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Kim Kardashian is pregnant.

The reality TV star's boyfriend Kanye West shared the couple's happy news during a performance at Revedl in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the brunette beauty's representative has now confirmed the news.

During the show West told the audience to "stop the music and make noise for my baby mama."

Kardashian and West have been dating since April 2011.

While Kardashian - who is believed to be around 12 weeks pregnant - has not spoken about her pregnancy, her family are delighted by the news.

Sister Kourtney Kardashian - who has two children, three-year-old Mason and five-month-old Penelope, with partner Scott Disick - tweeted: "Been wanting to shout from the rooftops with joy and now I can! Another angel to welcome to our family. Overwhelmed with excitement! (sic)"

Sibling Khloe Kardashian added: "Keeping secrets is hard with so many family members! Especially when you are so freaking excited😡!! LOVE is everything😡! (sic)".

And Kardashian's mother and manager Kris Jenner is delighted.

She tweeted: "I'm a happy girl 😡😡😡 Wowza! (sic)" Kardashian, 32, and West, 35, spent the festive period together and were seen with the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star's family watching her brother-in-law Lamar Odom playing basketball for the Los Angeles Clippers on Christmas Day.

However, they left at half time with Kardashian later tweeting she felt "unwell".

She added: "In bed with the flu all day. Praying this goes away fast!"
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Ever since the U.S. Justice Department reinterpreted the scope of the 1961 Wire Act one year ago, advocates of online gambling have hoped the decision would provide them with a path to legitimacy.

But the political imperative of reducing the federal deficit - in part by identifying new sources of revenue - is what ultimately may give them an opening.

Legislation that would legalize some forms of online gaming, while increasing oversight of the industry, was drafted last fall by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and retiring Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. Debate on the proposal is expected to resume when the new Congress reconvenes this month.

The interest in federal legislation comes at a time when discussions in Connecticut about legalizing Internet gambling at the state level appear to be at a standstill.

A year ago, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy began talks with the state's two major casinos about such a move. The talks stalled, and state legislators - amid lobbying by the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling - failed to take up the issue. A Malloy spokesman said recently that the governor currently "has no interesting pursuing Internet gambling."

This has left Connecticut, with the fifth-highest-grossing casino market in the U.S., lagging behind states such as Nevada and Delaware, which already have legalized certain forms of online gambling. Other states, including New Jersey, are aggressively pursuing the issue.

Meanwhile, the National Governors Association and National Conference of State Legislatures have expressed concerns that action in Congress could pre-empt state prerogatives with regard to online gambling.

The proposal by Reid and Kyl is to loosen the ban on online gambling passed in 2006 with legislation that would keep most forms of online gambling illegal, but carve out a place for legal Internet poker.

If Internet gaming were legalized under the terms of the Reid-Kyl bill in all 50 states, its market would be around $2.82 billion in the first year and $4.57 billion by the third year, estimates British consulting firm H2 Gambling Capital. A market of this size would translate into more than $91 million in new federal taxes by the third year, although that could shrink, depending on how many states took advantage of a provision in the bill to opt out of online gambling.

Kyl was among the supporters of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, a ban on Internet gambling that was attached to legislation regulating port security and passed with large majorities in both houses of Congress.

Proponents of the ban cited the Wire Act as justification; the Justice Department previously had used the Wire Act to prosecute online gambling sites, shutting down such popular foreign-based poker websites as Poker Stars and Full Tilt.

But last year, following a request for clarification by New York and Illinois state lotteries, the Justice Department reinterpreted the ban on wagers across state or international borders to include only sporting events. The ruling called the ban on online gambling into question, and has prompted several states to pursue their own legislation to legalize the practice.

Efforts to legalize Internet gambling at the federal level have been in the works since 2007. In 2010, the House Financial Services Committee approved a measure sponsored by its then-chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who is retiring from Congress. That bill, which never made it before the full House, would have established a program for licensing Internet gambling, while subjecting the practice to taxation.

A draft version of the Reid-Kyl proposal would allow off-track horse-race wagering, licensed poker and online lottery ticket sales, but only in states or tribal lands that opt into the bill's regulatory framework. If it becomes law, online poker would not be legal until 15 months after passage.

The Mohegan Sun casino strongly supports the legalization of online poker. Tribal Council Chairman Bruce Bozsum has testified twice before Congress on the matter.

Chuck Bunnell, chief of staff for the tribe, said the group approves of the Reid-Kyl bill's restrictions on other forms of online gaming - provisions designed to protect brick-and-mortar casinos.

"We believe in poker only, and having people play slot machines online at home is not the business that we're in," Bunnell explained. "We're in the business of creating a resort entertainment experience, not that in-home full gaming experience that we think would be detrimental to the men and women that count on the tribe for their employment and certainly for the tribe and providing services to its membership."

The trade association for the nation's casinos also supports the provisions in the drafted legislation.

"It is urgent that Congress act now to pass federal legislation to address these matters," American Gaming Association President Frank Fahrenkopf said. "Failure to act at the federal level will result in a patchwork quilt of rules and regulations as states legalize various forms of online gambling one-by-one, making effective regulatory and law enforcement oversight extremely difficult and putting consumers at risk."

Under the Reid-Kyl proposal, only operators that have already done business in a regulated environment, such as brick-and-mortar casinos, could receive a license in the first two years following enactment. Establishments that began operating after the 2006 ban on Internet gambling would have to wait five years before applying for a license unless they could prove that they have not broken any U.S. law.

