Gaming world

After long long time we have come across a very good news from United States that the state of Nevada has started accepting online gambling license application from February.

One of the news portals in United States announced that that the Nevada State Gaming Control Board (GCB) will start accepting licensing applications for internet gambling.  The announcement was made by GCB Chairman Mark Lipparelli at the U.S. Online Gaming Law conference.

This could be a very good step towards legalization of online poker at state level and would certainly see other states coming forward. The UIGEA rules still prevail in US making tough for  legalization of internet gambling.  

Full Tilt Poker, which was suppose to be the largest and the most trusted online poker site lost its gambling license.

The online poker site was registered in the Channel Islands and later the AGCC, well known as Alderney Gambling Control Commission has barred its license after suspending it in June.

One of official spokesperson from AGCC added that " now that they have revoked the gambling license of FTP, they have no legal power or control over the online poker firm.

The suspension of license took place due to Full tilt poker’s illegal run of online poker site and involving in money laundering case and fraud money transferring in various illegal bank accounts.

11 people along with founders were arrested and till now they are due to pay around 200 million pounds to its players .

It has been long time, since I have made any post to my blog, as we see no activity or news from the online gambling side in US or any other part of the world.

On one side, U.S is busy with their on going debt crisis and their credit rating had hit badly and on the other side U.K is facing the heat of the on going riots.

Online poker industry legalization is totally out of picture for US politicians at this point of time, as they expect double recession, which would harm the integrity of the country.

The recent FBI war on the top poker rooms such as Full tilt poker and Poker Stars, caused a severe blow to the US poker players and there are no rooms left for them to play.

The current scenario is very bad for the online gambling market as the recession is on and people tend to save more and spend on necessities.

We could say that the current rooms are fighting for the growth and we could hardly see online gambling flourish in near future or any time soon. 

I was out of station for 2 months with limited access to my emails and industry specific news.  One of my friend who has been affiliated with full tilt poker since the very first day, disclosed about the current scenario of online poker in United States. And I was shocked.

I never thought that US authorities will take this bold step any soon to eradicate full tilt poker and other online poker giants.

Now, the current situation is alarming as more and more online poker and casino rooms are evacuating from United States. The situation worsened when all the funds in the full tilt poker accounts (both players/affiliates)  were seized and full tilt’s bank accounts were also taken under US custody.

Millions of dollars were seized by the US authorities and FBI  was chasing owners of the various online poker rooms.

After all this what will be the future of online gambling in United States. Will the govt now come up and legalize it, as the online gambling is totally swept away by the U.S authorities.  

Readers, please contribute to this blog post as to what should US govt do now .  What is their motive behind this disaster.

Since I have not posted the most important news from the gambling industry let me give a short headlines for my readers. Recently, that is in the last month, FBI has seized all the funds and banned domains of the largest poker rooms which were operating in United States illegally and those rooms are FullTiltPoker , PokerStars, UB.com and AbsolutePoker . 

The owners of the those poker rooms were taken into custody and has been charged for illegal money laundering and wire act and may sentence to 20 years in jail.

This news seems to be bad for American players not for the EU poker rooms and one among them is PartyPoker, which saw an increase in their share prices and non US players shifting to them.

One can taken a glance at pokerscout.com to see the current traffic and players at various poker rooms. 

Among all the banned poker rooms, Pokerstars were effected but no that bad as of Full Tilt Poker and Absolute poker. Full tilt poker mainly focused on American market and have lost more than 80% of their players that is huge.

Now we have to wait and watch the faiths of those poker rooms during the investigation.

A good news is certainly coming out straight from the field of gambling industry, where in the US state, Washington legalizes online poker before any other states such as the state of Nevada and New Jersey.

For time being the the people in Washington can only gamble online within their state boundaries.. it means only resident of Washington D.C would be able to gambling with themselves. No player in New Jersey or any other states would be able to play online poker with the player in Washington.

May be after seeing this many states would be coming forward to legalize online gambling at state level and the news from IRS is that they are ready for taxing poker revenues once the government passes online gambling legalization bill at national level. 

Ladbrokes, one of the largest and the oldest bookmakers in United Kingdom is in conversation for merger with Playtech Ltd; an online gambling software maker residing in the Isle of Man. 

The merger could be worth 2.3 billion pounds which is again worth $3.6 billion and it has been one of the hottest topics on the newspapers.

