Let your mouth speak archive

Online gaming firm 888 Holdings (LON:888) gained around 10 per cent as it unveiled a partnership with American group Caesars Interactive Entertainment.

The agreement is in anticipation of a regulatory change in the US over its gambling laws, to allow certain types of online gambling.

888’s business-to-business subsidiary, called Dragonfish, will work with Caesars to provide an online poker platform. This platform will be launched once online gaming is permitted under either Federal or state regulation.

"888 has taken a prudent approach to regulation, which culminated in the successful review conducted by the NGC (Nevada Gaming Commission), putting 888 and Dragonfish in pole position for the US market,” said 888 chairman Brian Mattingley.

“This gives us a strong platform to roll out our cutting edge, turnkey solution to other potential partners as the market opens.

“We are delighted to be extending our relationship with (Caesars) into the much-anticipated US market, and we are proud to be providing them with the technology and tools to leverage and monetise their powerful brand."

888 said it has already submitted its Service Provider license application to the Nevada Gaming Control Board and in March 2010, the Nevada Gaming Commission has previously deemed the commercial relationship between 888 and Caesars Interactive to be suitable.

Caesars Interactive chief executive Mitch Garber added: "888 has been successfully driving the World Series of Poker brand in the UK for the past three years, and with current momentum toward either a Federal or State by State regulatory environment, 888 is uniquely positioned to support either outcome, without delay,"

At 10:13, 888 shares were up 5.5p, or 11.7 per cent, changing hands at 52.5p each.

As quickly as it arrived, online gambling in the District appears on its way out -- at least for now.

A majority -- three of the five members -- of the D.C. Council's Committee on Finance and Revenue have told The Washington Examiner that they plan to vote for the repeal during a committee markup session scheduled for Wednesday.

"It's clear to me that the council, and more importantly the public, had not had an opportunity to comment on i-gaming ... before the council voted on it," said Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans, who chairs the committee. "The council themselves really didn't have all the information necessary."

At-large Councilman David Catania, who last week called for the resignation of the city's chief financial officer because of his role in i-gaming, also plans to vote for a repeal. He said the lottery contract was changed too substantially when it was altered to include Internet gambling after the council approved a contract with a "nontraditional" gaming provision.

"Repeal is necessary due to a terrifically flawed process," Catania said.

Ward 4 Councilwoman Muriel Bowser also plans to vote for the repeal, according to her staff.

But at-large Councilman Michael Brown, who was responsible for the passage of Internet gambling, said he will reintroduce i-gaming if a repeal is successful. Brown, also a finance committee member, said the public had a chance to comment on legalizing gambling last summer. The D.C. Lottery has not yet started any online games.

"It's just very curious -- most [council members] supporting the repeal are OK with i-gaming and this has been a most exhausting community input process with community meetings in all eight wards indicating overwhelming support," Brown said. "So what's the real reason?"

The repeal bill was proposed by Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells this session after the council passed a 2011 budget that included an amendment by Brown to legalize Internet gambling. Many council members said later they were unaware of the amendment, which was added a few weeks before the final budget vote.

Evans said he has asked Council Chairman Kwame Brown to place the repeal bill on the agenda for the council's next legislative meeting, scheduled for Tuesday.

"My sense is there will be enough votes to pass the repeal," Evans said.

Anti-gambling campaigner Tim Costello wants the Coalition to feel the heat over pokies reform.

As chairman of the National Churches Gambling Taskforce he called on the Coalition to stop trailing the community and start showing leadership.

"When leadership fails us on both sides of the house, leadership has to come from the community," Reverend Costello told journalists in Canberra.

He said numerous polls show Australians want $1 maximum bet limits and mandtaory pre-commitment, in line with Productivity Commission recommendations.

A recent Essential Media poll found 62 per cent of those surveyed supported mandatory pre-commitment.

Reverend Costello said that both sides of politics had “gone to water” on gambling policy due to campaigning by clubs.

According to data from the Australian Electoral Commission released today, both Labor and the Coalition received almost $2 million in donations from the clubs industry in 2010-11.

