This Week in Gambling

Poker News – Sweden’s gambling monopoly Svenska Spel said it has taken a “big step towards a healthier gaming market” with a soon-to-be-created professorship to study problem gambling. The professorship at Lund University’s Faculty of Medicine will carry out detailed research into the causes and effects of problem gambling – the first of its kind in Sweden, according to the state-owned operator. “It’s part of our mission to work towards the prevention of gambling problems,” Zenita Strandänger, head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Svenska Spel, told PokerNews. “To learn more about how we best can prevent these issues we need…

Poker News – According a report by GamingIntelligence, a French court has recommended that €40,000 in fines be handed down to bwin.party co-Chief Executive Officers Norbert Teufelberger and Manfred Bodner for the group’s activities in France prior the adoption of the gambling legislation in force today. Teufelberger and Bodner are being charged with iGaming violations by a court in the commune of Nanterre (12 km outside of Paris), with violations that date back over a decade ago when the group offered betting services to France’s citizens. Although the original complainants French monopoly operators La Française des Jeux (FDJ) and Pari-Mutuel…

Forbes – Macau’s metamorphosis from gamblers’ guide footnote into the global gaming capital booking seven times the casino revenue of Las Vegas has inspired countries across Asia to try their own luck. From South Korea to Sri Lanka, there are gaming venues and big plans for more. While every government wants to duplicate the dollar figures of Macau, the model most follow is made in Singapore. Singapore awarded two casino licenses in 2006, following an unusually contentious pubic debate, with the goals of boosting visitor arrivals and adding what Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called the “X factor” found in…

Online Poker Report – It has been two years since Illinois became the first state in the nation to begin selling lottery tickets online, and, according to the Illinois Lottery, the program is “working as designed.” That’s per a press release released by Illinois Lottery officials that put the total amount of online tickets sales at $36.9 million to date. Much like the relatively new legalized online gambling sites in Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware, those who wish to purchase Illinois lottery tickets via the Internet must be physically located in the Land of Lincoln when doing so and must…

NJ.com – So many people I know are excited about “March Madness” and this weekend’s NCAA “Final Four” in college basketball. The tournament lends itself to wagering that results in big bucks for a place like Las Vegas. I read somewhere that their hotel occupancy rates are above 90 percent when this tournament is taking place. Recently, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, along with Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian, spoke of the benefits of having legal sports betting in New Jersey. Atlantic City could see results similar to Las Vegas, with college basketball fans from up and down the East…

Things may get interesting for Colorado casinos. The state’s only horse racing track isn’t the only group proposing ballot measures for voters to consider this fall. Last month, the owners of Arapaho Park horse racing track in Aurora filed six proposed ballot measures calling on Colorado voters to allow it to have up to 2.500 slot machines or video lottery terminals at its horse racing track in Arapaho County or where it offers parimutuel betting of those races in Mesa and Pueblo counties. To counter that, the casino industry has proposed a few measures of its own, all of which…