GIBRALTAR– Jan 3 2012 –Facebook App Provider Socialitize launches 2BET2 today on the Facebook platform.

2BET2 Social Betting

A new social betting application for Facebook users – 2BET2 – was unveiled today. Combining deep social integration with current real-life sporting events, 2BET2 provides players with a new and unique gaming experience.

Players are able to bet on sports events across the world, betting against the house or against one another.  Players bet using virtual currency (BB$) which are issued free of charge when they start playing the game and are topped up with daily and other bonuses.  BB$ are issued for fun only and are not redeemable.

Players strive to earn XP (experience points) which enable them to work their way through levels which in turn unlock new leagues.   The leagues allow players to play with higher stakes and compete at a higher level with their peers.

Betting odds are derived in the same way as a Vegas sports book would calculate them, and are true to the real-life form of the sports events.  They are updated continuously, the volatility providing an added element to the game.  All major sports are covered including Football (League and College), Basketball (Association and College), Hockey, Baseball, 25 different European Football leagues, Rugby Union/League, Cricket, Tennis and Golf.

2BET2 includes a real-time Feed which continuously updates whilst in the game, allowing players to see what their friends are betting on, comment/taunt/respect those bets and then further comment or post their winnings or losses.

“Users love the social hooks within the game” said CEO Adriaan Brink. “By showing players their friends’ bets and allowing them to taunt or respect these bets we achieve a level of social interaction far higher than one sees in many other Facebook games.  This – together with the Challenge-a-Friend functionality really brings home the difference between 2BET2 and other betting games”.

Brink is no stranger to online gambling, having pioneered Internet lotteries with the Liechtenstein lottery in 1995 and been involved in various aspects of online gambling ever since.  So what drives this departure into the more fuzzy world of virtual money games? “I saw an opportunity to provide a betting experience to the millions of sporting fans in jurisdictions where conventional sports betting is illegal or unavailable” said Brink.  “We have tried to remain true to the style and form of more normal sports books while at the same time adding these great social hooks. While we may not achieve the level of monetisation as the large bookmakers, we are well positioned to achieve far greater levels of player participation”

GAMBLING AND THE LAW®
A Present from the DoJ: Internet Lotteries (and Poker?) Are Legal

The United States Department of Justice (“DoJ”) has given the online gaming community a big, big present, made public two days before Christmas. President Barack Obama’s administration has just declared, perhaps unintentionally, that almost every form of intra-state Internet gambling is legal under federal law, and so may be games played interstate and even internationally.

Technically, the only question being decided was “Whether proposals by Illinois and New York to use the Internet and out-of-state transaction processors to sell lottery tickets to in-state adults violate the Wire Act.” But the conclusion by the DoJ that the Wire Act’s “prohibitions relate solely to sport-related gambling activities in interstate and foreign commerce,” eliminates almost every federal anti-gambling law that could apply to gaming that is legal under state laws.

If the Wire Act is limited to bets on sports events and races, what other federal anti-gambling statutes are left? There are prohibitions on interstate lotteries, but Powerball and the other multi-state lotteries show how easily these can be gotten around, even before Congress passed an express exemption for state lotteries. And poker is not a lottery under federal law.

So, all that are left are the federal laws designed to go after organized crime. These all require that there first be a violation of another law, like the Wire Act, the federal anti-lottery statutes, or a state anti-gambling law. If a state has expressly legalized intra-state games like poker, as Nevada and the District of Columbia have done, there is simply no federal law that could apply.

If the bettors and operator are all in the same state, and the gambling does not involve a sports event or race, the Wire Act cannot be used against the operator, even if phone wires happen to cross into another state. And if the state legislature has made the online game legal, it does not violate any other federal anti-gambling law.

I suppose it is possible that the DoJ could argue that poker is a “sporting event or contest.” But the language of the Wire Act prohibits “information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers ON any sporting event or contest.” If poker is a contest, it is one where players bet IN the contest, not on it. Anyway, the DoJ held that the Wire Act was designed to go after bookies taking bets on horse races and football games, etc., not other forms of gambling. And even the DoJ would not argue that a game like blackjack is a sporting event or contest.

In a footnote, the DoJ expressed no opinion about the provision in the Wire Act that allows prosecutors to shut down phone lines where true interstate or foreign gambling is taking place. But, since the DoJ has now concluded that every other section of the Wire Act applies only to races and sports events, it would be truly bizarre to believe that Congress intended only this one section to apply to other forms of gambling.

This means there may be nothing preventing states from making compacts with other states, and even foreign nations, once they have legalized an online game, like poker. If Nevada and the District of Columbia want to take Internet poker players from each other, what federal law would they be violating? And, if they agreed that their residents could bet with licensed poker operators in, say, Antigua and England, while residents of those nations could bet with poker operators in Nevada and Washington, we know they would not be violating the Wire Act, or the anti-lottery laws, or any of the federal prohibitions which require that the gambling be illegal under a state’s laws.

