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In 2006-07, we spent almost $91.5 million, or $4350 each, on food, Bureau of Statistics figures say.

But gaming industry figures show that in 2005-06 adults spent $148 million -- an average of $9491 each -- on gambling, though the figures do also include tourists.

Family First senator Steve Fielding said yesterday that the statistics painted an alarming picture of the nation's love affair with gambling.

He said governments needed to do more to fight addiction, and he wants to see poker machines phased out of pubs and clubs.

"The Rudd Government can halve the number of problem gamblers by supporting Family First's poker machine plans," he said.

"This would, over time, get poker machines out of our local clubs and pubs and restrict pokies to racetracks and casinos.

"The Productivity Commission found that in Western Australia, where pokies are restricted to casinos, there would be about 110 per cent more problem gamblers if poker machines were allowed in more venues, like in the eastern states," he said.

CANTON - Jonathan Myers has to stop himself from placing too many bets on the Super Bowl. ‘‘I want to bet everything,’’ Myers said as he looked at a list of 600 ways to wager on Sunday’s game between the undefeated New England Patriots and the surging New York Giants.

Myers, 25, of Sharon, is putting $200 on the line. He is considering putting down two $100 bets on what’s called proposition bets. They let gamblers wager on everything from which team will win the coin toss to which quarterback will throw the first touchdown to what songs musician Tom Petty will play during the half-time show.

‘‘I’m looking for the line that will give me the biggest bang for the buck,’’ Myers said. ‘‘There’s so many that it’s going to take me hours to decide.’’

He could bet the spread, which has been between 12 and 13 points for the Patriots to beat the Giants, but since about the middle of the season New England, which is going for an unprecedented 19-0 season, has not covered it, and he is loath to put any money on the Giants, Myers said.

Although gambling on sports is illegal in every state but Nevada, South Shore residents like Myers are getting into the action by placing bets on Internet sites such as Sportsbook.com, bodoglife.com and RaceBook.com.

The gambling frenzy surrounding the Super Bowl is a nationwide phenomenon. Millions of people are making wagers large and small and Sunday’s game is expected to break Las Vegas’ previous Super Bowl betting record.

Not a good bet

January 31, 2008

RAFFLES ARE right up there with motherhood and apple pie in some parts of America. But that doesn't mean that instilling gambling habits in the young is a good idea.

A Stafford County high school recently promoted its after-prom raffle, with daily winners posted on the schools's Web site. The school is hardly unique. Plenty of sports boosters at area schools and leaders of church ministries offer similar chances to gamble for a good cause.

What's the harm, you ask? It's the growing danger that youngsters will view wagering as a short cut to accomplishing their goals. That approach might work when you're paying for a school dance. It's much more risky when you're wagering the monthly mortgage payment.

Let's hope schools and churches go back to the good ol' earn-it approach to raising money. Washing cars is a lot better training for adulthood than betting on raffles.

They were not only close friends and founding fathers of the N.F.L., but Art Rooney and Tim Mara were also gamblers, proud ones. In 1936, Rooney, whose family still owns the Pittsburgh Steelers, famously turned two prescient days at the racetrack into $300,000. In 1925, Mara, a bookmaker in the days when that profession was not only legal but honorable, paid $500 for the New York Giants.

He told his 9-year-old son, Wellington: “In New York, an empty store with two chairs in it is worth that much.”

It is odds on that Rooney and Mara would have been tickled that their life’s work has turned into one of the most popular gambling endeavors on the planet.

Two years ago, Pittsburgh dispatched the Seattle Seahawks for its fifth Super Bowl championship, and the game set a record in Las Vegas, when bettors wagered $94.5 million trying to divine the outcome. On Sunday in Super Bowl XLII, Las Vegas sports books expect to take in as much as $100 million when the Giants meet the New England Patriots.

“I don’t think he’d be able to comprehend it,” said Tim Mara’s grandson, John, a current co-owner of the Giants. “It was a completely different era then — the founding fathers were gamblers. They bought into teams for a song and came close to going broke week after week.”

Each year at Super Bowl time, N.F.L executives go to great lengths to distance the league from the estimated $10 billion in gambling that it generates, not only in Las Vegas but also in offshore sports betting shops, office and bar pools and among illegal bookies.

“We’re trying to do whatever we can to make sure our games are not betting vehicles,” said Joe Browne, an N.F.L. spokesman. “I know we have been accused of allowing gambling because it is good for the popularity of the game. If that’s true, then we have wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars opposing gambling on our games.”

