Now, Iowa is looking at taking a different approach to deal with it.

A bill currently in Iowa’s Senate proposes legalizing online poker. Lawmakers say instead of watching that revenue disappear in the abyss of the internet, why not legalize it and keep it local.

“Right now you have a lot of gambling going on via the internet, which is illegal right now in the State of Iowa,” Grand Falls Casino and Resort General Manager Sharon Haselhoff said.

But that could change soon if Iowa lawmakers allow casino to run online poker.

“So, what the bill does is, through the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, it allows folks to go into a casino, register to make sure they’re not on the statewide ban list, make sure they’re 21-years of age, to set up their account, then be able to go home, within the State of Iowa, and play internet poker against folks throughout the State of Iowa,” Haselhoff said.

She says it would have a bigger impact on casinos farther within Iowa’s borders where their customer base is mainly Iowans. It would put them in the forefront of having these systems in place if any future legislation is passed.

“So, if the legislation is passed at the legislative federal level, then we’re not behind all the other states or the other big casinos that will take over and now they run internet poker.  And they could be in Las Vegas or Atlantic City and not in Iowa,” Haselhoff said.

Also, keeping the money that would be lost on the internet local and possibly increasing statewide gambling revenue.

Iowa officials say if the bill is passed, it could mean up to $13-million in extra money made off of online poker.

Article source: http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail6376.cfm?Id=128072

By Mark Lee

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) — Tencent Holdings Ltd. is China’s biggest Internet company, with 430 million users. Even so, it is only No. 6 in attracting advertising because its customers are considered students and farmers without much discretionary income.

Enter the smartphone.

China’s online advertising market expanded more than 40 percent to $4.2 billion last year, according to Media Partners Asia. The industry may exceed $10 billion by 2015, it said. Tencent Chief Executive Officer Ma Huateng is wooing that money by shifting his focus from personal computers to mobile devices.

As many as 75 million smartphones will be sold in the world’s biggest Internet market this year, 29 percent more than 2011, according to JPMorgan Chase Co., and those users are often members of China’s growing middle class.

“It’s the right strategy,” said Billy Leung, an analyst at OSK Securities in Hong Kong, who recommends buying the stock. “High-end users have the ability to spend more.”

The market agrees: Following a 7.6 percent decline in 2011, Tencent shares have jumped 26 percent in Hong Kong this year, outperforming the gains in Baidu Inc., China’s biggest search- engine company, and NetEase.com Inc., the second-biggest Chinese online games operator.

Tencent rose 1.9 percent to HK$197.20 at close today, valuing the company at HK$362.9 billion ($47 billion), more than U.S. Internet companies EBay Inc. and Yahoo! Inc.

Apple, Google

Tencent’s QQ.com is China’s most popular website, while Sina Corp.’s Sina.com ranks third, according to data from China Websites Ranking.

Still, Sina had $101 million of ad revenue in the third quarter, compared with about $95 million for Tencent, according to earnings data reported by the companies.

“Advertisers have regarded their users as low-end,” said Dick Wei, an analyst at JPMorgan. Tencent’s websites carry fewer ads for luxury cars and prime real estate, compared with Sina, he said.

To change that, Shenzhen-based Tencent introduced its Weixin messaging service for Apple Inc.’s iPhones and devices running Google Inc.’s Android system.

A 16-gigabyte iPhone 4S costs 4,988 yuan ($792) at Apple’s online store in China, or more than double the average monthly wage in the country.

Facebook, Twitter

Weixin offers improved features for social networking compared with Tencent’s own Mobile QQ wireless-chat software — important in a country where services by Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. are restricted by government censorship. Weixin users can receive alerts about text, voice and video messages even if they aren’t opening the application, while QQ users need to be logged on to access information.

Dundas Deng, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Shenzhen, said he uses Weixin on his iPhone to locate other contacts in his vicinity. The service includes a technology that displays contacts within a user-specified geographical area that are on the network, he said. QQ has a similar feature.

“All the operators are trying to enhance the social- networking features of their service because that will help make them more sticky,” said Deng, who recommends buying the shares.

