The Netherlands is one of a number of European countries that operate a gambling monopoly which flouts EU free passage of services laws.

Now the Dutch media has reported that their Ministry of Justice is to impose stricter regulations to combat online gambling with foreign sites.

According to the ministry, 30 foreign operators have been targeting Dutch residents even though online gambling is illegal there. So they are expected to draw up a list of banned online operators and request that financial payment processors block any transactions to and from the listed sites.

This move will be seen as a way of protecting their national monopoly on gambling from outside competition, as has been the case with other countries.

Intercasino.com is the top choice for the 10 000 Gambling.com members who voted in the online gambling magazine and search engine’s High Roller’s Awards initiative recently. The poll was held to mark the first anniversary of the company’s magazine.

Members of the site’s Platinum Section were eligible to vote in the poll, and the majority felt that Intercasino best met the classification Favourite Casino due to its superior range of games and top notch customer service. Surprisingly, Goldenpalace.com and 888.com were voted runners-up.

In the Favourite Poker Room category, Everest Poker, which has been particularly active in the publicity and marketing field, took the first prize, with honourable mentions going to Mansion.com and Party Poker.com.

For the Best Sportsbook award, well-respected bookie Pinnacle nabbed the top spot. Bodog and UK online giant William Hill followed close on Pinnacle�s heels in the two runner-up spots.

Gambling.com Magazine is distributed across the UK, Europe, Canada and Asia, with a readership of over 18,000. The magazine, published by Newbold Publishing, is owned by MediaCorp in a joint venture with Lyceum Publishing.

The Pope Mobile auction is currently running now on eBay – search for item number 280099096259.

“none of my clients would try to put in Internet wagering because they would jeopardize their license,” said Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association which is the main lobbyist organization for Nevada’s hotels. “It’s illegal for them to take bets outside Nevada.”

Nevada casinos won’t be muscling into online booking anytime soon. Nevada race books did just receive approval to accept bets outside the state for the first time. However, this is just phone wagering. They won’t be joining 17 other states that permit online race betting. Nevada also is one of only five states where Internet gambling is outlawed, although no individual bettors have been prosecuted for betting online.

The MGM Mirage, which owns a number of major hotels in Las Vegas including Bellagio, Treasure Island and New York New York, has been the most aggressive pushing for online betting. MGM Mirage chairman Terry Lanni said”The fact is that millions of U.S. citizens currently participate in on-line gaming in an unregulated environment. We believe that a more sound and realistic public policy would be to regulate the activity and hold operators to the highest standards of probity and integrity.”

If the U.S. wises up and decides to regulate and tax online gambling, then the MGM Mirage could once again become a player on the Internet. However, the guy sitting in front of his private computer drinking a Budweiser and making an online wager on the Raptors isn’t necessarily the same customer who flies to Vegas. covers.com source

In 2006, Las Vegas took note of record receipts, 6,7 billions overall and a growth of 10,9% compared with 2005. Slot machines are the driving force behind this, by 3,5 billions gathering (52,2% of the overall), whereas the French games black jack and baccarat gather respectively 1,4 billions and 835 millions dollars. The result could be a success, if the “Mecca” for all gamblers hadn’t really watched in 2006 the passing of its main and single rival (till now), Macao , by receipts that reached 7 billions dollars. agicos

The bookmakers’ support to English football. This is the subject of the debate that was brought into question yesterday at the English House of Commons, where Jim Sheridan stressed that “while the football in England, above all that of the minor leagues, is suffering deep financial crisis, the betting dealers, instead, are making around this sport a business more and more important, giving back to football a little share of what they earn”.

The sports secretary of state, Richard Caborn, answered on behalf of the government, suggesting that the only way in order to increase the sector could be that of new agreements among the football clubs and the bookmakers. agicosinternational

Sweden’s Pirate Bay, well-known in the so-called grey market and darknet communities as a host tracker for a wide variety of often illegally-uploaded digital content available via BitTorrent, seems to be getting tired of efforts made by authorities in Sweden, the United States, and other nations to shut down its services.

The Pirate Bay group has set up a campaign to raise money to buy the self-declared sovereign nation. Outside the jurisdiction of the UK or any other country, The Pirate Bays believes it could safely run the world’s largest ‘bit torrent tracker’. Its plans are also to use Sealand as a possible location for online gambling.

Should insufficient funds be raised (we’re sceptical) other plans are afoot. The Pirate Bay has stated “If we do not get enough money required to buy the micronation of Sealand, we will try to buy another small island somwhere (sic) and claim it as our own country (prices start from USD 50 000).”

“It should be a great place for everybody. With high-speed Internets access, no copyright laws and vip accounts to The Pirate Bay, press officer of ACFI says”. ACFI is a group of people working for the peoples right to it’s Internets. More info on buysealand.com

Playtech, a casino software supplier, has signed on to a four-year deal with industry leader Partygaming.com. Partygaming went on a holiday buying spree, and Playtech has been chosen to furnish the software for the new purchases. Playtech’s stock rose 3.7 per cent on the news. Playtech offers online pachinko and mah jong, and the partnership is expected to focus on Asia, the new hotspot for global gambling. Playtech also indicated that an acquisition or two might be in the works in the coming months.

The only difference between Germany banning Internet gambling as opposed to the US banning it is that the Germans come come right out and say that they are doing it to protect the land based monopolies that run in the states. We really appreciate that.

It is obvious that the “States” are trying to shift the traffic to land based casinos. Pennsylvania has put up new casinos, Florida has many, the Gulf Coast states run them, and of course there are the gambling meccas of Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

The European Gaming Commission is stressing to Union members that this sort of protectionism is not allowed. As a result, Spain and Italy are opening their doors to Internet gambling. Germany and France are going in the other direction without fear of consequences. We’ll see.

According to the ogpaper many Chinese gamers have chosen the online casinos over the Chinese lottery - one of the most popular commodities in China’s entertainment culture.

China is having some issues with the fact that online casinos are generating so much money and they are not paying taxes. However, the country is starting to feel pressure from the national government to do something about this billion dollar industry that is not only not paying taxes but is also causing a tax paying industry like the lottery to fail. This has been the case in many countries throughout the world that are trying to curb online gambling in favour of national lotteries. Examples? Well, too obvious if you know what I mean.

The popularity of online casinos is not a surprising or recent phenomenon as Asia has been known as the biggest users of Online Casino. Gambling Companies are awaiting China’s decision as it will ultimately have an effect on this industry that is said to be one of the biggest today.