Aussies to bet on the box
Forget playing internet casino games. Betting on whether your favourite football player will make a goal while you watch the live event on television will be the way of the future for Australian gamblers, believes Australian Institute of Gambling Research director Professor Jan McMillan.
"Internet gambling will remain a relatively small market, and it will be quickly overtaken by digital television sports betting," she said.
Digital television is due to be released in Australia in 2001 and will link two of Australia's great passions: watching sport and gambling.
"Poker machines currently dominate our gambling industry, but sports betting is the real growth area. The internet and digital television will only increase that growth," said Ms McMillan.
A concern from a regulatory perspective that is still to be resolved is the convergence of licensed gambling operators, telecommunications providers and sporting team owners.

The NSW Casino Control Authority has appointed Victoria's second most senior regulator as its new Chief Executive. Victorian Casino and Gaming Authority assistant director Mr Brian Farrell, who also chairs the Working Party for National Machine Standards, is in the process of re-locating to Sydney to take up his new high profile position. Mr Farrell was previously responsible for Victorian gambling operations and is regarded as an expert in the field of online gambling, even though NSW is yet to introduce internet gaming legislation. His new position will include overseeing Sydney's Star City casino, last year bought by Victorian-based Tabcorp Holdings.

Mikohn Gaming Corp has licensed its table game management technology used in its TableLink system to Australia's Crown Casino. Building on the casino's existing player tracking system, the agreement will allow Crown casino to install a chip and card tracking system on all table games using TableLink. These tiers allow the casino to capture data on the entire game including all bets won and lost, and all hands played. Crown casino has also licensed Mikohn's table game jackpot technology, enabling it to add progressive jackpots to its table games. Crown Casino is the largest land-based casino in the sourthern hemisphere with 350 table games and 2500 slots.

Star City casino is suing a Singapore businessman for more than A$200,000 which was allegedly lent to him in 1997 for gambling. The casino maintains that Mr Fei Rong Xin made a deal with the casino allowing him to obtain a credit facility in exchange for depositing cheques for the total amount. According to the casino, it was given three cheques totalling $223,574 which were later dishonoured. Mr Fei refused to pay when informed by the casino.
In his defence, the businessman claims that he was never offered any credit facility, had not made any deal with the casino, denied writing any cheques or taking any loans from Star City.
He believed that he was gambling on credit and the $223,574 was a gambling debt.
The outcome will be interesting as gambling is outlawed in Singapore and under the Civil Law Act of Singapore, the court treats all gambling contracts as void.
Who says that it's much easier to gamble on the internet! This scenario would never happen as one can only bet with the credit amount available on their card.

New Zealand CCA launches new web site
The New Zealand Casino Control Authority recently went live with its new web site, which provides a comprehensive overview of the NZ casino industry.
The site, which can be found at www.casinocontrol.govt.nz provides both a snapshot view and extensive information on the current and future initiatives from a regulator perspective, including detailed facts and figures.
At present New Zealand has four licensed casinos comprising:

1. Christchurch Casino www.chchcasino.co.nz
2. Dunedin Casino - opened October 1999
3. Sky City Casino (Auckland) www.skycity.co.nz
4. Steamer Wharf Casino (Queenstown) - opened September 1999
Queenstown Casinos Limited is scheduled to commence its operation in Queenstown in 2000 or early 2001.
To date the Authority has approved six premises licensees, four of which are active. The remaining companies are Queenstown Casinos Limited and Riverside Casino Limited.

Queensland casino group Jupiters has established a joint venture with Canadian online gaming provider Cryptologic to establish a gaming web site.
Although the new joint venture Jupiters.com does not have an internet gambling license, the Managing Director of publicly-listed Jupiters Ltd, Mr Richard Barnes, is confident that the site will receive approval in the next six months.
The site will offer a suite of casino games and will be marketed globally to countries where online gambling is permitted.
While waiting for the regulatory approvals and license, a play-for-fun multi-lingual casino is expected to be online shortly.
Jupiters already holds an online license for sportsbetting through the successful Centrebet operation based in the Northern territory, and runs three casinos in Queensland; Jupiters on the Gold Coast, The Treasury in Brisbane and The Breakwater in Townsville.