Browne said the N.F.L. supported the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act enacted in 1992, which bans state-licensed sports betting, except in a small handful of “grandfathered” states.

Likewise, it backed the Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act of 2006, which prohibits check and electronic-fund transfers to place and settle bets with overseas gambling operations. It also opposes the New Jersey Legislature’s renewed effort to legalize sports betting in state casinos.

There is little doubt, however, that the N.F.L. has benefited by its coexistence with gambling. The league generates about $7 billion in annual revenue and has become America’s most watched sport.

In Las Vegas, the N.F.L. accounted for 55 percent of the more than $1.1 billion wagered on football in 2006, according to Kenny White, the chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sports Consultants, which sets the line for 90 percent of Nevada’s sports books.

The amount of money bet on the 267 N.F.L. regular-season and playoff games surpassed not only the amount bet on more than 700 college football games in 2006 but also the money wagered on college and professional basketball, as well as all Major League Baseball games.

The fact that Rooney and Mara and other early N.F.L. architects understood the nature of gambling perhaps gave them a greater insight and tolerance into the sort of people who wagered on sporting contests.

One of the N.F.L’s pivotal moments occurred in 1946, when Commissioner Bert Bell learned that gamblers had attempted to bribe Giants quarterback Frank Filchock and running back Merle Hapes before the championship game with the Chicago Bears.

When Hapes acknowledged he was approached, he was not allowed to play in the game.

After denying any knowledge of the scheme, Filchock was allowed to play. Later, however, he acknowledged that a bribe had, indeed, been offered to him, and Bell suspended Filchock and Hapes indefinitely.

“Bert Bell realized that gambling on football was not going to go away,” said Michael MacCambridge, the author of “America’s Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation.” “But he also understood the league had to be as transparent as possible in protecting the integrity of the game — that there could not be any rumor or innuendo that the fix was in, or it could kill the sport.”

The next season, Bell announced that the league would publish before each game a report of the injuries of all players and their likelihood of participating. It evolved into the detailed midweek report that a remains a staple of the N.F.L.

“It was intended to provide information that assured the public that the game was played honestly,” MacCambridge said. “But paradoxically, it gave bettors more information and greater confidence that they were betting on an honest game.”

In 1963, Commissioner Pete Rozelle reinforced the league’s zeal for transparency when he suspended Green Bay’s Paul Hornung and Detroit’s Alex Karras for a year for betting on N.F.L. games.

The N.F.L. has also put in more subtle measures to separate itself from gambling, like prohibiting the networks that carry its games to pick a winner against a point spread during pregame telecasts.

ESPN, however, still features its horse and football handicapper, Hank Goldberg, in segments in which he makes betting line predictions. They are broadcast on “SportsCenter” newscasts that run Sunday mornings immediately before “N.F.L. Countdown.”

Still, there are some current N.F.L. owners who, if they are not kindred spirits to Rooney and Mara, at least see no reason to completely recoil from the league’s relationship to the gambling public.

“It does show the depth of passion our fans have for our game,” said Bob McNair, who owns the Houston Texans and also breeds and races thoroughbred horses. “Ultimately, I think it falls under that old saying of ‘Don’t worry about the things you can’t change.’ We can’t do anything about individuals. I play golf, and I like to play a $2 Nassau when I’m out there on the course. It doesn’t mean I do not love the game, but sometimes it’s nice to have a little something extra at stake.”

It doesn't matter who you're rooting for in the Super Bowl. It's a bad bet to gamble in the workplace

Late on Sunday night, Feb. 3, men and women across the country will find out whether they won money in their office Super Bowl pool. Those who lose will have a chance to recoup their cash in pools for the Academy Awards, the World Series, and perhaps even the Presidential election. For every season, there is a chance to bet and win at the office, and the winnings can be as high as five figures.

Office pools involving cash are common, exciting, and potentially lucrative. But they can violate corporate policies and the law. Even where they are legal and not in violation of company protocol, however, they are wrong, and we ought not to participate in them.

As readers of this column know by now, arguments about ethics are not entirely dependent on what the law, public policy, and corporate rules and regulations happen to be. An action can be legal but wrong, or it can be illegal but ethically required. One would like to believe that laws, regulations, and policies are always based on what is right, but we know that too often they are shaped by special interests, outdated beliefs, or pure and simple prejudice. For any law or policy, we can and should ask: "Is it right? Is it fair? Is it just?"

