The European football federation UEFA is investigating forty matches in the Champions League and European League. Especially in several qualification matches, of which the results where manipulated.

According to Peter Limacher, head of disciplinary matters at the UEFA, East European clubs know they can not get far in the tournament and therefore decide to make the best out of it by selling them and gamble on them. According to Limacher it mainly concerns qualification matches in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup in the last four yours, including fifteen in the last two years. Limacher said: “What we see in the results is determined in advance of those matches. First the half time and then the final score.” According to Limacher, UEFA is to set up a network so that these practices can be prevented in the future. He also added that the UEFA is closely working together with several police forces to investigate the cases. He closed saying: “It might take some time, but we hope that we and the police can come to a number of convictions.” Gambling fraud has always been a problem for sports betting, maybe the new network will prevent casino gambling fraud.

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The Ukraine – England World Cup 2010 qualifier match on 10 October will for the first time ever, sell exclusively for internet broadcast and will be made available to UK gamblers through online betting websites.

Watchandbet service, run by the Perform Group who is the rights holder, sells live sports content for online broadcast to the larger online bookmakers, is now in talks with the main UK publishing companies, ISP’s and online casino gambling operators about selling them the rights to use the content on their services. The company normally sells broadcasting rights to online gambling operators outside the country, but is in talks with UK bookmakers to try and strike an exclusive deal to sports betting to UK betters. Simon Denyer, joint chief executive of Perform Group, said: “The game will be available worldwide to non-UK markets as normal but possibly also to a UK audience as part of an official betting partnership agreement for that event. The interest generated by the England football team is always huge and we are very excited at the prospect of a competitive England fixture being available on the internet only for the first time ever.” England already qualified for the World Cup 2010 in South Africa but therefore can use the Ukraine game as a good chance to see what kind of profits they could generate if their casino games are being broadcast on the internet. The game will only be available via pay-per-view or via promotional agreements on websites of both publishers and ISP’s.

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After 5 years of fighting the legal system in Norway to battle the state monopoly on gambling, Ladbrokes has dropped its legal action, but they will keep uniting other operators to fight state monopolies in other country’s across Europe.

Ladbrokes took the decision to stop its legal battle against Norwegian authorities after the European Court of Justice ruled in favour of a Portuguese state-run monopoly in order to protect citizens from fraud. The legal battle started when Ladbrokes application for a gambling licence was denied in 2004. Ladbrokes Nordic chief executive Lasse Dilschmann (pictured) said: “The Casa verdict shows how difficult it is to get a monopoly tried under EU law, as it always ends up that the monopoly can be justified in terms of player protection and internet gambling fraud prevention. We thought we could run into the same trouble as Bwin in Portugal, and that was a reason we backed out of the legal case in Norway.” He added Ladbrokes will focus on collective efforts on behalf of European online casino operators to challenge state owned gambling monopolies in Europe. “We have a very good relationship with the European Gaming and Betting Association and the Remote Gaming Association. We feel there is more to be achieved by helping reach critical mass on these issues among the big online players across Europe.” Dilschmann said. The EGBA responded to the verdict by stating that a state gambling monopoly was not absolutely necessary to protect the public, Bwin argued that online gambling operators are better at preventing fraud then the authority’s are.

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lawmakers in the UK ordered a pull back of an internet gambling advertisement featuring a 20-year-old poker champion, seen as a way to attract under-aged players.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is again rejecting internet gambling advertisements, this time around focusing on an online gambling advertisement featuring a world champion poker player. In the ad World Series of Poker Europe winner Annette Obrestad can be seen using her online ID, “Annette_15.” The ad also featured a tagline saying, “Online experience is measured in games, not years. Join the new breed. Annette_15″. In a statement released by the ASA they noted that Betfair could encourage young people to gamble and was therefore irresponsible by representing a successful young poker player with the implication she is 15 years old. Obrestad won the WSOPE when she was 18, she is currently 20 years old. But the ASA rules require all persons appearing in a gambling marketing to be at least 25. Betfair responded: “Obrestad was chosen because of her standing as a poker professional and champion who had had a profound effect on the game.” The young age of the girl was in no way a factor for selecting her for the ad the internet gambling operator said. The ASA said in a statement: “We noted the code stated that no one under 25 years of age should be featured gambling in a marketing communication, or playing a significant role. Because Ms Obrestad was 20 years old and because, as a professional poker player, she played a significant role in gambling in the ad, we concluded the ad breached the provisions of the code.”

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According to new research which will be presented tomorrow at the British Psychological Society’s Social Psychology Conference, problem gambling is average ten times more frequent among people who gamble at online casinos than among those who only gamble off line.

