Casino Bingo UK News

Author: Melinda Varley - Source: Mad.co.uk

Spirit Advertising has created a new campaign for online gaming site Foxy Bingo and chosen glamour model Katie Price, aka Jordan, to be the face of the brand.

As the new face of the bingo site, Katie has been used to boost the Foxy brand and women’s online gaming category.

The print campaign will break this week with ads in women’s magazines followed by a national press campaign launch next week.

The ad shows a comic-like story of Katie blowing her nose and feeling sick in bed. Not knowing what else she can do, Foxy suggests to Jordan she log on to foxybingo.com. The last frame shows Katie sitting up in bed with a beaming smile saying, “Yes, a whole morning on foxybingo.com.’

The aim of the campaign is to attract more women bingo players to the site by building on the success of the Foxy character developed in 2006 and adding a new story via the glamour model.

The print campaign is the first in a burst of advertising for the brand by Spirit, including a television campaign due to launch also next week on the Foxy Bingo network.

Katie has proved to be a premium brand previously fronting Young Attitude lingerie brand’s D-G Cup range.

Although her CD sales may have bombed, her autobiography, Being Jordan, has become a number one seller in the UK.

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Ryan McLane - Source: http://www.casinocitytimes.com/news/article.cfm?contentID=163616

NETeller co-founder John LeFebvre was released Wednesday morning on $5 million personal-recognizance bail.

The 55-year old Malibu, Calif. resident was arrested Monday and faces money-laundering charges for his role in the founding and operating of e-wallet service NETeller.

LeFebvre, who appeared before a Los Angeles magistrate Wednesday morning, was forced to surrender his passport and agree to pre-trial supervision. He must remain in the central district of California unless traveling to southern New York to face trial, said Rebekah Carmichael, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York City.

Fellow NETeller founder Stephen Lawrence, also arrested Monday on the same charges, appeared in a U.S. Virgin Islands court Tuesday, Carmichael said.

Carmichael did not say if Lawrence was offered or posted bail.

Both men are scheduled to appear in the Southern District of New York Court on January 26, Carmichael said.

In other NETeller news, the largest online gambling “e-wallet” indefinitely suspended its popular “Instacash” option to U.S. players.

The Instacash option allowed online gamblers the ability to access electronic funds transfers (EFT) without having them first clear their financial institution.

Instacash was popular with online gamblers because players could use the deposited money instantly for a service charge. Traditional deposit methods force players to wait as many as 3-5 business days for the EFT to clear.

NETeller has also suspended the player’s ability to fund their accounts instantly via credit card transactions. According to NETeller’s Web site, players can still deposit money using traditional methods.

All withdrawal methods will continue to function normally, NETeller announced.

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Jeevan Vasagar - Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/gambling/story/0,,1991968,00.html

The chairman of Europe’s biggest poker club was convicted yesterday of contravening the Gaming Act in a verdict that heralds a clampdown on unlicensed poker clubs in the UK.

Derek Kelly, 46, will have to pay legal fees of more than £23,000 and faces the closure of his club, the Gutshot, in Clerkenwell, central London. However, a judge said he would not be sent to prison.

Kelly had charged an entrance fee of £22 to more than 12,000 punters who came to play the card game. He also took a levy from winnings.

Under the law, clubs cannot rake off a percentage from players’ stakes or winning pots on games of chance. The only way to host commercial poker games legally is to hold a casino licence, though this is prohibitively expensive for small poker clubs.

Kelly said poker was a game of skill, like bridge, but the prosecution insisted there was an element of chance as the deck was shuffled before play began.

Outside Snaresbrook crown court, east London, Kelly said: “Me and Barry Martin [the club’s chief executive] will continue to campaign to have poker played among normal people and not casinos.”

Kelly, of Greystones, County Wicklow, in the Irish Republic, was convicted of illegally charging a levy on the winnings and illegally charging a participation fee, in breach of the 1968 Gaming Act.

A Gambling Commission spokesman said: “Poker is a very popular game, but without proper supervision it can rapidly escalate into a high-risk, volatile activity, as well as create opportunities for criminal exploitation and cheating.”

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Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6264099.stm

Poker requires its players to absorb a “staggering” amount of information, a court has heard.

Speaking at Snaresbrook Crown Court, Derek Kelly, 46, is accused of running unlicensed games at the Gutshot Club in Clerkenwell, central London.

He denies two counts of contravening the 1968 Gaming Act which states a licence is needed to host games of chance but not games of skill.

Mr Kelly, from Co Wicklow, Ireland, also compared poker to a game of life.

‘Psychological skills’.

He is accused of organising poker games at his club - one on 7 December 2004, in which a levy was charged on winnings, and another on 27 January 2005, in which a fee was charged to take part.

“Without being ridiculous I think there is a reasonable argument to compare poker to the game of life,” Mr Kelly, a father-of-three said.

“It is a wonderful way of making friends, it is a wonderful way of making conversation, it is a wonderful way of challenging yourself, so I get a lot out of poker.

He said once the cards were dealt, they were there as a tool for players.

“It doesn’t happen over one hand, that is like saying Wimbledon is decided on the first serve, it won’t be decided on the first serve. Poker is about the long game,” Mr Kelly said.

Earlier, evidence was heard from Nic Szeremeta, 63, from Torquay, Devon, who publishes a poker magazine and is an expert in the game.

He had told the court he believed the level of skills required to play poker were “far higher” than bridge.

He also said the skills included an ability to assess mathematical probabilities, strategic and observational skills and psychological skills such as being able to read the body language of opponents.

“The poker game is not just playing cards. The poker game is getting to know the strengths and weaknesses and mannerisms and playing styles of the other people at the table,” he said

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By Alex Berry - source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/15/nvegas15.xml

Plans for Las Vegas-style supercasinos in Britain could lure vulnerable groups such as children into gambling, according to a leaked police report.

The document, written by Det Insp Darren Warner of Scotland Yard’s Gaming Unit, also warned that they could lead to an increase in crime and anti-social behaviour.

Obtained by Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, it was commissioned by the consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as part of a study into the social impact of such a venue at the Millennium Dome.

The site of Britain’s first supercasino is expected to be revealed in a fortnight, with the Dome a frontrunner.

In the report, Mr Warner gave the idea a “cautious welcome” but also warned that the advent of new casinos alongside the recent relaxation of drinking laws could be a “poor combination”.

He expressed fears about “increased access to gambling for children and vulnerable groups”.

“This will happen as it’s in every developer’s manifesto,” he said. “The ‘destination casinos’ are offering other family-oriented activities.

“Children will be taken to a gambling resort — even if they are kept 50 yards away in another type of play room until they graduate at 18.”

Mr Warner also said that competition with nightclubs and other venues might force casinos to go back on undertakings that entertainment “would not interfere with gaming or be of a sexual nature”.

Hugo Swire, the shadow culture secretary, said: “This is a hugely critical report by the Met’s most senior expert on gaming issues.

“Det Insp Warner raises concerns about increases in crime, problem gambling and an increase in teenage gambling, all issues that the -Government’s gambling reforms were supposed to address.”

In October it emerged that the final PwC report warned that the casino could lead to addictive gambling.

A British Medical Association report is tomorrow expected to call for more money for the NHS to treat the rising number of people with a gambling addiction.

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