Last Friday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) unanimously adopted the “Olympic Agenda 2020 + 5” as a new roadmap to 2025. At the 137th Plenary Session, the IOC made the recommendation to promote e-sports.

IOC President Thomas Bach presented the “Olympic Agenda 2020 + 5” [page in English] and said the Corona crisis had fundamentally changed the world. It will never be the same. This has far-reaching social, financial, economic and political consequences.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), based in Lausanne, Switzerland, is an independent, non-profit organization responsible for organizing and overseeing the Olympic Games. The IOC was founded on June 23, 1894, two years before the dawn of the modern era of the Olympic Games in Athens.

Affiliated to the IOC at the level of the individual countries are the national Olympic committees. In Germany, this is the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB).

In light of this, the ICO had launched an extensive discussion to develop a vision for the future. In the process, he said, five broad trends have emerged that the IOC, along with many other social opinion leaders, sees as critical.

These five trends are solidarity, digitalization, sustainability, credibility, and economic and financial resilience. Based on this, he said, 15 recommendations were developed for the “Olympic Agenda 2020 + 5” together with all stakeholders in the Olympic Movement. One of the leading portals esportbetting.net regrets the decision.

Promotion of e-sports recommended by Olympic Movement

One of the recommendations includes promoting the development of virtual sports and further involvement in video game communities. Item nine of the agenda states thus:

Taking into account youth affinity for video games and digital entertainment, creating unique Olympic products and experiences through virtual sports will increase engagement with people. This is in line with the IOC’s digital strategy. The goal of this direct engagement is to promote sports participation and Olympic values with a particular focus on youth.

The agenda mentions virtual sports such as soccer, but also competitive games such as League of Legends. National sports federations are to be encouraged to develop their sports in the area of e-sports as well.

So far, e-sports players have had limited access to available resources compared to traditional athletes. The IOC is aware of this and aims to provide support to e-sports athletes in areas such as gender equality and physical and mental health.

What this might look like is not stated in the agenda. It therefore remains to be seen whether the DOSB will change its stance on e-sports in light of the IOC’s clear statement. As recently as 2018, the DOSB had stated that e-sports “do not fit under the umbrella of the DOSB.” Stronger promotion and development as well as recognition of e-sports in Germany is now likely to depend on how the DOSB reacts to the new agenda.

German gambling mogul Paul Gauselmann has written a personal letter to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In the letter, Gauselmann is said to have expressed disappointment and regret that licensed gaming halls in the UK would not be allowed to open alongside betting shops on April 12.

This is not conducive to the principles of fair competition for which the UK traditionally stands, Gauselmann explained. He therefore asked the British prime minister to reconsider the decision, as gaming halls do not pose a risk of infection.

Gambling industry is discriminated

In its letter, Gauselmann stresses that its company is one of the largest operators of gambling venues in the UK. The company has invested around GBP 450 million to date and employs more than 2,000 people, he said.

But now Gauselmann is wondering whether it is worth continuing to invest in new sites as planned because the gaming venues are being treated disrespectfully. This, he said, had affected the Gauselmann Group’s confidence in its UK investments.

Paul Gauselmann has been running his gambling business for over 60 years. However, it is said to be the first time that the gambling magnate has personally approached a head of government to discuss political decisions.

He said the company was ready to cooperate with the government and contribute to the country’s economic recovery. The Gauselmann Group had been audited by the Global Gambling Guidance Group [page in English] for compliance with international standards. This provides a strong basis for investment plans in the UK.

Now, however, in light of the political decision, there were doubts about whether future investments would pay off. Gauselmann says it is aware that the government will have to make difficult decisions. However, the aim is to prevent low-risk companies from being excluded from the reopening.

The Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) in the province of Styria is said to be in favor of a ban on small-scale gambling. The party wants to reverse a law that re-regulated slot machine gambling in Styria in 2016, according to a Kronen Zeitung report published Friday.

