The Rank Group Plc (Rank) has changed its recommendation to its shareholders on an offer of 150p per share from Guoco Group in time for the closing of acceptances of the offer.

While Rank maintains that the offer undervalues the company, it notes that should Guoco attain 75% of Rank shares it will be in a position of being legally entitled to de-list the company which would leave those shareholders who rejected the offer without the protection available to them under Listing Rules.

Should the company be taken “private”, Rank’s Board believes “the move would significantly reduce the liquidity and marketability of the Rank shares which have not been accepted into the Offer and the value of the shares may be significantly adversely affected as a consequence”.

Although Guoco has announced its intention to maintain the listing it has reserved its right to consider all options available.

The Board’s independent directors will be accepting the offer for their own beneficial shareholdings and have recommended Rank’s shareholders follow suit.

The Financial Times reports that “investors understood the board’s concerns but many were deeply disappointed. “I’m gutted,” said one. “The company’s been stolen, really.”

Richard Colwell from global asset firm Threadneedle said: “We’ve had extensive engagement with management since the bid process started. They’ve obviously had a lot of advice, and there’s been a lot of debate. They did this with a heavy heart.”

According to the Washington DC political newspaper The Hill, the latest attempt to federally legalise and regulate online poker in the United States could be launched as early as next week by Texas Republican Representative Joe Barton.

Barton’s staff have reportedly been working overtime to ready the bill, which will propose the appointment of a federal regulatory body.

A spokesman for Barton confirmed this week that the bill is in the final stages of drafting and is expected to be released in the near future. The bill would legalise online poker alone; other forms of Internet gambling and betting are not included in its provisions.

Congressmen Frank and Campbell, who are in the process of finalising their own and wider internet gambling legalisation bill, recently confirmed that they would back Barton’s attempt, and the influential Nevada senator Harry Reid has hinted that he would be interested as well, having failed in his attempt last year.

Under the Barton proposals, online poker sites would have to be registered in a state where gambling is already allowed, such as Nevada or New Jersey. Operators would be required to register with the gaming commissions in those states, which would be in charge of ensuring they behave in a fair, professional and ethical manner.

Users in all 50 states would be allowed to play on the sites for real money, but states would be given the option to opt out of the law and ban online poker in an intrastate state ruling if they so choose. Whether that decision would be made by the state legislatures or a referendum has yet to be determined.

Barton’s spokesman said the bill would be launched through the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which appears more open to legalising online poker than the House Financial Services Committee under Republican chairman and confirmed anti-gambling politician Spencer Bachus of Alabama.

Congressman Barney Frank introduced a similar bill in that committee last year but it did not make significant progress despite attracting over 70 co-sponsors.

The spokesman said Barton’s office is reaching out to members on both sides of the aisle and to the Senate in hopes of getting bipartisan support for legislation this session. But the strongest support could come from the estimated 10 million Americans that have indicated a personal desire to play poker online.

The governor of Nevada recently signed into state law new legislation empowering the Nevada Gaming Commission to prepare online gambling regulations conditional on the passing of federally legalised and regulated online poker.

On Tuesday, the Obama administration made a move that could allow for more casino expansion in the United States. The Interior Department rescinded a rule passed by the Bush Administration in 2008 that limited the ability of Native American tribes to open casinos.

The 2008 rule required tribal casinos to be within commuting distance from the reservations. That limitation led to the rejection of many casino applications because the proposed site was too far away. In New York alone, 22 applications were rejected due to the rule. Chuck Schumer, a New York Senator, lobbied to have the rule overturned and on Tuesday, the Interior Department did just that.

Of course, doing away with the Bush-era rule doesn’t mean there will suddenly be a rash of new tribal casinos throughout the country. There is a lot of bureaucracy and red tape to get through for any tribal casino, let alone an off-reservation one. Since the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed in 1988, only five tribes have received permission to build a casino off the reservation. Only three of those 23 years were due to the Bush rule.

Still, in a time when many jurisdictions are looking to casinos as a way to boost the economy, this could lead to a casino expansion. There are currently 10 applications for off-reservation tribal casinos being reviewed by the Department of the Interior. For the casino to be built, the Interior Department would first have to take the non-reservation land into trust. Then, among other procedures, the tribe would have to obtain a determination from the federal government that a casino at that site would be in the best interests of both the tribe and the surrounding community.

Tags: gambling expansion, tribal casinos

Industry observers have been waiting for the first of the low ($1000) buy-in events at this year’s World Series of Poker in the hope that it might give an insight into how the blitz on internet poker in the US has impacted this prestigious event.

On Saturday the first of the low budget competitions, event 8 – the $1000 buy-in NLHE – started, and the entries appear to have been encouraging, with 3,300 registrations thus far and counting. There are hopes that late registrations will close the gap between this number and the 4,345 entries achieved last year – many of them through online poker site satellite campaigns.

2116 players started off Saturday on Day 1a of event 8, with a second starting day scheduled for Sunday. Well known faces at the kick-off included Vanessa Selbst, Antonion Esfandiari, Dave Chicotsky.

