1st US Online Casino

November 29 – It is one of the most highly anticipated evenings in the iGaming industry and this year’s eGaming Review Operator Awards didn’t disappoint.

Bet365, the privately held online gaming operator founded ten years ago by Denise Coates, and Betfair, the betting exchange, each scooped three significant awards.

Bet365 won the coveted prize of Operator of the Year, beating big names like Unibet Betfair, Betsson and  PartyGaming. Bet365 was also given the "Best Website Performance" award and the important "Best Casino Operator" award.

(Read the full post about ‘bet365 Steals The Show At eGaming Review Operator Awards – 11-29-10′…)

Silver Oak Casino proudly presents two new casino games to its players. ‘Lucky Tiger’ is a new 88-payline online video slot, and ‘Roaring Twenties Bingo’ is a new progressive bingo game at Silver Oak Casino.

Extraordinary Slot
Lucky Tiger has a regular 5 reels, but an extraordinary 88 paylines. Further, it offers three separate Free Spins Features, to which you gain access by hitting 3 or more Gong symbols. During the Lucky Tiger feature you can triple your prize money and aim for more Free Spins.

When playing Lucky Tiger be on the lookout for the Golden Tiger Symbol. These s

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The launch this week of Loto Quebec’s new internet gambling operation EspaceJeux revealed that online poker will be offered on a platform that the British Columbia Lottery Corporation will partner in at the beginning of 2011.

The joint platform will be hosted in Montréal, Quebec and will be powered by GTechG2, with customer account management software by OpenBet Ltd, which also supplies some of the table games. OpenBet has already opened Canadian offices in Montréal as the deal has developed.

In addition to the eight variants of poker that are on the menu, Espacejeux will offer Quebecers 24-hour-a-day table games like Baccarat, Sic Bo and Red Dog as well as various types of Blackjack and Roulette. O

(Read the full post about ‘BCLC and Loto Quebec to offer joint online poker platform’…)

Online Vegas Casino is celebrating this holiday season with $710k in guaranteed online casino tournament prizes, with the ‘$250k Countdown to Christmas Freeroll’ as the major event.  

$710k in Guaranteed Prizes
Online Vegas Casino is renowned for its busy schedule of online casino tournaments, and this holiday season it hosts a staggering 150 of them. 

27 of these tournaments are completely free to enter, and the total guaranteed prize pool of all tournaments amounts to $710,000.

$250k Guaranteed Freeroll
The most exciting tournament of these all is the $250,000 Countdown to Christmas Freeroll. This

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The governments of a lot of countries have views toward gambling that I find odd. I find it odd that the many U.S. states don’t allow casino games but offer a state-run lottery. I find it odd that some countries think that gambling in brick and mortar casinos is fine but gambling online is bad. Perhaps the most confusing, though, is the gambling laws in Nepal.

In Nepal it is illegal for citizens to gamble. Okay, I can wrap my head around that, because a lot of countries ban the practice, thinking it’s too dangerous or immoral. What is odd, though, is that the gambling industry is one of the biggest money-makers in Nepal. They make their money off of tourists. You

(Read the full post about ‘Nepal cracking down on citizen gamblers’…)

More and more governments around the world are finding that it is harder to stop citizens from doing things than they thought. That is particularly true of online gambling. Considered a vice by many governments but considered a harmless pastime by most people with common sense, government bans are usually largely ignored. Now it has been reported that Poland is seeing more online gambling now that it is illegal than they did while it was legal.

In October of 2009, Poland’s government passed a law that bans online gambling websites from operating in the country or even advertising. In 2009, Polish citizens had spent zl 3.2 billion on online gambling, which is 50% more than on land-based casinos and betting shops. So the number had nowhere to go but down, right? Wrong. In 2010, Poles are on pace to gamble approximately zl 4 billion over the internet. That’s a lot of zlatas and is a 20% increase from 2009, when it was legal.

So Poland bans online gambling and as result sees a 20% increase in its activity. Not only are Polish citizens ignoring the gambling ban, but some gambling operators are as well. For example, PokerStars is still offering their Polish website, PokerStars.pl, and continues to advertise on local cable stations, directly defying the 2009 law.

In response to people ignoring the ban, the Polish government has so far done nothing. They considered keeping a list of online casinos that violate the ban and then blocking them, but the internet censorship was met with sharp criticism and the plan was dropped. According to sources, a new plan may be to amend the current law to allow the prosecution of the gamblers who play on the illegal internet gambling websites. Another proposed amendment would be to claim personal jurisdiction over any overseas gambling websites, such as PokerStars, who illegally advertise in Poland. Doing so would allow Poland to prosecute the offenders wherever their companies are based.

On the other hand, they could also realize that clearly the people want to be able to play poker and their favorite casino games online. Since Poland is a democracy, they should listen to what the people want and repeal the online gambling ban.

Tags: gambling bans, PokerStars, Poland online gambling

Global online gaming operator, Stan James Plc , has acquired a majority stake in Racing2day LLC , an online horse racing wagering business run by horse racing owners, players, handicappers and fans. Based in the USA, Racing2day is licensed by the Oregon Racing Commission and offers pari-mutuel horse race wagering online and via its 24/7 call centre operation.

“We are delighted to have completed this important investment into Racing2day, said Denis Kelly, CEO of Stan James. “The team at Racing2day is passionate about horse racing and their high quality product gives us an ideal opportunity to develop and enhance our international racing offering by giving our customers access to a new and exciting range of pari-mutuel products which are fun and easy to use.

(Read the full post about ‘Stan James acquires majority stake in Racing2day’…)

The possibility of Canada’s Prince Edward Island joining a consortium of other Canadian Provinces within the Atlantic Lottery Corporation receded this week, when finance minister Wes Sheridan announced that the island would not be participating.

The finance minister, who had originally appeared supportive of the idea to launch the casino-type games felt instead that measures should be introduced to curtail the activities of islanders who gambled on offshore sites; at an estimated annual loss to the region of CDM $50 million.

Atlantic Lottery already offers PlaySphere, a website that allows people to wager on some online games, but not multi-player poker, blackjack and other casino-like games.

British Columbia launched its online gambling site in July this year, and Quebec and Ontario are also launching their own sites in the near future.

(Read the full post about ‘Prince Edward Island Finance Minister says no to internet casinos’…)

Sweden’s Net Entertainment announced its entry into the profitable branded online gaming arena with a multi-year licensing agreement with Universal Partnerships & Licensing, a division of media giant NBC Universal.

The deal gives Net Entertainment the rights to develop content based on selected Universal properties.

(Read the full post about ‘Net Entertainment announces licensing agreement with NBC Universal’…)

The High Court in London will be the focus of industry attention this week as a year-old dispute between online gambling competitors 32 Red and William Hill Online on branding is argued.

32 Red started legal proceedings on a claim of trademark infringement over a year ago, complaining that William Hill’s 32 Vegas branding on an internet casino site confused players, causing it to suffer loss and damage and infringing its trademark use of ’32′, and impacting a reputation it has built up around the brand over the years.

Shortly after the action was launched William Hill withdrew 32 Vegas and replaced it with the 21 Nova brand.

32 Vegas was launched in 2006 by Playtech, and was one of the casinos transferred to William Hill as part of a partnership agreement between Playtech and William Hill that spawned William Hill Online in late 2008.