The Silver Club Casino in Sparks, Nevada, suffered more than most of Nevada’s gaming establishments from the decline in the state’s gambling and tourist revenues. Unlike many of the glitzy megaresorts on the Las Vegas Strip, the small casino near Reno was forced to shut its doors last January and struggled to maintain its state gaming license by staying open for eight hours every three months with only one slot machine and one blackjack table open during the day.

The local landmark was sold at auction on the steps of the Washoe County Courthouse in Reno this week. Northern Nevada Asset Holdings, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was the sole bidder on the property at US$2.5 million. The company has also recently purchased other casinos that have undergone bankruptcy proceedings, including those formerly owned by Holder Hospitality Group, which operated several casinos in the Reno and Lake Tahoe areas. When officials with Holder filed for Chapter Eleven bankruptcy last summer, Northern Nevada bought the notes on the properties at an estimated US$33 million.

The other casino properties that Northern Nevada acquired in the purchase included Stockmen’s Casino Hotel and the Commercial Casino, both in Elko, Nevada, along with the El Capitan Casino in Hawthorne and the Scoreboard Casino in Spring Creek. All of these smaller facilities generate most of their revenue from local residents rather than the tourists that flock to Reno, Lake Tahoe or Las Vegas.

Executives with Northern Nevada stated that they would work with 777 Gaming, a casino operations company, to run their new properties, including Silver Club. Rory Bedore, founder of 777 Gaming, told reporters that he expected to reopen Silver Club in April 2010 on a limited schedule. Mr. Bedore said that he wanted to have a small bar, a reduced-menu restaurant and up to one hundred fifty slot machines and video poker games up and running when the casino opens its doors next spring.

Louis Dreyfus will take part in a Mangas Gaming capital increase that will give it 25% ownership, while Courbit will reduce his stake to 25% and Bains de Mer de Monaco will keep its shareholding unchanged.

Mangas Gaming is now Europe’s third biggest internet betting group, after Austria’s Bwin and Gibraltar’s PartyGaming. The online gambling group, which owns BetClic, paid around $100 million for 60% of online poker company Everest Gaming on 16 December in a deal with parent group Gigamedia.

Earlier in the year, Mangas acquired Germany’s Bet-at-home and Scandinavian sports betting operator Expekt.

The company has over 4 million customers, 600 staff and a presence in 25 countries.

Louis Dreyfus notified the European Commission of its planned acquisition on 14 December and expects a decision by the middle of January.

The company reports solid trading since September and the business has performed well in the fourth quarter showing revenue growth in all four of the company’s product verticals: bingo, poker, casino, and sports betting.

Jim Ryan, Chief Executive, said: "As indicated at the time of our third quarter key performance indicators, our business has continued to perform well across the board during the fourth quarter with a return to net revenue growth across all four of our key product verticals."

PartyCasino has grown with the addition of new games and higher jackpots and the bingo vertical has developed rapidly since the group bought Cashcade in July.

Sports betting has benefitted from a good run of results and improved risk management tools. The core vertical poker has also seen a return to growth.

The company also said pending gambling regulations in Italy and France represent significant revenue opportunities. Last month Partygaming launched an Italian online poker service with Fueps.

The company said Friday that it has agreed a new GBP35 million loan facility which it will use for general corporate purposes including mergers and acquisitions.

Apparently the Sampoernas have decided to redeploy their resources to other investments, although banking sources yesterday hinted that the decision may have been spurred by the UK regulator the Financial Services Authority requiring the commitment of further funds to meet solvency levels.

Depositors and merchants will welcome the additional clarity following yesterday’s bald announcement that Ivobank was turning away new business without explaining why.

In the latest statement, the online bank said that its services will remain available to existing customers, and again reassured all concerned that account balances were safe and available for withdrawals, transfers or purchases at online sites.

Those of its merchants who have concerns should communicate via their usual contact points at Ivobank or to the bank’s regulatory chief, Ian Stevenson at Ian.Stevenson@ivobank.com, the statement advised.

The Sampoernas also own the Mansion online gambling group, but it is understood that this division of the company is not negatively affected by the Ivobank decision.

The closure comes close to the first anniversary of the bank’s launch last year.

Different Forms of Gambling
If you’d like to get your Blackjack skills up to par then check out our handy Blackjack Trainer. If you like online slots tournaments then you must make your move at the upcoming Grand Slam of Slots. However, if you like something truly unique then continue reading about the new game going on at Wink Bingo.

Team Bingo
Online bingo is known to be a very social game, and with the new Team Bingo competition Wink Bingo puts this positive attribute to good use. When you start playing at Wink Bingo you automatically join a team of bingo roomies, which changes every two weeks to ensure a fair bingo battle.

Team Power at Wink Bingo
Every member of the team has to collect as many team bingo points as he or she possibly can in order to boost the team score. You can check out the score at the leader board on the Wink Bingo website, and the members of the team that comes out on top after two weeks will jointly share the grand prize of 170,000 bingo points.      

