Online Casino Edition – Casino News News about online casinos and gambling

May 11, 2012

Planet 7 Online Promo

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 12:00 am

The Small World Big Planet is the latest promotion to feature in the monthly promos of Planet 7 for the month of April. This promo promises amazing bonuses, for example, the first bonus has a coupon code of Space200. This means that this bonus is 200 percent of a deposit. Bonuses are to be wagered only on keno games and online slots that are on offer at this online casino. The player keen to place wagers on the poker or blackjack games should ideally choose the second bonus. The coupon code here is Planet160. The third bonus is especially for the VIP players and is accordingly entitled VIP Intergalactic Special. Here the bonus is 300 percent of a deposit, but the minimum deposit gets raised to $75. This bonus is given for placing wagers on the keno games and slots exclusively. The coupon code in this round is Galactic 300. The enthusiastic gamers keen to join this VIP Club at the casino can get in touch with the casino customer care department for further advice. According to the casino owners, bonuses must be wagered on the Outta This World slot game has a similar theme. Here the symbols can be found to represent outer space and these include a spacecraft, a one-eyed alien, a laser gun and telescope, Planet Earth, and black hole. Those cards having higher values come in bright shades and have a spacecraft circumnavigating them. This spacecraft offers a payout of 7500 coins. The wild symbol is represented by the alien. Players can choose planets for winning bonuses and free spins. The Planet 7 Casino has been powered by Realtime Gaming.

Spin Palace 200K Win

In a major event, a player got to take home a whopping 200,000 credits on a single day at the Spin Palace casino online. Besides this strange phenomenon, there were a growing number of players placing wagers on their Android smart phones. The player who won 211,840 pounds got this amount by wagering in three slot games, namely, Bars and Stripes, Happy New Year, and the Palace Groupie. The game entitled Happy New Year has the Chinese New Year as its theme and caters to a primarily Asian clientele. There are three reels in this game along with five pay lines. The payouts are incredibly huge and the topmost one amounts to 2400 coins. This happens whenever the Chinese characters appear in every reel in the fifth pay line. Payouts are excellent, thanks to the multipliers; therefore, even if a player gets two Chinese symbols on reels, payouts are more than rewarding. The other slot game is called The Palace Groupie. This is available in all casino brands belonging to the Palace Group. The theme is rock music based with singer, guitarist, head set, and others as symbols. The Palace Group symbol makes for the wild symbol, whereas the Backstage Pass stands for the scatter symbol. The bonus round gives 15 free spins and payouts are tripled. The third slot is Bars and Stripes which is characteristically based on an American theme. Symbols are therefore the American Eagle, American football, and the Statue of Liberty. Spin Palace casino is powered by Microgaming software and has been licensed by the Malta Lotteries and Gambling Authority.

May 9, 2012

Digging Deep Slots

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 12:00 am

Digging Deep is the new slot game to have gone live at the Rival Gaming Casinos. True to its title, the game deals with a mining theme where gold is being mined. The introductory chip represents the hyperactive miner. Eventually, he moves to the right of the reels and cheers the payouts earned by the players. The reels are placed within a mine and similar to other slots by Rival Gaming, the player can view the mine in totality because the backgrounds for all the symbols are transparent. So, for every spin, the view of the mine is crystal clear. When the reels remain idle for a prolonged period of time, typically, dripping water sounds can be heard which warns the players that time is running out.

The symbols in the Digging Deep game are the pickaxe, miner’s safety lamp, trolley carts, shovels, hammers and wheelbarrows, gold bucket, and gold nuggets. When these symbols appear in winning combinations, they start getting animated which makes the viewer enjoy this game even more. The game has many special symbols too. The symbol depicting the jackpot pays the player 1000 coins. Free spins are triggered by the gear wheels symbols. Whereas three wheels award five spins, four wheels will give ten free spins and so on. During the free spins round, payout gets tripled. The wild symbol is the miner. The miner expands to take up the entire reel. The expanding wild symbols can only be found on the first, third, and fifth reels. The second screen in this game contains the bonus games. When three and more crate symbols appear on reels, the player can get the option of picking up a crate bonus game. In this, the miner will activate a conveyor belt and the three crates can be viewed on this belt. Every player chooses one of these and gets the bonus credits. After “Pick a Crate” bonus comes, the second bonus entitled “Dig for Coins.” In this, three or more than three gold nuggets will get displayed anywhere on reels and players must click on the purple dirt for digging the mine. As they work inside the mine, they will have to dig deeper and deeper to get the diamonds and gold. There are 20 pay lines in all in this game and players get to wager a maximum of ten coins in each line. The Digging Deep slots are currently available at all online casinos run by Rival Gaming.