The reason, it said, was the great dangers for players. At slot machines, players in Styria are allowed to wager 10 euros per game. A game round lasts one second. There is no maximum daily playing time. The KPÖ therefore considers a ban on small-scale gambling to be the only way forward. KPÖ Klubobfrau Claudia Klimt-Weithaler had stated that “vending machines have a particularly negative effect on gambling addicts”.

Gambling addiction in connection with small gambling is a current topic in Styria. Only on Thursday, the Fachstelle für Glücksspielsucht Steiermark had presented its new self-help group “Gemeinsam spielfrei”. The goal of the online self-help group is to “get a grip on gambling problems through mutual exchange and assistance.”

The Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) in the province of Styria is said to be campaigning for a ban on small-scale gambling. The party wants to reverse a law that re-regulated slot machine gambling in Styria in 2016, according to a casinovergleich.eu report published Friday.

The reason, it said, was the great dangers for players. At slot machines, players in Styria are allowed to wager 10 euros per game. A game round lasts one second. There is no maximum daily playing time. The KPÖ therefore considers a ban on small-scale gambling to be the only way forward. KPÖ Klubobfrau Claudia Klimt-Weithaler had stated, “Automats have a particularly negative effect on gambling addicts.”

Gambling addiction in connection with small gambling is a current topic in Styria. Only on Thursday, the Fachstelle für Glücksspielsucht Steiermark had presented its new self-help group “Gemeinsam spielfrei”. The goal of the online self-help group is to “get a grip on gambling problems through mutual exchange and assistance.”

Player protection has long been an issue

The KPÖ’s positioning comes at a time when Austrian politicians are already working on a new gambling package that is to include stricter player protection measures. However, the party’s critical stance toward the gambling industry is not fundamentally new.

In a position paper of the KPÖ Styria from September 6, 2019, the party explicitly took a position on the topic of gambling. It states there:

“As the only party, the KPÖ stands for a ban on small-scale gambling in its current form. In the interest of a powerful gambling industry, thousands are driven to ruin, and politics looks on.”

On November 16, 2019, the party then published a detailed article, which primarily criticized the alleged entanglements between Austrian politics and the gambling sector.

In particular, the links between Austrian federal politics and Novomatic AG were criticized. According to the KPÖ, however, major Styrian parties also maintained “close ties to the gambling industry.” Among others, the former ÖVP member of parliament Wolfgang Kasic was named, who in 2011 as chairman of the subcommittee for gambling in the provincial parliament was said to have accepted funds for Novomatic advertisements and later resigned.

Klimt-Weithaler had already stated at the time that the gambling industry should no longer be allowed to dictate state policy.

Mastercard is undoubtedly one of the most popular methods of depositing and withdrawing money with an online casino, and for very good reason. Mastercards are fast and convenient, whilst they also offer excellent safety for players operating online. In essence, using Mastercard adds an additional layer of security between your bank account and online casino, while they will also cover any losses if used fraudulently. So, just how can players use Mastercard when gambling online?

Funding a casino account using Mastercard is very simple, with the majority of platforms offering this as one of their main methods of depositing and withdrawing cash. Players are required to enter their card details and personal information, with money normally being transferred immediately using this option. However, Mastercard credit cards do occasionally come with an additional one-off charge when it comes to online gambling deposits, so be sure to check with your casino beforehand. Players are likely to be willing to pay a small sum of money if they get a more convenient and secure payment method.

Meanwhile, Mastercard used to be used in order to process withdrawals with online gambling sites, however new regulations mean that this is no longer accepted, even when deposits are made using this method. As a result, players must look for an alternative when it comes to taking home their winnings, whether it be an e-wallet or wire transfer.

Responsible Gambling Using Mastercard

As with any form of gambling, it is important to play responsibly, which starts with the method used to process payments with your online casino. Mastercards often allow players to deposit using credit, which is often viewed as a positive, however it can be a quickfire way to get yourself into debt. As a result, players should only deposit funds using money in which they have, rather than with credit. This will ensure that gambling remains fun at all times, while a loss does not have too much of a significant impact on your life. All online casinos in Nigeria and sportsbooks today work with organisations surrounding responsible gambling, offering advice to players in danger.

