Cantor Gaming, an affiliate of the global financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald, has launched CantorCasino.com - Cantor are the first financial services company to move into online gaming. The launch of Cantor Gamings online casino, is an exciting development that follows their white label B2B offering. Our view is they have gone down this route as perhaps the B2B offering is not really hitting the mark as regards numbers and profits.  It seems they have struggled somewhat to hit any major deals with it as a business.

Barcrest Group launches Triple 7 cabinets. The ICONIC sb server based gaming trials were successful for Barcrest so now Barcrest Group and MeccaBingo are gearing up for the first phase of a nationwide roll out of the concept. 

Irish bookmaker Boylesports has gone live with its new online casino supplied by Wager Works. BoyleSport has replaced its old casino product suite with the WagerWare platform, which will be integrated into the Finsoft Margin Maker platform it uses for its sports book.

This is an annual event known to everyone in the bingo business. It has been running for over 10 years, the competition reards one of the most important individuals in a bingo hall the compare. A good caller gives his personality to an offline hall and can really make an evening become sociable and fun.

The picture company behind hit Hollywood Blockbuster '21' may be unhappy that it hasn't been celebrated as a piece of cinematic brilliance but a quick look at how much it's pulled in will keep a smile on their face.

Colombia Pictures were initially worried about how popular gambling film '21' (which stars former Oscar winner Kevin Spacey - left) would be in the UK but latest figures show their concerns were unnecessary.

Screen International revealed this week that '21' is the highest grossing film in the UK for the second week in a row.

It made more than £1 million over the course of the week, approximately £600,000 less than the week before.

Fool's Gold was second with £975,468, with In Bruges and Street Kings earning £638,654 and £619,647 respectively.

Last week's second place Son of Rambow dropped to fifth, taking £583,251.

Critics have ravaged 21 and it only has a 32 per cent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

However, this does not appear to be putting off cinema goers from wanting to see it and the film's performance in the UK follows a two-week stint at the top of the US box office.

The book upon which it was based, Ben Mezrich's Bringing Down the House, was a New York Times Best Seller.

The Irish wear green hats and down Guinness like it's going out of fashion to celebrate St. Patrick's day, the Welsh wear a daffodil or leek on their lapels on St. David's day and the Scots hold one hell of a Ceilidh to mark St. Andrews day but what do the English do to celebrate their patron's Saint's day?

Well many things is the answer but one in particular has captured the online imagination.

This year we here at Getminted.com are celebrating St. George's day by being generous to all our loyal members.

And here's how!-

FROM THIS ............................. TO THIS

(FORMER LEEDS UNITED STAR NOW MAKES HIS MONEY PLAYING POKER)

With one download players can access online backgammon in a variety of languages some Backgommon game platforms include other multiplayer games such as Poker, Backgammon, 21 Blackjack and Perudo.

All levels of players can find a seat at any of the numerous game tables hosted on the 15 sites we have listed.  Its clear this market is still quite young as there seem to be very few competitors in the space currently but wewould expect this to change over the next five years.

Concept make a lot of money playing games that rely more on your skill than on chance.  King.com is the biggest such site  an international skill games site founded by Riccardo Zacconi and Toby Rowland the founders have had failures such as clickmango.com. A skill game site is one that allows you to play games that have more to do with your ability than luck.

Mother sparked major search for her missing daughter only for her to be found behind the back of a pub fruit machine.

Barcrest Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Barry Knowles to the position of Barcrest Group Director of UK Sales reporting to Tim Kennedy.  Barry will commence his role on Tuesday 15th April 2008. 

What do you do when you want to attend Ladies Day at Royal Ascot but don't have anyone to bring?

Put an ad in your local paper of course!

Last week a Dorset woman did just that deciding to gamble for love by placing an advertisement in her local paper to find an escort who can take her to the races.

Sue Phillips placed a notice in the Dorset Echo newspaper for a man to accompany her to Royal Ascot.

The 52-year-old from Weymouth is offering an all-expenses-paid trip to Ladies' Day for the lucky gentleman.

The criteria is that he must be single, aged over 40 with a good sense of humour and a top hat.

