When the government went chest thumping about it’s resilience against the looming global economic downturn, gamblers who seem to have seen it coming were finally proved right this week, contrary to what opinion polls predicted earlier.

The governments censure of the online gambling group Centrebet: which placed wagers on the matter, has been proved to be baseless as the economy has shrunk in the two last quarters in a row. The big gamblers who bet that this would surely catch up with Aussies are smiling to the last tooth as they collect their winnings according to the periodical Monsters and Critics.

Centrebet financial analyst Neil Evans retorted that the winning bet was always on the slump of the economy, and shrewd gamblers had always maintained their doubts on the billion dollar stimulus package’s ability to keep the economy from tottering.

Evans remarked, “The positive aspect is that a majority of gamblers voted for the recession… together with being psychologically set for what was obviously coming down on us.”

The government seems to be beating a quick retreat on its earlier assertions about the direction the economy would go with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd accepting he was mistaken and the economy will no doubt slump in 2009. This all comes after strong criticism of Centrebet by the government, on claims they were being opportunistic and being outright reckless because it seemed to capitalize on anticipation of human suffering occasioned by sackings, mortgage foreclosures and bankruptcies.

The British Broadcasting Corporation reported Monday that GamCare, a charity funded by the U.K.’s gambling industry, plans to open Britain’s first gambling-addiction clinic in southwest England. The clinic will begin operating next month at the Broadway Lodge Treatment Centre in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset and will exist strictly as a charity service.

The clinic will offer four- to eight-week-long treatment for compulsive gambling to 30 individuals per year. Those admitted into the program will have the opportunity to reside at Broadway Lodge’s Weston-super-Mare facility while participating in courses aimed at curbing their negative behavior.

According to Broadway Lodge chief executive Brian Dudley, GamCare chose to collaborate with the Somerset organization because of its national accreditation and proven track record of helping those afflicted with alcohol, drug and other serious addictions.

“There are many people suffering from gambling addiction who cannot find or fund the treatment at the moment,” Dudley said. “I think it’s been proven that during a recession gambling does increase and money needs to be put aside to help those people who fall on hard times.

“This service will come at a time when it is most needed.”

Monday, more than 1,000 people joined in a “backward march” in Taipei to protest a bill that lifts the country’s ban on casino construction. The bill, which Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan passed in January, will allow outside companies to build casinos on the country’s offshore islands if a majority of voters approve of doing so in local referendums.

The march began in Taipei’s Liberty Square and progressed to President Ma Ying-jeou’s offices. At the Jingfu Gate, protestors marched backward to signify the backward progress they feel the new pro-casino policy will cause.

The march was in response to a recent decision from members of Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang party to limit the number of offshore casinos to two. Party members decided that they would not issue a third license until 10 years after issuing the initial two.

Kuomintang members did so, a government report said, to “avoid competition and reduce possible social impacts.” However, protestors at Monday’s march do not feel the concession goes far enough. One activist, Buddhist Master Shih Chao-hui, argued that the total monetary cost of a pro-casino policy would outweigh its $63 million in projected gains.

“According to U.S. studies, 17 percent of gamblers would become addicted and it takes $18,000 to treat each of them,” Shih said. “Based on the figures, if 4.5 million gamblers in Penghu are from Taiwan, then we will need to spend ($1.3 billion) — plus other welfare spending and costs — to treat them.”

Despite these concerns, protestors worry, the government may still proceed with a referendum on whether to build a casino in the Penghu archipelago as early as this year.

Supermodel Bar Refaeli broke more than a few sports books’ odds Monday when David Letterman announced that she would be this year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition cover model. The 23-year-old Israeli has appeared in the annual bikini extravaganza three years running. But many favored Aussie vixen Jessica Hart for the coveted spot because last year Refaeli let slip weeks in advance that she’d been chosen.

Sports Illustrated is highly secretive about who will appear on the issue’s cover and punished Refaeli for her loose lips by giving the 2008 cover to Marissa Miller. Apparently the spoiler roused so much ire from the magazine’s editorial staff that Refaeli thought her agent was playing a practical joke this time around.

“They just invited me to the agency and told me I had an audition,” Refaeli told Time magazine. “My agent got me into his office and everyone was there, and a camera crew and posters of the cover. My first thought was just like, you know, why is this here? Why are you tricking me? I was speechless for a few long minutes - which doesn’t happen often.”

