Queenco Leisure International (QLI) has finalised the terms of an agreement with Constanta Municipality, Romania, granting the QLI concession rights over a historic building in the city, which the company intends to renovate and operate, Casino Constanta.
The agreement is for an initial period of 49 years, but grants QLI the option to extend the terms for a further 24 years, subject to the consent of both the company and Constanta Municipality. Under the terms of the agreement, QLI will invest an approximate total of €10.0 million and pay gross annual royalties of €140,000 to Constanta Municipality.
The building covers an area of 801m² and is located on Constanta’s beachfront. It was built in 1909, and declared a national architectural treasure in 1956. Completed between the two World Wars in art nouveau style according to the plans of the architects, Daniel Renard and Petre Antonescu, the Casino features sumptuous architecture and a wonderful view of the sea. The pedestrian area around the Casino is a sought-after destination for couples and families, especially at sunset.
QLI plans to open Casino Constanta in the second half of 2009, which will operate approximately 24 gaming tables and 250 slot machines. The company also intends to develop the casino as a comprehensive leisure venue with restaurants and other entertainment facilities. In addition to local visitors, QLI believes it will benefit from the high volume of tourists visiting the destination each year, and will also focus on developing a VIP customer base as part of its high roller strategy.
‘I am delighted we have finalised the terms of the Concession Agreement in Constanta, and look forward to working closely with the Municipality over the coming years. We believe that the Constanta concession, upon completion, will generate excellent returns for our shareholders and will be another key step in Queenco’s strategy of expanding our casino portfolio in emerging markets to capitalise on their superior growth.’, said Dror Mizeretz, CEO of QLI.
Queenco Leisure International Ltd. operates and manages two of Greece‘s nine licensed casinos under exclusive gaming licences and the Casino Palace in Romania.
As at 18 June 2007, the Group operated approximately 1,400 slot machines and 130 gaming tables, and employed 2,487 people in 4 countries.
Constanţa (historical names: Tomis, Greek: Κωνστάντια or Constantia, Turkish: Köstence, Bulgarian: Кюстенджа) is the oldest living city in Romania. Constanţa has the biggest harbour on the Black Sea, Port of Constanţa, the fourth largest in Europe, having the potential in the next few years to become the second largest in Europe after Rotterdam. Constanta is also the most popular destination for summer holidays in Romania for both the national and the international market because of its beachfront and cultural attractions.
Poker Stars started a new experience, beginning to operate a poker room in Cotai Strip (Dubbed PokerStars Macau), at Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino (25 tables, 250 players, cash games and tournaments).
The poker room was launched this week with a No-Limit Texas Hold’em Charity Poker tournament, for the victims of the recent earthquake in China. Participants competed for HKD $150,000 in prizes, including entries to the $25 000 HKD buy-inSeptember’s APPT Macau event, which features an HKD $25,000 buy-in. That event runs September 1-6, 2008 and has a guarantee of HKD $10,000,000.
“PokerStars is committed to the development of poker in Asia” said Joe Hachem, Poker World Champion and member of Team PokerStars Pro.
$4.5 billion Canadian investment in casino-resort project (“Ho Tram“) in the South of the Vietnam, the themehighlighting the lush natural beauty of the area while showcasing Vietnamese and Asian culture.
The most important investors in this project are Asian Coast Development Ltd. from Toronto and Harbinger Capital LLC from New York
The Ho Tram Stripis being designed by Steelman Partners andspread across 19 hectares of prime real estateon a beach in Xuyen Moc Commune, in Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu Province, near Ho Chi Minh City.
The first stage of the project (2008-2011) will include two luxurious five star hotels with 2300 rooms and a Las Vegas-style casinos – featuring live entertainment stages and an exclusive VIP area to compliment gaming floors with more than 180 live table games and 2000 electronic games. As recreational facilities, an expansive and luxurious spa, state-of-the-art performance facilities, an engaging upscale retail experience and a wide selection of elegant dining facilities offering local and international cuisine.
It is the most important investment in Vietnam, including, in the first stage, a 2,300 rooms hotel and a casino with 900 gambling tables, 500 slot machines, and a VIP area.
Finally, in 2015, the resort will comprise five hotels with 9,000 rooms and a second casino.
The site plan includes several theatres and museums, a cultural center, and an ongoing parade of events, a championship 200-acre golf coursedesigned by Greg Norman, a country club, and and a site for guests to swim with dolphins.
Vietnam (Vietnamese: Việt Nam), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Cộng hòa Xã hội Chủ nghĩa Việt Nam), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east. With a population of over 85 million, Vietnam is the 13th most populous country in the world.
Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu is a province of Vietnam. It is located on the coast of the country’s southeastern region. It also includes the Côn Đảo islands, located some distance off Vietnam’s southeastern coast. From 1954 to 1975, this province belonged to the Republic of Vietnam.
in ring game (cash game or live-action game) and tournament formats.
For the poker table seating, most casinos apply the rule first-come, first-served. Some poker rooms allow the use of the phone to ask to be placed on a list. If there is a break at a poker table, the players can inform the manager and their places will be held until they will be back.
The usual currency for the games are the chips, that can be purchased from the casino dealer, from cashiers, or from chip runners. Some will allow players to buy chips from each other at the table, and some allow to play with cash.
Usually there is a fee charge for conducting the game. The rake is the scaled commission fees taken by a casino operating a poker game. This fee structure is common in low-stakes cash games. For ring games, it is generally 5-10% of each poker hand, up to a predetermined maximum amount. This fee is sometimes referred to as the “drop” since the dealer will drop the rake into a container at the table.
In mid or high stakes games, there is sometimes used an hourly charge for renting a seat. It might be sometimes combined with a rake.
The usual fee for tournaments is 10% of the buy-in.
Some common rules in U.S. public cardrooms wrote by Bob Ciaffone in his book Robert’s Rules of Poker:
Players must protect their hands, either by holding their cards or placing a chip or other object on top of their cards. An unprotected hand may be mucked by the dealer in turn.
Players must act in turn. Players should not telegraph or otherwise indicate intentions to act prior to their turn to act.
In the event of an action out-of-turn, the action may be binding if there is no bet, call or raise between the out-of-turn action and the player’s proper turn.
Verbal declarations are binding and take precedence over non-verbal actions.
Betting actions without a verbal declaration must be made in a single motion or gesture (“no string bet” rule).
Knocking or tapping the table is a check. Tossing or pushing cards away is a fold.
In the absence of a verbal declaration of “Raise,” if a player puts in chips equal to 50 percent or more of the minimum raise, he will be required to make a full minimum raise. Otherwise, the action is deemed a call and the excess chips should be returned to the player.
In limit games, an oversized chip will be constituted to be a call if the player does not announce a raise. In no-limit, an oversized chip before the flop is a call; after the flop, an oversized chip by the initial bettor put in the pot will constitute the size of the bet. In pot-limit and no-limit, if a player states raise and throws in an oversized chip, the raise will be the maximum amount allowable up to the size of that chip.
Bets should be placed in front of the player’s cards. Chips should not be thrown (splashed) into the pot.
Wagers must be at least the size of the previous bet or raise in that round, unless a player is going all-in.
“Show one, show all” – Hole cards, including folded hands, should not be revealed to other players until showdown. If a player reveals his hole cards to another player active in the current hand, all players have the right to also see the hole cards. Also, if an uncalled winning hand is shown to only one player, then any other player at the table has a right to see the winning hand. Note that, contrary to a common misinterpretation, “show one, show all” does not refer to the number of cards in the hole – an uncalled winning hand may expose a single hole card without revealing the other hole card.
Players may not verbally disclose the contents of their hand.
Players may not advise other players how to play a hand (“One player to a hand” rule).
Cards may not be removed or held below the table or otherwise concealed from view.
Players in hands cannot reveal their hole cards to convince other players to fold; if so, the player’s cards are considered a dead hand.
Players must keep their highest denomination chips visible at all times.
Except for small denominations used to tip for food or drinks, players may not remove a portion of their chips from the table (called going south or ratholing) unless they cash out and leave the game. Players must not sell or share chips with another player at the table.
Cards speak for themselves and prevail if a player misstates the value of his hand at the showdown.
Speaking in foreign languages at the table is prohibited.
Players should not discuss or otherwise influence the hand-in-progress after folding.
Cell-phone use at the table is prohibited.
Profanity is prohibited.
In U.S., some local laws may limit the type or nature of poker games offered in public cardrooms. For example,
North Dakota has a limitation of $25 per individual hand, game or event.
In Montana the maximum size of a won pot is $300.
In San Jose, California, no single bet may exceed $200.
San Jose cardrooms have “spread-limit” games to finesse this rule.
Florida requires that in limit games, all bets be no more than $5, while in no-limit games the maximum buyin is $100.
In Florida, poker tournaments are exempted from the betting structure rules and may use any betting structure the cardroom wishes. Tournament formats are used to circumvent gambling rules in other states as well. Unlike some other forms of gambling, tribal gaming may be subject to state laws governing poker.
