The Week That Was: September 1st – 5th

Of the many US events that were given the go ahead late Monday night following New Orleans’ narrow evasion of Hurricane Gustav’s path, the Poker Players’ Alliance, the American Gaming Association and the Paralyzed Veterans of America had to be most pleased with the decision to move forward with the Republican National Convention. Here’s what’s happening:

• With the GOP Convention in full swing in the Minnesota city of St. Paul, the Poker Players’ Alliance teamed up with the American Gaming Association to put on a celebrity poker tournament held just around the corner from the Party’s big party in the Xcel Energy Center. The tournament was won by Adam Radman, a staffer for the lobbyist group Americans for Tax Reform. The tournament was both a means to smooth over strained relations between the Poker Industry and the Republican Party following then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R – TN) instrumental role in the 2006 passage of the UIGEA and a fundraiser for the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) The event raised more than $10,000 for the PVA.
• Following up on our Wednesday article, with the RNC totaling about $10,000 in funds raised for the PVA that leaves the Democrats’ $60,000 contribution as more than 80% of the $70,000 donation both parties will be making to the Paralyzed Veterans of America.
• As business booms in the online gaming sectors of Scandinavia, venture capital firm Nordic Venture Partners has moved decisively to get in on the action. On Monday, September 1, the Venture Partners announced a €5 million investment in Swedish Online Gaming giant, NYX Interactive. This comes after a recent partnering between the vast Entraction Network and NYX in an online Bingo endeavor.
• Inteltek, the joint venture company formed between the mergers of Turkcell and Intralot S.A. announced on Monday September 1st that it had been awarded the lucrative Turkish Gaming License. Turkey is a very restricted segment of the international online gaming industry and this announcement comes as only the latest good news for Intralot who managed total revenues of €437.5 million in the first six months of 2008. This 45% increase over the previous year also includes a gross profit of €164.2 million, up 14%.
• Lasseters looks to be sharing in Betbrokers plc recent fiscal dilemmas with the announcement that in its first six months of 2008 the online casino and sportsbook sustained an operating loss of AUD $15.55 million. With total revenues plummeting nearly 50%, the future of the now non-US gaming firm is in serious jeopardy. Despite its grim predicament, the company is remaining staunch in its position that the loss of the American market and the cost of starting up a sportsbook in Europe more than accounts for the substantial deficits that Lasseters is currently operating under.
• More and more companies are lining up in direct opposition to still crumbling Swedish Gaming Monopoly, Svenska Spel. As the Ladbrokes controversy continues to burble in litigation, the Swedish Ice Hockey Association (SIHA) is now threatening to bring a lawsuit against one of its own franchises following a Hockey exhibition festival where the franchise in question provided NordicBet, a potential competitor to Svenska Spel, with advertising space. The festival featured an on-ice advertisement for NordicBet and despite the festival having no impact on any regular season standings in the Swedish Ice Hockey Association (as well as a Finnish team in addition to the 3 Swedish teams) the SIHA is threatening to impose fines on the teams involved due to a 4 year non-competition agreement between the Association and Svenska Spel. 
• The head of the forthcoming government report on the direction of Swedish gaming, Jan Nyrѐn has stated that his December tome will at least support private competition in online sportsbetting. Though he remains mum on the future of online poker and gaming in Sweden, his announcement of a Swedish opening up to competition in online sportsbetting is drawing cautiously optimistic comments from many major players in the European online gaming industry scene: Petter Nylander, the CEO of Unibet suggested that this is “ a step in the right direction” and Lasse Dilschmann, CEO of Ladbrokes Scandinavia has suggested that “This is a positive move, but I believe it is a big bluff to ease the pressure from Brussels. The EC-court has threatened Sweden with legal action and I believe that Mr. Nyrѐn’s comments are designed to lift that threat.”
• Austrian online gaming firm, bwin has been forced to make some troubling and unique confessions over the past week which may prove only to be the tip of an international espionage affair. Following a police report made by Bert Schmidt (employee of Vienna gaming company Omnia) that two men had been paid to follow him, Wolfgang Bachler – a former security consultant, current head of the counter-terrorism group, COBRA and more to the point, the employer of the two men who had been following Schmidt – admitted that his firm had in fact been paid by bwin to investigate Schmidt. Schmidt, who has made numerous legal complaints against bwin over the past few years on behalf of his company Omnia, is now suspected to have been acting as an illegal proxy and shill for bwin rival, Casinos Austria. bwin spokesman Kevin O’Neal spoke with measured candidness on the matter, “We needed to be able to objectively assess our environment. We were looking for evidence to support our suspicions that Casinos Austria was behind Schmidt’s activities… How Mr. Bachler gets the information relevant to his services is unknown to us and cannot be known to us.” Both Casinos Austria and bwin have filed for legal damages from the other.
• Finally, US investors in the fund managers Vanguard Group and American Century Investments have brought forth two multi-million dollar class-action lawsuits alleging that the two firms criminally invested the US investors’ moneys in “illegal gambling businesses.” While the specific illegal gambling businesses have not yet been named, it is widely known that both Vanguard Group and American Century are investors in PartyGaming plc (owners and operators of partypoker.com) and Sportingbet plc. For their parts, both Vanguard Group and American Century Investments are calling the lawsuits meritless and vowing to defend themselves to the fullest extent of their significant financial means.

And that’s what’s happening in poker.