Last month, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a watered down plan for pokies reform, pushing the roll out from 2014 to 2016. The move saw Tasmanian Independent Andrew Wilkie break his agreement to support Ms Gillard's minority government.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has previously pledged to repeal pokies reform legislation if the Coalition wins the next election.

Yesterday in his address to the National Press Club, Mr Abbott suggested that forcing "every club to redesign every poker machine" was not the answer to problem gambling.

But Reverend Costello refuted the idea that gambling reform was a nanny state policy.

"We have 100,000 homeless and no one in Austraslia thinks its a small problem. We have 74,000 heroin users and no one thinks its a small problem. We have 51,000 cases of child abuse each year, no one thinks that's a small problem," he said.

This morning Mr Costello appeared before the Coalition's working group on gambling reform, advocating for a $1 maximum bet limit on pokies. He said the group was receptive.

Other groups due to appear at the private hearings included the Australasian Casinos Association, the Salvation Army and Woolworths gaming enterprise ALH group.

A measure to repeal the District’s controversial Internet gambling plan has enough support to send it to the full D.C. Council, setting up a high-stakes vote on whether the city government will be the first in the country to offer games like poker and blackjack online.

Council members Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) and Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) said Monday evening they will support the repeal bill, giving it the votes necessary to emerge from the Finance and Revenue committee chaired by Evans.

In the more than 13 months since the “iGaming” proposal was first publicized, Evans has expressed concern about aspects of the program, but has otherwise shied away from addressing whether it should go forward. But he said a hearing last week on the contracting process that led to the program changed his mind.

“The hearing was very telling,” he said, noting in particular revelations that the underlying lottery contract made no mention of Internet gambling when it came up for a council vote in 2009. “The place where iGaming would have been was blank. We didn’t know we were voting on that.”

Bowser, too, said she was uncomfortable with the process that led to the contract’s approval, as well as the subsequent council process that made legal changes paving the way for the contract’s implementation. “The city may not have gotten the best deal with the process it used,” she said.

With David A. Catania (I-At Large) also likely to support repeal at Wednesday’s 1 p.m. markup, there appears to be enough support to outweigh panel members Michael A. Brown (I-At Large) and Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), who want to move forward swiftly with the program.

Brown, the main proponent of the Internet gambling plan, did not immediately return a call Monday night. If the vote goes as expected, the full 12-member council will take up the bill in February.

Should the bill pass, Evans said, he expects the council to start work on a new piece of legislation authorizing Internet gambling, with more explicit instructions on what form the program should take. Once completed, a competitive bidding process for the iGaming contract could proceed, he said.

All told, the process could take the better part of a year — likely dashing hopes that the District could be the first U.S. jurisdiction online with an government-sponsored Internet gambling system.

The 2012 Super Bowl is just around the corner. By now, most people have finished handicapping the game and have moved onto the game day menu. Although, Bovada Sportsbook does a great job with their props (it seems like their odds makers are working around the clock to pump out more and more Super Bowl props, which you should check them out), this post is all about Super Bowl recipes.

We’re talking food, grub, munchies, snacks, refreshments. All of the above. As you sift through the Super Bowl props, sift through our three favorite game day recipes. They’re all courtesy of our other guilty pleasure: Food Network.

Join Bovada Sportsbook right now and make your Super Bowl pick count.

Appetizer: Chicken Wings with Red Hot Honey Glaze and Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce

Wings are a great party-starter but Bobby Flay has added a tasteful twist to the common classic. These wings are covered in a hot and honey glaze that will make your guests order a dozen more. By the time they find your homemade blue cheese dip, they may not even want to get to the main course. This recipe is touchdown every time.

Main Course: Smashed Sausage and Pepper Burgers

First of all, forget anything with a fork and knife on Super Bowl Sunday. When the game is on, nobody wants to be looking away from the action and down to their food. That’s the classic, American two-handers is what we need.

At sporting events, the quandary is always sausage versus burger. Stop the internal battle and get the best of both worlds with this recipe. For this burger, Italian sausage is pounded into patties, then topped with melted Mozzarella and strips of green bell peppers. It’s a game changer.

