Play Blackjack Games at San Cruz Casinos
July 2nd, 2013 by Site Admin
Blackjack players can now enjoy a wide range of blackjack games as well as other casino games such as roulette, video poker, and slots on a couple of San Cruz casino boats, which sail out of the Little River.
The 155-foot cruise casino ship actually holds a glittery Vegas-style casino, with plenty of classic casino games and even live sports betting. When players are tired of playing blackjack or other casino games, they can head over to the boat’s upper deck for some excellent live entertainment.
To make the blackjack experience better, San Cruz casinos offer fine dining. According to Sales Coordinator Dee Burns, players can always enjoy delicious meals on board, and as long as they are placing bets, the drinks are free.
The Big M Gambling Boat also sails from Little River and offers topnotch casino gaming to customers. The owner of this luxury 186-foot casino boat, which offers fine dining, free drinks, as well as casino gaming, is Diamond Management, a company based on Myrtle Beach.
All the casino boats sailing from Little River first take their passengers into the international waters before legal gambling can begin. Those who wish to play blackjack or other casino games need to be at least 21 years old.
Mark Scheinberg Reaches Settlement on Black Friday Charges
July 1st, 2013 by Site Admin
Mark Scheinberg, former chairman of PokerStars, has finally reached a settlement with the United States Department of Justice. Scheinberg has agreed to forfeit $50 million in assets that he acquired after illegally providing online gaming in the United States. The plea bargain does not specify what percentage of the settlement includes cash versus other assets he owns.
The original indictment of United States v. PokerStars et. al. can be found on Justia. The complaint specifies that Scheinberg, PokerStars founder Raymond Bitar and three other PokerStars executives colluded with financial institutions to illegally process payments for online gambling services. The indictment said that their crimes took place over the course of four and half years. Prosecutors argued that the severity of the charges merited a forfeiture of all assets the defendants derived from online gambling.
The Department of Justice struck a plea bargain with Bitar earlier this year. Bitar avoided prison time after his attorney argued that he was terminally ill and would need a heart transplant to survive. The terms of Scheinberg’s deal are similar to those that the Department of Justice struck with Bitar.
The deals Bitar and Scheinberg reached with the DOJ are separate from those reached with the PokerStars brand. Scheinberg has taken the same stance as PokerStars and admitted no wrongdoing. However, Bitar made an apologetic confession from his hospital room in California.
Scheinberg and other defendants are relieved to put indictments behind them. PokerStars is also moving on after the aftermath of Black Friday. The company is currently pursuing online gambling licenses in different jurisdictions throughout the United States. The company has never been convicted of violating any United States gambling laws which allow it to offer online gambling even in states with “bad actor” clauses.
Play Unique Live Dealer Blackjack Games at Winner Casino
June 28th, 2013 by Site Admin
Blackjack players who want to play high-quality live dealer blackjack games must head over to Winner Casino, which offers an impressive portfolio of classic as well as unique live dealer casino games.
More and more online casinos are offering live dealer blackjack because it is becoming very popular. Casino gamblers like the idea of taking part in live blackjack games from the comforts of home. The latest webcam and video streaming technology enables blackjack players to actually view live dealers in action and interact with them. Live gaming is the casino gaming industry’s way of bringing land casinos right inside players’ homes.
The list of traditional live dealer games at Winner Casino include live dealer baccarat, live dealer blackjack, and live dealer roulette. Winner Casino also offers unique casino games such as live dealer Casino Hold’em, 3D Roulette, UK Roulette, Unlimited Blackjack, and others. One of the most exciting live dealer blackjack variants at Winner Casino is Unlimited Blackjack, in which there is no limit to the amount of money that players can bet.
Live 3D Roulette is another unique live dealer game, enabling players to enjoy realistic three-dimensional images and graphics, while Casino Hold’em gives players the chance to match their wits against the dealer’s.
