Following a sustained attack from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) regarding its restricted Internet gambling market, French officials have initiated talks in Brussels to consider the opening up of the industry to foreign competitors. A spokesperson for the French government said it wanted to show they were open to discussions. Meanwhile, gambling monopoly Française des Jeux said that talks would give them the opportunity to put an end to the “unfair competition from internet gambling sites”.

Boston - Gov. Deval Patrick is preparing to unveil a proposal as early as Monday to bring three full-scale casinos to Massachusetts, a plan he hopes will generate hundreds of millions in revenues and thousands of jobs. Gambling opponents are already mobilizing against the plan, which they say won’t be the cash cow Patrick hopes and will end up costing the state money while destroying its character.

By a vote of 7-0, the Metro Council voted Wednesday to file a lawsuit and use any legal means necessary to get information about the economic impact of Pinnacle Entertainment’s proposed riverboat casino project in south Baton Rouge. Pinnacle had released an economic impact study in May, but declined through its lawyers to release a revised study that it recently submitted to the Louisiana Gaming Control Board.

American billionaire and gaming tycoon Sheldon Adelson said Wednesday he wanted to set up variations of Las Vegas-style strips around the world, with Asia alone having room for several more casinos. "What I'd like to do now is different mini-Las Vegas's, I call them, in different parts of the world," Adelson said after receiving a lifetime achievement award for enterprise at the Forbes Global CEO conference in Singapore.

Tallahassee, Florida (AP) - Republican Gov. Charlie Crist and the Seminole Indians are close to a deal allowing the tribe's casinos to offer Las Vegas-style slot machines -- possibly even card games -- with the potential to generate more than USD100 million a year for the state. Crist, who took office in January, has made progress in negotiations with the tribe, unlike his predecessor, Gov. Jeb Bush. Bush adamantly opposed gambling and was at an impasse in talks when he left office.

Johannesburg - Online gambling in SA came one step closer to being regulated, with the passing of the National Gambling Amendment Bill in Parliament yesterday. The Bill, introduced by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), aims to legalise Internet gambling by creating legislation for the licensing of interactive gambling activities. In terms of the proposed legislation, software vendors providing online gambling platforms would have to obtain a national licence for key staff...

Following on the successful purchase of two key gaming industry event/publication companies by Clarion Events, a merger of those into a single entity called Clarion Gaming began on September 10 and be complete by early 2008. ATE produces the major London exhibitions ICE and ICEi, along with The Betting Show and other conference events. In July 2006, ATE was joined by sister company, River City Group. Together they produce the European I-Gaming Congress and Expo (EiG) and BetMarkets.

The Economy Commission of the House of Legislators agreed on the proposal for the Tax Reform of the federal government in order to add a 20% fee on the performance of bets and draws. The project of the report, ready for approval next week in San Lázaro, indicates that the gambling industry with bets and draws neither brings society the direct and indirect benefits it demands, nor it fully compensates the associated costs.

London (Reuters) - The British government said on Monday it was reviewing taxes paid on player-to-player games in casinos, such as poker, where gamblers' so-called participation fees are subject to VAT but not gaming duty. Monday's government announcement came in a statement in which the Treasury said ministers had made several incorrect statements relating to gaming duty in casinos since April 30.

Tallahassee -- Gov. Charlie Crist's goal to seal a gambling deal soon with the Seminole Tribe of Florida has hit a major snag: the Legislature. House Speaker Marco Rubio laid down the gauntlet in a letter to Crist Monday, demanding that lawmakers be allowed to approve or reject the proposed agreement between the governor and the tribe and warning that if the compact allows games now outlawed in Florida, GOP leaders "won't support it."

Atlantic City will soon become the next testing ground for what many are calling the next generation of slot machine technology. The New Jersey Casino Control Commission last week approved testing of server-supported gaming in Atlantic City casinos. It means that tests will now be conducted of systems that download game content and peripherals from a central server to terminals on the floor. The “server-supported” gaming approved differs from “server-based” gaming in that the game logic will still reside at the slot terminals on the floor.

According to media reports from Russia, Storm International, the second largest company in Russian gambling business, will invest USD 300 million to build a casino and a network of gambling halls in Armenia. Lavrenti Gubin, Press Secretary of Storm International, says the company will build a 15-hectare gambling complex called “Shangri-La-Yerevan”. The company aims to build a five star hotel in the adjacent territory – with 200 rooms, a concert hall, trade center, restaurants as well as a night club.