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Australian Market Trying to Protect Players

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

It seems that everywhere in the world that is experiencing large growth rates in terms of gambling is also facing growth in illegal gambling. This was a definite concern of legislators who were writing laws. The anti-gambling activists believe that the rise in legal gaming means that crime and corruption will abound. They believe that if thieves realize how much money is to be had, they will try their own ways of taking advantage of that market. This will create a new cost—investigating, breaking up and persecuting those involved in the activities. They believe that the price is too big to pay. The Australian market is proving their suspicions may be right. The Federal Families Minister Jenny Macklin is voicing her concerns regarding gambling both land based and online. It is no secret that people want to wager—more and more Australian citizens are clamoring for gaming options. They want to be able to wager from the privacy of their own homes and at land based casinos. The issue though is that the legalities have to be regulated and those laws have to be written still. Right now the estimates are that the country’s citizens are spending over $1-billion a year on gambling. This growth rate has some concerned about how to adequately manage and still protect citizens.

As of right now there are no protections for citizens playing in online casinos and no recourse if they are scammed. This could pose huge problems for the market in the future. What if gamers start having issues? Are more companies going to move into the market? If so, how will they be regulated? There are a lot of questions the Australian market has to answer as they move closer and closer to gambling and as the market grows so quickly. Macklin stated that legislators are now trying to come up with laws that can sustain the added weight of a growth market. It may take time, but she is afraid that in that time more gamers may get into trouble with online casinos. They may have issues to deal with right off the bat and laws are not yet in place to protect the gamers involved.

Online Gambling Safety- Part 2

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

Still with online gambling there are some safeguards you are going to have that you wouldn’t in a land based casino. First of all, you don’t have to worry about theft. You are sitting in the privacy of your own home and if you win, money is transferred directly to your account. When you are depositing to your account, that too is done with a few clicks of the mouse. There is no such thing as carrying a hefty bankroll throughout a casino and worrying about who is watching you. Or walking to your car with the same concern. In addition, your personal banking information is now shared with a cashier or any third-party. As long as you are working with a reputable casino, you won’t have to worry about information sharing or sales to another party.

You want to make sure a casino is secure before you start wagering at it. Then you want to make sure it offers the top notch bonuses that are available in the market today. You should have access to a good startup bonus and a good VIP program. Both can bring you added revenue and stretch your bankroll considerably. You are going to love the ways casinos come up with new promotions. Almost every time of the year is going to have a long list of casino specials attached to it. Now, for example, with Christmas upon the gaming community there are tons of special Santa/holiday specials to be had. All you have to do is a simple search online and you are going to find a huge array of promotions to take advantage of. This is the best way for you to keep your bankroll growing and stay in tune with how much the casino market online has to offer. In the end, online gambling is just as much fun as land based gaming, but brings an added convenience and security bonus. If you love games, do yourself a favor and find some online casinos that offer premiere gambling. You are also going to find some of the biggest specials and payouts in the online market. A lot of times they are bigger and better than the ones you find in the land based world.

Online Gambling Safety- Part 1

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

The world of online gambling is growing exponentially these days. Just look at the numbers of casinos out there that are entering market. The good news is that they have plenty of gamers to sustain them. In fact, research is showing that thousands of new gamers enter the market every month throughout the world. This is a sign of just how popular gaming has become over the years. It all began with land based gambling. In droves people went to land based casinos to play games, participate in bonuses and come up with special holiday comps and deals. It was a lucrative time for gamers. Then suddenly online activities started to grow. People started purchasing items online, paying bills online and then playing online games. This opened the door for more and more online casinos to start building their own brands in the market. They called to people with outstanding games and bonuses. The world of gaming online has developed too. It began with a small casino having a few free online games. Then it progressed to games that you could wager “real” money on. Then customer service grew and started building promotions and specials for loyal gamers. They came up with startup bonuses, VIP bonuses, special promotions and other bonus games to enjoy. This only created more of a market once people realized how much fun they could have online and how much they could potentially win.

The question for some people remains though: is it safe to wager online? The answer to that question isn’t as easy as a mere “yes” or “no.” The answer is “it depends.” It depends on what the gamer does to research the company they want to wager at. The first thing you need to know is whether or not the casino is using secure servers. This isn’t a given in the world today. There are still some companies that don’t use the topnotch protocols that are available in the market. These companies need to upgrade but have not seen fit to do so yet. These are dangerous- remember that you are going to be sharing pertinent information with the casino so you want to first and foremost make sure they are reliable with it.

Part two coming next.

