PokerStars New Addition to the UK Market
After years in development and working through mountains of paperwork, PokerStars has finally revealed their newest endeavor in the online gambling market in the UK- they have officially released an app. This application will be available for many different smartphones and tablets, including the oh-so-popular Apple iPad, and is currently available in the iTunes Store for download.
Just because this is a mobile gambling application does not mean that real money is required for you to play and enjoy this, there are still a variety of free roll games available for you to play. One type of game, which will likely be one of the most popular choices, are the different tournaments that one can play, making online gambling a much more convenient and portable.
The release of this application has been confirmed by the company’s Director of New Platforms, Jeffrey Haas. Haas has put of emphasis on the fact that a lot time and effort has been put into this application to turn it into a completely different and unique program, rather than simply an extension of the existing PokerStars website. The timing of this release is in close proximity to the release of their Italian launch. Right now approximately ten percent of the Italian PokerStars players are currently enjoying their version of the application, though this number is slated to gain in popularity over time, as the player database raises as well.
This application has not only gained the attention of amateur poker players and those looking for a more convenient way to quell their gambling urges, but that of professional players too. One particular player, Liv Boeree, who is a member of Team PokerStars has expressed her enthusiasm in this application, particularly how it is no longer necessary to stay parked in front of a computer to play in tournaments and cash games.
Right now the application is available in the App Store UK as well as on the PokerStars official mobile website at www.PokerStarsMobile.com. If you are looking for a different method, you may also want to use one of the QR codes that are available. All you have to do is scan the QR code with whatever iOS or Android device you may have. Once you download the application you can start playing to your heart’s, or wallet’s, content.
Senate Study Bill 3164
Members of a subcommittee from Iowa have met recently to discuss a piece of legislature known as Senate Study Bill 3164. This document is one of many different bills looking to be passed that would legalize some, if not all, types of gambling in the state of Iowa. This would include poker, as well as the races and would also include any type of gambling on a sea vessel.
A study was also conducted by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission and it was found that upwards of $60 million each year could be made by gambling operators. That could mean somewhere along the line of $13 million in revenue just from taxes, with a rate of twenty-two percent. While the bill that has been introduced does have several different procedures put into place to help prevent addiction, there are still many critics that are worried about this.
One such precaution limits how much money can be deposited into their gambling account within 24 hours, and they must also be able to present a while slew of information and documentation if requested. Most of these documents include some kind of win-loss paperwork, as well as results of games that have been time stamped by the gaming server. They must also keep records of how much money has deposited or withdrawn into their account, and the dates and times that these took place and can even request more specific details like what bets were placed on certain games and what their ranking was at the end of the game. Iowa is currently the fourth state over the past two years to have seriously considered legalizing intrastate poker and have put the necessary legislature in place to make this a reality. There are many more states that have tried to start the process, but for one reason or another, bills never pass even the beginning stages.
Choosing the Right Online Blackjack Casino
Finding the right online casino for your specific interest takes time and some research. But no matter whether you are looking for a place to play blackjack, poker, or craps there are specific things to look for in an online casino.
If you want to find a good online blackjack casino, first find a good online casino. Check to be sure the online casino has a license from a reputable jurisdiction and that the operators and owners are in good standing in the industry. You also want to check to see if the software has been audited by an independent agency, whether there is a policy in place to address grievances and whether the customer service response is timely.
Since there are so many varieties of blackjack games, find a site that best fits what you are looking for in play. If you like playing the basic Las Vegas or European styles of blackjack, you should have no problem finding an online casino. All of them offer those styles. But if you are one of the dedicated players who enjoy spending hours at a time at a blackjack table, you probably don’t want a game where a lot of time is taken up with card dealing, animation and dealer’s voices.
You may want to try to find a site where you can disable these frills if you so choose. You may be able to increase speed by playing multiple hands. Some online casinos allow players to play up to five hands at a time.
Unlike many online casino games, blackjack does require some skill to play. If you are not familiar with the blackjack strategies and moves you will get lower returns. You may want to look for online casinos that offer some automatic strategy cards in their games.
At times, blackjack players like to bet on different variations of the game. For example, games like Double Exposure where both of the dealer’s cards are visible and Pontoon where none of the dealer’s cards are shown can make the game more exciting by challenging players to change their strategies. There are also blackjack games with progressive jackpots. To win the jackpot, you have to be dealt a specific hand. If you like to play these variants, be sure the online casino you choose offers some as well as the traditional games.