Many state lotteries are opposed to the legislation because it would prevent the lotteries from offering full gaming online.

Despite its support for the bill, the Mohegan Tribe objects to a portion of the draft mandating that "if the lands of an Indian tribe are located in a state that is considered not to have opted-in under this section
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A survey conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind Poll found a slim majority, or 51 percent, of Americans for the first time think sports betting should be legal in states where it's prohibited by federal law.

The poll found that 60 percent of men support legal sports betting compared with 43 percent of women, while the overall rate is up from 39 percent in a similar poll in March 2010.

The research discovered that one in five American men acknowledged betting on sports. Only 33 percent of registered voters nationally were completely opposed to legal sports wagering, with 11 percent labeled themselves as unsure.

"These national figures are similar to what we've seen in our recent polls of New Jersey voters," said Krista Jenkins, director of the poll and political science professor at the New Jersey university.

Sports betting is legal in Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana under the 1992 federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act . Under the law, New Jersey could have enacted a sports betting law, but failed to do so.

In January, New Jersey lawmakers passed and Republican Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill to legalize sports betting at Atlantic City casinos and Garden State racetracks. The NCAA, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League are challenging that law in federal court.

"New Jersey is moving forward with its plans for sports betting, despite federal lawsuits … to block it," Jenkins said.

Supporters of sports betting have argued that illegal wagering is already happening. The poll found that only those older than 60 are more likely to oppose expansion of sports wagering than to support it. The 40 percent in favor is still larger than the 27 percent approval from that group two years ago.

Americans are not as quick to support all new gambling, with only 27 percent in favor of allowing states to run online games.

"It's a real crapshoot," said Jenkins. "On one side are economic benefits to a state, yet on the other is the concern that online gaming will make it too easy for individuals to get caught up in gambling."

The Fairleigh Dickenson University poll of 814 registered voters nationwide had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.


Poll: Online wagering favored by 27 percent - Business - ReviewJournal-com
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Following is a summary of current entertainment news
briefs.

Kim Kardashian pregnant with Kanye's baby

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper Kanye West and reality TV
star Kim Kardashian are expecting a child, Kardashian said on
Monday shortly after West announced the pregnancy to fans at a
concert. "It's true!! Kanye and I are expecting a baby,"
Kardashian, 32, wrote on her personal blog.

Oscar nomination voting extended after online hitches

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Voting for Oscar nominations was
extended by a day after some people reported problems with a
new online voting system, organizers of the movie industry's
coveted awards said Monday. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences said the deadline for its 6,000 members to vote on
nominations for the year's best films, performances, directors,
screenplay and other achievements would be extended to Friday,
January 4 - 24 hours after the original January 3 deadline.

Green Day to get back on road in March



Reuters Entertainment News Summary - chicagotribune-com
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When Buffalo News staffers sit down a year from now to pen the epitaph for the year 2013, there no doubt will be plenty of surprises. ¶ That’s how news works. ¶ But part of the agenda already has been written – or at least vaguely outlined: ¶ The year 2013 should see local ice skaters taking their first spins around the refrigerated canals downtown, a new outdoor amateur-skating venue on the same site as the Buffalo Sabres’ former playpen, the old Memorial Auditorium. ¶ In the same neighborhood, the Sabres’ new downtown mega-complex will begin taking shape, with some of it opening the following year. ¶ The new year also should see continued expansion of the area’s other new jewel, as more pieces go up on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. ¶ Two other popular “sports” – politics and the real sports world – will bear watching. ¶ Buffalo will hold a mayoral election this year and, as always, many of us will live and die with the exploits of our major-league teams, the Bills and Sabres. ¶ It should be a hot summer on the entertainment beat, too, when downtown Buffalo hosts two of the nation’s hottest-ticket events, Justin Bieber’s “Believe Tour,” on July 15 in First Niagara Center and the “Book of Mormon’s” six-day run in June at Shea’s Performing Arts Center. ¶ All those stories – and many more – still need to be written.

Here’s a look:
Medical campus

The new year promises to be a turning point on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, with four projects that will focus public attention.

The University at Buffalo plans to start relocating the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences from its South Campus to the downtown medical corridor in a project estimated to cost $375 million.

Roswell Park Cancer Institute raised enough money to start construction this year on an addition to the cancer center at Michigan Avenue and Carlton Street, abutting its main hospital building. Services in the Clinical Sciences Center will include a breast care center and expanded chemotherapy infusion.

Women & Children’s Hospital is moving from the Elmwood Village to the medical campus. Ground-breaking for the new facility, which will be renamed the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital, is expected in the spring. The $200 million building will go up at Ellicott and High streets.

Ciminelli Real Estate Corp. is expected to start construction soon on a Main Street medical office building. Major tenants will include doctors associated with the UBMD medical group and services related to the new Women & Children’s, which will abut the office building.
The Ralph

The future of Ralph Wilson Stadium will remain on the minds of local leaders in 2013.

Erie County lawmakers will be asked to approve a proposed new 10-year lease negotiated by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz with the Buffalo Bills.

The agreement calls for $130 million in renovations to the county-owned stadium that will be paid for by the state, the county and the Bills. It also calls for the creation of a “working group” that will begin to explore whether a new stadium could be built and where it would be located if the team remains in Western New York.

Terms of the proposed lease state that money should be set aside starting in 2018 that could pay for studies and other work toward a new stadium. The working group could begin meeting this year.
Downtown casino

A six-year legal battle over the fate of the Seneca Nation’s downtown casino could be decided once and for all this year.

