It has been a wild lead up to this season of The X Factor, which doesn’t air until September of this year, but creator Simon Cowell is looking for new judges as well as a new host. There have been plenty of rumors and stories surrounding the judging situation as the late Whitney Houston was supposed to be on the show, while Janet Jackson passed on a role and Britney Spears is reportedly being pursued by Cowell. But he may have found a new host and that’s a start…if the rumors are true, of course.
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Apparently, Cowell has been in talks with Stacy Keibler to replace Steve Jones, who was let go with judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger, and Keibler would be much better as a host than as an actual judge. Keibler made her name as a WWE wrestler before moving into the world of acting and she was also on Dancing With The Stars in 2006, so she has an idea of how reality television works. Currently, Keibler has been spotted in the press as the latest girlfriend of actor George Clooney, so that couldn’t have hurt her profile.
X Factor USA - Season 2 - Who will win?
Male +120
Female EVEN
Group +400
Keibler is very attractive and she does have a certain charisma about herself, which she surely carved out from her time in the WWE where she was a relatively large star as far as the women’s side was concerned. You should have some sort of personality if you’re going to move up in that company. This would be a massive step for Keibler’s career and it’s a job that she could hold on to for multiple years – if she plays her cards right. It would be a surprise if she turned down Cowell, although The X Factor creator still has the upper hand here.
A new survey has found that online gambling appeals more to women and the young.
The survey was commissioned by The Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism at Richard Stockton College.
Of 3,000 people surveyed from the Northeast Corridor and other major markets in the eastern half of the country, between 16 and 25 percent said they would play electronic versions of blackjack, craps, slots, baccarat, poker and roulette.
Read More: Online gambling appeals more to women than men, poll says | NJ-com
Utah became the first state to preemptively opt out of any potential federal Internet poker regulation this week when Gov. Gary Herbert signed into law an anti-online gambling bill passed by the state legislature at the beginning of the month.
There are other states that have laws on the books against online poker, but it is still possible they could decide to get involved if the game is sanctioned by the country and it is seen that many neighboring states are benefiting. Utah is the first to include language specifically announcing it will not participate in any federally approved Internet poker.
Read more: Utah Gov Signs Anti-Online Gambling Bill; State Opts Out of Any Internet Poker Regulation | PokerNews
The benefits that casinos bring are outweighed by the greater harm that eventually follows. Las Vegas and Atlantic City are stagnant and in the doldrums after decades of casino gambling.
Read More: Future of gambling is online - thestar-com
The Alderney Gambling Control Commission, also known as the AGCC, recently announced that they had issued their 100th license. The lucky recipient was the online gambling software enterprise now pushing out Fast Poker- namely the Relax Gaming Network.
Read More: AGCC Issues 100th License to Relax Gaming Network
The time has come for the contestants on American Idol to move into the Idol mansion and there are only nine left after Thursday’s elimination show, which left some wondering if the wrong person was shown the door.
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It was Billy Joel week on American Idol and the contestants were mentored by Diddy, of all people. the bottom three consisted of DeAndre Brackensick for his rendition of “Only The Good Die Young”, Erika Van Pelt and her version of “New York State Of Mind” and Heejun Han for “My Life”. In the end, Van Pelt was chosen to leave the show but there are many fans and entertainment critics who felt that Han should have been the one to go. He wore track pants on Thursday night, which was a sign that even he thought he would be going home and he was berated by Interscope honcho Jimmy Iovine for his performance and Diddy called him a con man. If Han is going to continue in this competition, he has to pull up his socks and start taking this seriously.
American Idol Season 11 - Odds to Win
Phillip Phillips 9/4
Jessica Sanchez 5/2
Colton Dixon 9/2
Hollie Cavanagh 13/2
Skylar Laine 8/1
Joshua Ledet 9/1
Heejun Han 30/1
DeAndre Brackensick 40/1
Elise Testone 40/1
Philip Phillips appears to be the favorite now at 9/4, with Jessica Sanchez at 5/2, Colton Dixon at 9/2, while Skylar Laine at 8/1 and Hollie Cavanagh come in at 13/2. Sanchez put forth a brilliant version of “Everybody Has A Dream” to overtake Phillips’ “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” and Dixon’s “Piano Man”, but everything is going to change as the contestants move into the Idol mansion. The competition is getting more fierce and the big guns are going to come out as more people are kicked off American Idol, which resumes next week with the theme of “Their Personal Idols”.
