Big Fish Games has launched the first real-money gambling game in the United Kingdom through a partnership with Betable. The Big Fish Casino U.K. app lets players gamble for fun or make best with real cash via a new slot machine title. The game uses technology from Betable, a company hoping to take advantage of even more social mobile games in the future by enabling online gambling options.

UK video game industry trade groups UKIE and TIGA have submitted recommendations for the cultural test that will help the government decide which companies are eligible for tax relief. UKIE and TIGA shared its proposed recommendations with each other so that they could approach the UK government with a "consistent voice" on the topic. In order for a game to qualify for UK tax breaks, it will have to meet the requirements of a points-based test that focuses on "cultural content and contribution." Projects will need more than half marks (at least 16 out of 30) to qualify.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was the big winner of this year's Golden Joystick Awards, winning the ultimate game of the year award and top gaming moment award for its Throat of the World scene and best RPG. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim beat out the likes of Modern Warfare 3, Diablo 3 and Mass Effect 3 to earn the top prize.

Having found victory in getting The Pirate Bay blocked in the United Kingdom, BPI (the trade and lobby group representing the music industry in the UK) is looking to get even more Torrent sites blocked in the region. According to the BBC, six UK ISPs including BT, Sky, Virgin Media, O2, EE and TalkTalk, received letters from the BPI asking them to block three torrent sites: Kickass Torrents, H33t and Fenopy.

A judge in the United Kingdom has delivered a stinging rebuke of Apple, ordering the company to run ads publicly apologizing to Samsung. This ruling comes after the same judge ruled that Samsung’s Galaxy line of tablets does not infringe on Apple iPad patents. While Apple has better luck in other regions with its patent lawsuits, the UK seems to have dealt the company the most embarrassing of blows.

An editorial in the UK edition of Huffington Post penned by Andrew Cole-Bulgin, Joint-CEO of Komixx claims that video games are "stunting children's imagination and inhibiting their ability to play together." The head of the children's television company says that he comes to this conclusion based on research the company conducted related to Toby's Travelling Circus, a new television program for children under the age of five.

Microsoft has laid off an undisclosed number of employees at its Lionhead studio, following the completion of the studios' latest game, the Kinect-enabled Fable: The Journey. While the company did not disclose the exact number of employees now out of a job, they suggested that it was a little under ten percent of the studio's work force. Lionhead is located in Guildford, England.

The United Kingdom's Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that the Hitman: Absolution game trailer, Attack of the Saints, did not glamorize violence, or violence towards women. The agency made the ruling after several complaints were filed about the trailer and some in the media pondered the message the trailer was trying to send about the trailer featuring sexy assassins disguised as Catholic nuns who Agent 47 attacks in an ultra-violent fight scene.

The Games Rating Authority (GRA), part of the United Kingdom's Video Standards Council (VSC) has launched its new website today. The new site adds what the GRA calls "Additional Consumer Information" (ACI) that gives consumers the ability to search for a specific game title and learn what it was rated under a certain category. The ACI is a text-based system that is meant to supplement the PEGI visual descriptors. It offers a brief outline of the game and information about the "strength and frequency of a rating issue."

Tory Minister of Parliament and Culture minister Ed Vaizey has long been an influence on the policy of the UK government when it comes to the video game industry, so it's interesting to read this Daily Mail story about him being denied access to video games in his office for the sake of "research."

UK-based game-related charity GamesAid announced the organizations it will support for the remainder of 2012. Voting for which charities to support ended on September 23 with such UK-based organizations as Accuro, Action for Kids, CHIVA (Children’s HIV Association), Dreamflight, Family Holiday Association, Friends of Chelsea Children’s Hospital School, Jigsaw4u, Julia’s House, Lifelites, MAPS - Sutton Borough Volunteer Bureau, Scottish Huntington’s Association (Youth Service), Small Steps, SpecialEffect, and The Willow Foundation vying for some much needed cash.

Voting for who UK charity GamesAid will support in 2012 ends on Sunday, September 23. The UK-based video games industry charity has named 14 charities as finalists in the running to receive support, with only one receiving a substantial stipend of cash by the end. Those GamesAid members interested in voting can do so at www.gamesaid.org.

Manchester is the "piracy capitol" of the United Kingdom, according to a new study released exclusively by the BBC. The research found that there were more illegal downloads per person in that city than any other in the country. Manchester was followed by Nottingham and Southampton.

The data comes from monitoring service Musicmetric, who came to the conclusion that UK users illegally shared over 40 million albums and singles in the first half of this year.

Watch the full BBC report to your left.

The Gamestation brand of retail stores are now officially dead, with GAME announcing that it will rebrand all of its stores in the UK under its main brand name. Ultimately that means that there will be a total of 341 Game stores in the UK, according to the fine folks at Tech Radar.

Games Industry International announced today that it has acquired the GameHorizon Conference and business network, with plans for the launch of a new event in December of 2013. GameHorizon is a leading business network for UK-based games companies including developers, publishers, and middleware makers. GameHorizon is in its fifth year.

