24 January 2007 GPWA Times Newsletter

U.S. Department of Justice subpoenas major investment banks
The U.S. Department of Justice has subpoenaed at least four high-profile investment banks as part of its continuing crackdown on the online gambling industry. HSBC, Dresdner Kleinwort, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank were issued subpoenas in October – shortly after the signing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act -- according to reports from the Sunday Times of London.

NETeller exits U.S. market
Just two days after NETeller founders Stephen Lawrence and John LeFebvre were arrested and charged with money laundering, the popular e-wallet NETeller stopped allowing American players to use its services to transfer money to and from Internet gambling sites.

U.S. Internet gambling deposit options shrinking
The list of payment processors for American gamblers is shrinking rapidly. NETeller, the world's largest online payment processor for Internet gamblers, and Citadel were the first to pull out of the U.S. market last week. Then INSTADEBIT followed suit while Click2Pay pushed the pause button on allowing new American accounts.

New study details player behavior
Sixty-four percent of players 'often' or 'always' played on the biggest named sites, with 40% saying they 'never' played on smaller sites because of this fear, according to a research project involving nearly 11,000 players from 96 countries. The 'eCOGRA Global Online Gambler Survey,' commissioned by industry self-regulatory body eCOGRA and undertaken by the Betting and International Gaming Research Units at Nottingham Trent University, is the largest study to date into player behaviour and attitudes to the industry.

William Hill, GameAccount join forces
William Hill has launched Internet skill gaming in partnership with GameAccount. The fully integrated browser-based skill games are now available in 7 languages and 11 currencies. Multiplayer Blackjack, Gin Rummy and Backgammon are supported by 'poker-style' tournament technology: cash games; non-stop 'sit and go' tournaments, money-added scheduled tournaments; guaranteed prize money tournaments; feeder / qualifier tournaments and regular scheduled freeroll tournaments.

Sunday tournaments lose players
PokerStars lost 12 percent of their Sunday Million crowd and Full Tilt Poker failed to meet its guarantee in the first weekend following NETeller's U.S. withdrawal.

Online gambling in the news
From I-gaming stocks to revenue in Macau, we scour the Net for the top news of the day.


Betfred.com's Martyn Beacon shares his approach to working with affiliates and admits to being an "armchair supporter" of Manchester United and having a thing for Kelly Kapowski (Tiffani-Amber Thiessen) on Saved By the Bell.
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