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The Gibraltar-based online gambling group 888.com broke new ground this week with the release of its first Corporate Responsibility Report (PDF file) covering operations in 2008. The report builds on the company’s long-standing commitment to corporate and social responsibility.

888 appointed Ruth Tanami as dedicated Director of Responsible Gaming in 2006, and the company’s efforts in this area have been recognised by membership of the FTSE4Good since March last year.

The year 2008 saw 888 continue to progress initiatives across a diverse range of areas, with a comprehensive programme helping improve the company’s economic, social and environmental impacts. These are split into three sections in the report - People, Planet and Play.

Highlights included:

• Second annual charity event held, employees generating $50,000 in donations.
• Charitable cash donations and in-kind contributions totaled $232,485 for charities in Antigua, Israel, Gibraltar and the United Kingdom.
• 13% reduction in electricity consumption per square meter of office space.
• Participation in the United Nations Global Compact.
• Commitment to responsible gaming further by the introduction of a unique data mining system called “The Observer” structued to identify and support problem gamblers.

Commenting on the report, Gigi Levy, chief executive officer of 888, said:

“The publication of this report emphasises the core importance that ethical values have to 888’s business. As well as being the right thing to do, conducting our business responsibly is fundamental to our future success.

“Managing social and environmental factors enhances our credibility with stakeholders, whilst our market-leading approach to player risk builds relationships with our customers, both in turn helping to support our international business development.”

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Online and land betting company Victor Chandler has announced that its application for a licence in South Africa has been approved. The new base for Victor Chandler will be in Cape Town, where the forthcoming World Cup draw will take place Friday.

“We are naturally excited about this opportunity,” CEO Michael Carlton explained. “The Victor Chandler brand fits perfectly with the South African market. Alongside offering a South African specific website to customers we will also be creating numerous employment opportunities.

“We are really proud to be involved in a country where sport is so entrenched in its culture. I will be investing locally over the next few months in order to launch our full range sports betting service in time for the World Cup.”

Victor Chandler are also working on a new World Cup football betting site that will offer all the latest team news, tournament news, updated tables, fixtures and more to get football betting fans into the spirit of the beautiful game.

The launch of the new mini site will coincide with the World Cup draw on December 4th, 5pm GMT. Victor Chandler is confident that they will have some of the best world cup odds available; the current odds for England to win the World Cup are well priced at 6/1, third favourites behind Spain 4/1 and recent victors over England, Brazil 9/2.

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Betfair's Right2Bet campaign for an even playing field in European gambling is currently promoting a Charity Challenge that has a real sting in the tail - not only does it raise money for charity; it dramatically illustrates the better returns achievable by betting with private companies rather than state monopolies.

The challenge picks a weekly football match anywhere in Europe and then finds the prices offered by the state monopolies (the only operators available to punters in these countries) and the best price from a private operator (which can be taken by customers from any other E.U country, such as Britain or Ireland), then places a ‘bet’ at these prices with each operator on the winning outcome. The difference between the best commercial price and worst state operator is then added to the charity kitty, which will be donated to a worthy charity come the end of the season.

The idea is to highlight the large difference in achievable winnings between the private commercial companies and State monopoly firms, and so far the difference is looking rather bigger than even the campaigners could have imagined.

In the last three rounds it demonstrated that winners with German Operator Lotto-Bayern could have enjoyed winnings 67% greater had they placed their bets with the commercial companies!

In addition to the Charity Challenge, the campaign’s site features the latest news and views from the European deregulation campaign, the chance to directly e-mail your local M.E.P, and light-hearted items such as the ‘poetry corner’.

Isle of Man-based online gambling software provider Microgaming has been declared the winner of the 2009 Isle of Man Newspapers Award for Innovation and Independent Thinking.

This is not the first time that the company has been recognised by the media; in 2008 Roger Raatgever, Microgaming’s CEO, was named Business Person of the Year and the firm received the Company of the Year accolade, and in 2007 the New Business and Programme Development award went to the software provider.

The annual awards celebrate achievement, dedication and excellence across all economic sectors of business and the community on the Isle of Man.

The awarding committee recognised Microgaming as a leader in the e-Gaming sector, and applauded the innovative thinking that has successfully driven the business forward since it developed the first online casino software over a decade ago.

