Online Casinos Directory

A recent study showed that more and more women are gambling online. Though in former years it was the men who took over in demographics, within the past five years women have really made the numbers 50/50 in terms of who is logging-in to gamble. Part of the reason is that gambling online is so convenient. Let’s face it—women today are juggling work, school, children, and households.  They don’t have time to rush to a casino for their wagering fun. If they do have the time, there is still the hassle of what to do with the children.  With online gaming, that isn’t the case. Once the kids are asleep any woman can easily sign in from the comfort of her own home and play any number of online games.

Because of the growth in women gambling, some websites are creating specials that cater specifically to women. Cyprus-licensed online bingo room XoomBingo.com just announced its new special. The website is holding a special Ladies Night promotion every Thursday evening offering players the chance to take home up to $10,000 in cash. The Ladies Night promotion features five $2,000 coverall 75-ball games at the top of the hour scaling down to $100 guaranteed.  This is a great way to play and hope for some additional holiday cash for gifts.  Plus even the smaller $100 guaranteed amounts are nothing to ignore.  Test your luck out at the website and see if this promotion won’t pay out for you. It could be a great added bonus to your wallet this season.
To top it off, XoomBingo.com offers all first-time customers $20 in vouchers in order to try out the site along with a 300% matching first deposit bonus in addition to 350% on all reloads. If you want to test out the Ladies Night promotion, all you have to do is have a “real” money account with the online bingo website. Remember that XoomBingo.com works with eWalletXpress, UseMyBank, 900 Pay, American Express and Ecocard as deposit methods. You should be able to find one deposit method that works for you and allows you to see what you can do with this great bingo website.

If you are a fan of online poker, check out Bluff Europe and 32Red.com’s mutual promotion.  The two are teaming up to host a freeroll tournament that has a great cash prize of $3,200 up for the win.  Both Bluff Europe and 32Red are well known in the industry as top providers of gaming and if you love poker, these are the places to be for some of the best games.

This $3,200 payout competition is the latest offering in the Card Gang Freeroll series of games that started this past Sunday. If players want to join in on the fun they can go to BluffEurope.com and use the “Card Gang” tab to find the tournament. They also need to use the special pass code “32NOV09” to enter.  Prizes will be awarded to the top 10% of winners with the top player walking away with $700 off an investment of nothing. “Once again we have a great opportunity for Bluff Europe readers to join in on the action courtesy of Card Gang and Bluff Europe,” said Michael Caselli, Editor-In-Chief for Bluff Europe. “Players should keep their eyes peeled at BluffEurope.com/CardGang for monthly free-rolls and exclusive high-value tournaments. They rock.”  The promotions going on at these websites are fantastic for avid players. They have good payouts and the buy-ins are reasonable or free. It’s a great way to hone your poker skill at an affordable price. Plus the payouts are pretty good so you have a great chance of walking away with some holiday money for the Christmas season.
Bluff Europe is the biggest poker publication in the UK and one of the most widely read in Europe. It is distributed through European card rooms and poker clubs as well as on newsstands in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia and features regular contributions from Phil Laak and Paul Jackson among others. It is also the first magazine to be available by subscription through SMS and poker enthusiasts in the UK can subscribe by texting ‘Poker’ to 60155. Bluff Europe brings some of the most cutting edge theories and helpful hints to any poker players repertoire so if you’re looking for that added edge, take a look at what the website has to offer.

The Christmas season is here and to online gamblers that means that so are great promotions. It’s a time when casino websites put together special bonuses that cater to players looking for big payouts. Whether you are a slots player or are great at backgammon, you’ll find a tournament out there that features your game of choice and makes you a few extra bucks for the holidays. The fact is that most websites get very competitive during the holidays because they know that people are spending their money elsewhere. They are saving for gifts and Christmas dinner and not necessarily gambling.  For that reason most websites are working hard to create incentives to participate in their specials. SunBingo.co.uk is no different! The website has come up with a great promotion for any player—and not just bingo lovers can enjoy the fun!

