Yara Yarzagaray's Blog

30 Oct 2009 (PRESS RELEASE) -- On the 1st of December  betboo .com, a company of Gaming VC, will present to the world what seems to be the most innovative internet gambling platform available. The novelty has been baptized as mybetboo.com and the name sure make sense after you get to know it. Mybetboo.com is a free service that allows you to create your own casino, sports book, bingo or poker room; for you to play and bet with your own friends. Users can import their contacts from Gmail, Yahoo and MSN straight to their members list and start pro!ting right away over their online popularity. Another intriguing aspect about the product is its friendly and intuitive interface. The whole setup happens in a few minutes, thanks to the smart grid created by Betboo developers. There was such a solid result they rushed to register the patent of it. What they call the My.Betboo Grid® is a vertical rectangle of 54 empty spaces where anyone can drag and drop pretty much everything: Youtube ...

The viability of US intrastate poker systems may hinge on preventing offshore sites such as PokerStars and Full Tilt from taking US bets, according to two leading data providers to the online poker industry.   California and Florida are currently looking at legislation to establish intrastate online poker systems and regulations as permitted by an exemp tion under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) . This explicitly declares that online intrastate wagers do not constitute “unlawful internet gambling” if expressly allowed by the laws of a state.   But according to Poker Players Research (PPR), which provides the poker industry with regular reports and analyses, with almost everyone who is playing online poker for money now doing so in online poker rooms with over a million registered money players, a US intrastate poker site or network would need to get close to this number before it could offer an equal choice of games and size of tournaments ...

October 28, 2009 (CAP Newswire) --  Since it seems that the UIGEA is here to stay, at least for the short term, some states have begun plans for legalizing and regulating online gaming within their own borders, ignoring the larger national market.  One of the more confusing (and poorly understood) aspects of the UIGEA is that it doesn’t necessarily outlaw online gambling; it prevents inter-state online gambling. States are still theoretically free to set up their own online gaming networks within their own borders (with a certain amount of restrictions). California gave it a halting start last year and plans to try again in 2010. Florida is also considering doing so. And Illinois has just legalized online horse race betting. (Although some feel that UIGEA regulators may come down on that in the near future.)  There are many far-reaching results that would come from a trend of states legalizing online gaming within their own borders, adhering to the UIGEA framework. For st...

An investigation into online gambling payment processors by the US Attorney's office out of Baltimore, Maryland continues to hone in on the Internet casino Golden Casino. Van Smith of the Baltimore City Paper  has been actively reporting on the case . He advised Gambling911.com this week, that the investigation is likely to yield more news at a rapid fire pace. "It appears that the investigation is in an active phase," Smith said. "I'll likely be coming out with more pieces as new SSWs come available, or whatever else develops at the courthouse." On Wednesday, Smith revealed the latest move to show up in court records in Baltimore is the seizure of $365,366.69 from two bank accounts in the name of Atrium Financial Group (AFG). According to the affidavit in the case (below), Delaware-based AFG disburses money to on-line gamblers, including those who try their luck using GoldenCasino.com. The AFG affidavit, unlike those previously uncovered by the Ci...

January 2010 launch will see more compatibility with other jurisdictions The Alderney Gambling Control Commission has completed enhancements to its licensing regime following local government approval, and is now set to launch its new product in January 2010. AGCC CEO, Andre Wilsenach, says that the changes will not imply a major change in regulatory approach but recognise the fundamental changes that are taking place in the eGambling industry. “The new scheme seeks to make Alderney more compatible with other regulated jurisdictions in the world, specifically Europe, where the regulation of the business-to-customer relationship is moving towards the point of consumption," Wilsenach noted. "We will continue to enter into agreements with regulators in Europe and elsewhere, with the objective of facilitating regulatory cooperation and jurisdictional equivalence.” Source: LatestCasinoBonuses: 28th of October 2009

Vegas Tech licensees dishing out the dosh Vegas Technology-powered  online casinos  were generous on the progressives front again as the week commenced, with  Golden Casino  reporting a $94 459 hit on the 3 reel Win, Place or Show - the biggest on that machine yet. On Sunday the provider's progressive  blackjack  coughed up $250 000. Source: LatestCasinoBonuses: 28th of October 2009

Tain AB, the software development company, is to offer its poker and casino clients an expanded product, by integrating white label sportsbook OddsMatrix into the Tain Commons Platform (TCP). CEO of OddsMatrix Stian Hornsletten said: “We believe this a great opportunity to gain access to new clients and grow our customer base. Tain has a unique set-up with poker and casino sites, which will greatly benefit from accessing our fully managed sportsbook.” It was a view complemented by Tain CEO Christer Fahlstedt: “With the Poker industry currently undergoing significant changes it is increasingly important for operators to have a full offering. A sportsbook is an additional customer acquisition and retention tool as well as a route to new markets. OddsMatrix has quickly established itself and will be a very interesting addition to the range provided [by] the Tain Commons Platform (TCP)“. Tain, founded in 2001, is a proven gaming infrastructure software provider that provides pr...

More and More Countries Consider the Benefits of Legal, Regulated (and Taxed) Online Poker and Casinos October 27, 2009 (CAP Newswire) --  As the United States struggles with the looming deadline of the UIGEA, the anti-online gambling regulations pushed through Congress in 2006 and soon to be implemented into full law, other nations around the world also face their own legal battles regarding Internet gaming.  Just a few weeks ago, France took a big step towards legalizing more forms of online gambling, including online poker. Now, news comes that Germany may be following in its neighbor’s footsteps.  Currently, Germany bans all forms of online gambling except for horse racing (the same situation France was formerly in). But that ban ends in just over two years, and it’s under fire from some European groups, as well as some influential German politicians. Looks like it could be going down. ( Read more about that here .)  (As a side note, in Europe, a site called rig...

