1st US Online Casino

The 2010 FIFA World Cup begins tomorrow afternoon with hosts South Africa facing Mexico from Johannesburg’s Soccer City and many online bookmakers are listing the visitors as slight favourites to emerge triumphant.

Mexico has been a serial World Cup qualifier ever since making its first appearance at the inaugural tournament in 1930. However, ‘El Tri’ has only made it to the quarter-finals twice and was beaten by Argentina in the last 16 at 2006’s competition.

Ladbrokes.com lists Mexico at odds of 7/5 to defeat South Africa while Bodog.com is going with the longer 29/20. (Read the full post about ‘World Cup’s first match set for tomorrow – Online Casino News’…)

Casino gambling revenue in Macau, the Chinese offshore gambling destination, almost doubled last month, according to a report from the Bloomberg business news agency. Gambling revenue for the city’s casinos in May 2010 rose to about 17 billion patacas (US$2.12 billion) from 8.8 billion patacas a year earlier, according to unidentified sources. The total for the five months through May rose to about 72 billion patacas from 43 billion patacas a year earlier.

Macau gambling revenue surged 57% in Q1/2010 to about 41 billion patacas as China’s economic growth accelerated to 11.9%, the fastest pace in almost three years.

(Read the full post about ‘Casino revenues soar as Macau shakes off global recession’…)

Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalie Holloway, is being sought in the Sunday killing of 21-year-old Stephany Flores in a Lima hotel.  Van der Sloot was in Peru taking part in a poker tournament, presumably the Latin American Poker Tour (or LAPT), which was kicking off this week in Lima.

The Dutch government said Interpol has issued an international arrest warrant for Van der Sloot in the stabbing death of 21-year-old Stephany Flores.  He had reportedly fled the country to Chile.

Van der Sloot appears with the young woman in a video taken at a Lima casino early Sunday just prior to her slaying. <

(Read the full post about ‘Holloway Suspect Sought in Peru Killing: Was Set to Play in Poker Tour’…)

According to mandatory filings regarding its quarterly lobbying expenditure, the American Gaming Association, a trade group representing the interests of US land casino operators, invested a further $430,000 in government lobbying in the first quarter of 2010.

Reporting on the expenditure, the Associated Press news agency revealed that the target for the funds was once again mainly related to online gambling regulation and enforcement. Only Congress was lobbied, according to the form filed with the House on April 14.

In the same quarter last year the organisation spent $376,000, and in Q4/2009 $345,000.

The association’s members include Las Vegas Sands Corp., MGM Mirage, Boyd Gaming Corp., International Game Technology, Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., Bally Technologies Inc.

(Read the full post about ‘American Gaming Association invested $430k in Q1 lobbying’…)

Trying to bring clarity to the increasingly complicated European online gambling legislative scene this week, the Spanish EU Presidency has urged that a common definition of illegal gambling is vital to the coordinated and effective regulation of gambling throughout the trading bloc.

These conclusions were presented to the EU Competitiveness Council this week, underlining the need for collaborative action by member states if illegal gambling is to be successfully prevented from a cross-border perspective.

The proposal appears to suggest that the different national laws of the 27 EU member nations must be considered in order to adopt a common definition of illegal gambling and to respond effectively to situations created by illegal operators.

(Read the full post about ‘Spanish EU Presidency calls for common definition of illegal gambling’…)

Eastern Conference Finals Game 4 Orlando Magic at Boston Celtics Monday, 8:35 pm Eastern – ESPN

The Boston Celtics will try and eliminate the Orlando Magic on Monday night as they play Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Celtics have dominated the Magic in the first three games of the series and with a win on Monday; the Celtics will head to the NBA Finals betting for the second time in three years.

Boston is a 7 point favorite with a total of 188 at SBG Global.

The Magic were so poor in Game 3 against the Celtics on Saturday that most people believe they quit. It is somewhat surprising to see the Celtics beating the Magic but the way they are doing it is shocking.

(Read the full post about ‘Orlando Magic at Boston Celtics’…)

Online gambling has proved to be a short life and an unhappy one for the unidentified owners of the Tradition online casino, a venture that launched only last year on July 20th, powered by Rival software.

The operation is one of 24 similarly powered online casinos listed as owned by Rival’s UK-based Silverstone Overseas Limited, a company widely assumed to be the software company’s white label operator.

Claiming to be the owners, clearly foreign posters located in Malta with the i-gaming pro affiliate program have been defending the casino on various message boards in recent months as slow-pay complaints have mounted.

(Read the full post about ‘Tradition Casino owners take parting shot at Rival’…)

Neil Mitchell of eGaming Review Online this week wrote an interesting piece regarding the number one online poker room, PokerStars, recent purchase of various poker news portals.

"Is this the start of an increase in such activity across the board?" he asks.

Gambling911.com is learning that next week’s i-Gaming Affiliate Super Show in Prague will include discussions between various affiliate Web portals and online gambling operators related to potential acquisition deals.

(Read the full post about ‘PokerStars Acquisitions a Death Knell to Affiliates?’…)

The son of online gambling supporter and former US Presidential candidate Ron Paul, Rand Paul, has decisively won the Kentucky Republican Primary and is widely being hailed as the first big winner representing the Tea Party movement.  Paul is believed to share many of the views of his father, a staunch Constitutionalist. 

Rand Paul wins in a state that has become a battle ground for the online gambling sector following Governor Steve Beshear’s Communist China-like antics to seize some 141 industry-related domain names.   He beat out establishment-supported candidate Trey Grayson. 

Though the younger Paul hasn’t exactly come out endorsing Internet gambling, his father co-sponsored a bill that would fully legalize the activity.  Current laws make it illegal for bets to be taken in the United States.  As such, the i-Gaming community is finding itself lumped in among the Rand Paul supporters.

< (Read the full post about ‘Rand Paul Wins Kentucky Primary’…)

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(Read the full post about ‘Paddy Power Chicken Dance Promo!’…)