Online Casinos Directory

If you have been following the world of gambling then you know how the rules are changing by the week with the US legislators involved. There are some that want gambling to be legalized so they can take advantage of the huge tax revenue dollars avialable. There are equally passionate legislators who believe that they cannot allow gambling to be legalized because of the many other issues that would open the door to. They believe that legalizing gambling would inevitably bring in crime, addiction and corruption to the areas in question. Which side is right has yet to be settled but in the mean time states are fighting it out themsleves. Kentucky is a state that is involved in the debates and just make a move on Microgaming, a leader in the world of software gaming online.

The Commonwealth of Kentucky named Microgaming as an offender of their laws this past week. The lawsuit states that the company is powerful enough and has a notable hold on the various areas- enough of a hold according to legislators that it could potentially come up with a “personal jurisdiction.” This jurisdiction in turn allows them hold poker games, using proprietary software gaming systems, have affiliate programs with their online portals and taking rakes. These activities are detrimental to the state because it is allowing Microgaming to create a monopoly of sorts with their online power and stregth in the gambling market. The state is also citing that Microgaming was involved in illegal activities within their jurisdiction frm September of 2005 until October 2008. All the money customers lost throughout this time is being requested back. This could be a huge amount considering how popular and widespread Microgaming is. The company received millions of dollars thoughout this period of time and asking them to repay the cost of loses to all residents within the state is a huge amount. This could be a monumental case if the state of Kentucky is successful in its request for compensation. Only time will tell what happens, but Kentucky legislators have made it clear that they don’t want gambling to be legalized in their jurisdiction and will do what it takes to keep it out.

Canada is in the midst of hefty debates on the issue of online gambling and is mostly opting to continue bans on the activity. In fact some provinces are leading the way in anti-gambling legislation. It is interesting because just like other countries, Canada is suffering financially due to the market and the recent recession. It is normally the next step for legislators to find ways of bringing in revenue to shore up cash reserves and gambling has served some countries well. Consider that in Macau their gambling industry saw a 40% growth earlier this year over the course of just one month’s time. There are millions of dollars to be had in the world of gambling and it is interesting to see a country that has no designs on implementing an online gambling initiative. There have been a long list of companies that in recent months have pulled out of the country in terms of gambling and experts are saying that this could be a sign of what is to come.

BWin.com is a company that so far has pulled out of the Canadian market. It is a huge company in the world of gambling and this move most likely is a sign that it is working with the legal climate of the country. Canada is having problems with legislation and is putting no effort into gaining legalization in the market. Customers of the Bwin.com website received an email notification of the changes. The company told them that they would still have their accounts and be able to play free games with them. They just cannot play any of the actual real money games. The customers also can withdraw their money and put it into other accounts on the BWin.com transaction page. Details are not yet disclosed on what the future of the hobby will be to the market and that most likely is something that BWin.com will not have a hand in. The company will just have to wait and see if Canada is going to change its legislation on the issue and be ready to offer games if it does. The company still is in a great position to move right back into the market if the legal issues are sorted out.

Canada is having problems with online gambling because more companies are banning and blocking their residents from gaming. There is a new trend where companies like Paddy Power, Casino Club and BWin are all banning Canadian residents from using their downloadable applications. The problem is that there is a strong gambling public in Canada and they are pining for good gaming companies to take on their business. Another problem is that there is no real reason for the current bans. In fact, the companies gave little explanation as to why suddenly Canadian gamers cannot wager at their casinos. Game lovers in the country received notifications via email that they were not going to be serviced any longer and would have to find other locations to wager for real money bets. It is odd that one company after another is sending notifications to Canadians and they have no real reason for the ban. The only information eluded to is that new laws in Canada are changing and making it difficult to continue offering gambling to the country. The one thing these companies have in common though is their own affiliations with Boss Media. It could be that Boss Media is the one putting forth the bans, but still no one knows truly why.

Overall Canada has been moving quickly into the online gambling market. Obviously there are quite a few people who want to wager and are ready to share their top dollars to do so. If they cannot find a market, it is going to complicate things. Plus if Boss Media continues to be close-lipped about the issue it is only going to continue breeding confusion in the market. no one knows why gambling was offered by the above companies and now suddenly it is not. Most likely there is some legal reason that Boss Media is pulling out of the market, but it leaves the Canadian gaming public in a learch. No one knows what other companies are going to step in, if any, to offer premiere gambling services online. If not, Canada will have to look for offshore companies that take their business to continue wagering.

Senator Ray Lesniak is looking well on the decision of Senate Leader Harry Reid to deny the passing of online casino gambling. Reid denied the federal legislation and believes that online casinos should remain where they are as a result of the UIGEA rulings. Not that they both aren’t noting all that Harrah’s Entertainment has been doing to further the cause of online gambling in New Jersey. Harrah’s Entertainment has been instrumental in pushing for Governor Christie’s campaign manager to take his position. The casino also has pushed for online regulations to be instituted. It is no secret that Harrah’s is setting itself up well for online legalization of gambling. The company knows full well how lucrative gambling is and wants to get in on online gaming from the ground up when the laws change. Those laws are not going to be changing anytime soon however and Harrah’s Entertainment officials saw evidence of this with the decision to shoot down possible approval in the state. The company is left to hope that in the future as online gambling continues to break records, legislators will be willing to revisit the issue and change the laws regarding it.