The talks are running parallel to Ladbroke’s discussions on a 240 million pounds takeover of 888.com.

The U.S govt is continuously trying to push online poker out of the U.S soil. The Washington state yet again seized millions of dollars related to online poker. The money was being transferred to the players who were playing poker online.

The funds seized, belongs to some of the the major online poker rooms such as FullTiltPoker, PokerStars, UltimateBet and AbsolutePoker, who are still operating in the United States.  The justice dept confirmed that they have grabbed $8 million in cash from online poker and they further added that various accounts used to transfer payments were blocked and seized.

The orders were given to the banks to freeze all accounts and bar any out going transactions.

It came to the scene that feds have also seized six bank accounts of an individual at Wells Fargo and SunTrust banks which had about $1.3 million and used these funds to issue checks to full tilt and absolute players.

It’s a sad news for all US gambling lovers that Reid’s online poker legalization bill is completely dead. The news has been confirmed that online poker bill which was suppose to be attached to the must pass tax bill, formulated by the President Obama is no more.

And now the hopes of getting online poker back to US soil is dead for years as the last lame duck congress session ends this December.

Reid, one of the strongest US senators in Washington was pretty sure that he would certainly help online poker business to enter US market legally, so that the  billions of revenues, which is getting hidden from the US government could be utilized fully for the development of the country and to fight recession.

Things aren’t looking so great for online gambling businesses in US and once the republicans enter the senate, then it would be impossible to pass the gambling bill. 

After many many years of banning online gambling and huge amount of negative presses in the United States, Internet gambling has came out as a winner in the state of New Jersey, which recently legalized online gambling and other forms of casino and poker games.

The news of legalization soared like fire in the forest in the country as the bill passes senate with full majority of votes in favor of online gambling.

New Jersey has started and now other states would wanting to go on his path. One of the official spokesperson from New Jersey political background said that " the fight has just begin, we have started it alone and would sooner see some other states joining us in the fight to legalize online gambling in America".

The New Jersey Senate’s Government, has been showing keen interest in online gambling and thinking of legalizing online poker, casinos and other betting activities.

According to supporters of the bill, which was sponsored by State Senator Ray Lesniak, over a half-million New Jersey residents are already playing online poker; regulating and legalizing such activities could net the state significant revenues. Under the provisions of the proposed legislation, New Jersey would receive 20% of gross gaming revenues from the online gambling sites.

The local New Jersey supporters stated that internet gambling would help reduce several issues facing the state and its struggling gaming industry. Money generated from online gambling could be used to boost horse racing and intern used to boost the state Treasury, and help support Atlantic City casinos. Supporters have also said that several thousand support jobs could be created through the legalization of online gambling.

College students in US state of Florida is getting addicted to online gambling and the number is growing at huge pace. The Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling well known as ( FCCG) stated that  kids are twice as likely as the general population to be compulsive gamblers, playing poker online is the biggest problems among young men.

According to fresh reports released,  third of the calls to gambling addiction help line 888-LAST-BET are from college students or parents of students who have gotten in too deep and are heavily in debt.

Another recovering compulsive gambler from South Florida, Steve, says Internet poker with its 24-hour access was his downfall.

Gambling in India is illegal offline. But when we look at online gambling, still there isn’t any specific rules & regulations laid down. There are no such rules implemented in the country, which bans any forms of internet gambling or betting, the reason I suppose is that lack of awareness among Indians about the betting online because India is not an internet savvy country when compare to Japan, United States and united Kingdom, where internet penetration is huge.

For internet gambling to succeed one needs to use credit cards to deposit money which Indians are not habitual of. Very few people use credit cards on internet due to security reasons.

We are seeing a huge growth in non real money gaming sector such as playing on online flash game sites like Miniclip and Zapak.

A recent judgment from the Washington court declared, that online gambling is purely illegal and the local people are not authorized to play poker or casinos on internet, if they did, then they are liable for hefty fines and may get sentenced.

This ruling had made the largest online poker room, PokerStars to move out of Washington state, declaring that the firm will not accept any players from the capitol.

This is actually a bad sign for those politicians, who are looking to legalize online gambling in United Sates. Already, a bill to legalize online gambling drafted by the congressman, Barney Frank, is on the house floor and the hearing is yet to be made. But when asked, Frank said, that " things aren’t looking so good for online gambling this year as the last congressional session is about to get over this year end and bill has to jump many hurdles".

