Archive for July, 2010
Those who are looking for a new online casino can use a recently launched “online casino games locator” which uses a large database of online casinos to help people find the right casino for them.
The casino finder, available at the A-Z of Online Casinos website (www.azonlinecasinos.com) allows players to use a drop-down list to help them find a casino. They can search by popular casino games, video poker games, slots and niche games. Once they make a choice in subject area, the site will search its large database of reputable online casinos to provide a few relevant choices for the player.
Best of all, results details will let players know if they can play at the selected casinos based on where the player lives.
Right now, players can be matched with a casino that offers all variety of casino play, such as roulette, poker and video poker, blackjack and a variety of slot games. The company is working on a new module that will also let players be matched with IGT slots and a number of live casino games including Sic Bo, baccarat, live blackjack and more.
The concept of government-owned casinos isn’t just for Canada and the United States these days. Many European governments are also considering running online gaming portals and legalizing online gaming in general.
Four years ago, the French government jailed executives of the internet gaming site Bwin when they visited France, but this summer began allowing private companies like Bwin and others to accept bets online from French citizens. This marked a reversal of previous policy. Denmark recently approved legislation also allowing private companies to accept bids from Danish citizens.
Next week, Greece plans to introduce a bill that would legalize online gaming, which is currently illegal.
“What’s happened is a realization that you can’t uninvent the internet,” David Trunkfield of Price Waterhouse Coopers, said. “People are gaming online. You either try to regulate and tax it, or people are going to go to the offshore operators, where you don’t get any revenue.”
Spain, Switzerland and Germany are all considering legalizing online casinos as well. It would likely be a good idea. Europe accounts for about $12.5 billion of the online gaming industry’s $29.3 billion total revenue last year. This, according to the consulting firm H2 Capital.
Turning toward the internet will likely benefit everyone. Land-based casinos have suffered in Europe in recent years. France land-based casinos have reported double-digit declines in the past several years and plans for a Las Vegas-style casino in Britain were scrapped two years ago.
The long battle isn’t over, but Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has cause to celebrate a big Wednesday success.
Frank’s online gambling bill was approved in the House Financial Services Committee on a 41-22-1 vote.
Frank’s bill is called the Internet Gambling Regulation and Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act and it seeks to alter United States law that prohibits U.S. citizens from gambling in real money games online. Residents currently have to gamble online at sites that are run by offshore companies.
The passage of the bill in the house committee is seen as a huge success and a step toward overall approval of the bill.
“The Committee’s bi-partisan vote to approve Frank’s legislation is nothing short of historic,” said Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative. “With Congress bitterly divided and only a handful of bi-partisan bills coming out of the Financial Services Committee, we’re pleased Committee members from both sides of the aisle were able to come together to advance this important legislation.”
Though many oppose online casinos, Frank has, until now, successfully made the argument that Americans should have the right to make choices for themselves about what they do when in their homes and when playing with their own money.
Several states are also considering bills that will allow legal online gambling in those specific states.
Additional Reading:
New York Times
Las Vegas Review Journal
Tani Cantil-Sakauye, an appeals judge and ex blackjack dealer, was recently nominated for the position of chief justice for the state’s high court by California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
This nomination will need to be authorized by the California state commission before judge Cantil-Sakauye’s name features on the ballots for November’s election. Should Cantil-Sakauye win the election, she will end up being the state’s first chief justice of Asian –American origins, not to mention the court’s only trained judge capable of dealing a handoff blackjack.
Judge Cantil-Sakauye who currently handles appeals first got involved in blackjack when she was about to go into the University of California for her law degree. She took up training as a blackjack dealer and worked part time as a dealer at the Harrah’s Casino during her summers and weekends. Cantil-Sakauye used this money earned at Lake Tahoe to pay for her education and continued working as a blackjack dealer in Reno once she had completed her degree, until she landed a job to suit her newly acquired qualifications.
From her position as a blackjack dealer Cantil-Sakauye eventually found a job at the District Attorney’s office in Sacramento, which kick started her legal career.
Recent reports indicate that blackjack players from casinos in Atlantic City are becoming more dissatisfied with the service they are receiving from gaming tables at these casinos. When these players sit back and compare what they are getting from blackjack tables in Atlantic City to the online blackjack offerings, the difference between the two becomes too vast to ignore.
In an effort to combat the difficult economic situation, the casinos in Atlantic City have cut corners, raised prices and increased their house edge for blackjack tables. However, this has not worked in their favor and the blackjack players are full of complaints and are not happy with the situation.
Some of the changes made at these casinos include replacing blackjack tables that once used six decks of cards with tables that use eight decks of cards. The dealers are allowed to hit on soft 17s and the house edge has increased. Some AC casinos have even cut down on the number of blackjack tables offered. And if this was not enough, several casinos in Atlantic City have pulled back many of their perks and raised their prices for food, rooms and buy-ins. Players on a small bankroll have discovered that it is difficult to pay for a buffet meal here as the food prices have been raised and comp offers removed.
Some AC casinos have opted to further narrow down their blackjack table numbers by closing some of them during the day. All this trouble in AC has led players to their computers where they have taken up online blackjack.