A group opposed to the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino filed a federal court lawsuit in 2009 accusing the federal agency that approved the Nation’s gambling application of changing the rules to benefit the Senecas.

The suit, the latest of three filed by Citizens Against Casino Gambling in Erie County, repeats many of the same arguments made in the previous two suits, which the group won, but asks the court to close the legal loopholes that have allowed the casino to continue operating.

The upcoming decision by Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny could very well decide whether the Senecas go ahead with plans for a larger $130 million downtown casino.
Canalside

Sometime this summer or next fall, the long-awaited, historically aligned Erie Canal system of replica canals, towpaths and bridges is expected to open at Canalside.

The refrigerated canals – located in the footprint of the former Memorial Auditorium – are expected to become a wintertime ice-skating attraction from December through March, with an area three times the skating surface of Rockefeller Center.

Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp., the state waterfront agency that has piloted the project, expects the canal system to be a catalyst for a future public market, children’s museum, as well as retail, dining and drinking establishments.
Other developments

Look for news on major projects in Buffalo this year.

The Buffalo Sabres’ HARBORCenter Development is expected to break ground in March on two new ice rinks, a hotel, parking deck and restaurant and retail space, with an opening of the rinks scheduled for September 2014.

The remaking of the former Donovan State Office Building should be completed by the end of the year. It will be the new home of the Phillips Lytle law firm, which is moving out of the city’s tallest building, the HSBC Center. It also will house a boutique hotel.

Meanwhile, the authority that oversees the Peace Bridge is moving ahead with plans to improve its property while seeking to expand the plaza onto property it would like to acquire, including a city street. The Common Council would have to approve any sale of city property to the authority. The Peace Bridge’s plans are also the target of a federal lawsuit, which is ongoing.
Political season

Buffalonians will vote for mayor this year, with incumbent Democrat Byron W. Brown expected to seek a third term. Brown is considered a heavy favorite, especially w
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With the New Jersey state assembly and senate both having approved proposals to legalise online gambling at Atlantic City’s 12 casinos, senators are now pressing governor Chris Christie to sign the bill into law. Christie (pictured) vetoed the bill in late 2011 and the reworked proposals for intrastate online gambling eventually moved swiftly through the state houses in late December 2012.

A number of influential state senators have now written to the governor highlighting the economic benefits of enacting legislation that would make the Garden State the first in the US to approve online gambling.

Highlighting the ways internet gaming would boost New Jersey’s economy, the letter states: “Given the fiscal conditions facing our casinos, especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and the recent movement toward internet gaming in states across the country, we cannot afford to wait any longer for implementation.

"The short-term benefits would be in the form of increased economic activity, increased jobs and increased tax revenues, at very little cost to the state. Over the long term, internet gaming could change the landscape of the gaming industry in New Jersey.”
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The Iowa Lottery wants Congress to turn down proposals to authorize federal regulation of internet gambling.

Lottery CEO Terry Rich recently traveled to Washington to lobby on the issue, saying the federal government should not infringe on states' rights to implement and regulate internet gaming.

The Iowa Lottery has no immediate plans to offer internet gaming, but Rich says he's concerned about an internet gambling proposal recently circulated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
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Hugh Hefner is celebrating the new year as a married man once again.

The 86-year-old Playboy magazine founder exchanged vows with his "runaway bride", Crystal Harris, at a private Playboy Mansion ceremony on New Year's Eve.

Crystal, a 26-year-old "Playmate of the Month" in 2009, broke off a previous engagement to Hefner just before they were to be married in 2011.

Playboy said that the couple celebrated at a New Year's Eve party at the mansion with guests including comic Jon Lovitz, Gene Simmons of rock band Kiss and baseball star Evan Longoria.

The bride wore a strapless gown in soft pink, Hefner a black tux.

Hefner has been married twice before but lived the single life between 1959 and 1989.

Read more: Hefner marries 'runaway bride' - News, Entertainment - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk
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Manne wrote: Hugh Hefner is celebrating the new year as a married man once again.

The 86-year-old Playboy magazine founder exchanged vows with his "runaway bride", Crystal Harris, at a private Playboy Mansion ceremony on New Year's Eve.

Crystal, a 26-year-old "Playmate of the Month" in 2009, broke off a previous engagement to Hefner just before they were to be married in 2011.

Playboy said that the couple celebrated at a New Year's Eve party at the mansion with guests including comic Jon Lovitz, Gene Simmons of rock band Kiss and baseball star Evan Longoria.

The bride wore a strapless gown in soft pink, Hefner a black tux.

Hefner has been married twice before but lived the single life between 1959 and 1989.

Read more: Hefner marries 'runaway bride' - News, Entertainment - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk
I don't understand why anybody would marry that guy!
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Manne wrote: When Buffalo News staffers sit down a year from now to pen the epitaph for the year 2013, there no doubt will be plenty of surprises. ¶ That’s how news works. ¶ But part of the agenda already has been written – or at least vaguely outlined: ¶ The year 2013 should see local ice skaters taking their first spins around the refrigerated canals downtown, a new outdoor amateur-skating venue on the same site as the Buffalo Sabres’ former playpen, the old Memorial Auditorium. ¶ In the same neighborhood, the Sabres’ new downtown mega-complex will begin taking shape, with some of it opening the following year. ¶ The new year also should see continued expansion of the area’s other new jewel, as more pieces go up on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. ¶ Two other popular “sports” – politics and the real sports world – will bear watching. ¶ Buffalo will hold a mayoral election this year and, as always, many of us will live and die with the exploits of our major-league teams, the Bills and Sabres. ¶ It should be a hot summer on the entertainment beat, too, when downtown Buffalo hosts two of the nation’s hottest-ticket events, Justin Bieber’s “Believe Tour,” on July 15 in First Niagara Center and the “Book of Mormon’s” six-day run in June at Shea’s Performing Arts Center. ¶ All those stories – and many more – still need to be written.

