This Week in Gambling

iGaming Business – The New Zealand Racing Board (NZRB) experienced growth in betting and gaming turnover during the six months to January 31, 2014, despite having described the first half of the year as “challenging” The national bookmaker recorded turnover of NZ$1.1 billion (€654.2 million/$896.8 million) for the first-half of the year, an increase of 2% on the NZ$1 billion achieved in corresponding period last year. Total income also increased from NZ$157.8 million in the previous year to NZ$159.9 million in the latest period. However, the board did suffer a slight drop in net profit before distributions, which fell from…

Sun Herald – House Gaming Committee Chairman Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, has commissioned a task force of experts to look at the pros and cons of Internet gambling and sports betting in Mississippi. The group’s first meeting will be in May during the Southern Gaming Summit in Biloxi. It will present its findings by the end of the year. Bennett said this in no way endorses either form of gambling. “I’m looking for an unbiased study,” he said. It will be more comprehensive than anything he’s seen on the subjects, he said, and he envisions other states using the information…

Washington Times – A key lawmaker has pulled the plug on a legislative plan to broaden gambling in Florida during this year’s session, but supporters promise to revive the effort next year. The surprise move was announced in the middle of a Senate budget discussion by Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, who had led the discussion to implement more gambling in the state, opening it up to outside interests, including Las Vegas-style casinos in South Florida, as well as to establish a gaming commission to oversee the sector in the state. Richter cited the ongoing negotiations between Gov. Rick Scott and…

iGaming Business – Gaming solutions provider Scientific Games has signed an extension to its contract with the Delaware State Lottery to continue supplying lottery and central monitoring systems. The new three-year deal will begin in February 2015. Under the agreement, Scientific Games will continue to provide a range of services and support for draw-based lottery, keno, video lottery games and instant game pass-through transactions. The extension also calls for the installation of a minimum of 450 WMS multi-game video lottery terminals (VLTs) at charitable gaming organisations throughout the US state of Delaware. The VLTS will be monitored and controlled by…

iGaming Business – The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has published a letter strongly opposing new anti-online gambling legislation that has been introduced in the US. As reported by iGaming Business, Senators Lindsey Graham and Jason Chaffetz are sponsoring new legislation to restore America’s Wire Act in order to outlaw all forms on online gaming in the US, with the exception of fantasy games and horseracing. The legislation would reverse a decision in 2011 by Attorney General Eric Holder that a 1961 law used to ban online gaming only applied to sports betting. The new bills would expand prohibition…

iGaming Business – The National Crime Agency (NCA) has arrested seven professional footballers as part of an investigation into alleged match-fixing in the English game. The footballers, who are aged between 18 and 30, all play for Football League clubs in north-west England. The NCA said it has also re-arrested six other men that were originally arrested in December 2013 on suspicion of involvement in spot-fixing, before later being bailed. The six, who had been bailed to return on April 8 after their arrests last year, have now been re-arrested following new evidence. The original six suspects include former English…