It seems to have taken an inordinately long time to get going, but this week at last saw officials from the United States Trade Representative’s office and the European Union sitting down to discuss the way forward on the EU’s complaint regarding US discriminatory approaches to Internet gambling and online gambling companies.

The EU has already confirmed that there are grounds for complaint by the Remote Gaming Association, which triggered last year’s European Commission investigation of American actions against the industry and against European companies.

The EU subsequently published its findings and suggested that a negotiated resolution with the US would be the preferred course to further dispute procedures in the World Trade Organisation, which has already supported Antigua and Barbuda in its own claims against American discriminatory practices.

It is against this backdrop that the talks, which also cover other areas of trade contention, took place this week.

EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton said of the preliminary meeting: “Today was not a day to resolve any problems, but rather to set out the approach we are going to take, who would do what, and to agree to keep in touch.”

She explained that from the EU perspective there were four areas where “creative solutions” might profitably be discussed. These were online gambling, Irish music rights, chemical regulations and the export of US rice to the EU.

Ashton and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk agreed to tackle the issues, moving forward over the next few months in a spirit of cooperation casinos in a quest for real solutions.

The giant Gibraltar-based online group 888.com has plans to redesign its online casino operations around a 3D model, reports CityAM news. The publication says the changes, due for launch in the autumn, are designed to boost customer numbers in order to better weather the slowdown in consumer spending.

“The group is to unveil the revamped user interface, to apply to its online games including roulette and blackjack, this autumn. It is thought that if the upgrade goes smoothly 888 will offer the 3-D upgrade to third-party firms whose websites it operates,” the report reveals.

This will not be the first venture into the 3D field by the gambling group. In May last year a new version of its poker software in Pacific Poker was launched. The enhanced software presented what 888.com claimed was a new poker experience for players, with three table views: Classic, Avatar - a 3D round table with avatars, first person view options, a variety of table backgrounds and the Clear View, a 3D table without avatars on a clear background.

The new live dealer casino operator Caribbean Casino and Gaming Corporation is interested in more than just internet gambling, it appears. This week the company teamed up with local businessman and former publisher and promoter Enrique A. Kogan to launch a newspaper on the north coast of the Dominican Republic where it is situated.

The main focus of the as yet untitled newspaper will be the entertainment, lifestyle, nightlife, casinos, restaurants and clubs reviews, concerts, festivals, interviews, and personalities: everything related to entertainment in the area.

The publication will initially have a distribution of 20 000 copies in the cities of Sosua, Puerto Plata, Cabarete, Gaspar Hernandez, Sabaneta, and vicinities. It will be the first in the market, and has the potential to promote the entertainment activities available in the area, says CCGC CEO Steven Swank, who claims: “Having a newspaper in the area will make a strong presence for our company.”

Caribbean Casino and Gaming Corporation will hold a 51 percent controlling interest in the newspaper.

Caribbean Casino and Gaming is a gaming and entertainment company that owns and will operate the Grand Casino at Sosua Bay Resort in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. The company will shortly be making available live dealer betting over the Internet, broadcasting from its Dominican operation.

Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men and other comic book heroes will be staying on with internet gambling software developer CryptoLogic until 2013, the company announced this week, revealing that it has extended its exclusive licensing agreement with Marvel Entertainment, Inc., a relationship that has produced some of the company’s most popular and profitable games.

Under the agreement, CryptoLogic retains its rights as the exclusive worldwide developer of Internet casino games based on Marvel’s characters as they appear in the comic books through 2013. This is the third time CryptoLogic has extended its deal with Marvel.

“CryptoLogic’s exclusive partnership with Marvel has been daringly different for our industry – as together we have brought some of the world’s favourite characters to the world’s top Internet casinos,” said Brian Hadfield, CryptoLogic’s President and CEO. “It’s exciting to extend a deal that has been mutually successful and profitable, and to strengthen CryptoLogic’s competitive advantage in the branded gaming space.”

