CEZA orders stoppage of Internet firm’s gaming operations.

Meridien Vista Gaming Corporation (MVGC), a duly-registered online gambling company with the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) was ordered to stop immediately its operations following numerous complaints MVGC was collecting bets illegally in the Philippine province.

CEZA administrator and CEO Jose Mari Ponce issued the order in a letter sent recently to the president of MVGC, Mr. Aitor Arana Totricabuena. The order was made after allegations were made by a Nueva Vizcaya provincial board member the firm is operating without authority.

The order enjoined MVGC to discontinue all gaming operations effective immediately without any reasonable explanation why and the order specified to stop the testing of new computer softwares and telecommunications infrastructures.

The sensitive issue has been clouded by sometimes conflicting rulings from the concerned authorities. For example, CEZA had earlier given the nod for MVGC to set up and establish a jai-alai fronton and related service facilities inside the Cagayan Economic Zone area. The said approval included authority to operate franchised fronton stations anywhere within the CEZA itself and the free port located in Sta. Ana, Cagayan province.

Lately, an opinion from the legal counsel of the Office of Government-owned and Controlled Corporations (OGCC) overturned this permission regarding the operation and licensing of jai-alai frontons, which was the basis of the earlier CEZA approval of MVGCs operation.

But only just recently, the Department of Justice (DOJ) reversed the OGCC’ opinion stating that CEZA has the proper mandate to approve and issue licenses for the operation of jai-alai fronton stations inside and even outside the zone. A Spanish investment group is reportedly keen on reviving the popular game in the Philippines.

The new favourable ruling states that the CEZA Act of 1995 implied authorityto operate on its own or through its subsidiaries games, amusement and recreational activities, sports facilities like golf courses and other gaming entities such as casinos, horse racing and dog racing. It clarified further the definition of the word “game” which refers to any sport that plays for a stake, amusement or pleasurable diversion.

However, anti-gambling advocates claimed the company exceeded its authority by operating outside its CEZA mandate, and that there was questionable operational conduct in the way bets were collected. But the fact is that several provincial officials and town mayors were reported to have issued permits to operate MVGC franchises despite serious concerns raised by the church and the media. Some provincial board members threatened to have the firm’s registration with CEZA revoked if the alleged illegal operations will continue despite their protests.

Casinos in Macau booked 8.25 billion patacas in revenue for June 2009, down 17.3% from a year earlier and 6.3% from the holiday month of May, preliminary data released by Portuguese news agency Lusa showed.

The numbers had an immediate sobering impact on shares of casino operators with Macau properties.

JPMorgan’s Joseph Greff said in a client note that the Chinese enclave’s gaming revenue results continue to be hurt by soft economic conditions, a tighter credit environment and travel restrictions.

Associated press reports that Janet Brashear of Bernstein Research said the lacklustre June results stem from lower Macau visitation that was prompted by swine flu fears.

All the parties, all the celebrations and all that money….for some.  A few thousand people will be descending upon Las Vegas to take part in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event, which begins on Friday.  The final nine are pretty much guaranteed no less than a million dollars.

While a few of the WSOP events leading up to the big one have fallen short in terms of attendance, others broke records and it is widely believed the main event attendance will top that of last year.  Then again, the average Joe might not be able to make it to Vegas thanks to the global recession and near 10 percent unemployment rate.

For most of us here at Gambling911.com, the official start of the World Series of Poker kicks off with the annual Doyle Brunson Celebrity Party.

"When the Main Event of the World Series of Poker kicks off on July 3rd, you can blame Doyle Brunson if some of the greatest poker players stumble in a little tired and a little late," a presser declared this week.

"If anyone knows how to throw a world-class World Series party, it’s the legend who’s been to them all," stated Will Griffiths, VP of Marketing for DoylesRoom.com. "Doyle has handpicked the biggest names in poker along with Hollywood favorites to attend this VIP celebration so our players are definitely in for an amazing night."

Nicky Hilton, Sparky Collins, Kevin Connolly, Jenny Woo, Eve, Mickey Rourke, Jack Binion, Phil Ivey and a number of other big-name poker players and celebrities were invited to attend. No word on whether Doyle’s world famous pooch, Kasper, planned on making an appearance. 

Ace King, Gambling911.com 

It won’t be long until we discover the 2009 WSOP Player of the Year but it seems like a "given" at this point that Jeffrey Lisandro will receive that honor.

Lisandro has won a whopping $807,521 so far during the 2009 World Series of Poker.  He’s cashed out 6 times and now has three bracelets over the past month.

