eCOGRA is an independent standards, testing and certification body for online gambling websites, who are there to protect the public too. It basically offers certification to reliable online gambling websites in regulated territories.

The internet gambling public have learned to look out for this certification before playing at any site, as they have learned how meaningful it actually is. This is particularly pertinent to the UK, because the audience for these games in the country are today highly evolved – what we like to refer to as knowledgeable and sophisticated players. This week it was revealed that eCOGRA would be expanding their operations, and is involved in the process of employing more staff.

These expansion plans are only one small indication of the type of growth that is still being experienced in the online gambling industry. It is also a further indication of how the growth of mobile gambling markets is taking off like a bat out of hell. Mobile concerns as well as online firms, require this form of accreditation.

Apparently ten specially recruited professional staff will be joining the current team, with skills sets such as certified information IT systems auditing, chartered accounting (courtesy of the Big 4) and software test engineers.

Tex Rees – the Executive Director of eCOGRA – released this breaking news during a recent management update. Substantial investments have also been made in areas such as audit software, internal control systems, programmes, and testing laboratory infrastructure. It is Rees’ opinion that these expanded capabilities will extend capacity, and better enable them to service an ever-growing online gambling operations client base, within licensed, and regulated territories.

Founded in 2003 – eCOGRA has seen this industry through its infancy and well into a new era. They are now responsible for testing many of the biggest online operations, and recently inked a software deal with Net Entertainment. A Swedish software firm – Net Ent are certainly putting some of the best games we have ever seen out into the online gambling marketplace, and more and more operations are clamouring for their products. eCogra also has an eGAP standards and monitoring agreement in place with Paf – another Scandinavian operator.

eCogra certification has become synonymous with superior operating standards, and representation in terms of the highest quality for fairness in the online gambling industry. They are recipients of ISO approval from the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS), and what this means to the online gambler, is that any site bearing this seal has been rigorously tested, and is being continuously monitored. It also offers a protection aspect for the gambler themselves, and may be requested to help in terms of mediation, should any fairness disputes arise.

It’s been two years since the independent i-gaming standards, testing and certification company eCOGRA was the subject of a management buy-out from the original 2003 founders and the organisation has undoubtedly flourished.

In a management update this week, Executive Director Tex Rees revealed that ten additional professional staff, predominantly in the fields of chartered accountancy, certified information systems auditing and software test engineering have recently been selectively recruited by the company, extending its capacity to service a growing client base of tier one operators and software suppliers who have chosen to contract eCOGRA for i-gaming testing, monitoring and preparatory certification work in numerous regulated markets.

Among newly signed clients has been the respected and itself rapidly expanding Swedish online gambling software development group Net Entertainment.

eCOGRA has also won new eGAP standards and monitoring contracts with other leading industry companies, the most recent being the online gambling operator Paf (Ålands Penningautomatförening).

Rees says that her company has made significant financial investment in new audit software and programmes, internal control systems and testing laboratory infrastructure to support effective management of the growing business.

"Our substantial investment in technology and human resources will favourably enhance our ability to meet clients’ needs and the licensing jurisdictions’ stringent criteria for accredited testing facilities," Rees said this week.

"Based on unsolicited feedback, we are confident that our clients are more than satisfied with our testing and certification services, particularly in regulated markets such as Spain, Denmark and Italy.

However, the foreseeable introduction of diverse regulations and requirements by national licensing jurisdictions will continue to provide unique challenges for both licensees and testing houses, an industry dynamic for which eCOGRA is suitably positioned to excel." she said.

It does not matter if you are the only gay in the village, have got to check out the new online slot that is taking the UK by storm. This is the only game in the village as far as we are concerned, and it can be found and played at some of Great Britain’s best of breed gambling websites.

It is an Ash Gaming powered slot, that takes die-hard fans of Little Britain back to when the series first played. A fresh look at a long-trending brand often gets us interested once again. The trend now for online video slots games to follow a popular cultural theme, has also become popular culture. We suppose we could say this is the zeitgeist of online gambling.

With five reels, thirty pay lines, and a ton of bizarre comedy thrown into the mix, we find a whole new meaning brought to the fact that playing slots should be fun. We are not sure if you remember the infamous series where David Walliams and Matt Lucas played a whole host of characters each?

Everyone has their favourites, but Dafydd – the only gay in the village – was certainly one of mine. Most of the most prominent characters are featured in the slot, that is Daffydd, Lou, Andy, Vicky, Marjory, Ann and a few more.

Probably the best thing about this online slot is there are five (yes 5) bonus rounds. These are the Vicky Pollard’s ASBO Bonus, the Big Gay Bonus (where players have to help clothe Dafydd), the Marjorie Dawes’ Fat Fighters Bonus, Emily Howards’ Lady Things Bonus, and our personal favourite, Lou and Andy’s Love It Bonus.

