Bwin.party CEO Released from Detention in Belgium
November 30th, 2012 by Site Admin
Norbert Teufelberger, one of the two CEOs of bwin.party, was held for questioning in Belgium on Tuesday. He was subsequently released after being held for two hours. Officials were reluctant to release any of the details of Teufelberger’s arrest. However, experts expect that he was being detained because bwin.party has been operating in Belgium without the proper licenses.
Teufelberger has been arrested for violating local gambling laws before. He spent several days in a French prison six years ago for advertising gambling to French citizens. France has a state monopoly on gambling and wanted to send a message to any online gambling firms that tried to offer their services to its citizens.
An attorney from the Belgian Gaming Commission said that Teufelberger has made a few statements to reporters that indicate he is probably illegally offering online gaming services to Belgian citizens.
Bwin.party argued that Belgium’s new online gaming regulations violated European Union laws earlier this year. The company got placed on a black list after making this statement. They tried to circumvent the blacklist by setting up a new website.
The gaming regulator said that it is taking strong disciplinary measures against any site that it caught violating any online gaming laws. Belgian officials warned that any customers caught playing on the new site could be fined up to 25,000 euros. bwin.party was fined 75,000 euros for the violation.
Belgian officials said that Teufelberger is free to go, but will have to answer their questions about the legality of bwin.party’s operations in Belgium. They said that he will have until December 17 to comply with their instructions.
Reid and Kyl Give Pessimistic View on Likelihood of Passing Online Gaming Bill
November 26th, 2012 by Site Admin
Harry Reid and Jon Kyl have been working diligently to pass the online poker bill that they authored. Despite their continued commitment to the bill, they are becoming increasingly pessimistic that it will be passed in the near future.
The National Journal recently published a report that both Reid and Kyl are starting to lose hope that their online gaming bill will be passed during the lame duck session. Senator Reid said that he and Kyl do not have a well-established strategy to garner the support they need for the bill. Reid said that they are currently working on developing a strategy, but aren’t sure whether they can get the bill passed by the end of the year.
The timing for the bill isn’t ideal. Lawmakers have a number of more pressing issues that they need to deal with at the moment. They are trying to come to a resolution over the fiscal cliff that threatens to throw the United States into a new recession.
Congress is also looking for new legislation that would help generate enough revenue to reduce the growing deficit. Although Reid and Kyl’s online gaming bill would generate revenue for the federal government, it wouldn’t be sufficient to fix the deficit.
Reid and Kyl also acknowledge that they are facing increased opposition from a number of sources. Native American tribes, casinos, state governments, lotteries and a number of other stakeholders are becoming increasingly concerned about the implications of the bill. The biggest challenge will be getting Republican lawmakers to back the bill.
Nevada Senator Dean Heller has pledged to help Reid gain the support of Republicans in the House and Senate. However, all three senators working on the bill are worried that they are running out of time to push it through Congress.
Bodog Casino Announces Move to Asia
November 23rd, 2012 by Site Admin
Online blackjack players and online casino gamers who are members of the Bodog 88 brand will be pleased to note that the company will be expanding its operations to Asia. Robert Gustafsson, the Bodog88 Chief Executive Officer, has been working with the company and preparing it for the expansion. “Bodog has made all of the mistakes you can make when coming to Asia. We needed a house cleaning; I gave myself one year to get rid of the wrong people and to put the right people in the right positions. Rather than one year, we were able to accomplish it in just 5 months.”
“If you look at most European companies then you are looking at growth of 10, 20 or 30 per cent. If I have a month here when I am growing less than 200 per cent year-on-year then that’s a lost month for me. We should do at least 500 per cent year-on-year,” he added.
Previous announcements from the Bodog company explained that the enterprise was withdrawing its online poker services from UK and Europe.
In regards to the Asian expansion, Robert Gustafsson, the Managing Director, said “There are estimated to be at least 100,000,000 Chinese living outside China and if you then include Thai, Malay and Vietnamese expats you have more than just a niche market but one that has been ignored by other operators despite being far and away the largest consumer group of casino games on the planet. Bodog.co.uk can offer a totally different product to a totally different audience and while we will still offer sports betting the all-important casino customer will be our main source of revenue.”
