Congratulations Dublinbet – 5 years old this month!

Five might not sound that old, but it makes them one of the real older statesmen of the fledgling live online casino industry – and still one of a very small handful of operators streaming vision out of a real bricks and mortar casino.

To celebrate the milestone they’re throwing a 2-month-long party, during which time they’ll be giving players the chance to share in daily cash prizes totaling €27,000.

The fun starts 1 August and ends 30 September.

For complete promo t & c’s and to take part, visit Dublinbet

Liena in the small video screen

While playing a game of live roulette at bet365 this week two rather pleasant things happened.

The first was opening the game and being greeted by a smiling face that could launch a thousand ships…thank you Liena.

The second, was clicking on the ‘expand video’ button (top right of video).

Up until very recently, when you clicked this button you were confronted by an enlarged (very) low resolution video that was grainy to the point of being unwatchable and came without any of the functionality of the interface proper.  That is, you could watch the big blurry video but had to return to the main interface to play the game.

To my pleasant surprise this has all changed…and quite dramatically.

As well as coming with full game play functionality, the enlarged video view is now crystal clear and smooth.  And seeing an full screen video of Liena doing her thing at the roulette wheel was showcased this new technology very nicely indeed.

Bit of a case of right place, right time (or maybe right face, right time), but Liena you’re our dealer of the week!

Liena in full screen mode - as big as your computer screen!

Eurobird 1 at 28.5°E ... broadcasting roulette at frequency 11260 V

Euro zone players with a satellite dish and living anywhere in the orange hot-spot indicated left can play Smart Live Casino’s roulette game.

The game is now broadcast 13:00 – 06:00 (BST) daily via Eurobird 1 at a frequency of 11260 V (hope this means more to you than it does to me?).

If you subscribe to any of the below digital satellite TV providers, you also get roulette 13:00 – 06:00 as follows…

• Freesat, on channel 852
• Sky Digital, on channel 869
• Melita, on channel 609

I wonder if the NASA scientists that sent the first satellite into space envisaged that one day they’d be used to beam games of roulette around the globe?

Today they released their world cup odds report, which shows that European monopoly betting operators on average offered odds that were 32% worse than the best odds offered by private betting operators.

You can read the full report here which includes all raw data used to compile the report.

Summary analysis and results are set out below.

The test methodology…

Simple; for EVERY world cup game the odds offered by the following State owned monopoly* operators:

• Svenska Spel (Sweden)
• Danske Spil (Denmark)
• Lotto Bayern (Germany)
• De Lotto (Netherlands)
• OPAP (Greece)
• PMU (France)
• FDJ (France)

were compared to the odds offered by the best priced private operator (ie best market price) out of:

• bet365
• Bwin
• Unibet
• Ladbrokes
• Betfair
• William Hill
• Stanleybet
• Victor Chandler

The results…

Overall, if you were one of the punters unfortunate enough to bet with a monopoly operator, on average you were getting odds 32% worse than what you would have received on the open market.

If you backed your home nation, you would have been 35% worse off.

German punter get the worst deal coming out 48% behind the market. The complete by-country outcome is below.

• Germany: 48% worse of
• Sweden: 40% worse off
• The Netherlands: 35% worse off
• France: 31.5% worse off
• Greece: 31% worse off
• Denmark: 14.4% worse off

Another perspective…

A very interesting next step that could be taken with this data to give it a real sense of order of magnitude is to translate the odds differential into an approximate Euro value to see just how much EU monopoly operators are costing their customers.

Maybe the guys at Right2bet are already on the case?  Just in case they’re not – below is my quick and dirty back of the envelope attempt…

UK bets alone on the world cup were expected to top £1 billion.  Using this a figure as a yardstick, and assuming:

• the same propensity to bet per-capita in the other countries;
• 75% of bets in those countries are placed with monopoly operators, 25% leakage to private; and
• private operator margin on all bets placed for world cup of 1%.

The total cost to affected European punters for the world cup alone is over €10 million…

To vote for your right to choose, click here

To visit Right2bet, click here

* the term monopoly is loosely taken to mean an operators given preferential access to local betting markets to the exclusion of private operators by virtue of government laws

The webinar was titled “US I-Gaming Outlook Analysis and Expectations” and it focused on the US online gambling regulatory environments at both the State and Federal levels, including consideration of the key pieces of draft legislation currently on the table and their chances of successful passage into law in the near term.

Set out below are some of the key points (I thought anyway) coming out of the presentation.  They provide a nice broad picture of where things are at, as well as some more context around Barney Frank’s much talked about draft bill H.R. 2267 which was debated by the House Financial Services Committee last week.

