Online gambling

Positive news from the Philippines, where Philippine Stock Exchange-listed gambling firm PhilWeb Corporation has reported a 52 percent growth in profits for the first six months of the year, mainly owing to the strong performance of its internet gambling business.

In a statement, the company said its net income reached P227.6 million as of end-June 2009 from P149.6 million in the same period in 2008.

From April to June, PhilWeb had a core net income of P122.9 million, a 128 percent rise from the same quarter last year. The company attributed the growth to higher revenues from its PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.) e-Games Cafe Network.

“Our growth pace continues to accelerate as we open more of our PAGCOR e-Games Cafes,” PhilWeb President Dennis Valdes said. The company opened 29 e-Games cafes as of end-June, bringing PhilWeb’s total internet gambling shops to 150.

Valdes said PhilWeb usually performs more strongly in the second half of the year, adding that June 2009 has been the company’s best performing month so far.

“All our three business segments performed well, with the Internet Sports Betting Stations and Mobile Gaming businesses also achieving their targets for the month,” he said.

To further spur growth, Valdes said PAGCOR would introduce a new logo to differentiate e-Games cafes from its other outlets.

“The new e-Games logo is already being installed in all our existing cafes and in the new ones that will be opened soon,” he said, adding that other marketing efforts for the e-Games cafes have been intensified.

The massive online poker operator Full Tilt Poker’s latest software upgrade includes a Hand Replayer and Mixed Limit games, and appropriately comes on the eve of its fifth birthday.

Located at the top left hand corner of Full Tilt virtual tables, the Hand Replayer has a “Last Hand” link listed below the icon. Once clicked, the Hand Replayer will open in a new window and show the last hand completed at that table. Buttons to fast forward, rewind, and pause play are all available to the player, allowing users to control their review to suit themselves. There are also icons that enable the player to skip to the beginning or end of a hand.

To move between pots that have been played, players use an icon found in the top right corner of the table.

The Hand Replayer also offers text hand histories, accessible by clicking on any hand number, which will open a new window with the transcript of the hand in it. Chat comments on previously played hands can also be called up for review by using a link at the lower left corner of the Hand Replayer. In addition, every hand played during a session can be screened as a colour coded list where a player’s double click on any hand can reprise the action.

The Mixed Limit games include a special Seven Game Mix comprising Limit Hold’em, Limit Stud High-Low, Limit Razz, Limit Omaha High-Low, Limit Stud High, No Limit Hold’em, and Pot Limit Omaha. Mixed Hold’em tables feature Limit and No Limit Hold’em, while Mixed Omaha High-Low tables include Limit Omaha High-Low and Pot Limit Omaha High-Low.

The upgrade includes changes to the backend systems designed to make the software gambling faster and lessen processing demand.

The Malaysian deputy minister for federal territories, Datuk M. Saravanan has made the claim that almost 90 percent of cyber cafes in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur are taking part in illegal online gambling activities by including gambling software on their computers.

The minister warned that the government would not tolerate this situation, and that the police would continue a strong crackdown on illegal gambling, reports the national news agency Bernama.

“The Kuala Lumpur City Hall issued the cyber cafe licences in the hope that the people would be computer literate, but from the surprise checks conducted, we find the licences issued to cyber cafe operators have been abused,” the minister said in a closing address to the Youth Cultural Fiesta Programme.

“I am disappointed because almost all the cyber cafes are found to be carrying out the illegal gambling activities with 80 percent of the customers comprising Bumiputeras, including youths.”

Event #38 at the World Series of Poker - the $2 000 buy-in Limit Hold’em competition - has passed into the history book after a spirited two hour heads up out of all proportion to the disparate chip stacks of the final two players.

The 446-strong entry field generated a prize pool of $811 720 and included names like Barry Greenstein, Maria Ho, Noah Boeken, Erick Lindgren, Maya Gellar, Eric Froehlich, David Plastik, Berry Johnston, Victor Ramdin, Michael Mizrachi, Daniel Webb, J.J. Liu, Marcel Luske, Shannon Elizabeth, Dragan Galic, Rob Hollink, Lex Veldhuis, Michiel Brummelhuis, Brock Parker, Matt Hawrilenko, J.C. Tran and John Phan.
The limit specialist from Holland, Marc Naalden nailed this one down and pretty much dominated the event….but he still needed two hours of heads up action to eliminate plucky Steven Cowley despite an overwhelming 2 million chip lead going into the heads up.

The final table comprised Naalden in the lead on 755 000, followed by Alex Keating (464 000), Danny Qutami (323 000), Steve Cowley (322 000), Rep Porter (287 000), Tommy Hang (202 000), Jameson Painter (205 000), Jared O’Dell (189 000) and Ian Johns (113 000).

By the time the final table was down to seven players Naalden owned half the chips on the table and continued to dominate play, taking out one opponent after another to the delight of a crowd of Dutch supporters yelling “lekker, lekker” (nice, nice). And as he zeroed in on the heads up, several big Dutch names in the game joined the supporters, perhaps conscious that only the second WSOP bracelet ever was about to go to the Netherlands.

The departure of Ian Johns in 3rd place for a $77 576 payday late on Sunday evening set the scene for a heads up between Naalden and American pro Steven Cowley of Richmond, Virginia, who has 8 cashes in a career that had at that point earned him $65 000. The Dutchman held a massive almost 2 million chip lead, but it still took him a good two hours to send Clowley to the exit.

Naalden, a former options trader who took up poker professionally in 2005 and has played over 60 WSOP events, claimed his first winner’s bracelet and the $190 770 main prize, leaving the second place honours to Cowley and a paycheck of $117 902.