Tencent has signed up 50 million people since last year for Weixin, and that may more than triple by 2013, said JPMorgan’s Wei.

High-End Users

Demand for Weixin, a free service, will help drive a third of Tencent’s Internet users to access the company’s services on their mobile devices by next year, said Wei, who has an “overweight” rating on the company’s stock.

Winning users with higher incomes will help Tencent boost online advertising, said Vivek Couto, executive director at media consultants Media Partners Asia in Singapore. The per capita income of Chinese households in cities and towns has doubled in six years.

“They are making a more concerted effort to win over the higher-end demographics,” Couto said.

Tencent accounted for 4.1 percent of China’s online advertising market in the fourth quarter, according to research company Analysys International. The company ranked behind Baidu, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Google, Sohu.com Inc. and Sina in ad sales, according to Analysys.

“With the adoption by smartphone users with 3G data plans, Weixin is then helping Tencent to sign up a more high-end mobile user base,” Catherine Chan, a spokeswoman for Tencent, said in an e-mail.

Weixin, Mobile QQ

Weixin is the most popular social-networking application for iPhone users in China after Tencent’s Mobile QQ, according to Analysys. Tencent introduced Weixin in January 2011, 12 years after offering QQ.

“Even before Weixin, we have attracted some high-end advertisers with our young user base,” Tencent’s Chan said.

The surge in Weixin users will allow Tencent to boost e- commerce revenue through partnerships with retailers, said Qin Weijie, an analyst at PingAn Securities in Beijing.

“The location-based technology of Weixin gives it a lot of potential in mobile commerce,” said Qin, who rates the stock “strong buy.”

Offering online games, entertainment and lifestyle services to QQ users, while keeping the basic messaging service free, has helped Tencent boost revenue. Games accounted for more than half of the company’s third-quarter revenue of 7.5 billion yuan.

IAd Similarities

Tencent may also increase sales by placing advertising in mobile-phone apps accessed by Weixin users, similar to Apple’s iAd mobile advertising system, according to JPMorgan’s Wei.

Alibaba Group, China’s biggest e-commerce company, introduced its AliCloud service in July to add mobile phone users, while Baidu said in December its mobile-phone technology platform was included in a new Dell Inc. handset in China.

Spending on developing new services is putting pressure on its margins. Tencent’s third-quarter profit missed analysts’ estimates.

Earnings in the fourth quarter are estimated to grow at a slower pace. Profit may increase 15 percent to 2.52 billion yuan, according to the average of nine analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Weixin isn’t expected to generate revenue for the company “anytime soon,” said Jiong Shao, who rates Tencent “underperform” at Macquarie Group Ltd. in Hong Kong.

Tencent’s Weixin leads in China’s mobile instant-messaging services market, with more users than services offered by WhatsApp Inc. and Xiaomi Corp., according to JPMorgan.

“The mobile instant-messaging market is a winner-takes-all market,” Deng said. “And users tend to go for the service that their friends are using.”

–Editors: Anand Krishnamoorthy, Subramaniam Sharma

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Lee in Hong Kong at wlee37@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net

Article source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-22/tencent-pivoting-from-pc-to-iphone-for-china-s-online-ads-tech.html

Comcast already wants to provide you with cable TV, phone, movie and Internet services, and now it wants to add video-on-demand via the Web, the company announced Tuesday.

According to Variety, Comcast’s Xfinity Streampix will compete  against Netflix, which is the No. 1 online video rental service. The new service will also go head to head with the HBO Go online rental service.

Streampix will allow you to access both movies and TV shows online, such as “30 Rock,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Ocean’s Eleven” and is banking on the ability to keep the offerings fresh.

CNET, however, says there are some drawbacks to the new Comcast service, mainly, you have to already be a subscriber to one of Comcast’s other services:

A Comcast subscriber must either be a member of one of the company’s triple-play packages (high-speed Web, video, phone, etc.), or pay an additional $5 a month for Streampix.

CNET also notes that Netflix’s streaming service is far less expensive than its rivals.

