GamingCounsel\’s Weekly Briefs

Here\’s @GamingCounsel\’s look at the important legal developments in gaming over the past ten days or so:

1. Crespo v. Online Poker – Interesting complaint filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division filed on October 12^th. In a nutshell: A resident of Florida named Scott Crespo, who may or may not play poker online (there\’s no indication from the complaint that he does or not), is suing residents of Illinois under an Illinois statute for money they purportedly won from other online poker players who may or may not be residents of Illinois. Oh, and Crespo apparently didn\’t lose any money. He wants triple the amount of the unclaimed \”losses\” of others accruing to the defendants. Illinois was chosen because it\’s one of a handful of states that have third party recovery statutes. As a gaming attorney I know in the US put it: We have way too many lawyers with nothing productive to do. [US District Court]

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2. Betfair IPO Numbers – The Betfair IPO seemed to hit the top end of what analysts were predicting as the company\’s market capitalization. Betfair was valued at £1.4 billion on flotation. Fully £200 million was raised on the IPO. [Herald Scotland]

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3. Harrah\’s IPO Imminent – More news from the public markets: Harrah\’s is heading back to the public marketplace with an estimated $575 million offering. The money is likely to be used for new casino projects in Las Vegas and Ohio, not to pay down debt. We\’ll have to wait and see how this offering fares, but there are definitely challenges ahead. [Wall Street Journal]

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4. Canadian I-Gaming Split – While certain provinces are keen to enter the interactive gaming market, others are throwing cold water on the idea. Ontario and Quebec have announced that they\’re coming out with online offerings; British Columbia already offers an online experience at www.playnow.com. However, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island recently announced that they\’re not comfortable with participating in Internet gambling at this point. These latter three provinces are small – PEI is the smallest province in Canada, both geographically and in terms of population – but, interestingly, they\’re part of the Atlantic Lotteries Corporation, which is working with BC and Quebec on sharing liquidity on a common Internet poker platform. [Globe and Mail; CBC]

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5. IMGL Conference in Madrid – The International Masters of Gaming Law is the pre-eminent organization for gaming attorneys and other gaming experts. Their Fall conference is on from October 24^th-26^th in Madrid and, as usual, it\’s an interesting lineup and series of sessions. I\’ll be tweeting on different panels and speakers throughout the conference; check out my tweet stream if you\’re interested. [Gaming Law Masters]