Only time will tell whether Barney’s efforts will be fruitful or not. 

Research group, Nielsen had reported that there has been a tremendous amount of growth for online gambling in UK market to give more clear picture, PartyGaming, UK’s largest and LSE listed gaming company, recently reported that they have seen huge increase in new registered users from UK with more than 900,000 new sign ups.

The PG’s most influential brands were PartyPoker and PartyCasino. Casino was promising and growing at good pace when compare to poker brand. Along with PartyGaming, the other big firms that noticed huge growth were Ladbrokes, PokerStars, FullTiltPoker, Virgin Games followed by local lotteries.

And to be much of surprise, women comprise 46 percent of online players, encouraging operators to target the female demographic with websites that appeal to the feminine gender.

 
The reports also stated that over-65s and those on lower household incomes have historically been heavy users of gambling sites.

Police in Tokyo arrested three men in connection to online gambling. These men were arrested along with cell phones which they used to generate money from accepting betting on phones.

Japanese government is getting strict in terms of online gambling especially betting on sports.  A Tokyo Metropolitan Police spokesperson told the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun that the action was the first in a series of crackdowns planned against mobile gambling sites.

Investigation reports have stated that turnover from online betting for these men were closed to 130 million Japanese yen and only paid out 1.43 million yen to winners. The mobile aspect of the operation kept the law from tracking down the culprits for some time.

The police stated further that two suspects opened gaming websites sites between October 2009 and May 2010.  Approximately 27,000 people, including minors, used the gambling service during that period. The sites offered financial rewards to gamers who won at the rock-paper-scissors game.

We know there are huge number of fans for online poker but at the same time there is football fever going on and fan following for football is huge and among them are many poker lovers too so what I mean to say is that FIFA world cup has seen decline in online poker traffic.

PartyGaming, one of the largest online gaming brand, reports a huge drop in player sign-ups especially from Germany and France. But now that French team is out of world cup they would be back to normal. Germany is the top market for party brands such as PartyPoker, PartyCasino and PartyBets and the German football team is just one game away from making into Finals so expect traffic slow down from German country till the world cup ends this month.

Many reputed brands have been seeing steady decline in new player sign-ups and revenues are tumbling way down. Hope to see online gaming industry back to seat after the world cup. 

Online betting is the only field which is doing extremely well as billions of dollars have been betted online till now. 

After years of banning online gambling advertising, Google has now taken decision to display online gambling advertisements on its popular video portal, Youtube.  There will be some conditions for gambling companies to display its ads on Youtube .

Currently, YouTube will be accepting ads from UK, France, Spain and Italy. Only those firms will be allowed to advertise who hold a valid gambling license.

This is the first time ever the giant video portal will be accepting  gambling ads. The following news has even come out that Ladbrokes has already started to set up its campaign on YouTube site.

Recent reports stated that more than $1 million in prize money will be given next year, a joint venture between Branson and Canadian startup WorldGaming.com.

"The video game market is extremely competitive and overcrowded, but we see a big opportunity," Branson told Game Industry TV, explaining his decision to enter the skill-based gaming business rather than publish software for PC, console or mobile platforms.

It’s a curious turn, given that his Virgin Interactive, a game publishing label active from 1981-98 before it was purchased by Electronic Arts, was one of the interactive entertainment industry’s pioneers.

Richard and his fellow partners at WorldGaming.com founders Bill Levy and Zachary Zeldin, expect to make money by charging a 12 percent fee on every online gaming tournament. Revenue may also come courtesy of corporate sponsors.

The time has come now, when France is allowing foreign online gambling providers to enter its jurisdiction. The French country has started  issuing online gambling licenses to gambling companies. Gambling firms all round the world has started applying for licenses and are waiting for the approval from the French authorities.

The list of firms that have received the licenses are Everest Gaming, Beturf, Betclic, France Pari, Table 14, Iliad Gaming, Sajoo, SPS Betting France, BES SS, Pari Mutuel Urbain and state-run Francaise des Jeux.

The major operators such as PartyPoker, Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker is still waiting in a line  to get license.

Jean-Francois Vilotte, president of Arjel, the French regulator of gaming, said in a radio interview that the country received a number of applications for licenses.

"There were 35 requests for licenses and we have retained 17 at this stage," he said. "None have been formally rejected."

