This week the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of the United Kingdom has struck online casinos again. This time it touches one of the pillars of the online gambling industry, PokerStars. PokerStars is the world’s leading poker room gambling site; the company stands out for very high daily and synchronous gambling rates. And with the beginning of autumn PokerStars must take away a poster advert that depicts land-based and online poker ace Daniel Negreanu. The said advertisement supposedly contains some taboo implications determined by ASA as inappropriate for a gambling advertisement.

PokerStars fought the judgment from the ASA but without success. The ASA asserts that the phrase that is used on the poster suggests that online poker gambling improves a self-image of a person. The wording at the poster’s bottom cites Negreanu who says: “Poker is a sport of courage, conviction and confidence.” The advert depicts Negreanu in hockey gear and holding a hockey stick but not at the poker tables. According to PokerStars, it is a delineating fact. PokerStars disputes that the wording does not suggest that a concerned player could find these things at an online casino, but in place of it the ad implies that those users who have already succeeded have the above-mentioned characteristics.

The ASA evidently sees the advert in a different way and insists on that it defies some advertising clauses of the United Kingdom in place. PokerStars have to pull the use of the advertisement from the public and do not use of the poker advertisement any longer.

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Have you ever thought the industry that processes online payment could be interesting? Though, this month the new e-payment product developments of the processing industry have made headlines. Some of the main payment processing companies have announced some big changes and advancements in their systems whereas some internet casinos have announced improved payment processing solutions as well. Neteller made news last week as the European iGaming Congress and Expo aims at what promises to be one of the greatest years for this yearly event. A number of leading companies, including Neteller, had announced that they were going to reveal a new product at the Expo. Netbanx system is newly designed product of Neteller. At the point there are a lot of casino executives who are eager for these new product demonstrations.

Netbanx will increase what Neteller already offers to internet-based casinos and e-merchants regarding e-wallet services. The new Payment suit focuses upon the Netbanx international payments system addition. At the moment Neteller can service merchants and companies outside of the online gambling industry better. The company is seeking a way to use the web to sell services and products. The Expos finished yesterday in Barcelona and Neteller unveiled not only the new e-payment processing system, but also announced 3 new marketing agreements for the innovative payment suite.

Neteller is mainly centered on the online gambling industry still. A few big names in the industry, such as Betfred, Bet265, and Purple Lounge will market the product. Neteller expects these new online payment features to give the company a needed advantage at attracting new customers from the European online gambling industry.

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The case between Antigua and the US has been dragging on for five years since 2003 when Antigua began dispute resolution process of the WTO to challenge the ban on cross-border online gambling by the United States. A year later the WTO Dispute Panel ruled for benefits for Antigua, it was said that the limitations on internet casino gambling broke international treaties. The ruling brought internet gambling closer to legalization at the territory of the USA and the rest part of the world.

Then Antigua and the United States started the discussion anew to resolve their trade dispute but they didn’t achieve success since the US stayed firmly at their position that the country’s law bans online casino gambling and so Antigua couldn’t serve the huge American gambling market.

The USA appealed against the World Trade Organization ruling but this ruling was supported on narrower grounds. The General Agreement on Trade in Services the USA is signatory to, makes it illegitimate for the United States to ban free trade or as in this case the internet gambling services provision to the USA from Antiguan based online companies. Since the USA already permits American based companies to conduct online gambling, there wouldn’t be any reason for it to withhold the similar rights from Antigua.

Up to now the USA has not complied with the ruling that it need to revise its laws concerning online casino gambling. Now Antigua has right to impose trade sanctions against the States to stimulate the meeting of international trade obligations to Antigua. However, the USA is considering withdrawal from the foreign provision of online gambling and betting services. It will cause the US to compensate Antigua’s losses, the amount of compensation is still uncertain.

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Important discussion has been flamed out between pros and anti-gambling personalities, after the release of an online casino gambling site by the Indians tribe San Diego Pauma Band of Mission. The site is powered by GameLogic, it has free play at video slots, card and table games.

