“We’re number three! We’re number three!” You don’t hear that kind of cheer very often, so the folks in Atlantic City probably aren’t too pleased with the recent survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind. This is the same polling group that showed that 67% of New Jersey Residents oppose online gambling, so they’re not too popular with the casino community at the moment.

In this study, Fairleigh Dickinson’s pollsters conducted telephone interviews and in those interviews, they asked where would be the person’s first choice for a weekend gambling trip. The respondents were given the choice of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, New Orleans, St. Louis, Reno, other, none or unsure. Las Vegas, not surprisingly, took the top spot, with 47% of respondents choosing it as their first pick for a casino destination. Atlantic City couldn’t hope to top Vegas, but they’re probably dismayed that they were bested by New Orleans, which was the first choice for 10% of respondents. Atlantic City finished third, with 8%.

Atlantic City has the second-largest casino industry in the state, but fewer people chose it as a casino destination than chose the much smaller New Orleans. Respondents were then asked to give their second choice. Atlantic City led there, with 23%, but still barely beat out New Orleans (22%), Las Vegas (21%) and Reno (18%).

So clearly Atlantic City, despite its size, isn’t as well regarded as Governor Christie and those in the industry would like. The question is why. The poll addressed that as well. Those who did not select Atlantic City as their first or second choice were asked to give a reason. It was an open-ended question, with no choices given. With open-ended questions, statistics are harder to track, but the results still weren’t good. Eleven percent said that they just like the other places better, making it the top reason to not choose Atlantic City. The next most common answer was the more hopeful response that it is too far away (10%). Following that were more discouraging answers, that the city is run down or dirty (4%), that they simply dislike New Jersey (3%) or that they don’t want to go there because of the crime (2%). All of that data says that the Casino Development Reinvestment Authority has its work cut out for it in turning the city into a quality tourist destination.

Tags: Atlantic City casinos, Chris Christie

Washington DC sources have expanded on their plans following the ‘legalisation of online gambling by default’ in the nation’s capital last week. The Washington Post reports that there are initial plans afoot to set up 20 to 30 online gambling “hot spots” in hotels, bars, clubs and other venues across the city by around September 1, providing access for online gamblers to the DC Lotteries internet offerings, which will include casino and poker games, and betting on fantasy sports.

“By the end of the year – if Congress doesn’t revisit the issue, and if the technology works as promised – adults in the District wouldn’t even need to go to such places to gamble. Instead, they would be able to key in their payment details on their home laptops to play a virtual hand or two of city-sanctioned poker,” the Washington Post explains.

Washington Mayor Vincent C. Gray signed the new law – part of the 2011 budget – into law in January, and last week, the 30-day period for Congress to object to the plan expired, setting the stage for the city to move into online gambling – the first US state so to do.

However, the newspaper cautions, even after the review period, Congress can intervene.

Frederick Hill, spokesman for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which covers District affairs warned: “If the committee has a concern that a practice is either illegal or not in the interests of the federal taxpayers who support the District of Columbia, the committee could certainly raise a concern.”

He added, however, that at present the panel has no plans to introduce legislation or hold a hearing on the matter.

The online gambling program could generate $13.1 million between the 2012 and 2014 fiscal years, according to the chief financial officer’s analysis. Money would be collected from table fees to join the poker games and from taxes on winnings of $600 or more, D.C. Lottery officials said. The city has signed a 50-50 revenue-sharing agreement with Intralot USA, which would develop and manage D.C.’s gambling site.

Mayor Gray called told the Washington Post: “We know that many of our residents are currently engaged in online gaming, but are doing so with off-shore companies. Our goal is simply to regulate the business in the District and to ensure that the District receives its fair share of the financial benefits produced by online gaming.”

A no-stakes gambling Web site would be rolled out by about July 1, and residents of Washington DC would be able to play for real money at dozens of hot spots by around September 1, said Buddy Roogow, executive director of the D.C. Lottery. The city Convention Center was likely to be one of 20 to 30 hot spots, but the regulations are still being drafted, he advised.

“That would be an ideal kind of location for a hot spot, Roogow said. “So are hotels. There’s only one Convention Center. There are many hotels.” Gamblers would need to bring their own computers to place bets at the hot spots, he said.

Before gambling for money can spread to people’s homes, officials would need to ensure that betting was available only within the geographic limits of the District. They expect to do that by the end of the year, the newspaper reports.

Now in its fifth-straight year of a revenue decline brought on by the explosion of casino gambling in neighbouring states and exacerbated by the poor national economy, Atlantic City’s 11 land casinos reported gross operating profit that fell by nearly 28% last year.

Year-end tax data released Monday by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement showed the casinos with a total gross operating profit of nearly $535 million. That’s down from the nearly $730 million in gross operating profit in 2009, reports Associated Press.

The figure includes earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and other costs, and is a widely accepted measure of profitability within the gambling industry.

David Hughes, chief financial officer for Trump Entertainment resorts, said 2010 was a tough year because it includes a half-year of financial impact from table games in Pennsylvania, which began in mid-July.

“The problem for the city as a whole has been competition and economics,” Hughes said. “For 2011, I think you’ll still see a decline in the market but it’ll be much less.”

The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa claimed the biggest annual profit at $174.6 million, while the Atlantic City Hilton claimed the greatest financial loss at nearly $19 million.

But in percentage terms, the biggest decline was at Resorts Casino Hotel, which posted an operating loss of $18.5 million, a decline of nearly 41%. The casino has since gone on an expense-slashing binge, including making all its workers re-apply for their jobs at lower salaries, and is trying an array of promotions to increase business volume.

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.