gambling reportsUK retail bookmaking start-up Better has launched its online casino, featuring a 32-card Texas Hold‘em product. The casino also features blackjack, roulette, slots and baccarat. Better chief executive Ian Hogg believes the 32-card game makes for “more exciting and quicker hand-to-hand action”.

US casino giant Harrah’s has accepted an improved offer from two private equity firms for the business. The $17.1bn (£8.7bn) offer comes from Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group.

The online casino affiliate program, Playshare.com, announced that it will no longer accept play from certain US states, due to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

The Channel Island of Jersey moved closer to its goal of becoming an online gambling licensing and regulating jurisdiction last week with the appointment of what it terms a Shadow Gambling Commission, extending the reach of its hitherto mainly betting offices licensing body.

Several sources have made as yet unconfirmed reports that widespread Distributed Denial of Services attacks took place over the past week, mainly in the Asian markets. Apparently sites which went down in the attacks included Bet365, Veesports, Yishengbo, Playit365, 777ball, Hooball and Macauslot, but this had not been confirmed when InfoPowa went to press.

According to some reports, the raiders followed known DDoS modus operandi by first paralysing the sites to illustrate their capability, and then demanding amounts ranging from $5 000 to as much as $50 000. It is not known if any of the sites paid up, or what DDoS protective measures were in place.