Redeye.se is an equity research company that is focused on the Nordic market. On their website they have a banner to Betssons stock “betting” website, Betsson Trader, where you can bet on stock. Essentially you can “trade” stocks without actually buying them.
Lotteriinspektionen has told Redeye to remove this banner because they consider it a gaming banner and they are prohibited by Swedish law. Redeyes own blog post on the topic is very insightful and asks the question that needs to be asked: Does this mean that trading stock is a game of chance?
The legal developments surrounding Online gaming in general is very interesting to follow and one by one the EU countries make moves towards opening their markets. The poker market is a very prominent example of this where Italy has already regulated online tournament poker and is likely to open up cash games soon, France is drafting a regulation law for Poker as I write this and I think it’s only a matter of time until Germany and the UK will follow. It’s not unlikely that the US will come to the obvious conclusion that banning online gaming isn’t the solution to the gaming problem nor the financial shortcomings it may bring when overseas providers “take” money from your citizens and hence that money leaves the country, because that’s what all these legislations boil down to, sovereign states want their citizens to pay tax where they live.
With regulated markets there’s a way to come around this financial issue and with the EG directives about open trade and fair markets that’ll be the only alternative for the EU countries over time.
The question is, how long will it take for Sweden to realize that 17th century politics and laws doesn’t apply to 21st century technology and public opinion.
This is very interesting, especially in the light of what is currently going on within the EU with the Check Republic that is about to open up and France soon to follow.
With the recent anouncemnt from Microsoft that ytou can store your games on the XBox 360 HDD to reduce heat and noise while playing I started to move my games.
I have the old style Premium version that ships with a 20GB HDD and with the system itself taking about about 7GB it was filled up after only 2 games
I’ve spent a few hous looking for hwo to increase the space on my XBox and I’ve found two alternative solutions.
I buy the 120GB HDD from Microsoft. Very expensive (~ €120)
I buy a 120GB 2.5″ SATA drive and replace the current disk myself. (~ €40)
The second option would save me about €80 but it would probably void the warranty and requires software that I haven’t found anywhere for download. I’m also unsure if it would be possible to mount a larger disk than 120GB if I do it myself, if it is, then the second option seems much more appealing. If you’d happen to know this I’d be happy if you let me know. What to do, what to do…
For now I’ll have a look at this video I found that shows how to replace the disk.
It was Friday the 14th of November. It was a dark, chilly evening in Stockholm and me and a couple of colleagues were on the way to a pub after work. We were walking down Drottninggatan when one of my colleagues said she wanted to visit a store on the way, it was just up ahead.
A few hundred meters later she drifted to the right side of the street towards the store. We all went in after her. She talked to the cashier for a minute or two and she was all done a paid for and held a small plastic bag in her hand. We all waved good bye to the cashier as we started to leave. It was then that evil jumped me, almost from behind.
Right there on the shelf I saw what my colleague had just bought. Right there in front of me, whispering “buy me, buy me” to me. An internal dispute started in my head. I knew I shouldn’t do it but somewhere deep inside something was beginning to take over and finally I couldn’t resist. I took it and I stepped up to the cashier. A flash of my card, 4 digits of pin, a plastic bag and a receipt later I walked out of the store knowing that I had done something very, very bad.
The next morning I woke up. My first thought was of the small plastic bag that was hanging on the coat rack by the front door. I was unsure whether or not to look into it. I decided to make myself some breakfast before doing so. I was just about to prepare my first meal of the day when I remembered that I had no food. I realized that I had to go down to the mall and stop by the grocery store and pick up some of life’s necessities if I wanted to have breakfast at home.
Instead of acting upon the inital thought to buy groceries I picked up the phone and a few minutes later I had a breakfast date with a friend. 30 minutes to go before I had to leave. Shower, of course. It made sense to grab a quick one, after all I just got out of bed. 10 minutes in the shower left me with some time to think. The plastic bag was still calling for me open it but I knew that I really shouldn’t do it. I knew that if I did my life wouldn’t be the same.
The dispute from last night started all over again.
I got out of the shower, wiped down, put on some fresh clothes and sat down in front of the TV, still indecisive. I flicked through the channels but didn’t find anything of interest to kill of the final 5 minutes that was left before I had to go to be on time. I turned the TV off and got up. I looked at the plastic bag as I reached for my jacket and shoes. The receipt was still in there as if I had wanted to give myself one last out before it was too late. I took it as a sign that I had acted in such way the night before and reached for the bag and put it in my pocket.
I stepped out of the apartment, down the three stairs and out in the cold. It didn’t take long to get to the subway station where I was to meet up with my friend. He was a few minutes late but I didn’t mind the wait, it only gave me time to really convince myself that I was doing the right thing.
As he came and we’d said our hellos I told him I wasn’t quite ready to eat just yet, I had one quick errand to run first. That wasn’t a problem as long as I made it fast he said, he was just as hungry as I was after a long night with no food. We walked into the mall and past numerous stores without giving any of them a second look. When we came to the far end of the mall we stepped in to the store where I knew I had to go.
I walked straight up to the cashier and told him that I wanted to return the contents of the bag, I had only bought it last night and not opened the package. The cashier verified my story by looking at the package and the receipt and he accepted it as the truth and refunded me without hesitation.
Once again I stepped out of the store, only this time I didn’t have a small plastic bag in my hand and I felt very good about it.
I had stared evil in the eye – and I won!
On September 22nd Ongame Network, one of the worlds largest online poker networks, announced that they will showcase their new Poker Platform Engine called P5.
“We decided to go to the very heart of our platform and rethink every line of code – and re-write it if necessary. P5 represents a shift in mentality as much as it represents a shift in technology. We are already very excited about what P5 enables us to – but this is nothing compared to what you will see in the months to come.” says Kevin O’Neal, Press Officer at bwin.
Most of you probably know that I work with online poker, not playing but providing it, at bwin Games AB.
What you might not know is that there’s a new competition starting on Wednesday and I’d say it’s something quite new in this world of online poker: Poker Island.
Basically this is another one of those documentary real life shows but the twist this time is poker. You qualify to the island via our online games and once there you get a shot at the big final if you’re good enough. Standard rules apply so people will get knocked out, new players will join and all in all we’ll probably get to see a lot of poker but also a lot of strange, fun and weird things going on in the house. I’m personally not a big fan of these shows but with it being us creating it I’ll probably keep an eye on it anyway
