Gaming world

After exploring in United States followed by European markets now its time for online gambling to flourish in India. Online gambling firms such as Bwin, Betfair, Ladbrokes and Williamhill are now entering Indian jurisdiction in order to take advantage of massive Indian population of 1.2 billion and improve their market share.

The above online gambling firms are looking forward to obtain licenses which will be provided by the state of Sikkim, where the gambling is legalized followed by the state of Goa, where maximum people play casino’s offline.

The only question remains is that whether online gambling will flourish in India, where online spending is very poor and internet broadband connections are few but no doubt growing rapidly. Being an Indian citizen I doubt Indian market potentiality where people hardly use credit cards online to make e payments due to lack of security and other online threats.

Online poker is a game which is accepted as a culture in United States and UK being the hub of online gambling but what about India. People hardly know what is poker and forget about playing it for real money that too online. 

So, I request all online gambling firms to think twice while entering Indian market. 

Illinois, one of the American states has declared that online gambling on horse betting is fully legalized and people can bet comfortably. Despite UIGEA rules, Illinois declared online gambling to be legalized.

Barney Frank and other supporters of online gambling regulations bill are fighting against UIGEA as the deadline is approaching when UIGEA rules will be fully implemented this year ending. If the UIGEA rules are implemented then banks and other financial institutions will not be allowed to transfer payments to online gambling firms. 

American citizens will not be allowed to withdraw and deposit funds to gambling accounts. 

One of the world’s most reputed online poker software maker company, Microgaming is going under tough circumstances as majority of online poker companies using Microgaming skins has shut down their services.

Recently two well known companies using Microgaming skins,  Eurolinx and Betonbet poker were dissolved. According to news reports Eurolinux’s $140,000 in player funds were seized by the US government.

Due to above circumstances, Microgaming’s market share tubmbled all time low but it is not a big worry as they have many sites. Ladbrokes and Stan James remain two of the network’s most reputable exponents.

Barney Frank would be considered as a lord in the eyes of millions of online gamblers in United States, if the internet gambling bill is passed this time, abolishing UIGEA law.

The things are definitely working in favor of Frank’s gambling bill as one more co-sponsor was added to the supporters list. This time it was representative John Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan.

The support for online gambling regulation is increasing day by day and on other side PPA, well known as poker player alliance is lobbying at capital city of United States.

Internet gambling has become the talk of the town in United States as many US poker players opposing UIGEA law and on other side EU authorities asking US government to allow European gambling firms to operate in US market.

Beside all these, congressman, Barney Frank introduced a bill last month and hearing was scheduled this month, but due to other major issues such as economy crisis, the hearing was postponed later this september.

One thing is certain, that in order to pass the bill you need majority support and its happening for Frank’s internet gambling bill. Already forty cosponsors are added to the bill support and recently two more sponsors rendered their support to curb UIGEA law. 

Frank spent the weekend at the WSOP, where he answered questions regarding his online gambling legislation.

China is warning Google again and again to block users from watching online porn sites through search. China is one the most tight countries when comes to law and legal matters.

China has asked Google to block all online casino sites as well as porn sites. The country, has raised concerns over porn and gambling portals on the web for the past many years and has now asked giant search engine Google.ch and other search engines to block access to illegal sites in order to protect minors.

Google had previously blocked porn results for Chinese language searches, but residents have surpassed that ban by using the foreign language searches to reach sexual sites.

There has been an on going issue related to blocking of internet gambling sites in the state of Minnesota and things are not working out for ISP’s.

 The list of web sites have already given to all the major ISP’s in the state of Minnesota. While iMEGA, the Minnesota attorney-general’s office and the Department of Public Safety have been involved with efforts to reach a settlement, as of today no final agreement has been reached.

However,  Imega hoped that this matter may be resolved as quickly as possible, so that Minnesota residents may rest easy and feel no threat of censorship of their Internet service.

Both PartyGaming and 888.com , two of the biggest online gambling brand is fighting to buy out bingo operating company, Cashcade. 