If you are looking for the best online casinos that offer blackjack online then we recommend the guide at blackjackonline.net.
Residents of British Columbia who were excited about the government’s new online casino are dealing with disappointment now as the government deals with a major security breach that has shut the site down for an undetermined period of time.
The PlayNow site crashed just hours after it opened. Originally, the officials at Lottery Corporation – which is running the new casino – said that too many players logged on just hours after the site’s launch, causing it to shut down, but at the same time, a variety of information was seen by other players. That is, players logged in as themselves, but were privy to information about other players, including their account balance, their user name and their session time.
Lottery Corporation officials reassured the public that no truly troubling information – such as credit card information – was revealed, but that’s done little to allay the public’s fears.
One critic of the online casino argued that the B.C. government must to a better job of keeping private information private.
“If the government is going to get into online gaming, they need to protect peoples’ privacy,” Shane Simpson said. “People want to be able to trust that their private information, from credit card numbers to gambling histories, is not compromised.”
The site was launched on July 15, marking the first time that a North American country has run an online casino. It’s still unknown when the site will again be open for play. Though some money has been lost while the site’s down, the amount is irrelevant, said Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman.
“It doesn’t matter what the cost is,” Coleman said. “We had an issue with the technical side of it and it needs to be fixed.”
The Ohio Lottery Commission has successfully voted to reach legislation for the incorporation of slot machines into Ohio’s racetracks. Although this is only a preliminary vote and does not guarantee that slot machines will be allowed in the seven racetracks around the state, these first steps have delighted those who have been in favor of this move.
Many important rules have been left out of this preliminary plan. However, it is a solid framework for the future of racetrack slots. As in the case of the process of incorporating casinos into the state of Ohio, this process will probably take a long time as it is still to be determined how many machines will be permitted and how much tax should go to the state from the machines’ revenue.
The reason for the quest for slot games in the racetracks is due to the great shortfall in revenue for the budget in the following two years which has been anticipated to be in the region of $8 billion. The slots are estimated to bring in more than $900 million in revenue but this could possibly suffer once the state’s four casinos are built and operating. Ohio online casinos have yet to be legalized but should online slots be regulated it would not face such complications.
Online gambling companies are used to paying large sums of money to websites directing customers to their sites as part of their marketing strategy. In online gambling or other web enterprises this is usually referred to as “affiliate marketing”.
Due to the fact that affiliate marketers often need to prove themselves in an industry, a new gambling affiliate site hopes to change all this by using 100% of the revenue generated by it in order to support renewable energy projects as well as environmental organizations.
The website contains links to bookmakers and online casinos and players using a link in order to visit one of the online gambling sites and thereafter creating an account will result in 45% of the revenue made from that account being paid to the Green Bet fund.
70 percent of the profits from the Green Bet affiliate scheme will be invested in renewable energy projects which include the Green Tower and the Desertec Concept and the remaining 30 percent of the profits will be donated to charities like the World Wildlife Fund.
Green Bet’s website states :”The service you receive will be the same and the odds paid will remain the same. The only difference will be a share of the casino’s revenue will go to support our chosen causes.”
An amount of $100 million dollars could be raised each year for renewable energy projects and environmental organizations if Green Bet succeeds in getting at least 1% of all online casinos will enter their preferred casino via the new site.
Poland was recently praised for proceeding with the licensing, legalization and regulation of online casinos. However the current draft law drawn up in this regard has raised negative comments from the European Commission to which it was submitted for approval on April 14, 2010. It was felt that certain provisions of the draft law conflicted with European law.
Fabio Pirotta, Commission spokesman stated: “The Commission has studied information sent by Polish authorities and the Gambling Bill project. After a deep analysis it has decided to ask for more information in order to investigate whether the bill is compliant with EU law.”
Many of the provisions of the draft law that involve online gambling and betting laws have attracted criticism from the Malta and UK governments.
The European Gambling and Betting Association studied the European Commission’s comments and stated that although the initiative was applaudable there were many clauses that could prejudice companies licensed in other EU nations in pursuing a Polish license. The Polish government has been urged to revise the draft to bring it into compliance with the European Treaty.
Poland is required to respond to the European Commission’s objections and revise the draft laws before August 16, 2010. Should Poland go ahead with these laws without the required changes after August 16 then infringement proceedings may be initiated by the Commission.
Both online casinos and land based casinos are well aware of the importance of drawing player traffic to their tables, and so far it would seem that the online casinos and online blackjack portals are more popular with players.
Although blackjack is one of the most popular and easy to play table games in land based casinos, recent trends indicate that the number of blackjack players to these tables may be decreasing. In comparison to online casinos where the percentage of player traffic is always increasing, it would seem that casino blackjack has lost its edge to online blackjack.
This is because the numbers of advantages available to online players outnumber the benefits that players enjoy at a brick and mortar casino. It also has a lot to do with personal preference.
At an online gaming portal, gamers can play blackjack games for free and learn the rules of the game without wasting money. Some online portals even allow players tow in real money while playing free games. Yet another advantage that online blackjack holds over brick and mortar blackjack table games is that they give players a welcome bonus, exciting promotions and loyalty points. These sites also offer blackjack tutorials, strategies and tips that players can use to improve their game.
