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

The task force to crack down on illegal gambling in Alabama was created by the former Governor Robert Riley. It was Governor Riley’s decision to declare electronic bingo machines in Alabama as illegal. When Riley’s term ended recently, it was expected that there will be a more lenient approach to the issue by the new incumbent.

The new Governor Robert Bentley is now firmly in office and one of the first decisions that he took was to hand over the task force to Attorney General Luther Strange. The two of them together took the decision to disband the task force with immediate effect. Gambling owners of Alabama are now hopeful of reopening their facilities shortly so that thousands of Alabamians can get back to work.

Attorney General Strange has said that he’s willing to turn the issue over to the Alabama courts. This is a view that is diametrically opposite of what Riley has been consistently stating during his tenure. For the former Governor, only his views mattered. The creation of the task force was testimony to his ways of thinking on the gambling issue in the state.

AG Strange was quite forthcoming when he mentioned that the slot machines do not fit into the description or definition of bingo. He acknowledged that the casino owners have a different view. The court, he feels, is the ideal place where the issue can be fairly redressed fairly to the satisfaction of all parties involved.

That is exactly what Alabama casino owners have been requesting from the government over the past couple of years. Owners of Country Crossings and VictoryLand have been asking for their day in the courts so that the Supreme Court can give its ruling on the machines. It now looks as if their wishes are about to be granted soon.

The owners of Country Crossings and Victory Land are looking to settle other issues in the court as well. They were part of an indictment that came down last year. Both were accused of attempting to bribe lawmakers with cash in exchange for positive votes on the bill that would have given Alabama residents the power to decide the future of electronic bingo machines.

AG Strange is of the firm belief that the casino owners will not open shop before the case is decided by the court. The fear of raids by the task had forced many owners to shut down. The action will shift to the court shortly.

Meanwhile South Carolina residents have reasons to rejoice. An antiquated 1804 law is now being reviewed. The law made it illegal for South Carolina residents to play card or dice games of any kind in their homes. The Senate Judiciary committee voted positively to pass the bill that would allow card and dice games to be played in South Carolina. If approved, residents would be permitted to gamble on these games in their homes without any limits. The move is aimed at allowing friendly poker games amongst friends for monetary consideration.

There is some concern over the move by some lawmakers. They feel that the bill will be misused by some creatively thinking gambling owners. Lawmakers are taking their time to make sure that all controls are in place.

The gambling industry is abuzz with rumors that Sands Casinos plans to complete the construction of their shopping mall and events center that they planned to erect before the recession and pessimistic economic outlook took over. While there is no clear confirmation from the company, it seems very likely that the encouraging earnings from the casino and the upward-looking forecast of the business community has made the company hopeful of retailers being interested in renting space in the malls. The mall (80% complete) is much closer to completion than the events center (20% complete).

Just recently Sands’ Bethlehem casino reported earnings of $6.83 m in December 2010 – a jump of 64% from the previous month. This is the highest a casino has earned in the recent past. The table games – poker, craps and roulette certainly earned the casino a giant’s share of the profits.

Macau Billionaire Takes Family To Court

Stanley Ho, owner of 20 of the 33 casinos operating in the new gambling capital of the world, Macau is a billionaire with an itch. A part of his family consisting of 3 living wives and their children has claimed a major stake of the Macau casinos; Ho, almost a nonagenarian, will be dragging them to court.

Hailing from a society known for its close-knit family ties, this cannot be an easy move for Ho. The feud between various members of the family came about because of Ho’s attempt to offload his shares in SJM Holdings amounting to over $3 billion to his family.

Florida Trying To Legalize Online Poker

In a long ongoing debate regarding legalization of online gambling in a bid to earn additional revenues for the State in these hard recovery times, the State of Florida is thinking of legalizing online poker. The State will get a cut of 10% as they do with land-based casinos.

Opposing parties include the existing illegal online poker sites and those that want a Federal law for online gambling rather than a State-wise divided law.

Atlantic City’s Casino Woes To Continue

Reports suggest that Atlantic City will continue to show declining growth in 2011 even as nearby States such as New York and Pennsylvania are likely to post positive growth trends. This has been attributed to the lack of plans to launch new casino ventures in this New Jersey city. Atlantic City has been losing business ever since the beginning of the recession. It has lost 13% of its revenues in the last one year. Competition from neighboring states has definitely been a leading factor. In the meanwhile, Atlantic City’s casino operators are trying to perk up interest by offering other modes of entertainment from spas and golf courses to restaurants and shopping complexes.

American Idol Makes It To Betus.Com

BetUS.com, a 12 year old sports betting company has made it possible for gamblers to place their bets on the hit singing talent search show American Idol by placing odds of certain events occurring. Now you can place your bets on whether you think Paula Abdul or Simon will make an appearance in this season’s show. You can also bet on whether you think this will be the last season for the show.

BetUS.com also hosts poker tournaments with up to $100,000 in cash prizes.

