Some as simple as the fact that people still go mad for a large jackpot, regardless of the odds of winning. Others are slightly more serious such as the dire need for online gambling in at least some form in the US.

In a country where wireless internet, tablets and top technology rules, there was something very outdated about the pictures showing hundreds of thousands of Americans queuing at different retailers just to get a lottery ticket. This, more than ever, highlighted how online gambling isn’t evil, it’s simply just part of modern 21st century life.

While that may sound a bit cheesy, the point is that a country which prides itself on being at the forefront of pretty much everything has fallen far behind other countries who have embraced online gambling.

Following the DoJ statement on the Wire Act in late December, states have even been free to get some form of legislation in place in order to reap the financial benefits of online gambling. However most of them have adopted a wait and see approach. Be this because they are worried about public reaction to online gambling laws or that they don’t understand how much money there is to be made, it appears as if they’re wasting the opportunity that had eluded them for so long.

Many land based casinos have already begun to make deals with online operators despite the lack of legislation. The reason for this is that they understand how much money can be earned through online gambling and when the opportunity arises they will not want to wait and see as other operators bring in the profits.

On this subject Global Betting and Gaming Consultants research director Lorien Pilling explained: “You can bet your last dollar that if the Vegas casino companies get a chance to run online gambling in the US, they will not ‘wait and see’. They will take every opportunity awarded to them by the legislation.”

Since the relaxed stance on online gambling was announced by the DoJ few states have made moves to create legal online spaces. One that has is Illinois whose residents were saved from the chore of queuing in the street for their Mega Millions ticket.

The Illinois lottery is run by the Northstar Lottery Group – a joint venture between GTECH and Scientific Games. They went live with online lottery ticket sales in just under two weeks ago and could not have asked for a better launch than the largest lottery jackpot in history. Conveniently the only tickets currently being sold on the Illinois Lottery site are for Illinois Lotto and, you guessed it, Mega Millions leading to sales of more than $425,000 last week.

When considering this figure, take into account the fact that the Illinois Lottery is not known as one of the biggest state lotteries – that tag is given to the New York, New Jersey and California lotteries. Also, awareness of the online service is still very low due to the fact that the service had only gone live the week before and is still considered by operators Northstar Lottery to be a ‘pilot program’.

For those outside of Illinois, particularly people all around the world their chance to play Mega Millions online remained non-existent. This means that essentially the US government is actively stopping many hundreds of thousands of people from outside of the country from putting their money into the US. In a time where public funds are being raised at every opportunity this appears to be very out of character but obviously caused by a clash of principles.

For the time being it means that sites which do sell US lottery tickets online are continuing to reap the considerable benefits. They are able to do so by having agents placed in the US who head to retailers on demand once a ticket has been ordered. This avoids any illegalities and as long as a high level of trust between the buyers and the ticket seller is maintained then this relationship will continue to prove profitable for the sellers involved.

Based on the $425,000 earned by Illinois, some cautious workings out suggest that the states could have brought in another $11.3 million in ticket sales last week. This figure is based Illinois lottery ticket sales from 2010 compared to that of other states. With this in mind it’s worth remembering the earlier issue of a lack of awareness which would suggest that this figure would be considerably larger.

The electronic nature of the sales would also have meant that, provided online retails had large enough servers, there would not have been the same issue of running out of tickets as was the case last week.

Should US states eventually get in on the action that they continue to miss out on then their main stumbling block will still be the fact that they cannot allow money to cross state borders. The answer to this dilemma is geolocation technology.

Of course recognising the IP of a user can go some way to stopping users from outside state lines but the use of proxy sites could render this ineffective. Plus it’s unlikely that a mere check of a user’s IP will be considered due diligence in the eyes of those morally opposed to online gambling and more importantly the DoJ.

The answer therefore is geolocation. Law firm Latham and Watkins expressed the importance of geolocation in a February publication and explained that in order to meet with proposed online gambling regulations in Nevada. With Nevada’s regulation being seen as particularly important for obvious reasons, it would appear that without the best in geolocation technology operators aren’t going to be able to gain US iGaming licences.

This will be just one of the many potential problems which may arise during the slow regulation processes that we are in store for. But for those in place to reap the benefits, last week’s Mega Millions highlights just how considerable these benefits may be.

Business News

Rating Solar Flares alongside the likes of floods, terrorism and flu pandemics – the cabinet have said they have the potential to bombard the Earth with charge particles that can disrupt nearly all forms of technology, knocking out communications systems, sending your phone into a frenzy and disrupting power grids in its wrath.

But as highlighted by CNET UK, those in the UK aren’t the ones who should be worried. According to The Met Office’s Mark Gibbs in a  report by The Observer, solar storms in the U.S. will be far more severe due to fators such as engineering and geology. But even in the UK they will be enough to knock out main power grid and affect plane components. “Society can’t function without power,” Gibbs said.

So it’s this reason, alongside the fact that like every other developed country, the UK depends on advanced technology, which has led Whitehall to deem solar flares one of the most severe threats to our current lifestyle.

