The online gaming industry has sky rocketed ever since the late 90s and it looks like the industry will keep on growing for years to come. With the vast range of gambling available – from online bingo to online poker – you can see why gambling attracts a wide range of age groups, both male and female. As one form of gambling can be completely different to another and with the internet being widely available, you can see why more and more people are firing up their PCs and experiencing online gaming, of course age restrictions and country laws may apply.

Bingo is all about social

Long gone are days where online gamblers have to gamble alone, which left some of them not only alienated but left unsatisfied. Online gaming, today is now all about socialising with other gamers and no other form of gambling sums up social more than bingo. Offline, bingo is solely based around socialising with you fellow bingo players and online, bingo is no different. Online bingo sites still base bingo around social with the help of integrated chat rooms and chat moderators. Other forms of gambling just don’t give you that feel of being part of a community that bingo gives you.

Bingo is all about design

The virtual world of gaming comes in many different forms, from just basic text-form to full blown, amazing graphics that would give game consoles a run for their money. Bingo sites do not fall short when it comes to the design and functionality of their sites. They know that the more pleasing to the eye their sites are the more people will use them. What this means to you as a gamer is not only better graphics but also faster site speeds and better features.

It just takes a little practice

We all prefer our own versions of gambling for different reasons but more and more people are converted to bingo than any other form of online gambling, because of the simple reason of how easy the game is to pick up. Take poker for example, to be good at poker it will take an average player a few months and to be great at poker you are talking many years. Bingo on the other hand takes just a few games for you to become the novice player. Bingo is based on chance which means everyone who participates stands a chance of winning.

Each bingo site varies

By performing a few Google searches you will be surprised with how many bingo sites there are on the internet today, all with different layouts, graphics, promotions, bonuses and more. This means that even though the basic fundamentals of the game apply across the board there are other aspects of the game that bingo sites differ from one to another. This means that the game is diverse enough to keep players signing up to multiple bingo sites and enjoying a game of bingo.

Online bingo has thrived online for so long because of many factors, from the atmosphere of the online community to wide range of jackpots and side games available but only you yourself know why you love bingo so much to log on to a bingo site and play daily.

One of the bills proposed, written by state Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana will only allow a handful of California governed sites to open their doors. So at first, not all casinos will be able to participate in the online gaming community. The bill also proposed that this operation will offer California 1,300 new jobs and revenues could be boosted by $7.5 billion dollars. Those who decide to participate in online gaming would however need to pay $50 million in upfront fees before their sites even open. If this all were to become legal, there would be a freeze on licenses being offered until 2016 to allow the first few casinos to recoup their investment after forking over the huge fees required to run tier casino.

This bill is also backed by the California Online Poker Association which is a party of 29 tribes and 30 card rooms. Every tribe and card room in California was extended an invitation to join the California Online Poker Association for a small fee of $1 however, some tribes did not want to participate because they are not for online gaming at this time. As of now, the state Justice Department has advised that they would need about 18 to 24 months to implement a system that can regulate online poker. Many of the bills like SB 40 would only allow 90 days to regulate and review the submitted license applications.

A website (allinforcalifornia.org) has been created for the public to visit for more information on SB 40, the main headline is “Keep our jobs and revenue here” currently over one million Californians are already playing online poker and contributing money to sites that are based over seas. This doesn’t sit well with the United States government because the country is in such need of jobs & revenue. This is another reason politicians are trying all they can to get bills like SB 40 passed within 2011 so they can look forward to profits in 2012.

PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com & UB.com on April 15th, 2011 were siezed by The United States Government’s Department Of Justice and now display a message instead of their content talking about why United States players are not able to access the site. Though some United States players have reported that they are able to have access to the site and oddly enough some United Kingdom & Canadian players have been blocked.

Along with the websites being blocked 11 defendants were also charged and arrested for charges such as “Bank Fraud, Money Laundering and Illegal Gambling Offenses.” Restraining orders have also been issued for as many as 75 bank accounts, payment processors and 5 internet domain names. In this case there is speculation that the poker sites currently under investigation will just move their companies to new domains because the games have not been siezed simply just the domain it’s self.

Each of the three companies issued statements to the online community assuring players that this will pass & that player balances are completely safe. Some went on to proclaim their innocence and believe this action by the United States was uncalled for and will be looking forward to their exoneration. Business will carry on as usual for players outside of the United States however for now, players within the United States are unable to make any kinds of transactions within these poker sites.

PokerStars
“As you may have heard, we have had to suspend real money poker services to people based in the US due to legal developments there,” the PokerStars statement reads, per Internet-Poker.co.uk. “These developments are confined to US and not have any impact on your ability to continue our services.”

“Please be assured player balances are safe. There is no cause for concern. For all customers outside the US it is business as usual.

“The PokerStars website has been moved to www.pokerstars.eu, and our Support Email address is now support@pokerstars.eu. We apologize to our players for any inconvenience caused by this disruption.”

Full Tilt Poker
“[Full Tilt CEO Raymond] Bitar and Full Tilt Poker believe online poker is legal – a position also taken by some of the best legal minds in the United States,” the Full Tilt Poker statement reads. “Full Tilt Poker is, and has always been committed to preserving the integrity of the game and abiding by the law.”

“I am surprised and disappointed by the government’s decision to bring these charges. I look forward to Mr. Burtnick’s and my exoneration,” Bitar said in the statement. “Unfortunately, as a result of this action, Full Tilt Poker has decided that it must suspend ‘real money’ play in the United States until this case is resolved.

“However, Full Tilt Poker will continue to provide peer-to-peer online poker services outside of the United States.”

