Kotaku – This can only be a bad thing. Virgin Gaming is a service that essentially allows users to sign up and place real world bets on online games. Seems like a complete recipe for disaster to me, but hey, I’m not judging. It’s an automatic service that does all the heavy lifting for you and automatically deposits the cash in the right player’s account. It’s probably worth noting that gambling in video games is a bit of an odd issue. Dan Golding looked into this subject fairly extensively last year and found that it was relatively easy for underage…

South China Morning Post – Flush with cash after hitting the jackpot in Macau and Singapore, international gaming companies are betting on new markets across Asia as governments package economic incentives and rewrite legislation to welcome them. The Philippines, South Korea, Australia, Russia, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Japan and most of Southeast Asia are trying to attract the region’s increasingly affluent and mobile consumers with the lure of glitzy casinos and tourism resorts. “[Asia] is a long way off from saturation where, potentially, new supply would eat into existing operator revenues,” said Michael Paladino, a senior director in the corporates department…

Gaming Intelligence – The UK Gambling Commission has launched its online application service for operators applying for an online gaming licence in the country. All companies applying for a remote licence, and those seeking land-based certification alongside an iGaming licence, will be required to use the service. The service has been launched as the Commission looks to improve the service it provides by offering applicants a tailored application process. The applicants can navigate through the forms in a way that reflects their business model and unique circumstances, allowing companies to skip questions that do not apply to their submission. The…

Casino City Times – A rollback on imposing ATM withdrawal limits on cash machines in gambling venues has taken place in Australia, The Guardian reported. The previous Labour government had introduced the measure as a proposal to tackle problem gambling under its pokie-reform platform, the report said. However, the Social Affairs Minister issued a directive that instructs the gambling regulator to prioritize giving gambling venues an exemption from the limits, according to The Guardian report. It appears possible that the increased economic burden that would be placed on ATM industry to comply with the regulations is behind the directive, the…

Fox News – The digital currency bitcoin — once used to facilitate online drug deals — now appears to be enabling people to get around regulations banning online betting. Predictious.com, a new company from Ireland, offers a “prediction market” that allows people to bet on everything from the U.S. presidential election to the Olympics and the Oscars. And it’s all made possible by bitcoins. Betting of this sort is a legal gray area in the U.S., where the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) decided in a 2012 regulatory order not to allow prediction markets on the grounds that they…

inCypress – Cabinet yesterday decided to establish ministerial and coordination committees and appoint a project manager amid efforts to create casinos that are “the best of their kind in Europe and amongst the best in the world”. Deputy Government Spokesman Viktor Papadopoulos made the announcement after yesterday’s Cabinet meeting. He revealed that Deloitte has been selected as the successful candidate to consult the government on the casino issue following an international tender process undertaken by the Commerce Ministry. Papadopoulos announced the Cabinet’s decision to create a Ministerial Committee and a Coordinating Committee and to designate a project manager for the…