Regulation round-up 1 May 2012
The biggest regulatory news from the egaming industry in the last seven days (25 April to 1 May 2012).
Orinic licence application withdrawn
Full Tilt Poker subsidiary had applied for licence in Alderney last month.
Orinic Ltd, the Swiss-facing subsidiary of Full Tilt Poker (FTP), has withdrawn its application for an egaming licence with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC), according to a statement from the regulator.
The only one of four Full Tilt companies not to have its licence altogether revoked by the regulatory authority last September, Orinic had applied for a category 2 eGambling licence late last month.
A public hearing in advance of the AGCC’s consideration of the application had been scheduled for 3 May but will now no longer take place.
Groupe Bernard Tapie, the French company in talks concerning a potential takeover of FTP, revealed to eGaming Review yesterday that talks had broken down after an 11th-hour demand from the United States Department of Justice.
NJ politicians urge house to back sports betting bills
Two New Jersey Congressmen have sent a letter to the US House of Representatives encouraging its members to support two bills that would overturn the 1992 “federal prohibition” of sports betting in all states but Nevada, Oregon, Delaware, and Montana.
Congressmen Frank Pallone Jr and Frank Lobiondo, one of the new sponsors of the Barton bill in California, yesterday sent official correspondence to the House explaining they had developed “two separate, but equally effective, pathways toward the same goal of bringing sports gaming and the economic benefits it yields to the State of New Jersey”.
The New Jersey Betting and Equal Treatment Act of 2012, HR 3081, provides New Jersey with an exemption to “federal prohibition”, the letter explains, allowing state law in New Jersey to determine how sports betting will be regulated within the state.
The second bill, entitled the Sports Gaming Opportunity Act of 2012, HR 3797, would open a window in which states would be able to enact a law providing for sports gambling within their state until January 1 2016, after which the federal prohibition against states allowing sports gambling would go back into place.
Barton bill gets new co-sponsors
Joe Barton’s federal egaming bill has received three new sponsors, bringing the total number up to 30.
Two of the three Congressmen joining the list are Republicans, New Jersey Representative Frank LoBiondo and Nevada Congressman and former Senator Mark Amodei. The third, Adam Smith of Washington State, is a member of the Democratic party.
The trio are the first new co-sponsors since another Republican, Ohio Congressman Tim Murphy, got behind HR2366 in February. Other co-sponsors include Barney Frank and John Campbell, whose own egaming bill was introduced last year.