Two men have appeared in court charged with offenses under the Gambling Act in what is believed to be the first prosecution involving betting on video games. Craig Douglas and Dylan Rigby, who are both from Essex, are charged with promoting a lottery and advertising unlawful gambling. Mr Douglas makes gaming videos on YouTube under the pseudonym Nepenthez. He is also charged with inviting children to gamble. The two men appeared at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court. The case has been adjourned until 14 October. The Gambling Commission, which brought the prosecution, has been looking into the rise of video game and…

MGM Resorts has launched what it describes as the first real-money mobile gambling platform to be offered by a casino in the US. The easyPlay Mobile Tournaments platform, developed by mobile gaming technology company oneLIVE inc, allows guests at nine Las Vegas resorts to compete with other players in a variety of tournament games using their mobile devices or InteractivePro Tables located at MGM’s properties. MGM said scheduled tournaments will include slots, bingo and video poker as well as social, casual and console games. “The introduction of easyPLAY Mobile Tournaments at our MGM Resorts properties gives our guests an exciting,…

Wagering from all sources on Saturday’s Kentucky Derby day program was the second-highest in history, totaling $192.6 million and only 1 percent off the record set in 2015, Churchill Downs Inc. has reported. On-track wagering on the full Derby Day racing card, including the 142nd Derby, was up 2 percent to $23.5 million — just under the record $23.7 million in 2012. On-track wagering on the Kentucky Derby itself totaled $11.3 million, a decrease of 6 percent compared to last year, the track said. It should be noted that Churchill carded an extra race this year over the number of…

Poker is a game of chance and the organiser of a poker tournament can be prosecuted for breaking gambling laws, Amsterdam’s appeal court has ruled in a case which stretches back nearly 10 years. Officially, the Netherlands regards poker as a gambling game, meaning the state owned Holland Casino group is the only organisation allowed to organise tournaments. The case centres on three men who organised poker tournaments in a bar in Bussum between 2005 and 2007 without a licence. Lower court judges in 2010 and 2014 agreed with the defence, which argued poker has become a different game, depending…

The Gaming Control Authority under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania has announced that it has blocked further online gambling websites that do not adhere to new regulations introduced in the country earlier this year. In January, the Lithuanian regulator pledged to take “strict legal action” against operators that organise remote gambling illegally. The Gaming Control Authority has followed up on this by blocking a number of companies that have been operating in the country illegally, with the regulator naming such firms in a list on its website. In a statement, the Gaming Control Authority said that…

A New Jersey daily fantasy sports bill that a state senator plans to introduced is the strictest attempt to regulate the DFS industry. “We have a draft of a bill that we are circulating to a variety of people, the Division of Gaming Enforcement, the Casino Control Commission, other legislators, as well as people in the fantasy sports industry, to take a look at what might be appropriate for New Jersey to do,” state Senator Jim Whelan told Legal Sports Report in an interview on Wednesday. “Other states obviously are looking at this; we’re not talking about doing anything to ban it or to make it…