Article source: http://blogs.ajc.com/business-beat/2012/02/21/comcast-launches-web-video-on-demand/?cxntfid=blogs_business_beat

EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY

Dublin has been ranked in the top ten of European cities with the highest number of cybercrime risk factors.

The survey of 100 cities, conducted by internet security firm Norton and research group Sperling’s BestPlaces, assessed urban centres on the basis of factors that could potentially affect online safety.

The study determined each city’s rankings by correlating the prevalence of PCs and smartphones as well as social media use with risk factors like unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots and malware [short for malicious software] attempts.

Dublin was ranked as the sixth riskiest city behind Manchester, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Paris and London.

Researchers, however, said cities with the greatest risk factors did not necessarily correlate with the highest infection rates, “reflecting the fact that many consumers are taking precautions to keep themselves safe”.

The study found while Dublin had a comparatively low level of PC and smartphone use it had an average rate of Wi-Fi hotspots and cybercrime attempts.

“With the explosion of smartphones, tablets and laptops in recent years and the rise of apps and social networking sites, our online and offline lives are blending together in ways that we’ve never before experienced,” said Norton’s Marian Merritt said.

“While there are many positive aspects as a result, this analysis highlights the potentially risky factors we face each time we go online.”

By taking a few simple precautions now, people can make sure they stay protected against online threats,” she said.

Of the top 10 riskiest cities, Manchester garnered top spot on account of a relatively high incidence of Wi-Fi hotspots and malware attempts, coupled with a high rate of internet access and social networking usage.

The survey suggested that of the most riskiest cities, Berlin had the lowest numbers among the cybercrime data and the lowest scores for malware attempts.

Article source: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0221/breaking37.htm

If you’re up for a game of poker, you’ll most likely call up some friends and meet at your house to shuffle up and deal, but in the state of Iowa poker players could soon have an online option.

The Iowa Senate’s looking at a bill that would legalize internet poker, but some folks say that move could be a bit of a gamble.

This newest bill the Iowa Senate’s looking at will be discussed starting Wednesday.

For the second time in two years, Iowa’s looking at legalizing online poker.

Some Iowans are already playing illegally, but Iowa’s Racing and Gaming Commission says making the game legal could cause another set of problems.

“Prevention of gambling of underage individuals, controls that would ensure that cheating and collusion didn’t take place,” says Brian Ohorilko, Director of Gaming for the Iowa Racing Gaming Commission.

The prospect of online gambling raises some questions, like: would legalized online gaming equal more Iowans dealing with addiction?

The folks at Sioux City’s Jackson Recovery Center help people with gambling addictions, they say if online poker were legal we probably wouldn’t see a spike in addictions, but people who are already addicted could be in trouble.

“Folks who do have a problem have a chance to make their problem bigger quicker, and there aren’t as many avenues for that person to have interaction with other folks who can point them in the direction of places like Jackson where they can get some help,” says Sarah Deck, Clinical Supervisor of Staff Development for Jackson Recovery Centers.

Another issue: when you’re online those consequences, like losing a lot of money, don’t feel real.

“There’s no one that you actually hand a $20 bill to, you don’t even have to touch your credit card every time, you just put a credit card number in and then you play and that can cause people to spend more money or to not really feel like its real money,” says Deck.

Just a few questions as Iowa decides whether or not to gamble on online poker.

This next step for the bill is just a discussion, it could die in that committee, but it has to move on by this Friday.

Gambling addiction is no joke.

The folks over at Jackson Recovery say that if you’re spending so much time, money and attention on gambling that it interferes with other areas of your life, that’s a sign you might have a problem.

Article source: http://www.kpth.com/story/16987439/shuffle-and-deal-online-poker-could-come-to-iowa

But first, they should look in the mirror.

Continue Reading

Congress has been mulling general online privacy laws for longer than Google and Facebook have been dot-coms. But none has passed muster.

“It’s Washington’s fault,” Jeff Chester, executive director at the Center for Digital Democracy, a consumer protection and privacy group, said after reports became public Friday that Google had tracked Apple Web browser users. “Regulators and policymakers have ignored the implications for consumers of the use of all this information collected and used about them.”