Professor Andrew Coates from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory also told The Observer that if the worst happens any preparations made by the government would likely be futile: “That sort of event would have a huge effect on technology that we rely on and go beyond the types of contingency there are in the system,” he said. Eek. Where would you be in a world without technology? You sure wouldn’t be iGaming, that’s for sure!

Lifestyle News

While this sort of work has been required before, it has always been on a self-imposed basis rather than as a requirement of operating.

As the eCogra chief executive Andrew Beveridge revealed at the beginning of the year, his organisation’s role is becoming more and more about helping to create safe iGaming environments rather than undertaking audits.

Beveridge and eCogra have certainly played very important roles in the regulation and stabilisation of iGaming. Beveridge’s work in helping to create European standards has earned him many plaudits from those in the industry.

But the ever-increasing regulation means that the demand for certification and regulatory accreditation is becoming the focus of accreditation organisations. The demand for this now so great that eCogra are unable to meet the demand on their own. In fact, Beveridge did reveal that they will be bringing on numerous new staff in the near future.

But as with any demand, the supply for it is being filled quickly. A mix of more established companies and those that are new to the area are entering the markets concerned.

Traditionally there have been very few companies that work within this space in iGaming. eCogra is obviously one of these while Technical Testing Systems and Gaming Labs International (who are essentially the same company) have also been able to maintain a considerable share of the market.

But the times for these companies are changing. Before the majority of their time would have been spent conducting self-imposed audits that their clients asked for in order to show their reliability and trustworthiness. Now fewer iGaming operators are requiring these services as they’re being forced to concentrate on adhering to the requirements defined by new regulators.

This means that it’s becoming increasingly hard to stay at the top of the pile across all of the iGaming markets.

Up and Comers

While eCogra and TST would doubtless like their number of competitors to remain low, this isn’t the case as opportunities are being spotted and pounced upon swiftly.

Beverage explained: “You have others [testing companies] that have been around a very long time now but we’re beginning to see a lot of new ones.

“For example, as soon as Spain started regulating then accrediting organisations suddenly pop up out of the woodwork that are obviously closer with Spanish authorities.”

It’s all well and good for these local accrediting organisations to succeed in one market but in order to have a considerable affect on the industry they have to be prominent in multiple markets.

Balancing Act

The challenge is clearly for accreditation organisations to be able to balance the ability to work locally with each country’s regulator with stretching themselves across numerous markets in order to be influential.

One of the companies that appear to be rising to this challenge is NMi. The Netherlands-based testing organisation has just become the first European-based company to be approved to cover the testing of gaming in Denmark. This came shortly after the approval to test and accredit in Spain and Quebec as well.

NMi also have longstanding relationships in more traditional jurisdictions such as Malta, the UK and Alderney. As a result it appears as if they’re making more than a decent fist of being both global and local at the same time.

Their reach into Denmark was made possible by gaining an extension to their existing accreditation. This was UK accreditation which required NMi to demonstrate their expertise in gaming software and their knowledge of what’s required to use it properly.

For NMi it certainly helps that they were already active in other forms of gaming long before the internet came along. The company first started developing slot machines back in 1986 in the Netherlands in preparation for the Act of Gaming which came into effect on December 1.

Their experience, even in offline gambling, is a reason to which Andrew Rosewarne, director of NMi UK, clearly attributes much of their success to.

In a press release following their approval in Denmark, Rosewarne explained: “30 years of experience in gaming is what drives NMi to continue its momentum in gaining accreditation for online testing in the newly regulated jurisdictions such as Spain and Denmark.”

The Importance of Testing

On the off chance that any iGaming professionals had doubted the roles of testing companies such as eCogra and NMi in the past, they would certainly be well advised to reconsider this opinion now.

The importance of testing continues to grow as the iGaming industry becomes more heavily regulated and professional. While some operators may have been able to operate in grey areas or operate without appropriate licenses, the ever improving geo-location technology available means that this approach is becoming increasingly difficult.

The inability to advertise in mainstream media is just one of the factors that will limit unlicensed companies and restrict them from creating the large customer base that they expect.

For this and many other reasons, expect the number of accrediting organisations to increase dramatically. The challenge for operators seeking to work with them will now be determining the good from the bad.

Business News

A report by CTV News reveals the Queen’s Park press conference will commence today to examine the topic of “modernising lottery and gaming in Ontario” and will include discussions from Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and OLG Chair Paul Godfrey. Further details about what will be discussed at the press conference have not been released but it is thought that it could potentially bring betting closer to home.

Ontario has been pondering whether to make changes to its current gambling laws for some time in a bid to exact more profit from the industry. CTV Toronto’s Queen’s Park bureau chief Paul Bliss reported last month that the OLG would allow residents to purchase lottery tickets online by the end of the year.

There’s also exciting news for smartphone bettors in the province as the Crown Corporation is also expected to let gamblers place bets from iPhones, BlackBerries and computers by this time next year.

Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation has said online gambling is worth about $500 million in Ontario, but all that money currently goes to offshore betting sites. As a result, the agency has recently sent out proposal requests for help setting up and running online games such as video poker and video slots, as well as lottery ticket sales.

