Tribeca Tables and Bowmans complete poker deal

Press Release

LONDON - Tribeca Tables Europe, LTD, the leading providers of comprehensive ePoker solutions has announced that Bowmans International Sports LTD has joined the Tribeca Tables Poker Network, the world's foremost e-poker aggregator.

Bowmans have sited that Tribeca Tables offers the best poker environment and structure online going forward. Their impressive list of brands speaks volumes for its growing reputation and one of very few poker networks with forward momentum. Bowmanspoker.com is now live and players can already sign up.

"Bowmans represents a significant signing for us. As poker markets are constantly changing, many brands are on the move. We are ecstatic that Bowmans are joining our network; they bring a wider base of sports and poker players and will substantially boost our liquidity. In the past two years we have signed six major companies and Bowmans will be able to enjoy all the benefits of our other poker partners", said Steve Cook, Tribeca's European managing director.

Bowmans’ Head of Poker Jonathan Sullivan commented: "Because the poker industry is such a fast changing business we felt that the Tribeca platform is the one best suited to cope with our ever increasing customer base. This partnership with Tribeca comes at an ideal time as our poker brand continues to grow."

Bowmans, who are one of the largest Sportsbooks in the North America and Canada, joins prestigious brands such as Paddy Power, Blue Square, Victor Chandler, Golden Palace, Doyles Room, BETonSPORTS and G-Fed Games. Tribeca now boosts over 100 poker room brands and has become the largest poker room network provider.

Tribeca Tables will also be participating at the International Casino Exhibition 2006 in London’s Earls Court 2 from January 24-26. “This is the third consecutive year we have supported the Igaming Zone at ICE and we welcome all visitors to the show to meet us on booth 3075”, Steve added.

About Bowmans International Sports:

Established in 1985, by Gary Bowman. The company has maintained its place in the world of global gaming with a reputation for integrity, reliability and of course legality. The offshore betting revolution has been built on technology and Bowmans has been at the forefront. Over the past decade the company has invested heavily into its ultramodern computer and telecommunication networks not to mention its workforce. Bowman built a major call-center on the island of Mauritius situated in the Indian Ocean, east of South Africa. The Bowmans Treasury Department is situated in the Isle of Man, UK. Now with over 150 operators to receive bets, deal with all transactions, management and customer service.

About Tribeca Tables Europe, Limited:

Tribeca Tables Europe, Limited, are registered in the Channel Island of Alderney. They are the world’s first and largest independent network of ePoker brands and committed to providing innovative and reliable software solutions to clients exclusively in the arena of ePoker.

Tribeca Tables delivers profitable poker rooms to the World’s best and most prestigious brands. Tribeca’s philosophy empowers brands and their customer relationships, establishing a true poker partnership. Significantly Tribeca offer unparalleled poker expertise and are not owner/operators unlike the majority of other poker networks, which they see as a conflict of interests. Their key strengths are 24/7 liquidity, customer support, fraud management, high profile retention programs, real community environment and comprehensive poker room features.

Internet gambling at colleges 'verging on crisis'
As reported by The Morning Call

BETHLEHEM, Pennsylvania - As Greg Hogan stood in Zoellner Arts Center preparing to play his cello, university and Allentown police arrived to bring an abrupt end to his rehearsal for the Lehigh University Philharmonic.

When the sophomore class president and son of a Baptist minister was hauled away in handcuffs on charges of robbing an Allentown bank, it shocked classmates, friends and family.

It shouldn't have, says Edward Looney, director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, because while Hogan isn't the typical bank robbery suspect, he is exactly the type of college student who could become overwhelmed by Internet gambling debt and turn to crime to dig out: Intelligent, competitive and otherwise successful.

Technology now allows college students who otherwise couldn't set foot on a casino floor to bet as much as their credit cards will allow — often in the thousands of dollars. Today, the excitement of high-stakes poker is just a mouse click away, and as the gamblers' debts mount, many are turning to crime to fund their habit.

More than 1.8 million people play online poker each month, wagering an average of $200 million a day, according to PokerPulse.com, an online service that tracks online poker worldwide. Much of that is occurring on U.S. college campuses, Looney said.

"Gambling on college campuses is epidemic, and Internet gambling is probably the fastest-growing type of campus gambling," Looney said. "You give me one hour on any campus and I'll find an active game or a kid who can't stay off his computer. It's verging on crisis, and really, we're just getting started."

Hogan is a 19-year-old finance and accounting major who graduated from a $19,000-a-year private high school, yet his lawyer says he robbed a Wachovia bank Dec. 9 to get money to help erase the $5,000 in debt he built by playing online poker.