Bar Refaeli has wasted no time rolling her new position as S.I.’s queen supreme into several new advertising deals. One marketing campaign unveiled Tuesday features her scantily clad likeness and the Sports Illustrated logo on the hull of a Southwest Airlines 737. Meanwhile, the release of her pre-cover-model work on British retailer Marks & Spencer’s Valentine’s Day lingerie collection neatly coincides with the announcement.

This isn’t to say, though, that the press is being entirely kind to Refaeli. Many are calling Southwestern “hypocritical” for depicting her in a bikini after famously reprimanding passenger Kyla Ebbert for dressing provocatively. Some are also criticizing her for reportedly breaking it off with main squeeze Leonardo DiCaprio after the star campaigned heavily to win her her place on the cover.

Whatever the case, though, for now at least Refaeli seems imperturbable.

“My mom cried when she heard,” Refaeli told the Today Show. “My dad said he is the proudest father in the world. They’re all very happy. They know that I’ve been wanting this forever.”

The Russian Poker Tour’s three-day inaugural event in St. Petersburg concluded last week with Oleg Suntsov capturing the series’ first ever first-place prize. Suntsov walked away nearly $300,000 richer after beating out the $1 million Texas Holdem tournament’s 201 other entrants, including Team PokerStars pros Ivan Demidov, Vanessa Rousso and Alex Kravchenko .

Suntsov, a St. Petersburg native, began last Sunday as the nine-person final table’s short stack. Chip leader Dimitru Gaina received the most attention early on as the other players jockeyed to supplant him, and Suntsov took advantage of the fact to make himself nearly invisible. He avoided the frenzy as much as possible and only played a few choice hands to double up twice before the break.

By the time the dust settled, it was Suntsov in heads-up with Belarusian player Vadim Markushevsky. Having played so conservatively, Suntsov led Markushevsky in chips and was able wear the Belarusian down over the next several hands. The final draw saw Markushevsky push after the turn on a K, 9 top-paired against an all-babies board of 6, 9, 3, 5o. Suntsov, in turn, followed him in with a well-concealed pair of queens that went nuclear when the river showed a deuce.

The St. Petersburg tournament kicks off the most recent addition to proprietary sponsor PokerStars.com’s ever-growing list of regional circuits. The RPT’s next event will be held in Moscow Feb. 22 to 28.
Final Results for the 2009 RPT St. Petersburg Open:

1. Oleg Suntsov – $296,635
2. Vadim Markushevsky – $152,816
3. Alexander Pantukhin – $89,890
4. Sergey Solntsev – $66,502
5. Bulat Bikmetov – $53,928
6. Sergey Popuk – $44,931
7. Anatoly Ozhenilok – $35,961
8. Dimitru Gaina – $26,964
9. Evgeny Zaytsev – $17,966

Tuesday, the Kentucky Court of Appeals overturned a Franklin County Circuit Court decision that allowed the state to seize 141 online-gambling URLs. The appeal panel handed down a 2-1 opinion stating that URLs cannot be considered gambling devices.

According to the panel’s majority opinion, the seizure could only have been legal if a criminal court had first established that the sites’ owners were guilty of illegal activity and only if existing state laws included URLs in their definition of “gambling devices.”

However, the panel said, even if the state’s government did enact such a law it could lead to indiscriminate seizure regardless of a URL’s use and would therefore be unconstitutional.

“Suffice it to say that, given the exhaustive argument both in brief and oral form as to the nature of an Internet domain name, it stretches credulity to conclude that a series of numbers, or Internet address, can be said to constitute a ‘machine or any mechanical or other device … designed and manufactured primarily for use in connection with gambling,’” Judge Michelle Keller wrote in the majority opinion. “We are thus convinced that the trial court clearly erred in concluding that the domain names can be construed to be gambling devices subject to forfeiture.”

The decision answers an appeal filed by the Interactive Gaming Council and the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association. The two organizations have represented the 141 domain names’ owners since circuit-court proceedings commenced last year.

Gov. Steve Beshear’s office instigated the legal battle in August when it filed a lawsuit against the domain names’ owners. According to the document, the named gambling sites violated of the federal Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 and therefore violated the state’s laws.

