Though sales in their homeland of the Irish Republic have been largely stagnant, Paddy Power has seen an impressive growth overseas. The growing international company has seen a large jump in international revenue and plans to expand the company to take advantage of the successful markets.

While revenue in the Irish Republic saw a slight revenue increase of 9% over the last three months (due to an 8% drop in gambling activity), their international sales have seen dramatic gains. During the same time period, Paddy Power saw a 17% revenue increase in the UK and a jump of 70% in Australia.

Bolstered by their overseas success, the company is expanding to create new jobs in Ireland. Paddy Power is poised to add 500 new jobs in Ireland, most of which will be part of the international online business arm of the company. With the brick and mortar betting shops already a firm presence in the Emerald Isle, the addition of 500 new jobs for online betting should benefit Ireland’s economy. The company has announced plans to hire 1,440 new workers in total internationally.

The international online business has headquarters in West Dublin and that is where most of the new Irish jobs will be located. That is not the end of the planned expansion, though. Paddy Power expects to create an additional 640 jobs in Australia and the UK by the year 2013.

Paddy Power stated that making profits in Ireland has become more challenging, due to the deep recession facing the country. However, they are confident in a local turnaround, in part because of their international business. A spokesman said that “Paddy Power’s rapid international expansion has direct revenue benefits” for Ireland.

Tags: online betting, Paddy Power

The UK Press Association reports that online gambling operator Sportingbet is examining a merger with Swedish rival Unibet that would create a £600 million group. The story broke today in UK tabloid, The Sunday Times.

The Sunday Times article reports that preliminary discussions have been held regarding the merge of the two entities, with further talks expected in the near future.

An unidentified source told the newspaper that there is still a need for many more discussions before agreement is reached and a deal sealed and that an announcement is not expected until 2011.

Sportingbet reported a fall in pre-tax profits to £6.9 million from £22.3 million in the year, but this included a £22.8 million settlement with the US Department of Justice over an investigation into alleged illegal internet gambling. The agreement, which analysts have said clears the way for potential mergers or takeovers, means the firm will avoid being prosecuted in the US for accepting online bets made by Americans between 1998 and 2006.

Harry Reid got to keep his job. Yeah, I know. I was as surprised as you were. In an election where Republicans had a historic sweep of Congress – the most one-sided midterm election in 70 years – you had to assume that Harry Reid would be unemployed in January. I mean, he had to be.

This is a guy who is so senile that he often votes against his own bills. That includes the healthcare reform bill, which he considers his crowning achievement. Reid voted against it initially and had to have a colleague remind him that since it is his bill, he probably meant to vote yes. This is a man who said that the entire world would be in a depression if not for him! It’s also a man with an approval rating in the 30s! For Reid to win, that would mean that lots of people who hate Harry Reid would have to vote for him.

Apparently, that’s what happened. It helps that, in a clear violation of federal law, labor unions in Nevada required their members to vote in the election and provide proof to their employer that they had voted. And in case you’re wondering, yes, they were also encouraged to vote for Reid. It also helps that electronic voting machines in Nevada had Reid’s name automatically checked by default. The technicians for those machines are members of SEIU, the largest labor union in the nation, but I’m sure that’s a coincidence.

Fair or not, fraud or not, the sad truth is that Harry Reid gets to keep his job as Senator for the state of Nevada. It is not yet determined whether he will remain the Senate Majority Leader, because a few not-yet-decided races could give the Senate to the Republicans. If the Democrats retain control of the Senate, though, what does that mean for online gambling?

It’s not good. Harry Reid is in the pocket of the Vegas casinos, many of which oppose online gambling. For that reason, Reid has said many times that he didn’t support any of the online gambling bills currently in Congress. He considers them a threat to Vegas casinos and has said that he would not support any legislation that was a threat to them. Since he is the Senate Majority Leader, that carries a lot more weight than if he was just another Senator. If he maintains that position and the Democrats maintain control of the Senate, they are unlikely to push hard for legislation opposed by their leader.

Also, as Leader, one of his jobs (along with the Majority Whip) is to organize his party and unify them on bills. There’s a good chance he would use his persuasion to make sure not enough people vote on a repeal of UIGEA, if such a bill were to come to a vote. In short, Reid keeping his job is bad for the country in a whole lot of ways, one of those ways being that any anti-UIGEA legislation is likely to die in the Senate.

Tags: Harry Reid, UIGEA, Vegas casinos

Senator Harry Reid Senate Majority Leader was in the political battle of his lifetime leading up to the mid-term elections on Tuesday. Reid was the politician who stood to lose the most during the election, a fall that would have brought him from the most important senator in Washington, to unemployed.

Republican Sharron Angle game Reid just about as much as he could handle in the election, but the senator was bale to squeak out a win on Tuesday. Now, the state of Nevada and their gaming industry starts to look to the future.

Part of that future may be the addition of regulated online casinos. With the land-based casinos struggling to keep revenues up, some have started to prepare for the possibility of law changes in the US.

Those law changes would likely have to be facilitated by Reid and the Senate. Representative Barney Frank had led the movement to regulate Internet gambling in the House, but with control going over to the Republicans, Frank’s bill is now likely dead.

Reid has always been against online gambling, more to support his home state casino industry than as a sign of personal conviction. In recent months, however, Senator Reid’s office has asserted that the senator would be up for online poker regulations if the legislation was worded correctly.

Harrah’s Entertainment is one of the companies that Reid represents, and they have broken from tradition and moved into the online casino market. The majority of land-based casino companies have been against online gambling, but Harrah’s has set a precedent that other companies soon may follow.

The epicentre for US online gambling payment processing prosecutions shifted this week from the east coast of the US to Washington State, already infamous for its draconian anti-internet gambling laws. The publication Seattle PI reports that Federal prosecutors in Seattle have moved to seize $553,000 from a Canadian company they say is facilitating payments to online poker players.

In a civil complaint filed earlier this month, prosecutors asked a U.S. District Court judge to order the balance of six bank accounts associated with the service be forfeited to the government. Prosecutors claim the service, identified in court documents as Secure Money, Inc., mailed payments, disguised as payroll payments, to Washington poker players using online gambling sites in violation of state law.

The investigation began in 2009 with a sting operation where an agent for the state Gambling Commission began playing online poker through the UltimateBet website.

An Assistant U.S. Attorney alleged in court documents “Secure Money, Inc. distributed checks on behalf of illegal websites that host gambling activity.” Processing checks that represent the funds derived from illegal gambling . constitutes a violation of the money laundering provisions set in federal law.

Bank records seized by investigators showed that more than 5,500 checks had been issued from the Secure Money, Inc. account between June 2009 and January, totaling $2.7 million, with memo line on each listed “payroll” as the reason for payment. Investigators contend Secure Money, Inc., was operating as a money transfer business without the licenses required by Nevada and Florida state law, according to the civil complaint.

The case continues.