Online Gambling News

I have always maintained that when it comes down to problematic situations, people are the problem, not the situation. So, as far as problem gambling is concerned, people are the problem, not the gambling game. This little story only goes to prove my point even more, it tells how an Oldbury resident with a problem blew more than £4k of his neighbours’ money.

Thousands of pounds were entrusted to 28 year old John Rourke, of Oldbury, however apparently, Rourke could not be trusted. The courts heard how he was given £14,272.96 by fifteen of the residents of Henderson Court, while they switched property management firms. The property company was responsible for the up-keep of their maisonette units. They were not happy with the existing service. Over £9,000 was transferred but he frittered away the rest playing at online gambling websites.

Despite the fact that his neighbours badgered him to hand over the rest of money to Barclays Property Services for more than two months, no money came to light. Basically all they wanted to know was what happened to the rest of the money. He simply blamed the banks; not a difficult thing to do these days saying they were the ones making mistakes with the transfer. The total amount of the shortfall was £4,891.08, the Magistrates Court was told.

Eventually he admitted the theft to investigators say, and has also since moved to another address. The greedy gambler who inadvertently gives a bad name to online gambling, was eventually handed a twelve-week sentence and told to pay back the amount in full as compensation for the loss. He is now under supervision with an electronic tag for twelve months, as well as on a curfew between 8pm, and 7am daily.

What we have to bear in mind is that not all online gamblers behave so badly, it takes all types to make up the world, and by the same token, gambling games, as we said previously, are not the problem. It is easy to blame a game or gambling over all when a person is in denial, but we all have to be responsible for our own actions or inactions.

It is only when a problem gambler admits to him/herself that they have a problem, that they will be receptive to help. In this case the defendant surrendered himself to the police and was forthcoming in admitting what he had done, when he eventually realised he could no longer get away with the farce. Eventually he did take responsibility for his poor judgement, and the courts definitely take this into consideration when handing down a sentence.

Fortunately for us, the British Government makes sure that warnings are present at all the above-board gambling online services. This includes self-exclusion, as well as links to various help programmes such as GambleAware. Most are eCOGRA certified, so, look out for this accreditation too, and it means that recourse is available to take care of consumer needs, it also ensures quality control.

Calvin Ayre will cover the top awards show in the British poker industry after a media agreement was signed between the tablog and British Poker Awards organizer Bluff Europe.

Under the terms of the agreement Calvin Ayre will bring the cameras and reporters along to cover an event that will honor the best the British poker circuit has to offer. The tablog will interview the winners, snoop around for any juicy gossip and of course provide warts and all coverage of any parties that take place.

New awards have been added this year including "Best Tournament Player", "Best Cash Player" and "Best Online Player". The special "Biggest Contribution to Growing and Promoting Poker" award has also been added and is likely to see someone take to the stage and leave in floods of tears.

Thousands have already cast their votes for the awards that take place aboard the HMS President on London’s River Thames on 17th September. Tickets are still available from www.thebritishpokerawards.eventbrite.co.uk and cost £20.

Online gambling has always been popular, but like all new trends the zeitgeist only lasts so long. Eventually things bottom out, and although this is a new industry, online gambling is not showing the same explosive growth it once did a few years ago. The bottoming out could be changing however, and any online gambling concern that is not set up and running with mobile gambling is going to miss out on new growth.

When they said a year ago that mobile gambling would be the next wave of massive growth, we don’t think anyone quite expected it to be as big as it actually is. Since 2011 exponential mobile growth has seen the biggest operators proudly displaying results that consistently show double digit escalation. This obviously makes gambling by mobile another huge opportunity – an opportunity as huge (if not bigger) than the inception of the internet.

Now, you might think we are only talking about opportunity in terms of the mobile gambling operator, this is not the case at all. In a market as sophisticated as say, the UK. There is massive potential for players as well. Why is this you might ask? Well because the more operators try and get into the game, the more competitive it becomes – the more competitive this form of gambling becomes, the better the prizes. Not only that, because of the massive potential for liquidity with so many punters enjoying gambling-on-the-go, the bigger prize pools, such as progressive prize pools, will grow more regularly into huge amounts.

Right now mobile gambling encompasses, sports betting (the most popular growth sector)slots, bingo, video poker, all kinds of casino games and even poker.

Paddy Power, Betfair, Unibet, William Hill, even Google and more are all looking forward to really raking it in. And with taxes for online gambling sites only due to fall into law in the UK, presumably by 2014, we’ll bet a penny to a pound that these businesses are smiling; in fact literally laughing their way to the banks once again.

What we, the player, has to look forward to is a great many more winning opportunities when we play by mobile or tablet, and what’s more we can do it – even if surreptitiously – under the table in a board meeting. Just think, one never ever need be bored again when shut inside with the board?!

