Let your mouth speak archive

Plans are going ahead for a Music Walk of Fame in Camden Town, north London.

It will be Britain's answer to the famed Hollywood tribute to those who've made an impact in the film industry, and Camden's will honour music's greatest performers with a stone disc.

With names like Madonna, Radiohead and Public Enemy touted for potential stars to be included, the wait begins for the official announcement in May.

However, previous resident Amy Winehouse - who passed away in 2011 aged 27 - will be honoured.

Her father Mitch told the Independent on Sunday: ''I think she would have genuinely been excited by this. That stone is going to be there for ever. That means Amy's going to be there for ever, which is lovely. She lived in Camden, she died in Camden. She was Camden through and through.''

The idea arose six years ago when 10-year-old Adam Bennett, now 16, visited the famous monument in Los Angeles with his father.

Lee, a music impresario and now CEO of the Music Walk of Fame, said: ''It was important I got their [Hollywood Chamber of Commerce's] blessing. When you think of Walk of Fame you think of Hollywood. We'll be the only other recognised walk of fame in the world.''

************************ Lady Gaga

The president of an Atlantic City casino being bought by the world’s largest online poker company urged Gov. Chris Christie to sign a bill legalizing Internet gambling in New Jersey, saying it is a unique opportunity for the seaside resort to revive its flagging fortunes and save thousands of jobs.

Michael Frawley, head of the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, told the Associated Press on Monday that online wagering could create a wave of new investment in Atlantic City.

Christie is expected to decide this week whether to sign or veto the bill, which would let gamblers set up accounts with the casinos and play from their homes. He vetoed a similar bill in 2011, citing concerns about its legality. A spokesman for the governor declined to comment Monday.

Rational Group US Holdings, the parent company of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, is asking New Jersey casino regulators for permission to buy the Atlantic Club for an undisclosed amount. If approved, the deal would mark the first purchase of an Atlantic City casino by an Internet gambling company.

“I see this as an amazing opportunity for New Jersey, a defining moment for The Atlantic Club, for the city and for New Jersey,” Frawley said. “We have a potential purchaser willing to build its U.S. corporate headquarters in the city, and willing to build a call center elsewhere in New Jersey. This is much more than just someone sitting in their living room with a computer.”

Frawley said Rational, based in Isle of Man, is willing to invest $80 million in the casino hotel over the next five years, including $30 million this year. The corporate office, whose estimated cost was unavailable Monday, would add about 100 management jobs to Atlantic City, Frawley added.

But a key unanswered question remains: Will Rational go ahead with the purchase if New Jersey does not allow Internet gambling? The company has declined to say, and Frawley said he does not know their intention in that regard. A spokesman for Rational did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. Supporters of the bill include The Casino Association of New Jersey, the industry’s trade association; Atlantic City’s largest casino workers’ union; an online gambling trade association; and several state lawmakers.

They fear New Jersey could be left behind in what they describe as a coming Internet gambling gold rush. Already, Nevada is licensing companies to conduct online gambling, and it and at least three other states are considering approving interstate gambling pacts in which groups of states can jointly offer online gambling.

“We are a gaming state; not to be actively involved in this would be a missed opportunity,” Frawley said.

He said The Atlantic Club, which has struggled to stay afloat in recent years as competition increases in states surrounding New Jersey, is emblematic of the challenges facing all 12 of Atlantic’s casinos. He said the city’s smaller casinos collectively employ 7,000 to 8,000 workers, whose jobs could be made more secure by the added revenue and investment Internet gambling could generate.

Since the first casinos opened in neighboring Pennsylvania in 2006, Atlantic City’s casino revenues have fallen from $5.2 billion to just over $3 billion last year. Thousands of jobs also have been lost.

“People here are scared,” he said. “We have a chance we absolutely have to take advantage of. Frankly, I don’t know how many more chances we’re going to get.”

The nation’s gambling capital is taking steps to make sure it is not dealt out of the lucrative online poker market as more states enter the bourgeoning industry.

Soon after the Nevada Legislature begins its four-month session on Monday, lawmakers are expected to begin debating a bill that would let companies offering online poker in Nevada accept wagers from players in other states.

Such betting is essentially banned in most of the nation, but several states, including California and New Jersey, are weighing bills that would legalize some types of online gambling. The Nevada proposal, known as Assembly Bill 5, is intended to position Nevada-based companies to expand their customer base as other states ease restrictions. It’s one of a handful of gambling bills lawmakers will be asked to consider but it’s by far the most important.

Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval requested the change in his State of the State address in January and the Nevada Gaming Control Board drafted the legislation, which officials see as a potential moneymaker. Nevada currently permits online poker but no other type of internet gambling, so the agreements would apply only to poker.

“I think this is something that could help our state. Otherwise I don’t think you’d see this kind of interest in it,” Gaming Control Board Chairman A.G. Burnett said. “This is something that would go out and allow our operators to be as competitive as they can be.”

The proposal builds on state regulations from 2011 that established a framework for Nevada companies to offer online poker.

The bill would allow Sandoval to reach agreement with other governors to share virtual customers. Subsequent legislation may one day allow the state to join the international global gambling community.

