Regulation of interactive gambling in South Africa is widely discussed there. The question has been tabled in the National Assembly.

The interactive gambling is unregulated in South Africa what leads to a huge loss of revenue and compromise of the country’s reputation. Besides, being “plagued by crime, criminal elements, little or no protection for players, uncontrolled exposure of children and others vulnerable people to gambling and a host of other negative factors” the interactive gambling may lose its reputation and reputation of the industry in general.

The National Gambling Amendment Bill “excludes interactive gambling activities between two or more people facilitated by a third party”. On the other hand, interactive gambling means “all forms of remote gambling via the internet or other forms of telecommunications”. The Bill will regulate such questions as advertising, licensing, compliance and enforcement, problem gambling, and money laundering. At the same time, the Bill is to help minors and vulnerable people from harm and exploitation.

Sound policy objectives in line with government’s broad policy are expected to bring to an effective and efficient regulation.

GBP 35.4 million (that is more than $71 million) was won by someone in Britain last Friday. Lottery Euro Millions is sold in 9 European countries. There was only one winning ticket, and it was bought in Britain.

The owner of the ticket (his name is still unknown) may claim his prize on Monday. If no one claims the prize within 180 days after the lottery drawing, the right to get the prize will be lost.

GBP 35.4 million is the biggest lottery prize ever in Britain. The previous record took place in 1995. Two citizens of the country won GBP 22.5 million.

If you are an online casino player, but you lack experience of land based poker tournaments, the new Virgin Poker Festival is for you. Experienced players as well as new ones can participate in it enjoying lower buy-ins. The integration of online casino poker aspect of the game and the thrill of land-based poker gaming is the feature characteristic for the Virgin Games tournament.

To get the players to participate in the Festival, Virgin Games offers freerolls, satellite tournaments and fun prizes such as cases of Virgin wine, Virgin Vouchers, Virgin Experience Days and V Points.

It is planned that the Festival will take place on November 24-25, 2007 in Birmingham at a local land-based casino. 250 players max will take place in the main event. The buy-in for the main event is expected to be very reasonable.

To get more information about the Festival and the online casino, visit the Virgin Games.

Mobile gaming is developing. No wonder, every time winnings get bigger and bigger. This week a T-Mobile user collected GBP 25 000 after a session on video poker through the Cellectivity mobile gambling channel. This channel has recently had another lucky player who collected GBP 20 000 playing mobile roulette.

Cellectivity launched “Cash Casino” T-Mobile less than a year ago, but it is rather popular – there have been more than 60 000 visits there.

Video Poker and Roulette are not the only games featured on “Cash Casino” T-Mobile gambling service, there are also Blackjack, Slots, Bingo, Nudge 7, HiLo as well as Party Gaming, Casino Tropez, 777 Mobile, Lady Luck’s Mobile Casino, Wild Jack Mobile Casino and Bet2Go. Both “real” and “play” money options are available for visitors what enablers them to practice their skills, get experience or play just for fun.

In the nearest future a new service will be offered to the customers by online casino giant 888.com – animated Flash production. The customers will be able to see free Flash movies. All of them have informative and entertaining character. Moreover, true historical events served as a source of inspiration for the creators of the movies.

Having combined fun and value, 888.com will entertain and educate players at the same time.

Players will be able to see flash movies either at community websites such as MySpace or directly at the FlashOnes and 888.com websites.

Taiwan-based GigaMedia Ltd., owner of the online poker site Everest Poker, wants Thomas Hui to become President and Chief Operating Officer of the company. This should happen immediately after his appointment of replacement.

“The President and COO positions are newly created, strengthening the senior management at GigaMedia, enabling us to further exploit the enormous market opportunities before us”, claims CEO Arthur Wang.

Thomas Hui has worked as the Chief Financial Officer of Giga for three years and proved to be a multi-talented leader. Before that he worked as Executive Director at the global investment bank Goldman Sachs, as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch and as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.

CryptoLogic Limited and 568 Network Inc. are known to have concluded an agreement valued at $1.2 million.

According to the agreement, CryptoLogic, turnkey provider and software developer, “has the option of taking a controlling interest in 568 Inc” –  a developer and distributor of online casual games to the Chinese Market.

Thanks to agreement and, of course, leading positions of CryptoLogic 568 Inc is sure to become a leader in Asia in future.

The agreement has enabled parties to create a new, but China-based venture. Local and overseas Chinese-language markets will get casual, skill-based games like single-and multi-player mahjong, “Lian Lian Kan” and “Dragon Ball”, poker, online pool, puzzles and approved card games like “Fight Landlord” and “Za Jin Hua”.

Besides experience, 568 Inc. brings massively-multiplayer-online-role-paying games (MMORPG), casual games – one of the fastest growing segments of online gaming. Having positioned these games as the major source of revenue for the next few years, CryptoLogic is ready to get their own piece of “the gambling cake”.

Asian gambling market is growing. No wonder, more and more online gaming companies get interested in the opportunities the Asian market offers.

Both companies, CryptoLogic and 568 INC., are expected to gain profit.

This week, a 62 year-old woman, Pauline Clark, from Bristol in England has won GBP 1 million playing Gala Bingo’s online KerChingo game. To celebrate it, Gala offered Pauline and her friends a chauffer driven limo. And then they had a champagne breakfast at Du Vin Hotel.

The woman has played bingo for years. 12 years ago she won GBP 6,000 in the National Game. And only after two weeks of playing online she won a million.

Being in a shock after the so-called miracle, Pauline decided to spend the money helping her children and putting up a greenhouse.

KerChingo is the first bingo game with a guaranteed million-pound prize. To take part in the game Pauline and the other 14 999 finalists had to win a KerChingo final ticket by playing special KerChingo qualifying games online and on Gala TV (Sky Digital channel 841). The final game could be seen online, and broadcast live on Gala TV.

Launch of Bodogfantasy.net (in addition to Bodog Fight, Bodog Music, Bodog Nation and Bodog TV), belonging to Bodog Entertainment, is said to take place on August 16. It is one week prior to the First National Football League game. The site offers “premium scouting and statistics, live scoring, one-click-set-up to mock drafts, user blogs, and message boards. Moreover, the site offers around the clock telephone support. Besides, it is expected to accept lots of customers at no charge.

Bodogfantasy.net makes it possible for the players to create their own leagues, register in public or private leagues and invite other players to join their leagues.

With a new addition to the UK gambling Act 2005 all the companies operating outside of the European Economic Area won’t be able to advertise their services in the UK. The new powers will exclude about 1,000 online gambling companies (there are approximately 2,300 gambling websites being operated worldwide). The most recognizable ones are among them: William Hill Casino, Betfred Casino and Poker, Interpoker.com, Littlewoodscasino.com, etc. It must be noted that “the route to exemption from the ad ban involved a rigorous assessment of the regulatory standards”. To note: there were only Alderney and the Isle of Man who demonstrated satisfactory measures in correspondence with the new regulatory standards such as “protection of children, vulnerable people, and those for keeping games fair and the prevention of crime”. No wonder that both Alderney and the Isle of Man are pleased with the news of being on the list. More over, they are not required to make any changes in their regulations.

To be put on the “white list” a company should apply.  Those who have not applied will be banned from advertising in the UK. It is known that applications from Alexander, Netherlands Antilles and Tasmania have already been rejected. Applications from Kahnawake and Antigua are under consideration.