Jupiters and Aristocrat have signed a heads of agreement to develop and market a wide-area gaming machine network in Australia and overseas.
Aristocrat will provide up to 600 "Money Train" Hyperlink machines and support services, and Jupiters Network Gaming will operate the system for clubs and hotels under contract and linked to its existing "Cougar" network.
The new system, expected to be installed this month, is expected to generate a A$50,000 state-wide jackpot every two days.
Jupiters currently monitors around 6900 machines in Queensland and holds around a quarter share of that monitoring market. Aristocrat offers expertise in gaming machine technology and the ability to distribute and market the wide area service worldwide.

Australian-based Internet gaming software developer Access Systems plans to raise A$45 million by selling 20 per cent of the company in a sharemarket float which was announced late March and closes May 3. Access supplies internet gambling systems and software to operators such as Australian-based Lasseters Online, Tattersalls, Gocorp and Golden Casket.
Access is the third internet gambling company to announce an IPO in the past few weeks. Both Lasseters Holdings and Gamble.com.au are also seeking funds to expand through a sharemarket float.

Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara is yet to see the results of his promise to open a casino in the Odaiba district of Minato Ward.
The casino would enable an important new revenue source for the metropolitan government and offer an alternative to the popular past-time of patchinko.
Even though pachinko is legal through a loophole in gaming legislation, archaic laws prohibiting gambling have meant that there are still no legal casinos in Japan.
It is accepted in Japan that pachinko players do not gamble, as players trade balls for prizes up to a maximum of 10,000 yen at exchange counters in the pachinko parlours. Then they secretly swap the prizes for cash at shops behind the pachinko parlours, even though this final process is technically illegal.

US-owned gaming machine manufacturer Bally Gaming has closed its doors to the Australian market less than five years after attempting to re-establish its local presence. The announcement was made in late March, although top management such as Ted Cully remain in the Sydney office to wind up operations over the coming months.

The government of South Korea has commenced a battle to curb the fledgling but illegal online gambling industry, following the arrest of five local web site operators for accepting bets over the internet.
In addition, a dozen domestic internet service providers have been required to install filtering software against foreign gambling sites and software programs will be installed in schools and other public facilities to block access to local cyber-casinos.
It is believed that hundreds of online casinos are operating in South Korea.

The casino industry in Macau is in a real slump, judging by the latest figures of casino tycoon Stanley Ho's company STDM which owns and operators the enclave's properties. According to the South China Morning Post, net profit from Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau has dipped from $1.8 billion in 1998 to $760 million last year.
Gambling and tourism generate around 40% of macau's gross domestic product, and the 10,000 STDM employees represent 5% of the total workforce.
The company's monopoly franchise expires at the end of next year.

Small Malaysian gambling syndicates offering illegal Chinese card games are merging in a bid to retain their clients.
The underground industry, which sees millions of dollars changing hands each week, has been hit by a number of raids and it is believed that only 10 major syndicates remain.
According to The Star local newspaper, over 3,800 arrests over the past two years of many regular gamblers has resulted in a lower profitability outcome for operators.
The major syndicates concentrate on the Chinese card games of pai gow and si ki phuay, and offer a number of perks including a S$20 bonus for good luck, hot food, and towels at their premises.

New casino for Thailand

A 150 million baht casino, hotel and restaurant located was recently opened by General Mi Aung, commander of Myanmar's south-eastern region. The complex at Myawdi Riverside Resort, 500 m north of the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge.
The casino will prohibit locals Thais gambling, although there are numerous small operations along the Thai-Cambodian and Thai-Myanmar borders. The new casino is a joint venture between Myanmar, Taiwanese, Thai and minority Wa businessmen, according to the Straits Times.
Meanwhile, local triad gangs have started to target the new casinos springing up along the Thai-Cambodian borders as hundreds of Thais enter the checkpoints into western Cambodia and Koh Kong to gamble where they can't at home.
Phnom Penh, keen to clamp down on gambling amongst Cambodians, banned casinos this year from its capital. This has forced operators to relocate along the border between Thailand and Cambodia.

The Kolback Group, who recently finalised an agreement with WMS Gaming in order for Williams to enter the local Australian market, has completed a contract to supply Melbourne's Crown Casino with table gaming products.
Stargames Corporation Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Kolback, will supply four 12-station Rapid Roulette systems which should be operational during May.
The product, which Stargames will sell in Australia and off-shore, involves the use of touchscreens to place bets on tables. The intellectual property, which aims to reduce operator costs and provide higher sales, is jointly owned by Stargames and Crown, and an application patent has been filed.

