Yara Yarzagaray's Blog

The online poker community was abuzz with excitement over the news that Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-MA) HR 2267 online gambling bill had been marked up in the House Subcommittee with a vote of 41-22-1.  This was being heralded as the most positive outcome the online poker sector has seen in years. Not so fast say some industry experts.  HR 2267 is proposed legislation that seeks to amend title 31, United States Code, to provide for the licensing of Internet gambling activities by the Secretary of the Treasury, to provide for consumer protections on the Internet, to enforce the tax code, and for other purposes. But a handful of amendments were added to the original measure, some of which would almost certainly shut out today’s top two online poker rooms from the US market. “No one who took a bet or wager on or after the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006, processed payments, or received ‘assistance’ can be licensed,” Joe Brennan, Jr. of the...

iGaming Business report has some interesting predictions Publishing company iGaming Business has released the results of a survey predicting that the online casinobusiness could grow by almost 80 percent between now and 2014. The Global Business of Online Casinos report claims that by the end of 2010, the online casino market will be worth $4.7 billion globally in terms of gross gaming yield, and will rise to $5.8 billion by the end of 2012 and to $7.1 billion by the end of 2014 - an increase of 79 percent from 2009. The report tracks recent trends and strategies of successful online casino operators, and gives a step by step history of the industry and statistics on starts-ups and expanding enterprises. It reveals that, according to industry insiders, successful online casinos cost an average of $1.5 million in start-up costs but need very few employees compared with their land-based counterparts, which can cost $300 million to set up and operate. Large non-gambling bra...

The home of many online gambling firms plans to ban internet gambling The confused status of online gambling in Cyprus could be clarified soon, with the government completing a draft law seeking to ban the pastime. Following government approval, the bill will now go forward for European Commission and domestic parliamentary debate. The irony of a nation that is the registered home of hundreds of online gambling companies banning internet casino gambling has not been lost on many industry observers; nor has the millions of dollars that the pastime attracts to the Mediterranean island. Announcing the completion of drafting on the bill, which bans internet casino games like roulette, poker, and fruit machines, the Minister of Finance, Charilaos Stavrakis, told the Cyprus Mail: “These [online] casinos have been created on every corner of Cyprus and anyone, young or old can basically gamble in the same way it is done in casinos abroad.” I...

In America, the House Financial Services Committee has voted in favour of a measure that would legalise and regulate some forms of online gambling as well as overturning an existing law that bans Internet wagering. The Committee voted 42-21 in favour of the measure which was sponsored by Democratic Representative Barney Frank. The vote doesn't make Internet gambling a foregone conclusion but it does increase the likelihood that a bill could go before the House, possibly later this year. Rather than banning online gaming websites, the new legislation would regulate US-based sites instead. A number of amendments were made to the original bill including raising the minimum age for online gambling to 21, banning the use of credit cards for deposits and prohibiting advertising aimed at young people. Bets on sporting events such as the NFL and MLB would remain off limits. The vote was welcomed by online poker advocacy group the Poker Players Alliance. 'The fact is, online poker is n...

SLOTO'CASH CASINO LOOKING TO THE STARS 15 March 2010 CURACAO, Netherlands Antilles -- (PRESS RELEASE) --  Sloto' Cash Casino  is known for remaining on the cutting edge with the services and products that it offers to its players and its affiliates. Many players who are regulars at an online casino have their own strategies and superstitions that they rely upon to help them win. This is why Sloto'Cash has decided to feature this exclusive numerology column for players to be more informed and have fun by finding out their lucky numbers for the game play. Sloto'Cash will run this numerology column and focus upon posting players' lucky numbers. With this information available, visitors of Sloto'Cash will be able to decide on their numbers and maybe use those for their bet. They may choose to use their lucky numbers to play at certain times of the day, place bets in certain denominations, or to help them to determine which numbers to play when they're engaged ...

23 February 2010 WASHINGTON, D.C. -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- The Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative applauds the introduction of legislation today by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Judd Gregg (R-NH), the Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2010, which includes provisions to legalize, regulate Internet gambling. "With so much media focus on the differences between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, this bipartisan initiative highlights the growing support on both ends of Capitol Hill for replacing the failed prohibition on Internet gambling with a system to regulate the industry, protect consumers and generate billions in new revenue," said Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative. "We applaud Senators Wyden and Gregg for taking the initiative to address and drive this issue." Provisions in the Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2010 to regulate Internet gambling are similar to those inclu...

Source: http://www.casinoaffiliateprograms.com/news/International-Online-Gambling-Update.php International Online Gambling Update Feb. 10, 2010 Online Gambling Regulation Gets Debated in China, India, Canada, France and Finland February 10, 2010 (CAP Newswire)  – Has online gambling ever attracted this much attention? Given the non-stop political battles in the U.S. that have increasingly spread from the federal to the state-by-state levels, and considering how nations all around the world have found themselves forced into political situations where online gambling has to be either regulated or outlawed, it seems like a new online gambling legal battles is in the news every day. The biggest such story currently, besides the unending American debate, is China. Online gambling, and even non-gambling related Internet gaming itself for the most part, is strictly off-limits in the country, but it's thought that many Chinese citizens gamble online, anyway. That’s why the governm...

