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One the worlds leading mobile casinos, Wild Jack Mobile, has announced the release of its latest version of Spin's Gamewire - v3.1. This state of the art mobile system has deployed a software upgrade that boasts improved user-interface features and even richer graphics. One of the upgrades main installments is the removal of the casino lobby. This allows mobile gamblers to download each game separately, either through the application or by using a special keyword. Basically, it means that the lobby will be game specific and can be enjoyed inside each of the individual games. Other attractive features offered by the Wild Jack Mobile upgrade include banking features from within each of the individual gaming applications (able to deposit and withdraw funds directly from the chosen game), the option to invite a friend from within a game, the ability to register a friend from within the game, and a wide range of other supported devices. The enhanced graphics and improved interface of Gamewire v3.1 will add to the already wild and exciting portfolio of games that contains Major Millions, Classic Roulette, Classic Blackjack, the infamous Tomb Raider slot machine, and the recently released mobile Baccarat. According to the UK country manager of the Wild Jack Mobile Casino, Nicc Lewis, "WJMC prides itself on providing the latest software and the best user experience for all its current and potential players. This latest Gamewire software upgrade provides us with the framework to be more flexible in order to cater to the ever-changing needs of our customers. Users will benefit from the simplicity and ease-of-use that is now synonymous with the Wild Jack Mobile Casino brand." Mobile gambling has been sky rocketing in popularity these days, especially after the exclusive release of mobile Baccarat. Registration for new players is simple, and requires only the sending of a short text message; the letters WJMC to the number 89895. With so many incredible new technologies and improvements, its hard to resist jumping on the mobile gambling band-wagon.
World leading software developer and supplier to the online gambling industry, GameAccount, has announced that it has signed a software and licensing agreement with Gala Coral, the largest integrated European Betting and Gaming group. As the latest online gaming operator to join the GameAccount skill games network in 2007, Gala Coral are welcoming this partnership with open arms. According to Joe Coughlin, Head of New Product Development for Gala Coral E-commerce, "GameAccount was chosen after an exhaustive process investigating the experience of potential suppliers, the established player liquidity and the technical capabilities of their respective platforms". Just as enthusiastically, GameAccount Sales and Marketing Director, Dermot Smurfit, said that "We are delighted to welcome Gala Coral as our latest blue-chip licensee". The deal will allow Gala Coral clients access to Game Account's full range of portfolio skill games, including Backgammon, Gin Rummy, multi player Blackjack, mini table tournament cash games, as well as head to head tournament cash games. Coughlin, who is also responsible for management of the group's other websites, explained that "head-to-head games broaden the demographic appeal of our online destination sites. Game Account's market-leading Blackjack tournaments are expected to naturally appeal to our online and offline casino customers. Backgammon and Gin Rummy are anticipated to offer meaningful appeal to Corals' sports-betting and Gala's bingo-playing customer demographics". The GameAccount licensees will also benefit from the company's 2007 software upgrade, which features enhanced navigation in and around the lobby, completely new side games, and information for tournament players. However possibly the most attractive feature is the ability to register for upcoming tournaments while navigating between tables, meaning that players will be able to launch side games from the gambling lobby while still being able to view all the head to head action of various skill games. As Smurfit of GameAccount boasted, "Our corporate customers benefit from unique head-to-head gaming software in attracting new players - reducing the dreaded churn and driving meaningful revenues comparable to poker. Gin Rummy, Backgammon and our unique Multiplayer Blackjack form a compelling suite of head-to-head games super-charged by the presence of new instant win side games to fill idle minutes". Other companies who have also joined the GameAccount association include BlueSquare, Stan James, BoyleSports, Sportingbet, Victor Chandler, Paddy Power, and William Hill.
NETeller PLC, the independent online payment processor business, has recently announced its withdrawal fro the Israeli market. The company has informed that it will no longer be accepting online transactions of any kind from Israeli residents. After many months of changes and drawn out legal disputes, NETeller has resorted to continual risk profile and status assessment of the markets it is in operations with. According to the company's official press release earlier this July, "recent legal developments have increased the uncertainty regarding the legality around certain activities related to online gambling in the Israeli market. The Company has therefore concluded that the Group will no longer process transfers related to sites on behalf of Israeli resident customers". Neteller will be limiting its services to Israeli residents in the very same way that it has done for US residents following the Internet Gambling Act 2006. However, Israeli held accounts will remain open for the continuation of non-betting related online transactions, including peer to peer transfers, and the transfer of funds to non gambling merchants. Additionally, local funding options for the NETeller e-wallet account will remain available to Israeli customers. Israeli resident customers now have until Tuesday July 31st (11:59 pm GMT) before all online transactions to and from said online merchants will be ceased. The implementation of this "voluntary phased withdrawal of the payment services related to online gambling that it offers customers to the Israeli market" is most likely to be the result of a recent Tel Aviv court hearing (January 2007) regarding Israel targeted casino sites, originally against the Chief Executive Officer for Victor Chandler, Michael Carton. The lower court ruling claimed that Carlton's Gibraltar website was purposely and specifically targeting Israeli citizens by advertising Hebrew language content and betting options for and against Israeli sports teams. The judge also ruled that the advertising of online gambling, now illegal in all of Israel, was a violation of the law. This reinforced stance against it has clearly affected not only NETeller, but also many other betting related companies. Nevertheless, NETeller "the Israeli business of the group does not represent a material proportion of the group's overall customer base, revenue or profitability," and that it will continue to provide services to customers in other parts of the world in its regular manner they will not be affected by these changes.