Safety is a Major Concern with Legalizing Gambling

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

There is good news for anyone concerned about underage gambling in Canada. Ontario’s Center for Addiction and Mental health recently conducted a survey of young people. Like other markets, Canadian officials are worried about protecting the underage. The concern is that they will start wagering if safeguards aren’t built into the gambling world. According to a new survey though, they may not have as big a problem as first anticipated. The study showed that of children from the ages of twelve to eighteen aren’t that interested in wagering. In fact, of the groups polled, only 3% admitted to wagering or showing signs of nascent gambling addictions. Just under 30,000 students were in the survey so the Ontario legislators believe that this is a good pool to gather information from. Just under half of the students admitted that they had tried some form of gambling throughout the past twelve months. Though legislators are trying to eliminate the numbers altogether, having a 3% rate of children who have tried wagering is not a bad number. In fact, it was much lower than some experts had predicted.

In the world of gambling underage wagering is a definite concern. Even in the US some land based casinos have had incidents where underage children have wagered and won. The casino didn’t find out they were underage until they won or until they had wagered for a good amount of time. This was bad news for gaming operators and they were fined heavily by the government. The caution is that casinos have to create other safeguards that do not allow underage gamblers to enter the gaming floor. Due to the infractions and their frequency, it is a task that gambling companies have to be ready to tackle as gambling expands in the market. Still the issue could be a smaller one than legislators originally anticipated. Surely there have to be changes and rules have to be built to protect the underage, but if they aren’t showing an innate interest in the games then it could be a problem that can easily be remedied. Legislators are continuing their toying with rules to make things better for everyone and protect all parties involved.

Should Casinos Do Searches on Customers?

Saturday, November 6th, 2010

It is evident that in our world gambling is taking a front row seat. The recession was difficult on economies and now gambling is offering the big-dollar revenue that they need to turn things around. It is a billion dollar business that is scheduled to double in the next four years. That is huge money and most legislators want a piece of it. Representative Barney Frank is working to build up his own gaming legislation and has taken the helm at bringing this issue to a resolution. There is a lot of help though. Another representative Michele Bachmann is throwing in her two cents with an innovative and unique idea. She wants to push for legislation that would make internet gambling and deadbeat dads bitter enemies. The problem with men back on child support is a big one. There are millions of dollars tied up and not reaching the children it was intended to. Mothers are filing complaints in record numbers that the current legislation isn’t working for them. This is creating issues for everyone involved. Now, Bachmann wants online casinos to do immediate searches of everyone who signs up to make sure they aren’t in the deadbeat dad category. If they are, they will be denied access to the gaming website.

This may sound like a good idea, but there is an ethical side to it that is playing its own role in the world of gambling. Should casinos be able to do background criminal searches on customers? Should that information be used to determine whether or not they should be allowed to wager at the location? How far are gaming companies allowed to go and what information are they privy to. Bachman believes that it would be the best option because she believes doing an automatic search at the online sign-up level would merely be a routine investigation. She says that the investigation wouldn’t go any farther than that. This most likely won’t stand once it gets brought up for approval, but it does raise some questions to be answered prior to online gambling legalization. Companies’ power over who gets in and who doesn’t needs to be visited to make sure they aren’t taking advantage of the power and misusing it.

Protecting Yourself at an Online Casino

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

If you have to been gambling online long, you may not know what a fight it was to get casinos to draw up transparent and fair payout laws. Not every casino, that is. Some are fine…the problem was in the batch of good casinos there were a number of bad ones that set up shop for the purpose of stealing money and identities from unknowing gamers. Let’s go back ten years: there were a few gaming companies that were set up crudely like “real” casinos. They asked for the pertinent and normal information—your name, address, funding account, social security number and phone number. You signed up at the casino and started gaming. Lucky you hit the BIG jackpot! You were excited naturally and couldn’t wait to get paid out. Then you waited…and waited…and waited. After a day you emailed the customer service department (back in these days not all companies online had a toll-free number for direct contact). That email went unanswered. It was a task to get any answer, or any answer that satisfied you. The bottom line was: where is my money? So where was your money? Well it turns out a number of companies set up to scam you. They got your personal information, let you wager a few times and then closed up shop when you spent a few hundred dollars winning their big jackpot game. You were left a few dollars poorer and your personal information was out there for anyone to use. Who knows where it ended up?

This wasn’t that uncommon a few years back. Now things are much more regulated and that is making gambling much more secure, but in olden days it wasn’t like that. Anyone who is gaming now should do the needed checks of the casino you want to play at. It is much better in the market these days, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t have some problems. Always be careful and vigilant—especially when you are sharing your personal information. The world of online gambling has gotten wildly better than it was in former years, but it is still up to you to protect yourself and your information.

