iGaming News Weekly – September 1-7, 2013

The Labor Day holiday in the States didn’t impede the news coming out of the gambling and SEO worlds this week. In fact,  sometimes a slow news week means the news you do get is just that much more interesting.
See what we mean in this week’s Gambling News Roundup.
Churchill Downs Expands and Upgrades -Churchill Downs is gearing up for regulated online gambling in the US with a major software upgrade and the addition of 50 new employees. The $4 million investment in the Kentucky-based operator includes $1 million in tax incentives from the State.
John McCain Gets Caught Playing iPoker – If you’ve ever watched a Senate hearing on C-Span, you know they are about as exciting as watching paint dry. That’s probably why Senator John McCain broke out his iPhone and played a few hands of poker during a recent Senate hearing on potential military action against Syria.
McCain brushed off criticism of his actions in a Tweet saying, “Scandal!Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing – worst of all I lost!” (The victims of recent chemical weapon attacks in Syria would probably disagree.)
Golden Nugget Hires Betclic Exec – Thomas Winter, the former head of Betclic Ltd., has been hired to run line gambling operations at the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.  He’s just the latest European gambling executive to find a home in the regulated Nevada market.
Paddy Power Sends Rodman to North Korea – Proving once again that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, Paddy Power is sponsoring Dennis Rodman’s latest trip to North Korea. Though Rodman’s  unlikely friendship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un makes for amusing headlines, the country’s deplorable human rights record is nothing to laugh about.
Bing Video Revamp – Bing is hoping to better compete with that other search engine with a serious upgrade to their video search functionality. The upgrades include what company officials are calling, ” a completely re-imagined  search experience for video on Bing.”
Google and Microsoft Sue Fed Over Privacy – Microsoft and Google are teaming up in a lawsuit against the US Government over transparency issues related to search requests from the Department of Justice. The two companies would like to share more information about the information they’re sharing with the Feds.