According to CTV News, Ontario’s casinos take in approximately $3.3 billion every year, while lotteries and bingo net another $3.3 billion. Will the added option of mobile gambling help boost the province’s gambling revenues even further?

Legal News

Germany

At this year’s Game Developers Conference Expo, which kicked off today in San Francisco, gaming industry expert at Germany Trade & Invest Berlin, Julia Oentrich, said: “Germany’s market growth and hot spots like Berlin are attracting start-ups and content developers. Broadband coverage is excellent and smartphone ownership jumped 50 % in one year.”

According to a press release, factors such as Germany’s advanced IT-infrastructure and international workforce make it attractive for innovative gaming companies. Wooga, a Berlin-based content creator for Facebook and iOS, saw its user base grow 185% in 2011 and is now the third largest social games developer in the world.

Germany has seen greater uptake of online games than other EU countries. Casual gaming, digital downloads, and free-to-play MMO (massively multi-player online) games are driving this growth. “A very strong German games industry is ensuring a continuous stream of fresh, well localised, and high quality games,” according to Peter Warman, CEO of the Netherlands-based market research firm Newzoo.

Gaming revenues continue to result mostly from data carriers and downloads (82%). Germany is Europe’s leading market for in-game purchases. Turnover for virtual goods is expected to reach €340 million in 2014.

There’s no question these findings would be reflected in Germany’s iGaming industry, if only online gambling was as free as general gaming in the country. As one of our previous online poll suggests, 38 percent selected Germany as the soon to be regulated market they were most optimistic about. If Germany gets it sorted and realises how much its missing out on, perhaps we’ll see similar figures reflected in its online gambling industry?

Lifestyle News

Rumours have spread wider than Montana Fishburne’s legs that Google will soon be the proud owner of mobile phone manufacturers Motorola. However, the news today suggests the deal is not completed because Google needs approval from anti-competition regulators on both sides of the pond before it can be made official.

According to online reports, 13 February will be the day that the EU will be publishing its decision. For Google’s sake, let’s hope it swings their way, especially when considering the search engine’s quarterly earnings are lower than expected.

That’s right, despite the massive success of Google’s Android mobile operating system, the Silicon Valley homie‘s quarterly earnings report missed analysts’ estimates, sending Google’s stock down 9% in after-hours trading on Thursday.

But good old Google doesn’t have too much to worry about – it announced this week its social media network, Google+, now has 90 million users. That’s double the amount it had three months ago. Not bad, not bad. But still, only a tenth of rival Facebook’s user base. There’s a long way to go yet.

Over in the Apple-bobbing enchanted seas, rumours have sparked across the world wide web that an iPad case maker in China – named Chinee – has started to sell a cover for a device called the “iPad 2S”.

Does this mean that the iPad 3, rumoured for Spring this year, will in actual fact just be an updated iPad2? Shock Horror! Not again, Apple. After a disspointing iPhone 4S instead of iPhone 5 announcement in October last year, it wouldn’t surprise us. But it would annoy the hell out of us. Who wants to wait months on end and then shell out another £400 for a few updated features? Not us.

In a report by 9to5mac, Chinee says it has received information via a source from within Apple and has produced its case to fit an iPad which is 1mm thicker than the current iPad 2. And with the case manufactures having a good history of reliable sources when it comes to pre-empting the tech giant’s hardware plans, it looks like an iPad2S will more than likely be Apple’s next announcement. Boo!

Speaking of being pissed with Apple, Samsung has reportedly lost a court bid in Germany to sue the iPhone manufacturer for a patent they said Apple infringed. We know, we know…not again. But surely Samsung deserves to win at least one patent proxy war? Nevertheless, this time it was all about 3G radios; a patent that Samsung said Apple had stolen from them. If Samsung had won it, it could mean devastating news for Apple because many of its products use the technology.

However, according to online reports, Judge Andreas Voss told Samsung to sling their hook, giving no reason why she didn’t grant them the bid. Regardless, Samsung aren’t likely to give up anytime soon – not until they win at least one patent over Apple. Let it be known, everyone likes the sweet taste of revenge.

Another major tech firm known more widely for its stunning television sets, LG, has announced a new quad-core smartphone. With its almost uninspiring name LG X3, the handset will double the amount of cores inside current phones offering blazing fast response times.

Just like the rumoured Samsung Galaxy SIII and the HTC Edge, there will be an Intel Tegra 3 chipset inside complemented by an impressive 4.7″ high-resolution display on the outside.

Other specs confirmed by the company include: a 9mm thick casing; an 8-megapixel shooter on the back; a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front; and 16GB of expandable internal memory.

It’s also expected to run on the new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. Excited? Of course you are. LG are expected to reveal more about the X3 at the Mobile World Congress next month, so keep your smartphone-fixated eyes peeled.

Lifestyle News

Kate Chambers

Q&A with Kate Chambers, Portfolio Director, ICE Totally Gaming

What can visitors expect to see at ICE in January?