A closed hearing was held in September to finalize the complaint. At the hearing, Judge Thomas Wingate ordered the temporary seizure of all 141 URLs until a later hearing could determine if the sites had moved to block access to Kentucky residents. If the domain names’ owners did not block Kentucky residents from accessing their sites, Wingate said, their URLs would be forfeit to the state.

After several continuances, Wingate ruled that permanent seizure of the URLs was legal according to a Kentucky statute that permits state confiscation of illegal “gambling devices.”

Online-gaming operators and civil-liberties organizations see the appeal panel’s decision as a decisive victory. Many - including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky - worried that the Kentucky seizure could lead to a spate of URL confiscations in other jurisdictions.

It also comes on the heels of Pennsylvania Judge Thomas James’s ruling that some forms of online poker are “skill games” that cannot be construed as “illegal gambling” according to the UIGEA. The legal definition provided by James’s decision could prevent Kentucky from taking further legal action against several sites named in its original suit because they offer online poker exclusively.

“(The appeal panel’s ruling) is a very important decision for anyone doing business on the Internet, ” IGC attorney Jeff Ifrah said. “We hope this will prevent misguided state officials from considering litigation against online industries located outside state boundaries. While this proceeding was ill-conceived, the judicial process was permitted to properly function, for which we are grateful.”

Wednesday, Kentucky’s Justice and Public Safety Secretary, J. Michael Brown, filed a notice of appeal with the state Supreme Court in response to the ruling.

Tuesday, Dublin online-casino programmer CryptoLogic Ltd. announced the release of its latest casino bonus pack, which includes two new online slots: “Spiderman Revelations” and “Dragon Sword.”

“Spiderman Revelations” is a 25-line slot that accepts a maximum bet of $125. Its theme is based on Marvel Comics’ “Spiderman” series and features three jackpot levels, as well as several bonus games.

In one “Spiderman Revelations” bonus game, players win bonus multipliers for each train commuter they rescue from Dr. Octopus. Players who rescue enough commuters can win up to 5,000 times their original bets.

The second game in CryptoLogic’s new package, “Dragon Sword,” is a high-fantasy themed, 25-line slot that accepts a maximum bet of $500. It offers a 15 free-spin bonus as well as a multiplier that gives players 6,000 times their initial bets.

Other notable “Dragon Sword” features include two bonus games – one of which triggers when three flashing swords line up. Players then choose between five treasure chests and win bonus multipliers for every “golden sword” they find. After they’ve chosen three chests an animated sequence follows in which the game’s knight character battles a dragon.

The final feature of the bonus pack is an update for CryptoLogic’s “Atlantic City Blackjack.” According to the company’s press release, the update improves the game’s graphics and adds auto-betting and auto-strategy options.

“CryptoLogic promised more innovative games, more often - and we take this commitment seriously,” CryptoLogic vice president Justin Thouin said. “Even with the most acclaimed Internet casino software on the market, CryptoLogic continues to break new ground, delivering exceptional experiences to players and profits to our licensees.”

All three games are currently available on InterCasino.com and, CryptoLogic said, will “be live on other sites… in the near future.”

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office announced Friday that it is investigating over a dozen Korean baseball players in connection with illegal online gambling. According to the Korea Times, officials suspect 12-14 current players, as well as one-time player and television personality Kang Byung-kyu.

The Koran Times reported that the current players are members of two local teams and that some of those suspected by prosecutors are national stars. Authorities allege that the players gambled more than W1 billion ($677,048) playing online baccarat on illegal sites run by Korean nationals abroad. The Won (W) is South Korea’s national currency.

Officials say the sites in question are not the same as those they suspect Kang of using. Kang – a retired baseball player and host of the country’s popular “Vitamine” TV show – is one of 130 Korean nationals summonsed because of their connection with an illegal baccarat ring in the Philippines.

Prosecutors say Kang sent nearly $1.2 million to the ring, whose four operators earned approximately $100 million over an 18-month period.

Both accusations are the result of the National Police Agency’s crackdown on illegal Internet gambling in September and October, in which it rounded up over 1,681 people. Police say that 113 of those arrested operated the 729 gambling sites they shut down and that the other 1,568 were either gamblers or operated online currency exchanges.