“I would say the ability of the governor to enter into that kind of agreement, whether it is international or domestic, is extremely important,” Burnett said.

About 85 countries have legalized online gambling, and online players are believed to wager as much as $35 billion worldwide each year, according to estimates by American Gaming Association lobbyist Frank Fahrenkopf Jr.

The bill comes on the heels of a failure to pass federal online gambling regulations in Congress.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., made a push for sweeping legislation as the congressional session drew to a close in December, but ultimately ran out of time to unite the many factions with a stake in the issue.

Reid, the Senate majority leader, has said he will renew his efforts this year. But statehouses and entrepreneurs already are moving ahead on their own, creating a state-by-state patchwork that industry leaders had sought to avoid. Nevada’s existing online gambling regulations stipulate that companies will not be allowed to accept wagers across state lines until Congress or the U.S. Department of Justice takes regulatory action. Assembly Bill 5 would get rid of that requirement. Burnett said he did not anticipate any conflict with federal law.

Many states began looking into online poker after the U.S Department of Justice issued a letter in 2011 stating that the federal Wire Act of 1961, often used to crack down on internet gambling, only applies to sports betting.

Sandoval asked the Legislature to take quick action on the bill, saying Nevada must continue to be a leader in the gambling industry.

“No opportunity is as rich with promise as our primary industry, gaming,” he said.

Gambling has long been an important revenue generator for the state, which does not impose a state income tax. State regulators have granted online gambling licenses to at least 17 casino and technology companies, and more are seeking licenses.

These companies may “play in the sandbox” of Nevada’s 2.8 million residents and Las Vegas’ 39 million annual visitors for a time, but, the industry will eventually need to expand to continue to interest investors and players, said Dave Schwartz, director of the UNLV Center for Gaming Research.

Among the industry players eagerly watching Assembly Bill 5 is Tom Breitling, chairman of Ultimate Gaming, who plans to launch a real-money poker site that will accept wagers from laptops and smartphones within the state’s borders this year.

“This is peer-to-peer game, so you want your customers when they go online to actually be able to get a game of poker going” he said.

“It becomes much more exciting if the player pool is 100,000, not 10,000, and if you can actually go online and win $1 million, not $10,000.”

Lawmakers will consider several other bills introduced this session on behalf of the Gaming Control Board:

Assembly Bill 7 would expand the Gaming Policy Committee to 11 members by adding a representative from academia. The bill would also allow the governor, who chairs the policy committee, to establish a subcommittee on education. The new subcommittee would consist of no more than five members, and would evaluate all gambling-related educational institutions, among other duties.Assembly Bill 10 would update state law on counterfeit chips and tools used to cheat. Among other technical revisions, the bill specifies that it is crime to possess counterfeit gambling chips and to manufacture tools intended, but not actually used, for cheating.Senate Bill 10 would allow the Gaming Control Board to charge casinos and other gambling companies for the costs of investigating overpayments. Currently, companies can ask for refunds of state taxes and fees they have overpaid. This bill would allow the state to bill companies for the costs of evaluating refund requests.

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Las Vegas - Since the dotcom explosion in the mid-1990s, one of the biggest success stories has been the rise of online gambling. According to various estimates, online gambling has morphed into a $30 billion industry with millions of players around the world.

Increasing from $830 million in revenues in 1998, there are thousands of websites on the Internet that offer various choices, whether it’s for money or just for fun, such as poker, bingo, sports betting, mobile gaming and much more.
When the very first online gambling website was established in 1996, InterCasino, there were more than a dozen games available. Two years later, the first bingo and poker websites were started. Nowadays, it’s easy to come across slots, blackjack, roulette, poker and other casino games on the Internet.
Despite the global economic downturn, different studies have shown that one of the few bright stories coming out of the Great Recession is the online gambling industry. According to a Viaden report, it has transformed into “a global phenomenon” over the past several years. Poker Stars, for example, had 200,000 individuals playing simultaneously.
“Online gambling has proven to be a global phenomenon. Currently, Europe appears to be the quickest expanding online gambling market. In 2009, European online gambling business operators recorded almost a 44.9% increase in the total online gaming yield,” the Viaden report stated. “The second largest market in the iGaming industry is North America followed by Asia and the Middle East. US legislation prohibits online gambling in most of its territory and is therefore experiencing a negative growth.”
GetPokerNews-com published an interesting article in 2009 that looked at how online poker, for instance, may perhaps be a better investment than stocks and the real estate market, which have suffered since the economic collapse. The report also opined that there aren’t a lot of marketable and profitable niches out there to take advantage of.
Nevertheless, online gambling may be rather intimidating to both a novice and an expert player because of the endless options on the Internet. Casino.org is an online directory that aids gambling participants find the top online casinos that are safe, secure, anti-spam, tested and trustworthy from around the world, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Germany and other nations.
The website publishes an in-depth list of online casinos and highlights their welcome bonuses, the percentage of payout, reviews and location. The website also features recent casino news and blog posts that give tips and useful information, like legislation and other online outlets that provide constructive and pertinent information.
Founded in 1995, Casino.org has been featured in Playboy Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, PBS, GQ and many other outlets and publication. One of the elements it has been lauded for is its “trusted expert” logo that is placed on different online casino websites to ensure visitors that it has been reviewed and ranked.
It seems visitors to Casino.org have also profited by it. The owners claim that “Our readers have won over $5.5 million by playing in online casinos recommended by Casino.org, and that number continues to grow larger every day.”
Indeed, even if you’re not quite adamant in risking your hard-earned money in a game of poker or slots or if you prefer to practice before participating in a roundtable, it offers 52 free games to try out.
Don’t worry; if you’re concerned about not being the Cincinnati Kid, Ida Summers or Edward Thorp, you’re not the only one. According to a LiveRoulette infographic, men lose about $4,000 each year and women lose nearly $3,000.

