Reverend Peter de Villiers and his wife Welda spent £50 a month trying their hand at winning that elusive People’s Postcode Lottery prize.

After winning the payout of the £12,000 prize and an additional £18,000, the couple said that they are not going to spend any of their winnings on their United Free Church congregation in Wishaw, Lanarkshire. They opted to rather spend the cash purchasing a new house in their native South Africa.

Rev de Villiers, 54, said: “Finally our prayers have been answered, with us winning the Postcode Lottery. It’s a fantastic feeling knowing that we can go back to South Africa and buy the home we’ve always wanted.”  Judie McCourt, Postcode Lottery host handed the handsome winning cheque over to the minister and his 49-year-old wife last week.

In the meantime the United Free Church has opposed the reverend’s winning and condemns gambling as a whole. It …

It would appear that Singapore’s gamble to open its new casino resorts is going to be worth the effort and financial risk.

The Marina Bay Sands is one the new resorts and it costs in excess of $5-billion.  The casino complex opened its doors to customers in April this year and hosts a variety of entertainment forms from a shopping mall, casino and three hotel towers joined at the top by an eye catching platform. The developer of the Marina Bay, Las Vegas Corporation is set to complete other sections of the casino metropolis which will include a museum, floating platforms and theatres.

Singapore’s government approved the building of the Marina Bay Sands; the $4-billion Resorts World Sentosa complex is set to attract the rich and the famous to the city-state. Apart from the casino complex the World Sentosa will also play host to a Universal Studios theme park, a …

Centrebet an Australian internet bookmaker warned that its full-year net profit will be halved to AU$8m. It indicated a brave tactical plan meant at doubling its share in 2015 to 20% of the Australian corporate bookmaking market.

Ladbrokes released a 24-page document to the Australian Stock Exchange, aptly name Project Rocket: “Business dynamics are constructive given current deregulation in marketing, continued migration from land-based TABs to internet and increased barriers to entry. In order to take advantage of these circumstances Centrebet is advantageously placed.”

The Northern Territory-licensed bookmaker said in its statement that it aims to “achieve a circa 50% increase in net profit in conjunction with the status quo by FY 15, with net profit of circa AU$32m” through “Significantly increased brand marketing ventures, a new advertising campaign and to improve its new product development in Australia.”

However, as the investment spending increases so must our new customer base increase …

With the PartyGaming-Bwin merger, on paper at least stands a very good chance of creating an internet casino frontrunner with 12% share of the world’s egaming segment, the question everybody is asking who will be next.  Maybe 888, Sportingbet and Ladbrokes will merge within the foreseeable future.  Betfair invested millions in markets situated outside the UK, most probably in a bid to combat the 12% “mammoth”.

In the mean time, France has unlocked a feeding frenzy as companies pile in to be “top dog” in a market that has a long standing tradition of assisting its own, in addition to a stifling tax regime on internet casinos, this might even take a turn for the worst once VAT has been introduced by the French government.

It is well known fact that the French are fiercely loyal to French brands only.  In the event they want to purchase a vehicle it …

Senators based in New Jersey have met to discuss a bill which would take into account an enterprise that will regulate and impose mechanisms of an intrastate egaming system to boost the sliding Garden State’s race tracks and internet casinos, hopefully they would have reached a decision before this year is out.

Senator Raymond Lesniak is championing this bill and introduced it in January, in it he proposes the state’s that Atlantic casinos should offer internet gambling as an off-shoot of the land-based games to state citizens, such as poker, blackjack and baccarat; in turn the state will receive annual tax revenue on gambling profits of 20%.

In an interview before the bill’s review by the Senate Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee, campaigner William Pascrell III informed a local news paper “The Record” that it is currently experiencing a “perfect storm”, it finds itself in dire economical woes in tandem with …

“Fear and Loathing” the drug-induced gambling classic in Las Vegas tops the list.  Casino Online has compiled a list of the Top 50 Gambling Books of All Time.  Included in the list is all manner of gambling books, from novels to “how to” guides.

Come to think of it, it’s rather phenomenal that a book that has been published in 1971 is still popular today, in particular in the fast-paced world of gambling,” said Holly Emblem, editor of CasinoOnline.co.uk. “The majority of our readers and the staff at CasinoOnline.co.uk believe that Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” indicates Las Vegas’ worst and best. Disgraceful and peculiar, Thompson’s account of Sin City is considered to be one of the best gambling related books published to date.”

Short on the heels of Thompson’s modern classic is Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel, “Casino Royale”, and Edward O. Thorp’s “Beat the …

Head quartered in the Isle of Man, Microgaming, the web’s top online gaming software provider recently introduced a new brand of casino products aimed at the Japanese market, namely Pachislo and Pachinko. These are the most popular arcade games in Japan and will be configured into online gaming format.

According to the latest sources, Microgaming is set to release two Pachislo three reel, five payline games and one Pachinko game.  The release date when these games will be going live has not been made known yet.  If one has to take Microgaming’s reputation into consideration one can only anticipate that these new gaming products will realistically imitate the feel of the genre.  To appeal to a worldwide audience a new innovative set of features have been added to these casino games.  The Paschilso and Pachinko games will be available in a variety of languages which will slot in nicely with Microgaming’s …

In the internet casino industry Neteller is the premier payment solution.  Clients of Neteller are updated frequently pertaining to the latest developments via its blog posts at its web site.

The first post that has been submitted was by Affiliate Account Manager, Jen, where she informed its clients that Neteller has been listed as the Best Payment System in the iGB Affiliate Awards for the fourth successive year.  The awards are planned by iGaming Business Affiliate and the nominees have been elected by members within the internet gaming affiliate marketing.  The awards will be presented in a scintillating ceremony in London.

On January 27th 2011 the winners of the iGB Affiliate Awards will be announced.  Since its inception in 2008 the awards have been presented on a yearly basis and on each of the three occasions Neteller was the proud recipient of this award.

Jen explains why affiliates choose Neteller …

Various top personnel within Ladbrokes’ egaming division of which the managing director will be replaced by the FTSE 250 bookmaker, the announcement will be made on Friday.

The company is set to proclaim on Friday that Ed Andrewes, managing director of egaming, will leave the company after three years.  Andrewes has negotiated a 6 months gardening leave with Ladbrokes that he will not participate with any of Ladbrokes’ direct competitors.  Andy Harris, who heads gaming and reports to Andrewes, is set to leave as well.  Head of sportsbook within the division Paul Witten finds himself in a client development role.

Ladbrokes’ new director of customer experience is Stephen Vowles, he will report to Glynn and this will come into play from 1 December this year.  Vowles joins Ladbrokes from Ahold where he was SVP of marketing based in the U.S, accountable for Stop & Shop & Giant supermarkets.

Andrewes and …

Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa’s has seen a couple of gamblers win big and smiled upon by “Lady Luck” at some of the tables at the casino, however this is great for the gamblers but unfortunately not for the Borgata.

Borgata’s has had more ups than downs recently and has cost Atlantic City’s top-grossing casino millions of dollars in revenue and has raised several eyebrows as a result of this.  Some gaming analysts have even speculated that there might be a “syndicate” that is defrauding the casino.

”Adam Steinberg of Merriman Capital asked outright if there have been some discrepancies involved because of the recent winnings at the Borgata on the third-quarter earnings report.”

This question has been asked by Steinberg to the executives of Borgata’s parent company, Boyd Gaming Corp., he voiced his concerns that the casino lost $9 million in revenue during the quarter because as a result of …