From Aintluck.com:

"Australian Lisandro’s dark attire – he likes to don a 1930s style gangster, bowler hat and a suave black shirt – means he comes across as a bit of an enigma. There is nothing shady about his poker exploits however – Lisandro is a proven winner. Following victory in a $25,000 Limit Hold’em heads-up tournament against Poker Professor Howard Lederer, he defeated the imperious Phil Ivey at the $10,000 WSOPC heads-up event for a cool $542,360 in 2005. Lisandro combines a measured, methodical style with excellent reading abilities to give him the best chance of success. He’s not just a winner – he’s a convincing winner. He steamrollered through the field of the $2500 Razz tournament yesterday, holding a chip lead since Day 2. When heads-up play commenced, he held a staggering 2.1 million to 210,000 chip lead over opponent Michael Craig."

The top 10 contenders for WSOP Player of the Year appear below. 

(WSOP POY Points, Bracelets, Cashed, 2009 WSOP Earnings)

Cashed

2009 WSOP Earnings

 Jeffrey Lisandro

355 pts                  3                  6                  $807,521

 Ville Wahlbeck

275 pts                  1                  5                  $862,521

 Phil Ivey

242 pts                  2                  5                  $356,994

 John Brock Parker

220 pts                  2                  5                  $802,514

 James Van Alstyne

220 pts                  1                  3                  $519,080

 Roland De Wolfe

195 pts                  1                  5                  $410,063

 Vitaly Lunkin

185 pts                  1                  3                  $2,327,493

 Angel Guillen

180 pts                  1                  3                  $846,238

 Pete Vilandos

175 pts                  1                  2                  $1,080,538

 Daniel Negreanu

170 pts                  0                  6                  $321,947

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Implicated in a highly publicized insider cheating scandal, Russ Hamilton has his supporters.  The 1994 World Series of Poker winner was implicated by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, stating it had found clear and convincing evidence to support a conclusion that between the approximate dates of May 2004 to January 2008, Hamilton was the main person responsible for, and benefitting from, multiple cheating incidents at the online poker website UltimateBet.com.

Barry Greenstein, a highly regarded poker player known for giving 100 percent of his poker winnings to charity, defended Hamilton during a conversation that took place with the filming of NBC’s Poker After Dark.

When the conversation turned to cheating and poker, one of the players said "All you have to be named is Russ," Greenstein responded that "he (Russ) didn’t do it by the way".

So who done it then?

"I was really surprised by this too, I think the least we’re owed is an explanation from Barry as to what he meant," said a player on the popular Two Plus Two forum.

An explanation was not given by Greenstein.

In the past, Barry has had this to say about the incident:

"Now I think it’s more than 99% that he knows people who cheated well enough to transfer money with them, but I think it’s less than 50% that he actually cheated or knew that the people were cheating at the time."

Ace King, Gambling911.com

While the study done by Dr, Douglas Gentile, an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Iowa State University does not clearly connect video games with online gambling, the results of his work suggest video games may be more addictive for children.

In the study, Dr. Gentile found that almost ten percent of respondents for his study have pathological addictions to video games. Gentile claims this is the first study done on the subject that represents the entire country.

Many lawmakers are fighting these days against legalized online gambling. They point to children and claim that the gambling can be addictive and destructive to the youth of the US. This study has some, however, believing video games might be worse.

“There is no doubt with the advancements in video game technology that many children in the US could become addicted to these games,” said observer Neal Miller, “the difference between video games and online gambling, however, is that the online gambling can be controlled by regulation, the video games are freely available to these children.”

Gentile provides a grim picture that the video game playing is not simply an addiction, but is hurting the productivity of our youth. The word pathological is his term for what is happening to many of these children.

“What we mean by pathological use is that something someone is doing, in this case, playing video games, is damaging to their function,” said Gentile, “It’s simply not doing it a lot. It has to harm functioning in many ways.”

The breakdown of his study are stunning at a time when children in the US are falling behind international levels in school. The people who responded and played video games were more likely to have a problem focusing in school.

They also spend twenty four hours a week playing video games. That figure is twice the amount of time non-pathological children were playing the video games. Grades were down as well among the pathological players. The pathological players also stole to support their gaming habit.

“What this study indicates is that video game playing in the US is exactly what these lawmakers are trying to stop with online gambling,” said Miller, “These politicians maybe should look at this study and say, ‘Hey, maybe we are going after the wrong form of entertainment (online gambling’.”

With Twitter, the popular social networking and micro-blogging service, us peons now get a glimpse of what players at the World Series of Poker are really thinking.  And what’s the issue they are addressing the most this year?

Poker player hygiene.

Mario Ho:  "And here I thought I was home free with an empty seat to my left for two hrs only for it to be filled by another smelly guy. Odor Tally +1."

2:59 PM Jun 19th from Tweetie

Doyle Brunson:  "they should have a hygiene policy at tournaments. Some foreign guy sat next to me and smelled so bad i almost gagged at the table"

1:20 PM Jun 17th from web

The site PokerTips.org warned against staying at the WSOP host hotel, the Rio, and cited the hygiene factor.