Here’s a look:
Medical campus

The new year promises to be a turning point on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, with four projects that will focus public attention.

The University at Buffalo plans to start relocating the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences from its South Campus to the downtown medical corridor in a project estimated to cost $375 million.

Roswell Park Cancer Institute raised enough money to start construction this year on an addition to the cancer center at Michigan Avenue and Carlton Street, abutting its main hospital building. Services in the Clinical Sciences Center will include a breast care center and expanded chemotherapy infusion.

Women & Children’s Hospital is moving from the Elmwood Village to the medical campus. Ground-breaking for the new facility, which will be renamed the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital, is expected in the spring. The $200 million building will go up at Ellicott and High streets.

Ciminelli Real Estate Corp. is expected to start construction soon on a Main Street medical office building. Major tenants will include doctors associated with the UBMD medical group and services related to the new Women & Children’s, which will abut the office building.
The Ralph

The future of Ralph Wilson Stadium will remain on the minds of local leaders in 2013.

Erie County lawmakers will be asked to approve a proposed new 10-year lease negotiated by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz with the Buffalo Bills.

The agreement calls for $130 million in renovations to the county-owned stadium that will be paid for by the state, the county and the Bills. It also calls for the creation of a “working group” that will begin to explore whether a new stadium could be built and where it would be located if the team remains in Western New York.

Terms of the proposed lease state that money should be set aside starting in 2018 that could pay for studies and other work toward a new stadium. The working group could begin meeting this year.
Downtown casino

A six-year legal battle over the fate of the Seneca Nation’s downtown casino could be decided once and for all this year.

A group opposed to the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino filed a federal court lawsuit in 2009 accusing the federal agency that approved the Nation’s gambling application of changing the rules to benefit the Senecas.

The suit, the latest of three filed by Citizens Against Casino Gambling in Erie County, repeats many of the same arguments made in the previous two suits, which the group won, but asks the court to close the legal loopholes that have allowed the casino to continue operating.

The upcoming decision by Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny could very well decide whether the Senecas go ahead with plans for a larger $130 million downtown casino.
Canalside

Sometime this summer or next fall, the long-awaited, historically aligned Erie Canal system of replica canals, towpaths and bridges is expected to open at Canalside.

The refrigerated canals – located in the footprint of the former Memorial Auditorium – are expected to become a wintertime ice-skating attraction from December through March, with an area three times the skating surface of Rockefeller Center.

Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp., the state waterfront agency that has piloted the project, expects the canal system to be a catalyst for a future public market, children’s museum, as well as retail, dining and drinking establishments.
Other developments

Look for news on major projects in Buffalo this year.

The Buffalo Sabres’ HARBORCenter Development is expected to break ground in March on two new ice rinks, a hotel, parking deck and restaurant and retail space, with an opening of the rinks scheduled for September 2014.

The remaking of the former Donovan State Office Building should be completed by the end of the year. It will be the new home of the Phillips Lytle law firm, which is moving out of the city’s tallest building, the HSBC Center. It also will house a boutique hotel.

Meanwhile, the authority that oversees the Peace Bridge is moving ahead with plans to improve its property while seeking to expand the plaza onto property it would like to acquire, including a city street. The Common Council would have to approve any sale of city property to the authority. The Peace Bridge’s plans are also the target of a federal lawsuit, which is ongoing.
Political season

Buffalonians will vote for mayor this year, with incumbent Democrat Byron W. Brown expected to seek a third term. Brown is considered a heavy favorite, especially w
I can't tell if this site is for real now...
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It's been a rough year for Zynga. Faced with plunging stock and revenues, the San Francisco-based social gaming company laid off employees and retired some of its games. But it has a new play for the New Year: online gambling. In a partnership with Bwin, the world's largest publicly traded online gambling company, Zynga plans to release 180 real money games in Europe during the first half of 2013. Meanwhile, it is lobbying hard to legalize online gambling in the United States, where some analysts predict they could make a killing.

Gambling might seem like a tough public relations move for a video game company—especially one known for virtual farm animals and wide-eyed cartoon characters. But gaming expert Gabe Zickerman says if you look below the surface, Zynga's move makes sense.

“Zynga's key intellectual assets are not really in spectacular content creation,” he says. “They are in platforms and scalability, [and] customer interaction.” He doesn't even think of Zynga primarily as a gaming company, but instead as an e-commerce and marketing company, and one that has many similarities with a casino.

Like gambling operations, social gaming companies function by hooking users, tracking their data, and monetizing their behaviors. Their business models looks more like a casino then a traditional console gaming company, Zickerman says. Even the products themselves at a company like Zynga have similar mechanics to casino games. Take titles like Farmville or Mafia Wars—they have random rewards and carefully timed payouts just like slot machines.

Serious Doubts

But even with all the parallels, making the transition to real money gambling for Zynga won’t be as simple as pulling a lever. Kevin Flood, an online gambling consultant, has serious doubts about Zynga's prospects. “Organizationally they aren't prepared for it,” he says.

Social gaming is a whole different ball game than online gambling. Once it starts dealing with real money, Zynga will have to handle credit card fraud, implement age restrictions, and prove that rewards in each game are truly random. Government regulators will be scouring the code of every new game version they release.

Flood says the programming process will have to function much differently then it does now. Zynga will have to spend more time on version releases and make sure all the code it produces is top notch. “You can't just iterate, iterate and dump some code out there.”

The first test of the new process for Zynga will be the United Kingdom, one of the world's biggest online gambling markets and the major target for Zynga's upcoming 180 real-money releases. Online gambling has been completely legal in there for almost eight years and the playing field is already crowded. Other social media companies have already beaten Zynga to the table, like Seattle-based Big Fish.

“What we are seeing in the UK is really encouraging,” says Carey DiGiulio, general manager of Big Fish Casino, the company's flagship game. “We have a slot machine live that we launched with in October. We added two more this week.”

Big Fish began offering real-money games in the United Kingdom by partnering with Betable, a San Francisco start-up that handles regulatory issues for social gaming companies wanting to jump into online gambling.

Betable CEO Christopher Griffin says Zynga will have to change radically to compete with this flood of younger, more flexible start-ups: “For Zynga to really make a move in the real money space they would either have to work with us or effectively become a start up all over again. That's how difficult and how much a paradigm shift real money is from what they do.”

Very Complicated

Kevin Flood sees Zynga's foray into Europe as mainly a way to prepare for the United States, which has the potential to be the world's largest online gambling market. He thinks with its brand and user base, Zynga's poised to make a killing here. “If they are marginally competent and that real money gaming works to a certain degree, I don't know if anyone is going to stop them.”

Right now, the U.S. market is far from a sure bet. The Department of Justice in December 2011 issued a ruling that allows states to legalize and regulate online gambling. So far, only Nevada and Delaware have done so.

Gerard Cunningham, the founder of online casino company Koolbit, predicts more states will soon legalize, and that eventually we will end up with a patchwork of different rules and regulations across the country. That’s already true of online horserace betting. “We will see some states passing poker, some doing slots, some not,” he says. “It is going to be very, very complicated.”

That complicated patchwork of states will be a regulatory nightmare and will limit the market for games that require large pools of users, like online pokers. To achieve enough liquidity for a viable market, small states will need to sign treaties so that players can compete across borders. The goal of a big, integrated market, is one reason that Zynga is lobbying hard on the federal level.

Short-Term Play?

But gambling may just be a short-term strategy for Zynga, gaming expert Gabe Zickerman speculates. Longer term he thinks Zynga is trying to shift to the mobile market and leverage its virtual currency in new ways. Perhaps in the future users will be able to make online purchases with Zynga coins or Facebook credits.

Zickerman believes this will be the next big battleground in social gaming, and a major reason why Zynga and Facebook are starting to go their separate ways. “They can't be collaborators the way that they were before,” he says. “They are going to end up brutal competitors.”

In the meantime, much will depend on how Zynga plays its online gambling cards.
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The federal government's commitment to reducing the federal budget may provide the much needed opening for federal discussions about legalizing online gaming, reported Connecticut's The Day.

When the new Congress reconvenes this month, debate about the online gaming proposal submitted last fall by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and Senator Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) is expected to resume. Their bill allows only online poker and off-track betting on horse races, excluding all other types of online gambling. Although it would permit online lottery sales by individual states, the bill also prohibits international player pools.

If the federal government passes a law allowing online gaming under the terms of the Reid-Kyl bill in all 50 states, British consulting firm H2 Gambling Capital estimates its market hit about $2.82 billion in the first year and $4.57 billion by the third year. That means, by year three, roughly $91 million would funnel to federal government coffers in new taxes. H2 acknowledges that number could go down, if many states opted out of online gaming through a provision in the bill.

In December 2011, when the U.S. Justice Department issued a ruling clarifying the Federal Wire Act of 1961 prohibits intrastate transmissions strictly on sports betting, online gaming proponents hoped the new opinion would clear the path for states to start permitting and regulating Internet gaming. Throttled by the federal deficit, gaming advocates hope a federal bill now stands a chance.
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The USA remains the top gambling nation in the world – pulling in an estimated $105 billion US dollars in 2012 alone. But with China fast moving up the rankings and Nevada now coming second to Macau as the go-to high stakes haven– is it time for the US government to stop dragging its feet over online gambling law and take a bigger bite out of that $30 billion dollar virtual pie?

While Nevada (and shortly New Jersey) does have an online gambling licence and a growing number of online casinos such as Jackpot Capital Casino allow US gamers to take a cyber-spin at the roulette wheel, according to H2 Gambling Capital, only 3.3 percent of US gambling revenue in 2012 was interactive. However, with over 100 million Americans already playing games on their mobiles and global markets indicating a 42% increase in online gambling spends over the past 4 years – it’s a source waiting to be tapped.

Countries with more relaxed gambling laws have been taking advantage of the general online gaming boom and luring customers to betting, poker and casino sites for years. Here’s a roundup of some of the biggest winners and losers and a few surprising stats.

The Top Stakes

The British made around 21% of their gambling share from online this year, with the most popular game being roulette. Men outplay women by almost 5 to 1 and it’s estimated will spend 14 months of their life placing their bets online – that’s about the same as watching Die Hard 4,636 times…

The Nordic countries (Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Denmark) are an unexpected entry. With a combined population of only 20.9 million they brought in $8.5 billion from gambling in 2012 of which over 30.3% was online. The swedes are big players and the government keeps a tight monopoly on their igames market

The folders

Although a South Korean pop star (anyone remember his name?) broke the record for the number of YouTube hits in 2012 and whilst South Korea is the most wired country in the world, igambling is still illegal.