MIT Card Counting Team Members Appear at Conference
June 25th, 2013 by Site Admin
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Card Counting Team, the members of which were all MIT students, used their mathematical abilities to squeeze a lot of money out of casinos during the eighties and the nineties. The team no longer exists, but some of its members do. Some of them appeared at the 15th International Gambling and Risk Taking Conference, which was held in Caesars Palace recently, to relive their card counting memories, to share their experiences, and to reveal their views about blackjack.
Andy Block and Henry Houh were two of those who had appeared at the conference. Bloch, who frequently takes part in the World Series of Poker (WSOP), had already graduated from the MIT when he joined the team. Houh, on the other hand, was a student of MIT when he decided to join the team out of curiosity. Recalling his experiences, he called it “great fun,” adding that it took him 13 long years to get out of the team precisely because it was “great fun.”
Houh also played the role of a blackjack dealer in the movie 21, which became a box office hit in 2008. The movie was based on “Bringing Down the House,” a best-seller written by Ben Mezrich.
“Best Blackjack” Bringing The Popularity Back to Blackjack
June 22nd, 2013 by Site Admin
Double Duck, an upcoming games development company in Tel Aviv recently released Best Blackjack, an innovative Blackjack software game that has been customized for both the iPhone and iPod touch. The company expects this to raise the popularity of Blackjack all over the world.
In a statement, Odi Weinberger, CEO of Double Duck said “We love the game of blackjack. And we want to see it join the ranks of poker and slots as the big 3 casino games on mobile platforms. This amazing, tactical and fun game was overlooked for a long time, and now we’re bringing it back!”.
Best Blackjack has been specially designed to transport players through the ladder of a professional blackjack player, where you start out at small locations like a local tavern and then climb all the way up to the most amazing casino in the world: which in this case is The Prestige.
Best Blackjack offers a number of features to Blackjack players including free bonuses of up to 3000 chips every 6 hours; free 10,000 chips for every new player; amazing HD graphics, compatible with iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S screens; 5 Amazing locations to unlock, each with beautiful graphics and sounds; leveling up, unlocking beautiful locations as you progress as a player and simple and fluent controls, everything is “a thumb away.
French Gaming Regulator Hopes to Expand Online Gaming to Other Countries
June 18th, 2013 by Site Admin
Online poker has been legal in France since 2010. However, gaming providers have almost exclusively focused on reaching the French gaming market. Jean-Francois Vilotte, the head of the French gaming regulator ARJEL, said that should change in the future.
Vilotte said that the government has passed strict regulations to fight illegal gambling. He feels those regulations have accomplished that goal. However, he also stated that the xenophobic attitude towards online gaming has not benefited gaming providers or players and has reduced tax revenues. He believes that the government can come up with a new approach that would benefit everyone.
Vilotte pointed out that the market for online gaming has taken a hit in recent years. The market for online poker has decreased 13% over the past year. The recession of online gambling has been discouraging to gaming providers, but the regulator is optimistic that they will be able to reverse it.
Vilotte said that the online gaming market was much more profitable when the industry was still new. He believes that the industry could recover if they were able to add some more original services to draw more players to the table. The online gaming market has also been hit by the global economic crisis and frustrations among players in other countries. Some of these problems are outside the government’s control, but they can still take the necessary steps to fix some of the problems they are facing.
ARJEL also recently stated that the government may need to change the tax code to help increase revenues from online gaming providers. They are still working out the details and plan to release them in the coming months.
Station Casinos Training Blackjack Dealers for New Casino
June 14th, 2013 by Site Admin
Station Casinos is running a school to train blackjack dealers for the Graton Resort and Casino, which is scheduled to be inaugurated late in 2013. The school offers 12-week courses, each of which comprises weekly sessions held on Wednesdays. Around 200 students are in training to become expert blackjack croupiers, and many more are eager to join.
Although the students are not guaranteed any job, they can get trained for free. Station Casinos GM Joe Hasson said that nobody has been hired as yet, but more applicants are required. Explaining his statement, he said that, if the casino is launched tomorrow, he would require 120 blackjack dealers immediately and 750 more later.
