The third annual eGaming Awards has recently taken place at the National History Museum in London. Lots of online casinos, betting companies, poker sites, etc were recognized there. Top executives from various sectors of the industry were present there to accept the awards and to recognize the accomplishments of other companies within the gambling industry.

Mark Blandford, who served as the Chairman of the e-Gaming Awards’ judging panel, has also been given recognition for his contributions to the online casino and e-gaming industry. Blandford is one of the foremost industry analysts who got his experience working with Sportingbet and serving on various committees related to the industry. Blandford was honored with the event’s Outstanding Contribution Award.

Australia’s biggest casino owner, James Packer’s Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd, is planning to build its third, largest so far hotel. Being the richest man in Australia, Packer opened his first gaming house in Macau in May. The third hotel will be located at the company’s Melbourne gaming house. The approximate cost of the casino is said to be A$300 million ($267 million). A$205 million is being planned for building retail shops, upgrading an existing hotel and refurnishing the casino. About 340,000 guests a year will be accommodated there.

The construction of the 658-room hotel is expected to be started this month, and the completion is expected to take place in May 2010. The hotel is believed to attract a large number of visitors and “to target the international leisure market”.  Besides, the hotel will focus on the global conventions and conferences industry.

The officials of the University of Massachusetts are demanding UMasspoker.com operators to take down the site promoting campus gambling and containing links to online poker sites. The site uses the University of Massachusetts name and logo which are the university property and cannot be used without the university’s permission.

The site is operated by students and recent graduates. It provides visitors with information about poker strategy, cash games and tournaments on and off campus. The site contains a link to EmpirePoker.com licensed by the government of Gibraltar, and seven links to other online poker sites. The UMasspoker.com domain name was created and registered in November 2003 and updated last year. The domain name is set to expire Nov. 8, unless it’s updated again.

UMass, as the officials claim, is not looking to prosecute people, but wants the site to be taken down. If not, then UMass will go to court.

The two agencies, The United States Treasury and Federal Reserve that work together with the US Department of Justice have initiated a process implementing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Thus, final steps are being taken to ensure that internet gambling is banned once and for all.

In spite of the fact that the Act was passed by Congress in 2006 and was designed to avoid any ambiguity about whether or not gambling is illegal, many banks and credit card companies have not stopped payments to illegal sites. They are waiting for the rules “to determine what procedures need to be followed”. The announcement made details those roles and calls on banks, credit card companies and automated payment system companies to have policies that do not allow illegal gambling businesses to be paid.

Rob Winston, a doctor who is the founder of Laser Away in Rancho Mirage and five offices in Los Angeles, is reported to have won $1.5 million in the Borgata Open poker tournament after knocking out poker star Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow at the final table and, finally, Scott Yoon. Winston had the huge advantage in chips with 13,370,000 to Yoon’s 3,445,000.

In addition to the $1,575,280 prize, Winston also won a silver watch and entry into the $25,000 buy-in Season VI WPT World Championship that will take place in April, 2008.

Now, Winston is planning to participate in more WPT events. Thus, Winston plans on playing in Niagara Falls in October, at the Foxwoods Casino in Mashantucket, Conn., in November, and at the Bellagio in December in Las Vegas. He also has an idea of participating in a tournament in Australia in January.

The richest ever poker tournament will take place within the next few months. One million dollars in cash prizes will be given away. The prize pool of the Players Only’s Million Dollar Free Roll Series is divided so that each winner will take away $75,000. Second and third place winners will win $10,000.

The players that have qualified in free rolls and cash satellites through the month will play-off for $75,000 in the first Monthly Final of PlayersOnly.com’s Million Dollar Free Roll Series. There is a chance to win a free seat in Sunday’s final. Those who don’t qualify in time for the weekend’s final can buy-in directly or try again next month.

Free roll qualifiers take place twice a day. Players can also win their seat in monthly finals in cash buy-in satellites (buy-ins as low as $2) held every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. The players having Gold Chip loyalty points can play special qualifiers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. There, the buy-ins are ten Gold Chips. The alternative to that is a direct buy-in for $50 at the final table.

25 players are said to make it to the final free.

To get more tournament details, go to http://www.playersonly.com/1million/.

Slotland.com’s progressive jackpot has been hit twice within a few weeks. The first online slot player known as “Newman32” won $165, 318 (€119,610) in July. The second online slot player, a Canadian woman took $146,761 (€105,840) on September 23.

The woman says that she usually plays the Booster slot. After her friend had won a few dollars playing the slot machine called Magic, she decided to try it.

In accordance with Slotland’s policy, the jackpot is to be reset to $50,000 after “successive big wins within a few weeks of each other”.

Slotland.com offers fourteen slot machines and video poker games, where the progressive can be played on any of them. There are also six games available on mobile phones and PDAs.

Lots of people prefer slot machines over other online casino games, because there is a great chance to win thousands of dollars on a very minimal bet.

Having inspected the premises, a magistrate has finally granted the Nottingham based poker club belonging to Dusk Till Dawn a license as a poker venue only. Dusk Till Dawn’s officials are absolutely delighted with the magistrate’s decision. There might have been a problem if they had applied for a casino license. But the demand for the type of the poker club Dusk Till Dawn is offering was key point.

The poker fans across the UK cannot but be pleased with the news. At the same time, the opening of the card room has attracted stiff opposition from London Clubs International, Gala and Stanley Leisure. In their opinion, there was not “sufficient interest to justify the opening”. Anyway, they had to listen to the magistrate rule in Dusk Till Dawn’s favor.

The opening of the card room is being planned for a mid-November.

Natalie Dormer, the rising British actress, claims she adores poker. Shooting the second series og BBC’s new drama series where she plays Anne Boleyn, Natalie is missing her poker friends terribly.

She said she had started playing poker in the 6th form. At that time there were five boys to every girl. She’s never been into playing strip poker. However, the poker fan has got her kit off on her first day onset in Venice where she played Victoria in Lasse Hallstrom’s Casanova.

After the withdrawal from World Trade Organization (WTO) the Government of the USA has made its first compensation offer to the European Union (EU). At the same time, some European gambling groups press the EU to consider the American compensation for losses suffered after Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed to be inadequate.

The EU will be able to study the US compensatory offer until October 22. The offer is believed to include opening opportunities in the storage, warehouse services and technical testing sectors to make up for any economic damage caused by the US withdrawal from its trade obligations on online gambling in the Uruguay Round over a decade ago. The withdrawal took place after a lost by the Americans WTO dispute with the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda.