Archive for
October, 2006
October 27th, 2006
Gamblers may look over their shoulder now, but experts say a new Internet gambling ban won’t keep bettors from ponying up, just turn them on to overseas payment services out of the law’s reach.”It has put a terrible scare into people,” said I. Nelson Rose, who teaches gambling law at Whittier Law School. “But it won’t by any means wipe out Internet gambling.”
The fright swept through the $12 billion industry on the heels of the recent arrests of two gambling company executives and a new law President Bush signed Oct. 13 that seeks to ban most online gambling and criminalizes funds transfers.
The law has wiped out billions of dollars in shareholder value of British companies, leaving the industry’s future in doubt as U.S. lawmakers initially trumpeted they had found a way to halt bets coming from America. But serious questions remain about whether the legislation can be effective in stopping U.S. residents from playing poker or betting on sports.
The “Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act” goes after the money, not the millions of players, which would be nearly impossible to enforce. It will essentially try to choke off the way Americans fund their gambling habits, hoping to prevent the transfer of dollars to the popular Internet sites.
It’s also widely understood that the law has online poker in its gun sights, identifying it as a game of chance — something the poker companies dispute. They believe poker is a game of skill and therefore not subject to the new rules.
But they’re fearful nonetheless.
“Their mission is to kill the funding of online poker, and that’s what this law does,” said Mike Sexton, who hosts the popular World Poker Tour and has won millions as a professional player.
The new law comes amid an explosion in online gambling, fueled by the Texas Hold ‘em craze and widespread access to the Internet. In addition, dozens of Web sites have sprouted up that allow any gambler with a credit card to bet on any sport they choose, for any amount of money they want.
Industry experts say there are an estimated 2,000 Internet sites that take bets for sports and poker. American players have fueled Internet gambling, supplying $6 billion of the $12 billion in revenues generated annually.
“The time has been one of rapid growth,” said Sebastian Sinclair, president of Christiansen Capital Advisors, a gambling consultant. “This industry was well on its way to becoming mainstream in a great part of the world. Capital was tripping over itself to fund these companies.”
The new law gives the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve, along with the Attorney General, 270 days to establish policies and procedures.
“The regulations are clearly going to prevent banks from doing electronic fund transfers to gambling sites, but that is no big deal,” Rose said.
Clamping down on the banks won’t serve as a panacea, Rose said. In some cases, banks simply move the money to payment processors, known as e-wallets. Non-U.S. payment processors such as the widely used Neteller then transfer the money to the Internet gambling sites.
The U.S. government has no authority over processors like Neteller that are operating legally.
Anthony Cabot, a well-known gambling lawyer in Las Vegas, thinks language used in the bill provides a loophole for the payment processors and the U.S. banks that want to be free to do business with them.
“Unless you have some fairly Draconian measures … the likelihood of stopping payment to them is small,” Cabot said.
Much damage has already been done to the offshore sports betting industry without the looming regulations.
British BetOnSports PLC folded after its chief executive was arrested in July by U.S. authorities. David Carruthers faces 22 counts of fraud and racketeering charges and remains under house arrest in the St. Louis area.
London-based Sportingbet’s chairman was detained last month in New York on a state fugitive warrant charging him with illegal online gambling. He was eventually freed.
Both arrests sounded serious alarm bells for those running sports wagering sites that take American bets.
The new legislation has already had a dramatic effect. It supposedly clarifies the 1961 Wire Act, explicitly outlawing Internet gambling, including online poker.
It creates new criminal penalties, which have rattled investors and executives — although Rose said it doesn’t expand the act, and there’s no indication the Justice Department is about to launch a huge campaign to enforce the law.
Still, the biggest publicly traded names in Internet gambling on the London Stock Exchange and AIM, the exchange’s global market for growing companies, could not afford to flout American law. When news broke earlier this month that Congress has passed the bill, Internet gambling companies traded on those exchanges lost a combined $7 billion in market capitalization.
PartyGaming PLC, once the envy of online gambling with its more than $8 billion IPO in 2005, is now trying to figure out how to save its business model. It runs what was once the world’s biggest poker site, PartyPoker, and has said it will no longer take payments from the U.S., eliminating nearly 80 percent of its revenue and sending its stock plunging.
Another poker company, 888 Holdings PLC, also said it would stop taking U.S. bets, ensuring its profits will fall dramatically.