If you are a blackjack player who is used to playing in land casinos, you may not like the RNG (Random Number Generation) online casino games. These games are missing the experience of a live casino. If this is the case for you, you may want to choose an online casino that offers live dealer games. Not only are their live dealers, but you can also chat with the dealers while you play. Unfortunately, this option is not very popular, so there aren’t many online casinos that offer this.
If you are a player who likes to count cards, don’t bother betting at online casinos. Each deal is dealt from a new deck.
Facebook and Online Gambling
At a recent party in Munich, Germany, a predication was made regarding Facebook’s future in light of the legalization of online gambling in the United States. It is thought that when this happens, Facebook will be a $100 billion company. Seeing how Facebook is already close to this number in worth already, clarification was necessary. It’s moreso that they will earn that number in revenue. Last year, Facebook’s revenue was in the market of $4 billion in revenue; just a quarter of what the expected earnings will be.
This is how this revenue could be accomplished. As of right now, the social networking site earns 30% of purchases made with Facebook Credits. This is primarily done through Zynga, since they earn approximately $1 billion in revenue a year themselves. So, through Zynga alone, Facebook is already earning $400 million a year, give or take. They also earn a good bit through advertisements.
So yes, there would have to be a significant amount of gambling to take place through Facebook in order to reach this number, but with the popularity of the company, and with Zynga already expressing interest in operating online gambling, it would be extremely possible. There has already been some talk about legalizing online gambling on Facebook for its UK clients, but nothing has been finalized yet. Legalizing online gambling in the United States would be the key to reaching the $100 billion status. That’s a big goal to hit, but even if they don’t, it is safe to say that they will become much larger than they are now.
Microgaming Slots Branding Made Simpler
Microgaming has recently come out with an easier way for those developers of branded slots to become even more successful. The company has also become the proud owner of their own branded slots in the form of the new Tomb Raider.
This new joint venture is due primarily to their recent partnership with DC Entertainment, the parent company of the ever so popular DC Comics. This agreements allows certain licensing rights to Microgaming, including the character of Batman. They are currently slated to come out with a new line of slot games starring the characters of the Batman movies. The Dark Knight and the Dark Knight Rises will be the first two games to be released. The first will come out sometime in the summer of 2012, most likely in conjunction with the release of The Dark Knight Rises on July 20th. The second game will most likely be released sometime in 2013.
The press release announcing this information including a good bit of background information on the comic book characters. For instance, the character of Batman made his first appearance back in 1939, and was instantly considered a globally recognized icon. In today’s world, he still appears in 15 different comics that are released every month by DC, and has more than 60 million fans and are being released in thirty different languages. When the movie The Dark Knight was released, it made more than one billion USD worldwide.
The CEO of Microgaming, Roger Raatgever, has been quoted in recognizing the popularity of the Batman films, and also noted that the bat symbol can be recognized by persons all over the world. It is a huge step for Microgaming to acquire such a well known product and company. Now that they have made such a huge step, the company is going to look back at some of the products that have been released and improve upon them. There are still two more of the Lord of the Rings trilogy games to be released, and Immortal Romance, which came out at the end of 2011, is also the first in a new series.
Zoom Poker Finally on the Way
PokerStars has finally confirmed that the beta version of the much talked about Zoom Poker is coming up. This game is their version of the speed poker game “Rush Poker” that became so very popular with Full Tilt Poker when they were in operation. This game is a much faster way to play online poker with a bunch of different people.
After each hand, all of the players switch to new tables with new players. If you fold pre-flop or during a hand, you will automatically be moved. This makes room for much more players than in the traditional form of poker. This game also increases the win ratio in lower stakes games of No Limit and Pot Limit Texas Hold ‘Em.
The main worry that comes up with this affects countries with strict gambling regulations in place. Countries like Denmark, where PokerStars already has a gambling license, require there to be a delay of ten seconds before a new hand can be dealt. This can make speed poker much more difficult to become possible or popular.
Zoom Poker will become available in the first round of beta testing sometime between the end of February and the beginning of March. They have also talked about how their clients in Italy will be able to play the beta version of mobile poker on their phones. They will be the first country to try this out.