The Pauma tribe says that the free internet gambling site is a sort of marketing for its land casino in California, North County. The marketing strategy play allows gamblers to earn credits through the internet gambling website. Later these credits can be used instead of real money when gambling at the land casino. This strategy also works in a reverse way, whereby the land-based casino gives its players special cards that they can use as points at the online casino gambling site.

Till now state regulators are not still sure whether or not the website is lawful, stating that an internet gambling watchdog body reported that the offered games were improperly licensed. However, one of the best experts in online gambling, Professor I. Nelson Rose assures that as nobody can lose money at the site, nobody can consider this online gambling.

The spokeswoman of GameLogic has asserted that the games are fully legal and have already been approved by a number of states. The National Indian Gaming Commission holds this side of the argument; it agrees with Professor Rose that they can’t be deemed online gambling if nobody loses money involved.

The North Country Times has also reported that state lawyers are unaware of the online gambling website. The debate over the issue is continuing.

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It is sure that Europe is largely involved in the online gambling industry. A lot of European internet-based gambling companies have really focused upon the fast developing and very perspective online casino gambling market of Asia. However, there is a company that thinks the online casino gambling market of Spain is the next prosperous online gambling market. This company is Latin Interactive Gaming (LIG). It has become the first online gambling company that targets its efforts only on gaming sites of Spain and Latin America.

Some leading online gambling companies of Europe have seen the potential of the South American online casino gambling industry but they have faced some problems when they wanted to expand the brand and advertize there. Latin Interactive Gaming nevertheless is specifically centered on negotiating and providing online casino gambling products that are developed exclusively for this market.

Maximiliano De Muro is CEO of the company. He has a lot of experience in the gambling industry. To launch a new internet casino is always a difficult task in any market, but according to De Muro the South American market is sure to emerge as a beneficial gambling market in the following “two years.” At the point LIG has 1 million Euros as startup capital to develop a brand and implement new online casinos in this new online casino gambling market.

The first step that LIG took was to purchase the Mediagambling Network. This acquisition gives the online gambling company a foot up in the development process with a built in players base. At the moment further marketing and development of the site takes center stage for Latin Interactive Gaming.

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The largest cheating scandal in the online gambling industry history has just got larger actually. The online gambling industry has fixedly watched the cheating scandals in which Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet were involved. These scandals rocked the gambling industry the whole past year. Colossal amount of money was involved in the cheating scandals. However, till this week Tokwiro Enterprises, the parent company for Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, has not offered any true suggestion of the scale of the cheating. Michael Brunker, MSNBC’s journalist wrote up the cheating scandal in the beginning of this week and his deep cheating scandal analysis gave an intimation into what became apparent and also legal action which is in preparation.

Because of the broad sweeping implications the cheating scandal has made the headlines and hotly reported all through the online gambling industry. The two cheating scandals are the biggest in the online gambling history and the poker scandal at Ultimate Bet proves to be much bigger than the Kahnawake Gaming Commission and Tokwiro reported in earlier about the investigation of the scandal. The question that worry many has focused upon the fact that Tokwiro Enterprises has not still reported about the perpetrators of the online poker cheating scandals and as much as is known up to now, nobody has been indicted or even implicated officially in the scandal.

The report of Brunker tells the gambling community about the cheating scandal at the online poker gambling websites but states that Ultimate Bet could see some serious allegations in the nearest future in reply to the cheating scandal.

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Crisis in the US economy produce a wide range of problems. And, of course, the economy situation influences on the land-based and internet casinos, though the websites have a lesser effect. According to The Las Vegas Strip, those who play slots are betting less than before and though the depression in land-based gambling activities are most of all obvious in the slots, every game has been influenced. Albeit, many in the gambling business suppose that the land slots players start gambling at online casinos, however, even that has not necessarily been true. As the economy is entering a recession and the online gambling companies are mostly banned in the United States, it has been a bad year for every sector of the market.