The forecasts are not so bright for the gambling industry with many companies still struggling to stay afloat after being hit by the strong recessionary waves. But the picture is not quite so bleak with the business of domain names. This is because casinos rely heavily on the popularity of their brand name to attract traffic as this is a sure-shot way for any new visitor to visit their sites. Domain names like bettingexchange.us, igaming.us, picks.us, and jackpotnews.com are all up for sale by UK company Gambling Invest in an auction during the week following Jan 26, 2011. Purchasers can either develop their own sites with these domain names or employ a Buy-and-Hold strategy to profit by sale in the future.

Any Time Gold Now In Florida!

Any Time Money has just become Any Time Gold as the Town Center Mall in Boca Raton, Florida, saw its first ATM dispensing gold in the form of coins and bars. Abu Dhabi and some European countries have already enjoyed the convenience of withdrawing gold at short notice, but this is the first such case in the United States.

The machine, manufactured in Germany, has the technology to incorporate the changing market value of the glittering metal as it recalculates the price at which you can purchase gold every ten minutes. When you insert your credit or debit card, you get to choose the amount and form in which you want to buy gold. The price of the precious metal in the elegant box is inclusive of packaging, certification, and markup.

Gold is a metal that is bought after meticulous scrutiny. It is a treasured commodity, both for its value as well as its beauty. It is likely that people will initially purchase it out of curiosity as it is a new idea. It is also very convenient that you no longer need to wait for store managers and pawn brokers to open shop to sell the metal to you.

A Shower Of Bonuses This Festival Season!

Come New Year’s and casinos are showering bonuses on patrons. A bit of Christmas cheer in the last quarter! The three Euro Partners Casinos, Europa Casino, Titan Casino, and Casino Tropez, are offering 11 percent First Deposit New Year bonus for all new players. They already offer exciting packages by way of other bonuses. Europa Casino and Titan Casino offer 100 percent welcome bonuses, whereas Casino Tropez offers 200 percent bonus on varying numbers of deposits.

Earlier 888.com casino had announced that during the Christmas season it would reward first-time gamblers with a 200 percent welcome bonus as well as 24 Free Spins!

Moody’s Forecast For The Strip More Upbeat!

Recession has forcibly decreased consumer spending in the United States. This has in turn also affected the gambling industry. But Moody’s has revised their earlier forecast of a flat growth rate line to a marginal improvement in the form of one to two percent growth in gaming revenue and two to four percent growth in operators’ profits. The effect of all the cost-cutting moves made in the last couple of years is likely to reflect on the companies’ bottom line now. But the unemployment figures as well as the glut of operators in the market have ensured the single-digit growth rates.

WagerWorks has recently launched a new slot game titled as the Pixies of the Forest. Set in a forest, the game has excellent graphics and brilliant sound effects. The chirping of birds and insects and the laughter of pixie girls can be heard in the background. This recently released slot game offers numerous payout opportunities to the players.

About WagerWorks

WagerWorks is a newly established online casino software development wing of International Game Technology (ITG), the world’s largest slot machine manufacturer. It was originally established as a subsidiary of Silicon Gaming (a slot game manufacturer). In just a few years, it is established as the best and the only software developer that has deep roots in the land-based gambling industry.

Pixie of the Forest

The three pixie girls along with the pixie of the forest logo are the main symbols in the game. The three pixie girls provide the players with the fixed jackpot payouts of 1000, 400, and 150 coins, respectively, whereas the pixie of the forest is the highest fixed jackpot symbol with payout of 2000 coins.

With 99 pay lines, the Pixie of the Forest proceeds in a very interesting manner. The best part is that a pay line is formed even if each of its symbols shares a corner or side with the symbols on other reels on the either side. It is said that there are 99 ways in which this sharing is possible.

All these pay lines in this game are called as Connected Lines. A wager of only 33 coins can enable all the pay lines. For each coin stalked, the players can earn three pay lines. The coin size may vary from 1 to 100. The maximum bet can be as big as 3300 credits.

Pixie of the Forest Game Symbols

The wild symbol of the game is the wild logo which appears on reels 2, 3, and 4 in the game. The bonus logo is a different symbol. Three bonus symbols appearing simultaneously on a pay line offer free spins round. When it happens, the players are expected to pick one of these bonus symbols to see the awarded free spins that may be anywhere between five and 11.

The free spins won by the players cannot be retriggered. Additionally, to make any winning combination, a non-wild symbol must be there in a free spin. Besides this, any winning combination in the main game as well as the free spins will trigger Tumbling Reels, the WagerWorks trade mark. All these combinations are evaluated and then paid out.

Once the winning combinations are paid out, the reels are re-evaluated and the fresh payouts are made if any. The process of re-evaluation and payout continues until there are no more payouts possible. The expected payback can be around 94 percent.

Pixies of the Forest slot game is live at Virgin Casino. The game is also available at all other casinos that are enabled by the WagerWorks remote gaming server. With excellent theme, animation, sound effects, and payout opportunities, this game will surely be liked by the players.