From yNet News- World’s biggest social network hires PR firm in Jewish state in bid to strengthen its brand among user, attract more developers and advertisers. Facebook is launching official operations in Israel : The company has hired the Shalom TELAVIV public relations firm, owned by Zamir Dahbash and Rinat Friedman, to serve as its media advisor in Israel as part of the social network’s future activities in the country. The Israeli office will work with the company’s PR personnel in Facebook’s headquarters in London, which is responsible for the company’s activity in Europe and the Middle East. This is…

From The Guardian – Britain’s gambling industry is booming, and new figures show almost one in 20 iPhone owners use sports betting apps, but a UK technology firm is using behavioural data to combat the onset of gambling addiction. Featurespace, the corporate spin-out of a University of Cambridge engineering department project, is using machine learning techniques to identify people showing patterns indicative of problem gambling, before consulting psychologists on the best and safest preventative action to take. Gaming sites collect data on the betting patterns of every one of their customers, including the time of day, frequency and size of…

From eConsultancy – What do censorship and surveillance programmes look for? What can this tell us about internet usage in China? Can we contrast with the perceived surveillance state of the West? What are the implications for a company in the Chinese market? Unsurprisingly, there are lots of questions still to be answered about the state of the internet in China. First Monday has this month published a very interesting paper, presenting an analysis of data from a year and a half tracking the censorship and surveillance keyword lists of two instant messaging (IM) programs used in China. I thought…

From iGaming Business – The world’s largest land-based gaming firm, Caesars Entertainment Corporation, has released its financial results for the second quarter of 2013 showing that net revenues had dropped by 0.3% year-on-year to $2.158bn. Las Vegas-based Caesars Entertainment recently had a plan to spin-off its Caesars Interactive Entertainment Incorporated subsidiary, Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino and interests in a venue under development in Baltimore into an entity christened Caesars Growth Partners LLC approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission and the operator revealed that first-half overall revenues had decreased by 1.6% year-on-year to $4.301bn. Caesars Entertainment declared that the falls…

J Todd of This Week in Gambling – International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT) a global leader in gaming systems technology, today announced that they have been selected to provide their state-of-the-art sbX® system to the prestigious The Grand Ho Tram Strip, Vietnam. The deal also marks the first time that a casino in Asia will implement a floor-wide Game to System (G2S) floor, all done in conjunction with IGT’s Advantage® casino management solution. Along with the inclusion of sbX, which creates a path for an open-system architecture, the luxury resort and casino will take advantage of IGT Media Manager and…

From The Age – Construction giant Leighton has snared a $2.8 billion contract to build a new luxury casino in Macau. Leighton’s Asian division will build the 450,000 square metre resort and hotel after sealing a deal with Wynn Resorts, which owns casinos in Las Vegas and Macau. The resort will be built on the Cotai Strip in the international gambling destination. Leighton chief executive Hamish Tyrwhitt said the project was part of a broader plan to continue to grow the company’s presence in Asia. The deal is the largest ever scored by the group’s Asian division. Construction is due…