While casinos are typically known for a part of their revenue to help the state fund public schools, who would have thought that they would also help out college students? A casino located in Kansas, the Kansas Star Casino, has decided that it will make an effort to help out students that are planning to attend local colleges by offering scholarships. Though this is not typical of a casino to do, it is an idea that might encourage other casino operators to follow suit. People might be more apt to visit their casinos to know that more funding is being appropriated to help fund different levels of education.
The Kansas Star Casino will be giving $50,000 worth of scholarship funds to area colleges that include Cowley College, the Wichita State University Athletics Scholarship Organization and Butler Community College. The scholarship funding has been set up by the casino’s own scholarship foundation called the Kansas All-Star Scholars Board. The scholarships that are offered to these area community colleges will be awarded to students that are pursuing degrees in technology, science, engineering, math, and education as well as students that are looking to obtain a career in health management or other health related fields.
The scholarships are not set aside for traditional students that are newly out of high school. Instead, the money is allotted for students that fall in the age group of 25 to 39 years old. This is an age group that typically must balance work, family life and often put their continued education on the back burner. This is an effort that the Kansas Star Casino has collaborated on with the Kansas Board of Regents. This is an effort to help increase the enrollment in community colleges and to target these age groups and seems to be a promising promotional effort between the two. The first scholarships offered by the Kansas Star Casino in conjunction with these community colleges will be awarded in 2013. The various community colleges have received their money to fund their scholarships already so it is a program that is set to go.
The $50,000 scholarship monies are only a portion of the gifts that the Kansas Star Casino offers annually. Each year, the Kansas Star Casino has a budget of $1.5 million in their scholarship fund. High school graduates of 2012 were granted $369,000 in scholarships from this funding program. The fund also granted $555,000 worth of back-to-school reward cards to students in one area private school and eight area public schools. The fund also gifted $239,000 to area schools to help teachers cover additional classroom costs.
While it is pretty common for money to be handed over for public education indirectly by providing the state with an added source of income through taxation, this is a whole different issue. There are so many positives that one could see by the Kansas Star Casino’s efforts. It offers scholarships to people that would not otherwise be able to afford it but unfortunately, the program is very limited to a small targeted area not allowing people to really choose where they get their education. It is a big help to encourage enrollment in these small community colleges.
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November 4, 2012
Kansas Casino Offering Scholarships
Legal Online Gambling In China Anticipated
Although gambling in China is currently illegal outside of the Special Administrative Region of Macau, there is speculation that the regulations may change, and allow online gaming in China. Although Chinese culture has an extensive history of gambling, and there are modern casino games that people play today that originated in China thousands of years ago, there is a need and desire in China for gambling, whether legal or not. In 2010, it was estimated that roughly $15 billion in gambling took place in China, and it was not legal. Half of that took place online or via a mobile device such as a cell phone or tablet. The people in China that took place in this type of remote, illegal gambling were estimated to be more than 500 million. This highlights the need and demand for gaming in China, but it may still be a long time before online gambling is legal in the country.
With so many online gaming operations available, each of them are looking at China as an excellent opportunity to improve and expand their software empires. Although it may be several years before online gambling is legal in China, as of May of this year, there were over 1 billion cell phone users, 150 million 3G users, and 400 million mobile Internet users that gamble online. In China, there are over 500 million broadband Internet users, and this accounts for just under 40% of China’s population. To provide comparison, currently the United States only has 245 million broadband Internet users. This accounts for roughly 75% of the entire population, with 140,000 cafés and bars with more than 14 million computers, each of which average about 11 hours of constant use every day. Most of these people use these cafés and bars for online gambling.
Although China’s Internet users do not spend nearly as much time online each day, it is speculated that there may be online gambling regulations that will slowly but surely be enforced. This could definitely turn the tide in politics, bringing additional lotteries, horseracing, bingo and other types of gambling in China, and it is hoped to begin sometime next year. With the online gaming industry identifying an extraordinary potential in China, there are many software developers that are curing themselves for the Chinese market, despite the fact that the regulations have not even begun the debate process. Others are establishing partnerships with Chinese companies, preparing for legalization of online gambling in China. This is a spectacular potential opportunity for many people, as legalizing online gambling in China will provide a variety of economic benefits to China as well as around the world. Although it is still up in the air, it is anticipated that within the next few years online gambling will be legal in China, and there are a number of Internet gambling software developers that are poised and ready to join this extensive market. Although time will tell, the look is extremely positive that given China’s extensive cultural history of gambling, legalization of online gambling is not far away.
November 3, 2012
New Ways to Communicate in Online Casinos
The online casino industry continues to evolve in an effort to keep up with a demanding, ever-changing gambling public. Gamblers today are becoming more and more advanced technologically. New trends are affecting the way people would like to be able to gamble, so this means that online casinos must roll with the changes to stay relevant and improve a player’s experiences.
One way that online casinos are trying to reinvent themselves is by adding a communication dimension to gameplay for player old and new. Nowadays, players can obtain rewards for simply downloading a message service that will serve as a type of personal assistant while you are playing online. This application serves its purpose well, updating players about new promotions, casino news, and events that are happening at their favorite online casinos.
Another new development in this industry is highlighted best by Titan Poker, which is hosted by Playtech’s software network. This casino has a live function that starts automatically as soon as the player enters the banking page. This means that twenty four hours per day, and seven days per week, you will have live assistance as you make any and all of your banking transactions. This makes the entire process safer and much simpler.