If you guys still looking to play at French poker site you can visit coupon code poker770 page for legal online gambling.

The search engine giant, Google has announced its newest innovation, Google TV, and it is going to change the face of online gambling.

Google will feature an embedded search bar, allowing viewers to search for their desired television program. Although the concept is expected to improve and enhance television viewing, it will also open many doors for online casino operators.

As we all know that the search engine giant earns most of its revenue from advertising, will create many more advertising opportunities, a feature that online casino operators are sure to take advantage of. Ever since Google began allowing online gambling sites to promote their services using Google Ads, there has been a huge influx of online casino advertisements – and with the launch of Google TV, we are expecting to see newer and more innovative ways for operators to promote their business.

Many countries in Europe already offer television gambling, and North America may hopefully take a cue from them. With all of the legislative activity regarding online gambling in Canada and the United States.

A Canadian man has pleaded guilty of illegally transferring millions of dollars in online gambling activities. Online gambling rules are not yet confirmed and clear in Canada and things are looking to get change.

The conviction of Douglas Rennick, 35, comes as some U.S. lawmakers are looking to tax online gambling revenue rather than criminalizing such wagering. Federal law prohibits financial institutions and individuals from knowingly assisting in collecting and paying bets stemming from online chance gaming like poker, blackjack, slot machines and other games.

Rennick faces a year in prison and agreed as part of his plea Tuesday to forfeit $500 million.

Majority of countries now want online gambling to be legalized and proper set of rules and regulations should be placed in order to increase tax revenues. Countries such as France, Italy, Dutch, Germany and big fish United States are on the path of legalizing online gambling. 

Every Nation is trying to focus on legalization, but the only country which is very much stiff in its position of banning online gambling is China. China do not want any illegal online gambling now wanted to legalize it.

China is the only country which is very strict in terms of online laws and saving its public from illegal activities such as Porn, Pills selling online and gambling on web. 

China have asked foreign gambling firms to shut their services to Chinese people if not they will enforce strict law against these firms and legal action will be taken. 

This year’s Gaming Summit which was held in Canada,focuses purely on online gambling matters, rather than its usual themes of land-based technology and industry developments. Many professionals have taken an opportunity to come forward and raise their voice and opinions about Canadian online gambling laws.

John Fitzgerald, president of Canada’s Interactive Gaming Council, decided to give a clear picture of online gambling laws in the country, a topic that has seen much debate over the past few months. He states that the main issue is not whether or not Canadians have the right to gamble online; instead, it is a matter of whether or not Canadian online casinos can legally offer their services to residents.

He states that most provinces do not grant licenses to online gambling websites, so those that are in existence are operating illegally. However, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission has stepped in, granting licenses to online casinos that it deems worthy of becoming official online gambling establishments. In fact, many of the world’s most popular online casinos are licensed by the KGC, including Spin Palace.

Online poker traffic reporting site, pokerscout.com, recently stated that traffic for online poker real money players has taken a beat while poker stars gaining once again. Other poker rooms have shown a poor performance in terms of cash gaming players, but the only network which has shown a very bright move is Merge poker.

Merge Poker managed to jump a spot ahead of Everleaf to number 17 after it began providing for Sportsbook.com players. Competition is huge in online poker industry where every room wants a share of players.

PacificPoker and Svenska Spel traded places once again in 12th and 13th places, with Svenska Spel heading this week

Over all the online poker traffic is increasing at an annual rate of 13%.

Harrash’s Entertainement, the giant US casino group is all shaken up due to on going competition with online gambling industry. Recently, Harrash bought Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas and now the company is looking to sell of one of their casino properties.

Harrash Entertainment is the only company which has survived economic downturn and stiff competition from internet gambling groups. Now, RIO, one of the properties of Harrash is on sale and the company has already started accepting bids.

Nevada is considered one of the top two gaming destinations in the world, but Las Vegas has seen a massive drop off in business during the economic recession. Many companies have had to rearrange debt in order to stay out of bankruptcy during this difficult economic time. 

The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino is thought to be valued at around $500 million. The Rio is located behind Harrah’s biggest Las Vegas casino, Caesar’s Palace. The Rio gaming establishment has 1,100 slot machines, ninety gaming tables, and 2,520 rooms.