About Mastercard

Mastercard was founded back in the 1960’s in California, with the likes of Wells Fargo and Union Bank of California having been the first banks to introduce it. Having grown significantly already, Mastercard started to make an impact in Europe in the late 1970’s, before online casinos were quick to adopt this payment method too, offering a safe and secure option for those looking to move money. Back in 2006, Mastercard went public for the first time, selling 61.5 million shares at $39 each.

The commission for gambling recently announced new regulations that the online firms and operators should adhere to in order to make gambling fair, enjoyable and safe for the participants. Open consultations on the new rules will be done to make sure the customer’s number of years and their identity details are thoroughly scrutinized and in a fast way to make sure the process benefit the ultimate customers.

Safer for Children

These internet and online businesses majoring in gambling have been asked to conduct age verification checks on their customers. The operator should not permit customer’s withdrawal without having completed age verification procedures. More details on bestcasinosites24.co.uk.

Supposing the customer is found to be a minor or not of legal age to gamble, then the stakes should be returned to the bookie. In order to effectively take care of the risk of underage gambling, the new rules dictate that the internet and online businesses for gambling must conduct a verification check on the age of the customer before they:

• Gamble with the bookie whether on a free bet or with their own cash
• Deposit any cash into the account they have opened.

The commission furthermore directed that also the ages of customers be determined before they can be allowed access to the free-to-play category of the gambling games on sites. These categories of games are technically not gambling as there is no financial loss or gain in any way. However the case, there is no reason at all why such games should be allowed for children to participate in.

Safer and Fairer Terms

The commission announced on March 2018 that some online and businesses online were not acting fairly when it came to the withdrawal of funds. It said that the bookies were asking for surplus identity information before one could actually make a withdrawal of their own money after winnings.

About 15% of all complainants were customers complaining that their cash was withheld the moment they were trying to withdraw the winnings. They were being asked to submit some sort of ID or identification documents that could verify it’s them.

The set rules charge the licensee to:

• Ask for additional verification information prior to even opening an account.
• Verify the address, name and their birth date before they are allowed to gamble
• Make it known to the customer the kind of identity information that may be required from them before they even make a deposit, the instances that may lead to being asked to submit additional information, and basically how that document should reach the gambling platform.
• Take the necessary action to make sure that the information provided by the customers is accurate. You do not want children to be engaged in gambling claiming that they are adults.

These alterations will definitely decrease and prevent any chances of criminal activities as the gambling websites already have a lot of information on their customers. It is also good news to the gamblers as they will no longer be asked to provide identification upon withdrawals as this should have been done a long time ago when they were signing up.

The changes made to these internet and online businesses also have the ability to identify a gambler who wants to gamble in self-exclusion. It also applies to the licensee’s self-exclusion schemes. This basically insinuates that efficient verification by the operator will bar a customer from verification and hence they will not be able to gamble unless they give the correct information.

Their details will be checked by both the Gamstop with the verification data they have and the self-exclusion database for the operator.

The chief executive for the gambling commission said that these changes are enacted to protect the vulnerable people and children from harms resulting from gambling. He also adds that they will bring down the number of crimes that are usually linked to gambling-related issues.

The gamblers will also enjoy their winnings in due time. There will be no delays after winning bets, you will get your money without being asked to provide more information. He also adds that Britain’s market being the largest regulated online gambling market should be the fairest and safest to use by gamblers.

Conclusion

The gambling commission is going to launch consultations on the plans to see how licensees interact with customers who are experiencing harm that is related to gambling. The commission will also require having access to the evidence on the functionality of the gambling blocking software. The internet and online businesses will have to stick to these for smooth flow with the authorities.

Online psychs and fortune tellers seem to know everything: they give the impression of having known us for a long time. There is a trick behind this, which is also helpful in communication to win over other people.