The immediate beneficiaries will be the D.C. Lottery and Nevada-licensed private operators, since those jurisdictions are the furthest ahead. The state lotteries in Illinois, New York and New Hampshire will also initiate or expand their online games. After all, most of the provincial lotteries in Canada are already operating Internet poker.

I believe this will be a major incentive for the other states looking at legalizing intra-state poker and other games. First will probably be Iowa. The State Legislature mandated a report, which has already been submitted, concluding that intra-state poker can be operated safely and will raise money. The Iowa Legislature meets for a short period at the beginning of the year, so it has to act quickly, or it will be passed by other states in 2012.

Those other states are California and New Jersey. California is desperate for any source of revenue, and it has so much legal gambling that the only question is which operators are going to be the big winners. The Democratic-controlled Legislature in New Jersey approved intra-state online gaming, but the bill was vetoed by Gov. Chris Christie (R.-NJ). Christie understands his state need the money, so he will probably help put the issue on the ballot in November. Last month, the voters of New Jersey approved sports betting. There is no reason they would not also approve Internet casinos. It will be interesting to see if the main author, state senator Ray Lesniak (D.-Union), will limit online patrons to New Jersey, as his original bill stated, or, if he will accept players from any other state and nation where Internet gambling is legal.

Once these jurisdictions open their online games, even if limited to players who are physically within the state, operators will push for compacts to allows interstate Internet poker among the legal states. And other states, like Florida, will jump on the bandwagon.

What impact will all this have on proposed federal laws? Proponents are trying to spin the DoJ opinion. The Poker Players Alliance stated, “However, this ruling makes it even more important that Congress act now to clarify federal law, and to create a licensing and regulation regime for Internet poker, coupled with clear laws and strong enforcement against other forms of gambling deemed to be illegal.” But the reality is that Congressional advocates, like Barney Frank (D.-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R.-Tx.), have had some of the wind knocked out of their sails. Since states are now clearly free to legalize intra-state online poker, and perhaps even interstate, there is not as much reason to even bother with a federal law. Only the major operators, like Caesars Entertainment, need a federal law, because they don’t want to be competing with politically connected local gaming companies for limited numbers of licenses in 50 states.

Opponents, like Jon Kyl (R.-AZ) and Frank Wolf (R.-VA), might get some leverage for their attempts to expand the Wire Act to cover all forms of gambling. But, as I have pointed out (to the consternation of some who have donated money hoping for a federal Internet gambling law), Congress has passed literally no substantive laws since the Republicans took over the House of Representatives in January 2009. There is as little chance of this Congress passing a new Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act as there is its passing a repeal of the UIGEA.

The interesting question is what the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate, Harry Reid (D.-NV) and Kyl, the number two Republican in the Senate, will do. They had sent a letter asking the DoJ for clarification of its position on Internet gambling. They now have their answer, though it may not have been what they had wanted.

My bet is that they, and Congress, will continue to do nothing, while Internet gambling explodes across the nation, made legal under state laws.

END
© Copyright December 24, 2011, I. Nelson Rose, Encino, California. All rights reserved worldwide. Gambling and the Law® is a registered trademark of Professor I. Nelson Rose, www.GamblingAndTheLaw.com. http://www.gamblingandthelaw.com/blog.html.

Check out the latest NFL lines at Bodog.

Friday 23^rd Sept 2011, London, UK – iGB Affiliate Events have announced a new partnership that will see GameOn Marketing co-ordinating the iGB Affiliate Awards 2012 (to be held on the 26^th of January on the eve of the London Affiliate Conference). GameOn Marketing is an award winning marketing, PR and event management agency specialising in the online gaming industry.

“The iGB Affiliate Awards are always a much anticipated feature of the London Affiliate Conference” commented Alex Pratt, head of iGB Affiliate & iGaming Business, “but with LAC growing every year, we expect 2700 delegates this year, we wanted to ensure that the Awards get the attention they deserve. We are very excited to be working with GameOn Marketing, who have some incredible ideas which will make the awards one of the best we’ve ever had.”

Referring to a secret theme which will be announced within the next two weeks, the iGB Affiliate Awards have recently undergone a number of changes due to their increased popularity. With a longer nomination period and more categories, this year’s event is expected to be highly competitive. To ensure that the integrity of the iGB Affiliate Awards is upheld however, all categories will be open for voting. The top 10 with the most votes will then be shortlisted and go on to a judging panel of industry experts for the winner to be selected. This ensures fair play, with an equal measure of popularity and judged skilled determining the winner.

