CarbonPoker has announced today that actress and poker fanatic Shannon Elizabeth has signed on to represent the brand in the poker community.

Shannon will represent the online poker provider at major poker tournaments, play regularly on the site, and be involved in the brand’s upcoming marketing campaigns.

“We’ve been on the hunt for a face for our brand who is a recognized star and also a respected member of the poker community”, says Peter Hampton, spokesperson at CarbonPoker.

“We’re launching several promotions that will involve players playing against Shannon and getting to know her both inside and outside of poker”, Hampton added.

Shannon will be posting regularly on the CarbonPoker Blog, as well as answering player questions and taking the creative lead on a series of videos for the site.

Shannon Elizabeth broke into mainstream film with her starring roll in the classic comedy ‘American Pie’ and has worked successfully in both film and television since.

In the meantime, Shannon has also emerged as a world-class poker talent. In 2007 she played her way to a third place finish at the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and has also cashed at the World Series of Poker four times.

International sports movements under the leadership of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), have agreed on a series of recommendations aimed at protecting and maintaining the integrity of sport, especially in regard to the risk of ‘irregular’ betting.

The recommendations are the result of deliberations at a conference in Lausanne this week in which the IOC, International Sports Federations, National Olympic Committees, the betting sector and public authorities participated.

The recommendations which emerged from the conference can be viewed here (PDF format) and serve as guidelines for all stakeholders involved.

They call for prevention, education and information from all involved in sport, as well as increased collaboration with governments.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said: “It is clear that betting, through the financial benefits it generates, provides huge opportunities to sports organisations.

“However, there is a significant problem when betting leads to the manipulation of competitions and therefore threatens the integrity of sport. Cheating driven by betting is undoubtedly the biggest threat to sport after doping.

“For the sports movement it is crucial to develop a unified strategy and to collaborate closely with public authorities and the legal gambling industry. Only then will we be able to address efficiently this complex issue,” Rogge concluded.

The IOC has approached the topic of irregular betting in a proactive way to protect the Olympic Games, a statement from the IOC claimed, adding that the Committee requires that all athletes, coaches, officials and journalists agree not to engage in Olympic-related betting or promote betting companies during the Games.

The IOC Code of Ethics also prohibits betting on any Olympic competition by IOC members, IOC staff or any accredited IF and Olympic Games Organising Committee personnel.

For the Games of the Olympiad in Beijing in 2008 and the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver last February, the IOC set up a dedicated monitoring system. No irregular betting patterns were reported during these events.

The Australian media are speculating that the imminent release of the government’s Productivity Commission report and a state study on problem gambling could herald a relaxation of laws against online gambling operators in the country.

The Age newspaper opines that the changes could make it easier to bet online, on mobile phones and via digital television, in a massive shake-up of Australia’s gambling laws.

Two reports commissioned by the federal and state governments indicate that changes to online, television and telephone betting laws are on the way.

The Productivity Commission gambling report is expected to call for a relaxation of laws banning Australian companies from providing online gambling products.

A separate government study has been commissioned to determine what impact online, telephone and digital television gambling is likely to have on problem gamblers.

While Australian companies are permitted to provide online betting on horse racing and sport, they are banned from providing online casino games and poker machines. Australians can legally gamble online on sites registered overseas, and reports suggest that the number of locals playing online casino games doubled between 2004 and 2008 to 700,000.

Serial gambling opponent and independent Senator Nick Xenophon is strongly opposed to any relaxation. ”If every mobile phone and every computer turns into a poker machine, you will be looking at a massive new tidal wave of gambling addiction in this country,” he told the newspaper.

The objective of a tender issued by the state of Victoria’s Department of Justice last week on behalf of the Ministerial Council on Gambling is to consider the ”current prevalence of problem gambling in interactive gamblers” and ”the contribution of the interactive medium to problem gambling”.

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The son of a Top 4 England Premiership football club owner is a deadbeat, so claims intermediaries working on behalf of a Costa Rican-based online sportsbook looking to collect funds owed.

"He (the son) admits to owing but claims he’s lost enough money in the past to the book that the debt should be forgiven," the intermediary, Charlie Bishop, tells Gambling911.com.  "He also says that the sportsbook slow paid him once but that’s because this individual was a notorious slow payer in the past."

Now the England football club owner’s apparently refuses to pay monies owed.

The amount in question is just over $800,000.

The individual owing money currently resides in South America on a sprawling estate and appeared on a high rated reality show, Bishop disclosed to Gambling911.com. 

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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher 

Optimism that the worst of the recession which has so badly hammered Atlantic City land casinos may be over was tempered this week by another dismal set of performance statistics. Atlantic City’s 11 casinos saw revenues fall by 9% in May compared with a year ago, Associated Press reported this week. The numbers were disappointing for operators, who were heartened by April numbers that suggested a break even point had been reached.

“In April, we felt really good about the way things were going,” Don Marrandino, eastern division president of Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., which operates four of the casinos told AP reporters.

“We’re clearly disappointed. May was just not a good month. Everyone’s feeling the same pain.”

The poor performance came despite a Memorial Day weekend in which casinos were packed, but the holiday weekend revenue was not enough to offset a weak performance over the rest of the month, compounding a three-and-a-half-year decline that started when the first slots parlours opened outside Philadelphia in late 2006. There are now nine.

Atlantic City casinos took in $319.7 million in May, with slots accounting for $225.6 million – down 8.5%. Table games brought in $94 million, down 10.2%.

All 11 casinos reported revenue declines in May, ranging from nearly 21% at the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort, to nearly 5% at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.

In the first half of 2010 Atlantic City Casinos have won $1.49 billion, down 7.9% from the same period in 2009. The Associated Press report points out that things could get even worse when the competing Pennsylvanian slot parlours start offering table games.

Online gambling could provide a partial solution for Atlantic City; New Jersey state legislators are currently considering intrastate laws that would allow land operators licensed by the state to offer internet gambling.