His final hurdle will be passing an audition with her friends before he will be allowed to join them for Champagne at the famous racing day on 19 June.

Ladies day is one of the most sepctacular days in the World racing calender with hats (such as that worn by a race goer left) illuminating the Berkshire countryside.

The Real Business Hot 100 shows gaming have put on the afterburners despite the credit crunch in 2007. Entrepreneurs having a flutter with online gambling are cashing in, Companies such as Cashcade's (63rd) Patrick Southon (owner of Getminted.com) and King.com's (35th) Riccardo Zacconi and Toby Rowland.King.com is now the world's largest skills gaming site, hosting more than 80 million games every month.

Anyway for a full list click here

Novomatic Group of Companies

The Novomatic Group of Companies, with a turnover of more than Euro 2.1 billion in 2007, is one of the largest integrated conglomerates of the international gaming industry. Founded by the entrepreneur Prof. Johann F. Graf the group comprises affiliated companies in more than 19 countries, produces more than 60,000 gaming devices per year and exports high-tech gaming equipment to more than 60 countries.

Artistic licence went too far on the set of hit gambling movie 21 it seems as it transpires that there are a number of mistakes relating to the appearence of Las Vegas in the film.

Critics have referred to a scene that was meant to take place in a room at the Hard Rock casino.

Caesars Palace and the Bellagio could both be seen through the window, despite neither resort being anywhere near the Hard Rock in real life.

As well as the Caesars gaff, a similar inaccuracy is pointed out by a user on the Movie Mistakes website, who said the Wynn casino, which features in the film, was not built during the time when 21 is set.

"What wrecked the credibility for me wasn't their methods or that they could get away with this or even the big table-turning sting that ends the movie," the Southtown newspaper review read.

"It was the movie's lapse in attention to Vegas detail."

The movie was released in the UK last Friday and it's expected that it will continue to rake in massive revenue.

The first World Series of Poker was contested in 1970 in Las Vegas. There were less than 20 players competing.

The 2005 World Series of Poker brought together 6,000 players from over 40 countries at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, competing for an estimated prize pot of $60 million. (£35 million).

What is The Poker Channel?

PokerChannel.com is the TV station / website for viewing online poker TV shows.

You can stream all the poker shows shown on the channel on demand. We also broadcast an alternative schedule of poker videos through our internet TV channel.

With over 500 hours of televised poker tournaments already filmed and new shows added regularly they have a comprehensive poker TV channel online and on the air.

Burt Reynolds will star with and Bret Harrison in the poker movie Deal for writer director Gil Cates Jr.

The movie revolves around an ex-gambler who teaches a hot shot college student how to "play the player" vs. just the cards. But after the two have a bitter falling out, they find themselves competing against each other in the World Poker Tour championships. (Sounds like The COlor of Money doesn't it).

A couple from Weston-super-Mare were sentenced yesterday for claiming thousands of pounds in benefit for 16 non existent children.

The Somerset pair exploited a loophole after realising they did not have to send children's birth certificates to tax officials to prove they existed.

The money was partly used by Danny Wilshaw and Nancy Stevenson (pictured left) for gambling. Its believed 58 year old Wilshaw would spend up to £600 a week to feed his betting habit while Stevenson admitted to drinking two bottles of brandy a day.

Wilshaw claimed more than £75,000 over four years and must serve half of a 20-month jail sentence.

Meanwile Stevenson was accused of claiming up to £11,000 in child tax credits over four years.

She was given a 12-month non-custodial order and must observe a strict curfew.

England star Bentley, 23, admits he lost money on horses, dogs, online poker and even American sports before his girlfriend finally helped him to beat his problem three years ago. But Blackburn midfielder Bentley's confession shows that gambling is a major problem within football after he became the latest big-name player to confess his addiction.

Big Australian casino news today is the Victorian state government has announced the licensing arrangements for wagering and slot machines for beyond 2012 will change, meaning Tabcorp Holdings and Tattersalls duopoly over the state slot machine licenses will cease. Tab Corp is likely to be hit the hardest as it derives 30% of its cash from Victorian licenses in poker machines and wagering. Hotel and clubs will bid directly for the slot machine licenses beyond 2012 and wagering will be kept as a single license and opened for tender after 2012 and neither Tattersalls or Tabcorp is entitled to compensation. Currently both hold licenses for wagering. Both are in a trading halt. Aristocrat the slots manufacturer is down heavily 4.5% to 973c on the back of the announcement.

