The Gauselmann Group is a German gambling and gaming giant; they have taken a huge leap of faith to get into the British gambling market. Their target is the UK amusements market with the purchase of Praesepe from private equity firm – Marwyn Management Partners. Gauselmann is best known for their Merkur brand, and it is this division that will take control of Praesepe’s 159 adult gaming centres, nine bingo clubs, five family entertainment centres, and Beacon Bingo online. The new company vehicle for this is Merkur Casino UK.

The current Merkur Casino compliment includes 240 arcades throughout Germany, and also has venues in Central and Eastern Europe, the Netherlands and Spain. There is also Merkur Win outlets in Italy. They are best known for their supply of slots, AWPs, Server-based gambling systems and VTLs. The vvast majority of employees is based in Germany; this is a staff compliment of somewhere around 6300.

The Chief Financial Officer of Gauselmann – Ulrich Wuseke – now becomes chairman of Merkur Casino UK. Nick Harding who is the founder of Praesepe, remains in the CEO role of the new company – at least for the time being. Wuseke commented that Praesepe has a good reputation in Britain across the markets it serves. They own the largest land bingo club in Europe and the UK, as well as the Crystal Rooms in London’s Leicester Square; this venue is world-famous.

At the moment the merge is examining a progressive philosophy which is where their investment efforts will take place; they believe they have a unique approach to gambling entertainment in the UK. They also have Blueprint Gaming on-board – another UK subsidiary – these people develop both games and devices. This means that Gauselmann now has a complete range of products to cover the UK market.

Gauselmann is one of the most inspiring business stories in the gambling/gaming industry; the company was launched in 1957, and fast grew into a €1.7bn internationally recognised enterprise. It is a business with back-bone which has survived the double-dip recession, and the Praesepe/Gauselman merge is set to cement this company into UK gaming history.

We mentioned the fact that the largest bingo club in Britain is also part of the Praesepe/Gauselman deal, so, feel that now might be an appropriate time to mention a little bingo aside. The future of UK bingo is also about to change, with the resignation of Paul Talboys from the Bingo Association. Miles Baron is the new appointee, and hopefully with this new blood will come some radical changes in what we believe we have seen become a stagnating representative body for bingo.

Bingo has been enjoying a new breath of fresh air online for the past ten or more years, and we would like to see the same happening in the land version of this game. Miles Baron takes up the post today – Monday 8th October – he has a wealth of industry experience, after leading as Sales and Marketing Director of Mecca Bingo since November 2006, and is no stranger to the Association.

Nothing in moderation is actually bad for anyone, but human nature being what it is can certainly play tricks on us. Addiction happens to be one of the nasty tricks that human nature plays. It is not the end of the world, and no-one is alone in this, and it is for this very important reason that all responsible UK online gambling site offer links to GambleAware, GameCare and so on.

While online gambling operators are in this industry to make a living, this does not mean to say that they wish to do this at the expense of humanity. These operators provide a service for people who what this service, people will ALWAYS gamble and always have; this is also an intrinsic part of human nature, just like many forms of entertainment are. In most parts of the world, gambling is entrenched in the culture, much like bingo is as British as bangers and mash.

Speaking of bingo in the context of this subject, one little story we recently read, brings home what we mean when we say that gambling is not the problem, people are the problem. We have to be adults to play bingo online, so, we should behave like responsible adults would and not be daft about it. One pensioner from North Shields took things a little too far and received the shock of her life. Fortunately she got a fright and realised things had to change.

This pensioner, turned jackpot chaser, instead of just having fun playing a few games and then packing it in, actually turned to fraud and to loan sharks to manage (if you could call this "manage") her gambling debt.

She says she became hooked on playing bingo and gambling online after losing her job – supposedly she had too much time on her hands – or this is what she told the courts. Is it true what they say – "idle hands do the Devils work"?

The sixty-three year old enjoyed some moderate success, and spurred on by this, instead of simply enjoying her good luck, allowed things to rage out- of- control. After turning to loan sharks who threatened her to recover their debt, she actually committed fraud by selling an investment property before filing for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy trustees picked up the sale and the £35 000 profit she made; this was where the police were called in. You can’t make £35K and thereafter file for bankruptcy.

Yes, she was threatened by the loan sharks to return their money, and had to pay stupid amounts of interest, which just goes to show that her stupidity was quite simply two-fold.
Living life in the hope of catching a big jackpot is not what online gambling is about. It is about having a bit of fun, within a players means, and if Lady Luck is on your side and you win. Thank the fates. If not, pack it in and don’t get out of control.

Things are changing rapidly in Asia, in particular in the economic sector. This is no longer one of the poor Global territories, and there is a rising middle class, which means various economic sectors are operating in over-drive. For example – the manufacturing industry in China – is there anything new you have purchased recently that has not been manufactured in China. In response to this, the new middle class Asian resident also demands their fair share of recreation. One of the most popular forms of recreation is gambling.

Therefore, not only the online gambling industry is experiencing a boom. The live gambling industry, in particular in Asia, is booming. Macau offers us a dynamically clear picture of just how rapid economic growth has been. This part of the world has benefitted hugely from the gambling industry, but they are also now taking a closer look at the social impact of gambling as an industry. While there is no gambling per se on Mainland China. Millions of Chinese tourist, save up every penny they can to spend in Macau taking a gamble.

After Macau was monopolised by the Chinese for a period of time (four decades), it has now been opened up to the rest of the world to develop this booming business, although there are moratoriums on certain pieces of property. Manila Bay, Macau, is the home to reclaimed land. Yes, they have re-claimed land from the sea to create a home for a $4 billion casino-resort. This will soon rise like the lost land of Atlantis, funded by foreign investors. US companies such as Las Vegas Sands, MGM, and Wynn Resorts have also flocked to this former Portuguese colony.