Read more: Could online gambling be an alternative to stock market trading?

If nothing else, you’ve got to give Hawaiian legislators points for effort. After seeing a similar bill fail last year, State Senators Donovan M. Dela Cruz, Gilbert Kahele, and Malama Solomon have introduced a new bill that would legalize gambling, including online poker. Hawaii is one of two states in the U.S. that has no legal gambling in any form (the other is Utah), though there have been around 150 attempts to change that in the past three decades.

Senate Bill 768 would, according to the 27-page document, “…create a body politic, known as the Hawaii internet lottery and gaming corporation, authorized to offer a regulated, secure, and responsible framework for the conduct of internet wagering and gaming in Hawaii…”

The bill is virtually identical to last year’s House Bill 2422, sponsored by Representatives Joseph Souki, Faye Hanohano and Angus McKelvey. Like HB 2422, the “corporation” created by this Senate version would “…provide consumer protections and capture additional revenues for the benefit of the State that are currently flowing offshore to unregulated internet gambling operations.”

If the bill passes and the corporation is formed, its governing board will have 180 days to ink its new rules and regulations for internet gambling. Within that same time frame, it will also be required to select a gaming provider with whom to partner. Those who offered online gaming to U.S. residents before September 20, 2011 will not be considered. That date is significant because that is when the U.S. Department of Justice altered its opinion on the Wire Act, allowing state governments to legalize and regulate internet gambling.

Interestingly, the bill would set the legal internet gambling age at just 18, rather than 21, as one might expect. Players will be required to be located within the borders of the state, but the bill does include language which leaves the window open for potential expansion:

At such time that a legally compliant mechanism is established to permit wagering by individuals physically located outside of the State, the corporation shall adopt rules to allow and govern wagering by those individuals.

The internet gambling corporation will be required to provide information on problem gambling for players, including a hotline they can call for assistance. Other responsible gambling services will include self-exclusion, loss limits, wager limits, time limits, and 24-hour deposit limits. If a player puts a deposit limit on his account, he can still increase it, but must furnish proper identification and wait 24-hours before his limits are actually increased.

Proceeds from internet gambling will go into a special fund in the state treasury where it will be allocated as follows:

35% – public school capital improvements
25% – University of Hawaii system capital improvements
10% – scholarships and educational loan repayments for medical students who commit to practice medicine in Hawaii for ten years after completion of their residency
10% – University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine family practice rural residency program
10% – watershed protection
5% – problem gambling reduction and prevention programs
5% – administration of the special fund

Koolbit is a social mobile casino firm located in the USA. Koolbit started to develop games for the mobile online casino industry early. The addition of social gaming for real money is their latest launch. The company realizes the massive potential for mobile gambling as they gain traction in this growing trend. Koolbit released its first social mobile casino games last year as a virtual casino with virtual money.

Now the addition of real money gaming on the mobile social networks make Koolbit part of the growing number of firms focusing on the cross over market between social gambling and online casino real money spending. The full complement of games offered are on the newest way to play with an HTML5 foundation. California based Koolbit has partnered with Cosy Games which holds an online gambling license granted by the Isle of Man. Gerard Cunningham Chief Executive Officer of the firm said in an interview with GamesBeat, “We’ve taken a mobile first approach with the design, but you can play it in a Web browser anywhere,” Cunningham said. “We’ve had virtual goods casino games running for nine months now, and we’re now going to have the biggest real-money mobile casino network with 25 games.”

City Slots, Koolbit’s flagship suite of casino games, will continue to be online as a separate virtual-currency mobile. City Slots is very popular on Google Play’s Cards and Casino Games page which is part of a $3 billion social casino games market. iGoSlots, will move Koolbit into the $44 billion online gambling market. The iGoSlots-com site has been launched in the U.K. offering 25 titles, including slot machines, scratchers, roulette, blackjack, video poker, and bingo. It will be interesting to watch the start up real money social gaming firms develop and how the competition will present their mobile offerings to consumers.



Mobile Social Online Gambling Competition Heats Up

SUPERSTAR Beyonce will bring her biggest ever tour for a two-day stopover on Irish shores.

The Grammy award winner has announced that she will touch down in Dublin for back-to-back concerts on the O2 stage on May 11 and 12 as part of her 'Mrs Carter Show' World Tour. It will be the singer's first multi-city tour in three years.

The former Destiny's Child member will set out on the European leg on April 15 and will entertain crowds in 20 European cities, including Berlin and Paris, as well as a four-night stint at the 02 in London.

