German state Schleswig-Holstein has issued five new gambling licences as it continues to confuse those observing the country’s gambling industry. Four sports betting licences were awarded, which went to Nordbet, the Maltese-based pair of World of Sports Betting and IBA Entertainment (operator of BET3000), and Austrian firm Ruleo Alpenland. Licence number five went to Betway and means they can now offer online casino services. The latest set takes the total number of licences to 35 and follows the state coming out publicly with their desire to join the other 15 federal states by signing up to the State Treaty. The legality of that will be decided later this week and even if the federal court agrees it’s legal, there’ll still be a lot of legal wrangling to come.
Italy’s iGaming industry spent the final quarter of 2012 continuing to struggle with the full year looking rather less rosey than they’d hoped. Spending on iGaming in 2012 rose only 1.9 percent compared with the previous year to €749million with some impressive gains from May to July completely wiped out by the declines of the Winter months. The rises were seen in cash poker and casino where the amounts spent rose 63.6 percent and 198.8 percent respectively. Although the poker numbers didn’t tell the whole story as the final five months saw declines of anything from 31 percent to 41 percent. Poker tournament revenues were also hit by a decline of 37.6 percent. The casino expenditure rise was driven by the opening up of the slots market in December and it meant a rise in revenue of 74.4 percent for that period – almost double the four months that preceded it.
Italian operator SNAI has announced the launch of mobile roulette apps for both Apple and Android devices. They have developed the apps with their dot.it bedfellow GameAccount Network and eGR reports that it will be the “first of many” to be released in 2013.