“ICE Totally Gaming is the only exhibition that brings the online and offline gaming worlds together, which means that visitors to ICE have a unique opportunity to see at first hand the challenges, trends, technologies and of course the opportunities impacting the entire gaming landscape.  As always the key drivers of change will be legislation and technology – however ICE plays a broader role enabling visitors to meet and socialise with colleagues from throughout the world, network, debate the future and hopefully leave the exhibition armed with new ideas and new ways of doing business.

How will the recent Department of Justice ruling impact ICE?

“Immediately after the news broke just before Christmas we took some soundings from industry experts such as Warwick Bartlett at GBGC and the view is it will be positive for ICE.  Following the ruling, software suppliers have been receiving a lot of enquiries from theUSAand we anticipate operators coming to ICE to see at first hand what is on offer and what deals can be achieved.  ICE Totally Gaming comes just a month after the ruling and so many of the gaming innovators at the heart of the issue have stands at ICE – it’s a perfect opportunity to see all of the major players in one place at the same time.  Those three days in January could well be the most important of the year for many operators.”

Have you got any advance notice of what’s new at ICE Totally Gaming?

“ICE Totally Gaming reflects what is taking place across all of its sectors. For example regulations such as Facebook’s change in policy on gambling advertising, has prompted new ways of thinking and new product strategies, all of which will be manifest at ICE. Some of the big ticket issues relate to the rising importance of tablets, html5 and new developments in game content across all platforms.  Gaming products are of the moment, first mover advantage is crucial and with the pace of technological change and more importantly the speed with which games creators harness new technology it’s a case of always keeping abreast of change. The best place to do that is at ICE Totally Gaming.

What are your ambitions for the exhibition?

“Our aim is to build on the success of 2011 when ICE lived up to all of our expectations recording double digit growth and in the process breaking the 20,000 attendance figure.  The post-show independent research we commissioned showed a very high approval rating with nine out of ten attendees saying they would recommend ICE to a colleague/associate and exhibitors being extremely bullish about the show and the business they’d written. Great exhibitions leave their stakeholders inspired and wanting more and that’s our ultimate objective for ICE Totally Gaming. I’m very confident about 2012 which also has the added poignancy of being the last ICE to take place at Earls Court.”

To know more about the ICE Totally Gaming 2012, or to register, click here.

Conference News

In a report by CBS Money Watch, Malloy told journalists that his administration is investigating what can be done to protect jobs associated with Connecticut’s two tribal casinos. “The Internet is the Internet. You don’t turn off the Internet at any state’s borders,” he said. “It’s an impossibility.”

He also made reporters aware that his office is looking at other issues stemming from the potential arrival of iGaming, such as whether to allow the state’s casinos or the state lottery to handle any potential online gambling operations. He added: “If it moves forward, and it’s clearly going to move forward, it’s going to be available in Connecticut. Now we have to decide, in the state of Connecticut, what is our approach to that.”

However, Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, who’s all against internet gambling, doesn’t agree. He made his opinions clear, telling Malloy he believes there’s still a chance Congress could fight the legalisation of online wagering in Connecticut, and that there are ways the state can restrict it. He said: “I think the governor wants everybody to believe there’s nothing we can do about it and therefore he wants to gain revenue from it. That’s not right.”

In his retort Malloy cleverly said he is “not the one” bringing online gambling to Connecticut.

“It’s a national decision that has largely already been made. So the question is, what do you do to defend the tens of thousands of jobs directly and indirectly tied to those two [tribal casinos] and I think that’s a legitimate question and that’s one of the things that we’re considering,” he said.

McKinney added he deems the operators of Foxwoods Resort Casino and the Mohegan Sun are “very profitable, very successful.”I think they’re certainly more than capable of taking care of themselves,” he said.

Whose side are you on?

Legal News

As eMarketer has recently highlighted, women who play online games now outnumber male gamers. Surprising, but true. In a ComScore Media Metrix study released last year, which looked into what genders play online games, around 48 million females played online compared to approximately 47 million males.

Also, another 2011 study by market research firm, Interpret LLC showed console use among female gamers had increased “significantly” in the previous two years – with some 21% of women gamers using an Xbox 360 and 16% using a PS3.

The same goes for iGaming. While women hold the title for playing more online bingo and slots games, the rise of social media games on Facebook, such as Texas Hold ‘em Poker, may be a reason why we’ve seen a rise in the number of female players in the online gambling arena. Women prefer more social-based and interactive games, as note in a PopCap Games report. The report last September showed that more women indulge in a bit of social gaming like FarmVille and Diner Dash than men do. Interpret analyst, Courtney Johnson, backed this up when he said in a statement: “[Women] are much more likely to prefer to play solo than men, and play games for less competitive and more narrative- and character-driven reasons.”

The increase of women in gambling is likely already the case in the casino. There seems to be a growing effort via marketing campaigns to attract women to play what is considered to be more male-oriented online casino games and certain resorts have hosted Ladies Championships to attract more female interest.

