POKERSTARS AND THEIR QUEST FOR CHARITY

Poker giant Pokerstar.com’s novel innovative program is bound augment an overwhelming exposure in Europe for the “Ante Up for Africa” aid organization fundraising play offs that pioneered in the United States.

The fifth play off of the PokerStar’s – funded European online casino tour’s Grand finale to be held in Monte Carlo later this month will have been heralded by the pioneer charity performance in Europe.

Founded by artist Don Cheadle and poker luminary Annie Duke, Ante Up For Africa is a benevolent organization which has accomplished commendable fundraising feats at main poker activities like the World Series of Poker in the few days gone by. Compassionate organizations out to assuage the affliction of regular men, women, and children trapped in the frontline of the war ravaged African territory of Darfur are the beneficiaries of fundraising efforts by poker champions and Hollywood movie stars. Ethnic cleansing, poverty and famine continue to wreak havoc on Darfur’s residents daily.

The preliminary campaign by PokerStars is to have Professional members Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, and Vanessa Rousso battle it out in the Euro 4 000 NLHE contest and have all the earnings pumped to the charity kitty. There are numerous other high ranking players expected to be drawn once the location of the event is made public. PokerStars will be presenting a distinctive accolade to winners for its supreme EPT feature in the Bahamas, the PokerStar Caribbean Adventure, scheduled for January 2010.

Evolution update its Riga studios

Live dealer provider Evolution Gaming has had to increase the size of its studio facilities in Riga, Latvia by a thousand square metres to handle growing business demand following a spate of new user contracts that has included Party Gaming and William Hill Online, the company reported this week.

CEO Jens von Bahr said the expansion represented a 400 percent increase in capacity for the company.

“Our transformation of one of Riga’s oldest buildings into a 24-hour state-of-the-art casino gaming TV studio is the next step in our plans to expand our product and platform offering in 2009,” said the Evolution CEO.

“Discrepancies” in accounts cause hold on first quarter results and cancellation of AGM

Unspecified discrepancies in its 2008 published accounts have been cited as the reason for further delays in the release of the Redbet Holding AB first quarter 2009 results.

Several business news outlets have reported that the Swedish and Malta based online gambling group has postponed its annual general meeting and delayed the publication of its first quarter results.

Redbet operates GoldClubCasino.com, TotalPoker.com and OptiBet.com, and has seen its share price fall dramatically due to the present uncertainty. Last year, the group announced that it intended to move its online casino, poker and sportsbook operations to Malta after receiving the the island’s license approvals.

The group has a number of divisions; Redbet Limited and Redbet Finance Limited, are both based in London, Redbet Technology AB is in Stockholm, Pullmangaming NV in the Netherlands Antilles and SIA Teletoto based in Latvia.

Within the scope of Redbet Ltd’s gaming operations is the offering of poker, casino and sports betting via Redbet.com and online bingo via Mingelbingo.com. Redbet Ltd also offers a sports betting service presented via Redbet Ltd’s proprietary betting exchange. Also within Redbet Ltd is a licensing operation through which the company offers total solutions for companies wishing to set up online gaming services.

Reuters news service reported this week that the group has decided to prepare a new Annual Report for the fiscal year 2008, due to ‘discovered discrepancies’.

UK Gambling Commission Against Corruption Claims

The Gambling Commission compiled some statistics regarding complaints and claims that Internet sites undermined the integrity of sports games and concluded these to be unfounded and with no basis. As a brief backgrounder, some national sports leagues expressed concerns that on-line gambling somehow is conducive to rigging games that results in corruption.

The Commission generally gets about fifty citizens’ complaints in a year about some suspicious or less than honest betting activities but around half of these (or about 25 of the complaints) were generally unsubstantiated and based on mere allegations. Only a few complaints were judged credible enough to justify continued inquiries. But there was no significant change in the number of complaints before and after legal sports betting was introduced.

What is more important is that powerful computers and sophisticated tracking systems like the one at Betfair.com can easily identify and warn of highly suspicious betting patterns in their early stages. Most governing and regulatory bodies have recognized the important benefits of these recording software to unmask betting scams in some major sports .

Chairman Brian Pomeroy asserts there is limited evidence about these concerns but still admits that the Commission is giving top priority to combating these real risks to betting integrity. In a surprise twist, the highly-respected USA Today printed an article about the growing dependence of some sports bodies on advertising revenues that could also affect their integrity and increases the potential for corruption. These college sports bodies are quite vocal regarding their opposition to on-line gambling on the same grounds by which they are being examined right now.

