The long-running legal action by woman poker ace Clonie Gowen against Full Tilt Poker parent group Tiltware LLC resurfaced this week when a US circuit court of appeal ruled that Gowen’s lawsuit against Tiltware was wrongly dismissed by a lower court.

The case involved allegations of wrongful dismissal by Gowen as a former member of Full Tilt’s professional player team, including breach of contract claims and other grievances against Full Tilt founders Ray Bitar and Howard Lederer.

The appeal court found that US District Judge Robert Clive Jones had erred in his original judgment against Gowen, clearing the way for her action to be reopened.

The Board of Trustees announced Goulden’s appointment at its meeting this week, along with new trustees Andrew Love - deputy chairman of the Ritz Hotel and executive chairman of The Ritz Club; Ken Turner - chief executive of Sceptre Leisure plc; and Jonathan Paveley - executive chairman of Admiral Taverns.

Other top business people on the board include the chief executives of Ladbrokes, Betfair and William Hill.

“I am delighted to be asked to take the chair at The GREaT Foundation,” Goulden said this week.

“GREaT does a huge amount of good work on behalf of the gambling industry and many people benefit from the GBP5 million+ raised each year. GREaT also has an important role to play with the Responsible Gambling Fund in ensuring that the money raised is spent wisely and that long term providers such as GamCare, The Gordon Moody Association and The Soho Clinic are properly supported.”

In a brief statement, 888 Holdings Ltd., which has been publicly traded on the exchange since 2005, said:

“Harrah’s, which is registered with the Nevada Gaming Commission (’NGC’), submitted to the NGC and the Nevada State Gaming Control Board an application for a finding of suitability concerning (Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment’s) supplier relationship with Dragonfish. The application relates to state law in Nevada that covers Nevada gaming companies conducting gaming outside the state of Nevada.”

Dragonfish, a subsidiary of 888, has a long-term agreement with Harrah’s subsidiary, Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment, to provide the technology and services to operate online gambling sites for the World Series of Poker and Caesars casino brands. The Web sites are only available to citizens of the United Kingdom and cannot be accessed by Americans.

The application by Harrah’s, filed under the Foreign Gaming Act, marks the first time Nevada gaming regulators have been asked to investigate the suitability of an online gaming company that took wagers from American gamblers before the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act in 2006.

The law covers a Nevada gaming company’s dealings with a foreign business. It was the law used in 2007 when gaming regulators found Hong Kong businesswoman Pansy Ho to be a suitable business partner for MGM Mirage in their shared ownership of the MGM Grand Macau.

Quoting official sources, journo Jeff Montgomery has revealed that the first week’s betting revenues have been lower than predicted, with Delaware’s casinos handling $257 870 in sports wagers on National Football League action.

And although it is still early days in the new market, Montgomery observes: “Even without deductions for payments to winners among the more than 14 500 people who placed bets, the total was only a fraction of the weekly average needed to produce the $3 million earnings share forecast for the state general fund when lawmakers approved the venture earlier this year.”

The state government headed by Governor Jack Markell had originally based its budget-deficit-closing calculations on a year-round, single- and multiple-game wagering regime on a variety of sports. But last month, a federal appeals court barred Delaware from allowing anything more than “parlay” bets on three or more NFL matches, restraining the new venture’s capacity.

“The first weekend numbers are encouraging,” said Joe Rogalsky, a spokesman for the governor. “Clearly we don’t have the flexibility that we had hoped for to make it as lucrative as possible.”

Political opponents were less sanguine, with House Minority Leader Richard C. Cathcart remarking: “If we only have the NFL betting, we’re in deep trouble. It’s obviously critical that we win at least that part of our argument in the appeal that we’re allowed to bet other sports, because that’s the only way this thing survives.”

Responding, Rogalsky said it was a “fair assessment” that a state economic forecasting agency will have to reduce revenue estimates from sports betting when they meet Monday. Court-sanctioned terms would allow betting only during about 20 weeks out of the year.

Supporters of the sports betting proposal had predicted full-year state revenues of about $17 million overall, which included $14 million in “crossover” slot machine play attributed to increased casino traffic because of sports betting opportunities.

Acting Finance Secretary Tom Cook said the state’s three casinos reported slots play did rebound last week after a 5.7 percent decline following the national economic downturn. By comparison, slots receipts were down only 0.3 percent last week compared with the previous year.

“Most of the anticipated boost in revenue was going to come from crossover slots play,” said House Majority Leader Peter C. Schwartzkopf. “If we picked up 5 percent in the middle of a recession, I think that’s a pretty good sign. We just need to continue on.”

Lawmakers agreed the state would take 50 percent of total receipts after payments to winners and after assigning 15.62 percent of the remainder to a game contractor. Casinos would receive 40 percent and the state’s horse racing industry 10 percent.

Bill Fasy, Delaware Park’s chief operating officer, said in a written statement that sports betting “brought new customers to Delaware Park and significantly increased our traffic over the weekend. As more people learn about this product the greater the potential is for this segment of our business to grow.”

Emilio Gomez joined the board late 2007, and his resignation takes immediate effect, the statement advises.

Following his departure the Board of Directors once again has a balance of independent and non-independent directors (excluding the chairman) and therefore complies with the Combined Code on Corporate Governance.

The new Bonus Poker game gives players a chance to double their winnings after any winning hand. Players can play 1, 3, 5, 10, 25 or even 50 hands at a time on the new Bonus Poker video poker game, where Jacks or Better returns the bet, two pairs pay double, and three of a kind triples it. Four of a kind payout is disappointing on many Jacks or Better games but in Bonus Poker it pays up to x40.

After every winning hand, players can collect their winnings or choose to play a Bonus Game where they can double the winnings on that hand if they can predict which of 4 hidden cards is greater than the one that’s dealt face up.

In a clear reference to recent launches of brand themed online slots by major software providers, WinADay.com manager Ondrej Tuma remarked: “We don’t do comic book characters or super heroes – we let our in-house designers come up with original ideas and sometimes their imaginations really run wild!

“When they first showed me what they’d come up for Bonus Poker I almost wanted to take a bite of it – I thought it looked almost like candy. Anyway, it feels FUN which is what a game is supposed to be!”

To appeal to a wide variety of different nationalities, Casino 1.9 is available in eleven languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Swedish, Hungarian, Latvian and Portuguese.

The trio of new slot games includes Cats And Cash, which is a five-reel 15-payline title featuring feline characters that are more interested in catching cash, jewelry and gold bars than mice. A wild cat helps players comprise winning combinations worth double the prize while competitors can earn the chance to participate in two gameshow-style bonus rounds.

The second new title, Fortune Teller, is a five-reel 20-payline slot where players can win free spins by gazing into a crystal ball that has gone wild. There is also a bonus round offering tarot cards that are read to determine the prize.

The final new title is Photo Safari, which is a five-reel 20-payline slot that allows players to frolic among friendly and photogenic animals. When the drums beat, players can win free spins before using a bonus symbol to comprise winning combinations for extra cash.

“For the sake of our clients, we aim to keep online casino players entertained with a steady supply of colourful new games thanks to our creative development team,” said Johan Tornqvist, Chief Executive Officer for Play’n Go.

The four new instant-play mini games released as part of Casino 1.9 can be enjoyed within other applications and comprise Bell Of Fortune, Gift Shop, Golden Goal and Speed Cash. These three-reel slots offer players the chance to win a portion of a shared progressive jackpot and are available in standard casino versions as well as mini 160 by 120 and 160 by 224 formats.

Do you think your poker game is up to scratch? If you do, and you fancy pitting your skills against WSOP world champions Jamie Gold (2006 World Champion) and Peter Eastgate (2008 World Champion), register your interest at http://www.pokerinthepark.com/jamie-gold-charity-tournament.html and put your money where your mouth is. The tournament is being held at the Casino at the Empire on Thursday 13th of August at 7:30, alongside Europe’s biggest poker festival, Poker in the Park.