Ever more innovative mobile gambling product will be delivered into this market, the bigger and better it grows. Even Bullet Business is taking advantage of the growth, and a Mobile Gambling Summit is planned for London later on in the year. Players and operators both are tapping into the tablet market, and moving into mobile.

Personally, we believe that gambling online will never be the same again. Developers are already talking about taking it to smart TV, in order to harness the largest prospect in gambling since the online boom, thereby increasing mobile penetration back into the home. We wonder what will be next?!

While there has never been a doubt that the online gambling industry has a massive interest in offering online poker games to the public; this game has also evolved to such a degree, that there is on-going growing interest from the public also. If there had not been so much interest from the paying public, this game would not have grown as it has.

There has been much ado about nothing happening, regarding playing online poker in the USA for a few years, where the department of Justice has insisted that playing this game was illegal. So much so, that they closed down the biggest online poker sites in the US last year in April 2011. In the process, the DoJ managed to put most of these sites out of business – the only survivor being PokerStars. But then again the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA enacted 2006), also put paid to plenty of poker potential.

What is so paradoxical about the online poker situation in the USA, is the fact that the game is as American as apple pie. However, that having been said, the Poker Players Alliance and many other protagonists for the game, have been trying to prove that it is okay to play online as it is a game of skill, not gambling.

Now all kinds of worms are coming out of the woodwork, the DoJ has had a change of heart, but are still prosecuting people who were indicted under UIGEA. They have also said that the only gambling game not allowed is online sports betting, so, we are in the dark about what’s real any more in the states.

A recent scientific research from the University of Rotterdam (Department of Economics), Holland, sees poker classified as a game of skill. And now a Judge in the USA – Federal District Court Judge Jack Weinstein – has agreed. Poker is a game of skill!

The fact of the matter is, that the lawyers defending a gentleman who was running a home poker game, put up such a good argument, that the judge simply had to agree. They argued that – "increased proficiency boosts a player’s chance of winning and affects the outcome of individual hands as well as a series of hands. Expert poker players draw on an array of talents, including facility with numbers, knowledge of human psychology, and powers of observation and deception." We already know this to be true.

John Pappas of the Poker Players Alliance – said they have waited very patiently for the right opportunity to arise to take the game of poker to a Federal Court. This was the right opportunity, where this association of poker players, played a major role in securing the “not guilty” verdict. They believe this federal court ruling is a most important victory for the game.

The judge noted that "poker has a long history in the United States, has been embraced by many political and other public figures. " Finally… perhaps something has now got to give?!

Over a decade ago, products such as Party Poker and Party Casino started providing the ability for punters to take a bet, and to do this online. At the time this industry was frowned up by the US Government, but they could not do much about it. Offshore websites were being licensed in Kahnawake, The Virgin Island and Caribbean territories and this kind of made them legal, but also untouchable.

However, the US Government got their thinking caps on and came up with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). This was promulgated virtually overnight and it effectively banned online gambling, by making payment transactions illegal through the auspices of an out-dated Wire Act from way back in 1961.

Now Nevada is the First US state to make online gambling legal, even despite the fact that UIGEA is still in force. The Department of Justice had a change of opinion on the basis of the act, and now interprets it as only online sports betting being illegal. The Federal Government has made it clear that States may decide themselves on whether or not to make online gambling legal.
Nevada has forged ahead and the first legal online gaming in the US will be online poker. Experts are of the opinion that Nevada is now equipped to lead the way with the US online gambling revolution.

Being a multi-billion dollar mainstream industry, the regulation and legalization of online gambling can have a huge business, and beneficial fiscal impact on the US economy. There is also the argument that online poker should be classified a game of skill rather than a gambling game, so, this makes it so much more attractive. If you think that since UIGEA was enacted – $72 billion has left the hands of online gamblers in the US and gone into offshore (foreign) pockets; Federal and state-wide coffers are losing out on a great deal of taxable revenue.

It is not easy to understand UIGEA, there are a ton of grey areas, but basically what it does is stop interstate wire exchanges of money. However, foreign money exchange is not a problem, although it’s becoming tougher as less of the reputable online casino will accept players from the US. While there is more than one way of skinning a cat, this becomes more complex as technology advances.

Gamblers like to play online, there have always been gambling games and a punter will bet on anything if they think they have a chance of winning. Basically, no matter how hard the US government buries their head in the sand, online gambling is not going to just go away. Prohibition has never worked and we see now that it never will. Nevada has the opportunity to get a leading edge in what ostensibly could become a very lucrative industry. All they have to do is keep leading the way. Battle it through the red tape and pave the way for other US states. Other states are going to want to hang onto their coat-tails.