Sportingbet and Leisure & Gaming both sold their U.S. operations for a dollar. Sportingbet said its exit from the U.S. market cost it nearly $400 million.
The bleeding didn’t stop there. Neteller and FireOne, which owns e-wallet FirePay, also saw their stock price plummet. On Oct. 2, FirePay announced it had stopped doing business with sites that might take U.S. bets, including PokerStars. The decision forced PokerStars, now the biggest poker site in the world and a registered business in Costa Rica, to rely on Neteller to take money for bets headed to its site.
“There are privately owned operators that will continue to take play as long as they have payment processors that will work with them,” said Sue Schneider, publisher of the online gaming magazine Interactive Gaming News. “I think the big question is whether the volume remains the same. But I don’t think any of this means there will be less people playing on the Internet.”
Neteller has said it is evaluating the law. If Neteller abandons PokerStars and other sites, their bottom lines, no doubt, will be hit hard.
But so far, Neteller’s decision to work with PokerStars has amounted to good news for sites not afraid of scorning U.S. law.
Experts say while the new law has forced the public companies out of U.S. market, it has left poker players and bettors gravitating toward private companies.
Both PokerStars and FullTilt have already seen traffic on their Web sites surge, taking advantage of any short-term gain now that some of the competition has been sidelined. On its Web site recently, FullTilt boasted: “We’re Here to Stay!” and offered bonuses to sign up.
This isn’t the first time the industry has faced a serious setback. In 2001, Visa and MasterCard and other merchant banks stopped allowing money to be sent to Internet gambling sites.
Like then, Sinclair thinks Internet gambling will recover again. It’s simply too lucrative.
“There will be a big hit to the industry,” Sinclair said. “A big hit. But it’s not going to be long term, it’s transitory until somebody finds a solution to whatever roadblocks are put in their way. There’s too much money for it to go away.”
Source
October 24th, 2006
Ladies, if you’re looking for a sexy gambling site with buff hunks pitching cards and Brad Pitt impersonators sitting across the table from you in a game of strip poker, you’re out of luck.
Apparently the folks who want to attract cybergamblers don’t realize that women have sensual tastes, so the only hard bodies out there waiting to lure folks to the tables are Anna Nicole and Pamela look-alikes.
Consider these two facts: One: Between 30 and 40 million people gamble on line and estimates are that at least half that number, possible more than half, are women. Two: Sex sells.
One of the most popular soft drink advertising campaigns in recent years featured an force of office women checking the clock then rushing to the back window of their high-rise to gawk and practically swoon at the sight of a well-muscled construction worker remove his shirt during his break. And when a high-profile underwear company wants to reach women (who usually buy briefs for their men), they don’t use Ned Beatty in their ads; they sign on Michael Jordan.
You would think that cybercasino owners would recognize one of the primary rules for attracting commerce and want to at least test the waters of sensuous graphics aimed at this large group of gamblers. This writer couldn’t find a single one.
My journey through the maze of search engines and magically appearing windows in pursuit of sexy casinos for women started with http://www.69adultcasino.com/. Doesn’t the number here make you think about two people, usually one male and one female? Alas ladies, the beautiful ones who populate this site are of your own gender. The second piece of the puzzle seems to be invisible. What’s more, the uninterrupted spate of pop-ups that follow when checking out the “Pic of the Day” splash nothing more than more of the same across your computer screen.
It’s all buns and boobs, T and A, gorgeous skin (lots of it) and sexy nighties.
But wait. There is a place out there that’s supposed to focus on the female gambler and her diverse personality. Excuse me, but apparently the site’s owners don’t know that many women like eye candy because the only hint of masculinity on the pages of http://www.womensvegas.com/ is a tiny head shot of a slightly balding man in a blue shirt and a graphic of a bare-chested male on the face place of a slot machine.
Well, perhaps www.romancecasino.com/ might be the answer. After all, romance books are loaded with steamy erotic scenes. Wouldn’t you expect the same from a romance casino? Guess again. The opening page sports a Roman-centurion-type hunk but beyond that, nothing that even resembles a male.
Perhaps we’re better off. We can concentrate on winning when we gamble and go elsewhere when we want stimulation.
As for women gamblers who want to surf on the sexy side, they might have to take advice from avant-garde diarist and author Anais Nin who said, “How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.”
Source
October 21st, 2006
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Bingo by
Baccarat
Bingo is one of the oldest forms of online gambling games and it is very popular. The bingo game has become so popular that since it was introduced to the internet, there are now thousands of online bingo sites. Some online casino sites also have bingo as an option to play.