(For more information on the arrests, please see our Sep. 30 story, “Koreans Bust Gambling Ring”).

Prosecutors plan to question the 12-14 unnamed players, saying, “We found that one player who had won a large sum stopped gambling after receiving a message from the site operator saying, ‘We believe you have cheated. If you continue gambling on our site, we will let your team manager know that you gambled here.’”

The Korea Times indicated that KBS, the network that airs “Vitamine,” is seeking to replace Kang with another host.

Thursday, U.S. cell-phone developer Hop-on announced plans to unveil cellular-gambling software for the Linux-based Android Platform. The unveiling will take place next month at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.

Android is a 3G-networked software platform and operating system, which was initially developed by Google and later became the brainchild of the Open Handset Alliance - a 34-member consortium of handset makers, application developers, mobile carriers and chipmakers. The Hop-on software will offer Android users video games as well as live-streaming baccarat, poker, blackjack and roulette and will feature open-source licensing, the company said.

The news comes as analysts name cellular gaming as one of the few silver linings in an otherwise-bleak recessionary cloud. Alexander Resources forecasts, “Mobile-gaming revenues are set to reach $16 billion.” And High Beam Research concluded, “2008 has been an encouraging year for a number of mobile gambling service providers, with many seeing total wager increasing by [sic] more than 100 percent.”

The caveat, as High Beam pointed out, is that “The rollout of such services has been limited to a few key markets, most notably the U.K.”

Yet Hop-on President and CEO Peter Michaels indicated that the company plans to cater to a limited market with its software.

“We will be bringing mobile gaming to Europe where gaming is legal, secure and regulated,” Michaels said.

Michaels went on to say, “New 3G wireless technologies and phones will play a big role in the growth of mobile gaming by making it more convenient and secure. These new networks and phones will (make) real-time, exciting player-to-player betting… possible.”

Hop-on said the Android will retail for less than $200 and that the software will “be available in any language and in any currency.”

At Wednesday’s Global Gaming Conference, industry big wigs revealed a bleaker-than-expected outlook for the land-based casino industry. According to a panel that included Harrah’s CEO Gary Loveman, IGT CEO TJ Matthews, Olympic Entertainment chairman Armin Karu and National Indian Gaming president Ernie Stevens, the current recession has many in the gambling world cutting back their expansion projects and concentrating on already-existing properties.

“The arms race that has characterized the business over the last several years might have to de-escalate,” Loveman said. “There will be a significant sea change in the way in which the balance sheets of these businesses are structured.”

Part of the problem, Loveman indicated, is that land-based operators cannot find expansion-fueling loans at reasonable interest rates due to the current credit crisis. His company, Harrah’s Corp., announced Monday that it is walking out on a $535 million contract with the state of Kansas to build a resort in Wichita.

“One of the challenges that has plagued the casino industry for a long time is that we spend money like drunken sailors,” Loveman continued. “I think the industry is going to have to get accustomed to the notion that not every project is a good project.”

Harrah’s isn’t alone in its newfound frugality. Other projects slated for 2009 that have landed on the backburner include Boyd Gaming Corp.’s $4.8 billion Echelon, a condominium tower connecting Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s Venetian and Palazzo resorts, and an additional high rise for Donald Trump’s Trump International Hotel & Tower. Analysts speculate that MGM Grand’s $9 billion CityCenter project will soon follow suit.

As for game producers like IGT, Matthews said that a cessation in casino expansion will certainly precipitate a similar shift in manufacturing and development plans. Although his company is already well on its way to introducing the next generation of server-based smart slots, Matthews noted that his Reno, Nev.-based company will instead concentrate on selling casinos on replacing old machines.

IGT has already made several deep cuts in the service of its new strategy, offering $21 million in early-retirement and severance packages to some 500 employees. The layoffs comprise a cut of nearly 8 percent of IGT’s total workforce.

Matthews said IGT would also concentrate on creating games that are more enjoyable and entertaining. But Loveman countered that such attempts would be moot in the current economic climate.

Loveman said that until casinos like Harrah’s manage to correct their balance sheets “it’s going to get very hard to get excited about the next new buffet, the next new food and beverage experience, the next new nightclub experience, the next new gaming experience.”