Casinos Austria International has almost doubled its full-year net profit to A$11.3 million and expects to maintain its momentum in 2000. Its two Australian casinos, Casinos Canberra and Reef at cairns contributed 81% of the group's $73 million revenue but only 14% of the $14 million operating profit. CAIL, majority owned by European casino group casinos Austria, will open its 15th casino on a resort island off the coast of Venezuela in the second quarter of this year.

Malaysia to crack down on internet gambling
Government authorities here are considering coming down hard on cybercafes that are using their restaurant licenses as a disguise for illegal casino gambling via networked PC's. Police are coming to grips with operations where players are able to purchase electronic chips at cybercafes that are logged through an individual computer to play electronic versions of blackjack, baccarat and slot games. Winners claim cash payouts from a cashier at the cybercafe who acts as a banker.
A number of dealers apparently scout cybercafes offering "e-gambling", together with an easy supply of five terminals and software.
In addition, a number of cybercafes are operating slot machines in concealed areas of their cybercafes by using partitions and wallpaper to conceal gambling rooms which accommodate between three and five machines. It is believed that operators are accumulating an average of RM2,000 each day just from their machine gaming profits from three machines - without publicity.

Australia's first online casino releases results
Lasseters Online has released data for its first year of operation in the lead up to its sharefloat mid-year.
This information is an anomoly for the industry, as there are very few of the 700+ internet casinos casinos currently on the internet that publicly disclose their revenue results and player counts.
The operator of Australia's first regulated online casino, Lasseters Holdings Ltd, launched an A$40 million public offer late March to support its global expansion. The Group owns and operates the land-based Lasseters Hotel Casino and internet gaming site located at www.lasseters.com.au, which are both licensed by the Northern Territory Government.
Lasseters Online was launched in April 1999. By January 31, 2000 turnover exceeded more than A$40 million with over 34,000 players (including almost 4,400 cash players) from 190 countries.
"The physical property is showing great improvements in its trading results year after year but it is the online operation that is offering the fastest growth potential," said David Ohlson, General Manager of Lasseters Online.
"The revenue generated has exceeded the returns from the table games in the land-based casino."
Since the Lasseters Hotel Casino was acquired by the current shareholders in 1997, total revenue has risen by 28.1% to $20.4 million in 1998-1999.

Aussie Senate: Don't bet on the Net
A moratorium on internet gambling licenses is being considered by the Federal Government, together with predetermined betting amounts and a ban on credit card transactions to curb online gaming in Australia.
The 110-page report released by the Senate Select Committee on Information Technologies recommends that federal, state and territorial governments work together to develop uniform regulatory controls through the Ministerial Council on Gambling.
The Commonwelath would also reserve the right to use its telecommunications powers to ensure tighter controls if the States did not implement restrictions.
The limited moratorium on further internet gambling licenses is recommended in the Netbets report, pending the implementation of consumer protection policies to promote safe and responsible gambling. These measures are expected to take up to 12 months to implement.
Other recommended harm minimisation policies include limited gambling times with a regular cooling off period, a permanent display of financial losses and gains, and payment of winnings by cheque.
About 90,000 people gambled on casino, sportsbetting, racing and lottery games on the internet in 1998-1999, representing around 0.6% of Australian adults.
According to the report, about 14 corporations are involved in online gambling in Australia, which includes both casino and sportsbetting operations.
Lasseters Online, Australia's first and only live regulated internet casino, said it sent a strong message to the world that Australia was serious about establishing a safe gaming industry.
However, Jamie Nettleton from law firm Coudert Brothers, warned that the report's recommendation of a moratorium on new licenses might deliver those organisations already licensed an artificial advantage against new competition.
It said a significant challenge lies in developing strict regulatory models that meet the challenges posed by the new technology.

Australian organisations with internet gambling licenses
GOCORP - Casino
Lasseters - Casino
Network Gaming - Casino
Canbet- Wagering
Capital Sports - Wagering
Centrebet - Wagering
City Index - Wagering
Davidson Sports - Wagering
International All Sports - Wagering
Megasports - Wagering
Ozbet - Wagering
Sports Odds - Wagering
Net TAB - Wagering
TAB QLD - Wagering
Note: Many still to commence operations.

ICM Conference review

Profitable Gaming Solutions

What is the best way for operators to target new technologies? Are there further opportunities to deliver profitable gaming solutions?

These topics formed the basis of the recent Gaming 2000 conference held at Star City in Sydney. Organised by ICM, International Communications for Management Group, the two-day event was sponsored by Starnet Systems and included a number of international and local gaming experts covering a gamut of topics.