Joan Rivers says poker world what she thinks of Annie Duke

Now that Joan Rivers has bested poker champ Annie Duke at “Celebrity Apprentice,” let’s look back to comments Rivers made to Poker News Daily last week before the grand finale.

Needless to say, the poker world today is seething at Rivers’ win on Sunday night.

Poker News Daily: Why did you sign up for Celebrity Apprentice? What was appealing about the show?

Rivers: The fact that Melissa and I could have five weeks together was very appealing. The challenges of the show were also appealing. I love a challenge. Celebrity Apprentice has been very good for my charity, God’s Love We Deliver. It’s a local charity for me and I’m very involved with them. We’ve raised over $125,000 for them.

PND: You’ve had an ongoing clash with poker player Annie Duke. In your opinion, when did the feud start and why?

Rivers: It started from the very beginning. Annie is a very good poker player obviously, but plays people like poker. Poker should be kept at the poker table. God knows I love poker. If you look at that painting with the dogs playing poker, I’m the fifth one on the right. Suddenly, it evolved into “Joan doesn’t like poker players.” I started in Las Vegas.

My downstairs neighbor plays slots, so it’d be like me saying, “I hate slots.” It got out of hand and became ridiculous. My father worked his way through medical school playing poker. What I do like about poker players is that they keep the masseuses up all night in Las Vegas. No one uses masseuses at night except for poker players and entertainers.

PND: You mentioned to Piers Morgan on last week’s episode that your biggest problem with Duke is that she is manipulative. Can you explain how she’s manipulative?

Rivers: It’s not a “fun” manipulative, if you know what I mean. We all know how to play each other. We’re all good business people. You don’t invite yourself out to dinner with me and then go tell Brande that I asked you, but I didn’t ask her.

PND: What was your own strategy coming into the game?

Rivers: I used the same strategy that I have used throughout my life and it’s been a good one: Put blinders on and just go forward. Don’t look to your left and don’t look to your right; just concentrate on where you’re going and go the extra mile. I am such a hard worker. I am talking to you right now and have three meetings in the next four hours. Then, I get on a plane to London, have two meetings there, and will be back on Friday to appear on Jimmy Fallon’s show. On Saturday afternoon, I’m taking my grandson to the theater and then performing that night in New Jersey. On Sunday, I have the Celebrity Apprentice finale.

PND: Talk about your reaction to Melissa’s firing.

Rivers: If Melissa had been fired for something she did wrong or a lack of work, then that’s fine. However, she was fired for duplicity, sleaziness, and high school pettiness. Annie found the stupid blonde and knew damn well that she had to get rid of her competition. When we were all girlfriends in the beginning of the show, Annie went down the line saying things like, “Claudia Jordan is lazy” and “Brande Roderick is stupid.” She said that Melissa and I were her biggest competition. Annie is a smart person, but at some point, you have to push yourself away from the poker table.

PND: Heading into the final episode, what will it take for Joan Rivers to win?

Rivers: If winning means money, I don’t win, but that’s what brought this country to its knees. Look at the Bernard Madoffs and the AIGs: If it’s only about money, then I don’t want to win. If it’s about playing a great game, I never stopped and I won a lot. I brought in a lot of money, but that wasn’t all I did.

Online casinos trends show economy on recovery track

Just a few years ago everyone believed that gambling is in general recession-proof and no economic downturn could slow down the casinos and gambling halls. Needless to say, the bankruptcy filings and bleak financial reports from the casinos all over the country proved that theory wrong. Of course, the online casinos and other online gambling websites turn out to be just as vulnerable to an economy slow-down as their land-based counterparts. We have always kept our fingers on the pulse of the internet gambling industry and we felt that pulse slow down considerably last year with millions of people losing their jobs world-wide and those lucky enough to have missed the massive layoffs - saving every penny and spending none on recreation in the form of gambling, whether online or offline.

But from our recent conversations with various online casinos and sportsbooks - the recovery, at least in the United States, may be well on its way. The online casinos point to an increase in the number of new gamblers signing up at their properties and while the average amount of money spent gambling online is still well below what we have seen in previous years, it’s slowly improving, as well. The Kentucky Derby was another success story. We, just like any other gambling commentator, were bracing for a disappointing interest in the Kentucky Derby betting this year, especially after the bad numbers the sportsbook saw during the NCAA Tournament. Were we surprised when it turns out the Kentucky Derby this year actually generated much more interest compared to last year, especially when considering this time last year we have just began talking about economy slowdown.