Tickets for what will no doubt be sell-out gigs in Dublin go on sale on February 23 and will be available from Ticketmaster.

Beyonce's tour announcement came after she wowed crowds during the half-time show at the US Super Bowl on Sunday night. The 31-year-old put the controversy about her lip-synching during US President Barack Obama's inauguration firmly to rest when she belted out some of her biggest hits live at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

Beyonce was also joined by her former bandmates, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, during her 13-minute set.

CBS's broadcast of the Baltimore Ravens' 34-31 win over the San Francisco 49ers, which was halted for 34 minutes because of a third-quarter power failure, set a preliminary TV ratings record for the Super Bowl.

The clock is ticking on a bid for New Jersey to get into the Internet gambling business, and supporters of the plan are hoping Governor Chris Christie approves it.

State legislators sent a revamped online gaming bill to Christie in December, one that proponents insist addresses his concerns that gambling would be set up in places other than casinos and racetracks.

Michael Frawley is in charge at the Atlantic Club, and he’s optimistic.

“The governor has always been a very big proponent of Atlantic City,” Frawley tells KYW Newsradio. “He’s been our strongest ally and we have confidence he’ll continue to do so.”

The Rational Group — an online gambling firm behind web sites that include “Poker Stars” — is looking to purchase the Atlantic Club (see related story). It’s thought that online gaming, even with access restricted to within New Jersey, could prove a boost to shore casinos which, frankly, can use all the help they can get.

A decision from Christie is expected by the end of the week.

New Jersey is filled with opportunities. This Thursday, a golden opportunity will arise for Gov. Chris Christie to protect our children, seniors and all Americans when a bill arrives on his desk to regulate online gambling. The opportunity will be lost if he vetoes it. We are only protected if he signs it into law.

It may seem ironic, but the only way to address the risks of online gambling, especially to children, seniors and problem gamblers, is by regulating it, not trying (unsuccessfully) to ban it. We need oversight from state gaming, law enforcement and consumer protection agencies. We need technology that will screen for, and block, minors’ attempts to gamble online. We need someone to address fraud and require background checks for the operators of gambling websites. Online gambling is truly the Wild West. And we need New Jersey marshals to protect us from criminals, fraud, identity thieves and con artists that unregulated online gambling can breed. For years, we have heard from people defrauded on online gambling sites. In response, laws were implemented to try to ban online gambling. These laws have failed. Online gambling by U.S. gamblers exceeded an estimated $30 billion in 2011. And it’s only growing.

I have devoted the past 18 years to helping protect children and adults from cyber-risks and cybercrimes. I have a cyber-army of volunteers to help me stop cyberbullying, cyberstalking, online sexual predators, con artists and identity theft in the digital world. Sometimes we need the help that state government can provide. This is one of those times.

WiredSafety.org commissioned a study several years ago to examine these issues. Malcolm Sparrow, a Harvard professor, headed the study and evaluated the 10 biggest risks associated with online gambling. He concluded, overwhelmingly, that the most effective way to protect consumers, problem gamblers and children is to regulate and license responsible online gaming. Christie has stated he is concerned the law would create a new generation of problem gamblers. In fact, the opposite is true: It will help prevent and treat problem gamblers. If he does not sign this bill (A2578) into law, generations of problem gamblers will be unprotected.

The governor should look to the United Kingdom, which has regulated online gambling for more than seven years and has implemented the kind of protections we are advocating in New Jersey. The United Kingdom prevalence study (1999, 2007, 2010) has shown little change in problem gambling since its legalization.

The tough reality is that today, New Jersey residents, regardless of age, gamble on unregulated websites. This bill, if signed into law, will not only require online gambling sites to implement consumer protections, prevent underage gambling and create ways to monitor and address problem gambling better than offline gambling can; it will also empower New Jersey law enforcement agencies to punish those who target New Jersey residents.

All licensed providers will have to implement new and advanced technologies to verify the age of all gamblers and prevent minors from accessing their sites. It also will require providers to implement systems to protect problem gamblers from accessing a game or gambling over their limits.

For example, providers will be required to include a mechanism to temporarily suspend a player’s account if they exceed maximum gambling amounts or playing time. And to avoid tempting problem gamblers, no gaming-related mail or e-mails may be sent to a player with a suspended account. To keep this important issue foremost in all gamblers’ minds, whenever a user logs in or out, the number for a problem gambling hotline will appear. The simple fact is, New Jersey residents already are playing online with few restrictions, if any, and no protection. We know how much the governor cares about protecting New Jersey’s citizens, especially families. Now is the time to show his leadership and regulate the online gambling marketplace.





Don't ignore online gambling, regulate it: Opinion | NJ-com

Although they failed in a previous attempt, a group of Senators have reintroduced a bill in Hawaii that would legalize online gambling and that includes online poker. Senate Bill 768 has been introduced by State Senators Donovan M. Dela Cruz, Malama Solomon, and Gilbert Kahele and would allow anyone in Hawaii at least 18 years of age or older to gamble online.