However, there could be a problem here restricting an eventual 50/50 spilt of ladies in gambling. While men gamble with skill and serious determination to beat the house odds, reports suggest that women find online casinos to offer more of an entertaining atmosphere where they can socialise and spend a few hours of relaxation.

From this, we see that both casino owners and online gaming providers need to understand the differences between what both sexes enjoy in gambling in order to attract just as many women to their products as men.

Lifestyle News

But in our ever changing cyber landscape, this couldn’t be more from the truth. No matter how dominating you think the internet and mobile world might have become, none of which has managed to overtake the traditional television set’s popularity.

A recent report by Nielsen, a consumer market and trends analyst – which studies media consumption in the U.S. through TVs, the Internet and mobile phones – has found that some 290 million Americans, in 114.7 million households, own at least one TV. Compared with the 234 million Americans who are mobile phone owners, 211 million who have internet access and 116 million that surf the web from a mobile device, there’s a clear distinction who’s the winner.

The report also notes that people who watch TV on a standard traditional set as opposed to on the internet is double, at 288 million and 143 million respectively, going to show that TV is never going away. If anything, TV and the internet (mobile and PC base) are in fact complimentary – with many owners using both simultaneously throughout their daily routines.

But get this, nearly one-third (35.9 million) of TV-owning households have four or more televisions, the study found. And just 17.5 million households have exactly one television, the least popular number of sets among all TV-owning households. With this in mind, remote gambling companies should be aware that TV is still a great place for getting branding messages out there and seen by as many as possible.

The fact that the Nielsen study also illustrates internet users have nearly caught up with mobile users, (234 million consumers online compared to 211 million consumers using mobiles) could perhaps have something to do with the rise of the smartphone. Does this suggest that it won’t be long before all cellphone users can and will regularly access the net from their handheld devices? We think so. It could be one of many reasons why mobile iGaming is becoming more commonplace as we commence further into the expansion and development of consumer technology.

Lifestyle News

In his statement he referenced the status of his bill, S3019, which if made into law would authorise Internet gambling in New Jersey.

After a panel in the chamber didn’t  hear the bill today (the final committee meeting day of the session), Lesniak said: ”Speaking with Governor Christie, I’ve agreed to reintroduce Internet gaming in the next legislative session, and I expect that we can get it through the Legislature and signed by the Governor within the first few weeks of the new session.”

Lesniak says Internet gaming has a “transformational potential for New Jersey’s gaming industries”. He continued: “I believe that Internet gaming has transformational potential for New Jersey’s gaming industries. While I remain hopeful that New Jersey can take the lead on this exciting new direction for wagering.”

It is hoped by the senator that the introduction of iGaming in the Garden state will result in new revenues, new jobs, and new economic activity. He added: “I recognise that the complex issues surrounding Internet wagering will take more time to iron out than we are afforded in the waning days of the current Legislative session.”

Most importantly though, the statement concluded with: “This isn’t a question of ‘if’ New Jersey gets Internet wagering, but ‘when‘. My money’s on soon.”

But will it be that easy to pass the Bill through legislature? It may be up to New Jersey voters to decide whether to allow online betting in the state. Why?  Because the Bill is being held up due to the state Constitution that may require the question to be put to voters. In a report by Press of Atlantic City, Assemblyman John Burzichelli, who is sponsoring the measure in the Assembly, said legal issues have to be worked out to be sure the Bill first complies with the state constitution. He added that a constitutional amendment may be the only way to make Internet gambling legal in New Jersey.

What are your predictions?

Legal News

Originally planned to ensure iGaming would be “kept within city borders” under a secure connection for wagered games, DC Attorney General Irvin B said yesterday that officials have opted for other forms of technology to secure the system. Did they realise that online gambling is not a form of terrorism? What a breakthrough!

In a report by the Washington Post, Irvin refused to detail which technology would be used instead, but did mention that play has to remain within the city to be lawful.

The paper also reported that Director Buddy Roogow said the DC Lottery is “very confident in its systems”, and in regards to the intellectual property in the effort to regulate online gaming, he added: “We don’t want to give away everything we’re doing. We feel we’ve found other ways to secure the system in terms of intrajurisdictional play.”

Lottery officials, who have been working on its implementation since it passed into law as part of a supplemental budget plan last December, also say they have no plans to change the main components of iGaming.

This was decided after they held a series of delayed public meetings to address concerns about online gambling. To keep any worrying and wrongly informed members of the public content, they reduced the number of games planned to debut from six to four when iGaming is implemented by the lottery.

However, the pair of games left out of the lottery’s initial plans will be reintroduced at a later point anyway, officials said, showing that their efforts to satisfy are just a waste of time and effort. At least the amendment in network technology suggests they’ve recognised the difference between iGaming and terrorism?

Business News

It might not be scheduled for release in the U.S until February next year. But Japan is due to get its selfish little mits on the Vita in a mere two weeks time on Monday 17 December. Goes to show what your own country’s manufacturers will do for you.

