Ladbrokes and William Hill were among bookmakers awarded licences for sports and horse betting over the Internet and the phone in Italy, state betting agency AAMS said on Thursday.
Ladbrokes said the company would continue to acquire new licences in Italy. “Ladbrokes’ strategy is to establish an Italian retail estate through both new licences awarded in the tender process and acquisition of existing centres”.

PartyGaming said on Friday it was buying the Internet gambling operations of smaller rivals Empire Online and Intercontinental Online Gaming for $66.3 million (33.7 million pounds) in shares. A PartyGaming spokesman said, “These deals bring good secondary brands, new revenue streams and strong management with proven marketing skills, especially in casino”.

Greek punters spend over Euro 8.5 billion a year on their passion for gambling, the Greek news medium Kathimerini reported this week, commenting that growing amounts are being spent on casinos, lotteries and illegal online gambling. Meanwhile, punters turning to illegal electronic gambling are spending almost Euro1.5 billion per year on their pastime.

The dispute between WSOP champion Jamie Gold and television produced Crispin Leyser took a new turn this week when a U.S. judge upheld the continued freeze on half of Jamie Gold’s $12 million 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event winnings. Leyser supplied the stars - actor Matthew Lillard and MTV personality Dax Shepard - in exchange for half of Gold’s pot. But after winning the Main Event, Gold said the his agreement with Leyser was a goodwill gesture and not a binding business deal and is now fighting to keep the full $12 million.

Canadian director, Matt Frame, broke the record for the world’s longest swim, while handcuffed. Matt broke the record to raise awareness for the Joe Bodia Foundation which raises money for underprivileged children in Cambodia. Matt made the brutal 5.8 kilometer (3.1 nautical miles) swim from Koh Kteah to Serendipity beach without the benefit of a wetsuit or any help. The Guinness people have officially confirmed this to be a record-breaking swim.

Why are we talking about this? Well just because Golden Palace is involved again, for the good reasons. “This is another great chance to help a worthy charity and get some publicity at the same time,” said Richard Rowe, GoldenPalace.com CEO. “Of course I am doing this for publicity,” said Matt. “We have tried conventional routes of fundraising but the results have been disappointing.”

Setting the standard in marketing creativity, GoldenPalace.com has devised some of the most exciting and outrageous advertising campaigns in the past few years. Items such as the Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Britney Spears’ Pregnancy Test, and William Shatner’s Kidney Stone have garnered extensive worldwide media attention for the casino. GoldenPalace.com has also used their items and marketing reach to raise awareness and over $1,000,000 for various charities worldwide.

Each day this week at All Slots’ Daily Double winning bonus doubles! And the good news is that all the money is being given away before the New Year. Each day this week, the Daily Double winning bonus draw will double:

• Tuesday: $100
• Wednesday: $200
• Thursday: $400
• Friday: $800
• Saturday: $1,600
• Sunday: $3,200

The Daily Double will run from 12 a.m. ET, Tuesday December 26th until midnight ET on New Year’s Eve, December 31st. Each player will receive one entry to the daily draw for every £50 deposited and wagered at All Slots Casino. Visit All Slots Casino NOW!

Well, it is not a new episode of Johnny Depp Pirates of the Caribbean - but Tejinder Randhawa, an analyst at Evolution Securities told onlinecasinocrawler that the industry was emerging with two, new niches: the European-listed companies, traded on the stock markets, and those looking to continue to market to the U.S., despite the ban. “There are huge opportunities, and all the private offshore operators are licking their lips,” said Randhawa.

The UIGEA seeks to make it illegal for banks and credit card companies to process payments to online casino firms. “But no doubt there will be operators that spring up to handle the payments,” Randhawa said. However, only 10 to 15 percent of the world’s 2,700 or so gaming websites will eventually block U.S. customers.

Privately-owned operators in and around the Caribbean moved there years ago to avoid these problems and now the islands are attracting even more business.

Harrah’s Entertainment has entered into a definitive agreement for affiliates of Texas Pacific Group (TPG) and Apollo Management to acquire Harrah’s, in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately US$27.8 billion, including the assumption of approximately US$10.7 billion of debt.

“In Apollo and TPG, we will have owners who share our vision for Harrah’s, are fully supportive of our current strategy and are committed to helping us execute on it. This will be a change in ownership, not a change in direction,” said Gary Loveman, Harrah’s chairman, chief executive officer and president.