Unlawful Interactive Gambling Enforcement Act

Any discussion of America’s online gambling regulatory landscape should start with the currently operative on-point legislation – UIGEA. Passed in 2006 as an attachment to the Port Securities Bill and implemented 1 June 2010, it makes it illegal for payment processors (banks, credit card companies, etc) to facilitate payments relating to ‘illegal online gambling’ between US residents and online gambling providers.

Crucially, UIGEA doesn’t define what ‘illegal online gambling’ is and also places the onus of identifying related transactions on banks/payment processors.  This ambiguity has made effective implementation difficult and the legislation’s success in blocking online gambling activity is often questioned – particularly as the amount American’s gamble online now is similar to the figure in 2006, pre-UIGEA.

It has also proven a headache for local wagering (horse race betting) operations since banks’ shot-gun approach to blocking online gambling transactions is catching their customers’ payments in the net as well.

With UIGEA in place many offshore casinos and sportsbooks have continued to accept US players, but the large, big brand, European based operators remain unavailable to Americans.

New laws proposed

We hear a lot about Barney Frank’s proposed new law.  But the fact is, even at a Federal level there are quite a few proposed bills related to online gambling.  At a State level the list gets considerably longer.

Mark Balestra’s slide summarizing what’s on the table (legislation-wise that is) does a much better job than I could do…just click on the below image for the complete matrix.

Summary of draft legislation proposed - click for full matrix

So with all these proposed laws floating around Washington, why does H.R. 2267 get all the attention?

Quite simply it currently has far more support and stands a better chance of becoming law than any of the others.  With a very influential sponsor (Barney Frank), 69 co-sponsors  and the lion’s share (36.5%) of all online gambling lobbying spend  (supporters include PPA, IGC, Harrah’s, UC Group) behind it, it’s the one draft bill that has a realistic (if not probable) chance of success.

For this reason, it’s worth following a little closer than the others.

H.R. 2267

The Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act will provide a framework for legal online gambling for Americans provided by US-licensed operators.

What it seeks to do

One of the big misconceptions about HR2267 is that it seeks to repeal UIGEA.  Not so.

UIGEA will continue to operate if HR2267 becomes law however with  HR2267 in place legal online gambling will be unambiguously defined (pretty much all except sports betting) and provision will be made for the issue of US online gambling licenses to successful applicants.

States not wanting to jump on the I-gaming regulation bandwagon are able to so choose and will have 90 days to do so from the time it becomes law under an included opt-out provision.

In simple terms (and from a US players perspective) what this means is that you will be able to play poker or blackjack online with a companies (for example, and assuming successful license application) like London Stock Exchange listed Ladbrokes or PartyGaming, rather than your current choice…www.some-unknown-costa-rican-casino.com

Where it’s at

HR 2267 has existed in draft form and floating around Washington slowly gathering co-sponsor support since the start of 2010.  Just last week its merits were debated by the House Financial Services Full Committee.  On Wednesday (28 July) a HFSC sub-committee hearing was scheduled to discuss the bill’s markup.

Markup is the process by which congressional committees and subcommittees debate, amend, and rewrite proposed legislation before presentation to the House of Reps for consideration.

Where it needs to go

Following markup, the draft will need to be passed by the House Financial Services Committee and put on the agenda for consideration the House of Representatives and then, if passed, go before the Senate where a 2/3 majority vote will be needed before it becomes law.

So there are still quite  few hurdles the bill needs to get over and in betting parlance, each of the hurdles is far from a sure thing.

Likelihood of near term success

Barney Frank has repeatedly said that he wants his new law up and running this year.  But according to Balestra the odds of this happening are pretty long.  Whether he has the level of support to get the bill into the House is questionable.  And if even if the bill is successfully marked up and passed by the Committee, it will it no favors making its way onto the House of Representatives agenda since speaker Nancy Pelosi is not a supporter.

There are obstacles in the Senate too – notably influential Senator Jon Kyl whose stance toward online gambling hasn’t moderated since his persistent efforts to have it outlawed during the last decade – remember all those Kyl bills?

It is also worth noting that this is a contentious piece of legislation and it will always take a back seat to matters considered more important – and America certainly has its fair share of these right now!

HR2267 becoming law in 2010 is very unlikely.

However the final point worth making is that while momentum in Washington is currently slow, history tells us that this can change very quickly.  After all – UIGEA took everyone by complete surprise back in 2006.

Looks like the guys over at Smart Live Casino have been pretty busy.

They just recently took the wraps off their new look website…and it’s really very nice.