Sony today revealed a number of ads in preparation for its portable gaming gadget . The commercial attached below shows a guy cycling to an empty parking lot and showing off the gaming capabilities of his PlayStation Vita to an envious crowd. Nothing too breathtaking but helps build a bit of that much-deserved hype.

The PS Vita will have 512MB of memory – that’s 20 times more than the PSP – with a graphics processor of128MB of VRAM. Powerful enough by far for iGaming but small enough to slide into your pockets in between a quicky on the bus or train (we’re referring to a gaming session there, by the way).

Will you be investing in a PlayStation Vita, if so, would you use it for all your iGaming needs?

Those of you who like spending your breaks from playing the slots on your phone with a bit of bird bashing (the virtual kind, of course) will be ecstatic to hear there is yet another episode of Angry Birds available for download in the Apple app store.

With a Christmassy twist; “Wreck the Halls” will feature a snowy terrain in which to launch your squawking feathery friends – all with a festive feeling to counter act the hatred you have towards those blasted fat green pigs. There’ll be 25 new levels, as well as a new character introduced to the plot. Depending on whether you want the regular iPod/iPhone version or the HD version for the iPad, though – Angry Birds Wreck the Halls will set you back $0.99 and $1.99, respectively.

Will the new Angry Birds be ruffling your feathers this Christmas?

Here’s the video just in case you can’t make up your mind:

Lifestyle News

Well that’s what happened to a passenger of a Regional Express flight in Australia today. A press release by the airline stated the passenger’s iPhone started “emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow” as the plane touched down in Sydney airport.

According to the report, a flight attendant extinguished the phone immediately, no passengers or crew were harmed.

The photo of the iPhone (pictured) shows a 4 or possibly a 4S model with the black plastic clearly burnt in an area on the lower right hand side and the glass shattered over the burn mark. It’s speculated that the combustion is linked to the battery. Yeah – the battery, again.

Nevertheless, the airline have said the matter has been reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) as well as the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) for investigation and directions – with the phone being handed over to ATSB for analysis.

It could have been worse. It could have happened on a Ryanair flight…

Lifestyle News

For those who were lost when we mentioned “binary options”, OptionsClick is a company owned and managed by a group of professionals specialising in financial options, commodities, derivatives, stocks, forex, and marketing, as well as software research and development.  With them, traders can earn returns of up to 85% for each transaction during trading hours, and up to 250% on weekends.

Income Access CEO, Nicky Senyard, said: “We’re very excited about expanding our role in the binary market, and OptionsClick is an optimal partnership. We feel strongly that the OptionsClick program, powered by the Income Access software, will create strong appeal to affiliates promoting the binary market.”

Income Access who also announced a partnership last month with GTECH G2, is an affiliate system provider. Since 2002, Income Access has featured live real time reporting systems, tracking transparency, powerful banner servers, and marketing and customer support services.

COO at OptionsClick, Selena Jameson, said: “Income Access is providing a service that cannot be duplicated in-house. We decided that having expertise was a must and their reputation as a benchmark in the affiliate industry made selecting them rather a simple choice.”

Casino games provider, Net Entertainment, today announced the release of its latest game production: Fruit Shop.

Not the most inspiring name, but the game apparently captures the traditional feel of a classic fruit slot machine into what Net Entertainment call “an upbeat, energetic and colourfully captivating new style”. Being part of the Smart Range family of Net Ent games, it offers record short load times. Wham bam thank you, ma’am.

There’s 5-reels and 15 fixed bet lines in both the main game and in Free Spins. Players will be happier than a banana as the Wild substitutions will award them with a x2 multiplier for fruity wins.

Want to know more? Of course you do! According to a press release, the game provides Free spins which are trigged by any fruit symbol on a bet line win and to add energy, all wins are multiplied by x2. To increase the anticipation, Net Ent. have developed the game so players can make additional wins in Free Spins if they receive the Wild symbol awarding them a x4 multiplier. Bet you can’t wait to get your mitts on those juicy slots!

Business News

Google confirmed the news after reports stated users couldn’t even download the Adobe Flash plug-in from the Android Market using the Galaxy Nexus. However, despite Adobe deciding to axe Flash for mobile devices, the company is still expected to make the media-friendly format work for the only Ice Cream Sandwich phone currently around; the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

A Google spokesperson said, “Flash hasn’t been released for Ice Cream Sandwich yet so as far as we know, Adobe will support Flash for Ice Cream Sandwich.”

Google didn’t reveal when the Flash update will be released, but Adobe should be all over it considering the amount of upcoming smartphones that will be running Ice Cream Sandwich.

This isn’t the only teething problem the new Google/Samsung collaboration has experienced. Forums are also abuzz with an audio issue that looks quite serious. Essentially, the handset’s volume control appears to have a mind of its own, flitting randomly between mute, full blast before cutting off calls.

In a report by Engadget, the problem has apparently only been observed on European phones so far using the GSM 900MHz band, and it’s exacerbated by the cellular modem either boosting itself in a low reception area or switching between 2G and 3G connections. A user poll over at the XDA Developers forum suggests around 60% of owners have experienced the fault.