China too, with one of the world’s largest online gaming markets, keeps the ban in place, but still managed to draw in $50 billion from gambling in 2012, even when limiting its land based casinos to Macau.

The Australians are literally the biggest losers in the world, with the average adult losing $1300 USD per year on real and online slots and stakes. That’s about the price of 3 iPads or 300 big macs – whichever you prefer**.

Whilst some of the biggest players in the world continue to legislate against online gambling, it can be hard to see its true potential. But with the global online games market continuing to expand at a rapid rate, it wouldn’t be a bad placed bet to start letting more people visit the casino from their couches.
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The next best thing to understanding how to play for real money on the internet is the winning because as everyone knows there are winners. Investors that took the time to follow the trends in online gambling’s historical track record they would have noticed instantly the big winners and the big losers. There were a lot of winners in this fast evolving universe they call cyber betting, there is even anew currency called bitcoin they say may take the online gambling industry into another realm altogether where even the cyber money can buy you a yacht or a huge house.

The trends are not hard to notice what with the massive amount of attention the governments are paying to internet commerce. Online gambling is a well controlled source of jobs in the technical financial, developmental, commercial, and security sectors and there more benefits like taxes. This is a clean international industry that is relatively transparent and safe if you are an investor in volatile and fast paced industries.

The more governments get their security issues straightened out and unify the way things are done the less cheating and hacking will go on. Technology can see into the future by being smarter than the average person. It is the computers that fix the odds. There are applications that can determine where you are in the universe by pointing your phone to the sky. The way things will be done in the future will be mobile, smart and smarter as the power of computers and our ability to access everything at any time is still in quantification mode. Online gambling is bound to grow as technology grows an easy prediction. Politics aside it is sure to survive in places that regulate and attract the industry by being fair, consistent, and above all not too greedy. ‘Watch this space’ was an old saying back in the sixties and some of us are still watching.



The Future Is Clear Online Gambling Will Boom
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Fans of the singer Beyonce will have the once in a lifetime opportunity of introducing her at the Super Bowl 2013 halftime show. According to Pepsi, when she takes to the stage on February 3rd, there will be 50 contest winners plus one friend on stage with the star.

Pepsi has already launched the competition and it requires fans to send in photos of themselves in different positions and poses such as hip shaking, head bopping and feet tapping.

When all the entrants have been received, Pepsi intends to use them in a television advert which will be shown before Beyonce comes on for her halftime show. Then the 100 luckily fans (50 winners and one friend each) will have the chance to introduce the Grammy winning singer.

More information on the photo contest can be found on the Pepsi website. All entries need to be in by January 11th and the competition winners will be announced on January 19th.

Last year’s Super Bowl halftime show saw Madonna play with M.I.A., Cee Lo Green, Nicki Minaj and LMFAO. The game, and its halftime show, was the most watched television program in U.S. history with over 112.5 million fans tuning in to watch it. Last year’s game saw the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots.
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Michael Hajduk had sunk one year and about $20,000 into developing his online poker site, Infiniti Poker, when the U.S. online gambling market imploded. On April 15, 2011, a day now known in the industry as Black Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice shut down the three biggest poker sites accessible to players in the U.S., indicting 11 people on charges of bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling. Player accounts were frozen, leaving thousands of Americans without access to their funds. “It was like a bomb went off,” Hajduk says. To continue gambling, “U.S. players were uprooting their families and moving to Malta. Crazy stuff was happening.”

Hajduk, though, was barely fazed. Calgary-based Infiniti Poker, like several other new online gambling sites, plans to accept Bitcoin when it launches later this month. The online currency may allow American gamblers to avoid running afoul of complex U.S. laws that prevent businesses from knowingly accepting money transfers for Internet gambling purposes. “Because we’re using Bitcoin, we’re not using U.S. banks—it’s all peer-to-peer,” Hajduk says. “I don’t believe we’ll be doing anything wrong.”

Developed in 2009 by a mysterious programmer known as Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoins behave much like any currency. Their value—currently about $13 per Bitcoin—is determined by demand. Transactions are handled through a decentralized peer-to-peer network similar to BitTorrent, the protocol for sharing films and music over the Internet. An assortment of merchants around the globe accept Bitcoin; it’s also the currency used on online black markets such as Silk Road, which processes an estimated $1.2 million a month in sales of illegal drugs, according to Nicolas Christin, the associate director of Carnegie Mellon’s Information Networking Institute.

Individuals can buy and sell Bitcoins using global currencies through such online exchanges as Mt. Gox. There’s even a service facilitated by BitInstant, a payment-processing company, that allows you to purchase the virtual currency for cash at 700,000 U.S. locations, including participating Wal-Mart (WMT), Duane Reade, and 7-Eleven stores. Once users have Bitcoins, they store them on their computers or mobile devices in files known as Bitcoin wallets or in cloud-based “e-wallets.”

Hajduk says Infiniti Poker will accept credit cards, wire transfers, and other payment options, but players in the U.S. will be able to play only using Bitcoins. He originally included the currency not to get around U.S. law but to reduce the time it takes to cash players out. Bank transactions can take up to 12 weeks; players who use Bitcoin can get a payout in a matter of hours, he says.

