Recent news out of St. Louis has restored in me some lingering thoughts and impressions following David Carruthers' guilty plea a few weeks back.
 

PartyGaming and the U.S. Department of Justice struck a deal today through which the company will pay the U.S. government $105 and the governement will in turn leave the company alone. As part of its coverage of this historic event, IGamingNews asked a handful of industry commentators--including me--to share their views.
 

I would like to tell you all about the many things I saw this year at the International Gaming Expo (a combination of what was formerly ICE and ICEi), but for the first time since I began attending this event (I believe my first ICE was 1999) I did not make my way up and down every last aisle of the expo. I didn't make it out of the Cybercrime conference on Tuesday, and it was non-stop meetings Wednesday and Thursday. So I'll keep my limited assessment of the exhibition short and share some thoughts coming out of my meetings and interviews (excluding, of course, those that were strategic in nature.)

Greetings from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Twenty-seven hours and 4,400 miles removed from Earl's Court, it's time to take advantage of travel-travel induced delirium and do a little post-IGE reflective blogging.

EiG 2008 is over and done and the Clarion Gaming publishing department is en route to St. Charles. From way up high in the sky, here are some thoughts on the event as a whole as well as a few observations from Day 3. . .

A play-by-play account of EiG 2008, day 2.

Some thoughts on yesterday's operators CEO panel.

EiG is officially underway. This year's attendance exceeds 1,500 - the most ever at this seven-year-old event.

A couple of interesting items to report first on the home front: I mentioned yesterday that the European I-gaming lot is keenly interested in U.S. legal developments, so it's somewhat apropos that the hot topic on day 1 is the seizure of 140 I-gaming domain names in Kentucky. My colleagues in St. Charles are covering this one diligently, but I'll sprinkle in some bits here and there on what's being said in Barcelona about the matter. The gist of what I'm hearing is that this is seen as a protectionist measure in the home state of Churchill downs, which happens to do some business on the Internet. A few people I've talked to seem to think that the whole thing was inspired by First Technology's successful acquisition of Bodog's domain names a few months back. I also learned the iMEGA is gearing up for a battle in to go to battle on this issue.  I'll post an article on this shortly.

The Hilton Diagonal Mar is now headquarters for Barcelona's English-speaking expats. The lobby is mobbed with Canadians and Britons, many of whom seem relatively subdued - the Canadians I suppose because they are jetlagged, the Britons I suppose because they are British - but  a healthy portion have stepped off their planes and into their hippest attire and have already whipped themselves into a networking frenzy.

That's right, it's time again for the European iGaming Congress & Expo, which gets underway tomorrow afternoon, and if the buzz in the cavernous Hilton lobby carries through the week, it's going to be a lively event.

My Google alerts this morning were full of bits and pieces attempting to speculate on what Barack Obama's selection of Joe Biden as a running mate means to the online gambling industry. As the publisher of news services that are highly competitive in this space, I have to strongly consider whether IGN needs to be tackling this topic with comparable vigor. Our coverage of US developments is usually prompt and expansive, so if this is important news, we want to be on it like stink on a monkey.