BingoClick.com is a new online bingo hall that is becoming very popular. Bingo Click is currently offering:
30% First Deposit Bonus (maximum bonus 100.00)
10% Reload Bonus (maximum bonus 150.00 per reload)
First Deposits will receive a 30% free play bonus up to a maximum bonus of $100
Bingo players around the world can log onto internet bingoclick.com at anytime from home or work. When you are feeling bored or frustrated, you can easily log onto bingoclick.com and start playing. Online bingo has become more than just a way of entertaining its players. It has huge progressive jackpots on offer and players are beginning to take the game very seriously. They are constantly looking for ways to maximize their chances of winning these big jackpots.
Online Bingo Click Games:
Bingo is definitely a game of chance and every bingo ball has an equal chance of coming up. Because the balls are drawn randomly, there is no telling which number will come up next. Online bingo, however, is slightly different. An online bingo game is a virtual visual of the game. A computer is used to determine which number will be called on next.
Internet Bingo Click Game Line:
It’s already been researched that bingo boosts your mind. The study that was done, revealed that bingo players were faster and more accurate than non-bingo players in a range of tests, measuring mental speed and memory.
October 20th, 2006
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Poker by
Baccarat
Ever have trouble getting a read on a player while playing poker online? Ever wish you could watch their hands as they put the chips in the pot, or look at them while they sweat your decision? By the same token, have you ever been bored out of your mind at the poker table, waiting what seems like forever for Madge to make the earth shattering decision of whether to call that last $8 bet on the river? There may be a place that gives you a happy medium between the two.
Last week, Hollywood Park Casino in Los Angeles opened its ‘ePoker Room’. I went to the opening, and having heard for months about the Poker Pro electronic poker table, but never having played on one, I was interested in what the experience would be like.
The electronic tables require no dealers, as the players select all their actions via the touch screen in front of them. The system even takes away from a floorperson’s job, as there is a kiosk where you can put yourself on a waiting list for a table. All of this is handled via an ID card, which has a magnetic stripe similar to a credit card. The card holds all your personal data, and you can keep a cash balance on it, so when you sit down at the table, your “chips” are immediately in front of you.
The play of the tables was smooth. Actions are clearly displayed, and its very simple to use. Although the tables cannot be linked at this time, there is supposedly a software update coming in early 2007 that will allow the tables to be linked for multi-table tournament play.
At the moment, the main use of the tables will be for small buy in sit-n-goes, low limit hold em, and small buy in no limit hold em. Also, once the multi-table software us up and running, these would seem like a good solution for super satellites to smaller buy in tournaments. The tables would be perfect for a group of casual poker players that just want to have a good time, and don’t have much at stake on the tables.
Do I see a use for these in larger games, or big buy in tournaments? Probably not. But if you have a group of people that just want to have a good time, and aren’t going to take it too seriously, these electronic tables just might fit the bill. The next time Madge is laboring over that $8 bet, it might be the table telling her to act, instead of you wishing she would.
Source
October 17th, 2006
Even though President Bush has signed a law to curb Internet gambling, investors in the handful of U.S.-listed Internet gambling companies may not want to fold their hands just yet.”There is growth in this industry even without the United States,” said Blackmont Capital technology analyst Wojtek Nowak. “The drive into broadband Internet in Asia and Europe still makes this an interesting sector.”
Investors fled Nasdaq-listed companies such as Cryptologic Inc., a Canadian maker of software used by Internet gambling sites, and GigaMedia, a Taiwan maker of gambling software, after Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act Sept. 30.
The legislation signed into law by Bush on Friday makes it illegal for U.S. banks and credit card companies to settle transactions for patrons of Internet gambling sites.
Most publicly traded companies that operate online gambling sites immediately announced plans to abandon the U.S. market to focus on other regions.
“That is where growth will have to come from,” Nowak said, naming also Eastern Europe and South America as regions for potential growth.
Online gambling is expected to expand to a $15 billion industry this year from $12 billion in 2005, according to DesJardins Securities analyst David Shore, who cited statistics from Global Betting and Gaming Consultants.
While the U.S. market accounts for half the Internet gambling market, online betting equaled less than 4 percent of the estimated $260 billion global land-based gambling market, Shore said.
Analysts assume the preponderance of American bettors online has more to do with easy high-speed Internet access _ which enables the fast transmissions needed to load data from the flashy sites _ than a lack of gambling culture in the rest of the world.
