iGaming Business – The Gaming Standards Association (GSA) said its Online Gaming Committee (OGC) made “substantial progress” regarding third-party game interfaces during a recent meeting in London. Hosted by GSA platinum member Playtech, GSA members in attendance were Bally Technologies, ComTrade Gaming, Gaming Laboratories International (GLI), GTech, IGT, Intralot, Playtech and Random Consulting. While the meeting covered various aspects of the online gaming sector, GSA protocol director Ethan Tower said the most progress was made in the third-party game interface area. “The third-party game interface allows games from third-party game providers to be integrated with an online gaming platform in…

Online payment solutions provider Optimal Payments has further expanded its presence in the North American market after agreeing a five-year partnership with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG). Under the agreement, Optimal Payments will provide its NETBANX payment service to OLG for its new online gambling service PlayOLG. The new service will offer regulated interactive lottery, casino and video poker games to Ontario residents. The NETBANX solution will support the new offering by providing payment options, as well as delivering real-time fraud and risk prevention and mitigation services. “PlayOLG will be the only regulated internet gaming option in Ontario,”…

The Observatory on Online Gaming of the University of Milan ran an event of presentation on a casino games report. The topic was the status of the Italian online gaming market in 201,3 which disclosed some interesting information. Their findings cannot put operators in a very good mood as the gross gaming revenues of the Italian online gaming market were equal to € 725 million in 2013, showing a minor decline of 3% compared to 2012. However, it is more interesting to see the break-down of such data through the different categories of games. Indeed, casino games grew by 63%…

Bloomberg – The Czech government is preparing to tighten control over the gaming industry and boost its contribution to tax revenue as billionaire Finance Minister Andrej Babis seeks to keep the budget deficit in check. The ministry is drafting a bill that would raise tax receipts by allowing online gaming for all operators in the Czech Republic, Deputy Finance Minister Ondrej Zavodsky said in an interview. The bill, to be valid as of 2016, would also set separate tax rates for different types of gaming, he said. Babis’s ministry is searching for new sources of budget revenue as it seeks…

Sun Herald – House Gaming Committee Chairman Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, has commissioned a task force of experts to look at the pros and cons of Internet gambling and sports betting in Mississippi. The group’s first meeting will be in May during the Southern Gaming Summit in Biloxi. It will present its findings by the end of the year. Bennett said this in no way endorses either form of gambling. “I’m looking for an unbiased study,” he said. It will be more comprehensive than anything he’s seen on the subjects, he said, and he envisions other states using the information…

Science Daily – New research finds that online social behavior isn’t replacing offline social behavior in the gaming community. Instead, online gaming is expanding players’ social lives. The study was done by researchers at North Carolina State University, York University and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. “Gamers aren’t the antisocial basement-dwellers we see in pop culture stereotypes, they’re highly social people,” says Dr. Nick Taylor, an assistant professor of communication at NC State and lead author of a paper on the study. “This won’t be a surprise to the gaming community, but it’s worth telling everyone else. Loners…