This is not a call to civil disobedience, however. The law is an important first step in deciding what we should do and why we should do it. For example, we are legally required to file a federal tax return each year, so anyone who wishes to be a citizen in good standing (or at least not to become a member of the prison population) wisely chooses to pay his or her taxes. For all of the problems in the legal system, it is hard to imagine that a civilized society could survive for long without laws and the serious consequences of failing to honor them.

When examining the propriety of office pools, it is thus important to look at the relevant law. Before doing so, I must emphasize that I am not an attorney, and nothing in this column, or anything else I've ever written, should be considered legal advice. Based on my research, however, I have discovered the legality of office pools in which employees bet cash on professional sports teams varies from state to state. In other words, in some states, office pools are illegal. Yes, it is true that these laws are rarely enforced, and yes, it makes sense for police to investigate homicides, bank robberies, sexual assaults, and other serious crimes before they pursue rumors that employees in the local coffee shop are betting on the Giants over the Patriots.

But before you conclude that office pools have few legal consequences, consider this: Some employees, including those at the management level, have been fired (and in at least one case, arrested) for participating in these games, on the grounds the practice was either illegal or in violation of company policy.

Because participants in office pools risk violating the law, the rules has agreed to when accepting one's job, or both, these games are of questionable value. But this isn't the main reason we shouldn't place bets at work.

My argument that it is wrong to participate in office pools is not based on the ethics of gambling as such. I believe that in the right social setting, gambling is a fun way to spend some time and, one hopes, not too much money (provided one does not have an addiction to gambling). When I'm in Las Vegas—to give talks on, of all things, ethics—I usually make time for the roulette tables. Yes, roulette has terrible odds, but I like the quiet atmosphere, the fact that there is absolutely no skill involved, and of course, the free drinks.

The office, however, simply isn't an appropriate place for gambling. It's called a workplace for a reason: It's the place where we're supposed to work. Things that interfere with doing our job should be done before or after work. The same goes for talking politics at work (BusinessWeek.com, 1/15/08), having sex, drinking single malt whisky, surfing the Web for bargains, or yakking with friends on our cell phones.

The issue isn't whether a particular activity is high- or lowbrow or how much time it takes away from your work. If you're on the job, it's just as wrong to spend two hours debating the Cartesian mind-body distinction as it is to watch Jenna Jameson videos for 20 minutes. Whether either activity is your cup of tea is up to you; what isn't up for grabs is the propriety of doing either at work.

"Office pools build morale and camaraderie." Next to the thrill of winning, this is the most popular justification for office pools. "Companies are fighting like mad to bring people together, and office pools are a great way to stimulate watercooler conversations," said John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger Gray & Christmas, to The Business Review in Albany, N.Y., in 2002. But there are lots of stimulating things to talk about that just don't belong at work.

And let's face it: Right or wrong, who we want to win a football game is even more important to some of us than are our political beliefs or religious convictions, and the arguments surrounding these games can get out of hand. It's one thing to have a heated discussion about a project on which you and a colleague are working. It's quite another to have such an argument about something that has nothing to do with one's job.

"It's harmless fun." At the beginning of football season, we kick in a few dollars, then follow our team over the coming weeks and months. Most of us lose. A few of us win. What's the harm in that? Even if there happens to be no legal or policy issues at stake, the harm has to do with how stakeholders would view the business if on-the-job gambling activities were revealed. "If the stakes are high, the result of the pool could create disharmony in the workplace, and the problems could escalate," says employment law expert B. David Joffe of the law firm Boult, Cummings, Conners & Berry.

If even a small percentage of customers, board members, and shareholders is likely to be troubled by the practice of on-site betting, that alone is sufficient cause for concern. Some stakeholders may have religious objections to it. Others might be concerned that employees will not give their full attention to their work. A third group may simply view gambling on the job as unseemly. Whatever the objections are, they deserve to be taken seriously.

"The CEO allows or encourages it." This is, quite frankly, a cop-out. The fact that the head of an organization sanctions a practice says little or nothing about whether the practice is justifiable or not. After all, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling of Enron thought it was perfectly fine to play with employee pension funds as if they were Monopoly money, but no one today is saying that their leadership roles made what they did O.K. When David Frost asked former President Richard Nixon in 1977 if it is acceptable for a President to do something illegal, Nixon replied, "Well, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal." Nixon was mistaken, and so is any corporate leader who believes that "if I say it's all right, then it must be all right."

Bottom line: Some companies allow or encourage office pools, and perhaps they always will. But they shouldn't, and if they take a few moments to reflect on the real risks that these activities pose, the smart ones won't.

