Swiss government look to amend gambling ban

The Swiss Gaming board is considering removing the current ban on online gambling for national operators so that they can be studied to monitor their quality and to assess whether income can be generated from taxing domestic providers.

Benno Schneider the President of the Swiss Gaming Board said “We should investigate whether Switzerland can grant concessions for internet casinos to national providers, under strict regulations, and if foreign providers can be prohibited from offering online casino services. The advantage of this solution would be that the quality of providers can be monitored”

When he was asked how this could be achieved he indicated that the best method would be to follow the US example (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) and prevent Banks and credit cards from processing payments from gambling companies.

Channel 4 to trial live odds broadcasting

The UK broadcaster Channel 4 is looking for a partner for its plan to launch a 60 second live television advert to update viewers with the latest odds before the start of major horse races as part of its Channel 4 Racing programme shown on most Saturdays.

Mike Parker, Head of Strategic Sales for Channel told Media Week “The interest level has been high as this is a sector where clients are looking for big points of differentiation and to promote their service as the best provider of live odds 4”

The Channel is believed to be in talks with several UK based gambling groups and advertising agencies before it makes its final decision. Channel 4 is will be rolling out this facility from early next year on a six to twelve month trial basis with the time coming out of existing advertising breaks.

No tax increase on Irish online gambling

The Irish Government has confirmed this week that is has no plans to tax bookmakers operating over the telephone or online because it needs to spend more time researching the industry. Brian Lenihan the Irish minister for Finance declared that the tax on land based bookmakers was to doubled to two per cent on turnover from the beginning of next year, but online and telephone service will remain tax-free

Previous attempts to tax the online betting industry by the Irish Government have failed as many of them mover their operation to Gibraltar and other tax havens. The government however has stated that it does wish to force some type of tax onto the sector in the future.

William Hill Sports Book of the Year Winner

Marcus Trescothick has been awarded the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, for his autobiography, ‘Coming Back To Me’, winning the £20,000 prize from William Hill (along with his co writer, Peter Hayter) along with a £2000 William Hill bet and a hand-bound copy of the book by master binder David Sellars.

The former England batsman was announced as the winner at Waterstones bookstore in Piccadilly by panel judge John Inverdale, the award was present by the Olympic Gold medal winning athlete, Michael Johnson.

The founder of the event Graham Sharpe and also William Hill spokesman said “This is only the second autobiography to win the Award. The judges felt it fearlessly tackled one of the great taboos of elite sport.‘ The other five finalists for award all collected £2000 cash, a £1000 William Hill bet and a leather-bound copy of their books.

Costly promotion for Sportingbet

Sportingbet is today counting the cost on one of its main promotions as they had to pay out to numerous punters who had bet on the favourite Kauto Star to win the Betfair Lancashire Chase at the weekend.

The offer from Sportingbet was to refund all fallers at Haydock and Ascot on Saturday however during the featured race at Haydock the punters favourite Kauto Star and his jockey Sam Thomas parted company at the last fence.

Sportingbet’s UK Promotion manager said “Kauto is probably the most popular horse in training, and at such short a price it was definitely one we didn’t want to be refunding. To be fair to Sam Thomas and the horse it more of a slip than a fall” he went on to add “It won’t stop us offering attractive promotions in the future”

William Hill prepare for largest ever horse racing jackpot

This Saturday there will be the largest jackpot in horse racing betting history when a possible £5 million plus is available in the Tote Scoop6 bet. To be in with a chance of winning you need find a winner in all six of the televised races on Saturday.

It costs just £2 to select one horse in each race and punters are also allowed to pick more than one horse in each race to further increase their chances of winning. There are only 19 tickets that made it through to the final leg at last weeks Cheltenham and none had selected the winner which enabled to he jackpot pool to be rolled over for its consecutive 11th week.

UK based bookmakers William Hill have seen a large increase of customers in their shops seeking advices on how to place their Scoop6 bet.  Customers who have placed bets through William Hill may have a better chance of winning as they have made four millionaires in the last year!

Kate Miller from William Hill said; “The Tote Betting Scoop 6 is the hottest bet in racing! Punters know they have a much greater chance of winning the Scoop6 than the National Lottery and this is the biggest Jackpot in Racing history!”

Ladrokes announce quarterly profits

The UK based Casino and Sports Book operator Ladbrokes has announced a 12% increase in gross win in the quarter ended 31st October 2008. Group profit has increased to 10%, the management team expect that profitabily in the full year to be inline with 2007.

The CEO of Ladbrokes Chris Bell said “Despite the generally challenging economic conditions, Group profit grew overall. UK retail gross win increased by 5% whilst eGaming has continued to successfully follow its strategy of investing in new customer acquisition and grew net revenue by 22%” he went onto to add “Although a run of poor football and horserace results at the end of the period has affected performance, the Group remains within the market expectation range for 2008.”

Net revenue for the group has increased 22% during the period with good growth across the Sportsbook, Casino and Games.  Poker performance has been low due to highly competitive market and to aid in this Ladbrokes will be joining the Microgaming network in the New Year.

UK bookmakers getting ready for reality TV betting onslaught

William Hill the UK based bookmaker is getting ready for one of the busiest fortnights of reality television betting and they have estimated that there will be over £10 million worth of bets will be staked on reality TV shows such as X Factor, I’m A Celebrity and Come Dancing in the coming weeks.

When last years I’m a Celebrity Betting was won by the outsider Christopher Biggins it cost the bookmakers millions of pounds as many had expected Janince Dickinson to win the event.  Already for this years I’m a Celeb event the former tennis player Martina Navratilova has been the best backed contestant with William Hill who have cut her odds from 10/1 to 7/1, with Kilroy Silk attracting just one bet in the first twelve hours of betting.

A spokesman for William Hill said “Biggins cost us big last year and we are out to get our revenge this year as there is no obvious stand out yet.“

UK Government pays back £59.1m to Rank Group

The Rank Group plc has announced this week that it have received a repayment from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of £59.1 million from VAT overpayments relating to its Mecca Bingo clubs.

The repayment covers a period of just over five and half years from January 2003 to June 2008 following a ruling relating to VAT and Duties Tribunal ruling in May 2008, HMRC will be appealing against the decision and if the appeal is successful the Rank Group will need to repay the figure plus interest, an appeal dates will be set in early 2009.

The case concerns the application of VAT on games of interval bingo in Rank’s Mecca Bingo clubs, Rank’s believes that the practice goes against the European Union principles on fiscal neutrality. Following the ruling in May 2008, Mecca Bingo has stopped paying VAT on any games of interval bingo since July 2008.

Ladbrokes goes to court against the Norwegian government

Ladbrokes has today appealed against the rejection of its application for a betting license to allow it to trade in Norway; it was originally turned down in October 2004. The refusal had led Ladbrokes to initiate legal proceeds against Norway citing it was a breach of EC directives and the EFTA agreement.

John O’Reilly Ladbrokes’ Managing Director of Remote Betting and Gaming said “We are appealing the judgment because the court’s assessment of the evidence doesn’t relate directly to our case. Vital aspects in the EFTA-law court judgment of May 2007 have not been taken into consideration, and the judgment is solely built on the national “slot machine case” of March 2007 which is not relevant to our application. The monopoly laws in Norway conflict with the EU Treaty, particularly with regard to the principles of freedom of establishment and the free movement of services. We continue to challenge for our right to be regulated in Norway and to provide free and fair competition to the monopoly.”

The difficulty that Ladbrokes is having with the Norwegian government concerning gambling monopolies in an EC country has also been mirrored by the recent troubles StanleyBet has had with the Greek Government and OPAP.

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