The bill nearly identical to the House Bill 2422 that was introduced last year and would setup the Hawaii internet lottery and gaming corporation. The corporation would then be responsible for establishing the framework for online gambling in the state. Should the bill be passed, the corporation would have 180 days to not only establish a set of guidelines for online gambling in the state but also to find a gaming partner.

An interesting point of note in the bill is that any company that offered online gaming prior to September 20, 2011 would be excluded from participation. In addition, there is language in the bill that would allow for the state to enter into interstate partnerships should that option become available. That part of the bill reads, “At such time that a legally compliant mechanism is established to permit wagering by individuals physically located outside of the State, the corporation shall adopt rules to allow and govern wagering by those individuals.”

Proceeds from internet gaming in the state will be placed into a fund in the state treasury that will see at least 80% of the monies deposited distributed to education in one form or another. The rest will go to watershed protection, problem gambling reduction and prevention, and administration of the treasury fund.

At present, Hawaii is one of two states that does not allow gambling in any form whatsoever. However, lawmakers have made numerous attempts in the past to change this. Whether or not now is the time to legalize gambling in the state remains to be seen, but this bill is a positive step in the right direction for those wanting to play online poker in Hawaii.





Hawaii Reintroduces Online Gaming Bill

The European Union may try to counter money laundering through online betting sites by extending legislation beyond casinos to include Internet gambling.

The executive European Commission formally proposed on Tuesday to include online gaming in EU-wide legislation that seeks to combat fraud. It could become law within two years if approved by the EU's 27 member countries.

The Commission said by currently only monitoring casinos, "other areas of gambling (are) vulnerable to misuse by criminals".

The Commission also proposed reducing the permitted maximum for cash payments for goods and services to 7,500 euros (6,480 pounds) from 15,000 euros and submitting shops and traders to a series of checks if they make or receive large payments.

About $1.6 trillion was laundered worldwide in 2009 - about 4 percent of the world's economic output, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Online gambling is growing in popularity and companies such as Britain's largest bookmaker, William Hill, and rivals SportingBet and Stanleybet, have benefited from the rise in demand, particularly for betting on sporting events.

But gaming firms have also protested against stricter regulation, with some countries such as Germany having increased controls on advertising, as well as limiting the amounts customers can gamble and increasing taxes on betting.





EU wants to tackle money laundering on gaming sites | Reuters

Food is no longer just a necessity, but has become an art of life. No one can resist the temptation of good taste and smell. Taste of Mumbai Food Festival is a platform for cost-conscious foodies to get a chance to taste the wares of Michelin-starred chefs for just a fraction of the price.

Twelve Indian and international restaurants, live demos by chefs at the Taste Theatre, with fine wines and gourmet food at its best would be on display. Karen Anand, one of the directors of the festival, says, “Taste has been a globally acclaimed series of food and drink festivals. This is the first time it will be held in India with the chapter of Taste of Mumbai.”

Top chefs, like Abhijit Saha from Caperberry, Italian restaurant Diva’s Ritu Dalmia, Manu Chandra of Olive Bar & Kitchen and Vicky Ratnani, will be sharing culinary arts and their most popular dishes. Alain Fabrègues from Australia, Jehangir Mehta from New York, Vivek Singh from London and Margot Janse from South Africa to name a few, are also going to be a part of this event.

“There is no other outdoor event where top restaurants and world-class chefs feature pan-rattling demonstration like this,” added Anand.

Governor Christie was asked today about what his decision is about the online gaming bill on his desk, which is due tomorrow.

“Haven’t made it yet,” Christie told my colleague Melissa Hayes and other reporters. “My due date is tomorrow. My homework is due tomorrow. I’ll turn it in tomorrow. I was never a guy who turned in my homework early, so I’ll turn in my homework tomorrow.”

“I have thoughts for and thoughts against that,” Christie added. “I have to reconcile those, and I will before I turn my homework in. I won’t do it before then.”

The governor has a function in Atlantic City tonight. If he was going to sign the bill, that might have seemed like a good place and time to announce it. On the other hand, the event has nothing to do with gambling – it’s agriculture-related.

Another note: While the deadline to sign is noon, Christie tends to release announcements of veto/sign decisions in bunches, and he tends to do so late in the workday. So this drama could go right to the wire.

Meanwhile, Michael Frawley, chief executive of the Atlantic Club, has stepped forward to offer his advice for Christie: sign the bill.

Frawley tells the Associated Press that the expected addition of high-tech, high-paying jobs from implementation of online gaming means that the bill is “much more than just someone sitting in their living room with a computer.”

The Atlantic Club happens to be the casino that may be on the verge of being bought by Rational Group, parent company of online poker sites PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. As the article notes, it’s not clear if that bid will remain on the table should Christie veto the online poker bill.

Also, Perry Aftab – an attorney and founder of the Wired Safety group, is backing the online gaming bill in spite of initial reservations that were similar to Christie’s in terms of concerns about children getting involved in gambling due to legalization.



UPDATED: Online gambling bill remains on Governor Christie’s desk | Meadowlands Matters | NorthJersey-com

State Rep. Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto, rolled the dice again in the 2013 legislative session on online gaming legislation that could have a profound impact on the future of legal gaming in the state. Moak’s 2013 House Bill 254 met the same fate this week as did Moak’s HB 1372 did in 2012.

