The project of Asian Coast Development (Canada) Ltd. to build a 4.2-billion-dollar tourism complex in southern beach area near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, has been approved by the government of Vietnam. The complex will consist of casinos, five stunning resorts, conference and exhibition centre, a shopping hall, restaurants and a 200-acre golf course located on the white-sand beaches of Vung Tau Province.

Gambling is banned in Vietnam, but foreign tourists are allowed to visit a casino in the port of Haiphong.

The internet gambling law has been recently passed by the parliament of South Africa. To come into effect the bill should be signed by the president of South Africa Thabo Mbeki.

The aim of the law is to fight the negative effects of online gambling such as money laundering, gambling addiction and player protection.

In accordance with the law every player in South Africa will have to register with a licensed online gambling company proving he or she is over 18 years old. Besides, the law allows electronic monitoring system that helps root out potentially addictive behavior and restricts credit extensions to players.

Despite the UIGEA, there is a growing interest in online casino gambling by U.S. citizens.

The statistics presented by ZD Net shows that growth of online gambling (an interest of 12,592 compared to the previous month of 11,082) follows the growth of interest in the Radio Entertainment field and Gay and Lesbian interests.

According to ZD Net, Google was the top search engine with more than 68% of all search engine traffic. It was followed by Yahoo (18%), MSN (12%), AOL (4%) and Ask.com (2.4%).

Approximately 68% of users click on the first page of search results, what explains the fact that it is competitive to get websites listed in the top search results.

To the mind of ZD Net Web 2.0 will attain $4.6 billion by the year of 2013, so it is clear that the online gambling industry should stay here.

It has become known that Charles Barkley, retired NBA star, owes a $400,000 gambling debt to a Las Vegas casino. As a result of the failure to repay four $100,000 casino loans received on October 18 and 19, 2007, Barkley has faced criminal charges. He admitted his fault saying that he had let the time lapse.

In case Barkley agrees to the standard district attorney’s office restitution program, he could be granted up to six months to pay the $400,000 plus a 10 percent program fee totaling $40,000. If the case remains unresolved, “as many as four felony theft or four felony bad check charges could be filed. The possible penalty for each theft conviction is 1 to 10 years in state prison. A conviction on a felony bad check charge could carry a one- to four-year term”.

Barkley has been gambling for 20 years, and he makes no secret of it. He is known to have gambled about $10 million over the years. Barkley admits that gambling is a bad habit, but he is not going to give up.

The owners of Hoosier Park Racing area, state of Indiana, are going to introduce casino operation in addition to their horseracing business. Slot machines are the only way to gamble there. But there are rumors that poker tables and some more traditional games will appear there in the future.

The opening of the new venture is to take place on June 2, but local residents are invited to experience it before the official open.

The new business initiative will create up to 500 new jobs.

Over 1100 delegates and over 600 affiliates took part in the Amsterdam Casino Affiliate Convention last month. Once again the Convention proved to be the largest event in the online gaming industry. Unfortunately, lots of Eastern European affiliates were unable to attend the Convention because of the arduous process to get visas. That is why the next event called the First European Casino Affiliate Convention will be held in Moscow on June 7-8, 2008.

Special information regarding traveling to Moscow is available on the CAC2008 website.

In addition to the Russian market, the second annual Asian affiliate convention will be in Macau, PR China on November 20-21, 2008. The company will also have a conference for affiliates in the online Forex market on July 25-26, 2008 in Las Vegas.

With the standard life declining, Americans are cutting on their expenses. Gambling for Americans doesn’t seem to be incentive at this hard time. The online casinos have already felt it. What has been noticed is the decline in new players. Some promoters report decline in new sign-up as high as 5-6 times the normal rate.

To increase the player base and allow U.S. customers to stay profitable, online casinos are recommended to increase bonus offers, add new games, decrease cash-out requirements and find new depositing methods. Now, you can find sign-up bonuses as high as $500 or even $555 on player’s first deposit. In case the number of American players is going down, bonus offers are expected to grow as high as $1,000.

To avoid “online casinos gone bad” (small and less know in the online gaming industry making money by not paying out winnings, etc), players are advised to make sure they don’t jump on the first big bonus offer they see or click on the flashing banner. An online casino should be recommended to you by a reputable website.

Clarion Gaming, the leading gambling publisher and events organizer, has published the report tilted “Advertising in the UK - Navigating the New Rules for Gambling Services”. The report gives an explanation of the new rules and regulations covering advertising by approved UK facing online casinos and betting sites. Besides, the report enlists the companies who may advertise and what is acceptable for each company to advertise. In addition to covering the new online casino advertising policies and regulations, the report provides data regarding the UK population and a chartered analysis of how technologies are penetrating the UK public.

With online gambling regulated in the UK under the 2005 Gambling Act, Clarion’s report has been issued at the right time to highlight business opportunities for the gambling market.

You can purchase the report on Clarion’s website (it is delivered by email). Clarion gaming can also provide you with a free twelve-page executive summary of the report.

According to the Dutch government, Unibet and Dutch firm Oranje Casino are running illegitimate websites in Holland, and consequently they are to be eradicated in the course of a new campaign. There are also other names of firms that are on the list of targets.

To offer gambling services in the Netherlands, the company should get a permit. Now, there is only one company with the permit to offer internet-based services – De Lotto, Holland’s state-run sweepstake. So, it means that other companies break the law.

In February the Netherlands got a final legal warning about the regulation of the casino gaming market.

The decision of the Russian Government to place casino gambling outside of main cities makes casino companies think of expansion and new business initiatives as it is not clear what will happen to their gaming business.

Thus, Ritzio, the largest gaming company in Eastern Europe, is raising money to start its expansion not only in Europe, but also in Latin America. The company needs $500 million to realize their intentions.

Being located out of Cyprus, Ritzio has 160 gaming clubs in Germany and a recently opened slot hall in Serbia.