An Irishman who hadn't stepped inside a bingo hall for over 30 years has just landed £74,000 when his numbers came in.

Dublin born entrepreneur James Sheridan scooped the massive prize at the Mecca Bingo hall in Dagenham and afterwards admitted he had been coaxed into playing on a one off occasion by friends.

The 63-year-old - who moved to east London from his hometown in Dublin's Ballyfermot aged 13 - explained:

"I'm not a bingo player at all. The last time I was in one of those halls was 30 years ago.

"That night I dropped a friend to the hall and she coaxed me in for a game but she played my books for me as I didn't even have my glasses."

Using Nielsen Online Stats we have created a list of the top Spanish Gmabling advertisiers. The list is based on the bnumber of campaigns these comapnies are running and the varitey of banner adverts they deploy.

Hitwise UK Gaming Ranking - using a snap shot of 20% of the UK online audience Hitwise monitors and ranks the size of a variety of industries online. In Feb 2008 these are the UK Gaming sites with the biggest market share of users clearly the results favour non download browser based sites.

Mark Blandford has become a significant investor in Mfuse as well as taking up a non -execuative role with the mobile gambling firm. The funding is to allow product expansion for paddy Power Mobile, ladbrokes Mobile, and Stan James Mobile platforms. The management team feel it is time to scale up their operations to dominate the mobile gaming sector.

Playtech revenues have risen over the $100m mark whilst total revenue rose 86%. Profits dropped as expenses of operating the business rose.  The company remains confident and puts the increased costs down to four areas:

Investing in new gaming markets

Developing new casino products

improving existing products such as Poker

Searching for aqusitions and new joint ventures

Casino income was king for Playtech with total product reveneues rising to US $74.7m up 58% and Poker jumped up by a huge 269%.

 

NetPlay TV plc, the interactive gaming company, has achieved record figures for its Live Roulette show by breaking through the threshold of £1 million worth of bets in a day. During the first three days of April, gross bets totalled £2.91 million.

The Grosvenor Casino Group offer an excellent training programme for their new recruits soi we have put a little bit of information about it so you can check out if you could be tempted by the prospect of dealing and handling large cash bets live.

Getminted.com has just launched a fresh suite of browser based games on their no download casino site.  The games cover areas such as Wolf Run and Cleopatra well known offline branded formats as well as some updated classic casino games such as 3 Card Poker and Blackjack. 

Spin3, the mobile gaming solutions provider powered by Microgaming, has launched 3 Card Poker for the mobile gaming market. 3 Card Poker is a popular game in traditional casinos worldwide and represents the thirteenth mobile game to be released by Spin3.

A village sports club has been raided twice in six weeks by raiders who looted cash from the fruit machine.

In the first incident, on February 13, two large doors at Dickleburgh sports and social club were wrecked and the fruit machine smashed and the contents stolen.

Mc Donalds Money Monopoly has embarked on some mobile ads mobile banners have been booked on high profile mobile sites for the coming four weeks. Visitors to the Money Monopoly site are presented with instructions on how to play the in-store game along with a list of possible prizes.

 

Oh how poker has changed over the years! Not so long ago it was mainly restricted to smokey back-rooms and played by over-sized sweaty men!

Now though playing poker is seen as a fashionable wild act with more and more stars flocking to join high profile championships.

With this in mind glamour model Abi Titmus (pictured left) signed up to this year's Ladbrokes Poker European Ladies Championship. 

It's been revealed that  John Leslie's ex will be among the 50 female poker players taking part at the event next month.

Ladbrokes Poker spokesperson Samantha Alleyne has called the competition "the FA cup of the poker circuit", adding that it is "an unmissable tournament guaranteed to deliver a few shock results".

For many, the inclusion of Titmuss could be the biggest surprise of them all, but several women celebrities have gone on to succeed at the very highest levels of the sport in the past.

