A gambling industry group argued in federal court Wednesday that a new federal law against transmitting online bets outside the United States violates people's right to gamble in the privacy of their own homes. The group's lawyers said that, because filtering technology already exists to make sure children and compulsive gamblers cannot access offshore betting sites, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act serves only to stifle gambling companies.

Europe and the United States are on the brink of a major trade dispute worth billions of pounds over Washington’s decision to renege on international trade commitments and protect its domestic gambling industry by preventing foreign companies from entering the lucrative market. The Remote Gambling Association (RGA), whose members include such household names as Labrokes, Skybet, William Hill and Paddy Power, said yesterday that the US action, if unchallenged, could lead to similar protectionist behaviour in other areas.

Wagers made through mobile phones will top USD 12 billion by 2010, according to a new study recently released by Juniper Research. The growth will be mainly pushed by the burgeoning availability of mobile payment processors and liberalization of gambling laws in key markets, such as the UK. The largest growth is expected in the area of mobile lotteries, with more than 380 million people worldwide expected to be playing lotteries through their mobile phone by 2010.

Within the Law of measures to promote the information society, Spanish political party Partido Popular (PP), has presented a group of measures to regulate the online bets in the Congress. The party is in favour of the legalization on the issue in order to finish with the legal void in online gaming. Aming its proposals it aims to bring the state wide competences on the matter and bring the same powers to regional governments in cases such as advertising and the services offered to the customers.

Jan Jones, senior executive of US gaming giant Harrah's Entertainment, held talks with representatives of local authorities and NGOs in the Western town of Nova Gorica, where Harrah's plans to build a gaming resort with Slovenian gaming company Hit, Slovene Press Agency reports. Plans for the EUR 750m facility were in the focus of separate talks between Jones and Nova Gorica Mayor Mirko Brulc, with the latter saying he was pleased with the answers he got.

The Nevada Gaming Commission on Thursday unanimously rejected a concept of allowing casino customers to use their debit cards to buy ticket in-ticket out vouchers that can be gambled on slot machines. The proposal, which had been requested through a partnership between Global Cash Access and slot machine giant International Game Technology, was denied by commissioners for several reasons. The most prominent concern by the five-member panel was they didn't see the need for that particular system to be established.

Victorian Gaming Minister Tony Robinson has dismissed claims a deal has been struck to award a state lotteries licence to global gaming consortium Intralot. The Victorian government is in the middle of a gaming tender that could see Tattersall's lose its lottery monopoly in the state, if Intralot is allowed to enter the market. The tender process has attracted several controversies, and is the subject of an upper house inquiry.

Brussels, Belgium: Belgium's gaming commission took international gambling Web site Unibet to task on Wednesday over its game allowing gamblers to place bets on when the country's political crisis will come to an end. The commission said it filed a complaint with the Brussels prosecutors office claiming Unibet's game of chance on when Belgium's deeply divided political leaders will form a new national government was against the law. Elections were held June 10.

Pinnacle Entertainment announced that the Louisiana Gaming Control Board has approved its plans for a hotel and gaming entertainment project on more than 222.5 hectares of land that the company owns or has under contract in Baton Rouge. The master-planned development requires various other approvals, including a local-option referendum in East Baton Rouge Parish, which the company will seek to put on the ballot in February 2008, and adherence to certain conditions imposed by the Louisiana Gaming Control Board.

Britons are no more addicted to gambling than they were eight years ago, a surprising new report has found. The survey by the Gambling Commission said around 32 million people took part in some type of gambling activity in the past year - a million down on the 33 million who gambled in 1999. If the number of people playing just the National Lottery are discounted, the findings showed the number of gamblers betting in other types of games had increased by 2% from 46% to 48%.

Macao (Xinhua) -- The government of the Macao Special Administrative Region has collected 18.36 billion patacas (2.295 billion U.S. dollars) in direct gaming taxes in the first eight months of the year, seeing a notable year-on-year rise of 47.2 percent. The statistics issued Wednesday by the Finance Services Bureau (FSB) showed that the gaming taxes accounted for 73.4 percent of the government total revenue in the period.

The owners of all four of the state's pari-mutuel race tracks will be among the bidders for the three commercial gaming licenses proposed by Gov. Deval Patrick earlier this week. Raynham Park, Plainridge Racecourse in Plainville, Suffolk Downs in East Boston and Wonderland Greyhound Park in Revere all said they plan to bid for the 10-year licenses, estimated to go for at least USD 200 million.