Typically, online poker rooms generate the bulk of their revenue via four methods:
The rake. Rake is collected from most real money ring game pots. The rake is normally calculated as a percentage of the pot based on a sliding scale and capped at some maximum fee. Each online poker room determines its own rake structure.
Pre-scheduled multi-table and impromptu sit-and-go tournaments are not raked, but rather an entry fee around ten percent of the tournament entry fee is added to the cost of the tournament.
Some online poker sites also offer games like black jack or side bets on poker hands where the player plays against “the house” for real money. The odds are in the house’s favor in these games, thus producing a profit for the house.
Online poker sites invest the money that players deposit. Since the sites do not have to pay interest on players’ bankrolls, this method can be a significant source of revenue.
Many online poker sites offer incentives to players in the form of bonuses. Usually the bonuses are given after a certain number of raked hands are played.
In addition, several online cardrooms employ VIP Managers to develop VIP programs to reward regular players and additional bonuses exist for players who wish to top-up their accounts. These are known as reload bonuses.
Gambling with the futures Socialist Worker Online, IL
One obvious one is the rising price of oil, which is increasing transportation and other costs for agricultural products. Another is profiteering on the …
The energy crisis: Only bold steps will help Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN
A frenzy of unregulated speculation in the futures markets is driving prices up in what one oil analyst called “the world’s largest gambling hall. …
Without gambling on the economy Ha’aretz, Israel
Until March he claimed that the deviation in the rate of world price increases stemmed from the sharp increase in the price of oil, metals and food. …
Full throttle Fund Strategy, UK
The price of oil has doubled over the past year, against an incessant drumbeat of warnings: an emerging consumer class can barely satisfy its demand for …
Reduced luxuries Napa Valley Register, CA
There was a time when the gambling Meccas were noted for cheap rooms and unlimited buffets. No so any more. Gambling, once the lifeblood of the casinos, …
Behind Latin America’s Food Crisis IRC’s Americas Program, NM
Yes, critics of agrofuels warned that food shortages and price hikes would result from the headlong rush to divert land from food to fuel production. …
Liquid Assets Charleston Post Courier, SC
The price of soybean oil, the main ingredient in most US biodiesel, has risen faster recently than that of crude oil, almost tripling in five years. …
A Way To Curb Oil Speculation Hartford Courant, United States
Every time a bomb explodes in Basra, speculators bid up the price of oil for future delivery. They are gambling that they know enough about the market to …
Tullow Oil is a good long term play Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
The Jubilee oil field, off Ghana’s coast, has been the making of Tullow. Last year, investors drove up Tullow’s share price on expectations that Jubilee’s …
Gas price patience running on empty? Times Daily (subscription), AL
Ingram said many investors are gambling that more Americans will hit the road this summer and are bidding up the price of oil in anticipation of a busy …
AP News Calendar The Associated Press
___ WEDNESDAY, May 21 Washington — Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the price of oil. Witnesses include oil company chief executives. …
When government plays games with numbers, we all lose Concord Monitor, NH
It’s a scary thought: Over 20 percent of our GDP is now in gambling. The trajectories the finance industry needs to calculate are market-based. …
Edible oils offer some relief as inflation dogs consumers Hindu Business Line, India
In Subhiksha, for instance, the price of sunflower oil has dropped by around Rs 15 a litre since March 3. Groundnut oil has seen a drop of around Rs 12. …
Bungled Spygate probe provides few answers Florida Times-Union, FL
Contrast that to the way former commissioner Pete Rozelle suspended Paul Hornung and Alex Karras – then two of the NFL’s biggest stars – for gambling on …
Dorgan calls for action on crude oil speculation Dickinson Press, ND
He called the rampant oil market “the world’s largest gambling hall” or the equivalent to a highway “with no cops and no speed limit and everybody’s going …
A gambling affiliate is a commercial entity with a relationship with a peer or a larger entity.
We well define the gambling corporative, a facility that houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. It can be a casino, poker room, bingo halls, lotteries, sports betting agency, as well as hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships and other tourist attractions. It includes also the entities licensed to provide online gambling services.
A gambling corporative may be referred to as an gambling affiliate of another when it is related to it but not strictly controlled by it, as with a subsidiary relationship, or when it is desired to avoid the appearance of control.
Gambling affiliate marketing typically refers to an electronic version of the traditional gambling advertising channel concept. A gambling affiliate is a website which links back to a corporative gambling site like CasinoTropez.com.