GameOn Marketing coming onboard reflects the focus on continuing to create a professional and reputable event.  “We have some fantastic ideas to build on the current success of the iGB Affiliate Awards and looking forward to being a part of the awards team” Said Esther Cochrane, Director of GameOn Marketing “Having created a number of hugely successful events for the online gambling industry, we will be bringing all our expertise and creativity to bring you an amazing night to remember.”

More information on nominations, which closes on the 17^th of October, and judging criteria can be found here: www.iGBAffiliateAwards.com.

With ten years of online gaming experience, Konstantinos has proven expertise as a top level Trading Director having previously held similar roles at Expekt.com/Mangas Gaming Group. This latest news also further strengthens the Offsidegaming senior management team.

Speaking on behalf of Offsidegaming, Matt Jellicoe said “We have spent a long time looking for a really strong candidate for the Trading Director role and one that could take Offsidegaming’s B2B portfolio to the next level. With every betting company starting to use the same feeds for Sportsbetting, we want a trading team that will stand out. Konstantinos has already proven to be an extremely valuable member of the team and his credentials will undoubtedly prove a great asset to Offsidegaming.”

Newly appointed Trading Director, Konstantinos Stranomitis said “Offsidegaming are one of the very few entrepreneurial gaming companies in the Sportsbetting space.  The company has made huge progress within just three years, which makes this a really exciting time come on board.”

One of the best things which you can do in order to improve your game is to actually play less, or rather, don’t play every hand. However, as more experience poker players will know, you will be dealt far more hands than are worthy of playing with, so get used to folding early to avoid losing money unnecessarily. Although this might not seem as exciting as being involved in the action every time, it can certainly be a good way to improve your overall game.

You should also avoid playing high stake games when you are unfamiliar with the rules or the software which you are using. Playing online often means that there is a far greater choice of poker games available, which can be good fun, but may take a little time for you to fully get your head around the rule variation. Sites like partypoker often offer ‘play money’ options, which can be the best way to familiarise yourself with the game before placing any real money bets. Even when you’re feeling confident, it can be a good idea to begin with lower limit games at first.

You will also need to learn how to bluff online, and how to tell when someone else is bluffing. Online bluffing is very different to that of bluffing in live games or tournaments, and you will need to make sure you adapt your technique. Instead of looking for physical ‘tells’ from other players, or trying to read their body language, you will want to pay attention to the playing habits of your opponents. Even when you are not involved, keep an eye on the other moves of other players to find out how they tend to play, and be aware that they will be doing the same to you. You can then work on using this to your advantage.

This deal will see Cozy Games integrating its suite of mobile games onto the EveryMatrix platform.  Popular games such as “Lucky Clover” and “Multi Hand Blackjack” will now be accessible to more than 25 gaming operators already working with EveryMatrix.  Operators include some of the industry’s most exciting brands such as Chili Gaming, Casino Luck and Jetbull all of which will now have the opportunity to expand their mobile marketing initiatives with the inclusion of Cozy Games’ current offering.

Commenting on this latest news, Jaydeep Chakravartty, Business Development Manager at www.CozyGames.com said, “We are absolutely delighted to be partnering with EveryMatrix – an award winning company that has quickly developed a well respected reputation within the industry.  Our games are created specifically to appeal to the mobile generation and we are extremely confident that customers of EveryMatrix will truly embrace our games.”

Ebbe Groes, CEO at EveryMatrix said, “Our ethos has always been to provide the gaming industry with market leading products and Cozy Games has demonstrated that their mobile games will sit perfectly within our portfolio.”

The International Lottery in Liechtenstein Foundation

According to the local papers ILLF.COM – operator of pluslotto.com and lotto.li has filed for bankruptcy.  For many years lottoluck.com was an ILLF brand until it separated and was reborn as an information portal.

ILLF was a pioneer in the online gaming space, starting in 1995 with an online lottery well before anyone else in the gaming space was contemplating online.  While it was successful in the earlier years, with the advent of casinos and sportsbooks online things became  tougher for the charity lottery operator.

ILLF was the first legitimate operation to take a bet online (in the form of a lottey ticket).  It started with a 6/40 lottery insured for CHF (swiss franc) 800K, later updating the model to go multi currency with pound, euro and swiss franc and increasing the jackpot to £20M.  It also pioneered many interactive games including scratchcards, a 60 second game (Pickit) and different lottery formats. In 2000 it ran the Millions 2000 millenium lottery – at the time slated to be the largest in the world.

In 1999 Earthport PLC was founded by the ILLF founders using some of the transaction technology. This .com darling peaked at £1Bn in market cap in the heady .com boom years before coming back down to the current c£30M level.  Earthport is traded today on the London Stock Exchange AIM market.

ILLF was a charitable foundation, contributing many millions to charities including the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), CARE International and Human Rights Watch.  In addition it supported many local clubs and charities in Liechtenstein.