Dessert: Peanut Butter Caramel Swirled Brownies

You can never go wrong with brownies. These ones can make wrong things become right. Traditional brownies are chocolate but this recipe makes a happy union between peanut butter and chocolate, and then adds in caramel for good measure. Save this recipe for those rainy days when you happen to find yourself in the dog house. Consider it the equivalent of a “Get out of jail free” card with your wife

For the full recipes, just do a simple Google with the titles. We hope you try these out and have a great dining experience at the 2012 Super Bowl.

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A D.C. Council committee finally showed its cards in the tortured first-in-the-nation bid for online gambling through the city’s lottery system - and it’s game over.

The Committee on Finance and Revenue voted 3-2 in favor of a bill to repeal the program, known as iGaming, which created controversy from the moment it was passed as part of a budget bill in December 2010.

“I feel like this Ferrari hit a brick wall at 200 miles per hour,” D.C. resident Marie Drissel, the program’s most vocal critic, said after the vote.

For months, the lottery system had planned to offer four wagered games to pre-approved players on home computers or select public areas after a round of demonstration play.

Council member Tommy Wells, Ward 6 Democrat, spearheaded a repeal bill in response to complaints about the contracting process and the lack of public hearings on the program before it became law. He and several colleagues said they could not have known they were authorizing first-in-the-nation online gambling when they signed off on the city’s lottery contract with Greek vendor Intralot in December 2009.

After the award, The Washington Times, in a series of reports in 2010, outlined numerous irregularities in the process that handed out the $38 million lottery contract. Citing the news reports, former D.C. Attorney General Peter J. Nickles and former Chief Procurement Officer David P. Gragan asked the D.C. office of the inspector general to examine the approval process.

The inspector general, Charles Willoughby, said in a report that the office of the chief financial officer “materially changed” the contract after council approval to include an online gambling program. He said all bidders for the lottery contract should have competed for the contract with explicit proposals on wagered games over the Web.

The report in advance of Wednesday’s vote generated an outcry among council members - some of whom said they did not necessarily object to online gambling in principle but did object to the process by which it became law.

Committee Chairman Jack Evans, Ward 2 Democrat, and members David A. Catania, at-large independent, and Muriel Bowser, Ward 4 Democrat, voted to scrap iGaming, citing a lack of transparency in the process.

Mr. Catania said it would be a mistake to roll out online gambling in the “poisoned climate” that hovers above D.C. officials, citing the resignation of Harry Thomas Jr. from his Ward 5 council seat ahead of a guilty plea for stealing public funds.

“There is quite a lot of concern about this body and this government,” Mr. Catania said. “I’m eager to vote for the repeal of this.”

Support for the program came from its sponsor, council member Michael A. Brown, at-large independent, and Marion Barry, Ward 8 Democrat, who voted against the repeal on Wednesday.
The repeal bill is likely to pass when it goes before the full council, although Mr. Brown signaled he will try to gather the six votes needed to preserve the program.

Mayor Vincent C. Gray, who formerly indicated the program had received a proper vetting, said this week he supports the repeal. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown has said he does not like gambling in any form.

If the repeal succeeds, Michael A. Brown said, he will offer a stand-alone bill to revive the program. He cited fears that casino interests will promote federal regulation of iGaming - leaving the District without local revenue - but offered no evidence to support his claim.

The iGaming program was subject to several community meetings last fall, in which D.C. Lottery officials tried to assure the public that gambling would not occur in libraries or schools and that no bricks-and-mortar betting parlors would be built in their neighborhoods. “There is no excuse for any of the 12 of us not to be completely up to speed on iGaming,” Mr. Evans said at the outset of the committee markup.

A bill to revive online gambling will face the added challenge of a rebidding process on the iGaming portion of the lottery contract, not to mention political aversion to stand-alone gambling legislation, Mr. Evans said.

“Seventy-five percent of people are against gambling on the way to the casino,” he quipped. “See what I’m saying?”

D.C. Lottery Director Buddy Roogow said the lottery is a government agency that will do the council’s bidding, and Intralot must absorb the costs of iGaming’s false start. The ramifications of the inspector general’s findings, including whether or not iGaming operations can be rebid apart from the overall lottery contract, remain to be seen.

