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A business that rolls about $12 billion annually, a considerable chunk by American gamblers and companies alike, is a unique source of income for the government. The issue of regulating online gambling, which will generate tremendous income in tax money, was amazingly turned down. Common wisdom that says that the ban would only fail as it drives the industry underground, as happened during Prohibition (an era in the nineteen twenties in which the US government banned alcoholic beverages), was ignored, or at least is being challenged. That actually could pass as a rational argument. Ignoring the opportunity not only to pretext the gamblers, but even to profit from the new order in the online industry is peculiar to say the least. Tax revenues have surely played a major role in the UK government's decision to take a different course. Britain is welcoming gambling sites, hoping companies and operators will relocate from offshore locations to the UK. Thus, not only will they not have to take on a practice that is much too big to tackle (a million British gamblers surf these sites each month), but they will even be able to organize the industry and see revenue come from it tax money that ends up in other countries' treasures. This year, the UK government is expected to license gambling sites, giving British legal gamblers access to poker sites and other games. Gibraltar and other smaller countries in the Caribbean are likely to have some if not most of the companies that operate from their territories leave for the UK. And what can this tax money help with? It can go back to the online gamblers in promoting safe betting, fair gaming, regulating gaming sites and treating problem gamblers, among many other things.
One such event is the CAP Euro 2007, which will host an affiliate series of poker event. It adds to the already talked about and anticipated International Casino Exhibition (ICE), to be held in London in about a week as well. This three day networking event for affiliates and site operators is expected to be one of Europe's biggest. CAP, Casino Affiliate Programs, will host its first event in London later in the month, between 26-28 January, 2007. In addition to the networking events and exhibitions, educational programs and lectures, the organizers will also sponsor the first ever Affiliate Series of Poker tournament. The Texas Hold'em tournament will grant winner $10,000 prizes and free airfare and accommodations. All that the affiliates need to do is win the six-players, six-tables knock-out games. The qualifying matches have already begun. Many affiliates are welcome to participate for free if they happen to be members of certain affiliate organizations. The qualifying matches are games, but the final four will take place offline at the London conference floor. But other than mere fun and prizes, the conference will also discuss and introduce affiliate issues and solutions. They include: Panels and lecturers, keynote speakers and water-fountain talks are to discuss advertising avenues in the industry, a large part of what affiliate companies actually do on a day to day basis. The newest techniques and strategies, business models and innovations will be presented and brain stormed. In a unique community of so many affiliate companies, a chance of creating networks and business relations is practically guaranteed.
Online casinos operate in certain specific ways, all clearly understood if only researched and learned. Such factor to understand, which is unique to online casino games, is the casino payouts. If the game was, say, for the purpose of introducing the issue, a simple throw of the dice. One die, as a matter of fact. Assume you bet a dollar on the outcome, saying it will fall on the 3 side. The chances of this happening, on your computer desk or at the random number generator operated online casino, is one of six. Simple so far, isn't it? The reasoning will be that you will be paid six times your bet, a total of six dollars in this case, as simple math would dictate. Only this is where the payout calculation comes into place. Online casino does not pay its winners according to the exact mathematic calculations, based on the odds. In the short run you may win tremendous sums that will be much higher than the odds of the game, making you a classic, fortunate casino winner. But in the long run, the casino assures its profitability by paying slightly under the mathematical calculation, keeping some of the money to itself. In the example case above, that would mean paying the winner who guessed the correct outcome only on a five to one ratio. Now that you know what the payout percentage means, you should go around the various casino sites and compare their information. Indeed, most casinos post their monthly payout percentage reports for gamblers to see and compare. Only those reports verified by a third party should be taken into account, and among them the best should be seriously considered. If you're into online gambling for the long run, then these are certainly numbers you will remember.