Flagship in the latest releases is Scoop The Cash, a game-show themed slot where rewards are the name of the game as players navigate their way through a wealth of prizes and taste the high life as they enter a millionaire’s playground, depicted by trappings of wealth and success such as cars, mansions and cashed-up tycoons in luxurious abundance.

The five reel, 25 payline, multi-featured slot format, offers players Multipliers a-plenty, re-triggering Free Spins, Wilds, two Scatters and a fat bonus to add that important element of excitement and entertainment as the game unfolds.

Take a voyage of discovery with Jewels of the Orient. Players can dust off their magic carpets in preparation for a quest to discover the secrets of the exotic East with this entertaining slot. Full of eastern promise and mystery, this five reel, nine payline video slot takes players on a journey from the vast plains of India to the snow capped mountains of Japan. Brought to life by advanced scenic graphics, vibrant colours and populated with exotic characters, the game offers a glittering array of rewards in the form of gold, priceless gems and treasure casks.

With a host of player-enriching features that include Wilds, Scatters, Free Spins and Multipliers, Jewels of the Orient also offers a brilliant series of second screen bonus offers, the main one of which empowers the player with three different selections of treasure-bearers. On each appearance the player can choose one treasure cask which can deliver 40 Free Spins and a 5x multiplier to boost winnings.

Get those chainsaws purring with Lumber Cats. Players can join a team of burly tree-felling felines at peak harvest season on a pine plantation in this light hearted new video slot. With vibrant graphics featuring a trio of axe-toting lumber cats, tree-tractors and logs, this treble featured, five reel 20 payline video slot creates player opportunities through a combination of traditional slot action, boosted by three winning features that offer prizes and free re-spins galore.

The Wild Cat feature helps players to build winning combinations, but the trees have scatter functionality and three or more across the reels triggers the main feature in the game, which is the highly competitive Tree Climb, in which picking the winning cat awards additional prizes. Capping the action, there’s a Gamble feature, where a player can double or quadruple winnings by predicting the right colour and suit.

The last of September’s releases is Double Joker Poker, the latest edition of Microgaming’s very popular Multi-Level Power Poker series. Double Joker Poker Level-Up Poker is guaranteed to keep players busy as they climb a series of levels with increasing multiplier rewards for each victory.

The aim of the game is to secure a win and progress to the next level – the higher the player progresses, the more money they can win. To add to the excitement there is an extra Joker in each pack, but the news is even better for gamers as The Joker is ‘Wild’, enabling players to build winning combinations.

With a total of four levels, and the opportunity to win 8x the original bet, there are ample opportunities to win big with this clean, colourful new game.

The news report reveals that a decision by the Ministry of Economy and Finances cancels the non-taxable threshold, which has been in force up to now, despite the strong opposition of gambling companies.

A 10% tax is levied on all winnings, upwards from €1, in respect of lottery, gambling games and stakes.

There will also be a 20% tax levied on all winnings larger than €1,000 won by any contest participant.

News breaking this week in that country indicates that he has been influential in securing a major ‘early bird’ advantage for the company – approval by French gaming authorities before the official liberalisation of the market in that country scheduled for early 2010.

The achievement means that Betfair will be in a position to advertise its P2P betting exchange services to French punters, securing an early opportunity to establish itself and its international brand in a potentially powerful market.

Arnault’s influence in France is not hard to understand – in addition to his Betfair interests he heads the luxury goods group Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), and he is one of France’s most successful and respected business moguls.

Latest reports indicate that Betfair will be taxed as required by the French regulatory framework for online betting.

Spain has been in a similar position as the US recently regarding their online gambling laws. The Spanish government, however, is moving quicker towards correcting their European Union violations and legalizing online gambling in the country.

That effort has prompted two of the biggest online gaming operators in the world to begin negotiations for licensing deals. The two companies are trying to get a piece of the nearly fifty million potential customers in the Spanish market.

“If an online gaming company wants to grow, certainly the Spanish Internet gambling market would be one to go after,’ said observer Kelly Gray, “next to the US, the Spanish market could end up being one of the biggest online gambling markets in the world.”

The US market is considered to be the biggest in the world, even though online gambling is currently illegal in the country. Lawmakers in the US are also working on developing a legalized, regulated Internet gambling industry.

Should the US market open up, it would be likely that many current land based casino companies would get preferential treatment when it comes to licensing. There will be pressure, however, to license some foreign companies to keep up with European Union commitments.

Under the agreement, GTS will integrate its EdGe software platform to deliver a selection of new and innovative games to Gala Coral’s popular Internet gambling websites, which include Coral.co.uk, Gala Casino.co,uk, Gala Bingo.com and Eurobet.com.

Joe Coughlin, who heads up new product development at Gala Coral, said: “We’re really looking forward to offering the new games. We want to ensure that we continually offer our customers the very best and innovative products on the market. It was therefore crucial that we found a software provider with a proven track record of delivering innovative and high quality games to our timescales.”

Steven Matsell of GTS said: “GTS, as an open platform provider can deliver the best-of-breed games to the Gala Coral network through our established relationships with game developers from all over the world.”