As reported by the Macau Daily Times, Lorien Pilling said at the Asian i-Gaming conference that online sports betting sites servicing the Asian market need to interest their customers in other sports and move away from soccer betting which is eating into their margins.

Ralph Topping said he doesn't see any logic in it and that it was speculation on the part of Evolution Securities, which earlier last month suggested the two bookmakers should combine forces.

While the retail channel continued to perform strongly in 2007 with over £800m in gross win, up 9% on 2006, the interactive channel closed a disappointing year with gross win falling by £10.7m to £119.8m and operating profit falling by £10.6m to £50.9m. Total active accounts increased to 432,000 from 405,000 in 2006.

The FFT is taking legal action in Belgium against Betfair, Bwin and Ladbrokes, as well as in France against Expekt and Unibet. All bookmakers are accused of having offered betting on Roland Garros.

According to Israeli media reports, local internet service providers will have to automatically block online gambling sites under a bill presented by the ultra-Orthodox Shas party.

Senators John Sununu and Pete Domenici said that implementing the UIGEA regulations as set forth by the October Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would inordinately burden every bank, credit union, credit card company, money transmitting business and payment system in the country, leading to non-uniform compliance and confusion.

Racing magnates JP McManus and John Magnier are thought to have jointly acquired a near 3 per cent stake in Ladbrokes just few days after fellow billionaire Joe Lewis acquired a 7 per cent stake in the bookmaker.

An un-named source close to the matter told Reuters the EU is expected to step up legal action against Greece and the Netherlands for restrictions in sports betting services, barring any last-minute changes of mind.

The Fair Gaming Advocate of the regulatory body eCOGRA said that 68 per cent of the 645 valid and legitimate complaints it received during 2007 was settled in favour of the players, including over 200 payout and 120 bonus complaints.

As reported by the Racing Post, the gambling regulator is preparing a paper on in-running betting. Chairman Brian Pomeroy said the delay between a sport event happening and the pictures appearing on television as well as the possibility for bettors to access feeds with different speed is the main concern for the Commission since they could create incentives to race or match fixing.

While Racing Victoria said to have questioned 19 bookmakers and to have found no evidence that Allanson placed bets using his Jack Hindon alias with any of them except Rod Cleary, The Age reports that some bookmakers have a dossier of Allanson's betting activities going back several years but they are worried they could face charges on a retrospective basis.

According to the Sunday Express, the offer is expected within the next few weeks.

According to the Sunday Times, the UK bookmaker is one of three parties currently in talks to acquire Parlay Entertainment.

"We are aware of the plans to change the existing Macau sports-betting regulation, which is interesting, but we have no specific plans as yet," Hills spokesman Rupert Adams told the Macau Daily Times, adding that the UK bookmaker is currently in talks with “third parties”, likely US casino operators.

Effective today, Betfair's customers will be able to bet on Tote's Jackpot, Placepot, Quadpot and Scoop 6 as well as on exactas and trifectas, using their existing Betfair accounts.

Commenting on recent reports about Spain and Italy opening up their gambling markets, Julian Graham-Rack, Head of William Hill's international business told Reuters that Hills is trying to build a pan-Spanish business. ."Spain is an unproven market in many ways. So far it's a gross-win tax market and one where regulators have not sought to be very prescriptive around the products you can bet on, so it's a bit more open."

While the case brought by gambling addict Graham Calvert, who claims Hills encouraged him to bet until he lost £2.1m, continues to be discussed in the High Court, a regular customer at one of William Hill's North Yorkshire betting shops turned a 50p bet into a £1 milliom pay-out after his eight-horse accumulator landed combined odds of almost 2.8 million to 1.

The poker rooms will be part of the iPoker network and they will utilize the Playtech platform.

A new study from Research and Markets on the Belgian and Dutch gambling markets evidenced how Belgium is preparing to open its internet gambling market to private providers, while in the Netherlands a monopolistic/oligopolistic market structure still prevails.

The American Gaming Association represents the land-based casino industry and lists among its members Harrah's and MGM Mirage.