At the Barcelona Diagonal Conference Centre, the sixth annual European i-Gaming Congress and Expo took place on Tuesday. The online gambling industry gathering was attended by some impressive attendance. 80 online gambling expert speakers, 60 top online gambling industry exhibitors and over 1000 pre-registered delegates standing in line to register until Tuesday morning.
The internet gambling industry had rightly been identified as the most successful of the online Togel Hongkong businesses to come out of the Internet, with good levels of expertise developed in marketing and technology, but there had been missed opportunities to capitalize early on trends that could have added even more impetus to development and business success.
US Online Gambling On The Brink Of Extinction?
Two United States agencies are working in conjunction with the US Department of Justice, have begun a process that will implement the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that was passed by Congress of 2006. The US Treasury and Federal Reserve are taking final steps to ensure that internet gambling is banned once and for all.
Title VIII of the Act is also known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 prohibits the transfer of funds from a financial institution to an internet gambling site, with the notable exceptions of fantasy sports, online lotteries, and thoroughbred/harness racing.
Many banks and credit card companies have not taken and action to stop making payments to illegal sites, awaiting the rules to determine what procedures they need to have in place.
Yesterday’s announcement details those ules, calling on all banks, credit card companies and automated payment system companies to have “policies and procedures that are reasonably designed to prevent payments being made to gambling businesses.”
The Fed and the Treasury have kick-started a three-month consultation process on these proposed rules, with comments from affected parties to be filed by December 12.
Once in place, the rules will provide a clear black and white policy for all companies involved in the gambling arena.
In the past many banks have turned a blind eye to individual state laws banning gambling.
However in the past 18 months the industry has been at the top of the agenda, following a series of high-profile prosecutions of senior such as BetonSports chief executive David Carruthers and Neteller’s Stephen Lawrence.
The clamp-down saw billions of pounds wiped off the value of British-quoted gaming companies such as PartyGaming, which had previously relied heavily on US citizens.
888, Running Good As Always Despite 2006 UIGEA
Gigi Levy, chief executive of 888, has praised the company’s foresight after interim results saw pre-tax profits soaring 298% to US$19m (£9m) in the first six months of the year.
Levy said 888 had been steadfast in the wake of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in October 2006, as it kept hold of much of its workforce to focus on improving its products and generating revenues to meet forecasts.
Other 888 operational highlights included a white-label agreement with South American-focused online poker company Tower Torneos that will see 888 provide it with the technological platform to offer poker, casino, backgammon and bingo to its customers. Tower Torneos is particularly strong in Brazil. The agreement with Tower Torneos would be one of the key growth drivers for the company in a promising market.
888 will be launching an Italian sports betting products in the next few weeks, however, Levy was keen not to overstate the impact of a sportsbook offering.
Levy added that despite losing the majority of its customers and 55% of revenues after UIGEA, the turnaround that 888 had begun to achieve at the full year (2006) has been successful and the company have maintained their track record of profitability.
With the company active for the past 10 years, Levy said it had based its success on the same strategic principles that had made it successful in the past, “acquiring and retaining customers by delivering a compelling, localised, innovative, unique and entertaining customer experience while being mindful of the complex regulatory environment in which we operate and the necessary social responsibilities that come with our industry”.
Net gaming revenue (NGR) was up 24% to US$97m and pre-tax margin increased to 19%, from 6% in the first half of 2006. Casino NGR grew 22% to US$54m, compared with the same period in 2006, while poker NGR increased 19% to US$41m for the six-month period to the end of June.
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