Google should have an update to sort it all out soon. But if it doesn’t, its newest release, which is thought to be the ultimate iPhone 4S rival, may flop before its even had chance to prove itself a contender.

Lifestyle News

You might question why we even try it. But we do. And it seems that quite a few of us are not too good at it either. A new study reveals almost 15% of Britons have, at some point, submerged their beloved devices in toilet water after an accidental slip of the hand. What loosers.

The survey comes from GoodMobilePhones.co.uk, who surveyed 1,937 mobile users over 18 and found that 31% of respondents have damaged their mobiles with water or another liquid in the past. And yes, the toilet is the number one destination, claiming 47% of damage incidents.

It’s probably all down to drinkin’. The survey found that spilling drinks on mobiles or dropping mobiles into drinks was the second most popular cause of damage, claiming 21% of cases. From third to fifth place is: dropping phones in a bath or shower (12%), dropping in a kitchen sink (7%) and putting through the washing machine in a pocket (3%).

The theory that men aren’t the best at multitasking has never been so accurate, as the report reveals they are three times more likely to be victims than women, with 73% and 27% respectively reporting to have water damaged their devices. With a treasured mobile handset in one hand and something even more precious in the other – it’s no surprise men get confused on which one to shake.

Unfortunately, the study also revealed 86% of those Brits silly enough to let their phones go deep sea diving with the faeces, weren’t insured for such incidents. Woops.

Have you ever dropped your phone down the lav? We’d love to hear you vent your soggy phone frustration.

Entertainment News

On Tuesday Pocketnow revealed that Taiwanese phone giant HTC – whose favourite past-time is announcing “world firsts” – is cooking up the first ever quad-core powered smartphone, called the HTC Edge. Being double the processor speed of any other smartphone out there at the moment, HTC isn’t set to officially unveil the ground breaking Android device until February 2012. For now, it has its sexy red and black ReZound to flaunt around.

However, today a second story broke by BGR, confirming the Edge will be using NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra 3 technology. That might be a change of pace from the norm as HTC usually goes with Qualcomm chipsets, but considering Nvidia invented Graphic Processing Units – we think they’ve made a good choice. The processor will be clocked at 1.5GHz alongside 1GB of RAM and a 4.7 inch 720p S-LCD 2 panel with optical lamination, resulting in a display with the sort of clarity and pixel density comparable to the Apple iPhone 4S Retina display. What an iGaming dream.

With these specs, we wouldn’t be surprised if the Edge will ship with the newest version of the ever-growing Android operating system too – Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0. Other features that are rumoured include a 8MP backside-illuminate rear camera with 1080p video recording, and a 720p front-facing camera, Beats Audio (of course), Bluetooth and a 1,800mAh battery – all at only 8.8mm thick. Could this be the one to beat Apple’s future iPhone 5? Does it sound like an iGaming dream to you?

While HTC conspire against the world’s leading smartphone manufacturers to be the first to get quad-core powered phones in our hands, it seems laptop makers Asus have been doing the same, but with a new tablet computer.

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime was announced today and is in position to be the world’s most powerful Android tablet. The new slate is the first quad-core tablet and like the HTC Edge, will be the first to be powered by the Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core chip.

As well as the quad-core powerhouse, the Eee boasts a fifth companion chip that runs at 1.4GHz when you only need a single core for simple tasks, like flicking through pictures of your favourite AyreHeads. The quad-core system fires up all four cores at 1.3GHz for more intensive tablet-fondling like igaming.

Here’s what to expect from the specs (or should we say “exspecs”):

• 10.1-inch tablet sports a 8.3mm-thick body
• 1280×800 display
• 1GB of RAM,
• an 8-megapixel camera capable of shooting 1080p video
• a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera,
• a microSD slot to expand memory

Like the HTC Edge, the Eee Pad (which if you say slow enough doesn’t sound anything like “iPad”) will run Android Ice Cream Sandwich through an update that is scheduled for the end of the year. It will cost $499 for the 32GB version and $599 for a 64GB model in the US, with an option attachable keyboard for $149 that will be available when it ships in December. It’s set to cost £499 when in it arrives in the UK – currently planned for January. Will this be the one to beat Apple’s upcoming Ipad 3?

If you’ll be on the lookout for super fast mobile gaming next year, it seems quad-core is the way to go. Are the HTC or Asus models ones which you’ll be betting on?

Lifestyle News

But one area that remains relatively unmentioned is Australia. Strange, given that the country has a population of 22 million, many of which are regarded as having a high propensity to gamble.

In their ignorance, some may claim that the Australian iGaming market is yet to mature, a claim which is very much unfounded.

Lorien Pilling of Global Betting and Gambling Consultants (GBGC) explains that iGaming in Australia has been present for just as long as anywhere else. She says: “In some respects the Australian market is well established. Some of the first sportsbooks got their licenses back in the mid-90′s”.

“iGaming firms have long been targeting Australia as a market from their offshore bases. Poker and casino services are already popular on the gaming front, and, of course, a culture of sports betting is well-established too.”