GamblingCompliance, which tracks the global gaming industry, says most estimates value the U.S. online gambling market at $4 billion to $6 billion. On Black Friday, gamblers in the U.S. had more than $100 million in online accounts frozen. Nearly two years later, the U.S. government is still working to reimburse the players, who were not targeted in the crackdown.

Hajduk says the ability to store Bitcoins on players’ computers is appealing. “At the end of the day, [the government] cannot freeze your account because they cannot kick down the door to Bitcoin,” he says.

It’s unclear whether the government will go after Bitcoin gambling sites. “Bitcoin poses some new legal challenges for financial authorities,” says Martin Williams, the Asia editor of GamblingCompliance. “I suspect that much of it will involve playing catch-up, as with so many other things relating to the Internet.” The Justice Department declined to comment.

There are other risks as well. In recent months hackers have pulled off several Bitcoin heists, and this summer Bitcoin Savings & Trust, billed as a “Bitcoin hedge fund,” made off with more than $5 million entrusted to the site by investors, in what appears to be a Ponzi scheme. Also, Bitcoin wallets can vanish as a result of hard-drive crashes or other computer problems. That’s how at least one user lost 50,000 Bitcoins, according to Peter Vessenes, chairman of Bitcoin Foundation, an organization that helps develop and promote the virtual currency.

“It’s still a pretty raw technology,” says Gavin Andresen, chief scientist at Bitcoin Foundation. “It’s pretty obvious that it’s been designed by geeks for geeks. It’s not easy to use yet, but it’s getting easier to use all the time.”

Bitcoin gaming sites keep popping up. Erik Voorhees, director of marketing and communications at BitInstant, helped design SatoshiDice, a gambling site hosted in Ireland and owned by an anonymous investor. Since launching in April, the site has taken in about $15 million in bets, Voorhees says. SatoshiDice is careful to keep everything in Bitcoin; until it’s clear how the site will be treated legally, “it’s better to keep it completely separate from real life,” he says.

When it comes to letting Americans gamble with Bitcoins, not everyone is as bold as Hajduk and SatoshiDice. Josh Strike, who in 2011 launched the Costa Rica-based Bitcoin casino site Strike Sapphire, says he makes sure Americans can’t access his games. “I’m an American, and the guys who help me with this—lawyers, part-owners, guys I’ve known since high school—they’re American,” he says. “I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.”



Bitcoin: Making Online Gambling Legal in the U.S.? - Businessweek
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The USA has a way of being a nation that revolves around itself most of the time. Every once in awhile the USA runs into a little problem when it comes to complying with agreements it has signed on to with the World Trade Organization. The story of the Antigua, Barbuda and USA dispute has been an ongoing saga since 2007 when the USA decided to shred the online gambling industry with the enacting of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.

The history of the situation is one that has seen America basically ignore all efforts of the tiny nation of Antigua and Barbuda to collect on the judgement awarded to them by the WTO organization. A mere $21 million a year was granted to Antigua, and should America refuse to heed the order to compensate Antigua the WTO gave the country authorization to collect by other means. The States has said they are now upset with the way Antigua has handled their offer of settlement. Antigua has no justification for taking any retaliatory action against them, officials contend. Antigua has attempted to resolve this issue by putting America on notice that it intends to collect over $100 million dollars and has hired high end lawyers to argue the case.

US officials are saying that Antigua’s disregard for copyrights held by US industry, a method granted to them by the WTO will prompt the USA to give the country the ‘cold shoulder’ when it comes to investment in the tiny nation. The USA has said, “If Antigua actually proceeds with a plan for its government to authorize the theft of intellectual property, it would only serve to hurt Antigua’s own interests,” the US statement continued, “Government-authorized piracy would undermine chances for a settlement that would provide real benefits to Antigua. It also would serve as a major impediment to foreign investment in the Antiguan economy, particularly in high-tech industries.”



Online Gambling WTO Issue Still Festering
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America has a few laws that are interpreted differently in different parts of the States. One law that seems a bit vague and excessive to some is one that has caught a software developer in its legal net.

Wired magazine recently reported that a software engineer who creates programs used by online casinos and bookmakers outside the U.S.A. now faces criminal charges for allegedly aiding gambling when the software was been used in New York State. “It’s overreaching where they’re going after a software developer who sells the software with a legal license, and yet we’re still being prosecuted on how it’s being used,” the article revealed. There is a dangerous precedent being set with this legal action against Stuart and his company. Jennifer Granick, director of Civil Liberties for the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University commented on the suit, “It’s scary for software distributors, if someone happens to use their software for illegal activity,” Granick continued, “If you know what people could use it for, and didn’t prevent it, did you take enough steps? What level of knowledge you need to have and all of that is not as clear as it should be [under current laws].”

Wired revealed that Stuart had been offered a plea bargain by the D.A.’s Office in New York that asked Stuart to hack into his clients’ systems and obtain names and passwords in order for New York authorities to track down those involved in illegal gambling within the state. “Although Stuart initially agreed to the terms of the plea, he later recanted because he said he was uncomfortable being used as a pawn to secretly collect information on his customers. He claims authorities are charging him now in retaliation for refusing to cooperate with them.” This is an example of the way the Justice Department conducts business in the USA with the power of the courts behind them and devious methods they are straining the idea of justice being blind.



Online Gambling Software Developer Faces Charges in USA
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Just before the new year, Britney Spears confirmed in a Twitter Q&A that she was indeed “working hard” on her next album, and that she was “collaborating with some new inspiring producers.”