“I don’t think that we’ve conducted that postmortem,” he said.

The fate of the underlying lottery contract also appears to be unresolved. Mr. Evans suggested Wednesday that his work is not complete and that further oversight of the contract will be forthcoming.

In comments from the dais, Mr. Brown objected to accusations he “snuck” the iGaming law into a budget bill, and Mr. Barry told his colleagues they should have read the bill more carefully.

Despite his opposition to the repeal, Mr. Barry objected to the “illegal” way CFO Natwar M. Gandhi inserted the gambling provision into the lottery contract, as detailed in the inspector general’s report.

Mr. Gandhi has strongly objected to the findings. He said all bidders for the lottery contract had the chance to suggest additional games, even if the request for proposal did not specifically mention online gambling.

The U.S. Department of Justice opened the door to online gaming via state lottery systems, a reversal of its position, in a recent opinion that addressed whether Illinois and New York can use out-of-state transaction processors to sell lottery tickets to adults within their borders.

“Other states are now doing this,” Mr. Brown said. “And frankly they are laughing at our procedure now, moving backwards when we were out front on this.”

The House Democrats’ point person on gambling legislation said Wednesday that online gambling could be an element of legislation aimed at significantly expanding gambling in Illinois.

Since May, a donnybrook over putting slot machines at the state’s racetracks has put a bill adding five new casinos in Chicago, Rockford, Danville, Park City and south suburban Cook County on ice. Lawmakers passed the legislation and sent it to Gov. Pat Quinn, who opposes the provision allowing slot machines at the tracks. Quinn said the glut of new gambling will cannibalize the state’s 10 existing casinos.

The Justice Department, which announced in December that states could sell lottery tickets online, may have provided a potential solution, state Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, told reporters Wednesday.

In response to questions by New York and Illinois, the Justice Department said selling lottery tickets would not be a violation of the Wire Act of 1961, which was aimed at stopping betting on sports with bookies over telephone lines crossing state or national borders. States across the country have been looking at online sale of lottery tickets or gambling as a potential new revenue source to bolster their budgets.

“This could lead to legalized online poker, online blackjack, online craps,” Lang said. “As you know, the governor is into the online lottery, and so there are new opportunities that are being discussed that could lead somewhere valuable, but we’re nowhere near the point of suggesting that that can happen yet.”

Lang declined to provide details of how the potential new revenue stream would bolster the struggling horseracing industry but noted that the racetracks and the horsemen have been unwilling to accept a subsidy from the state or the casinos to the industry.

“Until you have a reliable and consistent source of funding that cannot be taken away from the racetracks, they’re going to stick to their position of slot machines because if they get slot machines, it would be a property right that cannot be taken away from them,” Lang said. “None of these other ideas are yet there.

“If we, by statute, created a subsidy for the horseracing industry, they would be concerned that it would be swept, they would be concerned that it wouldn’t be appropriated, there could be a concern that next year, we could pass another statute saying we’re not doing this anymore.”

Andrew Mack, a spokesman for the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association, said the group is interested in the idea but hasn’t committed to anything.

“They’re looking at every available option,” Mack said. “Internet gambling -- if that’s an option if that can be made to work, they’ll pursue that. But they’re not going to put all their eggs in that basket.”

Sound the bells. Raise the flag. The moment that the public gets a glimpse at Facebook financials has finally arrived.

After the market closed Wednesday, eight-year-old Facebook filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to raise $5 billion, making the largest Internet technology offerings in the United States.

The company generated $3.7 billion in revenues in 2011, and $1 billion in profits. Net income was $1 billion.

Profits grew 65% last year from $606 million in 2010. And revenues grew 88%.

Up until this point Google's $1.9 billion debut has been the largest U.S. Internet IPO.

The public spent the last three months estimating just how big the company and its bankers were going to go with in the S-1 form -- with many estimates placing the valuation of the company near $100 billion and the total amount the company would raise in its public debut near $10 billion.

In the filing, Facebook disclosed that it has 845 million MAUs as of Dec. 31, 2011, an increase of 39% as compared to 608 million MAUs as of Dec. 31, 2010.