Jon Parker THE CRACKDOWN on US online gambling credit card payments that began on Wednesday is being operated by Visa as well as rival US credit card giant Mastercard, EGRmagazine.com  has now confirmed, with tens of thousands of US online gamblers likely to have been affected. As reported yesterday,  US-facing operators were hit by an overnight tightening of restrictions on the use of credit cards for egaming transaction ahead of the implementation of America’s Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) law  on 1 June, which bans the facilitation of online gambling by banks and other payment companies.  The action was at the time of writing confirmed as applying to US-registered cards issued by Mastercard, but rumours that a crackdown had also been launched by Visa had not been substantiated. However  eGaming Review  has now confirmed that these too are subject to the ban.  Repeated attempts to use a US-registered Visa card by an  eGami...

LatestCasinoBonuses: 10th of February 2010 UC Group has played an active role in lobbying for legalised  online gambling  in the United States Three former senior executives from  MasterCard  are betting that lawmakers will soon regulate legalised  Internet gambling  in the United States, and have set up shop to facilitate wagers as a U.S.-subsidiary for a United Kingdom payments processor. A staunch advocate of legalised online gambling in the USA, UC Group Ltd launched its US subsidiary SecureTrading, and released a statement assuring interested parties that it is poised to provide “safe financial transactions and required consumer protections” in the United States in anticipation of federal legislation. The UC move comes in the wake of recent developments that have seen MasterCard and more recently  Visa  blocking the placement of financial transactions with online gambling sites despite delays in the implementation date for the  ...

Jon Parker US-FACING operators have been hit by an overnight crackdown on online gambling payments by credit card giant Mastercard.  The US company is believed to have toughened its stance on the widespread practice of operators coding egaming transaction as other kinds of online commerce, which will all its US customers from using their cards to gamble online.  Rival US card giant Visa is rumoured to have taken a similar measure, although this could not be confirmed at the time of writing.  The action is a sign that banks and payment companies are preparing for implementation of America’s Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which bans the facilitation of online gambling by payment companies.  This was originally supposed to have been enforced from 1 December 2009, although Congress approved a delay allowing companies until 1 June 2009 to comply.  The development will increase reliance on alternatives to credit card deposits such as those offere...

SC JUDGE SAYS POKER A SKILL GAME 5 October 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- The Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with more than one million members nationwide (nearly 10,000 in South Carolina), today lauded the ruling of a South Carolina court that confirmed that poker is a game of skill, and thus should not be considered gambling under the law. "Poker is not a crime in South Carolina or anywhere else, and we are grateful to the court for compiling the overwhelming evidence that proves this case and protects the rights of players," said John Pappas, executive director of the PPA. "This ruling is fully consistent with the declarations of other judges and juries across the country that Texas Hold'em is clearly a game of predominant skill and adults who play should not be criminalized." Five individuals had been convicted of illegal gambling. The trial court found that poker is a game of skill, but left it to a h...

30 November 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C. -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- Department of the Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke today announced agreement to delay for six months, until June 1, 2010, required compliance with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA). The move blocks regulations to implement the legislation which requires the financial services sector to comply with ambiguous and burdensome rules in an attempt to prevent unlawful Internet gambling transactions. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) has scheduled a House Financial Services Committee hearing for December 3 to discuss Internet gambling legislation and the opportunity to effectively regulate the industry. "We see this move by the Obama Administration as a decision to halt implementation of UIGEA in order to give Congress time to enact an alternative approach of regulating Internet gambling instead of prohibiting it," said...

In America, the midwestern state of Iowa could become the next to allow sportsbetting at its racetracks and casinos after two individual measures were put before local legislators late last week. Owing to a brief experiment with parlay sportsbetting in 1976, only Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon are allowed to offer sportsbetting in any form in the US but this position is currently being challenged at a Federal level by New Jersey as discriminatory towards the remaining 46 states. The first measure, SF2129, was introduced by Iowa State Senate President Jack Kibbie and would, if passed, give the state’s Racing And Gaming Commission the authority to license sportsbetting on professional and amateur events. “I think we ought to have sportsbetting in Iowa,” said Kibbie. “They’re probably betting on them anyway but we’re not getting any tax. I think it would raise a lot of money.” A second proposal, SF2130, was put forward at the same time by fellow Democrat Steve Sodders ...

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LatestCasinoBonuses: 19th of January 2010 New modular system more better suited to oher regulatory environments Delegates to this year's IGE-ICEi show in London late January will get a first hand look at some reportedly useful changes made to the licensing regime operated by the States of Alderney. This year sees the introduction of Alderney’s new licencing framework, which reflects not only the changing dynamics of the  online gambling  industry but also the new regulatory environment unfolding in Europe and further afield. Based on a modular system, where operators need only choose the parts they regard as best suited to their particular business model, the new scheme is more flexible and has reduced costs for many, maintaining Alderney’s reputation as the lowest cost online gambling jurisdiction in Europe. The new Category 1 licence, which has been introduced to cater for the increasing trend for operators to outsource gambling activities, can be granted in as ...

Source: http://www.gpwa.org/news/index.asp

Leading software provider EveryMatrix Limited has announced that Scandinavian online casino and poker operator Tell Gaming has signed an agreement to utilise its OddsMatrix fully managed sportsbook from March. Valletta-based EveryMatrix revealed that OddsMatrix would be integrated into Tell Gaming’s existing Microgaming poker and casino platform to offer customers a wider choice of betting and gaming options using their existing accounts. “We have chosen OddsMatrix because it is a fully managed and low-cost sportsbook with the most comprehensive range of markets available with competitive odds on the market today,” said Thomas Jonsen, Marketing Manager for Tell Gaming. “The solution fits in well with our local target markets since our customers will be able to bet on events that interest them the most. We expect the sportsbook to be a key revenue generator for Tell Gaming this year because of the forthcoming World Cup.” OddsMatrix is a fully managed sportsbetting solution that ...