Online
casino tumble in Germany
Online casinos and the
online casinos industry’s recent winning streak was abruptly
broken yesterday after one of the top Austrian online casinos
looked to have bet on Germany and lost. The German state of
Saxony, where the online casinos firm in the country is based,
is expected to pull its online casinos license and ban one of
the top online casinos in Europe from accepting bets from German
residents.
Saxony is holding a press
conference this morning to outline proceedings against online
casinos companies that offer illegal sports betting at online
casinos.
This latest attempt by a government to clamp down on online
casinos unsettled investors in London, where one of the top
online casinos in the world saw its stock fall 6p to 112.25p in
the steepest loss by any constituent of the FTSE 100, while
another one of the top online casinos in the world eased 8.25p
to 156.75p
A solid start on Wall Street -
where the Dow was about 50 points higher in early trade -
encouraged London to recover from what had threatened to be a
third day of losses.
Banking analysts picked their favorites in the online casinos
sector in the wake of the interim reporting season. Deutsche
Bank liked one of the top British online casinos (which is also
the subject of reheated, but tired, rumors of US bid interest).
The No 3 lender advanced 11p to 644p.
Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Lehman Brothers were among those to
another top online casinos company, up 29p at 1,303p as the
emerging markets specialist confirmed its $413m (£216m)
acquisition of 81 per cent of a large bank.
The debate about the legality
of net casinos continues as The British Gambling Commission has
just published a series of rules that clarify the newly reformed
Gaming Law and establish guidelines for the country’s online
gaming casinos and land casinos and bingo halls.
One rule that applies equally to the online gaming casinos and
their land- based counterparts is that both must give customers
a constant reminder of the time of day. That means that online
gaming casinos must include a clock which would remind players
how much time they had been online gambling so far in any
particular session.
Likewise, land casinos would
have to have clocks on the gaming floors, and would also have to
have enough windows so that patrons have natural clues as to the
time of day. This is in contrast to many land casinos in
countries other than Britain that use deceptive lighting and do
not install clocks on gaming floors so that patrons lose track
of time.
Another new rule for online gaming casinos would force casinos
to verify the age of users of debit cards in order to avoid
underage gambling.
The new rules apply only to
land casinos located in Britain and to online gaming casinos
that seek a British license. Failure to comply with the law
could cause a revocation of the licenses.
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