The bills — virtually the same legislation — died in committee both years after being double-referred.

The bill proposed to regulate, license and tax online gaming at 5 percent of gross revenues. The bill would have restricted online gaming licenses to those companies already holding land licenses to operate in the state.

Moak wrote the legislation in reaction to a 2011 U.S. Justice Department ruling which clarified that the ban on interstate betting in the Wire Act of 1961 applied only to a “sporting event or contest” and that all other gambling operations are outside the purview of the act. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the DOJ decision opened the door to any form of online gaming over the provided it isn’t the so-called “sports book.”

Under the ruling, states can sell lottery tickets online and authorize online poker, roulette, blackjack and other casino games, as long as the actual betting takes place within a respective state’s boundaries, even if out-of-state credit cards are used to finance the gambling. Normally, someone who wants to change Mississippi gaming laws would have to fight the state’s churches and the entrenched casinos. Since the inception of legal casino gaming in Mississippi in the 1990s, efforts to enact a state lottery or other major changes have met with opposition from the churches and from the big casino companies.

When Moak introduced HB 1372 during the 2012 session, religious critics of any expansion of legal gaming of any kind in Mississippi reacted. But because the bill protected them from competition from new online-only gaming companies, many of the big casino operations supported Moak’s play. Moak is a former chairman of the House Gaming Committee and knows the industry well. Moak’s “Mississippi Lawful Internet Gaming Act” was a reaction to a 2011 U.S. Justice Department ruling that held that the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 — a federal law that has complicated efforts to legalize online gaming — was being interpreted as only outlawing sports betting. In the past, the federal Wire Act was interpreted as outlawing all forms of gambling across state lines.

Moak argued that the legislation was necessary to allow Mississippi’s existing gaming industry to have more control of its own destiny and to allow the state to regulate what will already be taking place online with or without their approval — and to tax it. The bill — which died in committee after being double-referred to Gaming and Ways and Means — included a measure to allow the state’s existing gaming licensees to offer online games of chance that are regulated and taxed by the state, but on different terms than in the bricks and mortar casinos.

Nevada has embraced new online gaming competition. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed online gaming legislation passed in 2011 by the New Jersey Legislature and faces a Feb. 7 deadline on a new online gaming bill. Since the Justice Department ruling, seven states (California, Delaware Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Mississippi, and New Jersey) have entertained legislation authorizing forms of online gaming in their states. Utah has passed legislation specifically prohibiting internet gaming. Maine has altered their gaming statute in response to the Department of Justice ruling.

Mississippi lawmakers haven’t heard the last of the online gaming issue as certain competition for the state’s existing 30 commercial casinos that had gross gaming revenue of $2.25 billion in 2012. Records released recently by the Mississippi Department of Revenue showed that gaming revenue in 2012 showed an increase of $12 million over 2011 — that after a sour national economy helped fuel a streak of four consecutive years where Mississippi gaming revenues dropped by an average of about $160 million per year.

What is certain is that opponents of all forms of legal gambling will be against online gaming and most of the entrenched traditional casino operators with bricks-and-mortar locations in the state will support it in Mississippi — as they have in 2012 and this year. But at some point, Moak’s legislation is likely to gain traction.

The newest effort by the British government to get a firm grip on the online gambling industry by reforming its tax regime is hitting few snags as other jurisdictions gives the proposal a run for its money. It seems that the lawyers are going to battle over the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s significant changes to current gambling laws in the United Kingdom.

The Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association has revealed it is against the proposed draft legislation being introduced in the U.K. parliament. Gibraltar will be adversely affected they say by the elimination of the current system know as the white list. The white list system enables those online gambling operators registered in Gibraltar to advertize and offer their services in the U.K. as a recognized licensing jurisdiction. The new gambling framework will require those operations in Gibraltar to apply for a U.K. Gambling Commission license to operate and be subject to same taxes as all of the rest of the registered operators.

Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association is accusing the government of the U.K. of making these changes to make more money and to catch more revenues from an industry that has left Britain to work offshore where the taxes and fees are much less. The Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association revealed in a statement, "From a regulatory perspective, the only possible and partial justification for the Draft Bill is based on perceived but unsubstantiated threat to UK customers arising from operators in emerging jurisdictions targeting the UK market," Continuing the Association said, "Even if this limited justification was proven, the Draft Bill is clearly disproportionate since it does not bolster the current white list (including EEA) regime with a requirement for increased reciprocity in the exchange of information and management of consumer protection." As Gibraltar argues the decidedly negative affect that the UK gambling changes will bring, the GBGA said that it has set aside £500,000 to pursue legal action.




Gibraltar Preparing For U.K.Online Gambling Legal Battle

There is everything anyone could possibly want to know on the internet but it takes time to search and find out what information is relevant and what is not. A recent discovery may turn out to be just junk info that was created to confuse. We are all susceptible to being taken and led to believe things that simply are not true.

