Sports bodies have commissioned an academic risk assessment of the threat gambling poses to the integrity of their competitions. Football, cricket, tennis and both codes of rugby have linked up with the Central Council for Physical Recreation to engage researchers from the University of Salford's centre for the study of gambling. They will examine how betting markets might offer opportunities for corruption.

High Court judges were shown how to punt AUD 10 online on the AFL as they began hearing a challenge to laws restricting the reach of internet gambling exchange Betfair. Betfair, part owned by the Packer family, is seeking to have the court strike out West Australian laws that prohibit its residents from placing bets using the online exchange, which has based its Australian operations in Tasmania.

Brussels, Belgium: France opened talks with the European Union on Tuesday in an effort to end their dispute over gambling and consider ways to open up the French betting monopoly. The EU's head office is looking to end state monopolies on gambling in several European countries in a bid to enforce the EU's free internal market and antitrust rules. It has threatened to bring countries before the European Court of Justice if they do not reform voluntarily.

Macau (Reuters) - Macau's biggest corruption trial opened on Monday with the court hearing charges that a former top official had taken millions of dollars in kickbacks to speed up construction of the gaming haven's multi-billion-dollar casinos. Former secretary for transport and public works Ao Man-long faces 76 counts of corruption, including accepting bribes, laundering money and abuse of power, shining a spotlight on the crime feeding off Macau's boom but also fanning hopes for stronger supervision.

Las Vegas (AP) - Station Casinos has cleared its final hurdle to going private. The Las Vegas-based company's USD 5.4 billion buyout has won approval from the National Indian Gaming Commission, according to regulatory filings submitted Friday. The Indian commission's approval clears the way for the $ 90 per share buyout to close early next week, possibly by Tuesday, the filing said. Station agreed in February to a buyout offer by an investor group that includes members of the company's founding family.

The Swedish head of online betting firm Unibet on Thursday called for an end to the French state's gaming monopoly, attacking the laws under which he is being investigated for illegal activities as "obsolete." Petter Nylander is currently on bail after being arrested in the Netherlands last month in a case that has been criticised by the European Commission, which is in favour of greater competition in the sports betting market.

After police arrested hundreds of people in sting operations targeting unauthorized gambling ships operating off the Eilat coast, prosecutors have agreed to a plea bargain with the owners of one of the ships, underworld figure Francois Abutbul, Channel 2 revealed Wednesday evening. Abutbul will agree to complete six months of community service and pay a fine of some NIS 100,000, a mere fraction of the ship's total profits, Channel 2 said.

More than 100 of America's top poker players descended on Washington earlier this week to lobby politicians to rescind the controversial law that aims to prohibit online gambling. Repercussions continue apace from the legislation, which last year sent UK betting enterprises such as PartyGaming scurrying back across the Atlantic and sparked huge falls in their shares. Earlier this week the World Trade Organisation and the US announced that they needed more time to work out the envisaged billions of dollars worth of compensation, as the ban breaks global trade rules.

Washington (AP) - Aiming to rein in the booming Indian gambling industry, the government is trying to make sure electronic bingo machines at tribal casinos can't masquerade as Las Vegas-style slots. Slot machines are more lucrative for tribes and more attractive to players, but they are subject to state approval and limits. Video bingo isn't. The basic difference between the two is that slot machines involve a gambler interacting only with a single machine, whereas video bingo requires gamblers to play each other over a linked network.

The Casino Association of South Africa (Casa) called on the Gauteng legislature’s economic affairs committee to take back to the drawing board the National Gambling Amendment Bill, saying it required more research on the nature of taxes that could be charged to institutions operating internet gambling. The roadshow for submissions on the bill is nearing an end and casino licence holders are putting pressure on the provincial legislatures to grant them automatic licences to operate internet gambling.

Although a state law authorizing new casinos faces a court challenge, state officials are moving ahead with preparations for expanded gambling anyway. The agency responsible for regulating gaming in the state has hired seven new employees, including four executive staff members, and is in the process of adding seven more, spokesman Mike Deines said. In all, the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission could grow by a total of 25 full-time employees by next July, a 37 percent increase above its full-time staffing levels last year.

The Pechanga Band of Mission Indians and the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, two tribes that are the target of proposed ballot initiatives to limit casino gambling, filed lawsuits Wednesday to block the referenda. The lawsuits allege that the backers of the initiatives did not have signatures supporting the measures certified on time by the state. Pechanga, Morongo and two other tribes signed new agreements with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger allowing them to increase the number of slot machines in their casinos.