Under the merger agreement, Harrah’s may solicit superior proposals from third parties for a period of 25 days. The board of directors of Harrah’s, through its special committee and with assistance of its independent advisors, intends to solicit superior proposals during this period. The transaction is expected to be completed in approximately one year, and is subject to stockholder approval, regulatory approvals, and customary closing conditions.

A new online has launched but this time we have to say that it is a very “different” experience. We are in fact talking about the world’s first gay online casino. This casino is licensed in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles and allows people to become the dealers, if they accumulate enough points as players first.

Dorothy’s Palace online casino is run by and for members of the gay community and their friends and is proud to give 10% of its profits to charity. The chosen charity is The Terence Higgins Trust - an excellent charity helping people affected by HIV and AIDS. To find out more - and to download their free software - visit http://www.dorothyspalace.com to… find out more!

There is a proposal to broadly expand gambling in Texas and authorize casinos on the state’s three Indian reservations — presumably, Class 3 casinos where players play against the house and not each other — and it would put video lottery terminals in the state’s ailing horse and dog tracks.

It looks like licenses are cropping up everywhere, what is going on?

Unlike earlier proposals, this plan teams up Indian reservations, horse- and dog-track interests and full-blown casino developers, interests that have been competitors in the past — always unsuccessful ones. According to proponents, the whole package will generate $1.6 billion annually for the state, money they envision spending on college tuitions, which have been skyrocketing since they were deregulated, and children’s health insurance in a state that leads the nation in uninsured kids. Good deeds at least…

CryptoLogic has renewed its contract with William Hill for a further three years. The partnership is “on financial terms that are materially the same as those in their former agreement,” CryptoLogic said. A Spanish language poker site has also been introduced by the companies. “We are very excited about the prospect of continuing our partnership with William Hill-an icon in the UK betting market and one of CryptoLogic’s most important relationships,” said Lewis Rose, CryptoLogic’s President and CEO.

The biggest event set to be held in Goa over the next year will, officially, be the inaugural Asian Poker Classic from March 1-5, 2007. The Asian Poker Classic (APC) is the first professional poker tournament to be held in India. It will be sponsored by gaming site MaharajahClub.com and offer one of Asia’s richest ever poker prize pool - a guaranteed $1 million.

Sportsbook.com posts odds on Rocky Balboa’s opening weekend gross. For the sixth Installment of the greatest underdog story of our time, Sportsbook.com has posted odds on the opening weekend gross for the Italian Stallion’s latest bout, setting over/under odds on the film generating $26 million in its first weekend.

Totesport, one of Britain’s most respected bookmakers, has purchased the Orbis OpenBet™ integrated gaming solution for the relaunch of its web portal. Orbis Technology Ltd, the world’s leading provider of interactive gaming and betting solutions, announces the launch of the recently revamped totesport.com web portal utilising the OpenBet integrated gaming solution.

We all know that after the Unl”awful” Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed the well espected publicly traded gambling sites had not choice but to leave the US market. All Playtech and Cryptoligic Online Casinos stopped accepting bets from us citizens right away.

The only respected casino companies left are those that use microgaming software. microgaming casinos already no longer accept bets from the 11 states in America that have specific laws against online gambling, however they do have a strong presence in the rest of the states. Unfortunately though after the 270 day period is up and the United States implements new laws, the remaning microgaming casinos will be forced to leave the US.

What will happen then? The less competition wil lower the standards and as a result all that will be left will be Internet casinos based in third world islands, like Antigua and Curacao, where no regulations need to be met in order to operate. What a mess, thanks US politicians.

By 2009 Pennsylvania is expected to have 14 casinos in all, the same number as in Atlantic City. Together, they are expected to generate at least $1 billion that will be used to reduce property taxes. On Wednesday the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board awarded five licenses from all the applicants. Philadelphia is about to become the largest U.S. city with casino gambling.

The board also approved stand-alone licenses for casinos in Pittsburgh’s North Shore, Bethlehem and the Pocono Mountains, plus permanent licenses for six racetracks previously granted conditional ones.

Eight others applicants were rejected. They had proposed projects ranging from a 23-story hotel and casino complex in the Poconos to one that included a promise to build a $290 million hockey arena for the Penguins in Pittsburgh.

So we assume that gambling is not that bad given the new licenses awaded… get ready for Philly versus Atlantic City.