In November, when reports first started trickling out that the company was on the verge of filing paperwork for its IPO with a planned date to hit the markets in May.

Following up the less-than-stellar showings of several recent tech IPOs (from the likes of Pandora, Groupon and Zynga), Facebook appears to be leaning on the conservative side in order to insure a stronger clamor for shares out of the gate.

The numbers; virtual goods up 500%

While a $5 billion IPO is far under the estimates that were swirling that this could reach $10 billion, I think many will be wiping their brows with ease -- allowing the company to have somewhere upward to trend rather than see-saw and creep downward like Pandora, Groupon and Zynga.

The eight-year-old social network that put Mark Zuckerberg into the lexicon of more than a billion people has been making money that even Warren Buffet couldn't shrug at. In 2011, Facebook's revenues totaled $3.7 billion; it amassed $1.8 billion in operating income and $1 billion net income.

The industry analysts had been estimating that the company was raking in between $5 billion and $7 billion and so these figures were obviously blown out of proportion without any Facebook hard data.

The two main methods of gaining revenue were advertisments and "payments and other fees" -- namely virtual goods in some capacity. For year 2011, advertising was 85% of the Facebook revenue ($3.15 billion, while other payments made up $557 million). This is a HUGE jump over the previous year where $1.87 billion of revenue came from advertisments and $106 million from payments. Essentially, virtual goods grew more than 500% since the start of 2010.

The filings showed that Zynga accounted for approximately 12% of the company’s revenue. Now that is a sizable chunk, and could do some good for other Zynga investors to hear just what a money maker is has proven to be.

The revenue came from both its 30% payments processing fee related to the sale of virtual goods from inside games, such as CityVille and Words With Friends, but also from all the advertising purchased by the social gaming company.

This is going to put an even brighter spotlight onto social gaming, virtual goods and the transactions people are willing to make on their social networks.

Sam Hamadeh, the CEO of a private financial data authority company called PrivCo, explained to me that the previous estimates were far too ambitious since Facebook has focused for a long time on capturing its audience and building a specific user experience. His estimate that the company revenue would be close to the $4 billion mark which he was even on the high end of but close (considering it was $3.7 billion).

"I think it will come out as a bit of a damper when they see the real number and at first that will disappoint people," Hamadeh said. "But [Facebook] will get a one-time pass since there were no official numbers before this and there have been a lot of monetizing additions lately and many still to come."

How Facebook has geared up for IPO

The near constant roll-outs of new products and announcements has been since reports of IPO filing came in November.

While filing for an IPO is not always the route that large companies wish to move toward, Facebook will have to start disclosing its revenue when it crosses the 500 shareholder threshold, set by the SEC, and most suspected that the company would go public upon that benchmark.

With more than 800 million users and a slew of advertisers and developers that pay for access to create applications and services on the site, Facebook has created a business model that many are ready to bet on.

Then in late November, some rumors started circulating that Facebook was in talks to get into the online gambling business -- at least in the UK.

The timeline for such an endeavor is unknown as of yet, but the company has been in talks about ways to translate the social gaming and credit system into a real money maker.

The Facebook credit system currently cuts itself a 30% slice of the virtual token revenue from social gaming. But a real money version would leave many questioning if that would impact the credit system and how people would "cash out" winning.

The talks appear to only be a UK project since many states in the US bar gambling and the logistics of offering such a service on a state-by-state-basis seems highly unlikely.

The current frontrunner on the Facebook gaming segment is the IPO-hungry Zynga, with 30+ million monthly users -- roughly 6% of the social network population. Facebook might be in search of alternative revenue models as Zynga launches, its once Facebook-exclusive, games on its own website and other platforms like the quickly-growing Google+ (with 40+ million in the population and counting.)

Then there are all the updates we have seen to the re

Ladbrokes, the UK-based online sportsbook and casino giant, has made a big purchase in Nevada, making it the latest offshore gambling operator to cement a position for itself in the event sports betting is eventually legalized in the United States.

Eye to the future

Ladbrokes paid $3 million to acquire 65 percent of Stadium Technology Group, a Las Vegas-based supplier of software and betting applications to bookmakers. STG currently powers software for several locations in Las Vegas, including the entire CantorGaming group, Golden Nugget and Treasure Island.

