An MP’s brother frittered away more than £600,000 he stole from clients through his work as a financial adviser on a gambling addiction, a court heard today. Martin Pearson, brother of Dudley South MP Ian Pearson, was jailed for four and a half years earlier this year after he was convicted of conning seven victims out of a total of almost £700,000. One of his victims lost her entire life savings of £226,000.

Pearson, aged 48, of Sandy Lane, Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, created huge insurance policies and stashed the cash in a savings account. His ill-gotten gains are believed to total around £694,000.

Today a Proceeds of Crime hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court, sitting at the Waterfront in Brierley Hill, was trying to claim back cash. The court heard that financial investigators had failed to find any assets apart from the home Pearson shared with his wife Doreen and a diamond bracelet recovered from the property worth £6,450.

The hearing, which was expected to conclude today, continues.

A Bet365 Bingo player has walked away with nearly half a million pounds this weekend after hitting the Lucky Ladies 88 progressive jackpot.

The female player, who goes by the name if ‘Efphraxia’ took her chances on the Lucky Ladies 88 progressive jackpot, where lining up the two fat ladies Agnes and Glenda is the aim of the game.

She won a massive £430,900, after winning a progressive jackpot linked up to a bunch of other bingo sites online. Although it is not a bingo game, this progressive slot is one of a few casino titles at Bet 365 Bingo that are popular in between bingo games.

‘Efphraxia’ is understood to be overjoyed at the news of her win, after only joining Bet365 Bingo a few months ago following a recommendation from a friend. She plans to use her winnings to buy a new car and treat herself to a celebratory drink or two.

Bet 365 Bingo is only one of a handful of bingo sites that can afford to offer such huge prizes. The progressive jackpots regularly get over £100,000, which makes it a popular site to play at.

Foxy Bingo has released a new online bingo shopping website selling Foxy bingo merchandise as well as variuos household products.

The bingo company who was recently bought out by Party Gaming now looking to tap into the retail market and use its existing bingo customer base to market the new products.

The new site launch has just hit the market ahead of the bingosupermarket site that will release an e-commerce business in two week time.

The most prestigious event on the European poker calendar the WSOPE has gotten underway today with 329 players taking their seats for the no limit hold’em event.

Empire Casino in London’s Liecester Square is plastered with poker pros from around the globe include Phil Hellmuth, Annette Obrestad, Phil Ivey and Andy Bloch.

After last night’s WSOPE launch party hosted by sponsors Betfair at the casino things have taken a more sober atmosphere at the tables as day 1a of the 4 day event begins to take shape.

The schedule of the 3rd WSOPE is as follows:

Sept 18th (Event #1 – 4 days) – NLHE – £1,000 + £75
Sept 21st (Event #2 – 3 days) – Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha – £2,500 + £150
Sept 23rd (Event #3 – 3 days) – Pot Limit Omaha – £5,000 + £250
Sept 26th (Main Event – 6 days) – NLHE – £10,000 + £350

In a WSOPE warm up event, Greek amateur Anestis Metsas took down the free Million Dollar tournament held by Betfair at the casino. Facing just 17 other players Metsas conquered the field and took home a cool $1 million.

David La Ronde beat a strong final table to claim the inaugural English Poker Open title and with it a first prize of £208,367. Swedish pro Michael Tureniec was the favourite going into the final table holding a handy chip lead over nearest rival John Eames but none of them was able to beat the Colchester new poker star.

Tureniec, a runner up at EPT London and a finalist in the current Partouche Poker Tour, had to settle for second place after a lengthy heads up battle with La Ronde. The chips eventually went it with La Ronde holding A7 and Turenic K10. The board provided no assistance and the Swede was forced to settle for a second place cash of £121,815.

La Ronde’s victory may be his largest on the UK circuit but he is certainly no stranger to big money cashes. His runner up finish behind Sam Trickett at last year’s GUKPT Main Event in Luton earned him a score of £62,000.

The final table positions and payouts were as follows:

1 David La Ronde £208,367
2 Micheal Tureniec £121,815
3 James Moult £73,089
4 Julian Leonard £51,290
5 John Eames £38,468
6 Simon Pearson £28,851
7 Martyn Bebb £22,440
8 Eric Liu £16,028
9 Thor Drexel £12,823

Harrah’s has announced a partnership with 888. Casino giants Harrah’s has previously tested the waters with online gambling when it hired ex Party Poker CEO Mitch Garber to run Harrah’s interactive entertainment early this summer. Since then not much has been seen from the camp with regards to online until now.

It has been announced that Harrah’s interactive and 888 holdings with work together developing the Caesars Palace and World Series of Poker brands online. The deal is to be handled by Dragonfish, the B2B sector of 888.

“Dragonfish will deliver its market leading poker and casino software, ePayments, CRM, Customer Support and VIP services, creating a platform to grow the WSOP and Caesars casino brands online”, said a Dragonfish spokesperson.

Gigi Levy, CEO of 888 also commented, “This is a ground breaking deal for 888 and demonstrates our ability to provide real value to globally renowned, land-based casinos and their leading brands”, said Levy. “We have the structure in place to realize our B2B division’s full potential over the next 18 months and beyond and today’s announcement of our partnership with an industry giant is further vindication of this strategy.”