Safety When Betting on Sports

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

If you are a fan of sports betting, you are going to have a huge variety of options online. Recall that online gambling is a relatively new business. Twenty years ago, it was unheard of to be able to wager online… in fact, “online” didn’t even exist. Sure the world was experimenting with various ways of using satellites for information sharing, but it was mostly segregated to the government and NASA. No one could predict what a few decades would do to the market. Once the internet was born, it took off slowly. Technology for the most part dictated what happened with the market, but once the world realized what a prolific tool it was, they all glammed on. Not only individuals, but businesses started to use the internet as a means of having a storefront to sell and promote their individual products and services.

One of the biggest growth markets has been online sports betting and sportsbooks. If you are looking for a safe location to bet on sporting events and horses, then you want to look for a few key ingredients. First of all, you want a caisnio that has top-notch encryption where your information is sent via the internet just once. When you initially open up your account is the only time your personal information should be shared. The casino should have a secure server and you should find that prominently displayed in the Terms of Service and/or About page. While you are at the Terms of Service page, it would do every gamer well to read it. You just want to make sure that there aren’t any odd wording structures and that basically everything is readable and transparent. Of course in a lot of situations you aren’t going to know if a casino is trustworthy until you test it, but there are general things you can look for when finding a new casino. Until every country has a clearcut regulation of online casinos, gamers are left to protect themselves. Always check out a new casino for the basics of online safety. You want to protect your information and have a great gaming session at the same time.

UK Working on Gambling Law for Protection

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

The UK is working on gambling law now and looking to bring a new line of gaming to the country. Though there are some who are in support of the move, there is still a big portion of the country that believes it is not the right move to legalize online gambling. They believe the biggest problem is a potential growth in addictions with not enough resources for addicts to find help for their problems. The schedule for introducing online casinos is a hefty one due to the amount of money available via tax revenue dollars. The country knows how lucrative gaming is and wants to move in on it quickly to help the financial state and the deficit. If it truly is to turn around after the recession, the UK has to come up with some ways to bring in the millions of dollars needed for full post-recession recovery. Gambling is one of the most viable options and one of the few options that could potentially provide the amount of funds needed to truly save the market.

Because of this, legislators are trying their best to legalize gambling, but they are listening to the opponent’s views. They know that statistically it is true that if they allow online gambling companies to start marketing to their customers, they inevitably are going to have a rise in addictions and problems. For this reason they are writing new rules to manage the issue from the start. One change is that gaming websites have to include a page for resources for troubled gamers. It has to point to local services and online resources where they can get help if they sense a problem with their own gaming, or the gaming of a loved one. Websites also have to post a customer’s total wagers on the screen so players can watch their progress. They need to know immediately just how much they have wagered and how much they have left in their bankroll. This is supposed to help potential problems be discouraged because gamers will know when to stop. There are more drastic changes coming too. Some include the formation of a self-exclusion list much like the one California has created. This is a list customers can opt into and casinos are forbidden from allowing them to log in or game. There are many other changes that are proposed for gaming companies to emply in an effort to protect gamers.

GAU Seeks to Protect Online Casino Affiliates

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

Affiliate marketers are in a very competitive and tough market. Online gambling is a constantly changing industry that only the most dynamic and powerful affiliates can overcome. Although research can be time consuming, it is necessary in today’s market. Companies have to be determined to stay aware of trends and remain relevant in their industry. If they don’t there is always another younger, more determined company to come in and take over. Affiliate programs are also a large source of problems for affiliate accounts due to the number of disputes that are filed due to rates of pay, non-payment or other money-related issues. There are always problems with contracts and negotiations to be addressed. The problem is that the number of places to handle the contracts is limited. That’s why the Gambling Affiliate Union was recently formed. The company, called the GAU, for short just came to be recently but already has about 100 affiliates. It is aggressively campaigning to have 1,000 members within the next six months and 5,000 within the next year.

The initiatives for the formation of the Gambling Affiliate Union have been led by Paul White, a UK-based online poker affiliate, and Paula Bliss, an affiliate promoting online casinos based in Northern America. Mr. White stated, “I get extremely annoyed at times about how affiliates are treated and how they get walked over by some affiliate programs. That is really the principle behind this: to make sure that affiliates get a fair deal from affiliate programmes. United, we have a stronger voice. We’re not here to police affiliates and make demands that nobody works with certain programs, because that would be counter-productive by making it hard to talk to the affiliate programs. But we are willing to take legal action to protect members if absolutely necessary.”

The main purpose of GAU is to arbitrate and mediate between affiliate and their programs of choice when it comes to casinos. Casinos that repeatedly deny payments to referrals and added traffic are the targeted opponents the GAU wants to abolish. Hopefully with their help, untrustworthy affiliate programs by online casinos will be gone, or at minimum weeded out greatly.