The bingo operator, Cashcade  runs famous bingo brand, Foxy bingo and other site getminted.  According to times UK the company Cashcade  achieved gross gaming revenues of GBP 45 million last year.

PartyGaming  chief, Jim Ryan stated that the company is considering a number of possible acquisition targets, and there have been rumours that the group is involved in possible negotiations with Everest Poker owner GigaMedia.
 

News has been popping up from the major land based casino, Harrash, that the giant casino company is trying hard to make online gambling legalized in United States. If you guys aren’t aware, then let me disclose that Harrash is one of the gambling firm in US which supported UIGEA regulations.

Harrash never thought that one day his own plans will demolish their own business. Due to on going recession in United States, Harrash lost major chunk of revenue as people opted for online gambling rather then going offline.

Now, things are looking bright for online gambling as Harrash already supporting Barney’s online gambling bill. PPA with the support of more than million people is trying to get the bill pass in senate this june or may be july.

Dutch is the only EU nation which is not running according to the likes of EU authorities. Dutch government has recently asked their financial banks & institutions to stop making payments to online gambling wagering.

Minister of Dutch said we want to safeguard our people from gambling which ruin their lives. A gambling firm, Betfair has filed a case against the Dutch  nation in EU court. Further inquiries will be conducted by the EU authorities.

According to news Telegraf :- "The European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy has asked the appropriate services to start an investigation into the banking blockade. As far as we are aware, the Netherlands is the only country in Europe to do such a thing."

Ever since William Hill, a gaming group expanded their reach to UK and other EU countries, they have seen a handsome rise in their revenues. Recently, William Hill declared a heavy rise of 50% in their revenues in Q1 09.

The firm seeked growth on the Internet side as opposed to telephone betting gross win, which declined by 31 percent.

The companie’s spokesman stated that their they have done well especially in the area of horse betting and betting in football matches.

Revenues were up by 6.6 percent and gross win increased by 3 percent in the 17 weeks to April 28. Over-the-counter gross win fell by 5 percent however, reflecting the cancellations and customer-friendly wager results in March.

Ever since PartyGaming was free from the clutches of US authorities by paying $105 million, other gambling firms such as 888.com and Sportsbetting.com are in talks with US authorities for avoiding any prosecution.

888.com was one of the gambling companies based in UK which accepted bets from US citizens prior to UIGEA rules, now the firm wants to settle a deal with the US justice dept by paying handsome fine in order to avoid any prosecution and maintain relationship with United States for future business.

Recently, PartyGaming was set free by US justice dept as any employee and executives of the company can fly in United States without the fear of  prosecution.

Things are looking cool in terms of online gambling laws in United States, as Harrash, US largest land based gambling firm is setting online operations on their local soil and even hired Mitch Garber, former boss of PartyGaming.

In order to expand its market share, online gambling company, PartyGaming is all set to launch its gaming software in Italian market.

Recently, PartyGaming declared that it’s going to enter Italian market and has filed an agreement with the Italian government for obtaining local license.

Jim Ryan, the Chief of PartyGaming company stated that "they are very confident and happy to see that they are entering a new and emerging market".

Currently, PartyGaming will offer only tournaments to Italian players and it will not offer sit n go games. Talks are still going on between party and italian government.

I am crazy and mad about playing poker online. I have been in poker industry for the  last 6 years or so. Gaming is always fun and thrill when you play with your hard earned money.

First, I started playing at PartyPoker,  but the issues relating to UIGEA forced me to withdraw from that room. Trust me party has always been easy way to earn money when compare to PokerStars. I never imagined that PokerStars one day will overtake Party in terms of real money.

Yesterday when I was playing a freeroll at PokerStars I was shocked to see 1,60,000 players at one time playing at PokerStars. This shows the reliability of the pokerstars’s software. 

Gaming software is  fantastic at stars, but little hard to earn pots. Competition level is very high and never think of laying your hands at poker table without being a skilled poker player.

