Gambling News Headlines
The past week has seen an Industry Poker Record Broken and New German Internet Gambling Laws introduced which aren't too pleasing for the online gaming companies as competition for luctrative markets heats up.
Also a new patent application for and Automatic Poker Table and BackgammonMasters Bets on Terminals.
For more detail on the biggest internet gambling stories of the past few days, read on.
Industry Poker Record Broken
Leading online poker room, Poker Stars announced this week that it had broken the record of simultaneous players on its site. According to the casino, over 20,000 players at one given time could be found at its site, over 3,000 more than the previous record held by Party Poker. While other sites are bewailing the impact of the UIGEA on their player traffic, it seems that Poker Stars has only benefited by the US anti-gambling laws. While the publicly trading Party Poker was forced to exit the US market in 2006, PokerStars.com remained to continue to serve those players seeking a good alternative.
Online Companies Shirk New German Gambling Laws
Online companies, who have a strong foothold in the German gambling market, have vowed to stay put and challenge the new anti-gambling laws that kicked in at the start of the New Year. All 16 of Germany’s states voted in the new legislation that could mean a serious blow for online players. Under the new law, online gambling companies may not advertise their products and ISPs may block these sites from access to German players. But companies such as Fluxx and Bwin, perhaps spurred on by the European Union’s official condemnation of the new laws, have said that they view the legislation as ‘illegal’ and have adopted a business-as-usual approach.
BackgammonMasters Bets on Terminal
A new agreement between leading online casino site, BackgammonMasters.com and the London-based Betting Terminal will see the former providing its popular poker software to Betting Terminal, to be distributed among a wide number of land-based gambling machines across the world. Gamblers in Croatia will soon be able to access BackgammonMasters’ game lobby and play its version of Texas Holdem and other games from over 100 betting terminals in public entertainment venues in the country. The deal will soon be expanded to other countries.
US Patent for Automatic Poker Table
Lightning Poker, creator, developer and distributor of automated poker tables, has earned a US patent for its product. The table, with a unique table monitor that enables players to view all the relevant information about the game, is distributed exclusively by industry leader Shuffle Master. Automated poker tables are becoming more and more available at land-casinos throughout the world. They are popular among players searching for a gaming experience that is faster than the norm, especially those who are used to the action-pace of online poker rooms.
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