The UK Government today announced its intention to introduce new legislation that would call for all remote gambling operators with British customers to obtain British licences, irrespective of where those companies are based. Clive Hawkswood, the RGA’s Chief Executive commented that: ‘Now that the Government has confirmed its intentions...

The Netherlands moves toward reforming its strict online gambling ban, with new political momentum for licensing internet poker, lotteries, and remote betting.

Proposed legislation could allow about 300 Atlantic City casino regulators to join a union. The state Senate Labor Committee is scheduled to consider a bill that would allow Casino Control Commission employees to drop their "confidential employee" designation and unionize. Under current state law, the designation is for public employees whose jobs or employment knowledge would make them incompatible to join a union.

In US, Democrat politicians have vowed to roll back any legislation recently forced through by outgoing President George W Bush, which could include the rules enforcing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Barack Obama is set to become America’s 44th President in six days and the fact that the Democrat Party controls both chambers of Congress could make the Bush Administration’s late handiwork much easier to undo.

In 2006, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed into law in the United States. The law, while vague, ran several high-profile online poker rooms out of the market, including PartyPoker and Paradise Poker. Recently, Norway has followed suit, enacting its own version of the UIGEA. Poker News Daily sat down with Clive Hawkswood, the Chief Executive of the Remote Gambling Association (RGA), to learn more.

The American Gaming Association spent USD 400,000 over the third quarter of 2008 to lobby for legislation that would legalize and regulate online gambling along with other matters. According to a piece in the Boston Globe, the group’s most recent disclosure report showed that it lobbied The White House, the Department of Interior, the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service and Congress from July to September.

Legislator Octavio Martínez Vargas, president of the Tourism Commission of the Chamber of Representatives, said that, on the current sessions of the parliament, there will not be presented any initiative for the creation of a new Games and Draw Legislation. "I don’t know any document on the matter and I am sure there is not enough time to debate the issue. Maybe next year, but for the moment, in the Tourism Commission we do not have any project to be put to consultation”, he pointed.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter signed zoning legislation on Sunday that would allow for a proposed Foxwoods Casino in Center City. The action establishes a Commercial Entertainment District in the Market Street East section, including the Gallery at Market East, the shopping center that would house the casino. The district is bounded by 10th and 11th streets and Filbert and Market streets.

Saipan - The House of Representatives passed legislation to remove a restriction on the use of funds collected from Rota casino licenses and fees. The bill, now awaiting Senate action, will authorize the Rota Casino Gaming Commission to utilize collected fees even though the casinos the paid the fees are not ready to open. Under existing law, the commission is prohibited from using such funds.

After the approval by the Commission of Financial, Industrial and Commercial Development of the Chamber of Representatives of the casino legalization in Brazil, Yogonet.com talked in exclusive with Carlos Eduardo Canto, head of Febrabingo, to know his opinion on the matter. Some days ago, the Commission of Financial Development of the Chamber of Representatives approved the legalization of casinos in Brazil, What is your opinion?

Panaji - The international laws governing casinos are being studied by the State government to formulate a separate legislation covering the casinos, home minister Ravi Naik said. Naik, responding to the bill during the ongoing state legislative assembly session, said that the government is working on a separate legislation governing casinos, including off-shore casinos, as the existing law is not full-proof.

In US, officials from Congress, the White House and the Justice Department look set to face difficult questions when trade emissaries from the European Union (EU) arrive in Washington later this month. In addition, they will endeavour to discover why US-based horseracing websites taking bets operate freely with a trade conflict having vast implications for the United States banking sector on the horizon should things go badly.