Industry News

Payment Processor Owes Poker Companies Millions
According to a report in May on Australian website CourierMail.com, Intabill, which at one time was said to be one of the world’s top 10 online payment processors, is now in major debt — 50 percent of which relates to online gambling.

In total, Intabill owes four online poker sites an amount in the region of $30 million. The largest portion is owed to PokerStars and Full Tilt (about $25 million), and the rest to Absolute Poker and Golden Palace.

The online funds were processed using an intermediary company — independent business, Impact. It has been said that Impact pulled out due to the worrying trend of debt.

In April, Intabill’s staff numbers took a dramatic cut, with owner Daniel Tzvetkoff blaming the economic crisis. He also waved goodbye to many of his cars including his Lamborghini, is selling his Gold Coast apartment and his large boat, and has remortgaged his $29 million house.

UK Bank Blocks Poker Transactions
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), one of the UK’s largest banks, has told its online gaming clients, including poker operators, that it will no longer process gambling transactions to the Netherlands and Switzerland.

A spokesman for RBS said it had reviewed its policy to take account of regulatory and legal changes in the Netherlands and Switzerland, but denied that the decision had been influenced by its merger with Dutch bank ABN AMRO.

French Lottery to Offer Online Poker
Francaise des Jeux (FDJ), which operates the French national lottery, has signed a deal with San Francisco-based technology developer CyberArts to provide its online poker offering which will be established when French gambling is deregulated and legalized.

CyberArts already provides the platform for Gioco Digitale in Italy which began operating last year when online poker was partially legalised in Italy.

Ken Arnold, chairman of CyberArts said, “We are committed to having FDJ live with a fully-functioning cash poker site the first day of legal operations in France. And we have the technology and experience to meet the strictest of regulatory requirements.”

A “play money” site could be launched this summer ahead of legalisation to help FDJ build market share. CyberArts also provides the technology platform for Card Player’s SpadeClub.com.

Bwin Poker Revenue Soars in First Quarter 2009
Bwin, the Austro-German betting giant, announced its interim results for the first quarter of 2009. Gross poker turnover was up 37 percent to €31.1 million compared to €22.7 million in the same period of 2008.

This trend is continued from full year 2008 when gross online poker revenue was up 14.2 percent to €94.2 million, from €82.5 million in 2007.

Net poker revenue was also up 37 percent to €27.8 million in the first quarter of 2009 compared to €20.3 million between January and March 2008.

The number of active poker customers jumped 48 percent to 403,767 from 273,410 in the same period of 2008.

Overall revenues for the company which also operates sports betting, bingo, and casino came in at €117.6 million, growth of 12.5 percent on the €104.6 million it took in between January and March 2008.

iPoker Revenue Up 26 Percent
Playtech, the publicly-quoted parent company of the iPoker network, announced strong first quarter revenues with poker generating €8.8 million between January and March 2009.

This is an increase of 26 percent on the €7 million the company earned in the first quarter of 2008 and is up three percent on the €8.6 million generated in the last quarter of 2008.

Pro-forma poker revenues, adjusted historically for like-for-like comparison, show a seven percent increase in the first quarter of 2009 on the previous quarter.

The company, which most recently signed William Hill Poker, said in its interim statement that, “[The] William Hill integration is proceeding well with migration of the William Hill poker business to Playtech on March 19th, earlier than planned.”

The company also launched its dedicated Italian network in the second week of January. It said, “Performance of the Italian poker network is exceeding management expectations.”

Overall gross income at Playtech was up 14 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the final quarter of 2008 to €36 million.

Elsewhere Playtech has announced it has signed a deal with Chilipoker which will see the online poker room become a direct licensee of the iPoker network.
Previously, Chilipoker had a contract with iPoker sub-licensee Tain but the fast growing site will now work directly with iPoker.

Swedish Court Rules Poker is Skill Game
The Court of Appeal for western Sweden has reduced the jail sentences of two men convicted of hosting a live poker tournament with 700 players in Grebbestad.

The men had the charges against them reduced from “serious illegal gambling” to “illegal gambling.” The court ruled that because the game being played was Texas hold’em in a tournament format, the players own judgment was more important than the cards being dealt, effectively ruling that the game was one of skill and not luck.

Two other men who were fined 80 days pay had their fine reduced to 60 days pay.

The Local.se quoted Dan Glimne, a poker player and gambling author, who gave evidence on behalf of the defence at the trail, as saying, “…poker has been given a national holiday in Sweden. We poker players think it’s great that poker has been given equal footing with backgammon, bridge, and chess. Within a few months we’re going to see something big.”

Glimne believes the ruling paves the way for others to organise professional poker tournaments in direct competition with the state-run casino operator, Casino Cosmopol.

New York Freezes Poker Money
The Poker Players Alliance has issued a statement condemning the recent action taken by the Southern District of New York that has left an estimated $30 million of online poker players’ money frozen.

“The PPA is disappointed that this unprecedented action has been commenced against law-abiding poker players,” said PPA Chairman and former N.Y. Senator Alfonse D’Amato. “The payment processor funds frozen by the Southern District of New York belong to individual poker players — not operators of poker websites — and do not represent the proceeds of any gambling activity, much less illegal gambling activity.”

Online poker players have had trouble depositing and withdrawing money from poker sites using the popular eChecks option in recent days. Several poker sites, including PokerStars and Full Tilt, are not currently allowing customers to select the eChecks option.

The news immediately sparked concern amongst poker players that they would have trouble accessing their funds. Full Tilt, however, issued the following statement:

“Full Tilt Poker would like to assure all players that their funds remain safe and secure. Processing of both deposit and withdrawal requests is proceeding as normal and is still available to all of our players in the U.S.”