Most opponents to online gaming in California approach the debate as if it is a question of whether or not there will be online gaming in the state. But that question has long ago been asked and answered.
At a minimum, hundreds of thousands of Californians engage in online gaming. Many of those do so legally through advanced deposit wagering on horse racing.
Many others already engage in the very games we seek to make legal through Senate Bill 1463.
There are several reasons why I have worked for years to create a framework for legalized online gaming in California.
Recent news reports reveal that the new plans for internet gaming in Germany have received a lot of criticism from the European Commission. As per the new and revised proposals, fifteen of Germany’s states were to be a part of an agreement on online gambling by which internet gaming sites were to be regulated.
Read More: European Commission Rejects German Online Gambling Proposal
The first shipment of slot machines arrived this month at a Toledo, Ohio, casino scheduled to open in late May that will eventually house 2,000 of the one-armed bandits. Just weeks earlier, a casino in Cleveland, also set to open this spring, got its first delivery of slots. The two casinos are the first of a total of four approved by the Ohio legislature, with the others set to open in Columbus and Cincinnati.
This country has many serious problems to address, but an activity that millions of people around the world voluntarily enjoy, mostly without incident, is not one of them and it certainly does not warrant a big new federal regulatory agency.
In a recent op-ed in The Washington Examiner, former Pennsylvania governor and Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge and former FBI Director Louis Freeh called for immediate federal regulation of Internet gambling.
Ridge and Freeh, who are employed by Fair Play USA a lobbying group funded by the largest Las Vegas casinos, argue that federal rules are necessary for law enforcement to be able to tackle interstate crime and to keep minors from accessing online games. This is far from the truth.
Ridge and Freeh assert that additional federal regulations are needed to shore up enforcement. The truth is that there are currently zero federal laws banning Americans from non-sports gambling online.
This was made clear when Assistant Attorney General Virginia A. Seitz announced that in the Department's opinion the 1961 Wire Act applied only to sports wagering.
Read More: Let states regulate Internet gambling | Washington Examiner
Sometimes the intermingling of art and reality is just plain spooky.
In Mid-March, two of the most important figures in California's gambling picture died within hours of one another.
Richard Milanovich, who as longtime chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians played a seminal role in creating California's multibillion-dollar tribal gambling industry, died in Rancho Mirage, near his tribe's two casinos, after a long bout with cancer.
Two days later, Rod Blonien, for many years the Capitol's most important lobbyist for horse-racing tracks and poker parlors, was found dead at his home, apparently of a heart attack.
China’s online gambling market size is on track to surpass RMB 55.7 billion (US$ 8.84 billion) in 2012, up 20.7% year-over-year. The Beijing-based researcher predicts that the by 2014 the market size will reach RMB 82.6 billion (US$ 13 billion).
Increasing internet usage coupled with growth in broadband subscribers is providing impetus to the growth in online gaming market. China has the world’s largest internet user base, representing 23% of the global online population with a broadband penetration set to grow with a CAGR of at least 21%. Primarily there are five types of online games, including massively multiplayer online game, first-person shooter, racing/simulation game, adult/gambling game and puzzle/strategy game.
Emerging trends in the online gambling market include growth in pre-paid gaming cards, focus on research and development, focus on online 3D games and overseas expansion. Players are investing in R&D, introducing more and more online 3D games and also upgrading the existing 3D games, as a step towards further development of the current technological standards. Export of online games has grown at CAGR of 82%.
Read More: Internet Usage Increases in China's Growing Online Gaming Market | Casino Scam Report
53% of Facebook users play social games. Since Facebook’s IPO filing earlier this year, we know that game-maker Zynga accounts for a full 12% of the social network’s revenue. The top five casino games on Facebook – Texas HoldEm Poker, Slotomania, DoubleDown Casino, Bingo Blitz and Best Casino – together draw a whopping 11,240,000 daily users.
