Dutch Betting and Gaming expert Professor Van der Genugten openly disputed a 10 year old Supreme Court ruling on classifying poker as a game of chance.

“it is not a game of chance, it could be learned like chess and bridge,” Genugten said.

Using the same formula that the court used in classifying fantasy sports games, he and Prof. Peter Borm of Mathematics and Game Theory calculated that poker has a high skill value of 0.4, close to the values obtained by chess and bridge.

This formula calculates the ratio between the chance and the learning effect of the game. The higher the value obtained, the more the game is learned and therefore it is not a game of chance. Value ranges from 0 to 1/

The roulette has no skill value, Blackjack scores 0.049 and fantasy sports has a skill value of 0.3, even lower than poker.

This new findings were revealed the night before his retirement in a speech that he delivered in the University of Tilburg. Genutgen challenges the Dutch Supreme Court to revert the ruling and nullify the rule that it was punishable when one organizes poker games without a license obtained from the Holland Casino, the only operator authorized to play poker.

Upon the knowledge of this information, Liberal Party on Justice Minister Hirsch Ballin is now pressured to issue a statement regarding the possible review of this Supreme Court decision.

Coincidentally too, this idea gave the two Dutch nationals arrested for organizing a poker game without license an optimistic light. This is the first case to date that would be ruled based on the Supreme Court decision ten years ago.

Professor Van der Genugten is also an expert witness in a number of cases and joined a study in a test broadcast on Dutch TV to find out the skill ration of Texas Hold’em.

Falling prey to large casino companies, Lasseters’ online casinos are now shutting down due to their inability to topple their competitors down.

“We are also unable to retain our market share since the closure of the US market in 2006,” Lasseter said in a statement. “If we are to continue our operations we would continuously incur loses even with the support of our parent company.”

Just last month, its parent company facilitated the suspension of Lasseters shares in the Australian Stock Exchange while discussions are still pending on as to whether or not the support will be continued. As of now, the suspension still remains and the discussions are currently being held.

The closure of AusVegas online casino last October 13 was immediately followed by a memorandum ceasing all online casino operations, effective as soon as the memo was made public.

Patrons of Lasseters.com may withdraw their funds from the website until October 24.

Due to the rampant leak of personal data from online gambling websites, consumers now consider them as the least trustworthy, toppling down the central government from the number one spot.

Despite the minimal reports on data exploitation in the online industry, gambling companies, which includes, online gaming sites and interactive TV gambling programmers, was rated 45.7% in a survey conducted by GB Group.

This alarmed many and prompted to urge many gambling companies to form their own code of conducts and devise even more security measures to prevent ID theft and other related circumstances in their course of operation.

The code of conduct should include some rules in handling and storing of data that should be emulated and once these rules are not followed, the company should order the proper sanction and deal with them accordingly.

“These results should push organizations to their ways of handling data and create necessary precautions against identity fraud as over three quarters of the public are now losing their trust on them,” said Richard Law, CEO of GB Group.

Law added that we should emulate the one in Scotland and punish all offenders with tougher penalties just so they could learn their lesson.

Scotland, in partnership with the Scottish Business Crime Centre and GB Group with the support of APACS, the UK payments association, made a centralized code of conduct for all gambling operators to ensure data security.

The survey was done with a sample of one thousand people, 18 years old and above. They were provided with a list and request them to rate from 1 to 10 which of the said sector is most trustworthy in protecting personal data.

The following are the results of the survey; rank 1 is the least trustworthy.

1. Gambling companies including casinos, online gaming sites, interactive TV and gambling programmers: 45.7%
2. Central Government: 23.7%
3. Local Government: 19.1%
4. Retailers: 17%
5. Travel Companies: 16.2%
6. Mobile phone service providers: 15.3%
7. Mortgage brokers, independent financial advisers and stockbrokers: 13.7%
8. Utility companies: 13.2%
9. NHS: 11.4%
10. Bank and Building Societies: 10.7%

After almost four years, the District Court of Oslo ruled in favor of its local gambling companies, in accordance with the Norwegian gambling law.