Perhaps the most notable of the first sportsbooks to get involved in Oz is Centrebet who gained a license from Northern Territory in 1996. Centrebet therefore has a wealth of expertise in this market and Sportingbet’s takeover of the company in May can be viewed as a very shrewd move.

But Sportingbet isn’t the only major iGaming company to have recognised the potential down under. Pilling adds: “European-based firms are taking more interest in Australia, with a few deals going through in the last couple of years.”

Paddy Power got hold of its piece of the pie in 2009 by buying 51% of Sportsbet, an international company with a strong presence in Australia. The remaining 49% soon followed on the path to the Irish bookmakers in December 2010 – a clear indication that Paddy was pleased with what they saw in the land down under.

So the market obviously has potential and their very few internationally recognised iGaming companies operating in the country. Basically it seems like a sure thing – until the unfortunate subject of regulation is considered.

The Interactive Gambling Act was introduced in 2001 by the government (called the Commonwealth in Australia). It determines the provision of interactive gambling services to anyone in Australia as illegal and demands that internet service providers block offshore gaming sites. An interesting tell-tale system was also set up which allows consumers to report gambling sites deemed as illegal to a regulatory authority.

But thankfully, Australia’s current legislation isn’t all bad. Sports betting, including horse and greyhound racing, is fully regulated throughout the country with individual states able to add their own stipulations where they deem necessary.

Some have taken advantage of this and a state vs Federal situation similar to that of the US has appeared. In the case of Australia, the state’s are bound to have the backing of iGaming companies as rather than prohibiting iGaming outright, they prefer to regulate by using ‘enabling schemes’.

GBGC lists Queensland’s Interactive Gambling Act 1998 and Northern Territory’s Gaming Control Regulations 1998 as to examples of these schemes that have helped iGaming companies to operate in the state. Both had an emphasis on player protection and were set up with the enlightening idea that regulating will be more effective than prohibiting – if only more legislators would see it this way.

But if you were thinking that the Australian market is for sports betting only, you’re very much mistaken. GBGC assures us that casino games, poker and other igaming products are popular throughout the country, despite their illegality. Similarly to the US before Black Friday, no action has been brought against international operators targeting the country and hopefully this lack of action will remain.

Poker in particular is gaining in popularity thanks to the Asia Pacific Poker Tour hosting tournaments there and the success of WSOP Main Event winner Joe Hachem.

The recent popularity of iGaming in the country has been helped by the ease at which gambling companies are able to advertise. Sponsorship of broadcasts, sports teams and poker events is widespread – strange given the country’s stance on online gambling.

But this is a hypocrisy that has recently come to the attention of politicians who are worried that common gambling advertising will encourage children to gamble. This issue gained more exposure recently when the MCG Trust announced that their advertising contract with Betfair would not be renewed.

This came at around the same time that a review of Australia’s current interactive gambling act was ordered. The review may take a firmer stance on iGaming advertising. In light of this, Pilling of GBGC explains: “There will be strong concerns about responsible gambling and any licensing regime will likely have heavy emphasis on this area and protecting Australian players.”

But Pilling also notes that the review could fully open the door for iGaming in Australia. She adds: “If the authorities do introduce a domestic licensing regime and allow online gambling activities it would provide a further boost to the sector.

While there are risks in the market, iGaming in Austalia certainly shows no signs of decreasing in popularity. Pilling concludes: “The Australian economy has performed better than most in recent years and combined with a propensity to gamble and the possibility of new regulation, Australia is a key battle ground for operators.”

Legal News

The Bill Gates brainchild, simply called Kinect for Windows will be a commercial program giving businesses an opportunity to develop tools with the motion sensor.

Microsoft’s press release stated: “The commercial program will give businesses the tools to develop applications that not only could improve their own operations, but potentially revolutionise entire industries.

“To date, more than 200 businesses worldwide – including Toyota, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Razorfish – have joined a Kinect for Windows pilot program to begin exploring the possibilities of Kinect. Six months ago, a diverse group of hobbyists and academics from around the world embraced the possibilities of Kinect.

“In a wave of creativity, they downloaded the Microsoft Kinect for Windows SDK and began developing creative applications and innovative uses in healthcare, education, art and so much more.”

This could be something really fantastic, or something that could fail miserably.

Though we know what we’d like to see. Perhaps this could enter Windows at a consumer level? It shattered consumer electronics records when it arrived for the Xbox 360, so what’s stopping Microsoft integrating it into everyday computer programs, or online games? If successful, one day we might even see motion sensory technology in igaming platforms such as hold Texas ‘em poker games. There’s always the possibility this could filter down to the Windows platform on the Windows operating system for mobile phones, too. Will we ever see Kinect become mobile – and eventually integrate into mobile gaming? This announcement sparks much intrigue and query among us. And this is just the start.

One thing for sure; it will be interesting to see what Microsoft will do with the sensor, which can pick up on individual limbs and also listen out for instructions, especially if it could pick up on certain hand gestures and translate them into words or pictures. We think you can see where we’re going with this…

How would you like to see Kinect integrated into Windows?

Lifestyle News