The gambling market of the USA has been in a state of flux especially this year as the economy really took a sharp downturn, the mortgage industry suffered, and the price of gas increased enormously. The land-based casino gambling industry at first expected the venues to remain mainly unaffected by the situation. But things went in opposite way since the quantity of citizens of the USA who would have wish to travel to such destinations as Las Vegas during the summer months decreased greatly.

According to statistics for July the gambling activities fell down a lot as compared with the same period of the last year, slots gaming dropped 10% from July of 2007. Though, interestingly enough, high-end table gaming saw some growth in gambler activity extraordinary wins from table players also placed the Strip at a loss for table gambling revenues.

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BackgammonMasters has increased its Game Lobby by including the new AstroPay Slot Game. AstroPay Slot is a video slot. It is their first slot in a series of Video Casino Games. AstroPay gives BackgammonMasters the complete casino gambling experience in addition to the highly popular Poker, Blackjack, Backgammon games and various tournaments. All of the company’s games are homebred, original, unique creations that the BackgammonMasters Game Development Team produces.

Jay Ryan, the CEO at BackgammonMasters says “We have always been famous for our high-quality game experience and our greater graphics, the feedback from our gamblers encouraged us to provide more of their popular games, if they are coming to us in order to play, they are sure it is going to be great”.

BackgammonMasters has turned into a one-stop shop for the most well-liked online casino games by providing such a great range of single-player games as well as multi-player ones. During Backgammon and Blackjack FreeRoll tournaments, gamblers like passing the time while waiting for other tables in order to complete their round by taking part in a lot of games. The AstroPay Slot offers gamblers a swift solution wherein they are able to play three different games straight away such as Blackjack, Poker, Backgammon and currently Slots.

Ryan added that the company urges their gamblers to come to test their new games and let them know their opinion. He said, “The opinion of our audience is the best form of live quality assurance testing. We are ready to hear our clients and give them the experience they need.”

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Playing poker at the internet casinos has just proved a lot more profitable for the poker professionals who participated in the just finished World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) tournaments held by Poker Stars. Poker Stars is the biggest online poker gambling site in the world and per se it can play host to some biggest online based tournaments in the world. All the leading internet casino poker gambling companies compete for the high roller poker gamblers and the Poker Stars WCOOP is certainly a main event in the gambling industry.

With reference to the result of the just ended WCOOP, the tournament events have finished now and the final event all the players could have hoped for was very competitive with a giant entry and more than $3.6 million. The buy-in was really competitive taking into consideration the tournament scale, at $530, it was enough to get rid of the amateur players from the poker pros.

The event finished with a long final table which made online casino poker players hold their breaths in anticipation. The first prize was an enormous $452,086 and Calvin32, an American player, is the holder of this year honors now. The player had tough competition at the final table and Poker Stars and all those who were watching the event saw the players gamble over 200 poker hands before Calvin32 managed to prevail.

Poker Stars has run a firm annual competition that not only draws the best online casino poker players from all over the world, but awards one gambler with the World Champion title for the whole year.

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Online casino gambling has become extremely profitable and competitive at the moment so that the gambling industry hasn’t only expanded globally, but also offers international and world tournaments. The latest tournament that is drawing global attention and excitement in the online gambling industry is the forthcoming World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) held by Poker Stars. Poker Stars is the world’s leading poker gambling site in terms of the amount of simultaneous and daily players. Because the site keeps on expanding, Poker Stars decided to launch a global Poker Championship for the online poker gambling community as a way to bring all the best in the globe to compete for parts of a gigantic prize pool.

This is its 7th season of WCOOP and it is at the end of this month. A big poker championship is always exciting event for the online gambling industry. At this time Poker Stars is running lot of qualifiers according to which they send some poker gamblers to the event with no buy-in. The WCOOP has steadily grown over the past 7 years and now it is held once a year, growing in the quantity of online poker gamblers as well as the minimum prize pool which is available for a number of events.

This year WCOOP is held in the last weeks of September and it leads up to the much anticipated main event. The main event that lasts for two day will crown the new WCOOP online poker winning gambler on 22 September, 2008. At the moment Poker Stars holds satellite and qualifying tournaments.

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