The size of the American market and the potential for positive regulatory change in the near future made this acquisition a sensible one, Ladbrokes CEO Richard Glynn said. He added that Stadium Technology could expand its business by becoming one of the main software suppliers to existing land-based casinos in Nevada and Delaware.

Brits take over Vegas

William Hill, the main British rival to Ladbrokes, last year spent well in excess of $50 million on purchases of various Las Vegas sports betting outfits, including American Wagering. The acquisitions are known to be part of a plan to cement a foothold in the US before legalization and the consequent growth in the market.

New Jersey is at the forefront of the race to legalize sports betting, and a congressman representing the state has already introduced federal legislation to open sports betting there, and ultimately set the precedent for other states to do so as well. The US Justice Department ruled late last year that while cross-state betting on sporting contests is illegal, other forms of internet gambling such as poker and casino games are not.

A bill to repeal the nation’s first government-supported online gambling program cleared a D.C. Council committee Wednesday afternoon.

In the Finance and Revenue Committee vote, Council members Muriel Bowser, David Catania and Jack Evans voted for the repeal. Council members Marion Barry and Michael Brown opposed the repeal.

“I think it’s a mistake,” Brown said Tuesday.

The repeal has enough votes in the full council to pass next week, Brown said.

After initially declining to take a position on the repeal, Mayor Vincent Gray also has voiced support for it.

Online gambling was put in the city budget in December 2010 without public hearings. The council approved D.C.’s lottery contract, but language about online gambling was added to the contract later.

Plans for poker and other games last spring prompted public backlash and delayed the games. The plan was never implemented and now appears to be dead.

Several council members who support the repeal have said they are not opposed to online gambling in D.C., they just don’t like how it was done.

Brown said if the repeal is successful, he will start over with a new standalone bill and public hearings. Evans said he didn’t expect such a bill to pass.

The odds makers at Bovada Sportsbook have been working tirelessly to put forth the most Super Bowl 46 props out of any one on the internet and I think they’ve succeeded. There are so many options; it’s like a menu at the Cheesecake Factory: you keep flipping pages but there’s more and more.

In our handicapping of the big game, we’ve had to parse them down into parts. In today’s post, we’re looking at the halftime props and what Madonna is more or less likely to do.

Join Bovada Sportsbook right now and make your Super Bowl pick count.

What color will Madonna's hair be when she begins the Super Bowl Halftime show?
Blonde -400
Any other color +250

This is a bit of a trick question. The old Madonna probably would have surprised us but in her later years as a mom, we’re more likely to see her come out as a blonde. The real wild card in this spot is whether or not she wears a wig. It could happen.

Will Madonna wear a hat at any point during the Super Bowl Halftime show?
Yes +100
No -140

‘Yes’ seems like the logical answer here as one has to figure that it’s just part of an outfit. Maybe a top hat or a cowboy hat depending on the ensemble. Her hair isn’t as crisp as it used to be so a hat could be in the cards.

What will Madonna be using to start the Super Bowl Halftime show?
Headset -300
Handheld Microphone +200

You’ve got to go with the headset in this one, don’t you? This isn’t U2 or Bruce Springstein; she’s an active performer. Dancing figures to be as much of a part as the show as the singing – as it typically is with Madonna. Adding that up, a handheld microphone makes less sense. A headset allows her to be more mobile.

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Hello,

Very nice post...! Yes this is Hurdle...

Great work Manne and Great news as well...! Nice update...:thumbsup

I agree with you.Online gaming is expanding day by day.

WASHINGTON -- The nation's capital appeared to solve its budget problems in 2010 when it raced to become the first jurisdiction in the United States to legalize and regulate online gambling. With millions of Americans, and hundreds of millions of foreign players, all waiting for a legitimate and legal online gambling outlet in the United States, Washington D.C. could have reaped a fortune in tax revenue. On Wednesday, however, a city council subcommittee repealed its first-in-the-nation online gambling law.