Rank Group Gets UK Politician

Rank Group, which is a reputable UK gambling giant, recently announced the introduction of a new member on their board – Sir Richard Needham. Needham had been the longest serving Northern Ireland Minister, and his presence is sure to be welcomed because of his years of experience in the industry. His diverse knowledge about industry and commerce will contribute to the overall development of the Rank Group. Needham had retired from active politics in 1997, and since then, he has been involved with the private sector. The Rank Group is incidentally a leading UK entertainment business with nearly 2.5 million customers. Its casino brand is the Grosvenor Casinos which operates legally in nearly 35 places throughout the UK.

May 5, 2012

Online Gambling At Manitoba

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 12:00 am

Following close on the footsteps of British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec, Manitoba becomes the fourth Canadian province to launch online gambling. In Ontario, these gambling services are expected to be launched later in this year, whereas Manitoba has been prudent enough to team up with British Columbia to exploit their expertise. Basically, the lottery associations of both these Canadian provinces will collaborate to initiate online gambling activities.

According to representatives of the Manitoba Lotteries, the business model for online gambling which has been adopted by the Lottery Corporation of British Columbia is the most successful and effective model where online gambling is concerned. The Lottery Corporation here functions as PlayNow.com. Those associated with the success story of British Columbia model are keen to share their business model with Manitoba so as to improve and consolidate online gambling in the country. The idea is to generate more revenues for BCLC through sharing its knowhow and expertise with other areas.

Therefore, the BCLC is going to create the website design and testing services, besides managing and overseeing the online gaming sites in Manitoba. All software for this casino is going to be sourced by Openbet. The site is expected to launch next year with both poker and casino games. Efforts are being made also to introduce bingo and sports betting simultaneously. All online gambling activities are to be held under the banner of Manitoba Lotteries and controlled by the Gaming Control Commission of this province. Debates and discussions are on regarding the terms and conditions; whatever the clauses, benefits are guaranteed for both the provinces in terms of revenue generation. The Minister of Manitoba Lotteries Ashton justified Manitoba’s reasons for choosing online gambling. According to the Minister, online gambling was always prevalent in the country and this province was only trying to keep the spirit alive and at the same time draw revenue from it. Incidentally, the residents were wagering huge amounts annually in online casino sites, but, unfortunately, the province was not making any money from this. In fact, with the money being churned out from this activity, a part of the profits would be directed to funding addiction programs to treat gamblers. The sites are expected to generate as much as $1.5 million in its first year of operation and almost $17 million within a span of five years.

Online Game Based on the Iconic Bold and Beautiful

The die-hard fans of the long-running Bold and Beautiful show on television now have another reason to celebrate. This soap opera has approximately 26 million followers worldwide and the new instant online casino game with this show as its theme is sure to be a superhit with online gamers. One of the most renowned instant game creators, NeoGames, is also responsible for creating the Bold and Beautiful scratch card game. Players will simply need to match images to win up to $200,000. In its promotional campaign, the game launchers are planning to fly out all lucky winners to Los Angeles to watch the show being taped and meet the stars.

April 15, 2012

Global Gambling Industry Shows Profit

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 12:00 am

The recently released findings of Global Betting and Gaming Consultants (GBGC) shows a profit in the global gambling industry by 5.6%, which amounts to $419 billion, compared to last year.

Lotteries were in the lead, contributing to 28.4% of gambling revenues. Closely following were casinos with a contribution of 27.7% in revenues and they are likely to lead this year. Directly associated with the gambling forecast is the incredible growth in the Asian gambling market.

According to the Director of GBGC, Asia will witness the opening of several new casinos in the next few years. The integrated resorts of Singapore are only in their second year of opening. This implies that this continent is undergoing an aggressive phase of development in the gambling industry.

Online Gambling Scenario

Online gambling also showed growth and contribution in the global revenue. The pitfall is that online gambling is still illegal in the US, which harbors a huge gambling market. Legalization of this industry would bring a leap in the revenue.