Both players had already achieved low-value cashes in this year’s WSOP, but these rewards were the ones boosting the return on investment for both.

Malta’s Independent newspaper makes good weekend reading this week with an article by David Lindsay on the impact of US discriminatory laws against online gambling operators in licensing jurisdictions like Malta, Gibraltar and the UK, and to a lesser extent Ireland, Sweden, Cyprus and Austria.

European online gambling and betting companies left the US market in 2006, but still suffer legal proceedings by US authorities based on their past activities in the US market. The report comes to the conclusion that these proceedings are legally unjustified as well as discriminatory, because the activities of EU companies took place under the cover of US World Trade Organisation commitments.

The European Commission, spurred by complaints from European operators on the selective enforcement of anti-online gambling laws the US despite its World Trade Organisation agreements, investigated the issue and recently published a damning report on the the US actions, classifying them as obstacles to trade and in conflict with WTO rules and principles. WTO proceedings against the US would be justified, the Commission opined, although it suggested that the issue should be addressed to the US Administration, with a view to finding a negotiated solution.

Lindsay writes that in its detailed and substantiated report, the EC highlighted the example of Malta as demonstrating the ‘adverse trade effects’, within the syntax of the Trade Barriers Regulation, the situation is having on the Maltese economy.

The Mediterraean island has suffered a unquantified but significant negative impact on its economic activity and employment, according to data provided by Malta’s government to the Commission services during the investigation.

The contribution of the gaming industry to Malta’s GDP in 2007 was 5.4 percent, and 6.3 percent of the total gross value added of the Maltese economy. Moreover, the sector in Malta had a 12 percent market share of the industry in 2007, and employed a total of 1 882 staff as of June 2008.

The report concludes that the US measures constitute an obstacle to trade that is inconsistent with WTO rules.

The European online gambling sector is economically significant, the Commission’s report noted, estimating that at least 10 000 employees are EU nation residents. The sector also has a significant indirect economic impact on other sectors of the economy which are involved in providing the infrastructure that an Internet business requires, such as financial services, information technology and professional services.

The study offers some useful insights into the remote gambling market, including the position of EU companies and the impact on employment. For example, it remarks that in Malta, “Gambling GGR as a percentage of GDP in 2003 was 7.3 percent compared to the EU average of 0.7 percent”, and concludes that EU companies enjoy a leading position in the world-wide remote gambling and betting market.

In its report, the Commission noted that the EU has developed the world’s leading remote gaming businesess and that many of the world’s largest companies are licensed in and operate from Malta, the UK, Gibraltar, Ireland and Austria. Moreover, the report observed that there are significant back office operations providing technology, marketing and customer service support in those and in other members.

According to professional estimates furnished to the Commisson investigators, over 15 000 workers are employed by the Internet gaming industry in the EU, with a current average annual growth rate of 10 percent. There are eight thousand employees in the UK; 2 000 in Malta; 2 000 in Gibraltar; 1 500 in Ireland; 500 in Sweden; 500 in Cyprus; 500 in Austria; and 500 in the rest of the EU.

Jeff Lissandro has done it again! The Australian-born poker pro has won his second World Series of Poker winner’s bracelet this (2009) year, firmly positioning himself among the top seven card stud exponents in world poker.

It was a tough competition, with 164 entrants going after $1 541 600 in prizes for Event 37 - the $10 000 buy-in Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo World Championship. Illustrative of the high-powered nature of the field, it included Doyle Brunson, Abe Mossari, Mike Wattel, Barry Greenstein, Chau Giang, Annie Duke, Chris Ferguson, Erick Lindgren, Eli Elezra, Howard Lederer, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Daniel Negreanu, Carlos Mortensen, Phil Ivey, Justin Bonomo, Jason Mercier, Max Pescatori, Jennifer Harman, Mark Gregorich, Ted Forrest, and Dario Alioto. Also in the field were Lyle Berman, Dario Minieri, Tom Schneider, David Benyamine and Daniel Alaei.

In the three-and-a half-hour heads up it was Lissandro vs. Farzad Rouhani, with the former living up to his nickname of The Iceman and playing a controlled and strategic game to take the honours despite starting lower in chips in the heads up, along with the bracelet and the winner’s prize of $431 656.

It was Lissandro’s second bracelet at this 40th Anniversary World Series - last week he took down Event #16 - the $10 000 buy-in Seven Card Stud World Championship (see previous InfoPowa report) to win $124 959. He has also cashed in two other events this year.

Rouhani collected a check for $266 804 for his second placing.

Prior to playing poker full-time, Lisandro (43) was a real estate investor. He is now a top high-stakes cash game and international live tournaments player who has 45 cashes to his credit, three WSOP bracelets, 8 first place finishes in global tourneys and career winnings approaching $4 million.

Texan player Jordan Smith achieved his first WSOP bracelet in Event 36 - the $2 000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em contest, which attracted a field of 1 695 and offered a prize pool of $3 084 900. Among the starters were David Rheem, Kathy Liebert, Joe Sebok, Scott Seiver, Jonathan Little, Darus Suharto, Shaun Deeb, Jared Hamby, Lika Gerasimova, Rob Hollink, Michael Binger, Kenna James and Andy Black.

Smith, holding a small chip lead, faced Swedish player Ken Lennaard in the heads up after both survived a seven hour final table that included two female players in Almira Skripchenko and Laurence Grondin, although neither reached heads up status, finishing in seventh and third places respectively.

Smith lost and regained his lead on several occasions in the hard-fought game that followed with his Swedish rival, but in the end he managed to prevail to take the bracelet and the $586 212 main prize, leaving a worthy opponent in Ken Lennaard with respect and $360 439 as runner-up.