Washington's online gambling legalization has had its critics since its passage. They argue that the online portion of the statute wasn't part of the original 2009 lottery law, but was instead slipped into a 2010 budget bill. While the law allows for typical casino games such as poker and blackjack, the program was never launched. Now, with the DC city council subcommittee voting 3-2 for repeal, the prohibition will go before the entire city council for a full vote. That vote should come in the next few days or weeks.

Online gambling -- a sure bet

One thing is abundantly clear -- legalized and regulated online gambling is coming to the United States. The only question is who will be getting rich from it. At the moment, Nevada, New York, Hawaii and Illinois all have online gambling legislation in the works. For bankrupt states and cities, the windfall of tax revenue from internet gaming sites based in their jurisdiction would be a budget-saver. Until now, it looked as if Washington and the others were headed for victory and financial salvation.

State vs. federal

Online gambling is set to be the next fierce political battle between the states and the federal government. According to one councilman from Washington DC who supported the online gambling law, the nation's giant casinos have teamed up with Congress to steal the right, and the revenue, away from the states.

Congress is racing to pass legislation that would recognize state-based online gambling as illegal, but federal-based online gambling as legal. That move would keep the power and revenue from online gambling in the federal government's coffers. According to one Washington DC city councilman, the world's largest casinos have entered the game.

Washington DC councilman and online gambling supporter Michael A. Brown, an independent, accused "casino interests" of repealing the city's law: "I believe that casinos have now reared their head in our city" he told the Washington Post. The paper goes on to quote the independent Brown saying that online gambling "will be federalized and we won't get any of the revenue."

When asked which casinos and corporations were influencing the change of heart within the Washington DC city council, Brown could only admit, "I don't know. I'm not sure." An informal poll by the Post found that 9 of the city's 12 council members planned to vote for a repeal, reversing the city's historic leap in 2010. Referring to the city's apparent abandonment of the massive amount of anticipated tax revenue, Brown insisted, "They're laughing at our procedure now, that we're going backwards."

Critics who suspect major corporate casinos are behind Washington DC's policy reversal suggest their reasoning is obvious -- it's cheaper to influence one set of Congressmen than 50 sets. Also, negotiating one nationwide regulatory system with Congress would be easier than fighting for 50 different state contracts to run their individual online gambling programs.

HR 1174

The first step in legalizing online gambling may come in the form of a bill currently before the US House. HR 1174 would legalize online gambling, except in states that enact laws prohibiting it. Online gambling opponents fought for an opt-out mechanism for states such as Utah that ban all forms of gambling. Two days ago, Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Utah, introduced a bill that would do just that.

The bill currently before Congress, HR 1174, takes the potential for billions of dollars in tax revenue away from the states and gives it directly to the Secretary of the Treasury. Sponsored by Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif., the bill's introduction states:

'To amend title 31, United States Code, to provide for the licensing of Internet gambling activities by the Secretary of the Treasury, to provide for consumer protections on the Internet, to enforce the tax code, and for other purposes.'

The full Washington DC city council should vote on repealing the online gambling ordinance sometime in the coming days. Supporters have vowed to reintroduce the measure should it be repealed.

A city panel in the U.S. capital voted on Wednesday to repeal a first-in-the-nation Internet gambling law for Washington, D.C., a spokeswoman said.

Support for online gambling had dried up as details surfaced about the roundabout way a contract was awarded to Greece's Intralot, the District of Columbia's lottery operator.

Stepping back from the online project, the city council's Finance Committee voted 3-2 to repeal a 2010 law that would have allowed it, said Denise Tolliver, chief of staff for Councilman Phil Mendelson, a sponsor of the bill.

The full 12-member council will hold the first of two votes on repeal on Tuesday, she said.

"They may start over. I don't think they are that far yet," Tolliver said.

Internet gambling received a blow this week when Mayor Vincent Gray, who has generally supported the plan, backed repeal.

Resistance to the plan had grown as details surfaced about how the law came about. Internet gambling was added to the city's lottery contract months after the contract passed a 2009 council vote. It was legalized through a 2010 spending bill.

No date had been set for launch. Washington would have been the first U.S. jurisdiction to have its own site dedicated to games such as online poker and blackjack.

