We have been seeing the same news for what seems to be years, and very little changes in terms of Federal regulation for the game of online poker in the USA. Certainly the State of Nevada has made this form of gaming legal and is currently issuing licenses, but this is for intrastate poker online. The Federal Government has said as much – each state must decide, and legislate for themselves.

However, in December last year, the Department of Justice changed their stance on the matter of legality for online gambling. Basically the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 was revisited, and the DoJ opinion released that only sports betting is illegal. The online poker industry has mobilized rapidly, joint ventures are in place, and Nevada has passed legislation for online poker, while the state of Delaware has made legal the full gamut of casino games for the Internet.

The American Gaming Association has released a white paper, and they represent just about every US casino operator, as well as gambling equipment manufacturers. The report states that $4 billion is spent annually by American who play at offshore casino and poker websites. They peg the potential for the online gambling industry to make between $6 billion and $10 billion annually. Is the payday close for these operators, they seem to think so, but is it time to start picking winners?

The problem is actually three-fold; the industry can only look at the potential for regulating online poker for the meantime. The potential turnover for this game would not be $6 billion and $10 billion annually, only a fraction of this. The second problem is that online poker alone, might not be all that attractive a business proposition for potential operators, and the third issue is certain states will not opt to legalize and regulate, so, it needs to happen on a federal level. In its present position the market is much too small, or too shaky to be a viable proposition.

Overseas we see that online poker sites are closing their doors on a regular basis. While we see PokerStars doing well, they actually monopolizing the marketplace because of their massive liquidity. A good example would be IGT’s purchase of Entraction, only to find that they were compelled to close this poker network. Regulation in Europe is also a tricky task to breach. The Italian industry is failing, France is a nightmare of regulatory red tape, Will Hill Poker is losing business as is Bwin.party and others. Fortunately for 888 Poker, they also seem to be doing something right and their business has grown.

But what we are seeing is that online poker alone is not financially viable in many instances. Operators need to be able to offer the whole range of online gambling games. So, with the exception of Delaware which state apparently sees the bigger picture, very little can change if the Federal Government does not come to the party, and offering online poker without the addition of other Internet gambling games, simply won’t cut the mustard.

Things are changing rapidly in Asia, in particular in the economic sector. This is no longer one of the poor Global territories, and there is a rising middle class, which means various economic sectors are operating in over-drive. For example – the manufacturing industry in China – is there anything new you have purchased recently that has not been manufactured in China. In response to this, the new middle class Asian resident also demands their fair share of recreation. One of the most popular forms of recreation is gambling.

Therefore, not only the online gambling industry is experiencing a boom. The live gambling industry, in particular in Asia, is booming. Macau offers us a dynamically clear picture of just how rapid economic growth has been. This part of the world has benefitted hugely from the gambling industry, but they are also now taking a closer look at the social impact of gambling as an industry. While there is no gambling per se on Mainland China. Millions of Chinese tourist, save up every penny they can to spend in Macau taking a gamble.

After Macau was monopolised by the Chinese for a period of time (four decades), it has now been opened up to the rest of the world to develop this booming business, although there are moratoriums on certain pieces of property. Manila Bay, Macau, is the home to reclaimed land. Yes, they have re-claimed land from the sea to create a home for a $4 billion casino-resort. This will soon rise like the lost land of Atlantis, funded by foreign investors. US companies such as Las Vegas Sands, MGM, and Wynn Resorts have also flocked to this former Portuguese colony.

Foreign investors in the gambling business, are also currently breaking ground in South Korea. There are plans afoot here to hatch a whole clutch of casino-type resorts. Then on the Eastern edge of Russia, a casino resort area has also been planned to provide a catchment for Chinese gambling high-rollers. And when we talk about Chinese high-rollers, we refer to nose-bleed spenders.
Up-scale, glitzy, Las Vegas styled resorts are the name of the game for casino developments catering to the needs of Asian tourists. As they increasingly become more affluent, so to, do their needs change. Gambling is the order of the day, but then so too is a stay in an up-market resort.

