Online Casino Games

The Australian-based online gambling group Centrebet has become Cryptologic's latest games licensee, signing a multi-year agreement for at least ten games from the gambling software provider.

It is anticipated that the games will go live in the third and fourth quarters of 2009 on Centrebet’s Orbis platform.

A company spokesman said the agreement is in line with Cryptologic’s “build-once-license-often” business strategy to return to profitability and growth. The deal takes the total number of Cryptologic licensees to 24.

Centrebet commenced operations in 1992 and in 1996 was the first licensed bookmaker in the southern hemisphere to offer online sports betting. It has since grown to become a leading international online betting and gaming company and currently offer up to 4,000 international sports and horse racing markets per week, plus a growing list of state-of-the-art online poker and casino products. Online poker and casino products are not offered to Australian residents due to regulatory considerations.

Luke Brill, head of marketing at Centrebet, commented: “We are delighted to have signed this agreement with Cryptologic who are known to be one of the best and the most innovative providers of gaming content in the world. We are confident this collaboration will heighten our customers gaming experience and will help expand our casino offering.”

The Centrebet agreement follows a similar deal with Totesport earlier this week.

In related news, another Crypto-powered online gambling firm, Intercasino has launched 4 new games - Area 21, Cleo Queen of Egypt, Street Fighter IV, and Savannah Sunrise.

Congressman Barney Frank’s proposed legislation to regulate and license online gambling in the United States has reached the 50 co-sponsor mark.

HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act has built up an impressive head of steam since its launch in May this year, and is currently on hold pending a gap in the heavy Congressional workload brought about by the international economic crisis.

As indicated in prior InfoPowa reports, there are now many senior ranking politicians in the bipartisan co-sponsors group for the bill, including George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, John Conyers (D-MI), chairman of the Committee of the Judiciary, Charles Rangel (D-NY), chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, Edolphus Towns (D-NY), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Pete King (R-NY), ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee and Ron Paul (R-TX), vice-chairman of the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee.

Earlier independent analyses showed that collecting taxes on regulated Internet gambling would allow the U.S. to capture much-needed revenue in an amount ranging from $48.6 billion (excluding online sports gambling) to $62.7 billion (including online sports gambling) over the next decade.

The following is a complete list of co-sponsors thus far:

Alaska: Don Young (R At-Large)
Arizona: Raul Grijalva (D 7th)
California: Michael Thompson (D 1st), George Miller (D 7th), Michael Honda (D 15th), Linda Sanchez (D 39th), Bob Filner (D 51st)
Colorado: Jared Polis (D 2nd), Ed Perlmutter (D 7th)
Connecticut: Joe Courtney (D 2nd)
Florida: Robert Wexler (D 19th), Alcee Hastings (D 23rd)
Hawaii: Neil Abercrombie (D 1st)
Idaho: Walt Minnick (D 1st)
Illinois: Luis Gutierrez (D 4th), Bill Foster (D 14th)
Indiana: Andre Carson (D 7th)
Massachusetts: James McGovern (D 3rd), Barney Frank (D 4th), Michael Capuano (D 8th), William Delahunt (D 10th)
Michigan: John Conyers (D 14th)
Nevada: Shelley Berkley (D 1st)
New Hampshire: Paul Hodes (D 2nd)
New Jersey: Robert Andrews (D 1st), Frank LoBiondo (R 2nd), John Adler (D 3rd), Steven Rothman (D 9th)
New York: Tim Bishop (D 1st), Steve Israel (D 2nd), Peter King (R 3rd), Carolyn McCarthy (D 4th), Gary Ackerman (D 5th), Joseph Crowley (D 7th), Jerrold Nadler (D 8th), Edolphus Towns (D 10th), Mike McMahon (D 13th), Charles Rangel (D 15th), Paul Tonko (D 21st)
North Carolina: Melvin Watt (D 12th)
Ohio: Steve Driehaus (D 1st), Tim Ryan (D 17th)
Oregon: Earl Blumenauer (D 3rd)
Tennessee: Steve Cohen (D 9th)
Texas: Ron Paul (R 14th), Ciro Rodriguez (D 23rd)
Virginia: Bobby Scott (D 3rd), Tom Perriello (D 5th), James Moran (D 8th)
Washington: Jim McDermott (D 7th)