UB.com
“Rest assured that your funds are and will be always safe,” one of those messages read. “We will do our best in order to you can receive your funds within a reasonable time frame. Once it is processed you will be getting an email with the pick-up details to collect your funds at any western union location.”

“As for your affiliates links right now we are in the process of moving our affiliate links to a different server which will allow the affiliates and their current links to continue to be active and tracking to our new websites,”
“However, please note that US traffic will be blocked from registering.”

By: McNallen

Since online casinos where first introduced to players, there has been immense opportunity for operators, and with opportunity comes profitability. But when your talking about multi-million dollar industry, that opportunity can also bring immense greed.

With a simple look online, you will find lists of rouge casinos stealing players winnings, and this is in fact due to inadequate licensing.

CasinoAlly: www.casinoally.com has made it a point to ensure that only regulated and licensed online casinos are reviewed and displayed on there website.

Knowing this players can place bets in a secure gaming environment that has been approved and reviewed by a third party auditor and software engineer, to ensure the games are both random, fair, and secure.

When picking a new online casino to play at, you should also check to see who they are licensed by, and verify that the license is valid.

You will find unlicensed sites are popping up all the time in an attempt to defraud players. It is your best bet to play at a well known, and well established online casino, as an online casino defrauding players, will not be around very long.

You may also want to check the terms of an online casinos license as many different licensing jurisdictions offer different regulation, some with tougher terms and standers then others. This information should be displayed on the casinos web page, usually in the footer.

One example is the licensing jurisdiction of Curaçao. Curaçao offers an attractive business environment for Ecommerce as it is easier to get licensing to run an online casino, but with that comes the opportunity for quick start up casinos to potentially defraud players.

Even worse, imagine winning a large jackpot, and then the online casino not wanting to pay out! As said before, you will want to keep an eye open, and do a little research as with anything before you simply hand over your money.

With all that said, online casinos have not come this far by being defrauding players, there are many more reputable online casinos that by far out number the online casinos that are known as rouge. Make no mistake, this is a multi-million dollar industry in the United States alone, and that only seems like a smaller number when you include the rest of the world.

Many players are daily, or weekly players, weather it be your standard casino games like Blackjack or Roulette, or in a live online bingo hall with a digital bingo card. This provides a way for many Americans to relax and has largely become a favorite pastime of many Americans.

So before you sign up for a new online casino or take that next big casino promotion, do a little research to ensure your gambling on a safe bet! Even better, check out some of the reviews that can be found at CasinoAlly.com.

After online poker was shut down for the United States other things came into play.. how would the World Series of Poker be affected when it’s right around the corner? Some may ask, how does Black Friday affect the World Series of Poker? The World Series of Poker is one of the main reasons that online poker is so popular today most of it’s traffic is driven from televised tournaments inspiring players to try their hand any chance possible. ESPN has reported that not only will the tournament go on, but that the tournament now has more coverage than ever before. This comes as a suprise to some as ESPN has cancelled most of their poker programming due to Black Friday because it was sponsored by PokerStars, one of the sites seized on Black Friday.

Changes to the ESPN line-up, the World Series of Poker starts on July 14th and coverage will now be more than 34 extra hours which is almost double what they had planned for normally. Normally the World Series of Poker coverage is not daily, which now it is. Grudge Matches in June will be aired, and Tuesday night telecasts will begin on July 26th with Lon Mceachern & Norman Chad. Some believe this is a huge milestone for ESPN and World Series of Poker due to the potential of the game being recognized. Additionally, in order for all of this coverage to be allowed Ceasers (the owner of WSOP) had to sign off & allow it.

The new scheduling leaves people wondering if all of this is due to Black Friday or if these plans were put into place long before and were just released afterward. Either way this is reassuring for all the poker fanatics out there, poker is alive and well just not in the United States online…. right now.

Monaco is able to generate so much revenue from their world-famous Monte Carlo casino to where they no longer need to tax their citizens because the casino there takes care of that for them. Las Vegas also depends on the Casinos there to keep their economy alive. The lottery is managed by the state and proceeds go to the government which helps generate millions of dollars per year for the country. Now that online gambling has become so popular and easy to access right at home on the computer, this has caused major controversy because online gambling sites are operated outside of the United States thus, no money is generated or given to the government. In European states it was at one point, illegal to gamble online, through reluctancy they have now allowed people to operate online casinos within Europe. So what pushed these countries to allow online gambling to take place? In Italy a case study showed that they were bringing in 400 million Euros a year this was impressive, not only that but the government there wanted a piece of that pie.

Some of the best reason to legalize online gambling have to do with the economy of the United States, right now, those citizens are gambling anyway and because the companies are all off-shore the United States is not seeing any tax-revenue from that. Also, if the United States were to open online gambling businesses in the United states would be able to make profit off of it. Gambling is just within human nature everything in life is a gamble this way you’re just making money off of it. Many people have problems with land casinos in the United States, saying that it makes for an unsafe environment for children who live in neighborhoods with a casino in this case this would be much safer because it would be done in your home instead of out in public, with this another complaint is that online gambling would give those with a gambling problem the access to continuously play. If the United States were to legalize online gambling it would be regulated and would prevent those with a problem from accessing the games at home.

In the United States as of now, the top 3 poker sites have been blocked for United States players. When visiting those sites it shows a message from the Department of Justice indicating that these websites have been siezed. President Obama has put the issue of online gambling on hold to focus on more important matters at hand. In the mean time, the American Pro Gambling Lobby created a plan to legalize & regularize online gambling to fund the health care reform. Some countries still outlaw online gambling but the number of those making it legal is steadily increasing as with their economic status.