Most areas are working on emulating the Macau business principle; understandably so. For every $1 spent in Las Vegas today, $4 is spent in Macau. This makes it the largest casino game marketplace in the world. However, Singapore is catching up rapidly, and a year after the first casinos had opened, they had already raked in about $6 billion.

We all know there is massive amounts of money to be made in the gambling business if it is done in the right way. The Asian market it seems, is doing it in the right way, and Beijing seems to be happy to allow its wealthy togamble their fortunes away.

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.

There has plenty of interest been happening again in the world of the online gambling industry. First off, after reading that a Full Tilt\PokerStars deal was complete speculation and was not going to happen; rumour is rife again in the news that PokerStars is going to pull the beleaguered brand out of the dung-heap they have found themselves in. It seems that for Full Tilt Poker; they are still deep in the you know what, but it’s only the depth that varies. I think we need to stop speculating and let’s wait to see what happens in real time. Only when PokerStars confirms that the rumours are true, will we be prepared to believe it. In recent reports from Gaming Intelligence, this deal is now for real.

More rumours were rife last year over whether Zynga poker were going to monetize their poker game, and get into gambling online. This seems to have now been confirmed and Mark Pincus says they will foray into real-money gambling online in 2013. As CEO of this billion dollar company, he has recently also lost Billionaire status when the stocks of Zynga took a nose-dive and dropped 40% in value. It looks like he is going to have to do something drastic to get share prices up again. Interestingly enough, purely online gambling concerns are looking at getting into social gambling now too.

Brent Buckley from Absolute poker was in the news again. He is part of the “Black Friday Eleven” who were indicted for conspiring to commit bank and wire fraud. Buckley is the former payment processor for Absolute Poker. Sentence was passed for fourteen months in prison, but then he did admit guilt in December. Ira Rubin got a three year sentence and was labelled a “con man and fraudster.” Rubin was also accused of illegally processing payments for Absolute Poker, PokerStars and FullTilt.

There has been some good news in online gambling too, as a couple of Playtech jackpots were landed. One – the ‘Holy Grail Jackpot’ from the Spamalot slot which is based on the Monty Python series. This lucky winner landed a mahoosive £692,209.05 prize. The other big winner was playing the Iron Man video slot and landed an impressive £558,306.01. Playtech is understandably proud to have been able to deliver these wins.

Look out for some great Olympic-themed promotions now that the summer games have started, and we are not only referring to sports-betting online. Online Bingo clubs are gamely going along with the flow, and British-based bingo sites are the place to look out for these offers.

We checked out William Hill where the Olympics aren’t really mentioned, but they are celebrating Glorious Goodwood, and we also checked out Costa Bingo where they are running a Track and Field event. Wink, Posh, Red Bus, Bingo Street, 88 Ladies and Tasty Bingo have a £10K Bingo for Gold event running as well as a £10K free summer Joy Pot, so, if you get tired of watching equestrian events, gymnastics, football and swimming, you can always get active too and play online bingo.

The mGaming Awards, due to be held on the evening of the 25th of April at the closing of the mGaming Summit, have today announced an illustrious sponsor for the evening’s festivities. Microgaming is the largest software and technology provider for the online gaming market with over 15 years experience in the industry. Their sponsorship of the inaugural award ceremony will ensure delegates to the summit will enjoy a fruitful and note-worthy evening. The short list for the awards has been announced and can be found in full on www.mGamingSummit.com/mgaming_awards.

"We are delighted to support the mGaming Summit," says Neill Whyte, Head of Product Channels at Microgaming. "We have been at the forefront of mobile technology within the e-gaming industry for a number of years, and continue to stay ahead of the game. This event allows us to be ideally placed to meet and greet existing operators, and to discuss the key issues which are driving mobile gaming. We are looking forward to the conference and to our sponsorship of the evening drinks and awards."

The mGaming Awards are tied in to the mGaming summit, a one day event dedicated to the online mobile gambling market – a growing and profitable sector. Created by the leading information providers in each specific sector, iGaming Business (the business of online gambling) and WorldTelemedia (the mobile sector), this event will be bringing together brands, marketing agencies, rights holders, operators, federations, mobile suppliers, payment & billing services. The event is being held in London UK on the 25th of April 2012. More information can be found on www.mGamingSummit.com.