Poker News – According to a new report released by France’s online gaming regulator ARJEL, the country’s online poker regulated market has continued to decline despite tournament poker showing positive results. The negative trend that France’s online poker industry began experiencing in 2011 isn’t showing signs of recovery in 2014, as the number of active accounts in the first quarter of the year is 12% smaller than 2013. The decline in numbers is estimated to cost operators a 10% of their turnover. According to ARJEL’s report, bets at cash game tables fell by 19% during the first three months of…

Bloomberg – The Czech government is preparing to tighten control over the gaming industry and boost its contribution to tax revenue as billionaire Finance Minister Andrej Babis seeks to keep the budget deficit in check. The ministry is drafting a bill that would raise tax receipts by allowing online gaming for all operators in the Czech Republic, Deputy Finance Minister Ondrej Zavodsky said in an interview. The bill, to be valid as of 2016, would also set separate tax rates for different types of gaming, he said. Babis’s ministry is searching for new sources of budget revenue as it seeks…

Gaming certification testing specialist BMM Testlabs has been granted permission to operate in Columbia after it received approval and final accreditation from the COLJUEGOS government regulatory body. BMM Testlabs will now be able to support regulators in the South American country under its new certification. “BMM will work closely with COLJUEGOS during the introduction of a formal homologation into the newly regulated gaming market in Columbia,” BMM TestLabs’ senior vice-president of business development Drew Pawlak said. “Through this collaboration of the two organizations we will be discussing how the homologation process will unfold for the future of gaming, for all…

New Jersey online gaming brought in 15 percent more from online gambling in March over the previous month, but it wasn’t nearly enough to offset the diminishing revenue from Atlantic City’s long-struggling brick-and-mortar casinos. The state Division of Gaming Enforcement reported Monday on casinos’ gambling winnings in the latest edition of a monthly report where the news has been mostly discouraging for years. Online gambling, which was launched in November as the latest hope to reverse Atlantic City’s fortunes, hasn’t brought in the revenue that was expected. But it has grown each month. In March, the casinos won $11.9 million…

iGaming Business – Online poker operators WSOP.com and Ultimate Poker are to adopt the NETELLER payment processing solution in an attempt to solve problems players have in depositing and withdrawing from websites in regulated US states. According to the Pokerfuse.com website, WSOP introduced a NETELLER option for customers in New Jersey last month and has now received approval to use the Net Plus card for its Nevada online poker service. The US version of Net Plus is a pre-paid Discover card that players can use to withdraw and deposit funds, with access to cash at ATM machines. The card can be…

ESPN – Legislation has been introduced in Congress to amend the 1961 Federal Wire Act to ban all forms of interstate wagering except horse racing. The bill, named the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (H.R. 4301), was introduced by Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) (S. 2159). The legislation would amend the Federal Wire Act, the 1961 federal law that prohibits interstate wagering, to prohibit interstate Internet gaming. The bill is a response to the Department of Justice’s change in its previous interpretation of what the Wire Act prohibits, according to a memorandum from the American Horse…