Actually, the title of this article is misleading. Progressive jackpots - those special online gambling features that bring together players from across the globe to contribute to a cumulative jackpot - have long since left the ground. Progressive jackpot sums are sky high, and rising. At first it was a brilliant technological innovation that allowed the online casinos to hold hands, sort of speak, and add to a communal, unified jackpot that can be won at any moment by any gambler at any of the various online casinos participating in the jackpot. From small jackpot sums, the numbers started rising, and rising, soon enough crossing the million dollar threshold. Well, as a sign of the growing popularity of online gambling and the continuous development that progressive jackpots and other features receive by the industry, a five million dollar jackpot is around the corner. The company that powers the various games that all add to the combined jackpot is MicroGaming. The game is called Mega Moolah. The sum is ready for this? - approaching $5 million. The Mega Moolah slot, a video slot that is 5-reels, has created quite a few millionaires in the past. It is reported to have paid out over 200 million dollars in jackpots to date. Starting at a million dollars, the game assures a millionaire with every time it resets.
It took the Native American Mashpee tribe over thirty years to receive recognition from the state of Massachusetts and only a couple of months to have its offer to build a casino in the town of Middleborough. In a highly anticipated town hall meeting, residents of the small rural town voted in favor of approving the tribe's request. The town, less than an hour's drive away from state capital Boston, which numbers about 20,373 residents, was convinced by the promise of a multi-million business brining in enormous sums in infrastructure improvements, annual payments and taxes. Though opponents criticized the proposed deal for being too low, "not generous enough," as some were quoted saying, it does promise the townsfolk to enjoy improvements valued as high as $250 million and annual benefits over $10 million. Such benefits may lift the town from its status as struggling and stagnant, with the money, tourism and media attention that will come. Some of the opponents tried to appeal to state legislatures and officials in preventing the meeting from taking place. Appeals to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley to rule against the holding the meeting, and to state Governor Deval Patrick to change the existing ruling that allows for gambling activities to take place in the region. In spite of these efforts, the meeting did take place. It even ended up with a positive decision favoring the $1 billion casino initiative by the Mashpee. After all hands were raised and votes registered, 2,387 voted in favor and 1,335 against the casino. The vote, however, has no real significance other than a general expression of the town's welcoming of the Mashpees and their business. As state Treasurer Tim Cahill has put it, it was merely "a hypothetical exercise." It was by all means also a practice in civil society, activism and democracy like in the old days (the town was settled in 1660). The thousands of participants debated the issue for 2 ½ hours, at the local high school's athletic field. It is surely to receive more debates and discussions, even some arguments, and certainly more attention.
There is little doubt that the online gambling world, at least on the European side of the Atlantic Ocean, is alive and well. This notion can be demonstrated by following the affairs involving the online payment solutions provider, Neteller. While its former co-founders are being investigated by the authorities in the United States under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, passed in October, 2006, the company has announced it will take the leading sponsor role in the upcoming EiG 2007 - the 6th Annual European iGaming Congress and Expo. The money processing firm, like the industry as a whole, strives on in its pursuit of greater activity, satisfying a growing demand in Europe for quality online gambling. What better site to do so and prove your intentions - for Neteller and for the rest of the companies that are involved in the business - than Barcelona. Taking place between the 2nd and the 4th of October, 2007, the show will be the biggest of the year and possibly the biggest to date. The European marketplace will thus establish itself as today's hottest market, with a record number of exhibitors and service providers showing their products on the expanded floor and over a full three-day schedule. Barcelona in autumn might be an ideal vacation as it is. With the exhibit and show scheduled for early October, hotel rooms are expected to fill up. Many in the industry plan to be there. In fact, they will not miss it for the world, certainly not for Europe - a growing multi-billion Internet gambling market that is holding a big sign up that says "Come in and join the ride, gambling providers and fans alike!"
