Internal Affairs has forced Christchurch Casino to exit the Internet gambling business, but let the company continue operating its two online casinos and bingo and poker sites for seven months after deciding they breached the Gambling Act. This gave the company time to sell the business as a going concern to overseas owners. Christchurch Casino launched its first online casino, Kiwicasino.com, in 2000 and later expanded its Net-gaming activities to include a portfolio of sister websites offering online bingo and poker.

The Social Development and Human Security Ministry will ask the Cabinet to establish the National Gambling Control Commission. The new commission will be entrusted with controlling all gambling activities and tackling gambling-related problems. "The commission will also campaign against vices and gambling," Social Development and Human Security Minister Paiboon Wattanasiritham said Monday.

Legislation introduced today will ensure that the Gambling Act operates as intended, Internal Affairs Minister Rick Barker said. “The Gambling Act is large and complex and as is common with new legislation of this nature, during its implementation a number of issues have been identified requiring improvement. The Gambling Amendment Bill (No 2) contains many technical amendments and some minor policy enhancements to clarify the law and remove any uncertainties,” said Rick Barker.

The gambling industry has bowed to government pressure and agreed that the logos of betting companies should not be printed on children's replica football shirts. A new advertising code to be announced this week will commit gambling companies which sponsor Premiership clubs to remove their branding from children's kit. It will also restrict advertising before the 9pm watershed.

The regulatory body for casinos, bingo, gaming machines and lotteries in Great Britain, the Gambling Commission, has announced that the numbers of people going online to place a bet in the UK is on the rise. The Gambling Commission made the announcement upon releasing the findings of its latest survey carried out in June. This examination found that 8.6 percent of UK adults had taken part in at least one form of online gambling during the previous month, up from 7.4 percent last year.

Concerned casino workers are seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Patrick Manning to once and for all resolve issues relating to the regularisation or proposed elimination of the local gaming and gambling industry. The union representing the workers, Union of Members Clubs and Lottery Workers, said this request comes on the heels of several meetings with Minister in the Ministry of Finance Conrad Enill which they saw as inconclusive.

Students will learn about gambling addiction as part of a new A-level course. The move, by one of the country's biggest exam boards, is being billed as an attempt to train a new generation of psychologists to deal with the UK's growing addiction to betting, fruit machines and gaming tables. The course will focus on the origins and influence of the gambling industry, why people sink into addiction and possible cures.

Sacramento - A coalition of labor and horse racing interests announced Friday that it will ask voters to pull the plug on a huge tribal gambling expansion negotiated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The owner of two racetracks and the hotel workers' union will team up on a campaign that could put four new initiatives on the February ballot and cost tens of millions of dollars. Some tribes with casinos that are not part of the expansion said they might join the effort.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning has insisted that the gambling industry in the country will be shut down and has assured that the thousands of workers who will be affected, will be given alternative employment. "I guarantee them we are not putting anyone out on the streets, we will close the industry in such a way, there will be training and to ensure that every workers in the industry is given an alternative job," said Manning at a meeting...

Linden Lab, hallowed creator of the Second Life virtual world, has announced that all in-world casinos and miscellaneous gambling joints are herewith to be shut down. That means that the large chunk of users that enjoyed using in-world casinos and betting Linden Dollars on events both inside and outside the game world will now have nothing left to do.

Neteller announced this week it will be changing its services in the Israeli market. The company will no longer be processing online gambling transactions from residents of Israel. "Recent legal developments have increased the uncertainty regarding the legality around certain activities related to online gambling in the Israeli market," the company said in a press release.

Fewer Canadians are gambling but those who do spend more, creating a veritable jackpot for governments, a recent Statistics Canada report shows. Net revenue from government-run lotteries, video lottery terminals (VLTs) and casinos rose to USD 13.3 billion in 2006 from USD 2.7 billion in 1992. Even so, the 69 per cent of households that reported at least one gambling activity in 2005 was a slight decline from 74 per cent five years earlier.