Archive for March, 2011

In what may be the first patent case tried to verdict in the United States by the online gambling industry, Interactive Systems, Inc. NV., the licensed operator of Sportsbetting, soundly defeated the patent infringement claim of Lottotron, Inc., based in New Jersey.

Last week, an eight person jury returned a unanimous verdict in favour of ISI in the case before Judge Faith S. Hochberg in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, Case No. 09-4942.

ISI was represented by Bill Gantz of the Chicago office of SNR Denton US LLP, who said: “Over the years we have all seen the ‘licenses’ exacted by Lottotron, 1st Tech, Home Gambling Network and other tenuous patent owners, so I have to say it feels really great to put one of these patents down for the industry.”

Lottotron, the owner of United States Patent Number 5,921,865 (the “’865 patent”) entitled “Computerised Lottery Wagering System,” claims a method by which an individual enrolls remotely with the system by setting up an account, establishes a credit balance, selects a lottery or lottery-like game to play, and finally, places a lottery wager for the selected game using the balance.

The stated purpose of the system is to permit an individual to place a wager remotely without having to physically go to a lottery agent to place a wager. However, in a series of lawsuits targeting the online gaming industry, Lottotron has been asserting that its lottery ticket ordering patent covered any remote gaming system offering games of chance.

All other operators served with the same lawsuit settled or allowed a default. ISI, however, opened the fight with a motion for summary judgment, and won a ruling from the court that ISI’s online casino games did not literally infringe the patent as a matter of law.

“This ruling helps all operators going forward,” said Gantz. “The ruling also forced Lottotron to proceed on the theory that there was infringement under the “doctrine of equivalents.”

“This meant that Lottotron had to prove that the casino games offered, including scratch cards slots and video poker, were insubstantially different from the types of games typically sold by state lotteries,” says Gantz.

ISI’s only expert witness was Melissa Blau.

In 2010, while ISI was actively fighting its cause, Lottotron filed a federal court action against 40 additional online gaming operators including PartyGaming, Playtech and 888′s Cassava Enterprises.

In that case, Gantz intends to replicate the novel strategies used successfully in the ISI case, which kept the defence costs down.

“If the defendants in the new case band together, we can follow the same strategy used for ISI and eliminate this patent as well as others, instead of operators taking the proverbial ‘licence,’ Gantz asserted.

Last week Google had to remove several malware-infected apps of its “Android Market”. Among the infected apps was no mobile casino software, as these apps are downloaded directly at the online casinos offering the mobile services.

Fifty Infected Apps
About fifty of the apps on the Android Market caused damage to around thousand Android phones. The apparently legitimate applications were in fact designed to gather information and facilitate the installation of other unwanted software.

Screening & Selection
As app developers appreciate quick publication of their apps on Google’s Android Market, Google has never applied a very strict screening and selection procedure. Now, after the incident, Google introduced measures to improve the security of its app store.

Mobile Casinos not on Android Market
Fans of mobile casino gambling have nothing to worry about, as it are the casino operators that design, test and distribute the applications needed to play real-money games on your Smartphone.

Betway Mobile Casino
Betway Casino for example, released its total package of online casino games for phones running on Android version 2.2 Froyo. To install and play these games as Android applications, the Betway Casino website is the place to go to.

The mobile packages of Betway Casino, and other CT10-listed online casinos,  are not found on the regular Android Market. The distribution of these apps stays in the hands of the casino operators, who safeguard the reliability of their own products and services. 

Polish national gambling monopoly Totalizator Sportowy, has requested approval from the Minister of Finance in the eastern European country to implement internet operations in order to boost revenues. The company posted a 20% decline in revenues last (2010) year.

The Deputy Minister of Finance, Jacek Kapica presented the request at last Wednesday’s meeting of the Parliamentary Committee for Physical Culture and Sport, although it does not appear that any decision has yet been taken.

Meanwhile, Poland is pushing forward with plans to ban all online gaming other than sports betting – where it holds a monopoly – after submitting amended draft regulations to the European Commission.

Lawmakers in the U.S. state of Georgia are trying to pass legislation that could potentially allow betting on horse races. That would require a constitutional amendment, since pari-mutuel betting is currently illegal in the state.

The legislation is House Resolution 186 and if the state passes it, residents would get to vote on whether or not to allow pari-mutuel betting on horse races in a statewide referendum. The resolution was proposed by Representative Harry Geisinger. If approved by voters, a portion of the revenue from the betting would placed into a budget called the Pari-mutuel Wagering Proceeds. That money would be used to supplement state funding for scholarships, student loans, trauma care services and more.

In addition to generating revenue that is much needed in state that is making budget cuts to slash the deficit, track betting would create jobs. According to Geisinger, a horse gambling industry in the state would create 10,000 jobs within the first three years.

On Wednesday, the legislation passed the House Regulated Industries Committee by a unanimous vote. The resolution would next need to clear the House Rules Committee in order for it to come to a full House vote. Because a ratification by the voters would involve an amending of the state constitution, the resolution requires a two-thirds supermajority vote to pass the House.

Geisinger said “as Georgians across the state continue to struggle to find employment, the legislature must look for ways to bring much-needed jobs to our state.” He said that “expanding our state’s horse industry is a simple way to do just that.” If voters ratify the amendment, Geisinger plans to introduce a companion bill that gives regulatory power of the horse betting industry to the Georgia Horse Racing Commission.

Tags: Georgia gambling, Horse Racing