They don’t simply accept everything unproven, but like to check critically whether what they are told is really true. In addition, you are a person who prefers a certain amount of variety and change and who does not like to be restricted by prohibitions or restrictions. However, there are probably also situations in your life when you wonder whether you have made the right decision.

Do you feel well described by the above statement? Very probably I do. Online psychs (more on online-psychics.info) like to use statements that apply to almost everyone. They give the impression of knowing a lot about a person, although the opposite is true. The person addressed gets the feeling that the other person has known him or her for a long time. He opens up and it is easy to find out more about their specific motives and needs.

The technique of universal statements

Universal statements are simple statements that have a very characteristic effect on a person – especially in one-to-one conversations. In reality they are very general and often ambiguous, which makes them applicable to any person.

Some universal statements appeal to our wishful thinking. This means that one tells a person only how he would like to be perceived by others. It doesn’t matter whether what you say is true or not. What is important is that the person opposite considers it right and agrees. An example: Almost everyone thinks they are critical. The reality often looks different. We like to be guided by our gut feeling. This is not wrong, but it contradicts the self-perception as a critical person.

Another example: Every person experiences situations in which he is not sure about his decisions. Anyone can interpret a general statement on the subject of uncertainty into a situation that suits them. In his self-perception, the cartomancer has thus apparently named many facts about us, but from the outside, he has said very little.

The psychological effect behind this

The fact that the technique of the universal statement works is due to the Barnum effect. It originates from psychology and says that people accept universal statements about their own personality as an accurate description.

The American psychology professor Bertram Forer from the Veterans Administration Mental Hygiene Clinic in Los Angeles examined this effect in 1948. Under the pretext of conducting a personality test, he had his students fill out a questionnaire. A week later, he gave them the evaluation. The students were then asked to rate on a scale of zero (not at all true) to five (very true) to what extent they found themselves in the evaluation. On average, the students gave 4.26 points, which corresponds to an agreement of about 85 percent. The interesting thing is that each student was presented with the same text word for word – it consisted exclusively of universal statements.

The Firefox web browser contains two critical vulnerabilities that are already being exploited by attackers. An update is available and should be installed immediately.

The Mozilla Foundation points out two security vulnerabilities in the current versions of its web browser Firefox. The two vulnerabilities are of the so-called ‘use-after-free’ type and could be used to execute malicious code in the browser on the user’s system.

The advisory states that Firefox attacks that exploit these vulnerabilities have already been observed, so users should update as soon as possible. The two vulnerabilities are assigned CVE numbers 2020-6819 and 2020-6820. 74.0.1 of the current Firefox browser and 68.6.1 of the ISR branch of Firefox have been sealed (in all operating systems: Windows, macOS and Linux).

Francisco Alonso of revskills and Javier Marcos of JMPSec reported the vulnerabilities, which concern possible race conditions when using the nsDocShell destructor and when handling a ReadableStream. On Twitter Alonso points out that other browsers might be affected as well. At the moment there are no further details about the vulnerabilities, but they will follow soon. Already in January this year there was a critical vulnerability in Firefox.

The current situation is accelerating what has been apparent for a long time: the pure advertising financing of media has had its day.

The situation in many media companies seems absurd: the demand for information is reaching an unprecedented level, production continues almost undiminished in home offices. Nevertheless, US media in particular are already having to make drastic cuts. One of the main pillars of modern media operations is currently out of action, namely advertising. Although advertising banners are very present in online media in particular, revenues have fallen considerably, as many companies have cut back their marketing budgets in view of the loss of revenues in the current situation.

Advertising on our own behalf

However, what is now proving to be an acute threat to the existence of many companies is not only due to the current crisis. The question has long been raised as to how sustainable the business model that financed the past 20 to 30 years of online journalism is. The fact that online advertising could not pay for the entire media budget became apparent when more and more publishers set up paywalls on their websites. Although a good deal of reporting is still available free of charge, more and more links are being created: Only for paying readers there is full content.