“This decision strengthens the Norwegian gambling law,” Culture Minister Trond Giske said. “Once again, Norway asserts its power and independence over foreign investors.”

The decision also indicates that countries have power over its gambling market, he added.

According to the verdict, the most practical means to protect the residents from the threat of gambling is through the gambling law implemented in the state.

The dispute started in 2004, when a British investor Ladbrokes would like to start a gambling business in Norway and was denied. Ladbrokes was infuriated and told that by doing so Norway is violating Rome treaty, EC instructions and the EFTA agreement.

After four years however, the court found out that the non-issuance of license is compliant with the agreement on EFTA and other European obligations. With that, Ladbrokes was penalize by ordering them to pay the Norwegian state damages amounting to NOK1.1 million (approx. €132,000).

Ladbrokes expressed dismay on the decision. “We are not satisfied with the verdict and we will study it carefully before we could plan on any future action,” Lasse Dilschmann, CEO of Ladbrokes said. “We will go on challenging state owned monopolies that has bad implications on both the gaming public and society.”

Confident because of their history in overturning illegal fees, like that of the nullified fees imposed by the Western Australian Government, Betfair filed a complaint against the 1.5% turnover fee imposed by Racing NSW and Harness Racing NSW.

The turnover fee would be shouldered by betting operators who are interested to cover NSW thoroughbred and harness races and this includes Betfair. According to Betfair’s Director for Corporate and Business Affair Andrew Twaits: the turnover fee that the Racing NSW and Harness Racing NSW is way beyond their means.

“What they want is 60% of our gross revenue,” Twaits explained. “While that 1.5% is only 10% of our competitor’s revenue, and they are aware of that.”

This leaves Betfair to challenge the imposed fee on court as violation of Section 92 of the Constitution on discriminatory conduct in interstate trade and commerce.

Twaits suggested that NSW should develop a gross revenue model where all betting operator are paying the same equal rate so that we could assure that the same proportion of revenue are being shelled out by the punters.

With the presentation of this proposal, the three other betting operators who will cover the races agreed on implementing a gross revenue model.

Betfair is a legal Tasmania wagering operator permitted to collect bets from customers in Australia.

Spaniards would now have a taste of Betbull betting at its finest.

Just after the Betbull bwin Espana (BBE) was granted with a retail betting license in Madrid, numerous betting machines and other services are now expected to grace the streets and avenues of Madrid.

“We are glad that we have penetrated what we deem to be as the most productive community here in Europe,” Simon Bold of BBE announced. “With this, we are now encouraged to also apply for licenses and legislative permits in other provinces.”

It feels like BBE have seen that all their efforts in compiling their requirements, because just last week the new carrier brand “w1nner” betting machines that includes retail units that allow betting on live sports, was already introduced at the Madrid Gaming Fair.

For the past six months, an administration team has been trained to facilitate the management and bookmaking services of BBE. Their office is strategically located in Madrid.

Just last year, BBE formulated a retail concept which they have foreseen to be successful in Madrid and other provinces in Spain. They have also built a group who is looking forward in doing business with Spain.

BBE is the product of the merger of Betbull plc and bwin Interactive Entertainment. As of second quarter this year, BBE is found to have been in good state, business and economically speaking.

“We are planning to cultivate our resources in this part of Europe while maintaining to be the number one betting services provider in Germany,” Bold envisioned.

The three-year licensing agreement of Image888 Holdings plc with Cryptologic is extended to provide even better services and add choices in their wild array of casino games.

“Cryptologic takes pride in the trust given by one of the world’s premier gaming brands in the industry by extending our contract, Brian Hadfiel of Cryptologic said. “It was through 888.com that Cryptologic shared its expertise to the world and we are even getting our hands on other innovative products to serve you better.”

Out of the ten games to be released with this extended contract, three were named and announced to be uploaded in 888.com and these are Spiderman, Fantastic Four and Bejeweled.

The agreement was signed last May 2008. Trained to handle the betting services chapter for the past six months.