Recently, the world’s business-savvy gambling operators have been looking at these telling numbers and have inescapably come to the same conclusion: we want a slice of that pie.
Alderney is a tiny island based on the English Channel (or what the French call as Canal La Manche). It belongs to the British Crown and has a population of 2,400. This would normally make it a very insignificant location if it wasn’t for the gambling industry. Not that millions come to Alderney to play. Quite the opposite.
What the island does is specializing in issuing gambling licenses to online and mobile casinos, which then operate globally. Many of well-known brands operate under Alderney license. How many licenses have been issues by this tiny place? Quite many.
Read More: A Small Island Grows to Be a Gambling Powerhouse | Blackjack Champ
Important news concerning the online gambling market in the UK was announced by the British Chancellor of the Exchequer. As George Osborne stated two vital points, which he made very clear while he was giving his budget speech on the 21st of March. These points are as followed, the first one is related to offshore gambling and operators. As he stated that offshore internet gambling providers who provide services within the United Kingdom’s market will be exposed to more taxes, and will be required to go through a secondary licensing. The second point is concerned with how to define internet gambling. And it was stated that it would be defined in the place of the service usage, regardless of the operator’s location.
Read More: UK Online Gambling On Shore Off Shore, That is the Question : ADI News
Just three minutes after Illinois officially became the first state to sell lottery tickets online — the first ticket was purchased.|
Hours later, more than 1,600 tickets had been sold, with sales topping $9,000. Lottery officials said they expected the fast pace of sales to continue through to Tuesday evening’s Mega Millions drawing, where the jackpot is an estimated $356 million.
Read More: Hundreds buy lottery tickets online in Illinois - Galesburg, IL - The Register-Mail
A new video hits the controversial topic of gambling and the government's response to it.
The group, Stop Predatory Gambling, has produced a video to answer the question of why the federal and state governments have done so little to stop gambling.
Les Bernal, who heads the organization, says, "I think the video, which we have titled 'The Smartest Guys Not in the Room,' goes right to the heart of one of government's biggest failed public policies in the last 40 years. Here you have government across the country, pretty much every state in America, aggressively pushing people into deeper debt and creating addiction in order to feed off it by promoting gambling -- very extreme forms of gambling -- as a way to fund public services."
Read More: Guess who seldom loses money gambling? (OneNewsNow-com)
New Hampshire lawmakers will be rolling the dice this week on a proposal that could bring a multimillion-dollar casino to Rockingham Park in Salem.
Supporters and opponents of a bill to allow four casinos in the Granite State have been lobbying hard for and against passage of House Bill 593.
Last week, backers sponsored luncheons at the Legislative Office Building in Concord to make their final pitches before the expected House of Representatives vote Wednesday.
Proponents are confident the legislation will pass. Opponents are skeptical of the bill, doubting it will receive enough support.
"We feel positive about the outcome," said Rich Killion, spokesman for Millennium Gaming of Las Vegas.
Read More: N.H. House expected to vote on casinos Merrimack Valley EagleTribune-com, North Andover, MA
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Apparently, Cowell has been in talks with Stacy Keibler to replace Steve Jones, who was let go with judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger, and Keibler would be much better as a host than as an actual judge. Keibler made her name as a WWE wrestler before moving into the world of acting and she was also on Dancing With The Stars in 2006, so she has an idea of how reality television works. Currently, Keibler has been spotted in the press as the latest girlfriend of actor George Clooney, so that couldn’t have hurt her profile.
X Factor USA - Season 2 - Who will win?
Male +120
Female EVEN
Group +400
Keibler is very attractive and she does have a certain charisma about herself, which she surely carved out from her time in the WWE where she was a relatively large star as far as the women’s side was concerned. You should have some sort of personality if you’re going to move up in that company. This would be a massive step for Keibler’s career and it’s a job that she could hold on to for multiple years – if she plays her cards right. It would be a surprise if she turned down Cowell, although The X Factor creator still has the upper hand here.