to HTML5

4:20 PM

The Digital Entertainment Group noted recently that even though American household spending on home entertainment was flat year-over-year in the third quarter, there were dramatic shifts between different categories. BGR sister site Deadline reports that sales of discs, digital movies and television programs declined by more than 7%, while rentals were up by more than 16%. Americans are rapidly turning from owners of content into renters of content. This is not necessarily great news for Hollywood, since selling a $40 disc is far more profitable in the short term than renting a movie on demand for $1.99. Yet in the long term, rental income could turn into a torrent if it keeps growing rapidly enough.

As a direct result of Netflix’s momentum, American consumers increased their spending on subscription streaming by 33% over the past year.

Surprisingly, spending on Video On Demand (VOD) services grew by only 2.8%. Just a year ago, VOD spending was still rising at a brisk annualized rate of 8%. It may be that Netflix’s success has begun to undermine VOD services that belong to various cable channels. Consumers who can access a steadily growing trove of movies and entire seasons of TV series may be less interested in paying for premium content delivered by pay TV companies.