The Oregon Lottery calls the scheme a "promotional program" and is using shills from the media to maximize its slick PR campaign.

(SILVERTON, Ore.) - Years ago, facing legal and political pressure for marketing cancer sticks to youth, R.J. Reynolds put out to pasture its infamous Joe Camel mascot. Today's "Scratch-it for Schools" campaign by the Oregon State Lottery may not sport a character with a hump, but its cynicism brings back memories of old Joe.

Last November, the Oregon Lottery, with help from the Oregon Department of Education, invited K-12 public schools to gamble on Scratch-it for Schools. This month, the Lottery picked 75 applicants to play the game.

Come April, teams of eight adults, four from each school and four from TV or radio stations, will have five minutes to scratch as many Oregon Lottery Scratch-it tickets as they can. The schools will keep the cash prizes uncovered by their teams.

If a lottery is a bad tax on people's poor understanding of statistics, Scratch-it for Schools is nothing but a public relations scam peddling the lie that lottery games can be a panacea for schools' funding shortages, all the while validating gambling in the eyes of our kids.

The cynical nature of the campaign comes across loud and clear in the invitation to schools to register online. The Oregon Lottery encouraged school officials to fill out the registration on their home computers, because some school computers ban access to the Lottery's website. Many school computers apparently put lotteries in the same category as pornography when it comes to online access.

What do the school computers know that the principals and school district administrators fail to grasp?

The computers apparently know that Oregon public health officials are concerned about problem gambling in general and youth gambling in particular. At least some public schools profess similar concerns, though that didn't stop them from entering and winning slots in the Lottery's Scratch-it for Schools promotion. Both Portland Public Schools and the Silver Falls School District, for example, have policies prohibiting student gambling - playing games of chance for the purpose of exchanging money or anything of value.

And perhaps the school computers also understand the deceptive math behind the Scratch-it for Schools marketing scheme. The Oregon Lottery boasts that last year it raised about $86,000 through the school-based gambling event. To some, especially kids, that may sound like a lot of money. Yet, considering that the state school budget is $6,245,000,000, the $86,000 is peanuts. Actually, it's just a few grains of salt on the peanuts. It's just fourteen one-millionths -- 0.0014 percent -- of an increase in funding for schools.

Put another way, the Oregon Lottery's Scratch-it for Schools event provides enough funding to add a little less than half a minute to the school year of Oregon's schoolchildren. Schools would be better off spending their time giving their students a math lesson and teaching them that the Oregon Lottery accounts for less than 3 percent of the cost of state government.

But Scratch-it for Schools is really not primarily about helping schools. The Oregon Lottery calls the scheme a "promotional program" and is using shills from the media to maximize its slick PR campaign.

Unfortunately, like RJR's Joe Camel, the campaign is aimed at vulnerable youth. After all, how can a marketing campaign targeting schools not implicate their students?

State human services officials are rightly concerned that although students won't be allowed to scratch the tickets, they are likely to get caught up in the excitement and frenzy as their teachers, administrators and parents -- presumably role models -- frantically scratch tickets for a little money.

Instead of helping promote the fantasy that playing the lottery will solve life's challenges, schools should teach kids the facts of life: taxes, not gambling revenues, are responsible for 90 percent of school funding. If schools want more digital cameras, books, assembly programs, playground equipment, computer hardware and software and field trips -- allegedly what past Scratch-it for Schools winners bought with their money -- they'd be better off working to strengthen our tax system's funding for our public structures.

Just as the tobacco industry invented Joe Camel to hook children on a dangerous product, the Oregon Lottery has come up with its own marketing ploy to ready its future prey. Let's hope a public outcry similarly banishes Scratch-it for Schools to the PR pasture for misguided publicity schemes.

Chuck Sheketoff is the executive director of the Oregon Center for Public Policy. He can be reached at csheketoff@ocpp.org

Pam Anderson: Sex Tapes, Prostitution and Gambling Debts!

Gambling News Review

by Steve Vaughan

Pamela Anderson, now in her 40’s,has been caught in the spotlight for many reasons. Many of the controversies have been based on the amazing sexual appeal she obviously has, that which came naturally, and that which was bought and paid for, fair and square. Evidently no one is immune, including professional poker players.

In an interview on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Pam Anderson allegedly revealed that she recently owed a poker debt of 125 thousand dollars to a casino in Las Vegas. She acknowledge met a man there, who paid her gambling debt in exchange for sexual favors. She claims to have fallen in love with this new man, who she is currently dating as well.

