iGaming Business – The Swiss Federal Government has published the first draft of a new bill that will enable regulated online gambling in the country for the first time. The Pokerfuse.com website reports that the bill, which was introduced last week, will allow land-based casinos in Switzerland to use their licences to also operate an internet gambling service. The draft gambling bill does not contain any reference to overseas operators and whether such companies will be allowed to enter the Swiss online gaming market. The bill, which is now out for consultation until August 20, 2014, states that all online…

Card Player – Minnesota lawmakers are considering a bill that would end online lottery sales and could also basically put a preemptive ban on other forms of online gambling in the state. The state Senate has strongly supported the plan. The House will now look at the bill. Minnesota’s governor told the Associated Press that he wouldn’t veto the bill if the House vote is also lopsided in support of the plan. He does want the lottery to be given a grace period to phase out the online games, though. The lottery began offering online scratch-offs in February, but first…

Calvin Ayre – Its no secret that there is a lot of opportunity in Latin America for businesses, especially digital businesses and of course this includes online gambling.  When we discuss opportunities in Latin America at conferences or around the water cooler, we tend to focus on Brazil, or Panama or sometimes Columbia and Chile, but we rarely hear about the potential in Mexico. What strikes me as most interesting about this region is that the opportunity is there right now, not “at some point” or “maybe later this year” as it is in Brazil and in 47 states in…

Net Security – A new report by McAfee sheds light on the underground world of online gambling. It identifies the proliferation of online casinos, an industry set to grow nearly 30% over the next three years, and how their use is fuelling cybercrime by making it easy to “cash in” on illegal activities. Online gambling involves huge volumes of transactions and cash flows that can obscure and disguise money laundering. Players are not dealing with a tangible, physical product; physical currency does not change hands. As a result, illegal proceeds can be laundered by wagering them on one end of…

iGaming Business – The Bulgarian State Commission on Gambling has added five new websites to its blacklist of iGaming domains prohibited from operating in the country. Amongst the websites now banned from offering online betting services in Bulgaria are domains operated by Cherry Casino and Sportingbet. Equatorcasino.com, Jackpot.com and Oxygen9casino.com have also been listed as unlicensed websites by the Bulgarian regulator. A total of 203 websites have now been blacklisted by the regulatory body, with Bulgarian internet service providers required to block players in the country from accessing such sites. SOURCE

The finding of a recent study by Gambling Research Australia shows no online gambling addiction link, and that there is no proof to back claims that online gambling addiction is brought about by simply playing internet casino games like blackjack or slot machines. The study included 15,000 phone interviews, 500 online surveys and 50 one-on-one interviews taken in person. The interviews were taken from gamblers and 31 of the 50 spoken to had previously sought help for a gambling problem. The study, released just weeks ago, highlighted a number of interesting revelations and figures. A large percentage of gamblers believe…