Foreign investors in the gambling business, are also currently breaking ground in South Korea. There are plans afoot here to hatch a whole clutch of casino-type resorts. Then on the Eastern edge of Russia, a casino resort area has also been planned to provide a catchment for Chinese gambling high-rollers. And when we talk about Chinese high-rollers, we refer to nose-bleed spenders.
Up-scale, glitzy, Las Vegas styled resorts are the name of the game for casino developments catering to the needs of Asian tourists. As they increasingly become more affluent, so to, do their needs change. Gambling is the order of the day, but then so too is a stay in an up-market resort.

Most areas are working on emulating the Macau business principle; understandably so. For every $1 spent in Las Vegas today, $4 is spent in Macau. This makes it the largest casino game marketplace in the world. However, Singapore is catching up rapidly, and a year after the first casinos had opened, they had already raked in about $6 billion.

We all know there is massive amounts of money to be made in the gambling business if it is done in the right way. The Asian market it seems, is doing it in the right way, and Beijing seems to be happy to allow its wealthy togamble their fortunes away.

The British bookmaker William Hill has very strong ties with various sporting associations, and quite rightly too. They make their money from sports-betting, but have a very strong online presence, not only in sports-betting, but for bingo, spread, betting, casino games and even online poker. Online gambling and sports-betting firms in particular have a long history of sponsoring sports teams, but this time William Hill has gone really big and is supporting an entire association – William Hill will become an "official supporter" of the national Scottish team, after signing a two year agreement with the Scottish Football Association.

William Hill’s Chief Marketing Officer – Kristof Fahy – says these are exciting times in football and they are extremely excited to be involved with the Scottish National team. The road to Rio is on, so, not only does the sponsorship agreement strengthen their ties with football in Scotland, they also get to jump aboard the Road to Rio bandwagon. The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be held in this World-class Brazilian city. The William Hill Scottish Cup is already sponsored by this firm, and they serve as the Scottish Premier League’s (SPL) official betting partner.

Obviously William Hill would love to see of the Scottish side go all the way to a place (if not the top) in the 2014 World Cup finals. But one thing it is going to be, is a fascinating journey.
Campbell Ogilvie, who is President of the Scottish Football Association is in turn delighted to have Will Hill as their official sponsor – heck they need all the help they can get – but the brand has already showed robust commitment to Scottish football, so this is not a new in-road for them. The online gambling company seriously are one of the biggest Scottish football supporters. This new sponsorship merely cements their position as such even more.

The agreement comes into force with immediate effect; in fact we expect they have had the new shirts made already! William Hill receives a whole host of sponsorship rights; these include; branding, hospitality, advertising, and exclusive content and imagery.

It is interesting to note that this British Bookmaker is also one of the sponsors of the English Football Association, but there is no conflict of interest. They have served as an official supporter of the England side and FA Cup in the past, and will continue to do so till the end of the FIFA World Cup in 2014.

After England’s dismal performance at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, let’s hope that the Scottish side can show them a thing or two this time. There was massive debate after England was sent home – about whether or not this team had become too spoiled by their mind-blowing earnings, and had somehow come to the conclusion that when they were playing for their country, they had the right to underperform. Let’s hope things have changed somewhat, and there will be a different performance in 2014.

While the word gimcrack might be a bit of a misnomer for devices such as iPhones, Androids and iPads, these portable devices are gewgaws of a sort. They are the latest zeitgeist for fans of fashion, and as a result are spreading all over the world. With the greater mobility, and fantastic technology, e-gambling activity is also increasingly on the rise.

Global Betting and Gaming Consultants (GBGC) are industry experts; it is their contention that the mobile industry is expanding rapidly. But they are not the only ones who see this, we can see it by just looking at how many online gambling firms are getting more and more mobile apps up and running, so, there must be a huge demand. We also see it in the numbers that the big companies such as William Hill, Paddy Power and others are releasing in terms of mobile growth. Honestly speaking, gambling analytics are great, but it is already clear we see increasing levels of demand.
Warwick Bartlett who is CEO of GBGC says that online gambling offers a good value for money entertainment option for millions of consumers. Something else we already know.

The powerhouses of online gambling are and have been enhancing revenues by adopting mobile gambling applications for a while; the evidence exists that what they are doing is good for business.
Smartphone gambling is transactional entertainment purely. Players are hugely excited by the fact that they can enjoy access to games with high prizes, switch from casino to casino with anonymity, and take advantage of great bonuses, as well as play lots of fun games. They also know that if they want a properly social casino experience, all they need to do is go to their nearest land casino. The online and live gambling business is two totally different channels; just with similar themes.

Betfair for example was one of the pioneers of mobile gambling, and they have reaped the benefits of their foresight – right from the beginning. They are the biggest online betting community globally – known as a betting exchange – and despite good earnings in the mobile market are showing a decline in share price. Core revenues for this company were up to £91.6 million, an increase of 13%, with the biggest growth trend showing in sports-betting. Apparently half of all their customers in the UK and Ireland have placed a bet by mobile during the first quarter of 2012. This is a volume of bet increase of a massive 114%.

It is like we said earlier, we just have to look at this type of performance and it becomes simple to draw the assumption that online gambling will go mobile for a large majority of fans. Rocketing revenues are not only being declared by Betfair; the biggest and many of the smaller brands in Britain and Europe are showing these increasing trends. Keep your eyes peeled too, there is strong evidence to suggest that things in mobile gambling are going to get a lot more interesting over the next couple of years.