"While it can be really convenient staying at the Rio and thus being just a short walk away from the WSOP action, it can also run the risk of driving you insane. The Rio is not a part of the Las Vegas Strip. In the summer, it effectively becomes an island of poker players. While that might sound exciting right now, it can get really tiresome after just a couple of days. Poker players are annoying, smelly, and disgusting people who stand in the hallway complaining to someone who isn’t listening about how their Ace-King got cracked. It doesn’t take a whole lot of exposure to that environment before the thought of getting the hell out of there sounds fantastic."

Personal hygiene at the poker tables made the news earlier this year when a player was kicked out of the Atlantic City Borgata for his offensive odor.

Michael Wax went on a 17-hour poker binge without having applied a long-lasting deodorant. 

Wax said he told casino officials: "There’s no question I stink. I’m not denying it. I do have an odor. I’ve been playing for 17 hours."

He filed a complaint with the Casino Control Commission, and he told AP that he wants an apology from the Borgata.

Ace King, Gambling911.com 

Ise Of Capri Casinos Isle of Capri Casinos just received an upgrade from an analyst and it has caused the company’s stock price to jump on Tuesday. The company appears poised to continue to have its stock rise.

The stock closed the day on Tuesday at $12.56. That was a 5.27% increase from the close on Monday. At one point in the day, the stock had reached a high of $13.17.

“We expect significant earnings and free cash flow progress over the next couple of years, beginning with fourth quarter 2009 results,” wrote KeyBanc Capital Markets Analyst Dennis Forst, in a research note.

Isle of Capri Casinos stock has been steadily rising throughout the year so far. The stock has almost quadrupled since January. That is a major contrast to most casino company stocks, which have fallen in record numbers.

Trump Entertainment has already been taken off the market, while MGM Grand and Las Vegas Sands have had major losses. Wynn Resorts is still the leader when it comes to US casino company stock, but they have also taken a big hit since the economy has faltered.

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Phil Ivey is considered to be one of the best poker players in the world, adept at any variant of the game and excelling at both cash and tournaments. However, while he has crushed the highest and toughest cash games for tens of millions over the years, he has not won a WSOP bracelet since 2003.




This has changed, however, now that he has bested a 147-strong field in the No-Limit 2-7 Draw event, winning his sixth WSOP bracelet and $96,361. He bested John Monnette heads-up to take down the prize with his opponent drawing dead when the chips flew in.




2-7 Draw is a game in which players receive five cards, draw once and attempt to make the best five-card low hand such as 76432. Ivey is very skilled at games outside of NLHE and PLO, proved by the fact that he rushed off to play the $10,000 Mixed Game championship shortly after his bracelet win.  

The Financial Times reports that Sportingbet.com will dramatically shift its advertising spending to focus more on the UK market in an effort to compete more effectively with the likes of William Hill and Ladbrokes. 

This strategy is already reflected on the Gambling911.com website, which has managed to capture much of the French Open traffic and nearly the entire betting market related to Britain’s Got Talent last week. 

"With Sportingbet as a primary sponsor of the Gambling911.com, we are now focusing on events that were mostly ignored by the Lloydminster, Alberta-based website in the past," says Payton O’Brien, Senior Editor of Gambling911.com.

This includes the 2009 French Open, which has provided Gambling911.com with an unusal spike in search traffic.  The site will also be promoting this weekend’s Derby on behalf of Sportingbet. 

Sportingbet.com spends up to £60m on marketing across Europe but investors wanted it to have a bigger impact in the UK, according to Andrew McIver, chief executive.

The UK provides Sportingbet with 6 per cent of its revenue and Mr McIver believes the marketing push will drive that figure up to 10 per cent in 18 months.

"We are coming from a low base and we can compete with the likes of William Hill and Ladbrokes," Mr McIver said, adding that in-running betting had become increasingly popular.

Sportingbet’s advertising push has already been boosted after it signed a six-figure, two-year sponsorship deal in March with Wolverhampton Wanderers, a month before the Championship club won promotion to the Premier League, according to the Financial Times. 

The firm continues to witness improved profits since joining the Gambling911 family. European sports betting made up £25m of the £43.8m net gaming revenue. That was 8 per cent up on the third quarter of last year.

Pre-tax profit doubled for the period to £8.3m and earnings per share were 1.5p, compared with 0.6p in the equivalent period.

The Financial Times of London does point out that Sportingbet’s poker arm, Paradise Poker, continues to suffer as a result of US facing online poker rooms building more steam in recent months.  Gambling911.com sponsor, UltimateBet.com, stunned many skeptics this past week after it managed to crack the top 6 online poker networks for the first time ever.

Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com