|
 South
Africa Lightens Up
More On Internet
Gambling; 888.com
Eyes 30 Percent
Growth This Year
....The Parliament
in South Africa has
“parked” the
National Gambling
Amendment Bill to
thrash out the
question of
advertising for
online gambling.
This comes after the
National Council of
Provinces (NCOP)
amended the Bill to
include an outright
prohibition on the
advertising of
online gambling.
The Bill, as
introduced into
Parliament last
year, would have
amended the National
Gambling Act of 2004
to regulate
“interactive”
gambling,
defined as betting
over the Internet or
mobile phones.
Gambling is big
business in SA, with
gross gambling
revenue (GGR)
approaching R14
billion – about half
of the country's
defence budget. The
National Gambling
Board defines GGR as
turnover less
winnings paid to
players.
Current legislation
bans all forms of
organised gambling
unless licensed.
Read More Here
 .....Online
gaming firm 888 is
optimistic of 30
percent revenue
growth this year,
helped by a
better-than-expected
start from its new
sports betting and
bingo sites.
"Current run rate
indicates 20 percent
(overall revenue
growth), and we are
bullish on pushing
this. Do I think 30
percent is too much?
No, I don't think 30
is too much," Chief
Executive Gigi Levy
told Reuters in a
telephone interview.
Levy added that the
firm's new bingo and
sports betting Web
sites were seeing
strong growth.
"Bingo is doing
dramatically above
anything we
expected. The run
rate is currently
where we expected to
get to by the end of
the year, it's that
good."
"Sports was only
launched a few weeks
ago, and already
last week we had
hundreds of new
sign-ups every day."
Online poker and
casino firms have
been gradually
rebuilding their
businesses after the
U.S. closed off the
world's biggest
market in 2006 with
a ban on
gambling-related
banking
transactions.
 .....Bookies
remourse in
England....You never
see a poor bookie,
or so the saying
goes.
And while that may
still be true, they
certainly took a
battering at the
weekend.
First came Comply or
Die's victory in the
Grand National which
prompted a mammoth
payout: jockey Timmy
Murphy's winning
ride on the David
Pipe-trained gelding
at Aintree is
estimated to have
cost the bookmakers
£40m.
Then two sporting
results rather
closer to home
compounded the
misery for one
particular high
street bookie.
A Norwich City win
and an Ipswich Town
loss under any
circumstances would
usually be enough to
make any Canaries
fan smile, but
dozens of punters
had even more cause
than usual to
celebrate on
Saturday.
They took advantage
of a special double
at odds of 107/1
offered by Ladbrokes
on Norwich beating
Burnley 2-0, and
Ipswich Town losing
at Colchester United
by the same
scoreline.
At those odds, a
wager of £1 would
pay out £108, while
a £5 flutter would
return an impressive
£540.
Read More Here
----
Gambling911.com News
Wire
Originally published
April 8, 2008 9:35
am EST
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