Blackjack is expected to contribute to around half of the new casino’s total revenues, projected to be around $440 million in 2016. The owner of this casino is the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, and Station Casinos will be operating it for the first seven years.
According to California’s gambling regulations, the casino employees are required to undergo comprehensive background checks, which are then submitted to the gaming agency for reviews. The casino restaurants will be thoroughly inspected. Although smoking will be permitted, the casino will have to adhere to the state’s liquor laws.
MGM Resorts Submits Bid for $800 Million Casino in Maryland
June 12th, 2013 by Site Admin
MGM Resorts has submitted to the state of Maryland a proposal to construct a $800 million land casino resort in Prince George’s County. Several copies of MGM Resorts bid documents were displayed in ornate boxes at a news conference held at National Harbor, the place where the company wants to construct its new casino. This is going to be MGM’s sixth casino.
MGM’s toughest competitor is going to be Penn National Gaming Incorporated, which invested $44 million to defeat a referendum for the construction of Maryland’s sixth casino in November 2012. Rosecroft Raceway has also announced that it plans to bid for the casino although it isn’t sure about winning the bid. No other company has submitted bids for the same.
Speaking on the occasion, MGM National Harbor COO Lorenzo Creighton said that the company cannot reveal details about its bid owing to state restrictions, adding that MGM will stick to the commitments it made during its last year’s campaign to expand land casino gambling in Maryland, which could generate thousands of job opportunities for residents.
According to MGM, the proposed casino will have 4000 slot machine games and 200 table games, which will make it the second biggest casino in Maryland.
Illinois Gambling Bill Faces another Holdup
June 12th, 2013 by Site Admin
Illinois Representative Bob Rita introduced a bill that would have expanded gambling in February. His bill would have allowed gaming providers to build new casinos and legalize online gambling. Governor Patt Quinn raised several concerns with Rita’s bill. Quinn believed that online gambling and the expansion of the state’s casino industry were two separate issues that should not be addressed in the same bill.
Rita revised the bill to focus solely on expanding the state’s existing casino industry. He hoped that the bill would be passed this session and lawmakers could focus on a separate bill to legalize online gambling. The Illinois House of Representatives didn’t hear his bill on Friday, which means Rita will need to wait until the next legislative session to reintroduce it.
Rita was disappointed that his bill died this session, but was growing increasingly pessimistic that it would have been passed. Gov. Quinn insisted that he would not pass a gambling bill until pension reform had been addressed. Lawmakers are still debating the best way to pay unfunded pension liabilities, which means any gaming legislation will be put on the backburner indefinitely.
Many lawmakers showed support for Quinn’s bill and hope to have a hearing in the next session. The bill would have raised at least $1 billion in tax revenues and created at least a hundred thousand new jobs. They will try to address Quinn’s concerns about pension reform so they can move forward with gambling expansion this year. Online gambling will be addressed in a separate bill, but lawmakers will probably need to pass the gambling expansion bill first.
Lost Island Entertainment Rolls Out StackJack 1.0 for iOS
June 1st, 2013 by Site Admin
Lost Island Entertainment has rolled out its first game, a variant of blackjack called StackJack 1.0 for Apple mobile devices.
Christopher Cundey, who founded and developed StackJack, has spent years of his life developing graphics and visual effects for motion pictures and he has used all this experience in developing this new blackjack variant for iOS.
Cundey said that he grew up playing classic arcades and computer games, adding that he was always fascinated with the working of these games. Although he ended up in the movie business, his never lost his fascination for designing games. Having realized that the tools and skills for developing animations, sounds, and images for films and TV shows were similar to those required to create gaming content, he decided to develop small games and later create larger and better games.
Lost Island Entertainment plans to develop many more apps, and StackJack is just the first. Cundy feels that the app will become very popular among owners of iPads and iPhones. StackJack players are required to place the cards dealt to them in five columns and thus create their blackjack hand without exceeding 21. Players are free to discard cards and receive new ones, but only for a limited number of times.