The United States has 36 percent of all broadband connections in the 30 member countries of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to an OECD report released Friday. But Europe, in particular is catching up. “The strongest per-capita subscriber growth comes from Denmark, Australia and Norway,” the report said.
In Asia, Korea and Japan have high rates of broadband penetration, but China, the largest nation by population, lags.
“The difficulty with China is that a fragmented financial system has kept operators away,” Nowak said. “But in general, software companies are looking to Asia as potential growth market.”
As the rest of the world continues to improve Internet access, Nowak said, the online gambling sites will meet with a larger audience.
“The Internet is a good medium for gambling,” he said. “It assures privacy and you can conduct it from the comfort of your home.”
That is not to say there will not be other hurdles. Gambling is generally illegal in China, for example, and Japan only allows bets on a few types of activities, such as horse racing. In China and other developing nations, cash is still king, so although gambling is part of the culture, some bettors may be wary of paying online.
In Europe, instead of banning Internet gambling, some countries are trying to regulate and tax the industry. Austria and Italy have taken steps to allow domestic online gambling. And the European Commission has indicated that private online gambling sites cannot have less access to bettors than the state-run lottery monopolies that generate billions in tax revenue for most European countries.
“They are taking the opposite approach in Europe and it’s going to be an opportunity for growth for the companies that have activities there,” DesJardins’ Shore said.
Among them are U.S.-listed Cryptologic. With enactment of the law, the company lost about $30 million in revenue in the United States, or a quarter of its total, which it will seek to replace in Europe and Asia. Nowak said that could take up to five years. “It’s going to grow at 20 percent a year, but that’s a lot to recover,” he said.
Shore expects the company to struggle for a year before recovering. “They’re losing a lot of revenue, but so far haven’t said how they will reduce costs, so profits are going to suffer,” he said. “Crypto is growing nicely in Europe and that market is going to expand.”
GigaMedia, whose shares are listed on the Nasdaq, recovered most of its share-price losses after the company assured investors it generates no revenue in the United States. From its beginning, GigaMedia shunned the U.S. market for Asia and Europe because it worried legislators would outlaw the sector.
“I would argue that those companies that expunged their U.S. exposure are now lower-risk investments,” Nowak said.
October 17th, 2006
On 30 September 2006 the US Senate passed the SAFE Port Act which also contains a section referred to as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (bill gambling internet) which has been signed into law by President Bush on Friday October 13th.
The new anti-gambling bill affects online payment transactions for games of chance, which have been deemed unlawful under US American law.
Due to the recent bill gambling legislation line several larger online casino networks are temporarily suspending U.S. players from playing at their websites.
So, big online casinos are getting out of US market like 888.com, Casino Tropez, or PartyCasino are not longer accepting wagers from US players.
On the other hand some famous vegas casinos like GoldenPalace.com and The Flamingo Casino have informed “Business As Usual”.
On the growing online poker industry, we found that two best online poker rooms still open to US players are Absolute Poker and Golden Palace Poker.
October 13th, 2006
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Bingo by
Baccarat
We all like playing bingo at a local bingo hall because its fun. We like the company and have gotten used to the personal contact. So why then should I play bingo online? Let me just name a few reasons that will make you reconsider why you should play free bingo online:
1. Online bingo halls allow you a chance of picking from different bingo halls. You can even enter, look around and then decide if you wish to play or not. Think of it as one large bingo entertainment complex which houses various bingo rooms. Which local bingo room has that?
2. Playing online also gives you the option of choosing from a wide range of card patterns and styles unlike a local hall where you get the cards that are used by the bingo house.
3. Bingo halls online hand out free cash just for entering and playing. Get that? You are paid just for entering! You go out and try and find a local hall which will pay you solid cash just to push open their door and play free online bingo game.
October 11th, 2006
If you’re in a casino and determined to gamble, then play black jack online is your best bet. If you play a strategy, this game has the odds stacked against you the least. Playing slots is like giving money away, but you can have a pretty long and decent run with play black jack online.
Another advantage Blackjack has is that it does force you to think, even if it means finding the optimal card strategy. To me this small amount of thinking is preferable to the mindless mechanics of slots for example.
Unlike poker Blackjack doesn’t require you to compete against other players. All players play against the dealer. Since the dealer works for the casino and plays according to fixed rules, there’s little chance of competition among participants.
