The UK microgaming casino gambling group Sportech has disclosed that it could soon be extending the reach of its football pools through a deal with the tabloid newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror, which counts the popular Daily Mirror newspaper in its stable. The deal will be centred on traditional coupons and the Spot the Ball competition.

Such an agreement will enhance coverage for the pools which already includes football pools online and via Ladbrokes betting shops, newsagents, and a network of home visitor collectors.

Sportech CEO Ian Penrose said: “We have been in talks with Trinity Mirror for a few months and I’m pleased that the coupons will appear in the paper. It is considered by both parties that many Mirror readers are still interested in the Classic Football Pools and Spot the Ball, and we are pleased to be able to re-introduce these traditional games to the paper.”

Littlewoods, the famous original pools operator, was formed in 1923 and bought by Sportech in 2 000.

The deal is intially planned to last until after this year’s World Cup in South Africa.

The Attorney General of South Carolina, Henry McMaster, has launched an appeal against a circuit court decision overturning a conviction of five poker players earlier this year for casino slots gambling.

McMaster’s appeal was lodged with the state Supreme Court this week after Circuit Court Judge Markley Dennis ruled that online poker and online roulette was a game of skill, and therefore playing the game was not an offence.

“Our obvious reason that ‘chance’ need not be determined with respect to a particular game for purpose of the gambling statute is that the legislature sought to ban all ‘gaming’ for stakes at designated locations,” the appeal filing claims, reports The Charleston Post and Courier.

Judge Dennis additionally criticised South Carolina gambling laws as “unconstitutionally vague and over-broad.”