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Archive for November, 2010

Survey Shows Dangers of Addiction and Gaming

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

The question of gambling addictions is heavy on the minds of legislators. Even regulators that are pro gambling initiatives are wary of the problems that could potentially be created. They want to push for more regulations that protect the growing gaming public. Now that gambling is a billion dollar business and showing no signs of slowing down, it is one of those things that legislators are standing up and taking notice of more and more. They know the growth rates that experts are projecting and this is causing them to take the growing problem of potential addictions into mind. Canada is a country that is not unlike the others and currently legislators there are working with laws to protect the gaming public. Quebec is the location where most likely gaming is going to take its first steps forward. The government recently funded a research series that is aimed at bringing more information to the lawmaking bodies before the make changes in the laws regarding gambling. The University of Montreal and Concordia University are the two educational bodies that conducted the surveys. They are stating that a good number of Quebec residents are at risk of falling into gambling addictions as the activity becomes legalized in provinces. One of the most startling findings though was that the younger market is the one in danger the most. The research is showing that customers from the ages of twenty-one through twenty-four are the most-at-risk group in the study. This is an issue that legislators are going to have to deal with as they move forward with legalizing and regulating gambling.

The research study is the first phase of a five-year plan the province is embarking on. They are pushing to garner as much information as possible on gamers and how it will change the market. They want to know exactly what legalizing and regulating gambling will bring to the market. It may take some time to find out exactly what the rules have to be to make sure that all parties are safe as they continue to wager at more online casinos. Legislators are not taking chances in Canada. They want as much information as possible so they can build safeguards into the laws as soon as possible.

Poker Stars Under Fire for Violent Advertising

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

For a while now gaming companies have been under fire for their violent content in gaming. This is a result of the images that are prevalent in the market. Just watch television and you are going to see one police drama after another that shows dead bodies, accidents, blood, gore and bruised bodies. This is in addition to movies that are pushing the lines of ratings with the same kinds of visuals. A lot of experts are stating that people are now desensitized to these issues and no longer are phased by them…neither are children. In fact, a new study showed that the average ten-year old in our world today has seen over two-hundred violent acts on television and in the movies. For this reason some regulators are cracking down on violence and that is including advertising. Germany just made headlines by making moves to change things and ban an advertising campaign put on by a casino company.

Poker Stars is one of the biggest poker websites in the market today and the company embarked recently on a commercial advertising campaign that uses violence and questionable imagery. The ads promote poker gaming by “taking out” one player at the table after another. One is gased, and another is stabbed…there are more images that ran on national television in the country. Now the government is seeing the need to step in and regulate things better. The legislators in the country have banned the commercials due to their violence and have stated that in the future other companies are no longer allowed to promote gambling via the same ways. The German market of gambling is highly lucrative and is growing consistently. This is a sign that more regulations are coming into play and gaming companies can continue to expect their regulators to be watching them. They also should expect legislators to take the necessary steps to ban questionable materials from airing. Though many are considered to be desensitized to the images, the governments involved are not yet sitting back and allowing thing to progress in a way that they deem “unethical.” Expect more moves to regulate gaming companies as the market continues to expand and gain more and more customers.

Market Research Directing Companies- Part 2

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

• Game profitability. Though a customer is not solely focused on returns, an individual game’s payout can be a deciding factor for them to join in on the casino. For example, Mega Moolah is a progressive slots game that is always popular. The reason is because the game has paid out in the millions numerous time already and has a great reputation. If a gamer is looking for a place to wager, they may pick this game just because they want a shot at the potential six-figure wins available. Not to mention that the game also is one of the best slots games in the market and has built its own reputation up over the past few months. This is an example of a game that draws a lot of gamers to casinos that feature it in their online gaming casinos.
• Fun games. At the end of the day it is fun that most gamers are looking for. Sure they would like the big win, but is that realistic? To most gamers, no. They understand that the million dollar wins are few and far between and they understand their own odds in terms of them. For this reason most gamers settle for a great game and value the fun they get from a game and a casino as a huge benefit. This is where a lot of newer gamers do some research on casinos they want to try. They read blogs and forums on various websites and get to know what is out there. Then they make informed decisions on what games to enjoy and start playing. It is one of the sure-fire benefits of gaming—fun. You can’t necessarily could on a win, or even breaking even, but with a good game and a good casino you can at least have a good gaming session.

Knowing why people wager is a good step for the market of online gambling casinos to hone in on what they need to do to build their own customer bases. The world of gambling is competitive and knowing the market is the first step in overcoming difficulties and bringing new customers in.

