Macau is genuinely interested in the development of the gambling sector what is proved by the number of owned casinos and those planned to be opened. Currently Macau has 24 casinos. And it is being planned to open some more: Grande Lisboa, Venetian, Crown Macau and MGM casinos. The interest comes from the gaming revenues. Thus, in 2006 their gaming and gambling revenues amounted to 55.884 billion patacas. With further development of this sector the figure will definitely rise. It is expected to be approximately 65 – 70 billion this year.

The Macau government applies both direct and indirect taxes on the gambling sector. The direct tax that totals 34% is applied on gaming and gambling, while the indirect tax of 4% is applied on each table and slot machine in a casino.

There are six casino operators in Macau, and Stanley Ho who actually owns Grande Lisboa, is a dominant figure there.

The casino revenues cannot but amaze. So, the Sands casino in Macau has given 58.75% of the operating profit of Las Vegas Sands. The operating profit in the Sands casino totaled $413 million. Thus, it is considered to be the largest gambling venue in the world. As for the Venetian casino, its operating profit totaled $289.9 million.

A $100,000 guaranteed holdem poker tournament offered by Everest Poker www.everestpoker.com took place on the 27th of January, 2007. The tournament appeared to be very popular as more than 1800 players from all over the world participated in it.

The tournament buy-in was $100 + 9 or 25000.00 + 2250.00 Summit points what says that players at all levels could take part in it. What concerns Summit points, they represent a special Everest Poker’s Loyalty program. Thanks to them players are able to enter tournaments at no direct cost to them.

The winners are already known. They are: BigBroiler with $36, 500, Davethebest with $21,900, bourse07 with $16,425, superboy1975 with $12,775, patrickkkk with $8,213, Darace with $6,388, Freakflyer with $4,563, jedi9 with $3,194, Ashtavakra with $2,281, and Sterti66 with $1,825.

With the success of the $100,000 guaranteed holdem poker tournament, Everest Poker is planning to offer more events of this type. The next $100,000 guaranteed holdem poker tournament will take place on the 10th of March, 2007.

To find out tournament schedules, visit http://www.everestpoker.com/.

There is a big question: who will operate the UK’s first super Casino located in Manchester.

Actually, there are two competitors now: US casino giant Las Vegas Sands Corporation and Kerzner International that runs Atlantis in Bahamas. Gala Coral, Europe’s biggest gambling company declared that their focus is on a smaller scale.

The competition promises to be rather stiff, as both companies seem to be rather ambitious and ready to achieve their goal.

China is the country where online game industry is fast developing now. T2CN is the leading online casual sports game company in China. Its distinctive feature is the most popular online sports game in the country – FreeStyle. Besides, the company has got such well-known partners as Coca-Cola, Nike and Nokia.  It’s obvious that it makes T2CN extremely attractive in the game markets. As a result, the acquisition of majority ownership of T2CN Holding Limited by GigaMedia Limited has become known to the public.

By acquiring up to 18.3 million shares of T2CN (40.3%) GigaMedia are fulfilling their next step in building a dominant online platform in Asia and becomes a leader as “no other company has this kind of reach in Asia”. Having initial investment into T2CN in May 2006, GigaMedia also holds: convertible preferred shares of T2CN that can be converted into extra 15 million common shares of T2CN; an option to buy additional 4.3 million common shares of T2CN. As a result, the total ownership stake of GigaMedia is approximately 51.9%.

The total consideration of the acquisition amounts to $22.9 million, but it is subject to adjustment based upon T2CN financial performance in the first half of 2007. The payment is to be made in two trenches. One is expected to be in February 2007, and the other – in August 2007.

Casino portal www.casinoalerts.co.uk is reported to be re-launched by Gaming Alerts Limited. Now, players are able to view the best in online casino offerings. The portal has becom a one-stop shop, where such great players as William Hill, Casino Swiss, Casino King, Littlewoods and some others offer clients exclusive deals.