Online bingo players have a great opportunity to enter a unique prize draw at Gibraltar-licensed SunBingo.co.uk. It’s a new promotion that will make the Christmas wishes of ten lucky competitors come true. Qualifying players simply have to send an e-mail to EmailComps@SunBingo.co.uk telling the domain what they would purchase if they had a spare £500 to spend. Just come up with what you would do with the extra cash and you could be one of those special 10 winners. Do you have a special niece that has worked particularly hard on her studies throughout the year? Do you have an uncle who needs some help repairing a home problem? Do you need to fix your car? Anything you need, just write it down and get it over to the email address specified for your chance to win.

To qualify for the promotion, you have to wager £2 on bingo or £10 at SunBingo.co.uk overall. That’s not bad at all since the wager requirements are so low. You’re sure to find some game to play £10 on!  When you look at SunBingo.co.uk and all the games they have to offer, you won’t have a problem deciding on which one to meet the minimum requirements with.  Go to the website and give it a shot. Who knows? You could be one of those lucky 10 players walking away with £500!

Poker tournaments can be intense. It’s no secret that when there are hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars to be had people get serious really quickly! Tournaments today are getting more and more lucrative to players and that’s causing a lot of stress. If you have ever watched a poker tournament you can see the intent on the players’ faces. They are serious. They are focused. That all takes a toll on their game.

Experts say one of the best ways to alleviate that stress is to take breaks. Of course that isn’t always possible in big-name tournaments, but CakePoker.com is working to help players out with it.  The website just announced the use of synchronized breaks scheduled for 55 minutes past the hour on almost every one of its multi-table tournaments. Carl Pendering of CakePoker.com said, “We recognize how hard it is to stay focused and believe that the breaks we are building into our software and system will help players to get the most out of their play and time.” CakePoker.com is not the only website to use synchronized breaks for customers. PokerStars.com, FullTilePoker.com and AbsolutePoker.com all use the same break for tournament play. One player said, “It’s helpful because you can clear your head, go for a walk, or just stretch your legs without missing anything…it helps you to focus when you get back to your table.”
Unlike some of its competitors though, CakePoker.com is allowing for the five-minute breaks to coincide with tournaments in late registration, games within the first level and turbo events within the first two levels of play. Its only exclusion for synchronized breaks will be on sit-and-go tournaments with fewer than 30 players. The breaks should help players to have a more satisfying gaming experience. It also theoretically will help them play a better game of poker. With the ability to take a break, they can relax a little before heading into the high-pressure situation of a poker game. Pendering added, “Some of these games have more than 30 people all vying for the same prize and it gets heated. We want to cut the tension a bit to help our players breathe. When they return they should be able to play a better game and hopefully increase their chances of a big win.”

For about two years now US online casino players have had problems finding casinos to play in.  That was when the UIGEA first was adopted—in 2006.  A lot of other casinos will allow US players, but there may be problems with funding due to the UIGEA targeting banking institutions and holding them liable if they allow gambling transactions.  The UIGEA is the title VIII of the SAFE Port Act, which was set in motion to improve security of US ports. Publicly traded websites that were listed on the London Stock Exchange no longer accepted US players when the Act was passed that year.  

The online gambling industry has had many problems with the UIGEA and its rulings over the past two years. Many problems entered the market when banking institutions were overly cautious about their dealings with the market. Many other activities related to gambling, but not under the specific guidelines, were denied.  Lotteries and sports betting are exempt from the UIGEA and gambling laws.

In response to the issue many operators moved out of the country. If casino operators is based outside the US, they are not under the rules of the US.  US players can still wager out of the country and enjoy their online gambling activities. Players do not have a problem playing in online casinos outside the country according to federal law, unless their state expressly forbids it. Some states that do not allow online gambling at all are California, Nevada, Florida and Texas. For this reason many US players need to be cautious when choosing where to play.  They need to check with their specific jurisdiction and know what the rules are.  

You should also look into the various eWallet solutions available to you. There are still some options available to the US player. It is hoped that once the laws are fleshed out, people from the US will be able to begin online gaming legally again– at casinos that are based within the country. Only time will tell where the industry will move, however with the huge dollard involved, the US most likely will adopt laws that legalize and regulate online gambling.