However, as the Internet marketring continues to evolve, gambling affiliates are no longer restricted to website owners. Bloggers and members of different online community forums can be affiliates as well. Many emerging affiliate programs are now accepting bloggers and individuals, not necessarily webmasters, to be affiliates.
A good source for a gambling affiliate to buy an already promoted specific or generic domain name, web site or blog, is Gambling Sites For Sale.
Gambling affiliates can also be referred as publishers. Many publishers are very well known gamblers ( Tony G, Daniel Negreanu, etc.).
Illustration of the concept of gambling affiliate marketing
Gambling affiliate marketing is a web-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more gambling affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts.
Affiliate marketing is also the name of the industry where a number of different types of companies and individuals are performing this form of internet marketing, including affiliate networks, affiliate management companies and in-house affiliate managers, specialized 3rd party vendors, and various types of affiliates/publishers who promote the products and services of their partners.
Gambling affiliate marketing overlaps with other internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, email marketing and in some sense display advertising (in their own web sites, or on specialized web, sites such as Casino Online Advertising). On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques like publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.
One of the most important action in search engine optimization, is to get links back to your site from other similar web sites. Because Google and the other search engines penalize the reciprocal links, it is widely used the cross-linking methods. The best and most efficient ways to do this and this way to promote your web site and get more traffic, are the banner exchange (See MultiMedia BX) and webring methods. A webring in general is a collection of websites from around the Internet joined together in a circular structure. The best gambling webrings you can find at webring.com (http://u.webring.com/hub?ring=bestonlinecasin3, http://u.webring.com/hub?ring=betgambling, http://r.webring.com/hub?ring=poker).
The rise of blogging, interactive online communities and other new technologies, web sites and services based on the concepts that are now called Web 2.0 have impacted the affiliate marketing world as well. Most of the turnkey web sites from Gambling Sites For Sale include these characteristics.
90% of gambling affiliate programs today use revenue sharing or cost per action (CPA) and the remaining 10% are other methods, such as cost per click (CPC) or cost per mille (CPM). CPM and CPC are today still heavily used in display advertising and paid search.
Cost per mille (thousand) (CPM/CPT) requires the publisher only to load the advertising on his website and show it to his visitors in order to get paid a commission, while PPC requires one additional step in the conversion process to generate revenue for the publisher. Visitors must not only be made aware of the ad, but also pursue them to click on it and visit the advertiser’s website.
Cost per click (CPC/PPC) used to be more common in the early days of affiliate marketing, but diminished over time due to click fraud issues that are very similar to the click fraud issues modern search engines are facing today.
In the case of CPM or CPC, the publisher does not care if the visitor is the type of audience that the advertiser tries to attract and is able to convert, because the publisher already earned his commission at this point. This leaves the greater, and, in case of CPM, the full risk and loss (if the visitor can not be converted) to the advertiser.
CPA require that referred visitors do more than visiting the advertiser’s website in order for the affiliate to get paid commission. The advertiser must convert that visitor first. It is in the best interest for the affiliate to send the best targeted traffic to the advertiser as possible to increase the chance of a conversion. The risk and loss is shared between the affiliate and the advertiser.
For this reason affiliate marketing is also called “performance marketing”. Gambling affiliates are not employed by the advertiser whose gambling entity they promote, but the compensation models applied to affiliate marketing are very similar to the ones used for people in the advertisers’ internal sales department.
Some advertisers offer multi-tier programs that distribute commission into a hierarchical referral network of sign-ups and sub-partners. In practical terms: publisher “A” signs up to the program with an advertiser and gets rewarded for the agreed activity conducted by a referred visitor. If publisher “A” attracts other publishers (“B”, “C”, etc.) to sign up for the same program using her sign-up code all future activities by the joining publishers “B” and “C” will result in additional commission (at a lower rate) for publisher “A”.
This system rewards a chain of hierarchical publishers who may or may not know of each others’ existence, yet generate income for the higher level signup.
Two-tier programs exist in the minority of affiliate programs; most are simply one-tier. Referral programs beyond 2-tier are multi-level marketing (MLM) or network marketing.
Gambling affiliate sites are often categorized by advertisers and affiliate networks. There are no industry-wide accepted standards for the categorization. The following list is very generic but commonly understood and used by gambling affiliate marketers:
Search affiliates that utilize pay per click search engines to promote the advertisers offers
Comparison gambling sites and directories
Loyalty sites, typically characterized by providing a reward system for gambling via points back, cash back or charitable donations
Bonus sites that focus on gambling promotions
Content and niche sites, including gambling review sites
Personal websites (these type of sites were the reason for the birth of affiliate marketing, but are today almost reduced to complete irrelevance compared to the other types of affiliate sites)
Blogs and RSS feeds (See for ex. http://betbloggers.com, where anyone can have a free gambling blog)
Email list affiliates (owners of large opt-in email list(s))
Registration path or Co-Registration affiliates who include offers from other companies during a registration process on their own website.