Moreover, the payment methods do not serve the online casino industry solely. While some were originally designed to serve online casino gamblers, most were not intended for this specific purpose originally. As a matter of fact, they are often widely used across industries. The only thing uniting them is their service of transferring money online. At the same time it should be noted that the online casino industry often takes a major portion of their business. A notable among these payment methods is NETeller. Until today it has reached its fame and good reputation for serving millions of members and thousands of merchants, many of them of the online casino industry. In fact, NETeller has become, much thanks to online casino business but not to it alone, one of the worlds largest money transfer businesses. Winning awards over the years, NETeller has enjoyed growing popularity. But today, the e-wallet company announced that two of its former directors and founding members, Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre, both Canadian, were detained in the United States. It is not clear what the case against them is (the two have no connection currently with the company or with the online casino business), and US authorities did not explain their move either. It has been stated by the company that the recent law against online casino sites would affect the company's operations "fundamentally." The last year has seen a dramatic fall in the share value of the company, and the latest developments have confused matters even further.
Extreme entertainment has been with us since the mid 1990's, with the first Summer Xtreme Sports games held in 1995 in Vermont. Online casinos, coincidentally, appeared on the Internet at about the same time. But there is more that connects extreme entertainment and the gambling industry. Since both, sports and the likes and gambling, are forms of entertainment, it is only likely that the online games too will go in the direction downhill (or uphill, or whatever the "extreme" would mean). Just as extreme sports is sports taken to the next level, more action filled, faster and closely tied with the Internet, so are online games more action filled, faster and closely tied to the Internet than their previous form, the land based venues. For if bicycles can leave the ground and go high, high into the air, so can online games take flight, literally and figuratively speaking. Upgraded design and interfaces that appeal to a wider audience, particularly Internet savvy users, a particular demography, are the main attributes of the online casino and the basis for any future "extreme" development. Unlike extreme entertainment, which exists alongside the traditional entertainment, in the case of the online gambling business the sites need to both keep the traditional aspects and introduce new, cutting-edge features. The task might be a bit more difficult, but it is being done nevertheless. The motivation for the extreme entertainment aspects of sites is that gambling needs to be not only profitable, but fun, exciting and entertaining as well. Like extreme entertainment, sports for example, in which winning is still the main goal, the added entertainment aspect is what makes it unique. Amusing graphics, entertaining themes and original features will take the sites in the direction that other entertainment genres have gone already. Just as sky- and scuba-diving, surfing, rock climbing, mountaineering, storm chasing and the sort have become popular and remained entertaining (and extreme!), so are the sites to take after this course, at least in part.
One reader might be an experienced gambler, and nothing can any longer surprise him. Sure, that could happen, although there is always something new to learn. But in an industry that grows steadily with great speed in the number of players that join it, many are new to the games. They certainly have what to learn. The free games offer a try-out period, unlimited in fact, during which the player can watch the game, play it and learn what to do and how to do it. The simplest actions such as turning the roulette table or placing a bet, inserting coins in the slot machine or asking to be hit at a blackjack game can be practiced with no consequences. No negative consequences at least. The positive, up-side of the free games is that with this acquired knowledge and experience, the player can then move on to the real-deal, real cash games with no concerns or worries, having seen what the games are like, what they are about and how they are played. So, no direct benefit comes from playing free games, but valuable lessons are learned and in the long run great value comes out of them. It is common to read comments from players at the various portals and community blogs who attribute their success at the various games to the free games. even the bottom line, the one with the dollar sign by it, starts with the free games.
Perhaps the best known of them and most popular of the payment methods, Neteller, has been the most recent company to be hurt from the policy. This week saw the arrest of two of the founders of the e-wallet company that has provided deposit solutions. The arrests came in spite of the two not being involved any longer with the company or with online casinos at all. Then, following these developments, the company came out with a message to its US clients that it will immediately cease serving transfers to and from the targetted sites. The decision is to take effect immediately, but will not apply to non-US gamblers or to any other industry. That being said, the online gambling activity is by far the main focus of the company. Of this, American gamblers made up over half of its members. Naturally, this development, involving such a big player in the business, has cause worries to the business and the gambling community as a whole; worries, as well as confusion. Afraid the consequences of the developments might affect Neteller members, shareholders, business partners and the managers themselves has been in the background of the company's decision to shut down its services to US gamblers. On the positive side, as far as the industry is concerned, Neteller has been developing its hold in Europe, Asia and other growing gambling markets. As for the American gamblers, the funds are kept safe and secure, and instructions were posted by the company for quick and simple withdrawals. The company prepares to pull out of this crisis with a business plan they seem to have been planning for a while now, anticipating a development of this kind. Gamblers will surely watch closely to see if this will happen.
