A variety of topics feature in our online casino news

It’s time to have a quick look at the latest online casino news and related issues within the gambling industry. We start this month with the news that Camelot, the UK National Lottery operator has been given a twenty year licence to run the Irish Lottery. This will result in Premier Lotteries Ireland contributing 405 million euros to the Irish government in two instalments, which is intended to pay for a new children’s hospital to be built in Dublin. Next we come to the continuing political row over the potential effects of fixed odds casino games machines in our betting shops on problem gambling. All the major online casino operators appear to have signed up to the recently announced code of conduct relating to these machines, with Ladbrokes deciding to go one step further on this particular issue by announcing that further actions to promote responsible gambling will be linked with executive pay structures from 2015. This announcement came amid their annual report of yet another disappointing financial performance for 2013, with pre-tax profits down almost two thirds to £67.6million. Once again a main contributor to the poor performance was the digital division, and this is where chief executive Richard Glynn is pinning his hopes on the recent deal with Playtech, the massively successful online casino software supplier. With the World Cup in Brazil rapidly approaching Ladbrokes don’t have long to get it right. Meanwhile William Hill were able to report a 12% increase in net revenues to £1.49billion, with online sports betting up by a third. Once again the contrasts in the fortunes of these two major online casino operators makes the headlines in the online casino news here at onlinecasino.ie. For the sake of the online casino industry as a whole let’s hope Ladbrokes can get their digital act together and re-establish themselves amongst the leading online gambling operators.