Gambling directories that list gambling sites by categories without providing bonus, gambling comparison and other features based on information that frequently change and require ongoing updates.
CPA networks are top tier affiliates that expose offers from gambling advertiser they are affiliated with to their own network of affiliates (not to confuse with 2nd tier)
Gambling affiliate networks that already have a number of advertisers usually also have a large number of publishers. This large pool of publishers could be potentially recruited. There is also an increased chance that publishers in the network apply to the program by themselves, without the need for any recruitment efforts by the advertiser.
Relevant sites that attract the same audiences as the advertiser is trying to attract, but are not competing with the advertiser, are potential affiliate partners as well. Even vendors or existing customers could be recruited as affiliates, if it makes sense and does not violate any laws or regulations.
Almost any website could be recruited as an affiliate publisher, although high traffic websites are more likely interested in (for them) low risk CPM or medium risk CPC deals rather than higher risk CPA or revenue share deals.
Affiliate programs directories are one way to find affiliate programs, another method is large affiliate networks that provide the platform for dozens or even hundreds of advertisers. The third option is to check the target website itself for a reference to their affiliate program. Websites, which offer an affiliate program often, have a link titled “affiliate program”, “affiliates”, “referral program” or “webmasters” somewhere on their website, usually in the footer or “About” section of the site.
Even if all those methods seem to indicate that a site does not have an affiliate program, it could still be the case that there exists a non-public affiliate program. The only way to find out for sure, is to contact the site owner directly and ask.
A new MGM Grand casino will open at Foxwoods this weekend. The festivities will be overshadowed by the United Auto Workers that will protest against unfair tipping policy and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe’s refusal to bargain, trying to negotiate a union contract.
A new way the tips are distributed among dealers is going to decrease their earnings.
“We’re glad we could reach an agreement on this event that works for everyone. We’re glad to be there, we protected our first amendment rights, and we are confident we will get our message out,” said Director of UAW Region 9a, Bob Madore.
The Union will try to make aware the casino customers of the unfair labor practices, many dealers joining the protest.
The opening will have as guests many celebrities, such as Michael Douglas and his wife, Catherine Zeta Jones, and Jamie Lynn Sigler.
Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is an American retired professional basketball player. Nicknamed “Sir Charles,” for his aggressive and outspoken demeanor, and “The Round Mound of Rebound,” for his unusual build and talent as a player, Barkley established himself as one of the National Basketball Association’s most dominating power forwards. He was selected to both the All-NBA First Team and All-NBA Second Team five times and once named to the All-NBA Third Team. He earned eleven NBA All-Star Game appearances and was named the All-Star MVP in 1991. In 1993, he was voted the league’s Most Valuable Player and during the NBA’s 50th anniversary, named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. He competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States’ Dream Team. In 2006, Barkley was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. (Wikipedia)
Barkley is known for his compulsive gambling. In an interview with ESPN’s Trey Wingo, he revealed that he lost approximately $10 million through gambling. In addition, he also admitted to losing $2.5 million “in a six hour period” while playing blackjack. Although Barkley openly admits to his problem, he claims it is not serious since he can afford to support the habit. When approached by fellow TNT analyst Ernie Johnson about the issue, Barkley replied, “It’s not a problem. If you’re a drug addict or an alcoholic, those are problems. I gamble for too much money. As long as I can continue to do it I don’t think it’s a problem. Do I think it’s a bad habit? Yes, I think it’s a bad habit. Am I going to continue to do it? Yes, I’m going to continue to do it.”
Despite suffering big losses, Barkley also claims to have won on several occasions. During a trip to Las Vegas, he claims to have won $700,000 from playing blackjack and betting on the Indianapolis Colts to defeat the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. He went on to state, however, “No matter how much I win it ain’t a lot. It’s only a lot when I lose. And you always lose. I think it’s fun, I think it’s exciting. I’m gonna continue to do it but I have to get to a point where I don’t try to break the casino ’cause you never can.” In May 2008, the Wynn Las Vegas casino filed a civil complaint against Barkley, alleging that he had failed to pay a $400,000 debt stemming from October 2007. Barkley responded by taking blame for letting time lapse on the repayment of the debt and promising to pay it back.