Simon Philips, President, Worldwide Consumer Products for Marvel Entertainment, said CryptoLogic had shown a capability to translate Marvel’s world renowned Super Heroes into hugely successful Internet casino games, and his company was confident that it would continue to fully leverage the properties on a global level.

Since 2005, CryptoLogic has launched more than 17 slot games featuring classic Marvel Super Heroes — including Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Blade, Sub-Mariner, the Punisher and others — at popular Internet casinos.

Clive Jones, the chairman of UK interactive television and internet gambling group NetPlayTV was not exaggerating this week when he described the company’s performance as “coming of age’. With turnover soaring 118 percent to GBP 19.8 million and EBITDA climbing 241 percent to GBP2.4 million, it seems that the company has upped its performance despite the tough economic conditions.

The improvement in EBITDA, which was showing a GBP1.7 million loss in the year 2007, is especially praiseworthy, with much of the credit going to the Supercasino subsidiary, which turned in an 80 percent growth in betting action to GBP 243 million.

Other preliminary results for the year ending 31 December 2008 and the first half 2009 included:

* Group monthly gross bets and skill gaming revenue for May 2009 over GBP39 million.

* Trading for the first quarter of 2009 in line with budget showing an EBITDA figure of GBP455 000.

* Strategic move into B2B branded solutions offering for retail, TV and online partners.

* Acquisitions of: 7 600 mobile quiz subscribers from Rubberduck; Bingos.com; Sky Channel 848; Pitch Gaming database; Two Way Gaming assets and player database and Info-Download assets.

* Successful launch of ‘Daily SuperDraw’ on Channel Five

* Successful launch of ‘Beat the Brain’ on FX channels with Fox International

* Agreement with Virgin Media Television to take over the production and brand licence agreement for Challenge Jackpot.

Clive Jones, Non-Executive Chairman, said: “The business has been transformed during the course of the year into a significantly larger interactive media business.

“The demand for “live” gaming is starting to gather momentum and we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of this major opportunity.”

Martin Higginson, Chief Executive Officer, added: “2009 has seen the investment we have made in 2007/08 start to come to fruition. During 2008, the Group posted its first positive EBITDA* since its transformation from a mobile content business into an interactive TV gaming business.

Higginson also announced that the former CEO of acquisition Two Way Gaming, Guy Templer, would take on the responsibility for a new B2B unit which would offer the group’s live interactive games to a range of retail, TV and online clients.

The UK operations of the IGT group have restructured mobile and internet gaming activities to better integrate the British division of online gambling software developer Wagerworks and the recently acquired Million-2-1 gaming mobile gambling operation.

The restructuring sees the UK division of WagerWorks taking responsibility for the sale and distribution of the Barcrest Group game content in remote gaming markets (interactive digital television, mobile gaming and internet gaming markets); and the IGT game content in mobile gaming markets, developed utilising the Million-2-1 mobile gaming platform.

The game development strategy at WagerWorks has been to supply a mixture of well-known consumer brands coupled with internet versions of IGT “killer” brands, such as Cleopatra. WagerWorks will now also leverage online versions of successful game titles from Barcrest Group, offering streams of game content in interactive digital television, mobile gaming and internet gaming markets.

Million-2-1 will continue to focus on interactive services for media organisations and land-based retailers, using mobile solutions to deliver new revenue streams. This includes prize competitions, mobile marketing campaigns and lotteries for the UK and international markets.

Also announced is the appointment of Simon Murphy to the position of Head of Business Development for WagerWorks. He joins WagerWorks from Million-2-1 and will be responsible for developing commercial relationships with key clients across mobile gaming and internet gaming products alongside the existing WagerWorks team.

Robert White, Vice President, IGT-UK said, “This restructure streamlines our current sales and distribution process and enables us to offer an integrated remote gaming solution to our partners through one business relationship. It is also consistent with our game development strategy of offering great game content across multiple channels, including mobile and internet. By developing new branded content and continuing to access the best games from land-based environments I am confident we can further strengthen our games portfolio and our position as a leading content supplier.”