‘Once bitten twice shy‘ is a saying that many have heard but know full well that some people have to be bitten many times before they learn not to overindulge or make the wrong choices over and over again. Knowing what your disposable income is and using it wisely, some for entertainment, some for that awesome dinner or special bottle of wine and maybe even a bet or two on the game or team of choice but remembering you can’t have it all at once, all the time.

Truth in advertizing is seldom that easy to figure out, after all the company doing the pitch is after a sale whether they offer a huge bonus for signing up or not. Advertizing works and it is massive part of the success of online gambling. The online gambling operators that do well, keep their logos highly visible in the market place. The way they accomplish that through sponsorship of sports organizations and television spots which is no different than sporting equipment companies sponsoring athletes and teams.

Gambling whether it is for real money, for free or for prizes or even those bitcoins is part of the life around us. We are developing new ways to entertain ourselves and have a chance win money or points as a recreational pastime. There are odds for every outcome some are a lot greater than others and are risky, but then there are always the insurance companies that will give you odds on almost every event, go figure.




Online Gambling Know Your Limit and Enjoy

The day after Disney confirmed rumors that it would be developing stand-alone Star Wars films based on its beloved existing characters, Entertainment Weekly revealed Wednesday afternoon that beyond the Yoda talk, one of the new projects is a Han Solo origin story. There will be a Boba Fett adventure movie, too, but — what? A new Han Solo movie? Relax, there's hope. (A new hope, if you will.)

According to EW's information, the Han Solo spin-off (potentially the biggest of the now Disney-owned LucasFilm's post-J.J. Abrams projects) would take place in between Revenge of the Sith (the last of George Lucas's prequel reboot trilogy), and A New Hope (the first of the original series). The Boba Fett project is said to land somewhere in between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back and The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Several obvious questions already abound: First off, who on Earth could possibly exude the ruggedly handsome snark of Harrison Ford ever again? (We're not buying Zachary Levi and never will.) Secondly, how many spin-offs before Disney collapses the franchise in the wake of its own desire to make a ton of money off the LucasFilm acquisition? And concern is already brewing on Twitter: But! Anthony Breznican at Entertainment Weekly points out that, when Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that spinoffs were in the works, he mentioned that they would be written by Simon Kinberg and Lawrence Kasdan. While Kinberg has done work on big-budget fare like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, some X-Men films, and Sherlock Holmes, Kasdan is a native to this world. He was one of the writers for both Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, so he's done work developing these characters in the time periods to which they are set to return. And he's set to help scribe some of the new reboots of Star Wars proper, so he'll either steady the comeback (star?) ship or go down with the whole thing.

Still, let's not get too excited at once — there's always the possibility of Shia LaBeouf:



Update: Throwing a tiny bit of water on this, is a source talking to Deadline: "Nobody knows when these movies are even coming out. Right now, people are just kicking around ideas. Which is why you hear it’s Yoda one day and a young Han Solo another. It’s all in early development right now."

New Jersey is on the road to legalizing online gambling, with Gov. Chris Christie conditionally vetoing the measure today but assuring lawmakers he would ultimately sign off on it.

Christie said he wanted lawmakers to provide more funds to combat gambling addiction, toughen oversight of casino employees and revise the bill to collect more taxes.

Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), a primary sponsor of the measure, said the adjustments Christie sought were "minor," and that legislators would concur with the governor’s recommendations next month.

"This will give a big boost to Atlantic City, which has been bleeding revenues for the last few years, and will really give a lifeline and save thousands of jobs," Lesniak said.

The legislation (A2578), which requires that the online bets be placed only in New Jersey, received bipartisan approval in the Senate and Assembly. It would limit licenses to casinos in Atlantic City. Christie vetoed an earlier version of the bill, saying at the time that "any effort to expand casino gambling outside of Atlantic City must be supported by referendum."

But today the governor said he had changed his mind and approved of online gambling as long the economic benefits were carefully weighed "against the risks of addiction, corruption, and improper influence."

The governor recommended extending existing prohibitions on casino-related employment for state workers and others with conflicts of interest, increasing funds for programs that treat compulsive gambling, and requiring elected state officials to disclose current and former connections to companies seeking online gaming licenses.

The measure should also expire after a decade, Christie said, which would provide lawmakers a chance to review its merits.

"With these goals in mind, I have concluded that now is the time for our state to move forward, again leading the way for the nation, by becoming one of the first states to permit internet gaming," Christie wrote in his conditional veto. "I authorize this step towards modernizing Atlantic City’s entertainment attractions cautiously, with carefully constructed limitations that will ensure the highest integrity and the most robust oversight." The governor also called for collecting more taxes than legislators had proposed — 15 percent of internet gambling revenues, as opposed to the 10 percent the original bill would have collected. Casinos currently pay an 8 percent gross tax on casino revenue, which would not apply to internet wagering under the legislation.

Atlantic City casinos have been struggling for the last half-dozen years, largely because of competition in neighboring states and made worse by the sluggish economy.

Legalized sports betting at the state’s casinos and four horse racing tracks, approved in a 2011 referendum and signed into law last year, could also become a new source of revenue. But the measure is being challenged in court by the nation’s college and professional sports leagues as well as the federal government. Arguments are scheduled to be heard in the case next week. Many had hoped the opening of the trendy Revel resort would give the city a much-needed boost. But Revel had a puttering start last spring, and its financial situation has deteriorated since then, with the owners warning federal regulators last fall of a potential bankruptcy or foreclosure.