The problem is at this point in time that a land based casino in close proximity to the suggested site is lobbying against the new competition entering its region. The Sunland Park Race Track and Casino, opposing the Tigua one, is only 15 miles away from the suggested site and wishes to prevent an overdose of sorts in the region, or as they put it, "one on every corner." The Tigua tribe's previous gambling venue, in Texas, was very successful. Starting only with bingo and then moving on to slot machines in the mid nineties, the tribe had as many as 100,000 gamblers every month for a long time. The annual income generated by the tribe from its gambling operation alone reached as high as $60 million those years. Then came the year 2002 and a Texas court's order to shut down the operations for breaking gambling laws. The tribe has since reorganized and formed the plan to reopen in neighboring New Mexico. So will the Tigua Indians be granted into New Mexico with their initiative? The state's governor Bill Richardson's office has yet to comment on the proposal. It is reported that the state is in the middle of reviewing the gambling venues and their impact on the state itself and the competition between them. The tribe is not alone in its planning to make the state into a land based casino center, a mini-Las Vegas Strip. Other institutes are in different stages of planning and authorizations to be built, one by an art dealer from Santa Fe, another by an Oklahoma-based tribe, and more.
Only recently, two leading gambling groups have joined forces in a hopeful deal that will push a revitalization of revenues in the gaming industry. The contract between the two companies targets the Asian market, a new frontier for online gambling. The move to Asia will create business opportunities for the two companies as well as to others, and create an entirely new market of affiliate companies, without which the industry is just not the same. "There are very high margins at stake because of the enormous synergies between the two companies. Cross-selling will be significant," said the CEO of one of the companies, which develops gaming software. He also mentioned that the software development company would benefit from enhanced synergy of games to players using the other groups new software. The same goes to affiliate programs and companies. The two companies are looking abroad to Asia for new growth opportunities, and this partnership seems like a successful method to do so. According to the CEO quoted above, roughly 10 to 30 percent of players would usually cross between linked sites, meaning the merger between the two companies is a sensible business move and signifying the affiliate companies' potential in this kind of market. The CEO also said there were additional possibilities available for buy-outs in the gaming sector. More information should be available on this story soon as each company is expected to hold a press conference explaining their intentions for the new year. Maybe the Asian market will be the answer to many companies looking for a new location and audience instead of their original US customers.
The first advice to give out to gamblers, if advice is at all in place, is to relax, take your time and think it over. Just as winning is not immediate, instantaneous or automatic, so do the payouts take a short while to receive. This thought should be with you at the time you register your account and pick your deposit method at the cashier. Depending on how urgently you expect the funds to get to your pocket, you should pick the payment method that offers a withdrawal service that takes such a length of time. And indeed, payment methods available at the cashier vary in this aspect. Although most are fast in any standard taking a day to process the request and another day to deliver, a total of as little as two days some methods will take longer. There is no guessing involved, and the information is all available for you at the cashier section, often in the form of a list. Naturally, methods that are more roundabout and circuitous will take longer. Say, for example, a traditional bank draft that will take most likely over a week to get to you, possibly even three. So consider this aspect when you visit the cashier section at the online casino and make sure that if you really need the funds withdrawn fast then pick the right payment method that promises such a service. If you are more relaxed about it, finding online gambling to be a long term hobby, perhaps an investment of sorts, then pick according to other considerations than the payout times.
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