According to the predictions of GBGC, global gambling revenue is likely to touch $500 billion by 2014. However, this figure may fluctuate with the dynamic global economy. Great hopes lie with the Asian gambling market, which is aiding in building up revenues.

Macau, alone, displays regular monthly revenue of about $3 billion. It has been anticipated that Macau gambling revenue will cross an annual $45 billion by 2014. However, a lot depends on China’s economic situation, which may affect the growth of the gambling industry in Macau.

In Europe, it’s important to resolve the Euro zone crisis to provide the gambling industry an opportunity to take a positive stride.

Nevada’s Rise

According to the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB), gambling here has shown an 18.4% increasing in revenue, amounting to $1.038 billion, in January this year. This is compared to $877.3 million in January last year. This is the first billion-dollar month for Nevada’s gambling market.

Although gaming analysts give credit to the Chinese New Year (which fell in January this year; last year, it was in February) for the incredible growth, the rise in gambling revenue has ushered in a positive wave.

The Las Vegas Strip saw a whopping increase from $482.7 million last January to $623.5 million (29%) this January. This is the fourth highest revenue month for The Strip. Besides this, cash flow from table games like Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat, and craps was $365.2 million – the highest in the gaming history of Nevada.

Atlantic City’s Fall

When almost the entire gambling industry round the world is rejoicing the fabulous growth in revenues, Atlantic City seems to be struggling to keep pace. According to its revenue figures released in February this year, there has been a 5.9% decrease in gaming revenue compared to last February. The revenue has plummeted to $242.7 million.

This year, the City enjoyed a warmer weather in February; yet the warmth failed to reach 11 casino hotels in Atlantic City. Revenues from slot machines fell to $176.2 million (4.2%), while that from table games sank to $66.5 million (10.3%). Even an extra day of February (2012 being a leap year) could not help.

However, three casinos in the City showed an increase in revenue. They are Golden Nugget (18%), Borgata (7.2%), and Harrah’s Resort (4.4%). Talk of light at the end of the tunnel!

April 13, 2012

Ontario Reveals Its Online Gambling Plan

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 12:00 am

In a recent press conference, the government of Ontario has revealed its six-year plan to expand online and on land gambling that is likely to raise provincial tax revenues worth Cdn $1.3 million.

According to the provincial finance minister, an internet gaming site, which is secure and socially responsible, will show its web presence by 2013. Ontario Lottery and Gaming runs this site. It will assist in compensating for the loss that comes from the growing competition posed by the overseas online gambling sites.

The chairman of Ontario Lottery and Gaming, hinted on provincial law amendments to permit residents of Ontario to purchase online lottery tickets liberally. According to the chairman, this move is expected to increase gambling revenues and help overcome the deficit of around Cdn $16 billion, which the province is facing this year.

Besides this, the government is considering relocating or closing poorly performing land casinos. It intends to open newer ones that are easily accessible to players and provide a wide horizon of slots, not confining them to race tracks.

What Ontario Needs is a Modern Gambling Industry

The need of the hour is to modernize gambling in Ontario. The tough competition from offshore online casino sites is threatening the income flow. About Cdn $2 billion is allotted to the province every year, according to provincial officials. The decreasing US traffic is also one of the reasons to worry.

The plan is anticipated to add $4.6 billion over a period of six years. It may also generate around 2300 new employment opportunities in the gaming industry. About 4000 service industry jobs are also expected to surface at restaurants, hotels, retail, and entertainment industries with this move.

According to Minister Duncan, the focus of the six-year plan is to generate employment opportunities and provide state-of-the-art gaming facilities to players.

The Gaming Industry Could Do with Some Private Help

Interestingly, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming intends to increase the involvement of the private sector by providing private operators a chance to run all its gaming facilities. It also plans to provide private operators the authority to take over the existing 4000 gaming employees who work for this body. Also, it expects the operators to fund the expansion plan and increase the facilities from 27 to 29 by the year 2017-18.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming is seeking private sector involvement not only for online gaming facilities, but also for the new land casinos that the government plans to open in Greater Toronto area and, maybe, in Ottawa too.

According to Ontario Lottery and Gaming officials, 26 communities are already interested in taking over a new casino. This shows that the provincial plans are in the right direction and have already started showing results.

If all goes as planned, it can boost the province’s gaming industry and even change the way things are going on for gamblers. Currently, the threat of offshore competition is looming large over the industry. If no timely moves are taken, it can take a toll of the gambling industry.

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