A new agreement has been recently signed in the casino world: the world’s leading provider of interactive gaming and betting solution, Orbis, and Parlay Entertainment – the leading Internet bingo solutions developer.

According to the agreement Orbis will have to provide games content to their new partner. If to be exact, designs and concepts owned by Orbis Open Bet Casino and Fixed Odds Games will be integrated into the back office system owned by Parlay Entertainment. As a result, classic casino games, popular fixed odds concepts and play-on-demand games such as Lucky Star (the total number of games is more than 50) will be accessible for Parlay.

“This partnership once again highlights the diversity and flexibility of our product portfolio and further reflects the move in the industry towards a more open approach,” – claims David Loveday, Managing Director, Orbis.

Parlay officials are very excited to have signed the agreement. They strongly believe in the new and exciting experience of their clients.  “…The real winners will be the players, since they will see more choice than ever before when playing at Parlay-powered bingo sites,” – said Peter Trinz, Senior Vice President, Parlay Entertainment.

Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc has entered a new stage of its development by having signed an agreement with Texas Pacific Group (TPG) and Apollo Management, L.P. According to the agreement, TPG and Apollo will get Harrah’s in “all-cash transaction valued at approximately $27.8 billion, including the assumption of approximately $10.7 billion of debt”.

The agreement has been approved by the Harrah’s Board of Directors. Their decision was based upon the recommendation given by a Special Committee of non-management directors who have thoroughly studied Harrah’s strategic alternatives. All the Harrah’s stockholders will get $90 in cash for each outstanding Harrah’s share.

The decision made by Harrah’s Entertainment does not mean the change in direction, but the change in management. So, the company are looking forward to it, their new development and goals.

David Bonderman, TPG founding partner, said, “We are delighted to be joining with the excellent management team at Harrah’s and our private equity partners to continue to build on the Company strong foundation. Taking a long-term perspective, we believe we will be able to help Harrah’s deliver on its growth strategy”.

Leon Black, founding partner of Apollo, said, “Harrah’s has an excellent brand name, strong cash flows, an impressive portfolio of properties, a very talented management team, and highly skilled employees. Together with our private equity partners, we look forward to building on Harrah’s successful track record of operational success…”

The transaction is supposed to be over in a year. Until its close Harrah’s is going to play its stockholders a regular quarterly dividend of $0.40 per share. In case the transaction is note completed, TPG and Apollo have agreed to raise “the purchase price at a rate of $0.01973 per day per Harrah’s common share beginning March 1, 2008”.

With the development of technology people expect more and more new features from their mobile phones and, of course, better service. Verizon Wireless is the company that is able to provide their clients with better service and to offer new features they will enjoy for sure. And having signed a 5-year, US $2 billion agreement, Nortel, to a great extent, will contribute to Verizona Wireless’ strive for improvements and expansion by supplying innovative CDMA mobile broadband technologies, switching, IP platforms, optical networking solutions, and necessary related equipment.

According to the opinion of Ed Salas, network planning vice president, Verizon Wireless, the agreement means true mobility for their customers. That will allow them to use their PC experience wherever the clients go. They will enjoy such things like “V CAST Music, V CAST video, great mobile games and high-speed file transfers on the nation’s best wireless network”.

Developing their partnership Verizona Wireless and Nortel together are able to deploy next-generation quality IMS-based applications and services, thus raising industry standards and defining an “IMS architecture that lays a foundation for the efficient roll-out of advanced services”.

Nortel has been Verizona Wireless’ partner for more than 10 years what proves Nortel’s leadership in the industry responsible for the supply of CDMA mobile broadband technologies and driving advanced communication services.

Bill Wright, COO of Gottaplay and General Manager of the Broadband Division claims that since Gottaplay Interactive Inc and its restructured Broadband business division have achieved great results, even better ones that they have expected.

The division is supposed to offer Internet connectivity and digital video to individuals, business, multi-family housing, various organizations, agencies, institutions and establishments, including educational and government ones in such states of the USA like Washington, Oregon and Hawaii.

The services provided by Gorraplay’s Broadband business division have proved to be high quality ones. With scalable Internet access, web hosting and development, equipment co-location, networking services they have an ambition to become a dominant Internet provider in underserved rural markets.

Fortune Lounge operating such casinos like Platinum Play Casino, 7 Sultans Casino and Royal Vegas is currently running a promotion known as the International Casino Games 2006/2007. By playing at the casinos mentioned, and taking part in weekly promotions and tournaments you have a great chance to win an amazing 7-night Mediterranean cruise aboard the “Costa Fortuna” ship. There you’ll participate in a final event – the onboard Slots tournament. The prize of the final is said to be $250,000 in cash!

