USA, Canada clash for gold in ice hockey
The Olympics has been great so far to the US hockey team winning every game they have played since the start of the competition. They have already defeated the home team which they will battle head to head for the gold medal on Sunday.
Having the games held in Vancouver, there would be more Canadian hockey fans cheering and betting for their team to bring home the gold. The team will not allow themselves to fail their countrymen.
During the first few days of the games, Team Canada was a little sluggish and fans seemed to have lost hope when they were defeated by Team USA in a preliminary match up. The home team, however, has regained momentum in the medal round.’
To be able to get to the final match, Canada crushed Germany, Russia and Slovakia along the way. The US is now the only team blocking their way to the much coveted gold medal.
Team USA has exhibited exemplary game play through all of its matches. Sports analysts were even expecting Canada to win during their first clash but the scoreboard went the other way around. Just like Canada, the US is also very confident to take home the gold.
Last Friday, the US team defeated Finland which was the silver medallist during 2006 Torino Olympics. They dismantled the Finns early in the game by scoring six goals during the first period.
No gambling at all for Hawaii
Hawaii may just all sand and no games at all as lawmakers in the Aloha State rejected a plan that would allow gambling on the sunny shores of the state.
Waikiki would have been the first location to boast a casino in this Pacific state but legislators discarded the bill that would have made that dream come true. A second bill that would allow Hawaiian residents to wager bets may also not get votes.
Hawaii is only one of the two states in the United States that do not give provisions for any gambling in the state – the other being Utah.
Proponents of gambling in the state proposed the bill because according to them, this would help boost the state’s economy by contributing $86 million annually from tax revenue especially not that the state is facing a deficit worth $1.2 billion.
Opponents of the bill, however, argued that casinos would only stain Hawaii’s image of being family-friendly as well as increase the proliferation of crime.
Alabama raids more warehouse, removes bingo machines
Authorities in Alabama have still continued their crackdown on electronic bingo as hundreds of electronic bingo machines have been removed from warehouses in and around Birmingham. Bingo in Alabama may already be doomed as the so-called “gambling task force” is unwavering on its raid of warehouses where the machines are found.
The task force which was initiated by Governor Bob Riley said that it has seized 56 electronic bingo machines from a warehouse close to the one where they have earlier removed 300 machines. Current head of the task force, John Tyson Jr., calls the machines part of “illegal gambling” is dissatisfied with continued importation of machines to the state.
According to the statement released by the office of the governor, the 300 slot machines originated from Panama and then just shipped to Birmingham. The leaders of the state said that the machines are not allowed to remain in the state because of their illegality. The owner of the warehouse was reported to have complied with the removal of the bingo machines and will be shipped to Florida sometime soon.
The 56 machines were discovered somewhere north of Birmingham just as they were taking care of the 300 previous ones. Authorities raided the warehouse after they were able to obtain a search warrant. A judge has ruled before that this same warehouse should ship its bingo machines out of the state.
Tyson Jr. said that steps should be taken in order to ensure that warehouse owners comply with rulings on the removal of the bingo machines next time.
Casinos in Louisiana experience drop in revenue
Some states in the US have experienced a boost in sales in the gambling industry. Unfortunately, other states did not experience the same success and that includes Louisiana. The southern state saw a drop of revenue during the first month of this year.
There are thirteen riverboat casinos in Louisiana. Their cumulative revenue dropped from $153.2 million in January 2009 to $131.2 million last month. Harrah’s land casino also saw a drop of $4.3 million in its income.
Last month’s figures came as a surprise to analysts considering that at the same time last year, the US economy was deep into recession. Even with the slow recovery, Louisiana still managed to lose more money on casinos.
Top gambling locations in the US, Las Vegas and Atlantic City, have reported revenue drops recently. Nevada’s gambling decreased by $6.8 billion for 2009 while New Jersey saw an income reduction of 8.5 percent in its casinos last month.
Partly blamed for these are the tougher competitors in some states that try to enhance their casino industry to compensate for the economic crisis. Pennsylvania lawmakers have made an effort to expand its gambling business which was just recently legalized and Florida and Delaware may soon follow suit.
Louisiana has been stricken with so much bad luck recently. It took a long time for the state to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. However, just right when they thought they were already back on their feet, the recession came.
After MasterCard, now Visa bans online gambling
MasterCard was the only major credit company to ban its customers from online gambling. But Visa, MasterCard’s biggest rival in the US, has also recently blocked its cardholders from betting online.
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) will not be put into enforcement until June 2010 but the move by Visa will already disallow millions of Americans to participate in online gambling.
Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts has been working diligently in trying to reverse the UIGEA and has gained momentum recently after getting support from fellow lawmakers. He has the one responsible for delaying the ruling until June.
Frank chairs the House Financial Services Committee whose main focus right now is getting the economy back on track. The congressman has not found time yet to get congressmen together to discuss his anti-UIGEA proposal.
As June nears, Rep. Frank has less and less time to get a debate started for his proposal. He can again ask the Treasury Department, however, to postpone the publication of the UIGEA which could give him until the end of the year.
Many MasterCard holders did not expect the ban and now subscribers of both Visa and MasterCard are shocked by the announcement that signifies the credit card companies will strongly abide by the US anti-online gambling law.
E-wallets have gained popularity over the years and they might just be the only option for most American gamblers. The move by the credit card companies means millions of dollars of losses for them.
Nebraska lawmakers shut down plan on horse racing betting expansion
The horse racing industry in many states has been suffering a lot lately. The latest blow was when a proposal of getting horse races in Nebraska to be simulcast was rejected Thursday.
The amendment proposal aimed to get betting to approved locations in cities or counties. However, all hopes were shattered when lawmakers broke off the plan leaving the industry scrambling to find more options for them to just in this current economic turmoil.
Critics of the proposal say that the idea of widening the betting options would not help the horse racing industry at all. They even say that horse racing would just deepen the society’s problem in gambling addiction.
Supporters of the proposed additional betting options, on the other hand, say that races would not be able to survive if the industry owners would only depend on track bets. Attendance on race tracks all across the country has fallen continuously recently.
Kentucky is already in the move to submit a bill that would add slot machines on the horse race tracks. It is still tough road, however, since most lawmakers are not in favor of the bill although Governor Steve Beshear has been pushing for the bill to push through.
States affected by the recession have been looking at other options to boost their revenue. Casinos are now being built everywhere in even those states that already had casinos to expand income generation.
Gamblers have a new destination – Cambodia
The casino industry seems to be really expanding as another casino conquers an Asian country that is not entirely known in the gambling world – Cambodia.
Titan King Casino will be opening its resort in Bavet, a border gate between Cambodia and Vietnam but under Cambodian jurisdiction, in February 26. The casino will be employing over 6,000 workers and is expected to attract many tourists to the Asian kingdom.
According to Kith Thieng, owner of the new Titan King, gamblers will most likely come from Vietnam but they are also hoping that they can promote Cambodia to the world as also a place for entertainment.
Cambodia is just one of the countries to see the latest development of casinos as its other Southeast Asian neighbor Singapore opened its first casino resort last week.
Macau, which is also located in Asia, has recently become the gambling capital of the world even exceeding Las Vegas in profits.
Even though the casino industry continues to expand in the US, Las Vegas and Atlantic City have been struggling to keep up with competitors and recovering from the economic crisis.
Heads-Up Championship has poker pros geared up
The year 2010 has so much in store for professional poker as it has gained much popularity in television during recent years. In March, the best poker players around the world will gather in Las Vegas for the much coveted National Heads-Up Poker Championship.
Sixty-four players will meet each other for the event that will be held inside Caesar’s Palace. Among them are Huck Seed who took the top prize last year and Joe Cada, champion of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Other big names in the poker world are also going to show up which include Vanessa Russo, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson and Phil Ivey.
The players are going to compete for the total prize pool of $1.5 million. Their eyes, however, are set on the trophy and the bragging rights of being the Heads-Up champion.
The tournament is going to be played through single elimination much like the style used by the NCAA for college football games.
The event will start on March and will be played within four days. There will no live coverage but NBC will show the event for six weeks between April and May.
The emerging champion will be awarded $500,000 while the first runner-up will win $250,000.
Kakavas loses another court battle against casino in the Bahamas
Harry Kakavas may have made a record as the biggest loser in casino gambling in the history. He lost another court battle Monday and he was ordered to repay a gambling marker he owed in one of the casinos in the Bahamas.
Paradise Island Casino loaned $1 million in gambling marker to Kakavas in November 2006. He decided not to pay the loan and the casino brought the fight to court.
The casino sent a lawsuit against Kakavas to the Victorian Supreme Court for which they won on Monday. The judge ruled against Kakavas as he did not the claim that the casino took advantage of him during his stay at the resort.
Kakavas has been renowned for his big losses in gambling. He is suffering from problem gambling, a psychiatric condition which he alleged Paradise knew when they allowed him to borrow the gambling marker.
Kakavas lost another case last year as well when he sued the Melbourne Crown Casino also alleging that the casino knew about his condition after he lost $35 million in a gambling spree.
UK payment company gears up for US online gambling
Almost everyone believes that laws on online gambling in the US are about to get a whole new makeover. At least one payment processing company in London is very much convinced that it is indeed the situation as it gears up for online gambling in the US.
SecureTrading is a subsidiary of the UK-based UC Group in the US. The company foresees that once the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act will be overturned, Americans will be scrambling around to play online casino.
Representative Barney Frank has already introduced the bill that would counter the UIGEA. He has also made sure that he has prepared everything that needs to be prepared for the legislation of the bill.
Frank has gained a number of supporters over a period of the time when he was trying to push for online gambling. He now has 65 congressmen backing him up with some even having their own legislation proposals for online gambling.
The UC Group is well equipped with regulatory provisions in their new system but non-compliance could mean revocation of license of online casinos. The company already has anti-money laundering and anti-fraud tools that they are using for their UK operations.