A new Australian-designed, state-of-the-art software betting platform, with the potential to revolutionise wagering systems worldwide, has recorded its first multi-million dollar, overseas sale to the New Zealand Racing Board (NZRB). The new betting system, called Typhoon, was developed over three years by Australian based software company, Media and Gaming, and launched this year. TyphoonÒ overcomes the numerous limitations embedded in the software of most wagering companies throughout the world, thereby delivering major operational and commercial benefits to them. The Managing Director of Media and Gaming, Nicholas Plowman, said, “This contract between NZRB and Media & Gaming will result in a commercial and technology-based partnership which will ensure the NZRB can take a leading position in an increasingly competitive global entertainment market.” The CEO of the NZRB, Mr. Andrew Brown, said, “As part of our modernisation strategy, the NZRB conducted a worldwide search...

Swedish gaming solutions developer Play’n Go has signed a deal with Jadestone Networks that will see it provide a range of casino games along with its Gaming Administration Toolkit (GAT) to DiceArena.com. The Vaxjo-based firm revealed that GAT is a comprehensive back office administration system that would now be used to manage the popular multi-player gaming site. “GAT from Play’n Go has all the management and marketing functions we need to stay in central command of DiceArena.com as it continues to grow at a rapid pace,” said Marcus Jacobs, Manager for DiceArena.com. “We also hope to delight new and loyal customers with blackjack, roulette, slots and other instant-play casino games from Play’n Go. These exiting games will serve as a welcome complement to our existing selection of multi-player backgammon, dice and arcade games.”

By  Van Smith, Baltimore City Paper Electracash, Inc., the California payment-processor whose bank accounts were  seized  in July by federal investigators in Maryland who are probing the online gambling industry, has been targeted again. This time, the Feds are going after evidence of gambling-related communications in Electracash's e-mail account with New York-based Intermedia. Electracash's chief executive officer, D. Lee Falls, did not return a phone message seeking comment. The latest  seizure warrant  was signed by U.S. District Court magistrate judge James Bredar on Oct. 9, and was entered yesterday on the federal courts on-line database, PACER. Like prior bank-account seizure warrants in the investigation, the sworn affidavit supporting the e-mail seizure is sealed. The investigator who applied for the e-mail warrant, Richard S. Gunn, is an Anne Arundel County police detective and task-force officer for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE...

Politicians Are Dodging Issue; Meanwhile, Most Online Gambling Sites Have Already Blocked Access to U.S. Long Ago October 22, 2009 (CAP Newswire) --  As the December 1st deadline for UIGEA compliance in the United States gets uncomfortably close, some figures in the political and online gambling worlds are scrambling to get the laws delayed, permanently or even just temporarily.  But, at the risk of taking a slightly negative perspective, those efforts don’t seem to have much hope. As Matthew Kredell writes at  PokerNews.com , “It's time for people to lower their expectations about when licensed and regulated Internet poker will be available in the United States. It's not going to be this year. It probably won't be next year, but it will likely happen eventually -- at the government's pace.” “In 2010, it will be an election year,” agrees the Mrbonus blog. “Many Democrats who won their seats in the last election did so by narrow margins in usually conservative areas. Re...

New York Media Eats Up Bet On Line “Mob” Connections The indictments and subsequent arrests of several individuals connected with the Panama-based online gambling site, BetOnLine.com, has taken center stage in the New York media, painting everyone associated with the company as "Mob" connected. "Everyone saw this one coming," said an operator based out of Costa Rica, where most online sports betting sites are based. Joseph Fafone, arrested while trying to fly out of Rochester Tuesday night, was well liked in the industry and maintained close ties with many other bookmakers. "Nobody could understand how or why Joe would fly in and out of the States on a regular basis. He was one of the only guys who did this." Since passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in October 2006 and several high profile arrests, most industry operators made the decision not travel to and from the United States. Fafone had once operated out of the BetO...

Bad casinos spam If you   provide one of these evil online casinos with personal data, you will receive phone calls, spam and other annoying forms of advertisement and communication. Fraudulent casinos sell information about their customers to third parties, which in most cases is a breach of their own terms. These places do it anyway. Fraudulent casinos have cheating games or software Unfair payouts are among the worst scenarios for any gambler.   Though a player may believe to be playing under fair rules at these casinos, the payout is preset so the player only has a slim or non-existing chance of winnings at all. Each online casino has a Random Number Generator (RNG) that is supposed to guarantee a fair outcome of the games. At an evil online casino the RNG's are programmed to not work "randomly". Bad casinos misuse their own terms or retroactively apply new ones Any casino needs to have house rules but only evil ones misuse them in order...

BetOnline.com Principals Indicted Wednesday Raymond W. Kelly and Patricia J. Haynes, Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), today announced the indictment of 30 individuals and one corporation on charges of unlawfully operating a sports betting enterprise that stretched from Queens County to Nevada and from Rochester to Florida. It is estimated that the ring took in more than $567 million over a 28-month period by accepting wagers on a wide variety of sporting events - ranging from professional football, basketball, hockey and baseball to college basketball, among others. District Attorney Brown said, "The defendants are accused of operating an incredibly lucrative gambling operation - taking in more than $20 million a month, on average. Such unlawfully earned profits are often - and easily - diverted to more insidious criminal enterprises. In fact, the investigation uncovered evidence that the enterprise had links to both the...