As soon as you are aboard, get ready to get fun, enjoy the sun and gambling – all that will be accompanied by the beautiful views of Spain, Italy and France. This is the thing to fight for, as this year’s promotion has exceeded the heights and fun of the previous year Caribbean trip and final!

You haven’t participated in the promotion yet? There are several tournaments left before the end of the promotion. You have time to enter and win the chance of your lifetime. Go to the Fortune Lounge Casinos and be the one!

What’s going on the gambling market after signing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act has both negative and positive sides. It’s obvious that the idea of leaving the US market by so many online casinos and gambling companies cannot but be negative. But the appearance of new ideas to attract customers to the casinos with the help of amazing promotions is but positive, as it works out in benefit of the players from all over the world.

Today, the casino world needs new customers more than ever. And what can be better than to attract them the way Belle Rock Gaming, the online gambling group, does. They are going to give away a Porsche Roadster in a lottery-like event. Every time a customer wagers 500 credits at Lucky Nugget and RiverBelle casinos operated by the group, he or she enters the drawing for the Porsche Roadster. Customers can accumulate their entries up to the 28th of January, while the drawing will take place at the beginning of January.

Something similar is undertaken by Casino on Net and other casinos. Their customers are collecting entries for different drawings. For example, Casino on Net players can win free money or hi-tech electronics.

So, as the promotions show, more and more people can win now and leave the casinos happy!

EcoCard Payment System is now able to compete with such payment methods like Neteller and FirePay, as all of them at the moment have similar services offered to their customers. Having added new features to their ewallet, the casino payment processor has released this news.

Addition of a new local banking network supporting domestic payments in most European countries, Canada, Australia and Singapore enables a much faster process of receiving and sending money to the wallet and from it. Besides, at the places where the network reaches, local currencies will be supported.

Another change concerns US customers, who now can find their account using Automated Clearing House (ACH). On the other hand, now they cannot withdraw money straight into their account.

One more new feature deals with the real time transfers between card holders who are to know the destination account number. The new service is known as person to person transfers, or P2P.

The world’s first online-only lottery is reported to be purchased by NetPlay TV. “This acquisition further enhances our position in the interactive TV gaming arena. Our mission over the coming year is to build a substantial interactive TV gaming company – this is just the first step in what we believe is a very exciting road ahead,” – claims Martin Higginson, chairman and CEO of NetPlay TV.

The lottery owned by Chariot plc presents to NetPlay TV as a result of the deal a huge database that consists of more than 280,000 lottery players and £50,000 of ticket sales per week. NetPlay TV is planning to introduce new interactive games. Their special focus item is a TV lottery game show based around their brand which is supposed to start by mid February. In future there will be internet access at www.playmonday.com what will definitely make the brand more popular.

Online gambling during business hours costs English firms more than £300m every year in lost productivity. This is the result of the survey commissioned by Consultancy firm Morse. 664 office workers nationwide were questioned on the topic of online gambling.

The survey reveals the following figures: 30% gamble online, buy a lottery ticket or make a bet while at work what indicates that they are likely to spend 13 hours on gambling over a year; 38% of men and 21% of women gamble at work; 35% of employees in Northern England, 29% – in the South and 27% in the Midlands use their company time to make a bet.

The increase in popularity of online casinos and uncontrolled access to Internet are the tempting facts that distract employees from work thus resulting in a substantial dent in company productivity.

The Online Poker Tour together with some sponsors like Vegas Poker 247, Royal Card Club, Third Bullet, CD Poker, The 3D Poker and a mystery room that has yet to be found out  announced plans for 2007. It is going to be a New Year Bash with four trips to the Playboy Mansion and five trips to the Ultimate Poker Challenge given away. And that includes air travel, accommodation, food and drinks, VIP parties, etc.

To participate in this year’s offering, you can take part in free and $1.10 buy in January and February qualifying tournaments. The finals will be broadcast live on Rounder’s Radio.

Last year eight trips were won to the Playboy mansion, and two trips – to a celebrity poker tournament that was attended by Shannon Elizabeth, Tara Ried, Don Cheadle, Lakers’ owner Jerry Buss, plus poker pro’s such as Daniel Negreanu, Hoyt Corkins, Ted Forrest, and Gavin Smith.