Market Research Directing Companies- Part 1

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

One of the ways companies have always had of finding out why customers are buying their products, or why they aren’t, is via market research. No company in the market today is without some type of research department. Even if that research is just the owner talking to customers, it is still a way for him or her to gain valuable information on customers’ buying habits. Remember that the world of online gambling is highly competitive and that means that companies everywhere are looking for strategic edges when it comes to finding new customers. They want to push and take over their own solid market shares as a matter survival. It takes a lot in today’s gambling market to remain competitive and pushing for the customers profile is one of the oldest ways companies have used. It doesn’t take a lot of research, just focused questions to find out who is buying and why. A recent study done by the gaming industry showed some insight into what customers are looking for in terms of a good gaming casino online. Here are the top deciding factors:

• Gaming quality. This is the top reason why customers pick a casino. They obviously want the games of their choice to be featured. Though a lot of companies online offer a wide selection of games, there are also those online casinos that specialize in one type of game. For example, All Slots online casino features one of the widest selection of slots games. Though they still offer some other table games, they focus on slots. This is a company that is going to be at the top of the list when a gamer wants to play slots online.
• Payout. This is the second most important element to making a decision on a gaming company. Customers want to be able to wager and win big. If a casino has a particular payout or jackpot, they can expect a certain number of gamers to take advantage of it. On the other hand, companies with other value also have the same edge. So if a company has a great start up bonus or a great VIP bonus, they can expect to gain a good market share right off the bat. Customers today are discerning and know how to find a good deal. They understand that value isn’t just in the form of a big jackpot.

Part two coming next.

Bilingual Applications Build Customer Base

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

One of the ways for companies to increase their customer base is to push for bilingual applications. Most companies right now have customer service departments that are fluent in more than one language. It is part of the global market opening up. Consider that fifty years ago a business could count on local residents as its patrons and possibly a few out-of-towners if their product was particularly a standout. Though a tourist may venture in, 99% of their annual business came from the same pool of customers. The only way to open up that pool was to open up a new branch location in a different area and hope to find a customer base there. Today things are vastly different. With the rise of the internet, the market is wide open. Companies that were limited by geography are now open to market to whomever they want. People know that they can go online and find whatever they want with a few clicks. If a store doesn’t have a product, they can easily find ones that offer it. Then they can have the product delivered right to their door and won’t even have to leave their house. It is one of the best things about the online world of retail.

The internet has opened the market up and now companies in niche markets can benefit. No longer do they have to hope for mailers to attract new customers. In today’s market they can push for more and more customers as they increase their online storefront. It is one of the best ways to market and keep on building a customer base. The world of online shopping is highly competitive but that doesn’t mean a good company can’t keep up. It takes some focus and drive, but companies are rising to the occasion and making themselves more and more relevant in the world of gaming. Expect companies to push their online presences—namely online gambling companies are going to be creating bigger and better specials to bring in more customers. They know how competitive the market is and know that to keep up, they have to push the envelope of what they offer to gamers.

Wizard Gaming Owners Sell Off Assets

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

Not every company in the market has staying-power. There are a number of companies that are seeing their best way to manage though the economy is to get out. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. Some companies are being usurped by other companies or buying out smaller companies. If a company isn’t successful on its own, but has a value it could be purchased by a larger company with the collateral to manage it effectively. One company like this is Wizard Gaming. The company has a great business model. It is a software provider for various online gambling companies. The problem though is that the company has taken much longer to develop itself than formerly anticipated. In fact, it has been four years now that it has taken to push for becoming the company it wanted to. This is difficult news for owners because that time managed to diminish the amount of capital the company had to work with. They were exploring new options on how to continue to manage, but it seems the most viable one is to be purchased by another company or companies. The owners of Wizard Gaming decided to auction their assets off to the public. Their products are highly effective and valuable and it should be no problem for them to sell their software products and overall gaming solutions. This is just another example of how a company can strategically maintain itself in the world despite having financial difficulties to manage. .

This is just another example of a company having problems, but not closing down altogether. The fact is that any technological advances are valuable and can be used by a long list of other companies even if the original one does not survive. Wizard Gaming owners know this and have consistently worked with the possibility of being bought out. Most likely bigger companies will buy their proprietary software solutions and continue to work with and develop them for the market of online gambling. This is one of the best ways for smaller companies with financial difficulties to still raise revenue. They can sell software to big companies that have the ability to promote them, but keep points on sales. Wizard Gaming is going to be fine. They have a great product that will move through the market and the company’s legacy will live on.

Getting Used to a New Game

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

If you are looking to get used to a new gambling game, then consider how to ease into them. Some gamblers like to jump right in, but is that really the best way of getting to know a new game? For some gamblers this is the way to get into wagering, but for the majority of players it takes some practices. If you want to get into a new game, there are some steps you should take care to follow. First of all, read a few articles about the game. You want to know what the basic rules are. Some games you can just jump into, like slots, but others take some time to learn. For example, blackjack is a game that takes some time to learn. The game is a game of strategy and it may take a few months of practice before you are good at it. The best thing to do is read a few websites that offer tips and tricks for the game you are interested in. This is a great way to get used to the wagering and gaming processes going on. A good few hours of studying is the best way to keep yourself up to date on what is going on in the market.