PokerStars, has gained the number one position ever since party stepped back from accpeting US players and now party is down at 4th with severe threats from other poker networks. 

Former Chief executive officer (CEO) of an online gambling firm, Betonsports pleads guilty in front of the court and may be sentence to 3 years behind the bars.

Betonsports, is an internet gambling company which took bets from US citizens and later their owners were arrested while boarding a plane in US airport.

David Carruthers entered the plea in U.S. District Court in St. Louis. As part of a plea deal, he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the case against BetOnSports along with Gary Kaplan and six others.

According to the court thousands of gamblers were affected and millions of money were laundered.

Internet gambling has become one of the hottest topics around the world with some countries trying to ban it and some countries trying to legalize it.

Some times it looks that countries are showing positive approach towards internet gambling and suddenly from some where a country comes out and says that they will ban it.

Swedish, one of the famous and saturated gambling markets is trying to put ban on internet gambling by asking local banks and financial institutions to stop processing funds to gambling sites. 

Recently, EU commission filed a complaint against United States in WTO and said US should allow EU gambling firms to operate US market or else pay hefty fine.

"I have played poker and to me its a game of skill not a chance or a luck, I don’t know when will the government of every country will understand"

The news that Australian governmnet is censoring  illegal content web sites  is getting boosted on Australian newspaper and television.

According to ACMA ( Australia communication and media authority ) minister, approximately more than thousand illegal sites are getting banned which includes sites related to child porn,  violence & hatred, medical & drugs and to much surprise, online poker portals.

Yes, you have read it correctly, even online poker sites are under ACMA’s radar. Famous sites such as Party Poker, PokerStars, FullTiltPoker , Williamhill , Bwin and all other gambling sites are under ISP’s scanner.

This news is very bad for online gambling industry and many high profile gambling firms owners are not at all impressed with this decision of blocking of poker sites. 

The question is,  is there any AU minister which will take steps to avoide blacklisting of sites ?

Reports are coming from major news paper in Philippines, the Philippine Daily, that lawmakers are proposing to put a ban on internet gambling.

Alliance for Rural Concerns list Representative Narciso Santiago noted in his proposed legislation that there are no existing regulations on Internet gambling.

The law makers are making Philippine citizens not to allow gambling online and ask bank and financial institutions to block gambling transactions. The minister further added that gambling is a type of scam where they cheat people for money and ruin their lives.

This step taken by Filipino may or may not effect gambling industry as Filipino hardly plays a major role in internet gambling growth as the major  amount of income comes from tourism and travels.

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UIGEA has already started causing troubles to many online Lottery firms in many US states. UIGEA (Unlawful internet gambling enforcement act) bill,  which was passed during Bush administration in the year 2006 commands banking and other financial institutions to block gambling transactions.

UIGEA rules clearly states that players are not suppose to use credit cards, other mode of payment transfers such as Neteller, Web money to fund their gambling accounts. 

The above law has caused a major concerns to lottery firms in US where customers can’t buy lottery tickets through internet mode. Things are looking weird for these firms and they are requesting government to unblock  such transactions.

UIGEA is not only hurting gambling firms but also adding salt to economy crisis, which is at its peak in United States when the country need tax revenues from solid source and what could be better than internet gambling.

Summary

Full Tilt poker is a relatively new and emerging poker room based in Costa Rica started in July 2004. It is endorsed by renowned poker pros like Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey and many more. The software is pretty cool with lot of interesting features. You can choose different backgrounds to play with and they also provide various cartoon avatars to choose from for every player.

Software and Extra Features

Also you can make the avatars express various emotions which are fun. The software uses a 256-bit encryption algorithm which provides maximum security for your information and ensuring a fair and honest game. There by making the software completely different, good looking, flexible and reliable.