The download is free. A small window on the desktop regularly informs you about the top new deals, bonuses and their location. Besides, Skinkers, a company that provides live notification platforms via email, sms and desktops, offers a great range of promotional offers. One of the current ones is a £300 welcome bonus at casinoking.com.

“…We built a strong foundation last November when we first launched our video initiative and although digital distribution of video is still evolving, the market reception so far has been excellent. The catalogs we are announcing today further extend our plans to deliver high-quality properties to the maturing digital video market”. This announcement was made by Mitchell Koulouris, Chief Executive Officer of DMGI (a content owner and global leader in the digital distribution of independently owned music and video catalogs after signing a number of agreements with TV, film and video catalog owners that represent practically 200 hours and 400 episodes of video content.

Now, using DMGI Network everyone can find something for him/herself: classics, kid’s content, sports, comedy, edge (new content that spans from the ridiculous to the raunchy).

No doubt, DMGI is rather benevolent to content owners of all types of entertainment. They will eagerly help them access the digital media market. Mr. Koulouris said: “…we are focused on forging expanded or new relationships with our digital retailers to include video distribution to a wide variety of devices. This is all part of our strategy to position DMGI as a leading distributor of digital entertainment…”

To get more information about catalogs and content, go to http://www.dmgi.com/video/ .

661 players took part in the $500 buy-in No Limit event at Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa, but only the world’s best players took part in the Final Table of the $2,500 buy-in event. Schanbacher of Pittsburgh, PA, Jon “Pearljammed” Turner of Henderson, NV, and Richard “Knucklehead” Friere of Miami Lakes, FL, became the winners.

Turner, in spite of being one of the word’s top internet players, was only the third to finish. His prize money amounted to $59,138.

Frier was second to finish with $108,937 in prize money.

The first place was taken by Schanbacker. He took home $192,975.

Other well known professionals such as Barry Greenstein, Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi, “Wild” Bill Edler, Eric Lingren, Ted Forrest, Steve Danneman, Amnon Fillipi, and many more took place in the $5,000 buy-in event.

Besides, The World Poker Tour Kick-Off Party with free admission for all took place on the 25th of January. Some other events are also expected to take place.

One of the world’s largest jackpot casinos, All Jackpots Casino, has released its first games of the year – Magic Spell and Prime Property. The games are exclusive, with superior graphics, effects and sounds. Besides, more players will be able to play, as the minimum bet is 1 cent.

Magic Spell is a 25-payline online slot offering rewards of up to 100,000 coins in the base game and 75,000 on the generous bonus features. The game is centered on the Four Schools of Magic – Arcane, Alchemy, Frost and Fire.
As for Prime Property, it offers 40 paylines and comes complete with a Top Wild, a Scatter, a Bonus Scatter, Free Spins, and a Bonus Game.

According to the opinion of All Jackpots Casino’s officials, the Jackpot Factory presents an image what online jackpot casino should be. David Brickman, Spokesperson for the Jackpot Factory, says: “…All Jackpots is stocked with numerous, high quality slot games”.

Online Gambling Magazine has presented the favorite operator of the year that was chosen by the readers. Intercasino, online casino operator has been voted Best Online Casino 2007 and Best Casino Software. Besides it was chosen Best Online Poker Room 2007 and won a gong for best poker tournaments.

The software used by Intercasino is definitely the one that helps get the awards not only this year, but also in each of the past five years. It is CryptoLogic online casino software.

Peter Marcus, spokesman for The InterCasino Group, explains their success: “…The main focus of Intercasino is its players. Intercasino is very dedicated to providing the best experience and value to all of its players”.

After the introduction of the U.S. Unlawful Iternet Gambling Enforcement Act lots of online gaming companies suffered huge losses, not only financial, but also human ones. So, now Mark Blandford and Bob Holt are reported to have quitted Sportingbet. That happened in spite of the fact that the company operated rather successfully. Its gross profit in the three months preceding October, 2006 amounted to £31.7 million. As the company’s officials claim, they have agreed to reduce the size of the board for the sake of business efficiencies.

According to some rumors Mark Blandford and Bob Holt are pursuing other projects with Sean O’Connor, senior independent director.