Basketball: Barkley plans to pay up
Ottawa Citizen, Canada
Hall of Fame basketball player Charles Barkley told a radio station he will repay the $400000 US he owes the Wynn Las Vegas casino for gambling debts. …
Charles Barkley faces gambling debt case
The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A prosecutor says retired NBA star Charles Barkley will face felony charges if he fails to repay a $400000 gambling debt to a Las Vegas …
Business Glance
Salt Lake Tribune, United States
Hall of Fame basketball player Charles Barkley told an Alabama radio station he will repay the $400000 he owes Wynn Resorts Ltd. for gambling debts. ..
Barkley says he will pay $400000 to Wynn Las Vegas
Sportsnet.ca, Canada
t’s a good bet that Charles Barkley will pay back the $400000 he admits he owes Wynn Las Vegas LLC. But the Hall of Famer and TNT NBA analyst disputes some …
Charles Barkley’s Gambling Debt Raises 10 Questions
Bleacher Report, CA
by Greg Adams (Scribe) To be fair, in the article, it is noted that Barkley can make restitution to avoid felony bad check charges. Yowsers. $400K? …
Sports Watch
KFOR, OK
LAS VEGAS (AP) – A prosecutor says retired NBA star Charles Barkley will face felony charges if he fails to repay a $400000 gambling debt to a Las Vegas …
Celebrity Gossip Round-Up
CKFR, Canada
The Wynn Las Vegas resort has filed suit against former NBA star Charles Barkley, claiming he owes the casino $400000 in gambling markers. …
Sports Buzz
Kansas City Star, MO
A day after being sued for failing to repay four $100000 casino markers, former NBA star Charles Barkley acknowledged he owed the $400000 gambling debt. …
Sox set to fatten up on home cooking — if they hit
Chicago Tribune, United States
Charles Barkley owes $400000 dating to markers the Wynn Hotel extended to him last October. Barkley previously said he has a gambling problem. …
Sports Buzz
The Birmingham News – al.com, AL
Charles Barkley has a right to spend his money as he wishes. If he wants to gamble and lose $400000 in a Las Vegas casino in a two-day span, … Basketball briefs News & Observer
Off the wire
Arkansas Democrat Gazette, AR
Former NBA star Charles Barkley, 45, now a basketball analyst for Turner Network Television, acknowledged he owes a $ 400, 000 gambling debt to a Las Vegas …
Basketball: Casino sues Barkley
Ottawa Citizen, Canada
The Wynn Las Vegas casino has sued former NBA star Charles Barkley, saying he owes $400000 US in gambling debts, the Las Vegas Sun reported yesterday. …
Lee Rousso, the Washington State Director of the Poker Players Alliance, filed a lawsuit on July 1, 2007, seeking to have UIGEA declared unconstitutional, considering that the new law discriminated against interstate businesses and, thus, violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. He said that UIGEA was supported by Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Renton, whose district contains the state’scasinos and card rooms.
On May 16, 2008, State Court Judge Mary Roberts rejected the complaint, considering that there is no prove that the state law unfairly protected gaming interests inside the state at the expense of interests outside the state, and that the state’s historically strict prohibition on gambling influenced her ruling.
“The state loves gambling, it’s a gigantic business. It’s just the state protecting its turf.” , said Lee Rousso. “We are going to win this battle. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday soon.”
Poker News says that Washington state Gambling Commission spokeswoman Susan Arland disagrees. She said the law is meant to protect the public from the risk of playing on unregulated sites. “You don’t know who’s behind that screen. You don’t know if the games are fair or honest. You don’t know if you get paid your winnings.”
Yahoo! changes his terms of service regarding the gambling ads, for the UK advertisers. This is due to the change in UK legislation for gambling advertising, that is now less restrictive.
AccuraCast says that Yahoo! sent an email to its UK clients telling them that under recent UK legislation on gambling advertising, UK gambling ads may now include invitations to play or any mention of money, bonuses and prizes.
Yahoo Search Marketing have partnered recently with Media Corporation, an Internet media firm which owns onthebox.com, gambling.com and sport.co.uk, to provide search results and advertising across Media Corp’s extensive publishing network.
It is about a legal way to win, but take care! Such practice is considered an advantage gambling and, if the casinos see that you are a skillfull or knowledgeable player that can gain an advantage at blackjack by using the card-counting or shuffle tracking, at video poker by using a strategy card devised or not by computer analysis of the game, or at progressive slot machines by taking advantage of a high jackpot, you can end by being listed on the Black Book. And, if you will be listed finally on the Griffin Book shared by the casinos, you will end you career as gambler much sooner that you intended to do, because you will be excluded from all the casinos that have access to the book.