Raspberry Pi is now being manufactured in the United Kingdom, though in a limited run. Before today most of the tiny computers were made in Chinese factories. The UK-made Raspberry Pi will be assembled at Sony UK Technology's factory in Pencoed, South Wales, according to the BBC. Another silver lining to making them in the UK is that it will create an additional 30 jobs. The Raspberry PI's made in the UK will be distributed by Premier Farnell.

A new report from government associations Creative Scotland and Scottish Enterprises has Scottish developers very upset. The report contends that the Scottish games industry has no students studying game related subjects, a value of £0, and employs just 200 people. The report also claims that the industry only contributes 0.1 percent to the Scottish economy. Because that percentage was recorded as less than £10 million, it was rounded down to zero. The report used information from 2010.

A new survey by UK-based toy maker Galt Toys finds that the average child in the UK will spend 143 hours and 36 minutes, or 12 full days, in front of a screen during summer vacation. This time will be spent playing computer games, watching television, and playing games on phones, consoles and hand-held devices. The survey also found that one in eight children now owns an iPad, with the average British child having £581 in gadgets.

British telecom company BT has apparently joined the ranks of OnLive investors that have been burned by Friday's announcement that the company would sell its assets off to a third-party entity controlled by Lauder Partners. BT said today that it is "highly likely" that it will be forced to write off its stake in a cloud-based video games service.

BT joins phone maker HTC, who said yesterday that it would lose its $40 million investment in the cloud-based gaming subscription service.

Major UK Internet service provider Virgin Media has finally been ordered by the courts to block subscriber access to file-sharing site, Newzbin2. The company had rejected earlier calls by rights groups such as the Motion Picture Association to block the site voluntarily. The company issued the following statement yesterday:

In episode 14 of the Super Podcast Action Committee, Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about the UK researcher who thinks parents should be arrested for buying their children age inappropriate games, Ubisoft's rootkit controversy, the results from last week's poll at GamePolitics about Humble Bundles, EA's lawsuit against Zynga, the death of the Cybersecurity Act in the Senate, and a whole lot more.

A Health Canal report details the concern of a critic of the UK's new video game ratings system saying that it will fail because it doesn't deal with "irresponsible parenting." Yesterday the new PEGI ratings system went into effect in the UK. The new system includes penalties for retailers that sell age inappropriate games to children that do not meet the ratings guidelines.

The Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) ratings system is officially in effect in the United Kingdom today, with the reins of the video game ratings bureaucracy leaving the auspices of the  BBFC. The change means that retailers in the region that sell video games rated for 12-, 16- or 18-year-olds to children below those age limits would be subject to prosecution and other legal actions. Packaging for games in the UK will now contain age ratings, and descriptors for language, drug use, discrimination, gambling, sex, violence, online gameplay, and more.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has teamed up with Birmingham City University (Birmingham, England) to give students in the Gamer Camp program the opportunity to receive scholarships and a job with Sony. This is the second year that Sony has given university game development students access to its PlayStation Academic Scholarships program.

While most of the major internet service providers are signing on to a voluntary "code of practice" that would bind them to providing open access to the Internet, not everyone believes in the idea of solidarity. The code pledges that signatories will vow to offer open and full access to the internet, not prioritize traffic to its own products and services or prohibit access to legal content. So far, BT, O2, TalkTalk, Sky, Be, Kcom, Giffgaff, Plusnet, Tesco Mobile, and Three have signed the code.

Dating sites that cater to gamers are already viably questionable to begin with, but a new site called Shag A Gamer (NSFW) hopes to take that concept to the extreme. The UK-based website is more akin to Adult Friend Finder than it is to Match.com... Shag A Gamer was created by the same company that created Date A Gamer, and is a reaction to the behavior of adult members (over the age of 18) who were looking for casual sex instead of a relationship.

Speaking with MCV, UK games industry trade group UKIE detailed its new strategy to focus more on helping game developers.

One of the biggest problems with Kickstarter is that it doesn't allow funding for companies outside of the United States but this fall the crowd-funding site will inch towards a more international approach. This fall companies in the United Kingdom will be able to fund their projects just like their comrades in the United States. This move expands on what is already possible in the UK related to Kickstarter because UK residents can already contribute to U.S.-based projects.

Samsung is having mixed results in its ongoing patent fight with Apple. In the United States it was handed a setback by a Federal Judge, but a United Kingdom court judge handed it a victory over Apple. According to Courthouse News, a Federal Judge who previously issued a temporary injunction that effectively banned the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphones in the U.S. (for violating Apple's patents) refused a request by the company to allow it to continue selling the device while it appeals the ruling. U.S.

British telecommunications regulator Ofcom announced plans to sets caps on broadband service provider BT's internet line prices it charges other telecom companies who provide internet access outside London. Ofcom said that the proposed caps on pricing would lead to "real-terms price reductions" for internet service providers and other firms who are at the mercy of BT such as O2, Vodafone and Plusnet. Ofcom's proposal anticipates that the savings these companies enjoy will in turn be passed on to customers. BT is at the top of the leased lines market in the country.