Shannon Elizabeth has finished third at a National Heads-Up Poker Championship, for example, while Soccer AM's Helen Chamberlain once came second at the Ladbrokes Poker Million.

The most impressive switch to poker playing, however, has perhaps come from Oscar-nominated actress Jennifer Tilly, who has won a World Series of Poker bracelet.

These days gambling firms have to think outside the box and thats exactly what British bookmakers William Hill are doing after agreeing a deal with massive Spainish gaming machine operators Codere.

Now as a result of the joint venture William Hill has been awarded a gaming licence by the autonomous Madrid regional Authority.

The news followed an announcement by William Hill two weeks ago that authorities in Valencia had granted it a license to offer gaming services with the joint venture now able to operate under the Victoria brand name in Spain.

There was a time when Bingo was simple. Some would say too simple!

But now with sites such as FoxyBingo.com bingo has taken on a different life with giveaways, promotions, chat rooms and much more adding to the much loved gambling experience.

The days of the smoke-filled halls with players keeping their fingers crossed for minimal rewards seems gone for good.

In this article we focus on FoxyBingo.com specifically and discover how bingo has changed very much for the better?

It's the biggest race in the world and on Saturday Britian will come to a standstill when 41 runners and riders go to post at Aintree to fight it out for the coveted prize.

It's estimated that on average every British citizen spends £2 on the National with most punters entering bookies for their one and only time during the year.

Sweepstakes will be held today in offices and other work sites across the country with most hoping to pull the name of HedgeHunter (pictured left) out of the hat.

The Irish trained horse won the National three years ago and now nearing the end of his career many will wonder if he's to go out on a high.

At 25/1 he's an attractive price though the favourite for this year's race is Cloudy Lane and when you look at the pedigree you can see why.

With outstanding recent form, this horse is well ahead of the handicapper and has exceptional claims. Donald McCain is the trainer and it was his father who saddled the great Red Rum. The only negative is that he is unraced at Aintree.

Reporters in the States have gone pun-tastic in their praise of the latest blockbuster film to hit the big screen.

The gambling drama "21" they say 'hit the jackpot in it's first weekend opening in number one position in the US and taking in about £12 million over two days.'

So why all the fuss? Well for one the film is based on a true gambling story and stars the Oscar winning actor Kevin Spacey.

"21" tells the story of a team of MIT whiz kids who were inspired by their professor to count cards at blackjack tables in Las Vegas Casinos and rake in massive profits.

Spacey plays the role of the student's coach in the film which is due to be released here in the UK next weekend (April 11th).

Its claimed the film is inspired by Ben Mezrich's best-seller "Bringing the house down", the true story of some Massachusetts students who took Vegas by storm in the early to mid ninties.

The film attracted much criticism in pre-production over a racial issue. Although the main characters upon which the film 21 is based were Asian-American, studio executives determined that "most of the film's actors would be white, with perhaps an Asian female."

Now though it's time to see one of gambling's most succesful and legendary dream teams return for one last hustle. It's a gambler's dream, miss it at your peril.

The Vikings meet Robin Hood in Nottingham later this year when the Norwegian poker championships are held in the Northern city.

Its the first time that the championships will be held in the UK.

The reason for the surprising relocation is that the Scandinavian nation has banned poker, terming it a "lottery".

So stringent are these regulations that poker players can face criminal proceedings - just by being found playing it.

To help transport participants, a special plane is flying direct from Oslo to Nottingham for the tournament.

At least 4,000 bookmakers' shops opened on Good Friday across Britain including almost all branches of Ladbrokes and Coral, despite there being no British horse racing.

The Church of England had called for bookmakers to donate some of the profits to anti-gambling charities.

Bookies can remain open as a result of last year's Gambling Act which allows bookies to trade every day except Christmas Day.

The Church of England joined with a number of other Christian groups who asked people not to bet.

In a statement the Church of England said: "We would encourage operators to keep their shops closed on Good Friday.

"But those who insist on opening will, we hope, undertake to donate a decent portion of their profits towards programmes of education, research and treatment aimed at checking the growth in problem gambling."

A spokesman for the Methodist Church said they would prefer people to think about the day's religious significance rather than placing bets.