When InfoPowa went to press in the early hours of Sunday morning there were 312 survivors from the original Day 1a field, with aces like WSOP champion Jonathan Duhamel, Ana Marquez, Shane Schleger, Dan Shak and Chicotsky still in the running, along with Eric Mizrachi, Chad Brown and Vitali Lunkin.

Albert Kim was in the lead, with Marquez some 15,000 chips behind as his nearest opposition.

In other events the series continued to progress smoothly with event 4, the $5,000 NLHE, completing Day 2 action with 25 players left from a field of 865, including Jonathan Little, Matt Glantz, JC Tran, Brian Lemke and Carlos Mortenson.

By the early hours of Sunday morning only 7 players were left competing for the lion’s share of the massive $4 million+ prize pool, with Alan Bari 2 million chips ahead of his nearest rival Thomas Ross and in a seemingly unassailable lead.

Event 5: the $1,500 buy-in Seven Card Stud contest was decided by early Sunday morning Vegas time, with Eugene Katchalov taking down his first WSOP bracelet and the main prize of $122,909 in a tense finish against Alessio Isaia, after starting the heads up at an almost 5 to 1 disadvantage.

The event attracted 357 entries and generated a prize pool of $481,950.

Katchalov, who won the $100,000 buy-in Super High Roller event at the PCA earlier this year, bested an entry field that included quality players like Chad Brown, Shaun Deeb, Eric Buchman and Andy Bloch.

Early Sunday morning PST there were still 31 players slugging it out in event 6, the $1500 buy-in Limit Hold’em competition, which started on the day previous with a field of 675. Well into Day 2, Jeff Williams was in charge – 10,000 chips ahead of closest opponent Bryan Pimlott.

The registrations for this event were 50 up on the 2010 field, and included Michael Mizrachi, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Tom Dwan, Ted Forrest, Allen Cunningham, Erica Schoenberg, David Bach, Bill Chen, Jamie Pickering, JJ Liu, Jennifer Harman, Barry Shulman, and Brock Parker.

Edward Nassif started Day 2 as chip leader with 92,000, followed by Jerrod Ankenman with 61,900.

Event 7 is the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Championship, which was still underway early Sunday morning with 39 survivors from an original field of 246, which generated a massive $2.35 million prize pool.

There was a surfeit of poker aces around the tables in the first day’s action with high profile players like David Benyamine, Justin Bonomo, Nenad Medic, Josh Arieh, Vitaly Lunkin, Hoyt Corkins, Robert Mizrachi, Mike Matusow, Marco Traniello, and Erik Seidel all keenly competitive.

Going into Day 2 only 129 players remained, with Binh Nguyen holding the chip lead, chased by Barry Greenstein, Eric Baldiwn, Toby Lewis, Jason Somerville, Jason Mercier, Vladimir Shchemelev, Todd Brunson, Shannon Shorr, Hoyt Corkins, David “Bakes” Baker, Mike Matusow, Erik Seidel, and Erick Lindgren.

By early Sunday morning McLean Karr lead the 39 survivors, 200,000 chips ahead of closest challenger Chris Oliver.

Event 9 – a $1500 buy-in 2-7 Draw Lowball event – is also in progress, having attracted a field of 275 players that included Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Chris Bjorin, Jimmy Fricke, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Layne Flack,JC Tran, Doyle Brunson, Tom Schneider, John Racener, Huck Seed, John-Paul Bellande and Michael Binger.

By early Sunday only 116 players remained, with Travis Peterson just ahead of Shaun Deeb on chip count.

Although the 2011 World Series of Poker is only a few days old, several events have made headlines throughout the poker world; some on the felt, and some away from the tables.

Sean Drake won the first bracelet of the Series at the US$500 buy-in Casino Employees No-Limit Texas Holdem event. He survived a field of 850 players, up from just over 700 from last year. Drake came back from a 3-to-2 chip deficit at the start of heads-up play took home US$82,292 in first-prize money.

In one of the special non-bracelet attractions, Johnny Chan defeated Phil Hellmuth in their rematch from the 1989 Main Event. Chan had won the previous two Main Event titles, but Hellmuth defeated Chan to become the youngest champion at that time.

At the made-for-TV event, Hellmuth went all-in with King-Ten offsuit against Chan’s pocket eights, but the board failed to improve for Hellmuth. Chan won US$20,000 and Hellmuth took home US$10,000.

Chris Moneymaker, the man responsible for the “poker boom” of the previous decade, took two out of three matches from his 2003 Main Event opponent, Sam Farha.  Moneymaker won Match 1, when he started with an overwhelming chip lead. Farha took down Match 2, when the chip stacks were reversed, and Moneymaker won the rubber match when each player started with the same stack sizes.

The “Final Four” of the US$25,000 buy-in Heads-up No-Limit Texas Holdem event features fan favorite Gus Hansen against internet pro Jake Cody and former World Poker Tour champion Yevgeniy Timoshenko against Eric Froehlich.

One of the online gambling industry’s most successful and established software development firms, Microgaming, has partnered with training company People Dimensions, in the launch of three new training solutions for the eGaming industry: the Certificate in eGaming Programmes, the eGaming Essentials Course, and Tailored Training.