This unique opportunity to play against two world champion poker players is being held to benefit the Jamie Gold Foundation, a charity set up by Gold following his record-breaking $12,000,000 World Series of Poker victory. The tournament buy-in is a £500 charitable donation to the Jamie Gold Foundation, and gets you into the fray with not just Gold and Eastgate, but with football legend Teddy Sherringham, TV actor Michael Greco, musician Mark Chadwick of the Levellers and poker pro JJ Hazan. (Players may also play for their seat at £50 sit’n go satellite tournament held all Thursday at the Casino at the Empire).

£20,000 of prizes for winners have been generously donated and include a seat to the London EPT donated by Poker Stars, a package to the Unibet Open, a tailor-made Gresham Blake Suit, a week’s poker training in Las Vegas, a pop star experience, a safari park expedition, a custom poker table, a custom chip set and several items of jewellery.

The Jamie Gold Foundation supports a number of charities including The Muscular Dystrophy Association/ALS Division, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, The Montel Williams MS Foundation, Sunflower Children, Covenant House, The Fallen Heroes Fund, The Fulfillment Fund and The Abolish Slavery Coalition.

The Jamie Gold Foundation Charity Tournament is held alongside Poker in the Park, Europe’s largest Poker Festival. Poker in the Park takes place in Leicester Square, London on Thursday the 13th of August (5pm - 9:30pm) and Friday, August 14th (12:00 pm - 9:30pm). It is free to enter and has everything for the poker enthusiast, including free live poker tournaments every hour, free lectures from the biggest names in poker, free personal poker tuition, heads up play, poker books and gear and much, much more.

The banks, which are being sued by Fontainebleau Las Vegas for backing out of a loan agreement, also believe the Strip resort’s debt levels would far exceed its market value if it opens next year.

The developer told its lenders in April that it would cost nearly $1.5 billion to complete the project, according to a court declaration filed in bankruptcy court by Henry Yu, senior vice president of Bank of America.

The project already carries nearly $1.7 billion in debt, which would push the project’s debt to $3.2 billion upon opening, Yu said.

“It is clear that the project at completion will have liabilities far exceeding its assets” unless the $1.7 billion in existing debt is “compromised,” Yu said in the filing.

The banks’ arguments will be at issue Monday when Bankruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol considers Fontainebleau Las Vegas developer’s request for a summary judgment against the banks.

The developer sued a group of banks and is asking the court to order them to release the $656 million so work on the project can be restarted.

Construction on the Strip resort was stopped after the developers’ filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because of the banks’ decision to withhold the money.

The banks have said the money was withheld because of concerns the project was in default and having cost overruns.

Fontainebleau Las Vegas’ developer has insisted there was no default, and even if there was, that the banks were obligated to provide the committed financing.

“The banks improperly terminated their contractual obligation to lend the money for this project,” Fontainebleau said in a statement Thursday. “Nothing they say — all of which is distorted and wrong — relieves them of that obligation.”

Fontainebleau, which is owned by Miami-based developer Jeffrey Soffer, has said a third party is ready to finance the rest of the project if the banks release the money.

Although that party has not been named, sources say private equity firm Apollo Management could be Fontainebleau’s white knight.

Apollo, which co-owns Harrah’s Entertainment, completed raising $14.8 billion for its latest investment fund, Apollo Investment Fund VII, in January.

An attorney for the fund has attended some of the Miami court hearings, and the firm has been buying up some of the project’s debt at a discount, two sources have said.

The Review-Journal reported June 20 that representatives from Harrah’s and Apollo toured the project, which is 70 percent complete.

People familiar with the situation said that if Apollo were to acquire the project, it would be owned separately from Harrah’s, although the casino giant would manage and operate the property.

The banks are arguing the developers knew they wouldn’t be able to meet their financial commitments months before they requested the $656 million.

Fontainebleau officials told the lenders in April, Yu said, the maximum debt that the project could manage with projected cash flow is $1.4 billion.

The company tried to persuade the holders of a $675 million mortgage note to “extinguish” it and convert a portion of the credit facilities to equity.

“This again confirms the project had been insolvent well before Fontainebleau filed for bankruptcy protection on June 9,” Yu said.