Acknowledging the state is in its most dire economic situation since the Great Depression, Gov. Jack Markell’s first State of the State speech Tuesday was measured — renewing the state’s prosperity is critical, he said, but first it must solve its immediate fiscal crisis.

“I understand how significant the tasks before us may seem,” Markell said. “It’s as if our ship of state is stuck in the middle of a financial storm and it seems the only option available is to keep busy bailing us out. But bailing out without sailing ahead is not a long-term solution.”

He acknowledged his proposal for balancing the state’s budget “is not easy or popular,” including both 8 percent pay cuts for state workers as part of an effort to cut state spending by more than $300 million and the introduction of sports betting to raise an estimated $55 million in revenue.

“My proposal is a realistic and responsible solution to a serious problem and meets the challenge of balancing the budget while maintaining three core principles: fiscal responsibility, keeping our core commitments and shared sacrifice,” he said.

Markell reminded the General Assembly that any portion of his plan that doesn’t pass will require making cuts elsewhere.

“At the end of the day, the numbers must add up; our budget must be balanced,” Markell said. “And so the response of ‘don’t look here, look elsewhere’ to balance the budget is no longer an answer we can afford to hear.”

Markell used the speech to chastise casino owner who have helped delay his sports-betting proposal, saying if the state’s casinos want to add sports gambling, they must be willing to make a change in the state’s share of video slots revenues.

“Let me be clear: The exclusive franchise for video lottery and sports lottery belongs to the taxpayers of this state, not the casino owners,” Markell said. “The owners are the taxpayers’ partners in this venture and they need to act like partners.”

Even as the General Assembly works against a daunting deadline to balance this year’s budget by June 30, Markell said it’s important for them also to look ahead to creating an economic climate that will attract businesses and help existing Delaware companies grow.
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To that end, Markell used the speech to promote his CORE Prosperity agenda, which includes focusing on energy efficiency to save money, generate jobs and protect the environment; establishing a federal-stimulus-funded job training program; streamlining the business-licensing process to a single, statewide license; and supporting small-business development through the low-interest LIFT loan program announced last week.

Markell said he would seek legislation requiring a 15 percent cut in per capita energy consumption and a 15 percent reduction in peak electricity demand by 2015. He also said his administration will propose new, energy-efficient building codes and require consideration of conservation or renewable energy sources before new conventional supplies are considered, as well as energy-conservation investments for state buildings.

John Byrne, a University of Delaware professor who directs the school’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, said Markell’s proposals are ambitious and aggressive but within the state’s reach.

“It’s good to have leadership of this kind,” Byrne said. “The governor is trying to provide it at one of the most difficult times economically. In many ways, this is the right time.”

New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan, adopted in October, calls for a 20 percent reduction by the year 2020 — a goal that could cost more than $6 billion, while saving consumers more than $16 billion, Susan Coakley, executive director of the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership, said.

“Delaware is actually surrounded by states which have already made this commitment,” Coakley said, “which is actually very good news, because retailers and service providers already are gearing up to respond.”

Delmarva Power President Gary Stockbridge said the company was “aligned with Gov. Markell’s vision for the state,” and said that Delmarva was looking forward to seeing details of his proposal.

“The governor has been very supportive of our rollout of smart grid technology in Delaware. Eventually all of our 300,000 customers in Delaware will be served by smart meters,” Stockbridge said in a written statement. “With this technology as a foundation, we look forward to helping the governor meet his goals, helping our customers reduce their energy use and helping them save money.”
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Rob Book, spokesman for the Delaware Electric Cooperative, did not comment in detail on Markell’s plan but offered a word of caution about alternative energy, saying, “I think we need to look at all the different types of technologies that are out there. You certainly have to weigh the costs with the proposed benefits. A lot of the renewables out there have very high price tags.”

Addressing education, which accounts for a major portion of the state’s expenditures, Markell said the state must refocus its spending from administration to the classroom.

He proposed overhauling the Delaware State Testing Program, giving districts more discretion in using state funds and consolidating school district administrative services into four regional centers by fall 2010.

Answering those who have called for consolidation of the state’s 19 school districts, he said the state will look closely at the idea — one that has long generated fervent debate — and report its findings in a year.

Markell’s proposals, most of which the governor has put forth before, drew mixed reviews.

House Speaker Robert F. Gilligan said school district consolidation, while it bears looking into, could prompt a political brawl with no guarantee of significant savings.

Christina School Board member John Mackenzie said consolidating administrative services makes sense, but called consolidating school districts “foolish.”

“Teacher salaries will have to be leveled up, not down, so there goes your cost savings,” he said. Plus, “local control keeps communities involved with their own schools, and when local control is replaced with state control, local support seems to evaporate.”

Dover Downs CEO Ed Sutor was disappointed with the speech.

“We have not had the chance to meet with him directly, though we’ve tried,” Sutor said, adding that the governor’s characterization of the casino owners “is not a fair assessment of the industry.”

“We’ve had four meetings and the casino industry has [offered proposals] three times and the administration has not moved at all,” Sutor said. “We don’t think that’s reasonable.”

Sen. Nancy Cook, D-Kenton, said Markell did a good job both of presenting goals for the future and emphasizing the need to balance next year’s budget.

“I’m pleased to see he outlined the need for us to focus on balancing out next year’s budget,” said Cook, who co-chairs the Joint Finance Committee. “The Legislature can’t be reminded enough about the responsibility we have.”

After debating the merits and drawbacks of casino gambling for years, it’s time island residents got some facts about the issue, members of a community recovery committee told the city council Thursday.

The committee, which has spent the last four months creating a list of 42 projects to help the city recover from Hurricane Ike, is recommending the city support a gambling feasibility study that would objectively assess the effect casinos would have on the island.

Committee members want the city to ask the Galveston Chamber of Commerce to conduct the study as soon as possible.
“It’s best for this community to put this issue to bed, once and for all,” committee member and local real estate agent Barney Rapp said. “Let’s get the hard facts.”

Most people’s reaction to gambling is based only on their prejudices, emotions and beliefs, committee Chairwoman Betty Massey said.

But no study will ever provide answers that everyone will be happy with, Councilwoman Elizabeth Beeton said. And Galveston voters already have spoken on gambling, altering the city’s charter in 1989 to forbid another referendum on the issue until the state legislature passed laws to make establishing a casino possible, she said.

“We have dealt with this many times in Galveston,” she said. “I thought we had put it to bed.”

Beeton also suggested the study’s conclusion would be biased, since several members of the chamber’s board of directors are vocal supporters of gambling.

But the rest of the council members said they wanted to see what the study would show.

“If I’m up here at such time as council will be addressing the issue, I want the data to see what the impact will be,” Councilwoman Karen Mahoney said. “It’s important to say we want to be prepared. Part of that is to have the research in front of us.”

Even Councilwoman Susan Fennewald, the only other council member to speak out in opposition to gambling, said she could support a study, if it collected very specific data.

Both Beeton and Fennewald had said they feared any vote to support a gambling study could be used by gambling proponents in Austin to prop up legislation now being debated in the state capital.

But in light of the gambling legislation, the worst thing the city could do is put its collective head in the sand, Mayor pro tem Danny Weber said.

“It is possible that something will come out of that legislature and say it’s done,” he said. “If we don’t have the facts, we’ll be behind the eight ball. It’s critical to get the facts we need, instead of all the hype.”

The council will reconsider the gambling feasibility study and the 41 other projects next month, deciding which ones to move forward first.

Some of the projects will be passed on to other organizations for implementation, but the council will have to vote to support or fund most of the plans.

Massey has asked the council to at least take each project to its next development step, a request City Manager Steve LeBlanc said he wanted to support.

Betfair, the world’s largest Internet betting exchange based in West London, England through its TVG subsidiary, has recently signed a deal with Keeneland to make it the exclusive television provider of the historic and very prestigious Lexington, Kentucky race track.
Thanks to some arcane legislative loopholes in the U.S., TVG can provide account wagering in America using its TVG.com website and for the first-time ever, offer on-line wagering for the Keeneland Spring Race Meet scheduled on April 3.
The recent acquisitions of both TVG and TVG.com by Betfair are expected to add spice to the gaming scene in the U.S. as Keeneland is the undisputed leader among race tracks pertaining to purse distributions, starters per race, prestigious competition and overall racing quality.
Mr. Greg Nichols, Betfair’s Managing Director for Sporting Affairs, firmly believes this first North American agreement is significant as it will enable the firm’s other wagering sites to benefit greatly from TVG’s television and Web coverage of Keeneland’s horse races. Additionally, he notes that it is definitely a move in the right direction for its loyal fans, stakeholders and the overall racing industry.
As a matter of fact, TVG will be broadcasting live during the Keeneland Spring Meet. This virtually unprecedented pre-race coverage includes the week prior to the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes and also the post-position draw. Race day coverage itself will feature the newest broadcast technology and enhanced never-before-seen camera angles for the television audience.
No less than the president and CEO of Keeneland, Mr. Nick Nicholson, is proud of the contract as TVG is known for its excellent TV production quality and sophisticated digital wagering platforms.

Newstargames has announced an update to its racing game New Star Grand Prix 1.0.7. The game provides all the teams, drivers, and tracks of the 2009 Grand Prix season, and allows users to progress through a career mode that spans up to 10 seasons on 17 different tracks. The latest version offers a new KERS boost system, slipstreaming and a speedometer HUD. Gamers can now play in twelve different languages, including English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Danish, Polish, Finnish, Turkish and Slovenian.

Players try to manage their finances by purchasing sports cars and gambling at the casino, while attempting to develop relationships with the team boss, pit crew, friends and fans. Each race delivers unique challenges such as changeable weather conditions, tire wear, car damage and fuel loads, all of which affect the car’s handling.

After every race, users can upload their best time to the online leader-board. The game also includes a track editor that allows racing on customized tracks.

New Star Grand Prix is compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 or higher and priced at $10. Users can also download a trial version from the company’s website.

Mitch Garber finds a new home as Harrah’s prepares for U.S. Internet gambling

Industry observers are speculating that the beginning of a new era in U.S. online gambling may be in sight following the appointment of ex-Party Gaming group CEO Mitch Garber as head of the Internet operations and World Series of Poker division at the giant land casino company Harrah’s Entertainment this week.

The Sunday Times reported over the holiday weekend that the gaming giant is spinning these businesses out into a newly-created entity, which may presage the possibility of Harrah’s making acquisitions in the online gaming sector. It could also be a manifestation of the apparent interest which Harrah’s has displayed in supporting legalised and regulated online gambling in the United States, regarded by many as an inceasingly strong possibility as America’s land gambling giants battle severe losses due to the recession.

Harrah’s Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman sees online poker’s legalisation as a strong possibility in the United States following the election of the Democrats to power. Loveman is on record as saying he sees good prospects for online poker in any initial liberalisation of US laws as House Financial Services Committee chairman, Barney Frank, prepares to launch his latest attack on the UIGEA in the House of Representatives later this month (see previous InfoPowa reports).

Harrah’s, like most other land gambling companies, is suffering extreme business pressure as the recession bites ever deeper.

If Harrah’s does make a move online as legislative conditions improve, it will not be the first US giant to involve itself in Internet gambling.

Back in September 2001 MGM Mirage set up an online gambling operation powered by Wagerworks and licensed in the Isle of Man. Unfortunately, the untenable legal situation in the US constrained its activities in the world’s largest Internet gambling market and the operation closed in June 2003. But in the process it established the viability of such a project, and the technology - even back then - that could be deployed to protect minors and minimise money laundering or fraud attacks.

“We set out to prove that online casino gaming could be implemented with the same high standards of regulatory integrity as land-based operations,” said Terry Lanni, then Chairman and CEO of MGM Mirage.

“We were successful in demonstrating a working model that provided the proper checks for jurisdictional control, age verification and the necessary security and responsible gaming measures required to function in a regulated market,” he added.

At the time MGM Mirage confined its activities to jurisdictions in which online wagering was permitted and did not accept customers from the United States and other jurisdictions which do not permit such activities.

“Unfortunately, even in light of a successful working model, the legal and political climate in the U.S. and several countries around the world remains unclear”, said Lanni in winding up the project. “The fact is that millions of U.S. citizens currently participate in online gaming in an unregulated environment. We believe that a more sound and realistic public policy would be to regulate the activity and hold operators to the highest standards of probity and integrity. MGM Mirage Online has clearly established that the regulatory model works.”

The company recorded a loss from discontinued operations of approximately $5 million, net of tax, in the second quarter related primarily to (1) unrecoverable costs of software and hardware utilised in the operation, (2) second quarter operating losses of MGM Mirage Online, and (3) tax benefits related to the above items and to prior period operating losses.

“We have proven critics wrong who said that online gaming could never be properly regulated,” Lanni reported. “We simply have to wait for the political climate to change and reality to set in,” he concluded at the time.

A new poll finds a majority of Garden State residents are in favor of legalizing sports betting. But there are caveats.

By a 2-1 margin, folks told the Fairleigh Dickinson University’s “Public Mind” survey that they want to wager on professional sports in Atlantic City casinos:

“Sixty-three percent to 32 percent. Men were a little more likely to be in favor of legalizing sports betting than women. We also asked whether people would be willing to legalize sports betting at New Jersey horse racing tracks. We found the same result.”

But director Peter Woolley says that most — nearly three out of four people polled — say it wouldn’t be OK to allow gambling on games by phone or online:

“They think it’s good to go someplace and do it very deliberately — not sit at home and pick up the telephone on a whim.”

Pro leagues say that any sports wagering threatens the integrity of games. But the state senator among those suing the feds to overturn the ban says New Jersey is missing out on a lot of much-needed cash.

When it comes to finding a host for an online slot tournament to take part in, there are generally several worthy online casinos to choose from one. No matter if it’s a U.S. friendly casino or European site, there are definitely some great places to wager some real money - and take advantage of free rolls for that matter. But when we’re talking about online video poker, well then, that’s a different story altogether.

Not going so far to say that it’s extremely hard to find a legitimate online casino to host a video poker tournament, it’s just hard to find a good video poker tournament period. Being that video poker is one of the more strategic casino games of the lot, and consequently, offers one of the lowest House Edges, most online casinos are a little weary of encouraging video poker action.

However, there are certainly a good handful of online casinos willing to share more of the spoils, so to speak. One such site is the European favorite, Casino Tropez. One of the oldest Playtech powered casinos in operation today, Casino Tropez recently announced a new lineup of video poker tournaments as part of their comprehensive series of promotions in the month of April.

Not going into too much detail about all the promotions being offered (visit the Casino Tropez Promotions page to see for yourself), a press release reveals that beginning on April 9, 2009, Casino Tropez will give all players the chance to win unlimited bonuses over the course of three days - culminating in a video poker tournament with a minimum guaranteed pool of Ђ8,000.

If you’ve never played at Casino Tropez (and you’re not a U.S. citizen), now is a great time to open an account (with fun money or the real thing). Download the software, open the Flash platform, video sync with live casino dealers or log in with your mobile phone, and you can receive up to Ђ3,000 Free in bonuses. There is also an outstanding pool of progressive jackpots available, which at the time of publication, was worth a cumulated value of over Ђ3 million.