Next, you should start playing the game at a few free play casinos. The free play casino market is expanding and it is a huge advantage to anyone. You can wager and work on your own strategy with no risk to yourself. This is a huge advantage. There are enough locations online to wager for free; normally a good casino has an instant play option for gamers to take advantage of. On the other hand, you also can get involved in free tournaments. Free tournaments are those that are fast paced, free and still offer a lot of gaming time for you to get accustomed to the game. This is one of the best ways of learning about a good game and get some practical instruction. Finally, when getting used to a new game, act wisely. If the game is a game of luck, then jumping right in may be the best way to get used to a game. On the other hand if a game is a game of strategy, then give yourself some time to get used to it. Overall practice is going to help you get better at the game you are playing and hopefully better at walking away with a win.

Racing 2 Day LLC Changing with the Times

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

The world of online gambling is growing in the market. No longer is gambling online an underground activity or a niche market. Now it is a billion dollar business that is expanding by the month. For this reason, there are many affiliations in the market and buy-outs. More and more companies are making moves to combing forces with other casino organizations. A new one is now Stan James PLC. The company is an online gambling casino that operates out of the very popular Gibraltar location. The company just purchased another division. This time it is Racing2Day LLC. This company is an internet horse racing website that is run by a vast array of operators. The company has proven to be lucrative and this buy is one that is proving how gambling companies are changing. More and more are pushing to develop themselves into larger and more powerful conglomerates.

The world of gambling and racing in the last year has changed drastically. Racing has suffered probably more than any other gambling operation in the market. Though people are slowly moving back into the world of gambling, they have yet to return to older ways of wagering on races. Most race track owners have had to do serious reworking. A lot have laid off workers by the thousands. A lot of others had to close down altogether. It is a difficult time and that means that many people are still hesitant about getting to the race tracks. They believe that they need to be cautious moving back into the market and starting to push for wagering again. The world of racing is highly lucrative potentially, but without a market to move back in on it to fuel the money into it, it is going to be difficult to turn around. Still larger companies like Stan James Plc are hopeful. Their operators know that though racing is experiencing a lag in revenue, that most likely isn’t going to remain the case. Most likely racing is slow to return to its old numbers, but it is going to. As people become more confident of their own job stability, they are going to start wagering at the race tracks again.

Mathematics and Gambling Mix Well

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

If you want insight into how gambling works, then be sure to do some mathematical studying. Math isn’t for everyone. Those who do understand it though may have an easier time understanding how casino gambling works. A lot of the online gaming world is based on numbers and knowing how they work with probabilities and odds. Remember that all gambling games have an element of luck to them. Of course, some more than others, but that is the basis of a gambling game. Games like slots and roulette are solely based in luck. For example, the slots you play nowadays are run by the RNG, or random number generator within the game. This is an electronic mechanism that pushes the games forward with the combinations you get. Of course that dictates what you win or don’t win, and that is what makes the games so much fun for millions of players. On the other hand, games like poker have a good dose of strategy to them. This means that they are easily affected by your own skills as a gamer. There is still an element of luck but there is more to them.

Math and the world of gambling have long been affiliated. This can be attributed to researchers who understand the math involved. They understand that any gambling game has a finite number of outcomes and of those a selection comes up. If that is the winning selection, then the gamer wins; if not, then they make another selection. Sometimes that selection returns the possibility to the same outcomes, but other times it changes the probabilities. For example, if you are playing a blackjack game there are a number of possibilities. Once the cards are dealt though, the probabilities change for the next selections. This is one of the things that mathematicians understand and use when they are calculating the outcome probabilities. It takes an understanding of how the games play out individually. This is where a good mathematician comes in and can outline the probabilities and what the chances of a win really are. Never discount the involvement of math and gambling; understanding the basics of the games can help you to come up with a better chance at a win.

Illegal Gambling Activities Still Happening

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

The anti-gambling activists who are standing against legalizing gaming believe that legalization of gambling online will inevitably bring in crime, corruption, money laundering and addictions. This has yet to be proven but they have a good argument. It only stands to reason that if you increase the pool of people allowed to gamble, there will be more incidents that are questionable rising. Plus when people see that gambling is legal and lucrative, they may try to hold their own illegal gambling activities. There have been incidents as of late to prove their case too. For example, Canada has Stewart Goldstein. Goldstein is being charged with fraud regarding the Bank of Montreal. He allegedly bilked the bank out of $600,000. Goldstein claims though that he was strong armed throughout the entire deal and is claiming an even bigger mafia-like ring is at fault. He was just a “pawn” the ring used and he is the easy target in the intricate and illegal dealings. Goldstein is accused of racking p a huge amount of debt during his affiliation with the mafia-organized gambling ring. In fact, it reached upwards of $1.5 million. He failed to address his debt or the interest involved with it and that is what caused his problems in the start. Since he could not pay the debt, he was left at the mercy of the illegal gambling operators and they called the slots allegedly on what he was forced to do illegally.

This is a sign of how things in the gambling world can go wrong. Anti gambling activists are having a field day with the information and the incidents in the world of gambling like this one that prove there is some concern regarding activities. The police force needed to watch over these activities could be substantial. This alone could mean an additional millions of dollars in expenses for states in the future. They could easily eat away at their funding from legalizing gambling and have to put millions into shoring up their police task forces. Of course this is only one incident, but it could be a sign of what legislators face as they continue to push and change rules regarding legalizing and regulating gambling.