A bill has recently been presented in the House of Representatives, that aims to modify several articles of the law 26,215, related to the funding of political parties. Such project proposes to ban the contribution of companies or people that operate games of chance. The project was presented by deputies of the party Espacio Solidaridad e Igualdad, Leonardo Gorbacz, Nélida Belous, Delia Bisutti and Verónica Benas.

With the State Treaty on Gambling (Glücksspielstaatsvertrag – ITG 2008), aimed at maintaining the gambling monopoly for lotteries and sports bets, the German Federal States decided to take radical measures against new forms of products. Pursuant to section 4 subsection 4 ITG 2008, the operation and brokering of public gambling on the internet is therefore prohibited2. In the meantime, it has also become apparent that the Federal States’ supervisory authorities are looking for new ways of actually implementing this prohibition in 2009.

Year after year at Christmastime, the movie “Scrooged”, based on Charles Dickens’ story “A Christmas Carol”, flickers across the screens in Germany. In this US comedy, the unscrupulous and stubborn TV producer Frank (Bill Murray), is visited in succession by three ghosts - the ghosts of the past, present and future. The three mirrors Frank is shown by the ghosts do not show anything positive, and at the end of the film they bring him to repentance. Let us now take the liberty of holding a mirror to the much-discussed State Treaty on Gambling and its advocates, and of taking stock.

With Russian regulations constricting gambling to just four cities by mid-summer, operators are looking for new opportunities in South America, reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. Last year a bill passed in Russia’s Parliament to shut down casinos in major cities across the country by the summer. The plan is to close Moscow and St. Petersburg casinos by July 1 and create four gambling areas, including creating a Vegas-like city near the Azov Sea.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Clubs Australia believes that Internet gambling companies have an unfair advantage over their land based counterparts in Australia. They are calling on the government to review their policies when it comes to online casinos. "Standardizing gambling laws would mean online operators would be banned from accepting bets placed with a credit card and offering gambling inducements such as AUD 1,000 in free bets...

Though the government has lifted the ban on gambling on Taiwan’s outlying islands, much remains to be done before a casino industry takes off, as the ventures require major infrastructure improvements and may prove unprofitable, analysts and officials said yesterday. The proposal to legalize gambling cleared the legislature on Monday, but restricted casino facilities to outlying islands as part of an attempt to boost tourism.

UK Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe has unveiled plans to introduce a tax on the gambling industry to pay for the treatment of problem gamblers. It would require bookmakers and other gaming companies to pay more than USD 7.4 million a year in order to fund education programmes, help lines and research into problem gambling. According to a report in The Independent newspaper this week, the voluntary donation scheme that has been in place since 2002 has consistently fallen short...

The notion of introducing gambling casinos to Okinawa has been bantered about, discussed and argued about for more than six years, and neither proponents or opponents are willing to budge on their positions. Opposition to building casinos and casino resorts has centered on negative impacts of gambling, alcoholism and detrimental effects on children, and Board of Education and Parent Teacher Associations continue to press the case against having them.

Macau, China - The laid-off worker from Hunan province hung back from the baccarat table as his wife placed bets. He sipped water and explained how he justified traveling to this former Portuguese colony on China's southern coast -- the only place in the country where gambling is legal -- and blowing USD 450 in savings there. "We are not rich, so we took a train to Guangzhou first, then we took a bus to Zhuhai," bordering Macau, said Zhang, 50, who would give only one name.

GamblingAnalysts.eu, working as a long-time scientific research institute and gambling analyst in Europe, finished a study on the gambling industry in North Cyprus. Until now, no such research has been executed in North Cyprus. The gambling industry – casinos, (sports) betting, internet & mobile betting – is at this moment regulated and professionalized in North Cyprus. New serious players have entered the market and at present there are 23 casinos!

Visitors to ICEi, the remote gaming sector within the 2009 International Gaming Expo, will be part of what is already certain to be a landmark event as record after record tumbles even prior to the doors opening (27-29 January, Earls Court Exhibition Centre). Over subscribed as early as the summer, ICEi will feature more exhibitors (90) from more jurisdictions (25) and occupy more stand space (2,750 square metres) than at any time in the event’s history.

"The biggest and most important exhibition that we attend each year, a vital part of our commercial strategy" is how Jens Halle, managing director of Austrian Gaming Industries GmbH, chose to preview London’s forthcoming International Gaming Expo (incorporating ICE and ICEi) which will host more than 300 companies from 48 nations across January 27th–29th at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre.