gambling

A company called American Wagering is releasing a BlackBerry application in time for football season that will allow users to place sports bets from their smartphones.

Called Leroy's App, the software can be used anywhere in the state of Nevada, following its approval by state regulators, according to Las Vegas-based American Wagering.

"The Nevada Gaming Control Board scrutinized the project with a very thorough lab investigation, which helped us in setting the bar for our security features. We have developed the first mobile phone betting application to be approved in Nevada," John English, senior vice president at … Read more

They say launching a tech company is a gamble in and of itself, but sometimes that just isn't enough to bet on.

An Antigua-based sports betting site called Bodog has opened up speculation on when Facebook will reach the milestone of one billion users around the world--and also whether the company will go public by the time this happens.

The odds are good for both of them. Bodog places 4/6 odds on Facebook hitting a billion users before January 1, 2012, and 11/10 on the company going public before reaching that user count. A release from the … Read more

Steve Ballmer admits Apple knows a thing or two about tablets. The U.K. government says it's sticking with IE 6 despite the entire world saying it's full of security holes. And the U.S. Congress, realizing it's out of money, wants to bring Internet gambling back to the U.S. so it can be taxed.

America's lingering Great Recession has already yielded a dramatic spike in unemployment rates and unprecedented government debt. Who would have expected it to usher in legalized Internet gambling as well?

In much the same way that some state officials have proposed taxing marijuana to raise money, advocates of legalizing online poker and slots are saying that billions of dollars in new tax revenue could be raised just by changing the law.

At least some politicos are taking those arguments seriously. The U.S. House of Representatives committee charged with writing tax laws will hold a hearing on Wednesday morning … Read more

Though Google CEO Eric Schmidt and seemingly everyone else is telling publishers they should place some bets on potential new business models, The Philadelphia Inquirer's new venture may not be exactly what they had in mind.

Philly.com, the online unit of the Inquirer and sister newspaper the Philadelphia Daily News, has launched a legal online betting service called Instant Fantasy Games. The papers said last week that they are the first in their industry to make a foray into online betting, according to a report in Editor & Publisher, a newspaper trade journal.

"We're trying to … Read more

Virtual currency has been one of the more confusing areas of gaming and social networking, with different sites, games and even countries treating currency and goods differently.

South Korea has decided that virtual currency is the equivalent of real-world money bringing to light some very real ramifications for users not just in Korea but in other countries as well.

The ruling allowing "cyber money" is the first in Korea and was based on the acquittal of two gamers indicted on charges of illegally making money by selling goods earned in the game Lineage.

In-game or in-site currency has … Read more

The chief technology officer of Betfair, one of world's largest Internet betting exchanges, is radically overhauling its development processes so the gambling giant can pounce more quickly on new international business.

Tony McAlister joined the peer-to-peer gambling company as CTO in January and leads its 400-employee IT group. Before joining London-based Betfair, McAlister's career includes stints as CTO at Vodafone and most recently CTO at Motricity in North Carolina.

"The thing that really appealed to me about Betfair was its approach to doing business. We are turning down tremendous amounts of revenue by not running our poker … Read more

On today's show, Molly, Rafe, and Brian Cooley take over for Tom, Natali, and sanity. Between ISP censorship in Minnesota, Faceook phishing attacks, and search on Twitter, it doesn't sound rant-tastic but it really, really is. Enjoy.

Minnesota orders ISPs to blacklist gambling sites http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10231683-38.html

Facebook hit by phishing attacks for a second day http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10230980-83.html

Manipulating the Palm Pre supply is just wrong http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-10230970-17.html http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a7H6bfrDqVPE&refer=us… Read more

The state of Minnesota has handed Internet providers a 7-page blacklist (PDF) of gambling Web sites that they're supposed to prevent customers from accessing, a move that raises First Amendment and technical concerns.

"We are putting site operators and Minnesota online gamblers on notice and in advance," said John Willems, a Minnesota Department of Public Safety official, in a statement. Companies that received the list of off-limits Web sites--which was made public on Thursday--include AT&T, Comcast, Qwest, and Sprint/Nextel.

The Department of Public Safety's letters to the Internet providers say that "gambling … Read more