Quick links to all the information you need are easy to find – as are the instant play game launchers.  It also comes equipped with some Flash bells and whistles including a front page feed of the latest game winners, and previous months biggest winners.

The list of participating TV channels their live presenter games are being broadcast on continues to expand, and now includes:

• SKY869
• Freesat
• Hispasat
• Melita TV
• Romanian National TV & N24
• Antena1 (Romania)
• Madrid 8 (Spain)

To visit Smart Live and check it their new site, click here

Related pages:

Smart Live Casino review

Smart Live Miami Trip Promotion

The legislation in question was Barney Frank’s H.R. 2267 (Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act)

If this piece of draft legislation, which has been floating around Washington for some time now, ever becomes law it will replace UIGEA’s prohibitive stance toward online gambling with a regulatory framework and licensing regime.  Coupled with Rep. Jim McDermott’s proposed H.R. 4976, the new laws will also raise a lot of money for the US Treasury in the form of gaming taxes.

The success or failure of HR2267 is quite significant for the online gambling industry so this hearing would have attracted plenty of interest.  It is also a controversial piece of legislation that has polarized opinions;  those of the members of the Committee as well as various other interested parties.

Hearing webcast

For those interested a link to the recorded video webcast of the hearing can be found here at the Committee website.

It’s quite long and full of all the old arguments for and against legal/regulated online gambling in America, which in a nutshell are:

• For:
  - liberty/freedom of choice,
  - much needed government revenue raised,
  - current prohibition ineffective.
• Against:
  - endorsement of online gambling will encourage problem gamblers.

Whether HR2267 is any closer to actually becoming law I honestly cannot say.  But the debate was vigorous and reasonably well informed so it seems the law is getting a thorough review.

And most reassuring of all, Hank Johnson is neither a member of the Committee, nor was he called on to testify in any capacity!

1. I sense unease…

2. I see the reason for the unease…

3. Unease turns to anger and a situation that could get out of hand at any moment…

4. I save the day and diffuse a potentially nasty incident with quick wit and winning humour…

Congratulations Karina.  For keeping your cool in adverse circumstances, and more importantly, for laughing at my stupid joke…you’re Livedealer.org’s dealer of the week!

******************

Disclaimer: thought bubbles and narrations are Livedealer.org’s (possibly exaggerated) interpretation of events and don’t necessarily reflect what actually happened.

you...your significant other...sun...surf...daiquiris...for a week in Miami

All I know about Miami is what I’ve seen on Miami Vice, CSI, that movie The Birdcage with Robin Williams and a string of B-grade college-spring-break flicks.

If these are actually accurate representations of the place then it is full of drug lords, very big motor boats, wet t-shirts, silicon, flamboyantly dressed gay men, silicon, beach parties, hummers, muscle heads and lots of silicon. Sound like your cup of tea?  Then read on.  And even if it isn’t don’t worry as this may not be a 100% accurate picture of the place.

What is definitely true is that the sun shines there an awful lot, the water is warm and inviting and there’s no shortage of fun to be had.

Smart Live Casino are sending one of their players (maybe you) there in September.

Win their Miami Summer Bonus comp and you get a weeks trip for 2 to Miami incl. airfares, accommodation and £500 to cover your the purchase of a cabana shirt and your first few dozen daiquiris.

To win you will need to play their live dealer games and top the turnover leader board at the competition’s closing date of 23 August.

To visit Smart Live, click here.

And good luck!

LD

The woes of the GFC and tighter visa restrictions for mainland Chinese seem to be fading into a distant memory.  So much so that gaming analysts at Deutsche Bank and CLSA are forecasting July 2010 revenues to be 72% up on the same month last year!

Where on earth did all that money come from all of a sudden?

According to a Business Week article it’s come from China’s renewed credit boom which has turned the high roller tap on once again for Macau’s junket operators.

Whatever the reason, it’s happy days for casino businesses in the world’s gambling capital.  And none could be happier than the man with more operating concessions than anyone and whose name is synonymous with Macau…Stanley Ho.  And he’s celebrating the good times with fruit.  Not just any fruit.  The king of tropical fruit.  The stinky prince.   The Musang King Durian.

You don’t find Durian fruit in most parts of the world, including Macau, so Ho sent his minions on a quest in the private jet that lead them to Singapore where they successfully procured 88 (the number 88 is no coincidence) of the succulent but apparently very smelly fruits.

They cost $1,505 (plus associated jet fuel, pilot and other staff wages, airport fees etc) and were distributed to Stanley’s nearest and dearest including billionaire Li Ka-shing – who by the way has a pretty cool name for a billionaire (Ka-Ching!)