After not even one month of holding a gambling license the Greenbrier Resort has opened its Tavern Casino. The facility is an on-site gambling arena for guests to enjoy blackjack, three-card poker and roulette, among various other casino table games. The 3,700-square-foot Tavern Casino is open to overnight guests, members of The Greenbrier Sporting Club and The Greenbrier Golf and Tennis Club, in addition to registered event and convention attendees who are staying off-property when more than 400 rooms at Greenbrier are sold. The Tavern Casino is open Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 a.m. and Sundays 2 p.m.-3 a.m. Later on this month, visitors will be allowed to enjoy slot machines. In addition a full-scale casino is scheduled to open in April of 2010. The casino will offer about 40 different tables games and over 300 slot machines. Through December 22^nd the Greenbrier is offering a great deal for anyone who visits. There is a Tavern Casino package that includes accommodations, $150 in match play coupons to be used for table games, and breakfast for two.

The Greenbrier promotion is a just one of many promotions gamblers from across the country can expect in coming months. As the legalization and regulation of gambling looms nearer, more and more casinos will be taking advantage of lax laws and extend their bonuses and promotions more readily to gamers. In addition, more slots parlors will be looking to expand their businesses into the table game market.  Part of the impetus is that a lot of businesses used slots games as a test market. They decided to start with slots and then “see how things go.” Now that they know the huge revenues that slots bring in, they are looking to bring in various table games and expansion games to their slots floor.

A recent study showed that slots make up about 60% of a casino’s overall revenues. That’s huge amount and while many people believed that poker and other more “high profile” games were more lucrative, studies have showed otherwise. Slots remain staples in the world of an online and land-based gambler and are showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.

The US Department of Justice has played a strong role in watching online casinos. Many online operators have been shut down as a result and now the Department is targeting online players that frequent questionable casinos. Currently Prosecutors are attempting to get Nicholas Zicarelli, an online gambler, to testify against the internet casino where he gambled. His lawyer stated that Zicarelli is merely an “innocent client who was targeted as a random patron” of the website being investigated. He also added that his client is being treated like a “top-level criminal suspect on trial.”

Zicarelli chose his Fifth Amendment right to protect himself from self-incrimination, however the judge in the case has now ordered him to cooperate with the government proceedings. He now has immunity from prosecution, but has given up any protections he would have had under the Fifth Amendment. This means that if Zicarelli chooses not to cooperate with the government’s investigation, he is now open to charges of contempt.  His lawyer added, “He is a law-abiding citizen who does not want to be dragged into this investigation.”

On the other side is the government. Assistant US Attorney Paul Becker warned that online gamblers need to be ready to tell the truth about their bookmakers and that if they are not, they need to be aware contempt charges will be filed against them.  Many believe that Becker is taking extreme measures in things that are not as “serious” as he may believe.  Resident of Kansas City Anne Bennet said, “He is obviously let the power go to his head. I don’t appreciate my tax dollars going to someone with ego.”

Many organizations are in an uproar at the latest developments in the online gambling issue. If people are going to be targeted along with the online casinos that broke the law, then how far is the government allowed to go? Can they seize funds? Can they place people in jail? Can they bring contempt of court charges against anyone who does not want to be part of the investigation? All these questions are heavy on the minds of online gamers and gaming operators. They wonder what will come of the UIGEA and the further plight to legalize and regulate online gambling.

Poland is another country dealing with online gambling. The country’s corruption and crime rate are running rampant and as a result the government is turning to the online gambling industry as the cause. Despite evidence to the contrary, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is outlawing online casinos altogether. He believes that they are the direct cause of corruption, crisis, crime and violence in the country. 

Thus far, four officials have been ousted from office in the Polish government due to their involvement with trying to keep the taxation on gambling at its current level. In two of these cases the legislators allowed their judgment and decision making to be clouded by “inappropriate influence” from casino gambling lobbyists. Many are accusing them of taking money in the form of kickbacks from the lobbyists and various other “gifts” that were a form of bribery in nature. One other legislator was the Minister of Sport Miroslaw Drzewiecki.