The Funny Side of Blackjack According to Glen Wiggy
November 21st, 2012 by Site Admin
Glen Wiggy, a long time blackjack player and writer, recently discussed the humor and joy that players find in the game of blackjack. Wiggy is the author of “1536 Free Waters and Other Blackjack Endeavors: Finding Profit and Humor in Card-Counting.” The book contains several anecdotes and humorous instances in the life of the author when he played blackjack.
Wiggy was recently interviewed by Mark Gruetze. “My target audience is the people who go to a casino just to have fun. The gambling purists call them crazy,” said Wiggy.
Wiggy’s book on “1536 Free Waters and Other Blackjack Endeavors: Finding Profit and Humor in Card-Counting” is unlike all other book on blackjack and does not impart any mathematical strategy and just talks about casino life. “I originally started card-counting because I wanted to make a few dollars. Then, I started noticing all these funny things. I would notice strange things other players did, the superstitions people have…It didn’t turn out that winning and losing was the biggest thing. It was how much fun I was having,” he explained. However, it must be mentioned that Wiggy is a mathematically inclined person who practiced card counting.
Some of the funny anecdotes that Wiggy has included in his book are incidents involving him taking over sixty cases of water from a casino a few bottles at a time as his wife did not like the taste of tap water.
Australia Launches Study on Link between Social Media and Blackjack
November 20th, 2012 by Site Admin
Blackjack is a very popular game and is only increasing its player traffic with the attention it garners through social media sites. The government of Australia has noticed a trend that shows a link between social media and gambling games like blackjack. Today, most gambling sites, online casinos and online blackjack gaming sites have social media pages and links for their players to like them on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
As a result of this trend, the government of Australia has decided to launch a study to analyze this situation and its reach. This study will be one of the country’s biggest investigations into social media and gambling. The study will focus on this area and also ”act as an impetus/stimulus to exacerbate gambling problems in high-risk segments/vulnerable populations.”
The study will also look into mobile blackjack apps and online blackjack that teaches players to gamble with play money. The Victorian government will be studying ”how industry promotes gambling opportunities using social media, who is being targeted and how access is provided to the gambling product” and the ”potential impacts that exposure to gambling style services has on young children and particularly with respect to normalizing gambling.”
Why Blackjack Players Must Avoid Internet Sweepstakes Cafes
November 14th, 2012 by Site Admin
Blackjack players ought to beware of Internet sweepstakes outlets in the US because they have been found to steal business worth $1 billion from legal gambling operations while offering very little to players.
The US government has clearly stated that Internet sweepstakes are illegal, do not comply with US gaming laws, are not licensed, and hide behind sweepstakes laws.
Operators of these illegal gambling businesses establish a front Internet cafes and phone booths, where people can make calls or use the Internet at low prices. Whenever customers purchase the services, he or she is automatically entered into a sweepstakes. Usually, customers are required to make purchases of at least $1 to get entered into a sweepstake, and in most cases, customers can get as many as 100 entries. If they win, customers are informed immediately and asked to use any of the computers to play blackjack or online casino games, which are of such poor quality that players can see only animations instead of real graphics.
These illegal businesses not only cheat the government of tax money, but also create a lot of problems such as underage gambling and problem gambling, which is why the US government has decided to weed them out.
Apple’s New iPad4 to Provide Better Mobile Blackjack Experience
November 13th, 2012 by Site Admin
Apples new iPad4 with double GPU and CPU power has turned out to be a boon for the online blackjack gaming industry. When Tim Cook, the new Apple chief, announced that the company will launch iPad4 soon, industry representatives gathered in San Jose were surprised because Apple had launched iPad3 just recently.
The new iPad4 looks just like the iPad3, but that is where the similarities end. The insides of the two models are totally different. Players who had problems with playing blackjack and online casino games rich in animations and graphic content will no longer have such problems while playing on iPad4. The company says that the A6X SoC presents double GPU and CPU power along with the A5X speed already available in the previous model.