Player Traffic and Game Variety

When we speak about traffic at full tilt poker they have experienced a great flow recently. If we take a close look there are around 900-1300 real money players at tournaments and 700-1000 players at ring games during peak hours. Other than the standard variety of games they also offer Razz. If you like to cash in on your bad hands then Razz is for you. You have to make the best five card low hand from seven cards to win. They have tournaments to suite everyone including Sit’n'Gos, multi-table and Satellite tournaments.

Competition

The competition was soft when they started. But now it’s getting tough, the flop percentage is around 30%. Most average players will be giving you a run for your money in pot-limit and no-limit games, but fixed-limit games are the one where you will face a very tough competition. Basically we can say that the quality of players at full tilt poker is good.

Sign up Bonus

Full tilt provides one of the best sign up bonuses i.e. 100% up to $600 on your first deposit when you open a real money account. The bonus amount will automatically reflect in your bonus account, but will be released in the increment of 10% of your initial deposit, or $20, which ever comes first, in your cash account.

Promotions

You receive 7 FTP (full tilt points) for every dollar paid in tournament fees and up to 3 FTP for every dollar raked in ring games. Each point is worth $0.06, so as the points grow the cash will be transferred in to your account. Further these points can be redeemed for free merchandise or enter valuable tournaments.

You can also receive 50% up to $300 reload bonus on your first redeposit by accumulating more full tilt points. The promotions here are ok. They offer VIP freerolls (for top FTP earners), weekly guaranteed tournaments and many more.

Customer Service

When we speak about full tilt’s customer support right now they are offering only email based support, which is efficient and knowledgeable. They also provide a wide range of secure depositing and withdrawal options.

By far the best news for online gambling industry in US for many years. US congress is trying to repeal UIGEA rules, which puts bar on gambling transactions.

A new bill will introduced next month in March and this time things are looking way clear for congressman, barney Frank to overturn UIGEA. 

According to UIGEA rules, "playing online poker, casino’s or betting online on any games is illegal, banks and other financial institutions are not allowed to process players transaction to gambling sites". 

All the above rules will be abolished and a new set of rules will be implemented. The new rules will bring legalized online gambling , taxing gambling winnings. No fear of prosecution.

Already many states have allowed local citizens to play poker online and casino’s without fear.

Things are definitely looking good for gambling industry as the market is estimated to be worth $55 billion by 2010. 

I think many states have already considered online gambling as legal that’s why these states are planning to tax online gambling revenues. Ohio recently updated its tax cod and they have included internet gambling taxation which says that person will be taxed 1.5% of the winnings.

The federal government, which insists on attempting to apply laws written before the Internet was conceived to online transactions, Lisbon saw a legislative need to address a changing world, and did so by properly taxing Internet betting. Acknowledging the need to create new law as times evolve, Lisbon Solicitor Virginia Babcock said, "The last time our tax code was updated online gambling really wasn’t a factor."

Recently court of pennsylvania declared online poker as a game of skill rather then treating the poker game as game of chance or luck.  

Poker stars is the worlds largest online poker room and you won’t believe I have seen more than 100,000 players playing at poker stars at one time. It is great, poker stars’s software has fantastic features to withstand so much of load.

The competition level at poker stars is pretty tough and its not an easy task to win a table. Poker stars has spent massive amount of money in promoting their brand in Europe and USA.

Poker stars along with full tilt poker is the only room which still accepts US players  and party poker at one time was the world’s largest poker room, now sliding at massive pace. PartyPoker ranks 4th among major poker rooms, even ipoker network over took party.

Now, things are really looking cool for poker stars and they are dominating the poker industry with billions of dollars in revenue. According to me UIGEA broguth good luck to poker stars and full tilt rooms.  

PartyGaming, one of the world’s largest online gambling company and LSE listed company took a severe blow when the companies Managing Director(MD), John O’Malia resigned and further stated that he will render his services to the company until this month.

This is the third time one of the executives have quit the company. PartyGaming officials declared that companies future prospects will not get hurt and the discussion with the Justice Department is going on well.

PartyGaming is in talks with the DOJ so that none of the companies official get prosecuted when entering United States and for this the company is ready to pay huge fine.