As she described the debt, she said that the man offered to settle the debt if she would ‘make out with him’ and Anderson accepted his proposal immediately. She followed the statement saying that the entire affair felt romantic to her.

It worked out, I liked it. … I paid off a poker debt with sexual favors and fell in love. It’s so romantic.” - San Francisco Gate

Initially Pamela Anderson did not want to reveal the name of her mystery man, but ultimately she did give his name. She said the man was poker player Rick Solomon. The popular starlet and former playboy model may be seen as a rail bird at the next major event – the audience will watch and see.

He’s also known for a sexy tape that was leaked to the media of himself and notorious diva Paris Hilton, while he was married to Beverly Hills 90210, and Charmed’s Shannen Doherty.

A report released this week shows that gaming revenue for North America for last year grew by over eight percent to $92.68 billion.

The North American Gaming Almanac released by online casino guide and directory CasinoCity.com shows that casino and card room gaming accounted for 48 percent of total North American gaming revenues with lotteries accounting for 24 percent followed by tribal gaming at almost 22 percent.

'The North American Gaming Almanac is now a must-have for anyone seeking to understand the state of the gaming industry today,' said Michael Corfman, President and Chief Executive Officer for Casino City Press.

'Users include financial analysts at investment banks, casino operators, gaming analysts at casinos, market research consultants, major industry suppliers, regulators and libraries and universities. The Almanac helps them develop benchmarks, analyse competitors, monitor industry trends and gather market data to support their business plan.'

The Almanac reports that the largest inflation-adjusted growth, an increase of 7.31 percent, was seen in tribal gaming while revenues from lotteries grew by 4.91 percent with casino and card room gaming rising by 5.56 percent.

In addition, it reports that the North American gambling market, which includes both the US and Canadian gaming industries, saw both charitable gaming and race/sports wagering decline last year. iGAMING EVENTS

Gambit on Marketing 2nd Annual Bingo Summit MoCollywood EIG - Barcelona CAP Euro Barcelona The Betting Show Gambit on Mobile & iTV gaming Global Gaming Expo (G2E) I-Gaming InDepth: Bingo World Poker Congress (WPC)

You've probably heard that suspicions were, uh, shall we say, piqued recently when millions of dollars were suddenly bet on the 87th-ranked tennis player, one Martin Arguello, when he played the world No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko in the first round of an obscure tournament somewhere you've never heard of in Poland. And, heavens to Betsy, Davydenko suddenly decided he had a toe injury and had to retire. My, my.

But that denouement did not surprise me nearly so much as to learn that just one British gambling site -- named Betfair -- announced in passing that it regularly took in about $700,000 on such a match. Think of it: $700,000 routinely bet at one gambling establishment on most every-day matches.

Never mind that you've got to be batty to bet on tennis. And forget anything as sinister as gambling coups. Lots of times at a tournament the best players get guaranteed appearance money up front. These guys aren't exactly encouraged to knock themselves out.

Deep, too, in the sport is a culture of what is, in friendly terms, called "tanking" -- losing on purpose because the player simply wants to go home or get on to the next tournament where he has a girlfriend waiting. How often have I been regaled, late at night at the bar, knee-slapping tales about opponents, both of whom were trying to tank the same match.

And sometimes -- I repeat: $700,000 bet on just one first-round match at a rinky-dink tournament in the bowels of Poland -- do you get the feeling that the whole world is becoming a craps table? People devotedly watching strangers play poker on TV? Who would have believed it? Or do you know they now want to put a casino on Easter Island? What? They'll be dealing blackjack in the Taj Mahal next year. Nevada used to have the sin market cornered. Now 27 states boast casinos that more than one-quarter of Americans patronize every year.

What's the matter with the other three-quarters of you patriots? Get with the program. Casinos, not industry, are touted as the hope for the redevelopment of a city like Detroit. Do you get the feeling that if houses, roads, churches, schools, hospitals and other bric-a-brac are not being rebuilt real fast along the Gulf Coast, not even Hurricane Katrina or FEMA could keep casinos washed out of business for long?

Now get this. In Vegas this season you can legally bet on fantasy football. You can bet that, say, Peyton Manning in one game, will do better than Tom Brady in another. But, ahh, in a real way, this just takes us sports fans back to our origins. For all the talk about how sweet and innocent and pastoral baseball began in the republic, the bald fact is that much of its early popularity came about simply because our dear national pastime was such a good betting game. Gamblers had sections all to themselves, changing the odds every inning, sometimes even every batter. Ah, the more things change...

