GTECH IN MAJOR ONLINE GAMBLING PRODUCTS LAUNCHED BY NORSK TIPPING
2014-02-04
The Norwegian state lottery Norsk Tipping has launched its first range of i-gaming products for the Norwegian market following a content and administrative supply deal with GTech.
The deployment of 65 games is the largest launch of its kind in the Lotterys history.
Norsk Tipping was tasked by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture to develop online games for the Norwegian public, but with a strong responsible gambling element.
The idea was clearly to provide Norwegian online punters with a safe and credible alternative to offshore operators who do not pay Norwegian taxes.
With this launch, Norsk Tipping is challenging foreign betting companies not licensed in Norway by providing attractive games that are not as aggressive as those of the cross-border operators," says Norsk Tipping CEO Torbjrn Almlid.
This is a much-needed and long-awaited renewal of Norsk Tipping as a provider of money games in Norway. Norsk Tipping must be up-to-date to survive as a gaming company and provide customers with attractive games. We will launch a series of new games in 2014 and we will especially concentrate on new games for mobile, Almlid added.
GTech has supplied Norsk Tipping with its iBingo product; an iCasino portfolio including a range of slot games; and e -Instants designed to ensure that the new portfolio appeals to a wide range of players.
The games, which are available to registered Norwegian players across mobile, tablet, and desktop channels, were launched mid-January this year, and are supported by GTech's hosting and operational administrative services.
GTech International CEO Walter Bugno said his companys products enable Norsk Tipping to track player behaviour across every gaming device, giving the lottery unparalleled insights into player behaviour, and strengthening its Responsible Gaming program.
As part of the five-year agreement with Norsk Tipping, GTech has supplied the lottery with its Player Services and Player Account Manager back-office system.
Norsk Tipping is the latest Nordic customer to choose GTechs e-gaming games, platforms, and services; GTech also supplies Veikkaus in Finland and Svenska Spel in Sweden with its interactive solutions.
WINDOWS PHONE POKER APP A FIRST FROM WINAMAX2013-12-03Top French online poker operator
nfl football betting Online Bingo Play Slots Online in US NFL Odds Winamax.fr has announced the availability on the Windows Store of its new Windows Phone app, widening access possibilities to the operator's online services beyond the present Apple iOS and Android apps.
The achievement makes Winamax the first online poker operator to make native clients for all three of the most popular mobile operating systems, and follows extensive testing, a spokesman claimed.
Winamax has also claimed that it is now the "first authorized operator" to offer real money poker on Windows Phone.
LARGEST HUMAN PLAYING CARD RECORD SET2013-07-23The Oneida tribal gambling group which owns the Turning Stone Resort Casino Event Center in central New York persuaded 600 guests to participate in a fun attempt to create a new Guinness Book of Records entry over the weekend.
The guests were issued with red or white ponchos and organised in groups to create the world's largest human playing card in the form of a gigantic ace of diamonds.
Guinness officials were present to verify the event.
A CHANGE OF HEART ON POKER?2012-11-06The online poker information site Quadjacks unearthed an interesting opinion on the intricacies of the chance vs. skill legal debate over the weekend, reporting that Black Friday cash processing defendant Chad Elie had posted a view from former Missouri US Attorney Catherine Hanaway, now apparently employed in the legal private sector.
Hanaway rose to prominence in the first really big U.S. bust of an online gambling firm when she headed the government prosecution team and presided over the resultant demise of BetOnSports and the detention of its CEO, David Carruthers back in 2006 (see previous InfoPowa reports)
In 2010, Hanaway appeared to be employed by a law firm led by former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, which provided a legal opinion to SunFirst, a bank that subsequently featured in the e-processing prosecutions that have been a feature of the internet gambling scene in recent times.
Quadjacks reports that the Hanaway letter is one of the documents posted by Elie, who has been sentenced to a five month jail term, on his Twitter account this week at http://twitter.com/BlackFridayChad/status/264475312329478144/photo/1
In the letter Hanaway gives her professional opinion on the Wire Act and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, although it must be remembered that this was prior to the game-changing December 2011 DoJ about-face on the Wire Act.
To quote Quadjacks: "The Hanaway letter seems to support the notion that processing transactions related to online poker does not violate the Wire Act or the UIGEA. This is a document a bank would need to protect themselves against liability in case the transactions turned out to be problematic."
An article published in the Salt Lake Tribune in April last year and subsequently referenced in an April 2011 discussion on the twoplustwo message board confirms the existence of the Hanaway letter here:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/51650236-79/bank-companies-payments-poker.html.csp and notes:
"A letter last year to SunFirst from a law firm led by former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft says the firm believes it could be legal to process payments for peer-to-peer poker players, that is those who play against each other and not against a computer.
"If a case was taken all the way to a judge and/or jury, and a decision was made on the legality of these practices ... we believe the decision would be in favor of online poker as a game of skill being allowed under those laws," said Catherine Hanaway, the attorney who wrote the letter.
"The letter dated July 26, 2010, was solicited on behalf of one of the poker companies, PokerStars, named in the [Black Friday] indictment and addressed to SunFirst Bank. It came about seven months after the indictment says SunFirst began processing payments.
"But the letter makes clear that the Department of Justice "takes a contrary position" and warns that the law in this area was unsettled.
"Hanaway said given that warning, she was not surprised by the indictments."
It is not clear what Elie hopes to achieve by posting the Hanaway letter, although it is certainly an interesting postscript to his case.