The study called Internet gambling: A secondary analysis of findings from the 2007 British Gambling Prevalence Survey (BGPS), supervised by Dr Mark Griffiths, professor of Gambling Studies at Nottingham Trent University, applied the data from the most recent BGPS to demonstrate that problem gambling among those who vist internet casinos to gamble is about then times higher than among gamblers who never visit internet casino sites. Professor Griffiths said: “This study’s findings suggest that the medium of the internet may be more likely to contribute to problem gambling than gambling in off line environments. It is clear that gaming companies need to acknowledge they will need to provide even better social responsibility infrastructures online than off line to minimise the harm to problem gamblers.” The data used in the study was from a survey of 9003 adults of 16 years or older who had gambled at an online casino or went to a bookmaker in the last year. The National Centre for Social Research and Professor Jim Orford of the University of Birmingham did the research together, and the Gambling Commission funded the study. Griffiths added: “There is also the issue of how internet problem gamblers can be helped. Recent research suggests that online problem gamblers appear to prefer to seek help online, therefore online help, guidance and treatment may be a potential way forward to help those who may feel too stigmatised to seek traditional face-to-face help for their gambling problems.” Griffiths’ will present his results in full tomorrow at The British Psychological Society’s conference, taking place in The Edge in Sheffield from 15 until 17 September.

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Bookmaker William Hill and the London’s Natural History Museum agreed on a deal which will put the Loch Ness monster on display at the Natural History Museum if the monster of legends is caught. If the museum verifies Nessie’s existence on behalf of the bookmakers, they secure the rights to showcase Nessie’s remains should it be caught.

William Hill is paying the museum an annual fee for the guarantee that its experts will provide “positive identification” of the legendary creature, under terms of agreement. The agreement, which has yield the museum at least £22,000, also covers the Yeti. 500/1 odds are offered by William Hill if the existence of the Loch Ness Monster is proven within a year, 200/1 odds if the Yeti is proven to exist in the next year. Graham Sharpe, spokesperson for William Hill, said: “We have maintained our relationship with the Natural History Museum and are delighted to do so. As we rely on the Met Office to rule on white Christmases, we are dependent on the museum to tell us whether any carcass that may emerge from the loch is a haddock, or a previously unknown creature from the deep.” The deal which was formalised in 1987 and revealed in archive documents where released by the museum. An internal letter to museum staff in 1959 warned them against taking part in monster hunts in case it “damaged the institution’s reputation” was revealed by other archive documents included in the documents. A Natural History Museum spokesperson said: “The study of the diversity of life on earth is at the very heart of the Natural History Museum. It is estimated that 90 per cent of life on earth remains undiscovered and every year Natural History Museum scientists help discover, name, and generate vital information about new species and how they relate to similar ones. In all circumstances, as a scientific institution the Natural History Museum relies on the objective use of scientific evidence to do this.”

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A Danish man whose only source of income is playing online poker, has seen his winnings taken away in a decision by the Supreme Court of Denmark. A professional gambling law must apply both to land and Internet the judge says.

The Supreme Court of Denmark is saying the gambler has to surrender £16,800 he won playing online poker. The court’s ruling is based on a Danish law forbidding professional gambling. The man in question was living on internet poker as his only source of income, according the the court this violates a state law against using gambling to make a living. The has to follow Danish law when betting from Denmark, the court said, even if the online poker rooms are operated overseas. Prosecutors said they did not plan to outlaw online poker, but they had to apply existing gambling laws to both land-based and Internet venues. Crown Prosecutor Svend Larsen said: “We will decide on a case by case basis whether someone is playing professionally.” The case have some similarity’s with the online poker payment seizures of more than 30.000 funds in the US, in which prosecutors say that illegal gambling payments are to be forfeited. The biggest difference is that Denmark law only forbids professional play, while US law makes every form of gambling illegal.

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Thanks to the increasing Internet popularity, the game of online bingo is creating revenue for the UK even though bingo halls dropped slightly in numbers. Reports show that UK bingo gambling is leaving from live bingo halls to go online with their business. Bingo sales are at an all-time high according to the UK Gambling Commission.

Bingo Hallsare declining in numbers, commission figures show a decline of 34 bingo halls to 641 bingo halls, down from 675 halls last year. Ironicly total bingo sales show a rise of nearly 5%, suggest the game is still growing in popularity. Land-based bingo gambling operators say the decline in customers to the comfort and ease of the Internet is worsened by increased taxes on bingo halls and the smoking ban. The social benefits of playing bingo live with others is turning in to the quick playability of online gambling. Because the number bingo operators in the UK is in decline, only two bingo companies now control more than 40% of the Bingo gambling halls. Gala Bingo and Mecca Bingo dominate the market. Bingo has seen a fast increase in the UK over the last year, studies by online gambling operators show the bingo market is far from fulfilled, leaving plenty of room to grow.

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The UK will get live TV gambling for the first time ever, after Five and Netplay signed a multi-year contract to broadcast interactive casino gambling to regular TV audience.

Five viewers will be able to bet thousands on roulette from the comfort of their own home, satellite and internet gambling have been around for a while now, but its the first time interactive casino gambling will be broadcast on live Television. Five which is owned by RTL, will broadcast NetPlay’s SuperCasino show three nights a week from September 17. The deal is made possible after rules forbidding TV gambling got loosened. The show will encourage viewers to open a NetPlay account and deposit money on that account. An on-screen croupier will ask players to place bets by phone or via Internet gambling, before giving the wheel a spin. If the player wins, their name will flash up on the screen and the winnings will be credited to their account. Martin Higginson, CEO of NetPlay said: “The show is no different to online gambling and will be tightly controlled by the regulator. There has been a decline in advertising and they’re desperately looking for new sources of revenue, this will help them. If it proves successful, we will look to extend it to other UK channels and into other countries.”

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