With millions of residents, the virtual world, Second Life, has been a welcome refuge for many from the real world. Created in 1999, then launched in 2003 and brought to general mainstream attention in the past year or so, Second Life has become one of the most exciting, popular and profitable Internet businesses. One of its major features - most popular among residents and a central commercial intersections - was gambling. Well, this is about to change. In an announcement, Second Life creator Linden Lab (Linden Research, Inc.) said gambling will be banned from the virtual world of theirs with immediate effect. In its attempt to define gambling, Linden Lab announced the ban will include any betting on games that "rely on chance or random number generation to determine a winner." They have gone further and included bets that "rely on the outcome of real-life organized sporting events" as well. These games will include blackjack, Pai Gow, poker, roulette and slot machines, among others. The ban - be it the general decree or as it relates to specific aspects of gaming - will be reviewed with time passing, as industry practices, technology and regulations change, thus affecting Internet gaming in general, the statement said. The ban is not intended to be of gambling per it being gambling. It was explained as a concern of the company, when allowing the approximately 8.5 million residents who live all around the real world to engage in this activity, thus under differing laws that regulate it. Furthermore, the residents are represented by avatars, thus able to hide such information as their age and whether they are of legal gambling age. Its conclusion was to take the broadest possible measure and ban all games, every where. What are possible sanctions when it comes to a free-for-all virtual world? Second Life gambling operations will have content deleted, the operators' accounts suspended or even terminated altogether and possibly even reported to the proper real-life authorities. Removing any doubt about its decision, Linden Lab said it will actively enforce the ban. The ban and these measures are sure to ignite a discussion of freedom as opposed to legalization of one's free time and hobbies, a discussion that will not only remain within the virtual world, but surely spill over to our own gambling world.
If last year the percent of British adults who logged on to online casino sites to play a game and place a bet was an impressive 7.4%, this year's numbers show an even greater percent. A survey released by the Gambling Commission (GC) shows that in the year that ended in June 2007, 8.6% of British adults bet online. This figure is the largest ever, with not only an increase in comparison to last year, but an all-time record. It signifies a continuous shift from the traditional bookmaker to newer forms of gambling, online and even using mobile phones. Of all betting activities, lottery is the leader in popularity with poker in second place, not far behind. Although the numbers do not necessarily mean an increase in gambling at large, surely not of problematic scales, the survey has alarmed anti-gambling activists. With recent and ongoing government measures to regulate the industry, the prevention of a growing addiction problem is on everyone's minds. Besides online gaming and its 8.6% share, mobile gambling has seen an increase and is reported to draw 3% of adult Brits at least once a month. These two methods are followed by betting activities via interactive television, which has increased by only a tenth of a percent to 1.8% of adults admitting they bet using their television sets. The GC is a regulator and license provider in the British online gambling industry. Its surveys cover thousands, with this survey of the largest of its kind, including 8,000 interviews. The results are surely to serve as the basis for further regulation efforts and policies, as well as the discussions online.
Yahoo! Games have been offering mystery games, skill games, board, arcade and tile games for a long time. Their introduction of card games, with a gambling element, is a new and important step for both the World Wide Web's big players (a list that includes Yahoo!, Google, AOL and others) and for the gambling world itself. The new card games - with poker adding to the previously available blackjack - is the result of a partnership with the sports betting subsidiary of the German company FLUXX, called Jaxx UK Ltd., with Yahoo. The games are available over the portal designed for the UK and Ireland. Besides playing the actual game in its different variations, visitors can learn the basics of poker, join tournaments, enjoy promotions and all other familiar online casino features. While the regulation efforts in the United States have seemingly put an end to the gambling activities online by Americans, or at least cooled off any plans for the future growth of the industry, elsewhere around the world, particularly in England, new online solutions and options are being thought of. Web portals are one such solution. With millions and even billions of monthly searches performed by the portals, the traffic is a capital that is most famously used for advertising, shopping and other popular online practices. Web users search what they wish at these search engines and Web portals, and in return are open to receive the best results. These include not only the latest news and the weather forecast, but also entertainment. Enter online gambling! Companies such as Google and Yahoo, MySpace and FaceBook too, for example, already have an advantage in the immense users of the brands. With quality software they can all develop a gaming section if they don't have one yet, or simply add a casino section to it. Just as Yahoo has now done.
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the biggest event of the year for poker players and fans all around the world. It can be compared to the greatest events in any sports field. An analogy with the bicycle world's Tour de France is apt. in fact, this comparison has brought about a new twist, somewhat amusing at that, but nevertheless serious and demanding attention. The Tour de France, in the not-so-distant past the most famed and widely popular cycling event in the world, is now muddied with a score of doping accusations, suspicions and allegations. With the pursuit of the supremacy, or at the very least an advantage over the competition, the temptation to use performance enhancing drugs arises. This is especially true in an age of modern medicine as our own. In poker too, such performance enhancers abound. The former programmer and current poker professional player Paul Phillips has come out recently with this testimony over the web, published at Slate.com. Phillips said he was diagnosed with ADHD, a neurological development disorder, an attention deficit or hyperactivity disorder. Medication he received for treating his condition helped him, according to his testimony, win large amounts in later poker competitions he participated in. Adderall helps the poker player take in information, become an "information sponge" in his words. It helps improve patience and avoid boredom, key elements for the professional poker player. Other medication, which Phillips has since used, includes Modafinil, which stimulates his wakefulness and enhances his focus during games. Of course the drugs have downsides to them, including loss of appetite and insomnia. How are these drugs different from caffeine, by and large the most popular "drug" among tournament poker players? This isn't clear and seems to be accepted in the game. Whether the poker world will one day administer drug tests for players, only time will tell.
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