Liberal Democrats doubt that Manchester’s supercasino will ever be built. The casino could have generated millions of pounds, people could have been provided with jobs, the community could have been boosted.

As it has become known, Gordon Brown “has a moral objection to a supercasino”. So, at the Liberal Democrats’ cGonference in Brighton, culture and sport spokesman Don Foster will ask the prime minister to fund an alternative regeneration package.

Manchester council still wishes for the casino to be built.

The British Gambling Act on September 1st made a lot of online gambling operators think how to get on the white list – to be able to advertise on Mass Media.

Malta is one of the countries to be on the white list what attracts online gambling companies. Thus, their number has grown from 84 online gaming companies chartered in Malta to 111. 36 more are still waiting for approval of their license applications.

In accordance with the decision, online casinos will be taxed at the going rate given to land based casinos, 15%. Malta, on the other hand, has reduced tax rates cut to 2.5% thus making it a popular choice over the UK and its significantly higher tax rate.

The RTG-powered and Costa Rican based Virtual group is getting notorious. The group considers that “any publicity is good publicity”.  Thus, to attract customers, the company tried to launch a product that is considered to be immoral – a promotion based on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the USA. The promotion was sent via e-mail.

The exploitation of the tragedy could not but cause uproar all over the world. Not only industry observers, but also players got angry. The Virtual group is getting complaints and reports, but despite it, it continues flourishing.

In accordance with the decision of European Court of Justice (ECJ), Italian authorities cannot monopolize the local market. Blocking operators from neighboring EU countries from gaining a foothold in the Italian betting market, Italy had failed to realize its responsibilities under articles 43 and 49 of the EC treaty. The given articles deal with “freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services”.

Italians are sure their actions will help them secure “continuity, financial stability and a proper return on past investments for license holders’.

Taiwanese politicians expect Penghu, a set of small islets off Taiwan, to become the next Macau. A casino town, though gambling is illegal in Taiwan, is to be built there, the purpose of which is to attract Chinese tourists.

The idea of building a casino appeared during the 1990s. Finally, the construction work began in July.

It will take you 45 minutes to go from Taipei to Penghu by plane. About 70,000 people live there, but their life depends on tourism, marketing seafood and relaxed atmosphere. Now, because of a small number of tourists there as Taiwan has been accepting a limited number of Chinese tourists, the casino is believed to restore the island’s economy.

The ban was lifted in April, but since that time only 117 Chinese have visited Penghu. So, so far, Taiwanese have lost the opportunity and lost their tourists.

Taiwanese have different opinions regarding the casino. Some of them support the idea expecting the island to become a resort destination, some of them are rather negative saying that it will make the life on the islets less safe and corrupt public morality.

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian would not like to become economically dependent on China, is cautious about the plan. “But presidential candidates of both ruling and opposition parties eyeing next spring’s election are more open to the idea”.

eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA) is known to have approved testing approach to online gambling software initiated by the British Gambling Commission. The validity of outcome-based testing and methodology have also been recognized.

But they have to verify that the development, implementation and maintenance of the company’s gambling software is in correspondence with the standards implemented by eGOGRA.

In view of the implemented British Gambling Act, some companies (Betfair and Bodog are among them) applied for remote operator licenses.

Besides testing, eGOGRA “incorporates every live gaming transaction on an ongoing basis, and the organization performs monthly payout percentage testing”.

Though, online gambling business is illegal in the USA, more and more U.S. companies open their online gambling shops, but in other countries. AOL is the latest U.S. company to enter the online gambling business.

AOL has signed an agreement with the German-based online betting company FLUXX. According to it, it will market sports betting on the internet in the UK. The project seems to be very promising. The company wants their business to expand, so it is looking for new partners and initiatives that will help attract new customers.

There is an opinion that the UK gambling Act will lead to the growing number of problem gamblers as land-based and online gambling companies in the EEA that are on the “white list” to advertise their services on TV, radio and other mass media. The fear of the growth of gambling addiction has been expressed by some charitable organizations such as the Salvation Army.

A helpline number to address problem gambling placed on the advertisements of gambling firms is the guideline Gambling advisory group has asked government to introduce.

The recent study carried out in the UK has shown that gambling addiction in the country is growing. The figure of problem gamblers in the country has grown from approximately 325,000 to 500,000 since 1999.

The results of the study have shown that about £1,000 or over £1 billion are spent by a million of regular gamblers.

With the new law, initiated by Britain’s culture, Media and Sport Secretary, James Purnell, registration and licensing of gambling companies in Britain has become more complicated, but the TV ads are still allowed.

Antigua and Barbuda claimed up to $7 billion for loss of earning after the US Internet gambling restrictions. The first US dispute with Antigua was lost. According to the decision of the WTO it was wrong to forbid foreign gambling companies to compete for bets on Internet gambling while domestic interstate bets were allowed. Thus, the US was “in continued contravention of its commitments under the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)”.

Now, the US is threatening to withdraw from GATS what may result in spiraling compensation claims.