Of course, the improving numbers at the online casinos and sportsbooks could hardly be an indicator for economic recovery you would see coming out of from the experts and Wall Street analysts. But we, who have seen the online gambling industry decline with a pace equal to the U.S. economy, are confident to draw the conclusion that the worst may be indeed over. With people spending again at the online and offline gambling venues, this is a good enough trend to show recovery just as any other.

NBC Started Promotes Gambling With New Poker Television Series

NBC is taking their chances that gambling will sell. They have ordered seven episodes of a new television game show that will allow contestants to take on poker pros for money.

The way the game would work is contestants would play heads up against a poker pro in a tournament. If they win, they have the option of either keeping the money or playing against another pro for more money.

“This type of show shows just how far the US has come when it comes to gambling,” said observer Peter Imalucka, “It used to be that they had to mask the gambling on game shows with variety games. Now they can just come right out and promote actual gambling.”

Steve Schirripa, who starred in The Sopranos, will be the host of the new show called Ace. It will begin on August 1st at 9:00 PM, but the prime time slot will not be its regular home. It is expected to move to Saturday afternoons in September.

It will not be all fun and games for the contestants. If they are skilled enough to beat one of the professionals, they will be faced with a difficult decision. If they choose to play another pro, and lose, they will lose all of the money they have accumulated and go home empty handed.

Online Casino Ladbrokes Offers £25 Free Bet

Ladbrokes, the hugely successful British bookmaker, casino and poker room, are offering their players a £25 free bet at their popular website.

Simply by opening a new account with Ladbrokes, you can claim this offer. Just register for an account, deposit and make a bet. You’re truly spoiled for choice here as the sports betting aspect of Ladbrokes alone offers betting markets on everything from boxing to snooker to football.

Once you have placed your bet, not only will Ladbrokes give you your free £25 bet but they will also double your first wager at no cost to yourself – essentially, a new player will be freerolling on a double-or-nothing as well as earning a cool £25.

Progressive Race at Ladbrokes Casino

Ladbrokes Casino is the online casino portal of the Ladbrokes group. Ladbrokes also offers other online gambling products like sports betting, poker, games, bingo, financial betting, lotto and backgammon. Ladbrokes Casino is licensed by the Government of Gibraltar and is powered by Microgaming. The payouts are reviewed by eCOGRA.

One of the promotions offered by Ladbrokes Casino is currently a big hit. This is the Progressive Turnover Race. This promotion offers a prize pool of £2,450 each week. The distribution of the prizes is as follows. The first place wins £1,000; the second place wins £500; the third place wins £250 and the fourth to the tenth places win £100 each. The places are decided by the amount players wager during the week on progressive jackpot online games offered by Ladbrokes Casino. The ten players with the highest turnover in these games during the week share the prize pool as indicated above.

There is a reason why this promotion is gaining popularity. Progressive jackpots are games that become more viable as the jackpot ticker increases. The amounts that need to be wagered remains, the same, the chance of hitting the jackpot remains the same but the payout increases. Microgaming’s watershed progressive jackpot slot, Mega Moolah is ticking away at over $5.77 million. Today it is the most sought after progressive jackpot on the Internet. Even without any promotion it is drawing substantial traffic. The jackpot amount is rising at $10,000 per day, which is more than what many jackpots pay when hit. Hence players feel that since they are anyway going to wager substantial amounts on this progressive game might as well do it at Ladbrokes Casino and try for a share of the prize pool. The highest that Mega Moolah has been hit is at $5.56 million about less than a year ago. In fact that is the highest ever payout recorded in the online gaming industry. Hence whosoever hit Mega Moolah now will have his name etched in history. Mega Moolah is available in two formats, both sharing the same progressive jackpot. The older version has the African Safari theme while the later one, released late last year, has a theme of motor racing.

There are a total of 21 Microgaming’s progressive jackpot games on offer at Ladbrokes casino. All are eligible for the promotion except progressive poker games. Some of the popular ones are Roulette Royale, King Cashalot, Major Millions and Tunzamunni.

Ladbrokes Casino also offers several other promotions. Scratch Mania is played on selected slots and offers a daily bonus of £100. Wacky Wednesdays offers a £25 match bonus every Wednesday and Friday Payday gives 10 free chips every Friday.