And man, oh man, did you see what the jackpot for both PowerBall and Mega Millions got up to last week?

They say no man is an island. That's fine. We'll settle for isthmus. It's always nice to be able to walk back to the mainland.

Here on our own little isthmus, we hold firm to our sports beliefs and trust in the sports truths that - at least to us - are self-evident. Given our declining industrial base, it's all we have.

We believe many things and some of them are actually important. Some may actually be right. But while we may not always be right, we are always certain ... in a kinda/sorta way.

We believe that the NFL should do the right thing and ban Michael Vick for life.

The dogfighting stuff is on the record. Vick lied to everyone involved - including commish Roger Goodell - and violated the personal-conduct clause in his contract.

The NFL now has the gambling charges the feds unearthed in their investigation. And nothing seals the deal with the league suits like gambling. Just ask NBA chief David Stern.

We believe Vick should fire defense attorney Billy Martin and hire Bob Lemon. It worked for the Yankees.

Had C. J. Stoney envisioned the fantasy sports wasteland that would follow, he never would have told anyone about his discovery of the electron in 1891. The electron led to the computer and the computer led to the geeks and the geeks brought us fantasy sports.

These leagues skew how people watch games, leading them away from the appreciation for collective accomplishment to the empty greed of individual glory. It's like hanging with Deion Sanders. Or Ayn Rand.

Worst of all, deportes fanatsias turn fans into soulless actuaries and strip them of any meaningful understanding of the games.

They are, in the immortal words of Gen. Jack D. Ripper said, "a Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

We believe that Little League baseball, with the possible exception of the very last game of the Little League World Series, has absolutely no business on television.

The current wall-to-wall TV coverage - they even show the regionals now, for heaven's sake - is nothing more than a contrived, cynical and cloying manipulation of the game's purest level for the sole purpose of ratings.

These games, when televised around the world, cease to be anything resembling charming Americana. They're programming and a vehicle for selling more junk to more people who didn't need it in the first place.

Let the kids play in anonymous safety, free from the enormous pressure that television brings.

Let them learn to play the game somewhere other than on "The World Wide Leader."

Let Orel Hershisher critique somebody his own size and relative age. Let our little people go.

Gambling should be a harmless entertainment - never an insidious addiction. This is the overriding message of a new taxi campaign for the National Responsible Gambling Programme (NRGP).

With gambling becoming more available, there is always a danger that some people will gamble excessively - causing damage to themselves and their families.

The public awareness campaign is aimed at less affluent South Africans in LSM categories 2-5. The focus of the NRGP's drive is on commuter media. Leading commuter media specialists, ComutaNet, have branded 30 taxis with powerful communications, endorsed by several well-known local celebrities.

Dingaan Thobela – aka The Rose of Soweto – has lent his support to the campaign. “When you see what gambling does to the families of gamblers, you realise something has to be done,” Thobela said at a media conference held at the Bree Street Taxi Rank. “Families lose their homes, their cars, it causes a negative impact on families as there is often not enough money to support the household.”

The Spanish mobile gambling site, Zero36 says that it is now able to secure location based information from Genasys in order to ensure compliance with Spanish regional legislation. As recently announced, Zero36 has developed a location-based filtering system with a worldwide patent that operates according to the geographical location of a user. This system enables access to mobile casino applications in accordance with the legal status of online gambling at the user's precise location.

"The partnership with Genasys will enable Zero36 to receive location data from all Spanish mobile carriers, eliminating the need to run a separate integration process with each carrier", said Zero36 CEO Sharon Tal. "Genasys will also provide Zero36 with a range of legal safeguards for dealing with personal data protection. This means that only users who will enable pinpointing their precise location will be allowed to play."

"In addition, this system will support different taxation rates accordingly to the area where the user is located. This is necessary because gambling taxation rates vary throughout Spain," added Tal.

Genasys, a leading provider of solutions for the secure delivery of location-based services, provides geospatial solutions for leading mobile operators and service providers including Telefonica Móviles, Vodafone España, Optus (Australia), Vivo (Brazil), Optimus (Portugal) and more.

Zero36 is currently the only offshore company operating a mobile casino for Spanish users, which is also promoted by Spain's Movistar's WAP portal.

Not a good bet

January 31, 2008

Pam Anderson: Sex Tapes, Prostitution and Gambling Debts!

Gambling News Review

by Steve Vaughan

The world is my casino

Forget baseball, gambling is the new national pastime