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) US and Antigua Battle Over Online Betting
Antigua, the smallest country to ever win a World Trade Organization case, is seeking the right to impose $3.4 billion in commercial sanctions against the U.S. for its failure to comply with a ruling on its online betting ban; if succesful, this will be the second highest sanction in the WTO's history.Last year, Washington stopped U.S. banks and credit card companies from processing payments to online gambling businesses outside the country, a decision which closed off nearly half of the world's online gamblers in a market worth $15.5 billion. While the WTO supported this decision on moral grounds, it also ruled that it was illegal to target online gambling, without equally applying the rules to American operators offering remote betting on horse and dog racing.As a result of the loss, the US declared its intention to explicitly remove Internet gambling from its obligations under the WTO's treaty on trade in services, causing Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, India, Macau, Japan, and the entire EU to file compensation claims in kind.EU online gambling sites in particular - which largely bankrolled Antigua's legal efforts - have claimed the U.S.owes the European Union a jackpot of up to $100 billion in trade concessions to compensate for its illegal ban on foreign gambling companies.The US denies all these claims and is preparing to go into arbitration in Geneva next month.View: Full Story on SiliconValley.com . More>> - (
) 888 sees sports betting by early next year
Online gaming firm 888.com should have the first element of its new sports betting offering in place by early next year and is also lining up its next acquisition, its CEO told Reuters on Tuesday.888 is tipped by analysts to be close to announcing a tie up with Rank's Blue Square Web site, to offer bets on soccer matches, horse racing and other sports for the first time.
"We expect to launch (sports betting) in the first country by the end of this year or the beginning of next," Gigi Levy told Reuters on the sidelines of the European i-Gaming conference.
"The UK is our biggest market but we also have Seville," he added, saying the deal with the sportsbook provider would be for more than a year.
Having seen takeover talks with gambling group Ladbrokes come to nothing due to worries of retrospective prosecution by U.S authorities, 888 has said it is now looking to be a predator rather than prey for larger rivals. More>>
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) Monday October 08, 2007 - 14:42 EST
FRANCE -- As reported by the UK Times: "France is preparing to bow to pressure from Brussels and agree to a partial liberalisation of its state-run betting monopolies."In a sign that it is backing away from a confrontation with the European Commission, Paris has said that it is willing to legalise internet gambling on horse racing and football.
"The move would give companies such as Sportingbet, the London-listed online bookmaker, a toehold in the €25 billion (£17.4 billion) annual Gallic gambling market..."
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) Fallon backflipped, court hears
SIX-TIME British champion jockey Kieren Fallon lost a betting syndicate $240,000 when he refused to lose on the Queen's horse, a court has heard.Despite promising to cheat on one of racing's most prominent owners, Fallon went back on his word because he feared he was being watched and could lose his riding licence, prosecutor Jonathan Caplan alleged at London's Old Bailey court was told yesterday
Daring Aim duly won the race in July 2004 at Newmarket, the headquarters of British racing.
"They are watching me," Fallon told co-defendant and alleged intermediary Philip Sherkle in a text message recovered from a mobile phone in Fallon's car after his arrest, Caplan told the jury.
The court heard that businessman Miles Rodgers bet $5 million in internet accounts with online bookmaker Betfair. More>>
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) Fallon 'gives up' big lead to lose race
LONDON � Champion jockey Kieren Fallon lost a horse race after holding a five-length lead in the home stretch, which sparked an investigation into race-fixing, a prosecutor said yesterday.Fallon and five others are accused of interfering with the running of horses to ensure they lost 27 races in Britain between December 2002 and September 2004. They are charged with conspiracy to defraud customers who used the online betting site Betfair.
Prosecutor Jonathan Caplan said an independent racing steward who watched footage of the race noted that Fallon was five or six lengths ahead of rest of the field on horse Ballinger Ridge with two furlongs left. �But Fallon then dramatically slows his momentum to the point where he is doing virtually nothing,� Caplan told the jury at the Old Bailey. More>> - (
) Fallon relinquishes big lead to lose horse race, court told
Champion jockey Kieren Fallon lost a horse race after holding a five-length lead in the home stretch, which sparked an investigation into race-fixing, a prosecutor said Tuesday.Fallon and five others are accused of interfering with the running of horses to ensure they lost 27 races in Britain between December 2002 and September 2004. They are charged with conspiracy to defraud customers who used the online betting site Betfair.
Prosecutor Jonathan Caplan said an independent racing steward who watched footage of the race noted that Fallon was five or six lengths ahead of rest of the field on horse Ballinger Ridge with two furlongs left.
"But Fallon then dramatically slows his momentum to the point where he is doing virtually nothing," Caplan told the jury at the Old Bailey. More>>