All blackjack players are aware of the importance of Internet speed while playing on their iPads. The new iPad4 has an upgraded LTE, which fully supports the US-based Sprint wireless network, giving players the chance to enjoy the ultimate live casino gaming experience from any location.
The new model also has better features such as a 1.3MP camera with 720p capacity video recording. As for the price, blackjack players will be delighted to know that it costs the same as iPad3.
MIT Blackjack Player Should Not Visit Caesars
November 9th, 2012 by Site Admin
Tsao, an ex player on the famous MIT Blackjack Team as described in the movie 21 and in the book “Bringing Down the House” was arrested and had to go to court for a trial for trespassing at Caesars Casino in Las Vegas. The player had been evicted from the casino and other establishments several times before but had returned yet again until she was arrested. The player had been warned five times before.
According to Judge Marsha S. Berzon, “Plaintiff-Appellant Laurie Tsao is a so-called ‘advantage’ gambler — a professional gambler who uses legal techniques, such as card counting, to win at casino table games, especially blackjack.”
Tsao pleaded the Fourth Amendment claim and stated that the casino was violating her rights, but this option was ruled out by the courts. However, she did not have to pay her court fees and this was dropped.
The Court also declared “To show deliberate indifference, Tsao must demonstrate that Desert Palace was on actual or constructive notice that its omission would likely result in a constitutional violation. Only then does the omission become the functional equivalent of a decision by Desert Palace itself to violate the Constitution.”
Blackjack Player Rejects Invitation from Dita Von Teese
November 8th, 2012 by Site Admin
Dita Von Teese is a well noted burlesque dancer in Hollywood and was once rumored to have been dating Marilyn Manson. According to recent news reports the dancer, set her eyes upon a very good looking blackjack player who is better known for his acting prowess than for his skills at blackjack.
Bradley Cooper, who likes to play blackjack when he goes to a casino and who starred in the movie the Hangover, was reportedly at a restaurant that Dita Von Teese was also present at. The restaurant in question was Farfalla, an Italian joint in Los Feliz.
According to news reports, Dita Von Teese had sent a drink to Cooper, that he accepted with a thank you but he rejected her advances without even a second glance.
Bradley Cooper is known to be quite the player in Hollywood and not just at games of blackjack. He was the recipient of several flirtatious glances and lip smacking gestures from Von Teese, who has been described as the Queen of Burlesque.
However, according to a source close to the “Queen of Burlesque” – the rumors went unconfirmed and the story was declared to be untrue, as the source claimed that Dita Von Teese was not even as the restaurant.
Dean Heller: Political Brinkmanship Should Have no Place in Online Gaming
November 7th, 2012 by Site Admin
Nevada Senator Dean Heller said that the United States needs to keep political sentiments out of online gaming discussions. Heller said that the bill is essential to the future of his state’s economy.
He argues that clashes between both parties are likely to reduce the chances of an online poker bill making its way to the president’s desk. The constant debate between democrats and republicans also lessens the likelihood that a bill will be passed that either party will favor.
Heller seems resigned to the fact that a high degree of tension between both parties will be inevitable during an election year. Therefore, he recommends that Congress waits until after the election to resume discussions on an online gaming bill.
Heller admits that he is going to have a hard time focusing on passing an online gaming bill while fighting to retain his seat in the Senate. He is certain that the bill will eventually be passed.
However, Heller believes there is no chance of the bill passing this session. The bill will need to receive the 10-15 Republican votes needed if it is to pass. Some Republicans such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have repeatedly changed their position on online gaming in recent months. Other Republican senators appear to be leaning towards online gaming legislation, but they are still on the fence. Heller feels that moving forward with a bill to legalize online gaming would be too risky when so many politicians are worried about securing their seats during the upcoming election.
Heller said that he expects to work closely with democrat senator and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid after the election to pass the bill that he expects to legalize online gaming.