Because of the number of illegalities as a result of online gambling the Prime Minister decided the best thing to do was to outlaw industry as a whole. This seems like a very extreme move, rather than trying to root out the corruption, or people, within the government itself.  Rather Tusk made the move to block online gambling. He plans on making any type of gambling outside the “land-based” variety illegal. He also plans to raise the taxes for the land-based casinos substantially.  He stated that he and his cabinet “want to do everything to convince Poles and also our opponents about our impartiality.”

Grzegorz Makowski of the Institute of Public Affairs said that Tusk “got rid of those closest to the scandal, but there wasn’t a thorough cleaning up of his entire party.” Makowski continued to say “He covered the problem of corruption with the problem of online gambling. One should remember that kickbacks can only be received if the people receiving them are already corrupt, and perhaps this is what Tusk should be focusing on.”

Many within the country are taking a wait-and-see attitude towards the ban on online gambling. Many believe that banning it was unsuccessful in many other countries and it won’t be successful in theirs.

Another company has felt the brunt of the online gambling war. FirePay is a company that used to be a popular eWallet solution for online casino gamblers in the US. It works much like NeTeller in that it is a place to “hold” money that is not a financial institution. It was a way players got around the UIGEA ruling where banks cannot handle transactions that were gambling related. Many people found eWallet solutions convenient and helpful with withdrawing and depositing money for the purpose of online gambling.

Unfortunately FirePay is the next company to be targeted by the US legal authorities. Though December 1^st is technically the day of compliance put forth by the US regarding online gambling, the government has been coming down harder on companies that handle online gambling or are involved in the industry.  FirePay is one of those companies. Records show that the company has already paid out $19 million to the New York District Attorney’s office as part of a settlement against charges made against them. After the UIGEA was introduced in 2006, FirePay left the gambling market in the US, however the state of New York didn’t let them off the hook. Instead the state went after FirePay for wagers that were placed by New York residents via their eWallet services.

Although there are sketchy rules regarding online gambling, many are criticizing the government for going after FirePay because of timing. It seems that most of the transactions they are being charged with happened between 2004 and 2006, well before the UIGEA was accepted into law. FirePay agreed to pay the fines, although much of the money was a forfeiture of the funds collected throughout the 2004 and 2006 time period.  Many hope that the laws are spelled out soon because other companies could be pulled into the fray and penalized for transactions that happened in the distant past.

Although December 1^st is the date of the UIGEA to be accepted, many believe it will be postponed. In fact Barney Frank is hoping to get an extension for a year. That time would allow him and other legislators to amend the UIGEA and find laws that would better serve the people. They want to find laws that allow the US to legalize and regulate online gambling.

The European Union, EU, has told its member states that it needs to comply with certain guidelines regarding online casino regulation. The regulation has to be attuned to the current free trade agreements the EU is operating under. Despite the agreement, many countries are fighting against the EU’s laws because they are hoping to formulate a monopoly of their own within their country.

Denmark is a country that has come up with a plan for free trade and online gambling within its borders. Not only does their plan comply with EU rulings, but it also is true to the nature of cross-border promotions. The EU rules stated that if an online gambling operation is already licensed in another EU member nation, then it should be able to operate freely within the European Union. Denmark, while allowing foreign operators to operate in their country, requires that the foreign operators apply for a Denmark gaming license.  This licensing is an idea that brings money into the country in the form of licensing fees and in gaming fees monthly. It’s a great idea and still allows the country to comply with the overall EU law.

Many countries are not as supportive of the law. They are working to close the doors of free trade when it comes to online gambling. There are billions of dollars to be had in the market and they are hoping to keep it within their borders. Many are hoping that they can find legal ways around the EU law and keep their citizens from not moving to out-of-the-country entities for their gambling needs.

Throughout the recession one thing kept growing: online gambling. It never saw the depression almost every other industry saw and it has kept growing since. It’s estimated to be a $6 billion worldwide business. With that kind of cash to be had, it’s no wonder why countries are fighting hard for their piece of the pie when it comes to regulating it. They are all hoping to keep the money in their borders and use it to fuel their economies. Only time will tell whether or not the countries will comply, but as things get more difficult the EU is sure to strengthen its rulings and start fining noncompliant members.