Coverage ranged from internet gambling to regulatory and legal
perspectives, a progress report on gaming in Australia, the
anti-gambling movement and social perspectives, to racing challenges.

Building Gambling Systems

Gaming regulators are perceived to be bureaucratic, theoretical and a disruption to gaming operators needing licensing approvals, extending the time to get to market and rarely offering practical advice.
Mr Brian Farrell, Assistant Director, Gambling Operations for the
Victorian and Casino Gaming Authority, blew these ideas out the window in his presentation on Gaming Regulation and New Technology.
Mr Farrell provided a comprehensive insight into how he views the impact of technology on gambling and how regulators control complex gambling products and systems.
For those involved in the design and development of new gambling
products and systems, he gave the benefit of some expensive lessons learned the hard way.
"There are some simple hints on how to develop your product or system in a way to give you the best chance to save time and money," said Mr Farrell, following an outline of the impact of technology on products, the customer and the regulator.

1. Start by having the rules of the game approved by the regulator before developing the system.
2. Involve the regulator at the earliest opportunity.
3. Do not expect the Accredited Testing Facility to be able to know everything the regulator may be thinking.

"Failure to finalise the product's relationship with the player before developing the equipment or software is the most common cause of massive redesign of gambling systems at huge expenses," he said.
"If the rules are not settled before you get too far into system design you are asking for trouble."
For internet gaming systems, the rules will not only need to cover the mechanics of the games on offer but also establishment of accounts, how betting limits are set and changed, and the effect of self-exclusion rules.
"Depending on what you intend to do with player registration or other information you might also need to set out the player's rights in terms of privacy," said Mr Farrell.
Indeed, he'll be a great asset in his new position as Chief Executive of the NSW Casino Control Authority, a position he will assume in the next
month.

Freedom of Choice

"Have we Banned sex to stop infidelity? Banned cars to achieve a zero road toll?," said Michael Toohey, during his spirited presentation to bring the internet gambling opponents back to reality. "Ban Gambling on the Internet - to stop what?. We are supposedly living in a democratic society, so why punish the majority due to the actions of a very small minority?".

Regarded as the "face of internet gaming" in Australia due to his almost six years of experience and balanced yet controversial outlook, Mr Toohey from Australasian Gaming Specialists was referring to the recent Australian enquiries suggesting a ban and/or moratorium on internet gambling here.
"Let me tell you, of course the industry is concerned about the growth of gambling. We know the problems, but we want more answers, not just a regurgitation of what we already know."
According to Mr Toohey, it's time to find solutions. More importantly, controls may need to be taken out of the political and academic arena.
"How many academics, politicians, or for that point, regulators, have actually tried to gamble at an internet gambling site to try to understand the stringent checks and measures that are already available?" Mr Toohey said, challenging the delegates to raise their hands and respond.

In terms of internet gambling, this new medium has had the solutions that the regulators and politicians have been seeking, for some time now.
AGS is the Australasian representative for MicroGaming Systems, which has been established since 1994 and has a portfolio of over 100 internet casinos and some 120 games audited by Price WaterHouse Coopers.
MicroGaming is a low-key operator, in that they are a privately-owned company and prefer not to disclose their own, or their clients operations to the public.
"We have verysuccessful operatorsand have no desire to correct the market with their inaccurate estimations on the size and spend of internet gambling, which we believe are both too high and too low. And remember, our operations are real," Mr Toohey explained, with regard to the recent influx of new IPO's and internet gambling system companies reporting forecast results, facts and figures.

According to Mr Toohey, Internet gaming operators in a self-regulated environment generally follow the following principles:

1. Act legally and ethically
2. Get a license
3. Get Players
4. Pay Players
5. Keep Players
6. Ride the "Internet Wave"
7. And make money...

The "Future of Gaming" presentation finished with the Australasian Gaming Specialists crystal ball vision of internet gaming on a global basis over the next three years.
"The market will split between regulated and self-regulated sites," explained Mr Toohey. "The way it's going with the current tax rates for regulated sites such as Queensland's 50%, jurisdictions such as Antigua and even Norfolk Island at 4% which is part of the Australian
Commonwealth will definitely have a leading edge."
"Having said that, if the benefits of regulated environments justify the costs, operators will move."
One of the most important messages to conclude the presentation was that winners on the internet will have built a brand. That takes time, as Caesar's Palace, London Clubs and Mirage resorts well know.