Microgaming’s technological prowess in bringing a host of gaming ‘firsts’ to market was noted, together with its status as an industry leader in terms of responsible gambling and its dedication to the local community in establishing the Microgaming Health and Care Trust, which assists the health and wellbeing of the Manx community.

The internationally active company set up its headquarters on the Isle of Man in 2001, motivated by the island’s strong reputation as an IT hub and a centre for IT skills.

Chief executive Roger Raatgever, commenting on the latest award, said: “We are honoured to be recognised for our innovation and independent thinking as these attributes have been central to our growth over the last decade.

“This award recognises our ability to harness the creativity and passion of our team to inspire the most inventive and cutting-edge games on the market. The Isle of Man is a dynamic place both to work and live, and is a leading jurisdiction in the e-Gaming industry. We are proud to call it home. We look forward to playing an ongoing role in contributing to the economic and social success of the Island for a long time to come.”

Award winning online casino 32Red is expanding its portfolio with four new games powered by Microgaming. There are three slots and a new table game.

Getting gamers into the Christmas spirit is Scrooge, a five reel video slot based on the Charles Dickens classic ‘A Christmas Carol’. The game features all the favourites from the classic winter tale, including: Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Jacob Marley, and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

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If that’s not enough to satiate your seasonal appetite for slots, then why not tuck into Buffet Bonanza – an all-you-can-spin smorgasbord of tasty slots action.

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Poland’s president Lech Kaczynski has signed into Polish law the restrictive measures confining gambling to casinos and phasing out slot machines in gaming arcades, cafes, clubs, shops and service stations, reports Agence France Presse.

But whilst doing so, Kaczynski requested Poland’s constitutional court to rule whether the hastily adopted law was “in line with the constitution” presidential aide Wladyslaw Stasiak revealed Friday. The law followed a political corruption scandal in which government figures were named.

The country’s liberal prime minister, Donald Tusk, said the tough law was aimed at increasing taxation of the sector and at “limiting and if possible, rooting out” highly addictive forms of gambling threatening young people under the age of eighteen. It also introduces higher taxes and strict new six-year state concessions for casinos with the limit of one per district with a population of up to 650,000. Casinos will be limited to operating 70 individual gaming tables and machines.

Poland’s parliament approved the law in October, nearly a month and a half after Tusk was forced to sack several key ministers and political allies over allegations of influence peddling within his cabinet regarding gambling legislation.

It is understood that further measures specifically addressing the online gambling sector are currently nearing completion and will be submitted soon.

Late Thursday saw a stunning reversal of a decision by Bulgarian parliamentarians to limit taxation on gambling to 12% in defiance of the prime minister’s call for a 15% rate. Prime Minister Boyko Borisov was, as we reported earlier, less than pleased with the 12% move and vowed to reverse it - and reverse it he did, pushing MPs in a second reading to vote for the 15% rate he needed to balance cuts in alcohol and mortgage taxation areas.

The vote was apparently unanimous, with all 149 MPs present in agreement.

The Novinite news agency reports that BGN 150 million will be raised from the gambling tax in 2010.

The decision did not please everyone; Bulgarian business mogul Vasil Bozhkov slammed the increased tax in a television interview, using some provocative language in describing the politicians involved. Bozhkov is believed in many quarters to be Bulgaria’s richest man and was at one time involved in the gambling business.

He told the Pro.bg TV television interviewer: “Under pressure by an unbalanced Finance Minister and Ivan Kostov, an outright lier and the father of corruption in Bulgaria, a genocide against the Bulgarian business is being performed. This is not just with respect to gambling, this is a genocide against the whole business sector in a time of crisis.”

The Finance Minister referred to is Simeon Djankov and Ivan Kostov is the former PM and current co-chair of the rightist Blue Coalition, which supports the GERB government of Borisov.

Bozhkov’s thoughts on the issue follow warnings by the Bulgarian Association for Entertainment and Gambling Games that even the former 12% rate would cause the collapse of the gambling industry and the loss of 40,000 jobs.

Presenting a different and more supportive view for the hike, MP Iskra Fidosova from the GERB ruling party pointed to Finance Minister Simeon Djankov’s study which indicated that Bulgarians are generally negative towards gambling. Only 10% think that gambling operators should be favoured, whereas 60% are in favour of higher gambling tax, with opinions varying that it should be between 14 - 20%.

MP Aliosman Imamov from the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms said the major problem in the gambling sector was not the size of the tax but weak regulation which would prevent the generation of the projected tax revenues.