Lesniak is looking for other areas of development when it comes to gambling. His goal is to move to intrastate online casino gambling that has uniform laws for taxation. He doesn’t want to fall into the same problems the EU has right now. Member states belonging to the European Union all have their own rules regarding gambling. The EU is finding it difficult to bring all together under one uniform code. New Jersey doesn’t want the same problems, stated Lesniak. The state has to find ways of helping current gambling issues to resolve themselves and to help the horse racing market to rally. Racing has taken a hard hit due to lack of customers over the past few years. The recession was particularly difficult on race tracks and most are looking to bring in slots gambling as a means of sustaining their budgets and remaining open as a result. It will take time to change, but Lesniak and Reid both voiced their opinions on the issue online gambling and how it should not be legalized just yet for the state of New Jersey.

South Africa has been in debates over gambling and so far wants nothing to do with it. Namely it is online gambling that the country is denying. Right now the country is putting hefty bans not only on gambling, but also on advertisements and promotions online for gambling. The Department of Trade and Industry is stepping in to make rules different now that gambling is so popular with residents. The organization is varying the National Gambling Act to control advertisers. They don’t want pro-gambling activists to have the air time to promote gaming, even in nighttime hours when traditionally laws are much more lax. This latest move by Africa is the same move the UK has taken on in recent months. They too are restricting gambling promotion via television, radio, billboards and print advertising. Many gaming companies are fighting because they are valid customers of these outlets and want their advertising to get the same priorities as any other advertiser would. Unfortunately, gambling comes along with too much controversy for things to be that simple.

The situation in the UK and South Africa is problematic, but so is the rest of the world. It was back in 2006 when the UIGEA came into play that the US also tried to ban advertisers for gambling companies. In fact, they were initially planning on turning internet gambling into a criminal act that could be prosecuted as a felony. This did not work, and most likely neither will the ban on advertisers. The money gambling companies have to advertise is big business. Television stations, radio stations, magazines and newspapers are not going to want to consistently turn down the millions of dollars available. They know that a good advertising budget for a gambling company can be huge compared to a car rental company, for example, or even an airline. Overall gambling is big business and comes with huge price tags for everyone involved. That means that most likely everyone involved is going to fight hard to protect their part of the gambling pie. They want the benefits of the cash involved. And in today’s economy, turning down a few hundred-thousand dollars in advertising money is not what companies are looking to have to do for very long.

One of the tools many states are using to find out where they stand in terms of gambling is polls. It is a great way to gauge how residents feel and see where an official vote might likely decide. States all over the country are using polls as a way to get insight into how people feel and an overwhelming amount of people are swayed into the pro-gambling position. A huge part of their reasoning is because gambling would bring in so much revenue, they want to know what the public perception is and if they indeed would be gambling at the casinos. A lot of the decision of gambling depends in individual perception of personal funds and the market that operators are concerned. If the country isn’t as far out of the recession as people would like, it may hamper their return to gambling. This is a huge concern of state legislators and they are all trying to formulate gaming laws. In Texas, the same debates are raging. Historically Texas has always been a conservative state that has little use for gambling. Lawmakers have tried to bring gaming into the state, only to be shot down time and time again. That could be changing though.

A recent poll of Texans showed that a growing number of residents believe that some form of gambling may serve the state well. When it comes to supporting a full-service casino, polls showed that 29% of residents were in support of the idea. Though that isn’t a huge amount, it still is a considerable gain since the state in the past has been so anti-gambling. In addition, the poll showed that 21% would be in favor of bringing gambling to existing wager facilities like race tracks throughout the state. Those two numbers, though low, are indicative of a changing climate when it comes to gambling in the state. It could be that budget shortfalls are going to push the idea of gambling to the forefront and possibly be the deciding factor with legislators. They were hard hit by the recession just like other states and have few options when it comes to economic recovery.

So far there are serious plans to overturn the UIGEA of 2006. Of course the UIGEA, or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, is what initially stopped online gambling. It was a bill that was supposed to ban gambling and help to regulate in, but in the end it cost the US billions of dollars. When it was formed in 2006 it put the responsibility of monitoring and denying any transactions related to gambling in the hands of financial institutions. It was difficult for them because of the added cost of software and man power to help with the issue. Banks became overly sensitive to the issue because they wanted to avoid any huge fees or penalties. Even gambling activities that should have been allowed were swept away with the others and denied. So what was the result? Legislators were hoping that the UIGEA would deter US citizens from gambling but unfortunately that didn’t happen. Instead of deterring people from gambling, all it did was press them to start using offshore companies for their gambling needs. It pushed billions of gambling dollars out of the country.