Profile of a gambler

While his case has drawn such attention because he comes from an affluent background, the profile of an addicted gambler between the ages of 18 and 25 reads like a detailed description of the Hudson, Ohio, native.

Roughly 90 percent of college gamblers are men, according to a database built by the Council on Compulsive Gambling in New Jersey. Of those, the typical compulsive gambler is a competitive, intelligent, high-energy student with good grades, who is popular with his peers, has a talent for math and works a part-time job.

In addition to serving as class president and playing second-chair cello for the orchestra, Hogan is a work-study student who was employed part-time at the university Chaplain's office.

His story has drawn a national spotlight on the problem, prompting a long list of news shows to request on-air interviews, including Good Morning America, the Today Show and the Oprah Winfrey Show. But Looney predicts that in a few years, tales of thefts to pay off gambling debts will seem common.

For now, most everyone close to Hogan, from his Sigma Phi Epsilon brothers to his orchestra colleagues to his family, has declined to comment on him.

Because the issue of Internet gambling on college campuses is relatively new, there are few studies or statistics to gauge its popularity.

However, the Council on Compulsive Gambling takes more than 20,000 calls a year, including more than 4,000 from what Looney considers addicted gamblers. More than 80 percent of those 4,000 said they have committed crimes to fund their gambling habit and 78 percent of them said overwhelming debt has caused them to consider suicide, Looney said.

And Hogan's is not an isolated case on the Lehigh University campus, according to a father of an addicted Lehigh student, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. His son, a 21-year-old student athlete, left school last year after falling into tens of thousands of dollars of debt. Though most of the student's losses came from sports betting with a local bookie, many of his friends bet online, his father said.

"The pressure is greatest on athletes and the college is ill-equipped to handle it," the father said Thursday. "Greg Hogan's debt is relatively small compared to some of these kids."

Lehigh University officials say students agree to a code of conduct when using computers on campus, but their use of personal computers is not monitored by the university. However, if a student realizes he has a gambling problem, university counselors are provided to help, said Dina Silver, university spokeswoman.

"We don't have any evidence that gambling is a problem on campus," Silver said. "That recognized, we realize that student gambling is a growing problem nationwide."

The New Jersey surveys appear to show that the Internet problem is on a steep rise. While only 1 percent of the compulsive gamblers surveyed in 2000 said they used the Internet to gamble, the number rose to 8 percent by 2004.

That is partly because Internet gambling is quick, easy and accessible to almost anyone with a computer and a credit card. Most of the gambling sites are based out of the country and not subject to U.S. enforcement, experts say.

Gamblers can set up an account with a company that operates at an off-shore location, such as Costa Rica, Gibraltar, Antigua or the Bahamas. Using money from the account, the gambler can find a game with poker players in any part of the world. Just after noon Friday, PacificPoker.com, the world's fourth busiest site according to PokerPulse.com, reported that it had 4,462 gamblers playing at 752 tables.

As long as they keep filling the account, there's little to stop them from playing.

Hogan lost roughly $5,000 over 14 months, said his Allentown attorney, John Waldron.

Looney said there are 2,100 gambling sites on the Internet, 1,100 of which cater to casino games and bingo. Another 700 cater to sports betting, and there are roughly 300 sites for online poker. The largest is PartyPoker.com, which started in 2001 and boasts 70,000 members that played more than 1 billion hands of poker in 2004, PartyPoker says.

Hogan frequented PartyPoker, PokerStars, Paradise Poker and SportsBet.com, according to Waldron.

No enforcement, controls

Such easy access has created a new generation of gamblers, and a major concern for the future, said Kimberly Young, president of the Center for Online Addiction in Bradford, McKean County.

''First it was pornography and now it is online gambling,'' Young said. ''The big problem is there is really no enforcement, no controls and nothing to stop a student from doing it from the privacy of their own room. Because it's so new, I really believe we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg.''

One thing that appears certain is that Hogan's addiction to online gambling will not change the way District Attorney James Martin prosecutes the bank robbery charges.

''We will prosecute it to the fullest extent, the way we do every case,'' he said. ''If there is a conviction, sentencing will be in the hands of a judge.''

Hogan could be facing several years in jail. The felony robbery charge alone carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Even if Waldron is successful in getting a greatly reduced charge, or sentence, he may find it difficult to get past state and federal laws that require a minimum sentence of five years in prison for a crime committed with a gun. Though officials say Hogan did not use a gun, he allegedly handed the teller a note stating he had a gun, and state law considers threatening to use a gun the same as having one.

In the meantime, Hogan will continue the gambling addiction therapy sessions he began last week.

Therapy his attorney says began a week too late.