Bonus hunting (bonus bagging, or bonus whoring) makes possible from a mathematically point of view to get a profit. Wikipedia shows as example the house edge in blackjack which is roughly 0.5%. In the example above, $5000 in wagering with a house edge of 0.5% will result in an expected loss of $25. Since the player received a $100 signup bonus, after subtracting the expected loss of $25, the player has an expected profit of $75.
If you play at an online casino, you will take advantage by the signup bonuses, usually one-off bonuses for signing up to the casino and opening an account. There are terms and conditions for each bonus, like restricted games or bets and wagering requirements.
Wagering requirements prevent players from withdrawing the bonus money immediately after receiving it. Before the bonus money can be withdrawn the player must wager a certain amount of money on unrestricted games. The wagering can be spread out over many bets. To meet a $2000 wagering requirement, a player could make 1000 $2 bets on blackjack, provided blackjack is not a restricted game.
Games like blackjack and video poker have a low house advantage. The house advantage for blackjack is ~0.5%. So in the example above, by playing $2000 worth of blackjack with a house advantage of 0.5%, a player is, expected to lose $10 in total. But the expected value is an average value and may be less than the actual value.
Assuming that you only lose an amount close to the expected loss, and the bonus awarded to you after meeting this wagering requirement is greater than $10 then you will have a profit. The process is mathematically calculated. Bad luck could cause a player to lose more than $10 playing blackjack in this situation.
In sports betting, by taking advantage of free bet promotions, you can back the event, and then lay the event on a betting exchange, at similar or same odds, thus ensuring that the free bet is not a bet at all, instead more like a financial trade. No matter the outcome, it is possible (by using a betting / arb calculator) to calculate both the possible outcomes before the sporting event has started. By inputting the odds, the bet calculator then tells you what amount to bet, to ensure that whether the bet wins or loses, the return is the same.
In online poker, the poker player can take advantage by the incentive bonuses offered by the site after a certain number of raked hands are played. For example, a site may offer a player who deposits $100 a bonus of $50 once he plays 500 raked hands. A poker player who can at least break even can become a long-term winner by playing with poker bonuses. This way, a winning poker player can add to their winnings with the use of bonuses.
During July 29-30, 2008, will take place the conference Next Generation in Gambling (NGG) (Exploring multi-channel delivery of games to customers while complying with federal and state laws in Canada, United States and Latin America).
The event will target the casino, racing, and lottery companies working in North American jurisdictions, focusing to expand delivery channels while staying in compliance with the law, developing multi-channel strategies to bring gaming products directly to consumers is a logical next step.
The topics will cover technological information via the dedicated technology track, marketing tips, thought-provoking keynotes, and panel discussions from professional speakers like Hon. Alfonse D’Amato (Chairman and Chief Executive, Poker Players Alliance), Chris Collins (Linden Lab), Shawn Kreloff (CEO, Sona Mobile).
CryptoLogic Limited, a leading software developer to the global Internet gaming market, through its wholly owned subsidiary WagerLogic, has announced a three-year licensing contract with 888 Holdings PLC, one of the world’s most popular online gaming companies. Under the agreement, 888 will select and integrate casino games from CryptoLogic that best complement 888′s broad offering.
“Today’s announcement is consistent with CryptoLogic’s strategy to partner with the world’s biggest and best gaming brands – as a way to offer the ultimate player experience,” said Brian Hadfield, CryptoLogic’s President and CEO. “888′s reputation, established player base and global marketing strength, paired with CryptoLogic’s industry-leading games – it’s a winning combination.”
“This reaffirms 888′s strategy of creating a game ecosystem, powered by an industry-leading integration infrastructure, which enables 888 to introduce a diversified offering to existing and new players, worldwide,” said Gigi Levy, CEO of 888.
“For CryptoLogic, 888 is a natural fit,” added Justin Thouin, CryptoLogic’s Vice President, Product Management and Business Development. “Together, we offer the world’s best online games through one of the world’s largest Internet casinos.”
Source: CryptoLogic Limited
About CryptoLogic:
CryptoLogic Inc. (TSX: CRY) is a Dublin, Ireland-based software application service provider (formerly Toronto, Canada), one of the four largest in the industry along with Microgaming, Playtech, and Real Time Gaming.
Cryptologic listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (CRY) in 1998 and on the NASDAQ (CRYP) in 2000. In 2003 the company began trading on the London Stock Exchange (CRP) before achieving gaming software certification in Alderney.