Now things are looking good in terms of finding the proper regulation to bring gambling legally to the states. Legislators are working on new laws and states are opening up the doors for online gambling. They want the huge dollars available and know that there are few other options that would bring in the same amount of revenue. Gambling is considered to be a $3 billion business and is expected to at least double by the next few years’ end. The US wants a part of that mix and is pushing for regulation that monitors gambling but also brings safety to its citizens. States are already toying with changing rules on their own. They are allowing for slots to be brought into their jurisdictions in mass numbers, knowing that slots are some of the most popular gambling games around. In the end, it may be gambling’s revenue that saves the communities and their economies. Since the recession, most communities have been suffering and looking for a way to work their ways out of the recession even faster.

Although gambling is one of the main focuses of legislators everywhere to turn around the economy, that doesn’t mean that it is working without issues. Many legislators are putting all their efforts into making gambling a priority for building and implementation. Of course it first has to be legalized and then regulated. Some states are farther behind the times than others, but they are all working to sort through laws. The priority right now is to amend the UIGEA, or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. This act is outdated and has caused more problems than aids. Part of the problem with the bill is that it never defined exactly what “gambling” is. It merely is vaguely written with small changes to the market. The main thing it did, in retrospect, was blocked US gamers from wagering at online casinos that would benefit the states. Rather, they were forced to move outside the US for their gambling needs. Of course that move caused millions of dollars to be fueled out of the US—and that money will never be recovered by the US economy. That is a problem for the country because it is in the midst of recovery from the recession and that loss is something that the economy could sorely use right now.

If the UIGEA is to be amended, it most likely will bring positive changes to the market. It will not be without incident though. There is still a strong push for anti-gambling laws to be enforced. A good portion of the legislative body believes that gambling is the wrong move to implement. They believe that if gambling is introduced to the markets, more crime will erupt, more money laundering is inevitable and addictions will bleed the resources dry. They believe that the ethical cost of implementing gambling is far too great to legalize gambling. No one knows where the argument will end up, or how gambling will be implemented, but most likely it will happen. There is too much to gain in terms of tax revenue dollars for legislators to completely discount gambling. Most likely they won’t and gambling will be brought to the market.

Sportingbet.com is a company that has long been in debates with the US government over whether or not it acted illegally prior to the UIGEA of 2006. The UIGEA of course was the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. It was put in motion to stop online gambling but lacked a lot of definition. It basically tasked financial institutions with monitoring, flagging and denying any activities that were related to gambling online. Banks because overly cautious of gambling though and started to deny transactions that by all accounts should have been approved. It got some companies into a lot of unwarranted trouble. The problem was that the UIGEA never defined what gambling truly is; it never answer the question of what gaming companies are to be held liable and denied transaction approval.

Other companies are coming up with problems now. They are having difficulties blending into the market. Sportingbet.com is one of them. Prior to the UIGEA the company was well established in the US market. The US Department of Justice reported that Sportingbet.com took bets from US residents after the UIGEA was already passed. Other sports wagering companies pulled out almost immediately for fear of breaking laws but Sportingbet.com decided to keep operating. Those operations are now the ones that are in question by the US government. The problems are almost over though. The company announced that it has long been in litigation with the government, but has finally reached a settlement. The company is paying $33 million and hoping that once the door for legal gambling in the US are opened, it can regain its position in the market. The US market is a big one and every company is looking to capitalize on it. In the market today there are many changes coming about and Sportingbet.com wants to fight for the right to continue marketing in the US, but without fear of breaking rules. It already has a great business model and can gain US gamers—it did that once before. It should not have a problem of rebuilding its market. considering that it already has a great reputation for sport betting in other countries it should not be a problem for it to move in on the US market in the near future once legal things are settled.

In a lot of ways the Norwegian government is repeating the mistakes of the US. Recall that the US passed the 2006 UIGEA, or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and with one swoop made online gambling illegal. This was a law that deemed online gambling illegal and made banks responsible for checking every transaction. If anything got past them, then they would be held responsible by taking on hefty fees and surrendering the money involved. Banks got overly cautious about the problems and soon denied transactions that by all accounts should have been legal. The Norwegian legislature just passed the Payment Act earlier this year. It became official this past June and now credit card companies are responsible for denying transactions that deal with online casino gaming. Though it is making things difficult for gamers and credit card companies, there are some companies that strategically can benefit from the changes.

Neteller is one company that is positioning itself to take on the changes in a positive light. They are making a huge push of advertising to the Norwegian market by offering a viable alternative for funding their gambling accounts. The company made an immediate move after the passing of the Payment Act, which is a sign that operators are hungry for the potential business. This is not unlike many businesses in the gambling market today. They are all waiting in line for the most opportune moment to move in and snatch up their market share. Smart companies know full well that gambling is a growing business that is already worth about $4.7 billion. It is only set to grow more and add another $3 billion within the next four years. It’s no wonder why companies like Neteller are stumbling over themselves to come up with ways of answering market demand. There are millions to be had and the best companies are the ones that are going to benefit the most. By creating excellent products and services for the market, companies can solidify their own positions in the market. That is exactly what Neteller is doing now and hopefully it will be a huge success for them and the online gambling market.