The fact that many German publishers are not quite as serious as US providers is also due to the fact that they are becoming their best advertising customers. Many publishers such as Gruner+Jahr are advertising for their readers with free trial subscriptions, local newspapers are setting up new newsletters. In this way, the editorial offices, which report daily on the situation on site, attract new readership groups. Or even the old ones who are currently not going to the kiosk.

Discomfort with Silicon Valley

There has been a malaise with the advertising business for a long time. On the one hand, data-based online advertising threatens the credibility of publishers, who often do not have complete control over what content appears on their websites and how their readers’ data is processed. On the other hand, those who completely elude the business have to accept severe competitive disadvantages. And no matter how the situation develops, which new laws are passed, the perceived duopoly between Google and Facebook always appears as the winner.

Only with the basic data protection regulation and the legislative procedures in California has the debate gained momentum as to whether the rampant system really serves a purpose other than to finance the adtech industry itself. Gilead Edelman argues in Wired magazine for the complete abolition of microtargeting: The system destroys the economic basis of the media without providing tangible benefits to users.

Our weekday news overview summarizes the most important news of the day in a short and concise manner.

Federal government wants to convince 5G sceptics

Together with local authorities, the Federal Government wants to achieve more understanding among citizens for the construction of new mobile masts and convince “5G sceptics”. The corona crisis once again underlines the importance of high-performance digital infrastructures and end-to-end accessibility, according to a letter from Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer and Environment Minister Svenja Schulze. The background to this are concerns in the population about radiation exposure, for example. There is also criticism that transmission masts are disfiguring the landscape. According to the ministers, the municipalities have to participate in the search for sites for new mobile radio stations and finally have to actively support the planned transmitter stations on site.

Google supports fact checker for Covid-19 with millions

Google intends to financially support 20 fact-checking organisations worldwide that are dedicated to the fight against disinformation, particularly in connection with the corona virus. The funding program is said to be worth more than 6.3 million US dollars. The aim of the funding programme is to make broader use of existing expertise, share experiences and thus reduce the spread of false information. In Germany, the Correctiv research centre is being supported in order to further expand a programme with which it hopes to involve citizens in the fight against disinformation.

Corona vaccination study begins in the USA

A vaccine is needed to stop the new coronavirus – and as soon as possible. Several candidates are already being developed. The first, which is now being tested in humans, comes from Moderna Therapeutics in Seattle, reports Technology Review. The company’s technology has enabled it to bring a vaccine into clinical trials more quickly than ever before. The first step, which has already begun, is a safety study to determine whether the vaccine is dangerous and actually triggers an immune response. The study is currently scheduled to last 14 months.

PS4 game “The Last of Us 2” postponed indefinitely

Although the words Coronavirus or Covid-19 are not used, the global crisis is cited as the reason for another postponement of The Last of Us 2. Developer Naughty Dog speaks of a difficult decision for the entire team, which has been working under high pressure and many overtime hours to complete the title for Playstation 4. Apart from a few small bugs the game is finished. When exactly The Last of Us 2 will be released remains uncertain.

The remake of Resident Evil 3 focuses more on action than on horror. If we are still afraid, you ask – watch.

We were just afraid again in VR instead of RL in Resident Evil 7 VR. In the livestream of Resident Evil 3 remake it should be more action-packed. We play the PC version of Capcom and start the campaign from the beginning. Protagonist Jill Valentine from the first Resident Evil is controlled by video producer Michael Wieczorek, who is looking forward to numerous comments and emotional support in the chat on Youtube or Twitch.

What you need to know about Resident Evil 3

Resident Evil 3 is a remake of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis from 1999 for the first Playstation. The original was also more action-packed than its predecessors. However, the evil mutant Nemesis, who is always on Jill’s heels for most of the adventure, radiates fear. While the original still offered fixed camera perspectives, tank control and drawn backgrounds, the remake from the third-person perspective gets Nemesis by the collar. The action takes place simultaneously with Resident Evil 2, in which Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield explore the famous police station.