Securities analysts with Wells Fargo last month said that legalizing online gambling could save the struggling resort town, calling it "one of the last chances" to provide the city a lifeline. Online wagering could increase casino revenue by $650 million to $850 million in its first year — figures that were more optimistic than past projections — the analysts said.

The governor made it clear in his conditional veto that he still had concerns about the wisdom of legalizing online gambling — and not just because of potential social consequences.

"Some experts predict that internet gaming will infuse new opportunities and new development into Atlantic City, providing a mechanism to expand the state’s already strong gaming options to a modern platform," Christie wrote. "Others caution that this type of convenience gaming will lead to declines in tourism, and a loss of visitors to the region."

The Poker Players Alliance, which met last month with the governor’s staff to encourage him to approve the measure, said Christie’s action was an important step. John Pappas, the group’s executive director, said the recommended changes were "reasonable."
"I think this is a real way to breath some life into Atlantic City," Pappas said, "and really make New Jersey a destination for poker tourism."










Gov. Christie approves of online gambling with caveats | NJ-com

When the RCMP made their gambling raid during the Super bowl and talked about a crackdown on offshore betting sites — only to see them spring back up even as the announcement was being made to the public — it became clear that these online operations are pretty firmly ensconced.

Two days later you have Singapore promising co-operation with Italian authorities on an international soccer match-fixing investigation. Betting and match-fixing are a constant threat to sports, whether we like it or not.

The topic of betting sites came up among the Davis Cup tennis types during the weekend, curiously enough, not just because you can bet on tennis matches as you can most everything else, but because you can place bets on challenger level events involving players well down the ranking list.

DAVYDENKO’S ODD MATCH

To be clear, it is not believed gambling is having any significant impact on pro tennis and hasn’t really ever since the online site Betfair cancelled wagers on a match Nikolay Davydenko played in Poland in 2007.

In that one, the fourth-ranked Davydenko first raised eyebrows even by playing in such an event, and then exited in the second round when $7 million — 10 times the normal amount — was wagered, much of it on 87th-ranked Argentine Martin Arguello.

A total of $1.5 million was wagered on the underdog after he had lost the first set. Davydenko defaulted in third set, claiming injury, causing Betfair to be alarmed at the betting pattern and nullify all wagers.

RUSSIAN CONNECTION?

It was later discovered that several bettors in Russia would have made millions had the bets been allowed to stand.

Betfair notified the ATP and they promptly launched an investigation that included Davydenko’s phone records and those of his brother — which turned up nothing concrete, although it left the player a mental mess and perhaps out some sponsorship money.

Davydenko insisted he did nothing wrong and that a sore elbow was causing him all kinds of problems as it had in earlier tournaments, although he admitted to having been accosted in Croatia after losing in the first round some time before he ran into all his troubles.

BETTOR HAD QUESTION

“It was some Russian guy,” he told the Independent in October of 2008. “He came up to me and said, ‘I put money on you to win and you lost. What’s happening?’ I said, ‘I don’t know why you put money on me.’ That’s happened a couple of other times.”

During the ATP investigation more players came forward to say they had been approached to throw matches. One of them was Michael Llodra, who played for France in Davis Cup here last year.

While nobody would now dare throw a match or at least would not do so unless it was far more convincingly accomplished, the incident underlined what still can happen, given that these sites take wagers not only right up until a match begins, but even while it’s ongoing.

CELLPHONES A FACTOR

In many cases these matches are taking place continents away and there is often a lag in up-to-date information on how a match is progressing. Somebody in the stands, for instance, could tip off a bettor anywhere in the world that an injury or an early break in serve has taken place before the betting house can adjust the odds, thus giving the person with the superior information the advantage.

According to the chatter at Davis Cup, it is in fact not uncommon to see people on the phone in the stands early in some matches at the challenger level.

INFORMATION PRECIOUS

Another concern is with the players themselves — male and female, lest anyone think betting doesn’t take place on WTA matches as well.

While virtually no young player would be foolish enough to jeopardize his or her career by tanking, such actions aren’t necessary to help various sources looking for betting information—for a price, of course. After all, life in the 300 or 400s in either set of rankings is hardly lavish and the temptation for some is significant.

For instance, any player in the tournament, or even in qualifying, has access to the dressing room where he might see the top seed limping or dealing with a very swollen toe or some other malady that wouldn’t be known to the public. Such information could easily be slipped out the side door, impossible to trace.

SECRECY PLAYS ROLE

And here we use tennis only because that was the context in which this chatter arose. It’s almost certainly a problem in every sport, and especially those that don’t require players to inform authorities of their injuries. Hello, secretive world of hockey, where upper-body injury can mean two broken legs.

Suffice it to say that, the higher-paid the athletes, the less likely they are to be involved in outright fixing. But when you get down the pecking order in any sport, it gets to be a pretty wild world out there for those willing to put money at risk.

Read more: Gallagher: Online betting is a tough horse to tame