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Public Gaming International • September/October 2014
regime it may not be possible to prosecute
someone who didn’t know, or claims not
to have known, that the data they were
buying was stolen.”
The stolen data didn’t
include financial information or customer
passwords, Paddy Power said in court fil-
ings. In a statement posted on its website
in July, the company revealed the data
theft, and started contacting the customers
who were affected.
Delaware Lottery Hopes Football
Betting Will Boost Sales
More than 80 retailers will offer football
betting this week, in addition to the state’s
three casinos. Sports betting is a segment
of the gaming industry that has grown in
recent years. Delaware is the only state
east of the Mississippi that has legalized
sports betting, and hopes that sports betting
will bring growth to the state. Delaware
Lottery Director Vernon Kirk says
“we’ve
seen amazing growth in the number of
players, and winners, over the past few
years … there were 81,388 winners in
2013 versus 55,841 winners in 2012.”
Delaware casinos have been ailing.
“In
June, state lawmakers approved a plan to
split the vendor fee for slots, reducing the
amount the casinos pay the state by nearly
$10 million.”
Mobile Gaming Revenue Estimated to
Grow 36%
Micropayments and smartphones will
abet the development of mobile gaming
through 2017. Gabelli analyst Camillo
Schmidt-Chiari is covering six online
gaming stocks on the LSE and draws his
estimates from this research. He actually
expects online gaming CAGR (compound
annual growth rate) to slow to 5.7%
through 2017 (down from 25% between
2000 and 2013), but this average does not
reflect growth in mobile. Mobile gam-
blers are expected to be less likely to shop
around for the best odds and mobile firms
get better margins and higher average
revenue per user (ARPU). Schmidt-Chiari
sees casual gaming (eg. Candy Crush,
Angry Birds) as a gateway to mobile gam-
ing. Schmidt-Chiari expects 36% CAGR
in mobile gaming from 2013. Schmidt-
Chiari covers Betfair Group Ltd, Bwin.
party Digital Entertainment Plc, William
Hill plc, Playtech PLC, Rank Group PLC,
and Sportech plc.
Amaya Acquires Pokerstars and Full
Tilt Poker
Amaya Gaming Group Inc. (TSX:
AYA) announced today the completion
of its previously announced acquisition
of 100% of the issued and outstanding
shares of privately held Oldford Group
Limited, the parent company of Isle of
Man-headquartered Rational Group Ltd,
the owner and operator of the PokerStars
and Full Tilt Poker brands, in an all-cash
transaction for an aggregate purchase
price of $4.9 billion, including certain
deferred payments and subject to custom-
ary purchase price adjustments.
A Third of the US Is Within 25 Miles
of a Casino
The statistics consulting firm Flowing
Data has determined that a third of the US
land area is within 25 miles of a casino.
This is even true of Utah, where gam-
ing is illegal, because of the proximity
of a poker party store. Google classifies
such outlets as “casinos” (the firm used
Google Places API as their source for this
study).
“There are 39 states with some
form of legalized gambling, according
to the American Gaming Association. Of
those states, 28 have Indian casinos, 23
have commercial casinos, and 14 have
racetrack casinos.”
Betclic, Bwin and Ladbrokes Included
in Hungary iGaming Blacklist
Turkey Blocks Over 100
Gambling Websites
Malta Asks the European Court to
Over-Rule the Council of Europe’s Draft
Convention on Sports Competitions
Malta claims that the definition of illegal
betting in the draft convention
“hinders the
free movement of services within the EU.
If ratified, this would mean that licensed
gaming operators in Malta would be
hindered from extending their operations
abroad unless they abide by the laws of the
other members states.”
PGRI Note:
Malta wants the Council of
Europe, or the Court, to over-rule the rights
of member states to decide regulatory and
taxation policy for all forms of gambling,
including betting on sports competitions.
Maltese operators essentially want to
export gambling without complying to the
laws of the “consumption” markets, i.e. the
laws of the member state where the better
actually is placing the bet.
Brazil Drafting Law on Gaming
Regulation, Rejecting Prohibition
A bill introduced to the Brazilian Sen-
ate earlier this week may regulate the
gaming market. Goal: a state-controlled
gaming market that utilizes licensing.
This market is
“more than 8.6 million
people, 2 million of which regularly play
online poker …The current anti-gaming
legislation did not stop gambling in
Brazil, and today’s clandestine market
moves more than R$ 18bn. (approximately
$8bn.) every year,”
bill proponent Sen.
Ciro Nogueira explained.
“According to
some studies, if regulated, the gambling
market could bring to the State new
revenues for at least R$ 15bn. (approxi-
mately $6.8bn.) a year.”
PGRI Note:
It does not seem like there
is any downside for futurists to toss out
overly optimistic projections.
Paypal Re-Entry in Gaming Sector
Could Change iGaming
PayPal is planning to re-enter the gam-
ing market in the US. This is a welcome
move because the market has had a
hard time finding other reliable money
processing formats. Paypal was one of
the first ewallets in online gaming, but it
ceased operations in 2002 when it was
being acquired by Ebay. Paypal and Ebay
reached a settlement of $10 million with
the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the South-
ern District of New York to resolve past
issues over processing offshore online
gaming payments. PayPal is a much
trusted eWallet, and has the potential to
expand the sector greatly.
u
Pulse
of the
Industry
Continued …
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