Dragonfish has proved to be a successful venture as financial reports saw huge revenue growth with their poker and casino ventures whilst other parts of the company suffered.

Mitch Garber said of the new venture, “As we develop and roll out our interactive strategy, we have chosen to work with 888, primarily for their world-class technology, scalability, and a strong commitment to compliance, and responsible gaming”.

August’s top ten bookmakers list revealed that Sportingbet was at number 9 and it seems they are on the up! It appears that the recent signing with Portsmouth FC will be very beneficial for the club and in their favour to have such a successful and trusted bookmaker supporting them.

Sportingbet are the latest sportsbook to side with and sponsor an English Premier League club at the start of this season. There has been several new partnerships develop and begin and it seems that we could expect to see many more as sportsbook fight for spots at the top clubs.

Sportingbet will be the main provider of gaming products for Portsmouth FC fans. As well as access to the Portsmouth website, the sportsbook will also be allowed to advertise at the club’s Fratton Park ground, using LED perimeter advertising boards whilst taking advantage of special access to the VIP visitor’s suite.

Other recent partnerships include Betfair with Manchester United and Asian sportsbook 188Bet, which has been one of many recent football deals for the sportsbook, including the likes of Aston Villa, Bolton Wanderers and Wigan football clubs. 188Bet’s sponsorship deal seems to be a little more intense with the initial contract set out to last for a minimum of 3 years.

As if football clubs haven’t got enough on their plate, what with transfer bans and relegation, now they are being bombarded with fantastic offers and face the big decision of which sportsbook will be the right choice, both financially and in terms of ambitions and aspirations globally to help support the future success of the clubs.

A scheme for a £40m casino, hotel and shopping centre in Buckinghamshire is to go ahead on the casting vote of a committee chairman, despite opposition.

The project will be built by the owner of Xscape at Milton Keynes and will be alongside its entertainment centre creating 200 new jobs, developers said.

Local residents mounted a campaign to prevent the development and are unhappy over the decision of the planners.

The planning committee chairman’s casting vote sealed approval.

Burglars stole £2,000 from a safe that was stolen from a betting shop, cut it open and dumped it in an isolated field, police believe. The safe, which is the size and weight of a small, fully-packed domestic fridge, was found by a farmer in a field near Cowbridge at the weekend.

Police investigating a burglary at the Betfred betting shop, in Windsor Road, Penarth, several days earlier believe the safe found in the field off Aberthin Lane, Cowbridge, was taken from there. Detectives say the burglary was well planned and the field where it was cut open was carefully chosen for its remoteness from street lighting and houses.

The betting shop burglary happened between 6pm on September 6 and 9am the following morning. Police believe the safe was taken later to the field where it was forced open between 5.30pm on September 10 and 9.15am the following morning when it was found.

Acting sergeant Miguel Sutcliffe said:  “They got into the betting shop by drilling though a rear security door. They removed the safe from behind the counter area.”

Jamie Ryan, deputy manager at the shop, was the first on the scene the morning after the burglary.

He said: “When I arrived the place was in a bit of a mess and it took a bit of time before I realised what had happened. They had broken in through the back and cut wires out of the alarm. It is a very heavy safe and I would say it would have needed at least five people to lift it.

I have never seen anything like this before.”

Police believe that around £2,000 was in the safe which was probably taken to the field on a flatbed lorry. They suspect a disc cutter was used to cut the hinges of the safe door which was found to one side of the safe. Some documents were left behind in the safe, but no cash.

The nearest house to the field is about a third of a mile away and lighting around the area is poor. But detectives say that a large lorry would have been conspicuous in the narrow lane and the noise of the cutting equipment would have been loud.

Acting Sgt Sutcliffe said:  “Aberthin Lane is quite isolated. It runs between Primrose Hill and Penylan Road in Cowbridge. A large vehicle would have been needed to transport the safe and we are appealing for any information about this incident. The safe is very heavy and it would have taken at least two people to carry it. If anyone saw or heard anything suspicious between the hours in question we would like to hear from them.”

He said he had worked on a similar case about two years ago where a stolen safe was taken to a field and opened.

Nobody at Betfred was available for comment.

Moves to liberalise the online gambling market suffered a setback yesterday when Europe’s highest court ruled that governments could bar foreign online bookmakers if the intention was to combat fraud.

The ruling, in a case brought by Bwin, the Austrian gaming group, against Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Lisboa, Portugal’s state-controlled sports betting monopoly, will add to difficulties for online gaming businesses, which are struggling to secure legal rights to expand across Europe.

Bwin, which operates the website betandwin.com, challenged Portugal’s right to continue operating a nationwide electronic-betting monopoly that excludes other companies from taking internet bets in the country.

Bwin, which used to sponsor the Portuguese football league, had argued that the monopoly broke EU rules on the free movement of services.

But, while the European Court of Justice acknowledged the monopoly was a bar to free trade, which is illegal under EU law, it said that Portugal’s objective — to restrict internet gambling to combat fraud and other crimes — outweighed free trade concerns. It said that betting carried a high risk of fraud, which was exacerbated when bets were made online.

The ruling will increase concerns in the online gambling industry that European governments will be able to use fraud prevention as an excuse to avoid opening markets to competition.