Mark Davies, managing director at Betfair, said sport administrators are often focused on the wrong target in the fight against corruption.

Starting in May this year, Betfair will offer its international users direct access through their existing Betfair accounts to the Tote Tasmania betting products and the SuperTAB pool, one of Australia's largest wagering pools combining bets placed through totalisators in Victoria, Western Australia, the ACT and Tasmania.

Debt difficulties mean Gala Coral, favourites to buy the Tote, will bid for the acquisition through Toteco, a ring-fenced investment vehicle backed with £150 million equity provided by Gala Coral's private equity owners Candover, Cinven and Permira.

Takeover speculation produced volatility in stock prices in the gambling sector this week.

The European bookmaker and betting exchange reported net gaming revenues of €13.3 million in its 2007 financial results – a drop of 11% on 2006.

EU member states that continue to deny foreign betting and gaming companies access to their domestic markets will be taken to the European Court of Justice.

A House Financial Services subcommittee met on Wednesday to hear expert testimony on the proposed regulations to implement the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Congressman Luis Gutierrez, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade and Technology, opened by summarising the status of the regulations, subject of over 200 formal critiques.

Holland Casino’s plans to trial a gambling website were denied on Tuesday when the upper house of the Dutch Parliament voted 37-35 against a bill allowing it.

NASDAQ Capital Market informed Youbet.com on Monday that it faces delisting if its share price fails to return to the minimum price of US$1 a share by September 29.

An Australian High Court ruling, which found Western Australia's ban on betting exchanges unfair because it contravened section 92 of the Australian constitution, means that Betfair may soon be able to conduct business throughout Australia.

The Antigua Sun says the deadline for the United States to put forward a proposal to settle its five-year trade dispute over internet gambling against Antigua and Barbuda passed with neither Antigua’s attorney in the matter Mark Mendel nor the local Directorate of Gaming receiving any communication from US officials.

On the eve of a Congressional hearing on the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act to establish what has gone wrong with the Act’s implementation, Eli Lehrer, a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, has advanced the case for a complete rethink saying the UIGEA makes ‘almost no financial, social or economic sense’.

New York police are referring to it as the biggest illegal internet sports betting operation they've ever busted. The ring, based in suburban Albany, took in more than US$57 million worth of bets between September 2006 and March this year using an offshore web site located in Costa Rica, www.linewiz.com.

Neville Porter, the on-course bookmaker, betting call centre and internet betting portal announced losses of £268,756 in its unaudited interim results for the half-year ended 31st December 2007 and said future trading periods look challenging.

While parent company Rank said it expects 2008 to be a challenging year and announced the sale of its pension plan to Goldman Sachs, Blue Square announced an increase in revenue by 32.9% to £52.1m in 2007, with operating profit up 39.7% to £10.9m and active membership increased by 12.6% to more than 321,000.

Both the Remote Gambling Association and the European Gaming & Betting Association welcomed the decision taken by the European Commission to investigate the restrictions placed on foreign gambling operators in the Netherlands and Greece.

The bookmaker, which operates online as npbet.co.uk, said its internet operation generated far poorer returns than expected, partly as a result of the generous odds offered to attract a new clientele and build up client loyalty, and partly in line with the greater level of payouts which appear to have affected the online betting industry generally.

The eGaming division of the UK bookmaker increased its profitability by 24% to £55.0 million during 2007, benefiting significantly from the buoyant performance of its online sportsbook and the acquisition in January 2007 of Sponsio, Ladbrokes’ Nordic marketing partner.

Börje Fors acquired 250,000 shares of the company (called then 24h Poker) just few days before the announcement of the deal with Irish betting exchange Betdaq, which sent the shares' price up 30 per cent.

Dutch and Greek authorities have two months to open up their betting markets to foreign competitors or face legal action in front of the European Court of Justice.