Canadian government has revealed that their tax officials is planning to target facebook, online gambling and porn users to raise funds and cover the growing Canadian deficit.

The new system requires Canadian (ISPs) to track the internet usage of all their clients. Users will be taxed differently depending on which online services they use. The category that will be taxed heaviest consists of what the bill calls “sin sites” – namely, sites involving pornography, social networking, or online gambling.

A complex system has been established that analyzes the content of each site visited, and calculates tax accordingly. The only categories of website that will not be taxed are Canadian Government sites, though officials remind users that using Google to access the sites will incur a small fee. This is something disgusting approach by the government as these official are trying to capture the free internet.

China seems to be hurrying in curbing all sorts of internet gambling activities.Chinese government has planned everything in regards to shutting down internet gambling portals and other activities such as transferring funds to online gambling sites.

The Ministry of Public security targeted unlicensed online gambling operators when they spoke of cleaning up their Internet gambling industry. The extent of their efforts was not known until the arrests started happening, over 900 of them in all so far. 

Out of 918 arrests, not a single member among those were online gamblers. Those arrested members had direct  contact with the operation of the unregulated online gaming sites. The operation of stings is expected to last at least a half year, and could result in thousands of arrests by the time the clean up is complete.

From the above activities we can conclude how serious the Chinese government is  in regards to online gambling activities.

It seems the date of implementing UIGEA rule, which was set late this July has already under process, as one of the leading credit card company, Master Card rejected transaction which was related to online gambling.  Things are hotting up as many online poker players have come forward with problem of transacting with their CC’s.

UIGEA rules, which was still under consideration was suddenly implemented without warning. Millions of user are facing problems in transferring funds to their gambling accounts. Many reputed online poker rooms has already delisted the name of the payment processors they accepted.

More news is also flowing in that along with United States, even Canada has asked their CC firms to stop gambling transaction and many users  came up with the complaint that their CC’s are getting failed to accept gambling transactions.

Now the question is that will online gambling firms take another way by creating more deposit options or else they will stop accepting US players and make an exit from the market.

Online gambling giant and LSE listed company, 888 inc holding recently lost its one of the co owner, Aharon Shaked. It’s a sad news for the entire online gambling industry with the demise of the smart businessman.

It was Aharon, who started land based gambling, way back during the 1990’s and thought of online version of gambling, which ultimately leads to born of giant gambling group, 888.com.

888 Holdings was publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange back in 2005.

Aharon Shaked was a smart businessman and remained low key and spend much of his fortune to charities.

California is the only state in America which is fighting for online poker legalization and wants to use online gambling revenues for state welfare and development.

California’s this years budget fall short due to on going global crisis and now the state legislative’s have agreed to take the matter to the senate for proper implementation of online poker and other gambling games.

There are around 1 million players who regularly play online poker in the state of California. The California would become the first state to explicitly legalize and regulate intrastate online poker if this proposal becomes law.

The hearing for regulations of online poker will be heard next year in February.

It has also been said that current ruling by the U.S. third circuit court of appeals clarified that the UIGEA, which was passed in 2006, did not criminalize any forms of online gambling. That law just affects the payment processors and how money can be transferred onto sites.

A good news coming out for the online gambling industry is that the House Financial Committee has decided to further extend the date of UIGEA law implementation to 6 months from December 1 st, which was suppose to be the date of implementing UIGEA rules.

PPA, Barney Frank and other supporters of online gambling were extremely happy to see UIGEA law extension and now Barney Frank will try to implement  his online gambling regulation bill in the senate this december for hearing as its a perfect time. 

Time is going tell us the future of online gambling in United States. 

Ever since former US president, George W Bush signed the UIGEA bill in the year 2006 by banning all forms of online gambling activities, it was feared that online gambling industry will die soon, but things turned up in favor of gambling industry.

Online gambling activities are growing consistently without any fear in the minds of American citizens with billions of dollars still getting wagered yearly for fueling and cashing gambling accounts.

Banks and other financial institutions have given up on UIGEA and stated that it is impossible to stop online gambling trasaction as there are thousands and millions of transaction taking place every day and filtering each and every process would be very very difficult. The banking institutions have further added that  still we haven’t received as to what type of gambling activities are banned there is no proper defination given to UIGEA rules. 

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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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.

Due to closer of Full tilt poker, I would suggest you guys to visit partypoker site for playing online poker. 

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 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.