The innovative personnel training courses are presented by experienced HR, training and internet gaming industry experts and are awarded at three separate levels: Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced.

The Introductory Certificate is available to companies looking to improve new employee inductions and develop existing employee awareness of the industry in general, whilst the Intermediate and Advanced Certificates build upon the key features of previous levels in addition to offering insights and case studies on specialist areas, and are designed for those with several years’ experience in the industry.

The eGaming Essentials Course is a public course and has been launched to equip individuals with the essential skills and knowledge necessary to pursue a successful career in a dynamic, fast-growing industry.

Tailored Training solutions are offered in the form of comprehensive courses in all areas of personal and business development, enabling individuals to build on their skills in the sector. These courses are also available for operators looking to broaden their competitive advantage.

Lee Harrison, managing director of People Dimensions comments: “We identified that there was a gap in the market for training solutions for the eGaming industry and when looking to join forces within the industry, Microgaming was the obvious choice. For over a decade, Microgaming has been an industry leader and its exceptional heritage, combined with incomparable industry knowledge, will be hugely valuable for this venture.”

The Israeli Commission for Sports Gambling has been granted a permit by the legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset, to offer betting on foreign horse races. Along with the permit, approval was given for the Commission to select a foreign company to operate the new service. The French company Pari-Mutuel Urbaine (PMU) is reportedly on the Commission’s list of contenders.

The minimum bet amount is expected to be in the region of NIS10 ($2.85) and the operators will have to translate races, establish betting outlets and make the necessary additions to its website reports ynetnews.com

It is estimated, once an operator has been selected, that foreign horserace betting will be operational within a year in the country.

The Commission whose focus is on soccer and basketball has recently received approvals to include tennis, handball, baseball and football.

Tzahi Fishbein, chairman of the Commission for Sports Gambling said: the service would “help increase proceeds in favor of Israeli sports”.

The Commission expects to use the income generated on the construction of sports facilities equating to a total investment of NIS5.5 billion ($1.57 billion).

Latest statistics from the Macau authorities show that there has been no slowing down in the Asian land gambling mecca, with revenues growing by 44.6% in April 2011 to 20.5 billion patacas ($2.56 billion).

Reuters news service reports that accumulated revenue for the first four months of 2011 rose 43.3% to 79.0 billion patacas, as Macau boomed on robust demand from gamblers from mainland China.

Reports from Bloomberg business news indicate that UK internet and land gambling group William Hill plc, is manoeuvring for position in the Nevada sports betting industry, and is currently negotiating the acquisition of two land-based businesses.

It is likely that the gambling group will be putting up $39 million for the companies American Wagering Incorporated and Club Cal Neva Satellite Race and Sports Division, the company has revealed.

Both companies provide sports betting facilities to land casinos and bars in Nevada, one of the few US states where such services are legal, and where the market in the state is worth some $2.7 billion.

There may be more to come; the British bookie said in its statement that the acquisitions were only the beginning of its expansion plans in the US market.

Chief executive officer Ralph Topping told Bloomberg: “Like us, Americans love the sport. Like us, Americans love to bet, and we can bring the two together.”

In a move that pleases the online gambling industry, the Greek government made an about-face regarding their tax policy. The government has voted for a 30% gross profits tax (GPT) on online gambling. Previously, the plan in the draft bill called for a 9% turnover tax on the industry.

Industry insiders call it a partial victory, getting them to change from a turnover tax to a GPT, though the 30% rate is higher than they would like. A spokesman for the Remote Gambling Association said that they welcome the change, though “the 30% rate that has been suggested in Greece is higher than other jurisdictions, and we will continue our lobbying efforts to bring those more into line with other countries.”

RGA’s CEO, Clive Hawkswood, had previously said that the turnover tax is “simply not viable for operators in a highly competitive global market.” RGA solicited the help of KPMG, an accounting and auditing firm, to determine the impact of being taxed on turnover rather than gross profit. After looking at KPMG’s report, Hawkswood said that “only a gross profits taxation model will provide value for consumers, a reliable source of revenue for the government and a healthy competitive environment for the industry.”

To understand the issue, you need to know the difference between a turnover tax and a gross profit tax. Gross profit is a company’s revenue after subtracting the costs of running that business. In the case of an online casino, payouts to players would be included in that operational cost. A gross profit tax only taxes the online casino on the amount of money they made after paying out winnings, paying for bandwidth, payroll and other costs.

A turnover tax is similar to a value-added tax (VAT) and that tax is levied on the production stages. The same product is taxed at each stage of the process of going from creation to consumer. Under this model, casinos would lose a lot of money because even though they take in lots of money from the players, they return large portions of that money through payouts, bonuses and promotions. Taxing gambling turnover would tax the online casinos on money that they would later pay out to players, rather than keeping for themselves.

By switching to a GPT model, the Greek government has made a rare wise decision, though their current financial state has kind of forced them to look into this whole common sense thing. Hopefully the industry lobbyists will successfully convince the government to lower the 30% rate as well, or else they still risk being the next France – a country with regulations choking the online gambling industry.

Tags: France online gambling, Greece online gambling, taxation