Which is intriguing! But who are these producers providing Britney with inspiration? Details are still scant, and Spears’ rep says that the album’s still in its early planning stages. But the rep did drop a few details, telling us that Britney “hasn’t worked with Elijah Blake,” despite the rumors. That bit of buzz began when Blake, a writer who sometimes goes by Sean Fenton and has worked with the likes of Usher and Rihanna, said in an interview that he was working with Britney on her new album. We’ve reached out to him for a comment but have yet to hear back.

But the rep did drop some names of people who are working on the album with Britney — like the recently inescapable Hit-Boy, the aptly named producer behind Kanye West and Jay-Z’s “N—-s in Paris,” A$AP Rocky’s “Goldie,” Kendrick Lamar’s “Backseat Freestyle,” and other major 2012 jams.

Of course, there’ll be seasoned Spears vets helping out too. Will.i.am., for instance, will be pitching in again.
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Manne wrote: Michael Hajduk had sunk one year and about $20,000 into developing his online poker site, Infiniti Poker, when the U.S. online gambling market imploded. On April 15, 2011, a day now known in the industry as Black Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice shut down the three biggest poker sites accessible to players in the U.S., indicting 11 people on charges of bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling. Player accounts were frozen, leaving thousands of Americans without access to their funds. “It was like a bomb went off,” Hajduk says. To continue gambling, “U.S. players were uprooting their families and moving to Malta. Crazy stuff was happening.”

Hajduk, though, was barely fazed. Calgary-based Infiniti Poker, like several other new online gambling sites, plans to accept Bitcoin when it launches later this month. The online currency may allow American gamblers to avoid running afoul of complex U.S. laws that prevent businesses from knowingly accepting money transfers for Internet gambling purposes. “Because we’re using Bitcoin, we’re not using U.S. banks—it’s all peer-to-peer,” Hajduk says. “I don’t believe we’ll be doing anything wrong.”

Developed in 2009 by a mysterious programmer known as Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoins behave much like any currency. Their value—currently about $13 per Bitcoin—is determined by demand. Transactions are handled through a decentralized peer-to-peer network similar to BitTorrent, the protocol for sharing films and music over the Internet. An assortment of merchants around the globe accept Bitcoin; it’s also the currency used on online black markets such as Silk Road, which processes an estimated $1.2 million a month in sales of illegal drugs, according to Nicolas Christin, the associate director of Carnegie Mellon’s Information Networking Institute.

Individuals can buy and sell Bitcoins using global currencies through such online exchanges as Mt. Gox. There’s even a service facilitated by BitInstant, a payment-processing company, that allows you to purchase the virtual currency for cash at 700,000 U.S. locations, including participating Wal-Mart (WMT), Duane Reade, and 7-Eleven stores. Once users have Bitcoins, they store them on their computers or mobile devices in files known as Bitcoin wallets or in cloud-based “e-wallets.”

Hajduk says Infiniti Poker will accept credit cards, wire transfers, and other payment options, but players in the U.S. will be able to play only using Bitcoins. He originally included the currency not to get around U.S. law but to reduce the time it takes to cash players out. Bank transactions can take up to 12 weeks; players who use Bitcoin can get a payout in a matter of hours, he says.

GamblingCompliance, which tracks the global gaming industry, says most estimates value the U.S. online gambling market at $4 billion to $6 billion. On Black Friday, gamblers in the U.S. had more than $100 million in online accounts frozen. Nearly two years later, the U.S. government is still working to reimburse the players, who were not targeted in the crackdown.

Hajduk says the ability to store Bitcoins on players’ computers is appealing. “At the end of the day, [the government] cannot freeze your account because they cannot kick down the door to Bitcoin,” he says.

It’s unclear whether the government will go after Bitcoin gambling sites. “Bitcoin poses some new legal challenges for financial authorities,” says Martin Williams, the Asia editor of GamblingCompliance. “I suspect that much of it will involve playing catch-up, as with so many other things relating to the Internet.” The Justice Department declined to comment.

There are other risks as well. In recent months hackers have pulled off several Bitcoin heists, and this summer Bitcoin Savings & Trust, billed as a “Bitcoin hedge fund,” made off with more than $5 million entrusted to the site by investors, in what appears to be a Ponzi scheme. Also, Bitcoin wallets can vanish as a result of hard-drive crashes or other computer problems. That’s how at least one user lost 50,000 Bitcoins, according to Peter Vessenes, chairman of Bitcoin Foundation, an organization that helps develop and promote the virtual currency.

“It’s still a pretty raw technology,” says Gavin Andresen, chief scientist at Bitcoin Foundation. “It’s pretty obvious that it’s been designed by geeks for geeks. It’s not easy to use yet, but it’s getting easier to use all the time.”

Bitcoin gaming sites keep popping up. Erik Voorhees, director of marketing and communications at BitInstant, helped design SatoshiDice, a gambling site hosted in Ireland and owned by an anonymous investor. Since launching in April, the site has taken in about $15 million in bets, Voorhees says. SatoshiDice is careful to keep everything in Bitcoin; until it’s clear how the site will be treated legally, “it’s better to keep it completely separate from real life,” he says.

When it comes to letting Americans gamble with Bitcoins, not everyone is as bold as Hajduk and SatoshiDice. Josh Strike, who in 2011 launched the Costa Rica-based Bitcoin casino site Strike Sapphire, says he makes sure Americans can’t access his games. “I’m an American, and the guys who help me with this—lawyers, part-owners, guys I’ve known since high school—they’re American,” he says. “I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.”



Bitcoin: Making Online Gambling Legal in the U.S.? - Businessweek
It's about time........
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