The Playboy brand launched casino and poker products on Playboygaming.com using Cryptologic software in early 2007.
World Poker Tour Enterprises (WPTE) also joined the CryptoLogic network in 2007, offering both casino and poker products.
About 888.com:
888 Holdings Plc incorporates Cassava Enterprises (Gibraltar) Ltd., a limited company listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: 888) which operates several high-profile gambling websites: 888.com, Casino-on-Net, Reef Club Casino, Pacific Poker.
On October 2, 2006, 888 Holdings announced that it had indefinitely suspended business from US customers in light of the passage of the Safe Port Act by the US Congress three days before. On August 14, 2007, the US Department of Justice asked to recoup all profits made by the company in America. This would amount to nearly $120m for 888.
An already tested method to defeat the online gambling companies started to act again, after Bodog.
1st Technology made a complaint against several companies including Digital Gaming Solutions SA, Costa Rica International Sports, Action Poker Gaming Enterprises and SBG Global; two Norwegian companies: Playsafe Holding AS and eCom Enterprises; and Digital Gaming Network, Ltd., which is based in Curacao, for the inftingement of a US patent. The result could be the confiscation of the domain names and default judgements.
Gambling 911 tells us that the complaint, filed in a Missouri Supreme Court, is considering the U.S. Patent No. 5,564,001, titled “Method and System for Interactively Transmitting Information Over A Network Which Requires Reduced Bandwidth”.
What is interesting is that this kind of action is taken against companies that are not under the jurisdiction of the US. But, in order to be able to fight against the online gambling, it is used an intermediate for the complaint and the fact that many international institutions that are implied in the domain name and Internet regulation are based within US, so they are considered as being under the US jurisdiction.
I do not know if this US patent it is a legal and enough argument against the online gambling companies. But why they didn’t act before the UIGEA, when US was accepting the online gambling?
And more than this, it seems to me that during the last years the US patents grown in a such manner that soon there will be very few activities on Internet that will no infringe a patent or another (in an insurance related web site, I was forced some time ago to change the metatag “farm insurance” because it is patented by an US company).
And they have even the power and the tools to impose their own rules, as long as the most important specific institutions are under the US jurisdiction.
So, it seems that the Internet is no more a “worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol”, but a patent where we are accepted temporarily, as long as we do not bother the owner.
This championship starts in May and it is managed by Titan Poker, a thrilling online tournament series where skilled poker players compete for a share of millions of dollars over an action-packed ten days.
The first ECOOP was in December 2007, when they gave away $2,500,000.
The ECOOP II will run from the
3rd of May to the 1st of June.The prizes for this second championship will overcome $3,600,000.
Play for your place on our special ECOOP II leaderboard and you could also win a seat in a $50,000 Freeroll. All top
00 PLAYERS will be eligible to play in the $50,000 GP Freeroll, which will be staged 72 hours after the Main Event.
ECOOP II schedule of events:
ECOOP EVENT
Tournament
Date
Buy-In
Guaranteed Prize
DAY ONE
ECOOP NL Hold’em
Friday
May 23
2008
$200+$15
$250,000
DAY TWO
ECOOP PLO Hi-Lo R/A
Saturday
May 24
2008
$100+$9
$100,000
DAY THREE
ECOOP NL Hold’em
Sunday
May 25
2008
$300+$20
$500,000
DAY FOUR
ECOOP PLO Rebuy
Monday
May 26
2008
$100+$9
$150,000
DAY FIVE
ECOOP NL Hold’em
Tuesday
May 27
2008
$750+$50
$300,000
DAY SIX
ECOOP NL Hold’em 6 Max
Wednesday
May 28
2008
$200+$15
$200,000
DAY SEVEN
ECOOP Limit Hold’em
Thursday
May 29
2008
$200+$15
$100,000
DAY EIGHT
ECOOP NL Hold’em Rebuy
Friday
May 30
2008
$100+$9
$300,000
DAY NINE
ECOOP PL Omaha
Saturday
May 31
2008
$250+$18
$150,000
DAY TEN
ECOOP MAIN EVENT NL Hold’em
Sunday
June 01
2008
$1,000+$60
$1,500,000
MVP FREEROLL
ECOOP MVP Freeroll NL Hold’em
Wednesday
June 04
2008
Freeroll
$50,000
You can buy-in to the ECOOP directly or win your seat at our qualifying satellites.
In all the ECOOP tournaments, every event winner will also receive a special ECOOP bracelet!
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