Gray and other supporters had argued that the District of Columbia needed millions of dollars in revenues from online gambling. But that argument was weakened with the city's announcement in December that revenue in the current fiscal year was expected to top forecasts by $42 million.

Byron Boothe, Intralot's vice president for government affairs, said Washington "was really leading the (online gambling) charge and obviously they dropped the baton."

He said it would be difficult for the District of Columbia to revive the online gambling initiative since congressional sentiment has swung against state or local government oversight in favor of federal regulation.

A number of states are looking at Internet gambling, including Illinois, New York and Hawaii, he said. Nevada's Gaming Commission last year passed a framework to regulate online poker.

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FRANKFORT — Gov. Steve Beshear said his gambling bill is ready but won't be introduced until redistricting is settled, which could be as early as next week but might not happen for months.

"The gambling bill is ready to be introduced, and it is just a matter of when folks feel comfortable with going ahead and introducing it and starting to move it," Beshear said Thursday.

The governor originally said a potential constitutional amendment to allow casino gambling would be introduced in the first days of the legislative session in January, but it has been delayed continually, first by a bitter battle over redrawing legislative districts and now by a lawsuit over the new districts.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd is scheduled to hear evidence Monday from House Republicans who contend the new boundaries are unconstitutional. State Sen. Kathy Stein, a Democrat who had been Lexington's senator until the new plan moved her seat to northeastern Kentucky, has joined the suit. Shepherd postponed the filing deadline for potential candidates until Tuesday.

In the meantime, Beshear said, his gambling bill is on hold.

"This whole place is mired down in redistricting right now," Beshear said. "We're going to have to wait and see what happens Monday or Tuesday with the court situation to be able to plan a future strategy. A lot of senators are worried about filing deadlines. ... We're going to be flexible."

But he denied that momentum has been lost, as gambling opponents have said repeatedly.

"The interest is very much there to pass this legislation and put it on the ballot. We've got a lot of time left in the session," he said. "The drop-dead date is to pass it before the last day of the session," which ends in April.

Senate Minority Leader R.J. Palmer, D-Winchester, said Wednesday that a gambling amendment could be introduced even if Shepherd throws out the redistricting plan and lawmakers have to start over.

Beshear said earlier this week that he sees the necessary 23 votes to get an amendment out of the Senate. The likely chief sponsor of the legislation, Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, also said Wednesday that the vote looks close.

Thayer confirmed that the bill was ready but would not discuss specifics.

"It's the governor's place to announce what the details are," Thayer said.

Beshear said Thursday that the bill would be introduced "at a time when our supporters and I can agree that it's time to hit the ground running."

He would not discuss any details of the bill. He has said that any move to allow casino gambling should include Kentucky's racetracks, but some lawmakers argue that it would create a lucrative monopoly for one industry.

Soul singer and music sensation Adele looks like she’s going to clean up quite a bit at the Grammys. Not only is she favored to win album of the year and record of the year, she’s a heavy favorite to win song of the year as well.

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Odds to win Song of the Year
Rolling in the Deep (Adele) -700
All of the Lights (Kanye West featuring Rihanna & Kid Cudi) +500
The Cave (Mumford and Sons) +1000
Grenade (Bruno Mars) +2500
Holocene (Bon Iver) +2500

Rolling in the Deep was a smash hit that found it’s way to the top of the charts in 14 different countries. No wonder the odds makers at Bovada Sportsbook have it listed at -700 to win the award.

Even so, there’s plenty of good competition. Kanye West collected an all-star cast featuring Rihanna and Kid Cudi for All of the Lights, and while it was an excellent production, it mostly appealed to the hip hop fans. Bruno Mars’ Grenade was a big pop hit that topped more than 15 different international charts and it might deserve more of a shot to win than the +2500 odds it’s been given, but Adele will be hard to take down.

Mumford and Sons as well as Bon Iver have their contributions to the category but they didn’t have the widespread success and fame that Adele collected, and they are going to have a tough time stealing this trophy away. Even so, it’s great exposure for them.

The 2012 Grammys take place on February 12th, which is one week after Super Bowl Sunday.

Bet on who you think will win the 2012 Grammy for Best Album of the Year at Bovada