iGaming Business – US oil giant Chevron has been given the go-ahead to sue PartyGaming founder Russell DeLeon as part of a 20-year legal battle between the oil company and Steven Donziger, a US lawyer representing Ecuadorian nationals in a pollution case against Chevron. Bloomberg Business Week reports that a judge in Gibraltar, where PartyGaming (as it was then known) is licensed and DeLeon relocated to from the US in the early 2000s to run the business with co-founders (and ex-wife) Ruth Parasol, Anurag Dikshit and Vikrant Bhargava, has “ruled that Chevron can proceed with a lawsuit seeking unspecified damages…

In an effort to appeal to a younger generation, Australian poker machines are seeing changes to prizes, layouts and themes. According to a recently-released 2013 report from GamblingData.com, casinos and poker machine venues around the country are dealing with diminishing numbers from younger demographics. In an attempt to return boost their appeal, venues are changing prizes to include real products like Apple computers, as well as introducing machines with themes based on popular television shows and movies. Where is the younger demographic going? Internet and mobile gaming. International finance agency Credit Suisse has stated recently that both the Australian and…

10TV – The lists of people banning themselves from Ohio’s casinos and racinos have grown as the state’s gambling industry expands. The Plain Dealer in Cleveland (http://bit.ly/1p4DjUY ) reports nearly 750 gamblers from 11 states and Ontario excluded themselves from Ohio’s four casinos by last month through a voluntary program. That’s up from less than 550 in September. A similar program exists for the racinos, which feature horse racing tracks with slots-style video lottery terminals. About 80 people banned themselves from those facilities by September, when two racinos were open. Now four are open, and the list has nearly doubled….

Casino.org – Bwin – the world’s largest online publicly traded betting site – says it expects to return to a period of sustainable growth following a difficult year, which saw revenue across all gambling operations tumble 19 percent to €652.4m ($908,623,000). The company blamed several factors for the slump, such as ISP blocking in Greece, the decline of the poker market in France and Italy, and the migration of players to its new technology platform in December 2012. Poker, in fact, was a significant disappointment. Despite the launch of its new poker site with Atlantic City land-based casino Borgata and…

Mail Online – The bingo industry is hoping for a multi-million pound windfall this week as George Osborne looks likely to cut its tax rate to bring it into line with other gambling. Bingo, traditionally seen as a ‘soft’ type of gambling compared with casinos or gaming machines, is taxed at 20 per cent, unlike the 15 per cent rate levied on other gambling, including sports betting. But with the arrival at the end of the year of a tax for offshore-based online gambling, which is likely also to be at 15 per cent, Osborne is expected to correct the…

CBS Local – A month after instant “scratch-off” Minnesota Lottery ticket sales went live on the Internet, the pioneering venture faces a high-powered threat at the Capitol. The Senate leaders of both parties and tax committee heads in both chambers are seeking a one-sentence change in state law to permanently turn off the new portal for gambling. Among other issues, lawmakers are upset that lottery officials introduced the games without seeking their approval through explicit legislation allowing it. A bill forcing the change gets an initial committee hearing next week, and Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk predicted there are sufficient…