If you had the pleasure to attend this year’s Casino Affiliate Conference in Amsterdam, you would have surely recognized the heavy presence of the Microgaming software brand on the exhibition floor. For those who were not in attendance, let’s just say that Microgaming was the subject of many an affiliate conversation - and continues to be on the leading online casino portals and internet betting news/information sites.

There is no denying the fact that Microgaming is one of the pioneer software developers, having powered some of the very first and most successful online casinos and poker rooms since the nineties. Over the years, Microgaming has received numerous “Best Software” awards from online journals, magazines and other respected industry bodies.

And God knows what the bulk of U.S. online gamblers would have done if Microgaming decided to back out of the U.S. market at the same time as Playtech and Cryptologic. It certainly would have been a huge mess. My point is that Microgaming certainly deserves some credit for hanging in there as long as they did.

And now to my other point: As much respect and credit Microgaming has with players and the online gaming sector at large, including the thousands of affiliates who promote and play at their online casino licensees, the unanimous sentiment with affiliates and players is that Microgaming still needs to do some serious damage control regarding the Grand Prive debacle if they want to keep their golden reputation, if you will.

For all you players who didn’t hear already and who therefore have not been affected by these events, Grand Prive was a licensed group of online casinos who went bankrupt shortly after Microgaming pulled out of the U.S. market. That, in turn, has resulted in many players being left in the dark and owed their due finances. And thus far, Microgaming hasn’t stepped in like they did before to help these players get paid out. Once again, another case for regulation in the U.S. - but that’s another story.

So, while Microgaming isn’t directly responsible for the failures of the Grand Prive group of online casinos (although Grand Prive might beg to differ), considering their status in the gaming industry (which is essentially at the top of the food chain), not to mention their financial stability, pressure is definitely mounting on Microgaming to rectify the matter and pay these players their rightful earnings. The ball is in your court, Microgaming.

The Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association said Friday that the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled a hearing for the organization’s challenge to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

Appeals clerk Marcia M. Waldron notified the organization and the U.S. Justice Department that the court has tentatively scheduled iMEGA v. Attorney-General USA et al. for July 6, 2009, in Philadelphia.

The court moved the hearing, which was originally scheduled for April, due to a motion from iMEGA to supplement the record with news of blocked payments to state lotteries. Despite opposition from the Justice Department, the court submitted the motion to its merit panel.

The motion pertains to information that credit-card companies blocked payment to legal state lotteries in New Hampshire and North Dakota to comply with the UIGEA. According to iMEGA’s counsel, the companies changed the status of the exempted transactions from “government” to “online gambling.”

The Justice Department opposes the move because iMEGA’s counsel submitted the motion two days late. However, the court has decided to consider the motion based on its “merit,” rather than dismiss it because of a technicality.

“We’re very happy the court is moving forward on this,” iMEGA chairman Joe Brennan said. “We’re confident the court will consider the real-world effect of the law, regardless of the DOJ’s opposition.”

Tuesday, online bookmaker Betfair announced it has signed a deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Test Match Grounds to become the organizations’ official betting partner. The deal comes only months before the start of the English cricket season, which will feature the much-anticipated npower Ashes Test Series against Australia.

The new deal will grant Betfair the use of the ECB logo on its collateral and will see the betting exchange featured prominently on perimeter boards, tri-vision sight- and replay-screen advertising, product sampling and promotional activity at all eight Test match grounds. In a press release, the company said it will use the new advertising space to increase brand awareness and to “(help)… reward existing customers both in the U.K. and internationally.”

“This summer’s cricket sponsorship launches an integrated campaign to underpin Betfair’s standing as sports fans’ betting company of choice,” Betfair director Lee Cowles said. “The npower Ashes Series will be the biggest sporting event of the summer, and provides the perfect platform to take our growing brand to a wider consumer market.”

The company also said it will continue to sponsor the “Betfair Blimp,” which provides Sky Sports with aerial footage of the npower Ashes Series.