Gordon Dismissed from RICO
Phil Gordon, a professional poker player, has become the first and only person to be dismissed from the class-action RICO lawsuit that had been filed against the company formerly known as Full Tilt Poker. This dismissal was originally introduced at the end of July in 2011, but has only recently been cleared. Mr. Gordon has maintained his innocence and has repeatedly made it known that he had no part of the management meetings or anything related to the operations of the company. There are currently plans in the works to take all of the funds, that are still frozen, of FTP and put them into a trust to be monitored throughout the proceedings.
Phil has been the only person to be dismissed from the lawsuit, which currently holds a dozen other Team Full Tilt members accountable, as well as the two founders of the company and and several other persons who have not been named. Companies that were in anyway associated with Full Tilt are also being held in these charges. A handful of the plaintiffs were the ones that have encouraged that a constructive trust be instituted. This trust will be supervised by a member of the court system throughout the duration of the trial.
Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker are also the subjects of a claim by an online poker, Adam Webb. This individual is fighting to get his money unfrozen from his account, and is worth a combined total of just shy of $100,000 between the two accounts. He has made a statement insisting that the money in these accounts did belong to him, and were earned by him by playing on the two different sites, and were there when all of the accounts were frozen by the US government. This claim was filed in the nick of time, just before the deadline for players to file. As of right now, PokerStars has returned over $120 million to US players from accounts that were frozen as a result of April 15th.
Congress Pressured to Legalize Online Gambling
Surprisingly enough, all of the pressure that has been put onto Congress to legalize online gambling and put regulations in place is not coming from online gambling companies and poker players, but from many states and supporters of gambling instead. There are already a handful of states that have legalized online gambling and are putting the necessary steps in to place to regulate it efficiently. If each state continues to do this, that is potentially 51 different sets, with Washington, D.C. included, of online gambling regulations and tax structures that would need monitored individually, rather than putting a national regulation in to place.
One of the biggest concerns of instituting Federal regulations is that the larger gaming companies will be the ones to come out ahead. They will have more tools available to adjust to the regulations and be able to get up and running more quickly than most of the smaller companies. Right now, the battle for the best would lie between Caesars Entertainment, and the Bwin Party, Boyd Gaming and MGM conglomerate. These two sites would be able to support big names and big games, like the WSOP and Caesar’s Palace. They wouldn’t have to spend a whole ton of time and money to establish a large player database, since their names could do that for them.
Statewide regulations alone, on the other hand, make it much more of a reality for smaller, lesser-known gaming companies to be extremely successful. They wouldn’t have to focus on getting the entire country to play at their casino, but instead could put their energies into a much smaller area. There may also be the chance for casinos catering to specific states only to gain extreme amounts of revenue.
Regardless of what the final outcome is, it is very clear that there will be a huge push in Congress to come up with some kind of final regulations that will be instilled. If they successfully pass, the big companies will come out the winners, but if it is left up to the states, then there will be much more of a chance to be very successful.
Only time will tell what the end result will be, but it can easily be said that regardless of the outcome, online gambling will be fully legalized and regulated to some extent, and that there will be money to be made by large gambling companies in some capacity.
Zynga in the Mood for Gambling
Zynga has already cleared a path for themselves for greatness when it comes to social networks, and are looking to carve a new groove when it comes to online gambling. They have already established a type of online gambling through several social media sites, but despite this move they are still not performing as well as they would like.
Now that the Justice Department has ruled that it may be legal to gamble online, Zynga believes that they have the potential to earn billions as a result of offering online gambling and casino games.
Even though it is new to the United States, there are already estimates in place that by the year 2014, online gambling could be worth close to $50 billion, and that the majority of these profits would be earned through online poker. Some other companies that are looking to create online gambling that would be compatible with social networking sites are EA and Playdom, the latter of which was recently purchased by Disney. There are some other smaller companies that should make a splash as well.
Zynga’s most profitable game right now is their Texas Hold’Em Poker, with more than 25 million users each month, and has earned the spot as the most popular, albeit casual, gaming spots. If Zynga incorporates real money gambling into its poker and casino games, the revenue that will be earned for each user will undoubtedly take up a large section of their overall revenue.
There have been recent advances in slot social gambling also. Just last week Double Down Interactive was purchased by International Game Technology for the tune of $500 million. While this Facebook gaming developer doesn’t have nearly as many users each month as Zynga, this can quickly turn around.