This personal messenger is a great application that has replaced a lot of the email communications that online casinos have relied upon in order to get important messages out to their discerning players. This has also relieved much of the spam concerns that online casinos have faced, especially when trying to relay messages to their clientele.
This new personal messenger takes away the fear of being slammed for spam. One of the best aspects of this new tool is that it stays on your desktop so you will never be late for that next tournament. Also, if you are worried about your computer’s disk space, don’t be; the personal messenger does not take up that much space on your hard drive. For instance, Fortune Lounge’s personal messenger only needs one megabyte of space for installation, and that beats having to search the casino for the information you are looking for.
This type of service has created a whole new era in the online casino industry. If there ever was an industry at the forefront of making incremental changes to keep its customers happy, the online casino industry would be the winner. Other types of businesses could learn a thing or two from the customer service aspects of the online casino industry.
The online casino industry continues to evolve in an effort to keep up with a demanding, ever-changing gambling public. Gamblers today are becoming more and more advanced technologically. New trends are affecting the way people would like to be able to gamble, so this means that online casinos must roll with the changes to stay relevant and improve a player’s experiences. Being able to have an online means of communicating with your chosen casino while you are playing enlightens your overall gambling experience.
November 2, 2012
Is Gambling Really Headed to Fund Education?
For those people that are firm believers in education, which is probably several people, there seems to be a shortage of money in schools all around the United States. There are always sources of money both funded through the state and by the federal government that can help bring money to the schools but it is not always enough, especially to keep up with changing technologies and the urgency to meet the needs of students so that they will be prepared for entering the world upon graduation.
Many people strongly encourage plans that have the potential to increase property values so that it will also help to improve the public schools that are local. However, while many of these people would like ways to send more money to help provide for the schools, some of the residents in certain areas are hesitant to put in a casino, causing uneasiness for many of the people. Casino gambling sends a lot of money out to public schools and the industry likely sends out more than property taxes do as a whole.
Are people really in favor of expanding commercial gaming for the purpose of trying to increase revenue for education. Some of the laws, such as those that were on the ballot in Maryland, asked voters to allow for those that have video lottery operation licenses to be able to operate table games. According to that particular issue on the ballot, it would increase the number of video lottery terminals in the state by quite a bit. This would increase the revenue that would go to the schools but people questioned if it were a good idea. Would it increase the start of bad habits and encourage gambling addiction? Would it make a neighborhood unsafe to have more gaming tables and terminals? The battle in Maryland over this issue has been one of the most expensive political battles in the state’s history.
The two sides of this type of battle could be seen in campaigns to encourage voters to go one way or another. The media outlets in Maryland used teachers as their spokespeople to sway the voting one way or another. Teachers were used on both sides of the campaign. These were not angry teachers either but instead, intelligent and sincere ones that were able to state each side of the controversy with valid points for voters to see the pros and the cons of this controversy. On one side, teachers were asking voters to vote yes so that the students would have more much-needed school supplies. On the other side of the fence, teachers encouraged people to vote no because the millions of dollars spent on gambling would actually be lining the pockets of big time gaming operation companies.
Either way this legislation could go, money from casinos can go to help fund public schools while providing the state with money to do so such as the lottery does. However, when considering the business side of the aspect, it could create a different economy in the area and also create more jobs.
DiceArena To Offer Dice Games Other Than Craps
Dice and craps lovers rejoice, because Jadestone is introducing an extensive number of dice games available for online gambling. No longer is craps the only dice game available, because Jadestone is providing a wide variety of dice games available for the online player. Jadestone is a Swedish software gaming provider, and they have created a specific network, similar to the poker networks, specifically for dice games. The network that they have is currently registered as DiceArena. The idea behind this platform is to cater to every aspect of the online gambling industry. With two games to begin, they will continually add games as time goes on. The two games that will be available are called Dice Hold ’em and Shoot the Moons. Shoot the Moons is aimed at the casual gamer, while Dice Hold ’em is aimed more at experienced players. Other dice games that are scheduled for launch in the near future at DiceArena are Backgammon and Liar’s Dice.
Backgammon is an extremely popular board/dice game, but it has not traditionally associated with gambling. Liar’s Dice is an ancient dice game that received a new flair with the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean. Nearly everyone from every walk of life has played with dice at some point in time. Everyone knows how to roll dice, and know the fun and excitement associated with all types of dice games. This is where Jadestone is coming in, and taking dice play to the next level with DiceArena. They plan to provide fast and simple gameplay, providing both casual and experienced players the opportunity to play dice, as a differentiation from traditional poker or craps. The platform for these games is based upon already existing poker platforms. They will contain a variety of features that are quite similar to poker platforms, namely the multiplayer games that are based upon individual terms. Similar to online poker rooms, the model is specifically based on tournament fees and rakes.
A subsidiary of Jadestone is expected to be maintaining and running the backend of the platform, providing multilingual support to every gaming operator as well as online players from around the world. The idea behind DiceArena is not only to add the fun and excitement of dice games to online gaming communities, but also to expand upon the traditional dice games such as craps. It is supposed to be fun and exciting, not focused and difficult competition, like a poker game. It also offers a variety of social features, giving players the opportunity to create their avatar, as well as chat. Currently, DiceArena has a variety of network partners already signed up with them in Europe, and they are expecting a lot of traffic on the day of their watch. This is going to be a new, innovative, exciting and fun opportunity for every online casino player, particularly those that love dice and want a bit of a change now and then. So, keep an eye out for DiceArena and be sure to sign up so you can play these fun dice games for yourself.