This slot offers hundreds of ways to win, with Anne as the wild icon, which greatly enhances winning combinations. There are scatter symbols, free spins and in-reel features, which all comes together nicely under the narration of Tom Baker. Wagers may be placed from as little at 30p (1p per line), to as much as £300, so, is suitable for all kinds of risk takers.

When bonus symbols line up on reels 1, 3 and 5, this triggers the bonus feature of the corresponding character. Let’s take the Vicky Pollard’s ASBO Bonus as an example. We get to choose the activities she takes part in, and the longer it takes her to say "yeah, but no, but yeah, but no", the better this is for the player. Essentially the longer she takes to decide, the better it is. An added feature to look out for in this bonus, is the speech bubble. Get lucky in this bonus round, and it is possible to land a prize of 750 x an initial wager.

Little Britain, is truly a Great British online slots game. Ash Gaming have once again pulled out all the stops!

The online gambling industry is still moving in the right direction, and this direction is up. In other words the industry is still generating a great deal of turnover, as well as showing positive growth. It is considered to be a mainstream industry, and has become vital to the financial welfare of quite a few small, as well as politically independent nations that are close to the UK.

These are the offshore sites where servers for online gambling sites are licensed and kept, which has had the knock on effect of investments in infrastructures which maintain sizeable internet operations. These are regulating and licensing jurisdictions which have opened their doors to the industry in return for lower taxes. The result of this is that most online operations – even the big guys like William Hill, have taken these ops out of the UK and re-located them to places such as Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Malts, Alderney, and more recently Jersey in the Channel Islands.

Small, politically independent states such as these have come to depend to a great extent on the taxes the industry generates, as well as the employment, and growth opportunities it creates. While the online gambling industry does have its ups and downs, it also has an astonishing ability to roll with the punches. Many of the well-established online gambling concerns have had to reinvent themselves. And have done so in their efforts to survive, but what about British land Bingo, it seems to be taking a turn for the worse?!

There have been some serious changed in the gambling industry when it comes down to British tax law. And the one industry that appears to be worst affected is that of bingo. New taxes have been imposed on certain activities run by these business, which sees a recent hike to 20% on slot games in bingo halls. This poses a serious threat to the industry as a whole, but is an even bigger problem for smaller concerns.

Things started to go pear-shaped for this industry around 2005, and since then 150 of these clubs have closed down.

There is a real concern that this game may go completely extinct, which is rather sad rally considering it has become a big part of British culture. We have the Chancellor of the Exchequer to thank for the demise of this Great British game, as things stand now George Osborne could be the one to go down in history for killing the game. Bingo employs 13 000 people, but this also seems to mean nothing to him.

We have been seeing some incredible growth figures for the mobile gaming sector of the online gambling industry. It has become obvious that this sector has grown so fast and so quickly, due to the fact that mobile technology now offers the capability of entertaining gamblers on the go. Increased smartphone use is one of the biggest heralds for this boom, and mobile-friendly online casinos are taking advantage of the feeding frenzy.

Some pundits of this industry are telling us that the mobile gambling marketplace will be worth more than $100 Billion by the year 2017. This could be more, but online gambling concerns are banking on sharing $45 Billion in profits, if the market reaches this figure. As one can imagine, some serious business people are looking at this business rather seriously.

Now that smartphones and tablets have been blamed as being the key drivers for this increasing trend, researchers have been taking a look at these users. Currently in the UK alone – 62% of the population are in possession of a smartphone. This is an increase of 14.2% since October 2011. Combine this use with the fact that gambling online has also grown, and we see that the mobile sector is responsible for a massive amount of virtual gambling spend, and it is they who are sparking increased profits for operators. In fact the fastest growth sector has been seen in online, and in-play sports betting by mobile.

Currently 15% of the entire gambling sector of the UK is driven by mobile gamers. A smartphone or tablet is eminently portable, much more so than a laptop ever was. The smaller these devices are, the more desirable they are, and much of a smartphone is taken up by screen. This makes it easy to use to access a game, and the game is easily seen, with superior graphic quality.

We have mobile banking apps too, so, it hasn’t taken long for gambling operators to work out mobile payment systems for playing these games for real money, and winning real money prizes too.

Gone are the days where we had to get dressed up, travel, and pay through the neck to have a night out in a casino. We take our mobile phones wherever we go, so wherever we are is our mobile casino. Games and many apps are free to download, can be played for free or real money, and casinos offer a ton of incentives to get us to play these games. They even give away free money.