Some lawmakers admitted as much after The Wall Street Journal reported the Google glitch, which Google said was inadvertent and had immediately fixed. “It’s not hard to figure out that unless and until Congress creates some common-sense rules for collecting, using and distributing personal information, companies will keep making up their own rules,” Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Friday. “Some will be good, and some will be disturbing, but this is what happens when Washington doesn’t do its job.”

There are several reasons for the absence of a broad online privacy law in the U.S., although the European Union has passed strict protections on how companies can collect and use consumer data, and U.S.-based companies have to comply with these laws in the EU.

Just as technological advances have made it easier for companies like Google to track people online, they have also allowed firms to prosper by offering an ever-expanding list of cool, convenient ways for people to share data and get information.

Consumers have willingly flocked to those online services, spending more and more time on more personally revealing social networks, such as Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. Americans have also shown a penchant for actively buying products and other goods or services that their networks of friends, family and acquaintances “like” or identify.

When it comes to data privacy, a lot of people would say they are for it in the abstract. But most of them would also have to admit that they’re willing to trade their privacy in exchange for the ability to look up the nearest Italian restaurant or stay in touch with their high school friends.

“I think what really fundamentally explains it is, we’re a society that has an extremely ambivalent attitude about this,” said Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “There’s the attitude that we express, and there’s the attitude we live — and Congress is the same way.”

In addition, political parties have gotten into the game, using the latest tools from Facebook, Google, Twitter and other online companies to try to help candidates win elections. Some of these tools help target voters, raise campaign funds and spread a candidate’s message.

Finally, there is concern that federal privacy legislation would harm tech companies and the advertising industry if it’s not carefully crafted. Those concerns were reflected in a recent study by Booz Co. titled “The Impact of U.S. Internet Privacy Regulations on Early-Stage Investment.” Financed by Google, the study found that regulations requiring websites to either opt in to data collection or allow users to opt out would result in angel investors not investing in advertising technology companies.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/73146.html

Tuesday, Google lashed out at Microsoft in response to allegations that the search giant has been doing much the same to users of Windows Internet Explorer browser. Google and Facebook are under pressure from Congress and the Federal Trade Commission to disclose more about their tracking techniques.

• MORE: Google facing Congressional backlash over tracking of Safari users

Ironically, this latest tempest, stirred up by Microsoft, could widen the spotlight and invite scrutiny of Microsoft’s own tracking practices, and those of Apple, Twitter, Amazon and thousands of Web companies in the hunt for online advertising revenue, says Al Hilwa, software applications analyst at IDC. “The Web industry has gravitated towards advertising as the primary source of income, and (tracking) data is the fuel the industry runs on,” Hilwa says.

In a blog posting on Monday, Microsoft corporate vice president Dean Hachamovitch accused Google of issuing tracking mechanisms designed to bypass technology called P3P. Internet Explorer uses P3P to screen the privacy policies of any entity engaged in online tracking — to determine if they’re up to snuff.

Google senior vice president Rachel Whetstone responded by blasting P3P as “largely non-operational.” As proof, she pointed to a 2010 Carnegie Mellon research report finding 11,000 websites that routinely bypass P3P.

The professor who ran that study, Lorrie Faith Cranor, says many website operators bypass P3P by mistake, while others do it on purpose to circumvent Microsoft’s attempt at grading their privacy policies.

Google and Facebook, Cranor says, are in the latter group. Each uses tracking mechanisms that bypass P3P so that popular features, such Facebook’s “Like” button and Google Gmail logon services, work.

Whetstone contends that channeling tracking mechanisms through P3P makes little sense. “It is impractical to comply with Microsoft’s request while providing modern Web functionality,” she says

Hachamovitch, meanwhile, insists that Google should “commit to honoring P3P.” Yet, the Carnegie Mellon study found even some Microsoft websites bypass P3P, as do sites from Godaddy, Hulu and Amazon. “My students and I discovered that Google, Facebook and thousands of others essentially have bogus privacy policies,” Cranor says.

Article source: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-02-21/google-microsoft-browser-privacy/53198146/1